Dear Friends,
Our ministry partnership with the Macarthur indigenous Church is one of great significance that we must continue to build and strengthen. To this end, I am looking forward to our services celebrating NAIDOC week on 2nd July at St Peter’s and 9th July at St Andrew’s. Michael Duckett will be preaching and we will celebrate our union in Christ the ultimate reconciler.
Last Friday, May 26, was National Sorry Day on which we remember the mistreatment of our indigenous population. Saturday May 27 was the 50th anniversary of the successful 1967 referendum, which enabled Aboriginal people to be counted as members of the Australian population and enabled the federal parliament to specifically legislate for Aboriginal people.
You may also know that there are continued conversations about whether and how further recognition of Australia’s indigenous peoples might be included in our Constitution, and there was a very significant meeting of representative indigenous leaders from all over Australia at Uluru last weekend, seeking to determine ways forward.
So I think it is appropriate this weekend that I share some prayers of thanks for past steps of recognition and reconciliation with indigenous people, that we grieve what is yet to be done for indigenous welfare at practical and political levels, and ask you to pray for further steps along those paths.
Here are a couple of prayers for reconciliation written by indigenous people that I encourage you to use.
RECONCILIATION PRAYER
Holy Father, God of Love,
You are the Creator of this land and of all good things.
We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history
and the suffering of our peoples
and we ask your forgiveness.
We thank you for the survival of indigenous cultures.
Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus
to reconcile the world to you.
We pray for your strength and grace to forgive,
accept and love one another,
as you love us and forgive and accept us
in the sacrifice of your Son.
Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history
so that we may build a better future for our nation.
Teach us to respect all cultures.
Teach us to care for our land and waters.
Help us to share justly the resources of this land.
Help us to bring about spiritual and social change
to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities,
especially the disadvantaged.
Help young people to find true dignity and self esteem by your Spirit.
May your power and love be the foundations
on which we build our families, our communities and our nation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
This prayer prepared by Wontulp-Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group, 13 March 1997. (Wontulp-Bi-Buya is the Queensland partner of Nungalinya College, Darwin, and provides indigenous leadership training for church and community.)
A Collect for Reconciliation
(For those unfamiliar with Anglican terms, a Collect is a brief prayer, which gathers together or ‘collects’ certain concerns appropriate to a particular occasion or issue.)
Lord God,
Bring us together as one.
Reconciled with you and
reconciled with each other.
You made us in your likeness;
You gave us your son, Jesus Christ.
He has given us forgiveness from sin.
Lord God,
Bring us together as one.
Different culture, but
given new life in Jesus Christ;
Together as one, your body,
your church, your people.
Lord God,
Bring us together one.
Reconciled, healed, forgiven,
Sharing you with others,
as you have called us to do.
In Jesus Christ,
let us be together as one.
Amen.
Written by Bishop Arthur Malcolm (Australia’s first indigenous bishop) and his non-indigenous wife, Colleen.
In Christ
Nigel