This is an odd event being held at the Ottawa Civic Centre this weekend which has been heavily promoted within independent Charismatic and Pentecostal churches in Canada for the past several months.
Former Cree chief Kenny Blacksmith rented the Ottawa Civic Centre for his group Gathering Nations International to ‘accept’ the apology Prime Minister Stephen Harper made in the House of Commons to Canada’s Aboringinal people in June 2008. The 3 day event is open to the public.
Blacksmith has been running his ministry Gathering Nations International out of his home in Ottawa and the event, called Forgiven, Catch the Dream began with a journey across Canada. Invitations were sent out to everyone in government, embassies and lists were set up on the ministry website for First Nations, Inuit, or Métis to say they forgive Canada. 120 people have signed that list. The other list is for non-natives, 708 people have signed it, saying they are sorry. This event has been heavily promoted by The Miracle Channel and Crossroads Christian Communications Inc.
Attendance is free, and I don’t doubt there will be a large turnout. There is no indication I could find of where the offering money is going.
One the first page of the ‘we’re sorry’ list, Shauna Simmonds, daughter of Crossroads CEO signed along with Dick and Joan Deweert, founders of The Lethbridge Miracle Channel. Deweert, who resigned after an affair came to light set up another ministry called Unite for Dominion. As well, the National House of Prayer, Watchmen for the Nations and Faytene Krsykow (TheCry, bound4life, 4MyCanada) have been heavily involved in promotion.
Gathering Nations International has been in operation for several years, a charter of forgiveness has been drawn up to the government, churches and people of Canada and will be given to Chuck Strahl Minister of Indian Affairs. The Prime Minister will not be attending.
That this event is being perceived as potential vote gathering for the federal Conservative Party and that questions have been raised about this charity run out of the Blacksmiht home is not a surprise. A source in Ottawa told me First Nation and aboriginal groups have not supported this gathering, and what little I have found online other than promotion by the usual charismatic ministries is also not supportive. That people are questioning the supposed need for Canadians to show up to a three day church service after an apology has been placed on government record is also understandable.
Live streaming from the Ottawa Civic Centre is being handled off The Forgiven event website.
This initiative has it’s roots in neo-pentecostal beliefs of generational curses and blessings as well as dominionism. (the goal of dominionists is a nation governed by Christians, or a nation governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law, achieved by influence and control over secular government. Another term for those holding dominionist beliefs is nationalist Christians.
Generational curses is the belief “…judgments are passed on to individuals because of sins perpetuated in a family in a number of generations…They bring judgment or bondage during an individual’s life, until that individual addresses the sin issues that put the curses into place.”
The Gathering of Nations International and Kenny Blacksmith believe in the right of specially appointed apostles and prophets and the event is being held with the belief forgiveness can be ‘released’ for healing.
Other than David Kilgour MP, (L- Edmonton-Beaumont) this event has not been promoted by government or other First Nations groups.
Dominionism is not a belief held by orthodox Christians.
Generational curses: What does the bible say?
Gathering Nations International beliefs (note the nationalist/dominionism beliefs scattered in with orthodoxy, and the establishment of selected leadership common in the New Apostolic Reformation.
To gather nations for corporate prayer, worship and to achieve biblically based reconciliation, healing and unity in people, nations, churches, and governments.
To build spiritual houses of prayer and worship in all people, nations across Canada and worldwide.
To establish training centers for the equipping of saints, and to do so through practical and tangible partnerships with the greater Christian community, governments, nations and people worldwide.
To carry out all necessary means to achieve living relationships built on mutual respect and recognition of each other’s cultural and spiritual uniqueness.
To carry out all necessary means of fostering a greater understanding of one another as a peoples, and to carry out all necessary activities to help one another according to the will and purpose of our heavenly Father.
To see the full biblical restoration, healing and release of all people from a negative past.
To see the complete spiritual, emotional, physical and spiritual healing and release of the First Peoples of Canada and Indigenous people worldwide and to witness their prophetic destiny as the gatekeepers, stewards assume their rightful place in the body of Christ, and as the spiritual governmental authority in the lands take possession of what was ordained by God since the beginning of time.
