Each year the Uniting Church marks a Day of Mourning to reflect on the dispossession of Australia’s First Peoples and the ongoing injustices faced by First Nations people in this land. For those of us who are Second Peoples, we lament that we were and remain complicit.
The observance of a Day of Mourning was endorsed by the Uniting Church 15th Assembly in 2018 arising from a request of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC). Today, in 2022, you are invited to reflect on the effects of invasion and colonisation on First Peoples.
In marking a day of mourning, we hear the call of Jesus to a love one another. We live into our covenant relationship to stand together with and listen to the wisdom of First Nations people in their struggle for justice. We affirm the sovereignty of First Peoples and honour their culture and their connection to country. We reaffirm our understanding that First Peoples encountered the Creator God long before colonisation. We confess and seek forgiveness for the dispossession and violence against First Peoples, we lament our part, and we recommit to justice and truth-telling.
You are encouraged to use this opportunity to make a connection with UAICC or First Peoples in your local community. You might also like to take this opportunity to begin a conversation about how as a church we will continue to live out the covenant as a faith community. Let us we pray that our Church and our nation will continue on this journey of confession, truth-telling and seeking of justice and healing. Today we will be using a combination of material from the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress and Common Grace. We will hear aboriginal and islander voices in both word and song and I encourage you to listen, to pray and to feel.
Acknowledgement of Country – video Common Grace Acknowledgement CG
And we acknowledge the Dharawal people the traditional owners of this place – Engadine/Heathcote – Sutherland Shire and Illawarra. We pay our respects to elders past, present and future and thank them for their ongoing care of the land and the waters. May we continue to think of, pray for and connect with our First Nations brothers and sisters.
CALL TO WORSHIP – Common Grace – Kathy
Our land is alive with the glory of God, desert sands hum and gum trees dance.
Brown grasses sing
and mountains breathe their stillness.
All created things add their rhythms of delight
and even stones rap out their praise.
Let our voices mingle with those of the earth; may our hearts join the beat of her joy,
for our triune God is with us:
the Source of all being surrounds and upholds us.
Christ Jesus walks beside and before us.
The Spirit moves within and between us.
Blessed be God, our wonder and delight.
History of Jan 26 video click here to view
TRUTH-TELLING AND AN INVITATION read by Judy and Bruce
Loving and living in harmony with the Land, caring for Mother Earth, Mother Earth caring for and with
Ceremony, story lines, song lines, customs, traditions, tribes, nations and clans What now sits within the coloniser’s hands?
What intergenerational mourning and healing is about to unfold?
Layers of mourning unfold In the stories not told
To know mourning
Is to know grief and loss Removal of lands Removal of children
An injustice of the declaration of terra nullius
To know the dispossession, the invasion, the colonial rule, the colonial persuasion, to dig deep into the layers of the mourning
Layers of mourning unfold Of the stories not told
The wailing of a mother, as a child is taken away The relocation to country far away
The connections lost The connections severed
The generations of injustice weathered
Layers of mourning unfold In the stories not told
In a nation, now called Australia, where is truth-telling not always told? To know mourning
Is to truly know injustice A struggle for justice
We seek guidance from ancient wisdom of past and present, To hold this mourning in our hearts and minds
To honour, to pay respect, to know, to appreciate and to act on injustice
Layers of mourning unfold In the stories not told
A resilient people A mob of survivors
Against the forces set upon
That’s to celebrate
That’s wisdom to walk with
And so we weep And so we survive
And so we ensure our culture will thrive
Layers of mourning unfold In the stories not told
Today we mourn
But we together must action much more Interwoven unlearning
Interwoven truth-telling Interwoven restoring of justice
Our inherent call from the Creator to justice – it’s called for us all
A call to an ongoing woven mat of justice, truth-telling and covenanting
Layers of mourning unfold In the stories not told
Creator spirit
Praise be to you for your guidance
Praise be to you for the healing of grief and loss
May we each day embrace the truth-telling of the Lands we walk on,
and together weave a basket of shared healing
Not just for today
Not just for tomorrow Not just for yesterday
But in the now and the forever time.
LAMENT AND CONFESSION Judy and Bruce
Merciful God,
we, the Second Peoples of this land, lament the injustice and abuse that has so often marked the treatment of the First Peoples of this land.
We lament the way in which their land was taken, and language, culture, law and spirituality despised and suppressed.
We acknowledge and lament the way in which the Christian church was so often not only complicit in this process but actively involved in it.
We lament that in our own time the injustice and abuse has continued. We have been indifferent.
