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Engaging Indigenous Expressions of Faith


Engaging Indigenous Expressions of Faith

Thursdays: June 1, evening
June 8, 15 & 22, 1:30 - 3pm ET

In June, the Learning Centre will be turning our attention to the work of NAIITS an Indigenous Learning Community (formerly the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies). Their annual symposium opens on June 1st. In the following weeks will we explore in community and with experienced presenters what we are learning and how we can better respect, appreciate, and engage with indigenous heritage and expressions of faith.

 

Week 1 (June 1) - NAIITS opening evening session

The Learning Centre attendees will be attending the virtual opening session of the 2023 NAIITS Symposium


Week 2 (June 8) - Stewards of land and heritage

View the 2022 Saskatchewan documentary Custodians: A Story of Ancient Echoes. The film tells the story of a small rural community that responds in a unique way to an abundance of Indigenous heritage visible in the surround pastureland. It raises questions of what it means to pay attention to the land, to steward the land, and to work towards respectful relationships even when there are no Indigenous communities in the area.


Week 3 (June 15) - Q & A

A time for Q&A with one (or more) of the key players in the documentary Custodians: A Story of Ancient Echoes


Week 4 (June 22) - Let’s process together

During the session we will process together our experiences at NAIITs and what we have learned from the past few weeks.

 

Presenters

Featured
Randy Klassen

Randy Klassen has served with MCC since 2015, including his current position as Indigenous Neighbours program coordinator since 2020. Prior to 2015 he taught at Bethany College (Hepburn SK) for 13 years, and pastored in Alberta; he is currently also an adjunct faculty at Horizon College. Randy is a lover of history and stories, of the land and the night skies. He and his wife Darlene have lived in Saskatoon, in the heart of Treaty 6 territory, for over 20 years. They are grateful to call this beautiful landscape home, where they’ve raised four children and welcomed six grandchildren, and are slowly learning more of what it means to live as treaty people. 

David Neufeld

David Neufeld has had a long and productive career of service in a variety of social and religious settings. A graduate of Canadian Mennonite Bible College (Winnipeg), he was ordained as a lay minister in 1964. He worked for child protection with the Children’s Aid Society, and spent three years in overseas voluntary service with MCC in Viet Nam and India. Pastoral assignments have taken him to Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., as well as N. Battleford, Herschel, Fiske, and Aberdeen in Saskatchewan. He has experience as a volunteer hospital chaplain. He has had life-long involvements with Indigenous persons and causes, and he played a key role in the founding and development of the Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre in Herschel, SK. 

 

Register

There are two options to access the New Leaf Learning Centre: a monthly subscription or a one-session pass (below). For the monthly subscription, please visit here.

 

The suggested amount is $40 ($10/week); simply choose your amount in the drop-down menu and “sign up now”.

We would like for you to join us, so if you can’t afford the registration at this time, please reach out to us and we will make sure you are able to participate: admin@newleafnetwork.ca

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Earlier Event: May 4
The Great Outdoors: Finding Faith in the Fields and Forests
Later Event: June 10
Creative Justice: Disability and the Church