Christians have been praying together at what is now the corner of Grand and Hoffman Streets in Saugatuck, Michigan, since 1869. Prior to that time, the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwe peoples resided here on what is still unceded territory; portions of this land along the lakeshore also served as ancestral burial grounds of these peoples long before European settlers arrived, and to whom those indigenous peoples did not willfully yield this land.
This acknowledgement reflects our conviction that the land on which our parish campus sits is part of who we are and reflects our histories—our own histories, and the histories we may unknowingly share with other peoples. We are also seeking to learn more about the past and wish to engage with a process toward healing the still-present wounds of the ongoing legacy of settler colonialism in the United States generally and, more particularly, in Michigan.