Below the fold is forest of links concerning Blacksmith, his political and media ties, his religious beliefs, his original goals for his ministry (Christian zionism -the belief the country of Israel is chosen by God and must be supported in what are the ‘end times’ (pre-millenialism) and his roots with Canadians promoting New Apostolic Reformation beliefs and events.
His personal site: http://www.gatheringnations.ca/
- talks about the dream he had concerning Israel in the “Articles section”
the National Summit website:
- being held at Ottawa Civic Center arena
- information about the conference including brief 3 day schedule
- booths are available for rent
- note the link to “Canadian Christian Tours” on the schedule page
- list of names who forgive and apologize.
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=260484292088
- has 2000 plus members
- Faytene Kryskow is listed as an admin
- note ALL the posts by Faytene on the wall.
- this Facebook has replaced Blacksmith’s earlier Facebook page in preparation for his appearance on the national stage
Miracle Channel interview with Blacksmith on “The Bridge” program:
Blacksmith on 100 Huntley Street
Faytene Kryskow personal site, promoting the event:
ChristianWeek article
Recent apointment of Blacksmith to “Canadian Race Relations Foundation”
- who appointed him and is this a government initiative?
Message delivered by Blacksmith to First Nations gathering in June, 2003:
- note the Christian nationalist militancy, hardly cultural First Nations material
Audio message from Blacksmith (December 3, 2006), representing Watchmen For The Nations
Cached google page of Blacksmith at Miracle Channel Dominion conference in 2006. Original page has very recently been taken down
4Mycanada’s endorsement of Blacksmith
- note mention of a trip to Israel including link.
The information is no longer on Blacksmith’s site.
- note the covenant, which is available on Blacksmith’s site
Could this mean an end to the treaties?
- note “Article 1″ of the covenant, concerning Israel and Jerusalem. Ties right in with Marci McDonald’s book concerning Harper’s foreign policy as an Israel sympathizer. Christian Zionist and Dominionism all the way.
Siege Toronto (Another Faytene initiative in 2009) listing Kenny Blacksmith
Faytene Kryskow’s twitter: https://twitter.com/Faytene
- mentions Blacksmith several times, also some other disturbing posts not related to Blacksmith, such as the following:
“Hey….Justin Trudeau is using our lingo…wild. We are officially infectious. LOL. ”
Disturbing info about the Siege in Ottawa, February 2007 (the last
paragraph)
Speakers at 2009 Siege Toronto (including Blacksmith and Rod Bruinooge)
Blacksmith was at TheCry in Vancouver in August, 2009
Interesting interview with Blacksmith discussing his political agenda concerning First Nations
Recent sermon from Blacksmith at a church in Saskatchewan
http://www.tweetcommunes.com/stream/rodbruinooge
- Interesting he meets with Bruinooge when Blacksmith was a frequent guest on Bill Prankard’s show “From The River” which is no longer running (Prankard has a church in Ottawa):
- note all the names on the page. Leon Fontaine (The Springs Church Winnipeg) is now the new President of The Miracle Channel. Rob and Fran from National House of Prayer, Shawn Gabie works closely with Faytene Kryskow, Joel Spinks was Dick Dewert’s executive assistant, Armstrong and Zoeteman were frequent guests on The Miracle Channel’s fundraisers and Armstrong has a show that airs on The Miracle Channel.
Blacksmith is linked to the “New Apostolic Reformation” here
Blacksmith’s name is on the “scroll” for Watchmen For The Nations
The Covenant of the First People of Canada text and video
What is the meaning of forgiveness – TO BE ABLE. To leave behind a ‘wounding’ without exacting a price in the process. Political motivation for forgiveness is not forgiveness its an advancement for a purpose.
Treaty – seal the deal! – bring in the law!
Talk is so cheap. Anybody can sign a petition that declares they are sorry. But what are they even sorry for? What on earth did the people signing this petition do in their lifetime to make them liable for the evil perpetrated by someone else? Are they the ones who ripped the children out of parent’s arms and placed them in educational institutions? Did they attempt to erase the aboriginal children’s cultural heritage and identity so that they would fit in to the mainstream “Canadian” society? Were they the ones who beat, raped, abused and murdered little children in these government owned, church run institutions, in the name of god? If not, then the only thing they could be liable for are sins of omission – not holding the church and government accountable and demanding justice be done to the real perps.
