(“Exploring the Alternate Liturgy” – Part 2)
Many of you will remember the friendship of Kanatiio, a wise Mohawk (Kanien’kehà:ka) man whom the Peskotomuhkati invited to St. Stephen for a few years to help them in their process of gaining official Canadian recognition. While he was here, Kanatiio once visited our church and led us in “The Words Before All Else,” also known as the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. He stood before us and improvised a brief (about twenty minute) sharing of thanks for “all our relations.” This acknowledgement of our “duty of gratitude” for all the facets of a good Creation sets a tone of positive humility and service.
This Thanksgiving Address has also become well known through Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass. She writes that the Address not only “sets gratitude as the highest priority” but also serves as a “lesson in Native science.” She recalls being told frequently that the words are meant as a gift to the world and are to be shared freely.
We had wondered at times about using a land acknowledgement – a great idea, but one that can often come across as rote or incomplete when tacked onto a meeting. The idea came that integrating a version of this Thanksgiving Address would both acknowledge relationship and engage us in integrating a key foundation of an Indigenous worldview that is a good beginning for living well on this land that for many millennia has been, and still is, the homeland of the Peskotomuhkati people.
I adapted a very brief taste of this Address as an opening for our Alternate Liturgy and received Kanatiio’s blessing for using it in this way in our services:
Today we have gathered, and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty and responsibility to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give our greetings and our thanks to one another as people.
Now our minds are one
We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. And we give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We acknowledge the fish and all the creatures in the waters, and we give our thanks.
Now our minds are one
Now we turn toward the plants. As far as the eye can see, the plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. We are grateful to the animals on the land and all the birds in the sky. We are thankful for the four winds and the four seasons, for the rain and the sun, the moon and the stars. With one mind, we give our greetings and our thanks.
Now our minds are one
We consider those who have gone before us, our elders and our teachers, who have gathered and shared wisdom. When we forget how to live in harmony, they remind us of the way we were instructed to live. We give our listening ears and thanks. And we turn our thoughts to the Creator, and we send our greetings and our thanks for all the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here.
For all the love that is around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to you, Creator.
Now our minds are one
Our hope is that beginning our Alternate Liturgy with these words will help us acknowledge our fundamental unity as part of a living, connected Creation – grateful to Creator and to all our relations. And we hope also that they remind us that the friendship and welcome of Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island is crucial to our living here well, and for us, particularly, the welcome of the Peskotomuhkati here along the St. Croix (Skutik) watershed.
(Click here or on the “Articles” tab at the top of the page to see the intro to this series and follow along this week as I introduce the other sections that make up our “Alternate Liturgy.”)
