Anglican bells mark reconciliation by remembering ongoing tragedy

Church bells tolled across the nation every day for 22 days last month. And, according to the Anglican Church leaders who led the 22-Day initiative, the bells tolled not just a tribute, but also a warning—things have got to change.

Neil Gordon, Dean of the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton, said that when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded their work—compiling an accurate history of the children trapped in the residential school system and developing recommendations for all levels of church, state and society to promote healing and address Aboriginal issues in the country—Anglican Church leaders wanted to mark the occasion and make a statement about their commitment to the movement.

“We wanted to acknowledge that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is finished its work, and we’re grateful, but we also don’t want to put these issues on a shelf,” he said. “We’re not done the work. There’s a real sense of grievance and hurt and it’s going to take generations to heal, if ever. Our society likes a quick fix. This is not a quick fix.”

So it was decided that from May 31 (the commencement of the closing TRC ceremonies in Ottawa) to June 21 (National Aboriginal Day) the bells would ring at all of Canada’s 30 Anglican cathedrals in memory of the lives of the 1,181 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada, a subject that has long been neither seen, heard, nor spoken of.

“I think this is one of the major things that needs to be addressed in the reconciliation movement,” said Iain Luke, Dean of the Diocese of Athabasca and rector at St. James Cathedral in Peace River. “It’s an open wound. There are family members out there still feeling their absence and the government appears unable to address this.”

St. James Cathedral is one of the few still operating actual bells in a belfry. The bell rang over 50 times every day at 12:30 p.m. (totaling 1,181 by June 21).

There are two ways to ring traditional church bells, says Luke. At joyous occasions like weddings and christenings, the two bells in the belfry are rung simultaneously, resulting in an exuberant chiming, but at a funeral, only one bell is tolled, and the sound is solemn and mournful. At St. James, one bell was tolled, over and over, for the lives of the Aboriginal women lost or killed over the last 30 years.

Luke tells the story of a church in Montreal that intended to ring the bell 1,181 times every Wednesday. The church managed to make it to 300 before the rope broke.

“It just gives you perspective,” he said. “Too many lives have been caught up in this—even the rope couldn’t stand this.”

Gordon’s All Saints Cathedral in Edmonton set their automated church bell sound system to ring out 1,181 times twice a week—one chime every three seconds for 57 minutes.

Apart from tolling the bells, churches held vigils and spent time learning from residential school survivors. Gordon credits All Saints parishioner and local Elder Sharon Pasula for organizing and leading daily services, which included listening to firsthand accounts from survivors, smudging and prayer.

“We hear about Indigenous issues,” said Gordon of the 22-Day initiative. “But we need to take the next step. Our society is really bad for going from one thing to the next thing to the next thing—oh, there’s the residential school thing done, let’s move on. We can’t do that. This is too serious. We need to work together, share together. Keep it in people’s consciousness.”

Photo caption: Anglican Archbishop and Primate Fred Hiltz accepts the summary of the final report from Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chair Justice Sinclair. Said Hiltz at the closing event in Ottawa, “We are humbled in the knowledge that we continue to share a responsibility to ensure that the task of reconciliation does not end today but in fact begins today.”