This “journey of freedom” is just another example of the usual strain of christian do-gooders thinking they’re doing something noble in the name of christ. The antidote is always some airy-fairy intangible solution with loads of emotional hype. Spiritual, rather than practical. I’m sure the practicality of it comes in the form of spin-offs for all the ministries, speakers and christian businesses posing as ministries. Yes forgiveness is essential to moving forward, but forgiveness is a personal thing that each one has to endeavor to do on their own in order to be genuine and real.
This circus is making people think they are actually doing some good, helping native peoples in some way, when in reality, this campaign is nothing more than a whitewashing of crimes committed by the church against first nations peoples. Once again it is the church, candy coating a very real, very despicable crime perpetrated by sick church clergymen and a system that is still getting away with it around the world today! What happened in residential schools to indigenous children, has been happening to children all around the world to this day by the catholic church!! How can healing ever come to these when the disease is not being treated?!
Yes, most of the residential school abusers are since gone, but the recently accused molesting ministers and their enablers are not. Are we just simply to forgive them too? Will that make all the bad men of god go away? A thousand times, no. Instead of warm fuzzy forgiveness sessions, how about a little justice for the innocent children who grew up to become damaged adults because of these church-run hell holes? Or for the children whose lives were snuffed out before they ever had a chance to grow up? How about some jail time for the recently accused child molesting priests and their overseers all the way to the Vatican who knew about it and did nothing? Mark my words. In 20 years someone else in evangelical circles will have an entrepreneurial brain wave and again have a warm fuzzy forgiveness tour called “I forgive my pedophile priest”!
This obviously ticks me off. What Blacksmith is conducting in the name of Jesus is no better than the government’s “Truth and Reconciliation” Commission of Canada in a few days.
http://www.trc.ca/
The timing is too coincidental if you ask me. Opportunist much? Will TRC name names? Will they say who has been brought to justice? Will they declare that the Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada are responsible for the abuse and deaths of countless indigenous peoples? Will some charity statuses be revoked for crimes committed against humanity? Not bloody likely.
If anyone really cares about victims of residential schools in Canada, get educated instead of caught up in all the emotional hype. Read Kevin Annett’s story at hiddenfromhistory.org. You will find that the church is actually very “unrepentant”. His organization is actually doing something for the victims – exposing the criminals. But it isn’t an easy task, as you will read. If that doesn’t move you, don’t even think about putting your john henry on that list of so-called repentants. It means nothing. Maybe sign this petition instead-
http://tiny.cc/hha1s
(Hi Marina – I tiny URL’d the link you gave – BD:^)
Perhaps this so called I forgive you, is a plot for our very own native leaders to cover up their own mistakes.
It would make sense.
Possibly, but it seemed more like a counterfeit, a money grab for charismatics.
The leader of what I saw was definitely Damien from Watchmen for the Nations with a healthy dose of NAR’s Global Day of Prayer people.
That and David Mainse. There were political perks, they got paid attention too, Blacksmith got his government committee appointment and no doubt they will sell a lot of the product they’ll generate from this.
The political moves may not be lateral, hard to say what they thought they were doing. It was a grab for attention, I’m just not sure whose.
Deborah Gyapong, the conservative blogger and journalist, went to the event and reports that federal native affairs minister Chuck Strahl was there on behalf of the government during the ceremony.
It was covered by the CBC too
If you are interested, she thinks the event was swell and blogs briefly on it here:
http://deborahgyapong.blogspot.com/2010/06/national-forgiven-summit_13.html
and here:
http://deborahgyapong.blogspot.com/2010/06/national-forgiven-summit.html
(Not that I agree with her, given Bene D’s reporting above…but it is there if you are interested.)
“We are concerned that in all this talk about forgiveness without repentance, there may be placed on aboriginal people the responsibility of opening the blessing of heaven. If this is so, once again, the victim will be victimized again. When we do not make time and a way for people to feel and to cry and mourn, then we make the scandal, the problem of the residential school the sole responsibility of the victims to solve. They forgive and government and society sits back cloaked in civility not even blushing as broken people try to work toward proper relatedness.”
http://www.christianweek.org/stories.php?id=937
That this event was not listed on Strahl’s itinerary should give people of good faith serious pause. There were a few MP’s and a Senator who attended.
