HEALING HAUNTED HISTORIES

(with thanks to Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization, available in the Guelph Library and through the Bookshelf)

How are feeling about being a Canadian with the ongoing discovery of unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools? Our guest, John Buttars is feeling terrible about it and will share his personal journey seeking to come to terms with being both a Canadian but also an ordained United Church minister where his denomination had over a dozen of those schools, the last closing in 1969, a year before he was ordained. While in Theological College at Queen’s University, he cannot remember hearing anything about them.

How are you feeling about being a participant in our society with such a history? And does this have any impact on your being part of a Unitarian congregation. The Canadian Unitarian Council recently passed an 8th Principle: “We, the member congregations of the Canadian Unitarian Council, covenant to affirm and promote individual and communal action that accountably dismantles racism and systemic barriers to full inclusion in ourselves and our institutions.”

John Buttars is a long-time resident of Guelph and formerly one of the ministers of Harcourt Memorial United Church in Guelph. He and Barbara have two daughters and three grandchildren. Yes, retired but he continues to be involved in the life of the community.