In Full Communion

Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada

Anglican and Lutheran leaders call for government intervention in Mi’kmaw fishing crisis

October 21, 2020

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Dear Prime Minister, Premier, Ministers, and Deputy Minister:

As the safety and well-being of Mi’kmaw people is are threatened, their fundamental human rights—embodied in the Friendship Treaty of 1752, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the 1999 affirmation of their Treaty Rights in the Marshall Decision—are minimized, ignored, or denied. The denial of the full humanity of the Mi’kmaw people by those who refuse to recognize these treaty obligations is at the base of this hatred and violence. Anything that is less than an urgent response by those who share in the protection of these rights risks a complicity in a great evil.

The honour and character of Nova Scotia and Canada are at stake. If Indigenous justice is not possible in this instance, a basic commitment to an ideal of truth and fairness is demonstrably absent. The moral integrity of Nova Scotia fisheries is at stake. If the well-being of the industry is premised on injustice, there is no way that it can receive or sustain the respect and commerce of people concerned about truth.

We understand that all parties have expressed both the need and willingness to consult about a livable and sustainable future for all involved in these matters. In pursuit of this, we make the obvious point that Mi’kmaw people must be protected. We also wish to underline that without a foundational concern for Indigenous human rights and justice, no real solution is possible. You have the ability and responsibility to act towards a just and equitable solution to this crisis. We ask that you intervene immediately in this situation to provide safety for all and to counteract the violence and terror being experienced by the Mi’kmaw people yet again as they live out their sovereign rights on their lands and waters.

We pray for your well-being as you pursue these matters. We pray for the well-being of justice and the full recognition of human rights in our Land. May the God who is the sovereign of Creation and history aid you all to articulate and fulfill the truth and

goodness that is surely the calling of this Land.
Sincerely,

The Most Rev. Linda Nichols
Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada

The Rev. Susan C. Johnson
National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Most Rev. Mark MacDonald
National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop, the Anglican Church of Canada

The Rev. Michael Pryse
Bishop of the Eastern Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Rev. Sandra Fyfe
Bishop-elect, Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

The Rev. Canon Gordon Redden
Administrator, Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

The Rev. Lori Ramsey
Administrator, Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

The Very Rev. Paul W. Smith
Administrator, Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

Matthew 10:40-42

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴²and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

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The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, ²and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”