Comment: A turn in the road for the Coon Comes

By Lloyd Mackey

MATTHEW Coon Come handily defeated Phil Fontaine three years ago, when he ran to replace him as Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).

Last month, the tables were turned. Chief Coon Come ran third in a field of three, as Chief Fontaine was handily returned to the Canada's aboriginal "premiership".

In commenting on his defeat, Coon Come remarked cryptically that he had received the support he deserved.

Indeed, from a Christian viewpoint, his AFN watch has produced its share of conundrums.

Soon after his election, Coon Come's strong evangelical Christian faith was the subject of a couple of columns in the National Post. He made the point, in one of those columns, that he was prepared to risk rejection for taking on a "white man's religion".

Apart from that NP exposure, he proved reluctant to talk, for either the secular or Christian media, about his Christian faith.

But he and his wife, MaryAnn, were involved, during his tenure, in several aspects of charismatic Christian activity, both in Ottawa and in events that took place in other parts of Canada.

Last fall, ChristianCurrent's Ottawa edition ran an advertisement for a new Ottawa church, Harvest Glory, which included the information that Matthew and MaryAnn were the associate pastors.

Now it was already well-known throughout the evangelical community in the capital, that the Coon Comes had been members of Woodvale Church, a large west side Pentecostal congregation, before they had moved to the Montreal areas so he could head up the Cree nation in Quebec.

So his role in Harvest Glory proved to be an attention-getter. To get more on the story, I attended a Sunday evening service at which the Coon Comes were active participants.

MaryAnn was the more vocal of the two in the free form service attended by about 40 people, drawn from at least half a dozen ethnic streams. She exhibited clear gifts in the areas of prayer and what charismatic Christians often describe as "prophecy".

Matthew, explaining later that he saw his role as expressing the "gift of helps", was kept busy providing backup guitar to the pastor's husband, who led the worship team. Further, he offered quiet words of encouragement to worshippers who were seeking individual counsel, and helped "catch" some who fell back in a worship experience sometimes described as "being slain in the Spirit."

And, a few days later, he spoke to an outreach breakfast designed to communicate the basic Christian faith to friends of church members who had not yet committed their lives to Christ.

I was impressed by the humility of both the Coon Comes -- and by the obviously mature and intelligent relationship they had with their teenage children and other friends who attended the service with them.

It was hard, in that context, to envisage this man as the seemingly combative head of a community of 500,000 people, stretched across Canada.

The fact is, though, that charismatic Christianity has extensive influence in many of Canada's First Nations -- in Anglican, Pentecostal and independent churches.

So, in that sense, many aboriginals have adopted this "white man's religion". And the Coon Comes have aided that trend.

In due course, political scientists may offer some interpretation for the former chief's statement in defeat, about getting the support he deserved.

But don't be surprised if the Coon Comes become more involved in Christian ministry. They take counsel from time to time from Ottawa-based Pentecostal evangelist Bill Prankard, who has both a widespread television ministry and a strong outreach across northern Canada.

Further, they have kept close contact with another Ottawa man, Kenny Blacksmith, who spearheads the Gathering of All Nations events that bring hundreds of Christians together for worship and renewal, both in the capital and at a First Nations retreat site in northern Quebec.

So, watch for the Coon Comes to plow his political defeat into new and previously unavailable opportunities for communicating their faith, in the aboriginal "public square".

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Lloyd Mackey can be reached at lmackey@christiancurrent.com