Interfaith Water Ceremony

On June 9 St. Catherine’s Social Justice Sunday was focused on water justice as we answered an invitation from the Tsleil Waututh First Nation to attend a Water Ceremony.

At 8:30 AM Rev. Laurel and the diocesan Archdeacon Ven. Nick Pang put on life jackets and paddled out in the Burrard Inlet in one of three large Coast Salish canoes to pray with faith leaders from many traditions. At 10 AM the congregation gathered with Rev. Harold Munn for a service where we read bible passages about water, prayed for communities without clean water, and remembered our baptismal promise to care for creation.

After the service, several members of St. Catherine’s drove to Whey ah Wichen (Cates Park) to join Laurel, Nick, members of St. Clement’s and about two hundred other people. We experienced songs, prayers, and rituals about water from many religions and spiritual traditions including Jewish, Sikh, Quaker, Cree, Buddhist to name a few. St. Catherine’s member Sharon Fedorak, who had never been to a Tsleil Waututh event before, was impressed by the number and variety of people and said, “I was glad to see so many people concerned about water, we need to be concerned.”