Glimmers of a Kairos call

Eleven years ago this month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) hosted its closing events in Algonquin Territory-Ottawa and released 94 Calls to Action to the people of Canada. At that event, and others before it, TRC Lead Commissioner, the late Murray Sinclair, explained that reconciliation will take at least several generations. June 2015 was just the beginning. Eleven years later – about half a generation – is a good time to recommit to justice and reconciliation.

As a former justice staff person in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), I counted it a profound honour to participate in the proceedings of the TRC. The courageous invitation of survivors to listen, bear witness and work together for justice and reconciliation was searing, inspiring and nothing short of sacred. Adrian Jacobs, a Cayuga Elder, recognizes that sacredness in regularly saying that the Calls to Action are a “kairos call to the churches.”

How are Canadian Christians doing in terms of accountability to the TRC Calls to Action? Indigenous Watchdog reports that 44 percent of the calls are either not started or stalled, and the Assembly of First Nations reports that 13 calls are considered complete. Of the Calls to Action directed at churches (46, 48, 49 and 58 to 61), Indigenous Watchdog reports that one is not yet started, one is stalled, three are in progress and two are complete. By measures like these, the progress seems slow.

In preparation for this article, I sat with friends and mentors Adrian Jacobs and Shari Russell, both Indigenous Christian leaders with rich perspectives on the TRC. Jacobs’ long career in ministry and leadership for justice carries on in the beautiful work that he does in Indigenous justice and reconciliation with the CRC. Russell’s leadership in denominational, ecumenical and academic spaces informed a rich PhD dissertation (2025) on evangelical engagements with the call to right relationship and reconciliation. In conversation with these wise prophets, I see glimmers of hope in the TRC journey.

Moving in the right direction

In the years post-TRC, Russell’s research shows several shifts in church engagement with Creator’s call to reconciliation. These include a growing understanding amongst non-Indigenous Canadians that reconciliation is more than a government responsibility; a slow unsettling and decolonizing of the theological foundations of colonialism; and an ongoing journey from reconciliation to right relationship to kinship.

Pockets of Christians are coming to recognize that being ministers of reconciliation includes responsibilities to the TRC’s Calls to Action and beyond.

Some churches are moving beyond statement-making and to deepening action. Even so, less than half of the evangelical churches that Russell surveyed have statements and action plans related to Call to Action 48 (UN declaration as a framework for reconciliation) and 49 (repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery).

Several denominations, including the Mennonites, Free Methodists, CRC and others have repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery. Yet, these foundational efforts have not yet led to discernible church progress in honouring Indigenous self-determination, or respecting Indigenous spirituality as addressed in Call to Action 60.

The outward statements and actions of reconciliation point to the need for listening and relationships with Indigenous people. In this listening, Russell explains, accountability draws some church folks to a deeper understanding of what it is to be a settler. In that understanding comes the possibility of deepening relationships of solidarity and kinship in the journey of justice and right relationship. In honest relationships with Indigenous kin, we are drawn from symbolic acts of reconciliation (like noble statements or land acknowledgements) to meaningful accountability.
In all these shifts, Russell sees glimmers of hope and an ongoing need for substantive action towards solidarity and kinship.

CRC actions

Adrian Jacobs, from Six Nations of the Grand River, has walked alongside settler-led churches and ecumenical groups for decades and, therefore, has a rich experience and perspective on their TRC journeys.

Since late 2022, Adrian has served as the Senior Leader for Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation for the CRC in Canada. Jacobs sees the CRC, and its related evolving communities, doing good work on sharing the truth of the history of residential schools and colonization (TRC Call to Action 59).

The regular sharing of the Kairos Blanket Exercise, the challenging work of repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery (Synod 2016), the community-shaping Hearts Exchanged program and learning opportunities on Indigenous lands are forming CRC-related communities for justice and right relationship. I also know that much of this important work is only possible because of the foundation of relationships and long faithfulness of the Urban Indigenous Ministries in Winnipeg, Regina and Edmonton.

Jacobs also reports that much work remains to address systemic racism and the legacies of intergenerational trauma for the church to sustain and deepen the kairos call to truth and reconciliation. This echoes Russell’s recognition that the glimmers of reconciliation need to be drawn into the light of honest relationships.

Keep climbing

In my current work with a coalition of seminaries in Canada, I see good and faithful steps for justice and right relationship – the glimmers of the kairos call that Russell and Jacobs talk about. We also encounter a range of indifference, reconciliation fatigue, hostility and honest questions – some promise, some frustration. In my own PhD research, and out of a passionate belief that reconciliation is critical for the integrity of the church in Canada, I wrote about settler-led church responsibility for right relationship. At TRC +11, in passionate impatience, I hope for a wider sense of urgency and shared action on the kairos-beauty of the Calls to Action in churches and seminaries.

As I sit with mentors and friends like Adrian Jacobs and Shari Russell and hear their perspectives on the glimmers of hope in this sacred journey, I’m reminded of Murray Sinclair’s invocation at the close of the TRC: “We have shown you a mountain and call on you to do the climbing.”

This kairos call is generational. In the patient resolve of Russell and Jacobs, and the survivors who have shared their truth, it is critical for people of the Jesus way to persist in the climbing. In the process, at least in my experience, we experience the shalom of kinship as we seek the good news of justice and reconciliation together. So, people of Jesus-Shalom, let’s keep climbing!