Presbytery of Yukon Bringing PC(USA) Apology to AFN

Dear friends of the Presbytery,
Those of you who attended the presbytery meeting in Fairbanks this month know that our denomination voted to reject the Doctrine of Discovery, and to offer an apology to the indigenous peoples in the United States. The apology acknowledges the way Presbyterians participated in practices that has left Native people hurting to this day, pledging repentance and seeking forgiveness. 
To see the actual text of the apology approved by General Assembly, I pasted it in the first comment, below, for you to see.
Social science has documented the way that the trauma suffered by one generation is often passed on to later generations if that trauma is not fully grieved. We certainly see the symptoms of this generational trauma among Alaska Natives as e view the high incidence of substance abuse, addiction, depression, domestic violence, homicide and suicide. 
The General Assembly knows the power of confession and the way such confession often opens the door to God’s healing through repentance, through forgiveness and, eventually, through reconciliation between parties. The church is only one part of the whole Western culture that invaded the Americas, and we know that we are not, alone in bearing responsibility. But the Western church needs to take the lead by owning up to our own part of what happened. We need to do this for our own sake, so that we Christians may learn from the past, repent, and travel on the true path of our Savior. We also need to do this to validate the healing journey so many wounded people are traveling.
With this in mind, the Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church session asked me to seek time on the agenda of this year’s meeting of the Alaska Federation of Natives, meeting right now in Fairbanks. I did ask, and time has been granted. We will be offering the apology at 1:35 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday. I am praying that this will be a moment that opens the door to more of God’s healing. I am writing to ask all of you to hold us in prayer as this time approaches. 
Three of the points we may share as we introduce this apology are listed, below. Perhaps they will also be useful to you in understanding what is happening, and as you consider how to pray.
1. This year the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church became aware of the Doctrine of Discovery, a teaching by 16th century church leaders. This was a bad teaching that very inappropriately provided a justification for the paternalistic, colonist mindset that characterized Western contact with Native Americans from the beginning. This whole mindset opened the door to horrendous abuses of indigenous peoples by westerners. Further, the General Assembly recognized that Presbyterians colluded in the abuses that came about because of that mindset.
2. General Assembly became aware of some of the damage done, especially through stories told about how the Boarding Schools negatively affected so many people. The General Assembly acknowledged that the Presbyterian Church operated some of those Boarding Schools, and that we also colluded in other ways in some of the generational trauma that people experienced
.
3. Therefore the General Assembly voted to reject the Doctrine of Discovery, and to reject it publicly. Further, the General Assembly voted to offer an apology to the indigenous peoples across the country. The national church leadership is now conferring with the Native leaders on its Native American Consulting Committee to consider how to be effective in offering this apology nation-wide. In the meantime we, the Presbytery of Yukon, know that AFN is such an important gathering of leaders from across the state that we wanted to bring this apology sooner rather than later by offering it at this year's gathering of the AFN.
Also, If you want to see the background information on this front the General Assembly, you can to to the link (below), 
which provides a list of links to all the issues considered this year by the Social Justice Committee of the General Assembly. The links you are looking for are these:
[11-08] On Offering an Apology to Native Americans...
[11-17] On Reviewing the Doctrine of Discovery...
Please pray also for the individuals who will be representing the Presbytery by standing on the stage tomorrow:
Ron Illingworth, Moderator of the Presbytery
Ida Olemaun, Moderator-elect of the Native Ministries Committee of Presbytery
Doreen Simmonds, advocate at General Assembly, who testified to the importance of this apology,    
     and
Curt Karns, Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery
We all thank you for your prayers.
Your brother in Christ,
Curt Karns
see also these links on Generational Trauma (sometimes called Historical Trauma): 
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Presbytery of Yukon This is the text of the apology approved by the PC(USA):

The 222nd General Assembly (2016) hereby takes action to offer our apology to Native Americans, Alaska natives, and native Hawaiians1 and to do the following:

1. That the PC(USA) and its members apologize to United States citizens of Native American ancestry, both those within and beyond our denomination. We offer this apology especially to those were and are part of 'stolen generations' during the Indian-assimilation movement, namely former students of Indian boarding schools, their families, and their communities.2 That the PC(USA) approve and issue the following words of apology:

We apologize for the pain and suffering that our church’s involvement in the Indian boarding school system has caused. We are aware of some of the damage that this cruel and ill-conceived system of assimilation has perpetrated on United States citizens of Native 
American ancestry. For this we are truly and most humbly sorry.

To those individuals who were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused as students of the Indian boarding schools in which the PC(USA)3 was involved, we offer you our most sincere apology. You did nothing wrong; you were and are the victims of evil acts that cannot under 
any circumstances be justified or excused.

We know that many within our church will still not understand why each of us must bear the scar, the blame for this horrendous period in U.S. history. But the truth is, we are the bearers of 
many blessings from our ancestors, and therefore, we must also bear their burdens.

Our burdens include dishonoring the depths of the struggles of Native American people and the richness of your gifts. Therefore, we confess to you that when our Presbyterian ancestors journeyed to this land within the last few centuries, we did not respect your own indigenous 
knowledges and epistemologies as valid.

In our zeal to tell you of the good news of Jesus Christ, our hearts and minds were closed to the value of your epistemologies and lifeways. We did not understand the full extent of the Gospel of Christ! We should have affirmed the commonality between your spirituality and our understanding that God’s sovereignty extends with length from East to West, with breadth from North to South, with depth throughout the Earth, and with height throughout the Sky 
and Heavens.

Even worse, we arrogantly thought that Western European culture and cultural expressions were necessary parts of the Gospel of Christ. We imposed our civilization as a condition for your accepting the Gospel. We tried to make you be like us and, in so doing, we helped to diminish the Sacred Vision that made you who you are. Thus, we demonstrated that we did not fully 
understand the Gospel we were trying to preach.

We know that apology is only a first step in the larger hope of repentance and reconciliation. We seek the guidance of relationships with your people within and beyond our church as we seek to identify and act on restorative practices and policies at the relational, communal, and 
national level.

We are in the midst of a long and painful journey as we reflect on the cries that we did not or would not hear, and how we have behaved as a church. As we travel this difficult road of repentance, reconciliation, and healing, we commit ourselves to work toward ensuring that we will never again use our power as a church to hurt others with our attitudes of racial and spiritual superiority.

We seek God’s forgiveness, healing grace, and guidance as we take steps toward building mutually respectful, compassionate, and loving relationships with indigenous peoples.

We also seek your forgiveness and hope you will walk together with us in the Spirit of Christ and partner with us as equals as we participate in God’s redemption of the world so that our 
peoples may be blessed and God’s creation healed.

Finally, we pray that you will hear the sincerity of these words and that you will witness the living 
out of our apology in our actions in the future.

2. That the Moderator of the PC(USA) share this apology with the ninety-five PC(USA) Native American congregations on behalf of the denomination. The means of sharing this apology shall be coordinated with the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Native American Congregational Support Office and with the PC(USA)’s Native American Consulting Committee (NACC).

3. That the Office of the General Assembly share this apology with the leadership of Native Nations in the United States. The means of sharing this apology shall be coordinated with the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Native American Congregational Support Office and with the PC(USA)’s Native American Consulting Committee (NACC).

4. That the General Assembly commend this apology to the entire PC(USA) in all its expressions for their use in the work of reconciliation among all peoples.

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