Reparations of Past Harms Leads to Stewardship of the Land, Justice & Love for the People

By ANEESA PARKS

Rachel Dion-Thunder holding the signed agreement after Pastor Martha Bardwell and two members of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church Council, Samantha Heaton and Behni Khabeb signed on the dotted line. PHOTO: Bruce Silcox

This fall there will be a new landowner in our neighborhood. Although no money exchanged hands, on May 22nd the land transfer was celebrated with a ceremony and drum circle. Christians worshipping at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and leaders from Indigenous Protector Movement forged a relationship over the last three years that linked our value of stewardship. Stewardship of our faith and stewardship of the land.

The journey Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church took began with truth-telling in 2019: the truth-telling work of uncovering and learning our history, the truth-telling work of confession, and the truth-telling work of decolonizing Jesus and our faith. We came to recognize the truth that our church has done unspeakable harm to Indigenous communities. Harms in the name of “the church” and specifically harms in the name of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. In the 1920s the Ladies Club raised money for an Indian Boarding School in Wisconsin. In the 1950s as the boarding school closed, one of the last directors came to Minneapolis and had an office out of our building on the corner of Chicago and 23rd.

Leaders at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church formed a Reparations Team in August of 2021 to respond to what we were learning. Instead of jumping in to solve problems for other people as our white church has done in the past, we chose to look for places where healing was already happening.

On Palm Sunday in 2023 we found an amazing example of that healing when we met Rachel Thunder outside of the Roof Depot Project in East Phillips. We lined the fence with palms, sang and listened as she told us about the vision for healing a community. Many Shields and Women’s Warrior Society programs that connect people and provide mutual aid, cultural programs, podcasts, and the hope for a safe space for ceremony. Answers slowly emerged as our congregation reimagined how to use the property on our campus. Relationships and trust grew. On May 10th this year the congregations voted unanimously to transfer two plots of land, including a duplex, on Elliot and 23rd to Indigenous Protector Movement.
Pastor Martha Bardwell cast an invitation to others on May 22nd:

“I truly hope our work seeds more imagination and will for churches, government entities, and other communities to engage in reparative work –
to transfer land and wealth to Indigenous stewardship,
to loosen the grip of control and institutional preservation,
to break the spell of capitalism,
to tell the truth in a world full of lies,
to do justice when justice and accountability seem to be under attack at every turn,
to seek healing, because we were created to be in right relationship with one another and this whole creation.
Truly, we are one family. And this is our true wealth – our relationships with each other and the earth.”

May it be so.