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The Arctic’s first Inuk bishop emphasizes healing

Bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk talks about his goals as he contemplates his new position

SARA ARNATSIAQ

Andrew Atagotaaluk became the first Inuk to serve as bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic during a Synod gathering in Rankin Inlet last month.

"We are faced with different realities today, but our main goal will be for different groups to work together and to figure out where we need to focus on. Especially groups like correctional facilities, health centres, hospitals and half-way houses, there is potential that we all can benefit from working together," Atagotaaluk said this week from his home in Salluit.

He said it is important for people of different religious denominations to work together, and that both small and large denominations benefit that way.

Atagotaaluk is still settling in to his new position, he said, and he expects that he’ll spend much of his time encouraging churches to work closely with their congregations.

He says he knows that people from different churches pray together and are very interested in working within their communities.

"It is when there is division among different churches that problems arise and the individual churches take care of the only people who attend church — when they should be taking care of the community as a whole," he said.

By taking care of the community as a whole, people begin to see positive things happen. It may even bring people back to the church, he said.

There are people who are sick and who can be healed, he said. Once they have been healed, they should have within them a sense of responsibility to attend church regularly.

There is a lot of pain and although we cannot see it, we are hearing of it these days, he said. The pain inflicted upon people when churches were first established is still being felt today.

"We will have to heal that pain. We will have to learn to forgive and work together in healing that pain."

Stories about abuse at residential schools are finally being told. Their descendants are still living with the pain today and they are beginning to express this pain and let go, he said.

Atagotaaluk said it is because of this abuse that individual communities should be treated as a whole.

Financial compensation alone will not take the pain away. "That is why we are stressing healing. By healing together, there can be more peace. We will keep doing it," he said.

"God makes all things possible and we’re doing what He wants, and as I do what it is He called me to do, we have a very big responsibility to serve the Inuit communities," he said.

The bishop of the Arctic serves the Western Arctic, the Kitikmeot region, the Baffin region and Nunavik.

Staff consists of Qallunaat, First Nations people and Inuit. Although the region is huge, he said that with a particular goal in mind, especially if all hearts are in the same place, anything is possible.

Inuit were considered "savages" or inferior in the past, and suffered traumas such as almost losing their language and culture and taking on a different way of life, Atagotaaluk said.

"We were left with almost nothing until we took back what was taken," he said.

"We took that responsibility and now they are able to say, ‘Look, they can do this.’"

He says Inuit will make mistakes and that they’ll be able to learn from them and move forward with patience, rigor and faith. With those in mind, we can take on more responsibilities."

"I expect that we’ll triumph," he said.

Atagotaaluk has served as a community priest in Salluit, as well as the bishop for the Nunavik region. He says that it was difficult, but that that was the way it was.

When asked where he will reside, he said he has to meet with the church’s board before he makes a decision. At the moment, he does not know where he will be located in his new job.

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