Some of the loveliest people on the planet

At the 2022 Lambeth Conference Monique and Richard were moved to hear Bishop Annie Ittoshat describe the needs of the Inuk people in Canada, including the generational trauma from a time when children were forcefully separated from parents and relocated to diocesan run residential schools. This practice ended in 1969, and, since 1989, 15 indigenous bishops have been elected. Bishop Annie was the first female Inuk priest in Nunavik and was elected a suffragan bishop of the Arctic on March 28, 2019.

After a few attempts to find the right timing for a SOMA team to bring trauma healing and SOMA teaching, the mission was taken up by colleagues from New Zealand and the USA, in a wonderful SOMA collaboration across boundaries. They were also able to connect with former SOMA Canada leader Fred Carsons, and even with one of our key partners from India, Bishop Abraham, who was also in Canada on a visit.

Andrew reports:

“The mission to the Diocese of the Arctic, held in Edmonton, was a joyful week among some of the loveliest people on the planet. Amid harsh living conditions and a legacy of social trauma, the Arctic Anglicans shine brightly for the gospel. They gathered in Edmonton for their first synod in six years to elect new bishops (38-year-old Archdeacon Alexander Pryor is the new diocesan, and Ann Martha Keenainak and Jared Osborn are new regional suffragans) and to receive ministry training.

About 130 people gratefully received the SOMA  teaching on the Holy Spirit and very quickly picked up the training on healing the sick, with about a 65% success rate. They were most eager to learn more about deliverance ministry, but most ministry was done in private, particularly for those who had shamans in their family line, and to those who had suffered from sexual abuse. SOMA USA will be following up with more visits, but SOMA NZ and SOMA USA will make a training visit to the high Arctic in February to the churches in the Mackenzie Delta. It will mostly be dark, and we will be able to travel on the ice roads. We will hire proper arctic clothing in Yellowknife, NWT, the diocesan headquarters. Sounds cool to me!”

Bishop Annie

3 continents of ministers come together in the Arctic… SOMA truly is ministry from everywhere to everwhere

Photo credits: Diocese of Arctic (website and Facebook); Kyle Spradley (SOMA USA National Director)