Letters - 25 September 2026
'In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.'
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Reparations
Following the recent correspondence on reparations, as a Canadian I’d like Friends to be aware of some of the institutional efforts to acknowledge and respond to the way indigenous people in Canada were subject to systemic oppression.
The government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and its 2015 report, continues to have a powerful effect. Canadian Yearly Meeting, not directly responsible for any of the residential schools in Canada, discerned this year to begin to pay reparations, and consistently raises indigenous issues through Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC), the Canadian equivalent to the British Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW). This is also an ongoing social justice concern of the United Church, which did have responsibility for some residential schools (see https://united-church.ca/social-action/justice-initiatives/reconciliation-and-indigenous-justice).
On the ground, I have seen the United Church decide to give a piece of land bought in order to build a church to the local indigenous community. It is now a peace garden, with a new forest growing.
And this is just what I’ve seen – there is lots more.
It gives me great hope to see that it is possible for institutions to begin to come to terms with the injustice and suffering that they have inflicted and to work toward healing.
Kate Mackrell
To forgive
In the Letters of 28 August, David G Bower said that an apology can only genuinely come from ‘the person who committed the wrong to the person who was wronged’. Last week (18 September), Nicholas Little argued that this overlooked the responsibility of institutions, communities and states.
I remember reading somewhere that in Islam only God can forgive. I don’t know whether I agree with this or not, but feel it is worth mentioning.
Rachel Grimshaw
