On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we would like to highlight a conversation with Howard Jolly, a Cree person from Waskaganish, Quebec, who has served as a pastor, musician, and church leader for decades. Before his retirement in 2025, he served for eight years as Executive Director of the First Nations Alliance Churches of Canada. He was pastor of Winnipeg First Nations Community Church for the preceding fifteen years.
Here, Howard speaks with Jason Ballard, a Vancouver-area pastor and host of The Pastorate, a podcast focused on interviews with pastors from across Canada.
In this conversation, Howard shares how God called him to pastoral work and describes his passion for ministry that focuses on “First Peoples reaching First Peoples” with the message of the gospel. For Howard, this message includes sharing with Indigenous people “the significance of the dignity that God gives you” because “he made you who you are.” Speaking this truth has been an essential part of Howard’s ministry: “I have a burden for my people, just for them to really see their equal status with all other people. I think the impact of colonialism and residential schools—you know, assimilation—has really caused us to believe we are less than others, and that’s not true.”
Howard also addresses the importance of reconciliation for all members of the body of Christ and for the church as a whole. “There is fruitfulness that comes from walking in righteousness as God’s people. . . . God says, ‘I will build my church,’ and how does he do it? It’s through believers walking with God in a way that God calls them to. There’s light that comes out of that. There’s life that comes out of that,” even as we pray for “the righteous reign of Christ” to come in its fullness.