150 Years since the Confederation of Canada: A Worship Service of Celebration and Lament

This is a United Church service of celebration and lament marking 150 years since the Confederation of Canada. It is planned for use in a primarily non-Indigenous congregation. It is not a civic celebration but rather a worship service of faithful reflection on who we are as Canadian people. Please adapt as appropriate for your context. The tone of the service is balanced between celebrating who we are as Canadians and lamenting the past and present injustice to the Indigenous Peoples and other Canadian peoples. As we mark 150 years since Confederation, it is time to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery that has been propagated in the telling of Canadian history, in schools, textbooks, and even worship. Celebrating 150 years of Canadian Confederation can only be a true celebration if first we acknowledge and lament, and then commit ourselves to continuing to work toward right relations with the First Peoples of this country. May God be our helper!