Search for "residential schools"

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Moravian Missions in Labrador

In 1771, Moravian missionaries were the first Europeans to settle in Labrador. Over a 133-year period, they established a series of eight missions along the coast which became the focus of religious, social and economic activities for the Inuit who gradually came to settle near the communities. Moravians had a huge impact on the life and culture of Labrador Inuit. What emerged was a unique culture rooted in Inuit traditions with indigenized European practices. The last Moravian missionary left Labrador in 2005, but the Moravian church, its customs and traditions are still very much alive in Labrador.

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Vision Quest

Coined by 19th century anthropologists, the term “vision quest” describes a spiritual journey in various Indigenous cultures in which participants, often adolescents, are said to receive sacred knowledge and strength from the spirit world. Practised as a rite of passage among some Indigenous cultures in North America, such as the Siksika (Blackfoot), Cree, Anishinaabe (including the Ojibwe) and Inuit, vision quests reflect the role of spirituality and contemplative thinking in Indigenous cultures, and provide an important connection between the participant, the Creator and nature. Though reduced as a practice following colonization, vision quests remain part of the cultural traditions of Indigenous populations in Canada in the modern era.

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Catholicism in Canada

The Greek word katholikos means "general" or "universal." It refers most commonly to the Christianity that is in communion with the pope and the Church of Rome, that is, the beliefs and practices of a Catholic Church. The modern ecumenical movement often refers to all Christians as sharing in the church's Catholicism, which is derived from the universal headship and reign of Christ. According to the 2021 census, 10.9 million Canadians (29.9 per cent) identified as Catholic.

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New Brunswick Schools Question

In May 1871, the government of New Brunswick, under George Luther Hatheway, passed the Common Schools Act. This statute provided for free standardized education throughout the province, the establishment of new school districts, the construction of schools, and stricter requirements regarding teaching certificates. This law also made all schools non-denominational, so that the teaching of the Roman Catholic catechism was prohibited.

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Midewiwin

Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society, is a spiritual society found historically among the Algonquian of the Upper Great Lakes (Anishinaabe), northern prairies and eastern subarctic. Once widespread, the Midewiwin became less prevalent after the arrival of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the largest Midewiwin societies are found in parts of Ontario, Manitoba, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

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Religion and Spirituality of Indigenous Peoples in Canada

First Nation, Métis and Inuit religions in Canada vary widely and consist of complex social and cultural customs for addressing the sacred and the supernatural. The influence of Christianity — through settlers, missionaries and government policy — significantly altered life for Indigenous peoples. In some communities, this resulted in hybridized religious practices; while in others, European religion replaced traditional spiritual practices entirely. Though historically suppressed by colonial administrators and missionaries, especially from the late 19th- to mid-20th centuries, many contemporary Indigenous communities have revived, or continue to practice, traditional spirituality.

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Church Choir Schools

Church choir schools. Institutions set up to train young musicians in the literature and performance of church music and to enable them, through the presentation of such music, to worship in a manner at once spiritual and artistic.

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Religion

​Religion (from the Latin, religio, "respect for what is sacred") may be defined as the relationship between human beings and their transcendent source of value.

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Indian Shaker Church

The Indian Shaker Church is an Indigenous religion that began in 1882 near the town of Shelton, Washington, in the United States. Today, there are several active Indian Shaker Church congregations in the Pacific Northwest.

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Two-Spirit

​Two-Spirit, a translation of the Anishinaabemowin term niizh manidoowag, refers to a person who embodies both a masculine and feminine spirit. Activist Albert McLeod developed the term in 1990 to broadly reference Indigenous peoples in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. Two-spirit is used by some Indigenous peoples to describe their gender, sexual and spiritual identity. (See also Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in Canada.)

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Judaism

Judaism is the religion of the JEWS. Its origins were in ancient Israel, where the sacred text of the Hebrew Bible was understood to be God's revelation. The Bible's core is the Torah-the 5 books delivered by God to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai through their liberator, teacher and prophet Moses.

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Cemeteries

Cemeteries are designated consecrated places in which the dead are deposited. The word comes from the Greek koimeterion or the Latin coemeterium, meaning "to lie down to rest" or "to sleep."

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Religions and Music

Religions and Music. The many religions of Canada are touched upon in numerous articles in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada (EMC).

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Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church

The Église du Précieux Sang, built between 1967 and 1969 in St. Boniface, Manitoba, was designed by Étienne-Joseph Gaboury, of Gaboury, Lussier, Sigurdson Architects.

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Evangelism and Evangelicals

Evangelism is an English word derived from the combination of the 2 Greek words euangelion and euangelizomai, meaning "good news," or "gospel"] and "to announce, proclaim, or bring good news.

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St Anne's Anglican Church

The plan of St Anne's owes its origins to Reverend Lawrence Skey, rector of the church from 1902-1933. Trained as a theologian, Skey firmly believed in a return to the pre-Roman roots of Christianity.

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Evangelical and Fundamentalist Movements

Evangelical and Fundamentalist Movements

 Evangelical and fundamentalist movements include Protestant Christian denominations and subgroups, and nondenominational and paradenominational organizations whose designation indicates their differentiation from "liberal" or "modernist" religious, social and cultural currents, and which define themselves with reference to the Christian scriptures exclusively. Evangelical, the broader category, has the longer and richer history. A derivative of the Greek euangelion ("good news," or "gospel"), "evangelical" is a virtual equivalent of "Christian."

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Christianity

​Christianity is a major world religion, and the religion of around two-thirds of Canadians. Believers hold that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in the first century AD, as presented in the Bible and in the Christian tradition, are central to their understanding of who they are and how they should live. As the Messiah, or the Christ (Greek christos, "the anointed one," or "the one chosen by God"), Jesus was to restore God's creation to the condition intended by its creator.

Jesus' first followers included some fishermen, a rich woman, a tax collector and a rabbinical student - a diverse group of enthusiasts who scandalized their fellow Jews and puzzled their Greek neighbours. They claimed that Jesus had accomplished his redemptive mission by submitting himself to execution as a state criminal and later rising from the dead. They argued that he was thus revealed to be both human and divine, and they invited all, not just Jews, to join them in living as members of the Church (Greek kuriakon, "that which belongs to the Lord").