The Bible is more concerned with concrete acts of reconciliation than with modeling how to give a verbal apology, Bishop of Quebec Bruce Myers says. That was one of the key findings he and other members of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada (ARC Canada) noted in their document Theology of Church Apologies, published online in February. ARC Canada is sponsored by the Anglican Church of Canada and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, with members appointed by those bodies.
Inspired by former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and former Pope Francis’s 2022 tours of Canada to apologize for the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches’ role in running residential schools, Myers says ARC Canada members embarked on the project to answer questions about the purpose of church apologies—and how to do one well.
“We were still hearing echoes of questions within our churches and outside our churches,” Myers says. “Questions like, ‘Why are we apologizing?’ ‘Haven’t we apologized for this already?’ ‘Why are we apologizing for things that happened before, in some cases, any of us were around?’ ‘Do apologies make any difference?’ ‘What makes an apology genuine?’”
ARC Canada therefore set out to create a resource for Anglicans and Roman Catholics to consult when considering apologies their churches have made in the past—or when drafting new ones in the future, he says.
“This document’s starting point is that shared moment in the lives of both our churches, namely apologizing for our respective roles in the residential schools and then theologically reflecting together … on the meaning and value and significance of making those apologies,” Myers says.
The practical applicability of that work “might be refreshing for people who think theological dialogues between churches produce dry, boring, arcane, obscure pieces of theology that just collect dust on peoples’ shelves,” he jokes.
The document
Theology of Church Apologies examines the biblical passages and theological works that inform Christian perspectives on apology. Myers notes particularly that Scripture does not seem to contain any clear examples of a person making an apology, narrowly defined as a verbal statement to another person of regret for a wrong committed. Instead, the document says, “the biblical accounts emphasize actions that right wrongs and restore relationships rather than verbal expressions of regret.”
Such action appears, for example, in the story of Zaccheus, chief tax collector at Jericho, who volunteered after meeting Jesus to give away his possessions to the poor and repay fourfold anyone he had cheated as a tax collector, the document says.
ARC Canada also studied the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification created by members of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches and affirmed by the World Methodist Council, the Anglican Consultative Council and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. That declaration, and work following up on it, says the same grace that enables sinners to repent and seek forgiveness also allows churches to reflect on the wrongs that have been perpetrated in their names.
ARC Canada finds consensus between traditions that the church is affirmed to be “one body.” As such, the works it studies agree that some responsibility for harm done either by individual members of a church or by the institution belongs to the whole institution.
ARC Canada’s document also quotes Pope Jean Paul II, who said that “all of us, though not personally responsible and without encroaching on the judgment of God who alone knows every heart, bear the burden of the errors and faults of those who have gone before us.”
Its theological reflection concludes that repentance for wrongdoing is evident in actions repairing the relationships that wrongdoing damaged. As a result, the ARC Canada document says, “The depth and effectiveness of the apology will be judged not only by the wronged party’s response but also by the degree of transformation within the church as it bears witness to the gospel of Christ in word and action.”
Unusual degree of consensus in ecumenical work
Nicholas Olkovich, a Roman Catholic professor of political theology at St. Mark’s College in Vancouver, says he saw much in common between the various church traditions he and other ARC Canada members consulted for the apologies document. That’s not always the case when ecumenical dialogues get together, he says.
“I was impressed by how [clearly] we were united on the major points,” Olkovich says. “This was a text we worked on where I’d say we were in general agreement from the very beginning. It was just a matter of fleshing it out.”
Olkovich worked closely with Myers on their portion of the project, which involved examining the apologies made in the secular world for major harms such as South African apartheid and the Holocaust.
What they found was significant overlap with the ways in which church apologies have been historically delivered, indicative of a culture of apology and reconciliation that has also been growing across broader civil society, Olkovich says. Churches should and have been taking the opportunity to learn from this culture, he says, but adds that it is also necessary to weigh these lessons against existing Christian teachings to make sure the church’s responses are consistent with its own beliefs.
“We’ve been pressured, I think in a good way at times, to wake up,” he says. “The church is listening to and learning from other movements for justice in the broader world. And I think that’s a good thing. I think it’s always a challenge for the church to stay true to her own principles, her own categories in doing so.”
What Christian institutions can uniquely add, Olkovich says, is an element of spirituality. Churches bring an understanding that the relationships that need to be repaired extend not just between groups of humans, but between those people and God, he says.
ACIP veteran reflects on Anglican Church of Canada’s history of apologies
Canon Murray Still is a founding member and former co-chair of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples and a longtime participant in the Anglican Church of Canada’s Indigenous reconciliation work. He was present for the first apology the Anglican Church made for its involvement in the residential schools, delivered by then-primate Archbishop Michael Peers at Minaki Lodge in Kenora, Ont. in 1993.
“It poured rain for three days while we were there,” Still recalls. “Then that morning we had sunshine and an eagle flew by and that’s when the elders stepped forward and said, ‘We accept your apology.’”
Still was also present in 2019 when then-primate Archbishop Fred Hiltz delivered a follow-up apology for the spiritual harm done by suppressing Indigenous peoples’ spiritual traditions, which was not mentioned in Peers’ original apology.
In his accounts of the apologies, Still emphasizes the reconciliation work that followed. Like ARC Canada, he evaluates the sincerity of Peers’ apology by the fact that he—and other Anglican leaders who followed—put real work into changing the way they related to Indigenous people.
The creation of the self-determining Indigenous Anglican Church is a sign that Peers’ and Hiltz’s apologies were successful, Still says. With these apologies as examples, he thinks of an apology as a first step that enables a longer journey of reconciliation.
Still also emphasizes the agency of the party receiving the apology in determining whether to accept it and what amendments to expect. To be sure an apology is sincere takes a recognition that a harm has been committed, a common understanding of what that harm is and a two-party commitment to mend the relationship going forward, he says.
“You’ve apologized, and I’ve heard the apology, so I accept the apology in the spirit in which it was given. In other words, it’s about love. ‘I love you, I’ve hurt you, but I want to help, so how can I do that?’ My response is, ‘You can help by…’”
During the process of reconciliation that follows, further apologies may be necessary as new harms come to light or as new mistakes are made on the part of one party or the other, he adds.
As with the process of reconciliation in the Anglican Church, he says, apologies must be “an ongoing thing, so that it doesn’t just stay with Indigenous people and those who made an apology back in 1993. It spreads across the land.”