Blacksmith runs his charity (The Gathering International) out of his home, in the 2008 RevCan filing there is about 38 thousand dollar occupancy cost.
My question is this.
Are charities in Canada permitted to function for personal gain?
You’ll notice in the post link dump that Kenny Blacksmith was appointed to a committee of Citizenship and Immigration Canada shortly before his Ottawa event.
Take a look at this Catholic site – click through to Lovers of God.
Loaded with more than standard charismatic language.
http://www.iforgive.ca/about.html
Archbisop Prendergast posted about his appearance.
I counted 6 blogs posting about this ‘event’, 3 were participants.
Whatever He Says got some good pictures.
Other than the Native group response at Christian Week, BDBO and Stageleft, people seemed to have uncritically accepted the razzle dazzle.
The media guide for the event said:
Media will enter…
Media must…
Sound familar?
Excellent interview with Justice Murray Sinclair re: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission on The National.
He is a compassionate realist, a far cry from what I saw on the Ottawa stage with the Blacksmith event.
The number of missing children deeply disturbs him, the missing were originally estimated to be in the hundreds, now the stolen missing children has been revised into the thousands.
Sinclair is soberly realistic about how difficult and how long this process with be.
http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/story/2010/06/15/national-truthandreconciliation.html
“Media must…” “Media shall…”
Sad, so sad…
Makes me glad I can work with a notepad!
How small can hidden cameras be?
Wouldn’t it be nice if it were so simple? Reminds me of a wedding and the vows, so beautiful and so simple to say in a brief moment of time, but the reality is much more complicated and long-standing – a lifetime of being yoked together ahead and everything that can mean, for better or worse…
God knows the motives of all those involved, sometimes we can tell, sometimes we can’t, some were probably well meaning, for some it was just a great photo-op, more ‘using’ and victimization going on, and it makes me feel sickened. Either way, it’s like they’re trying to put a tiny band-aid on a great gaping wound made by a sawed-off shotgun and saying, ‘there, there’ and feeling so good about themselves for doing it, and yet the reality is the native peoples are not ready to forgive yet – the wounds are still too fresh, still not acknowledged to the depths by the ‘perpetrators’ (is that even possible?), still many compexities of emotion and thought to work out, if and when they are able to forgive (is it even possible without the spirit of Christ??) I think it will mean a great burden will roll of their shoulders, the removal of a great hindrance and they will finally be able to move forward. Until then the First Nations people are sadly stuck in a time-warp somewhere between the past and the future, dependant on the very people who hurt them so badly – a tragic picture of dysfunctionality and codependance which is typical of abusive relationships.
I would really like to think this is the gesture that marks a new beginning, that will at least help make forgiveness easier, but I’m somehow not feelin’ it..
What dark times are these when certain deviants can presume to engage in such un-Christian activities. How dare they even try.
When theocrats like David Kilgour get involved, you know this has gone way beyond any hint of credibility. He has links to Falun Gong, you know.
Dig deep enough and you will no doubt find the Freemasons involved.
There is a purity lacking in the motivations of man and his desires for himself and others;
I find this whole religio – politico platform is beginning to pervert both relgion and politics into a sordid mess of actions and counter actions and yet more and more are being led into the minds of those who feel a need to promote themselves for the good of themselves yet with a few victims in tow for credibility.
‘Aren’t we doing a wonderful thing’ is beginning to get on my nerves quite frankly –
Shouldn’t we all be walking in honour and humility instead of shouting it out
Marina is correct, everyone emptied out after the feel good event, there have been no updates, nothing.
No word if anyone including Blacksmith cared to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
This summit was what dominionists in Wagner’s crowd call: Identificational Repentance and Reconciliation. (see Strategic Level Warfare). This is ritualized prostylizing, not reconciliation, community building or culture bridging. What NAR and neo-charismatics hanging around the fringes of NAR mean by reconciliation is not what the rest of us know as reconciliation.
Maybe I should spearhead a “4Give Adam&Eve Now!” event.