PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 2, 2022
There are many reasons church people need to seek upisktwo with our Wabanaki siblings, the people of the Dawnland, who have lived here and stewarded the land for more than 12,000 years. How do we, as Maine’s churches, repent and amend our ways? For decades, many in Maine’s faith communities have been working to do just that – most notably the Quaker Friends Committee on Maine Public Policy and the Episcopal Committee on Indian Relations, along with the Maine Unitarian Universalist State Advocacy Network and the Maine Council of Churches. These groups all agree recognition of tribal sovereignty must be the foundation of turning and trying again, of seeking reconciliation and restoring right relationship. These communities of faith have joined a broad-based coalition to ensure that L.D. 1626 is passed by Maine’s Legislature and becomes law. ~ Evelyn Johnson Moore and John Hennessy, Maine Council of Churches