Gracious God, hear our confession —
We have not loved First Peoples and other neighbours as ourselves.
God of mercy, forgive us for our failures, past and present and give us the grace today to make a fresh start.
By your Spirit transform our minds and hearts so that we may love as you have loved us, that we may boldly speak your truth and courageously do your will.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
DECLARATION OF FORGIVENESS Judy and Bruce
This is the best of all:
When we are empty, God fills us.
When we are disheartened, God is compassionate; when we are wounded, God brings healing; when we confess our sin, God forgives.
In Christ, through Christ and because of Christ, our sins are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.
You refill the cup of life, O God.
In Christ, we find refuge, strength and hope. Amen.
UAICC
Intro from Kathy
WORDS from Aunty Jean Phillips Aunty Jean Phillips click to view
Hymn – What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Verse 1
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer
Oh what peace we often forfeit
Oh what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer
Chorus
What a friend we have in Jesus
What a friend we have in Him
For He knows us and He holds us in His hands
And His grace is never failing
And His love without an end
What a friend we have in Jesus
What a friend we have in Him
Verse 2
Have we trials and temptations
Is there trouble anywhere
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer
Verse 3
Blessed Saviour You have promised
You will all our burdens bear
May we ever Lord be bringing
All to You in earnest prayer
Soon in glory bright unclouded
There will be no need for prayer
Rapture praise and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there
CCLI Song # 6542519 CCLI Licence # 31951
Joseph Medlicott Scriven | Pete James
Bible Readings
Micah 6-6-8 – Karen
6 With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
John 14 15-24 Loraine
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
Reflection from Rev Mark Kickett from UAICC Day of Mourning Service 2021
As we approach January 26:
- how does our call to be disciples of Christ show in our attitudes towards this day?
- How does our love for First Nations Peoples show in our reflection of this day?
- How does our faith as individuals and as a church show in our actions on this day?
Let’s listen to the song Wiyathul by Gurrumul which is a song about longing for place and very appropriate for today as we lament with First Nations peoples and reflect on our response to Rev Mark’s words as to how we can walk with God and our indigenous sisters and brothers in hope and reconciliation and how we can be leaders in love in a community that values, includes and listens to First Nations Peoples.
SONG – Gurrumul Wiyathul please click to watch and listen
PRAYER FOR 26 January – Brooke Prentis – on screen Kathy
Great Creator Spirit, Lord God, Papa, Jesus,
Today we pray together on common ground. Common ground of an ancient land that you created. Common ground of over 65,000 years of peoples and place.
Lord, we are longing for acknowledgement.
We acknowledge that your creation was disturbed and disrupted in 1788. We acknowledge our failure to break the Great Australian Silence.
We acknowledge the true history of these lands now called Australia.
Lord, we are longing for truth.
We grieve the truth of statistics that show we are not equal. Truth of death, sickness, imprisonment. Truth of lack of education and
lack of employment. Truth of a gap that isn’t closed.
Lord, we are longing for justice.
We seek justice for Stolen Land, Stolen Wages, Stolen Children. We seek justice for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Lord, we are longing for love.
Today we stand together on common ground. We come together in the love of Christ and the love of our neighbour. We confess we have not loved one another as you have called us to and promise to do better.
We long to embrace unity with diversity.
We are longing for acknowledgement, truth, justice, love, and hope.
Lord, give us
comfort for the pain, in our day of mourning,
courage for the fight, in our day of invasion,
strength for the journey, in our day of survival.
Lord, You are our hope. Amen.
We are now going to listen to an interview with Safina Stewart. Some of you may have heard this before it is worth listening to again – followed by the song How shall we sing?
Safina Stewart interview
SONG – How Shall we Sing? Craig Mitchell
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In this strange land
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In this strange land
This endless desert
These golden sands
This blue horizon
These green islands
How can we sing the song
How can we sing the song
Verse 2
How shall we hear God’s story
Of this strange land
How shall we hear God’s story
Of this strange land
This timeless dreaming
These rocks and bones
This wisdom people
Their ancient home
How can we sing the song
How can we sing the song
Chorus
Come hear a new song
Come hear a new song
Come sing it loud
Come sing it strong
Verse 3
How shall we cry God’s weeping
For this strange land
How shall we cry God’s weeping
For this strange land
This broken homeland
These stolen years
Their hidden history
This trail of tears
How can we cry the song
How can we cry the song
Verse 4
How shall we live God’s story
In this strange land
How shall we live God’s story
In this strange land
With eyes wide open
And gaping hearts
With truthful longing
And stumbling start
How can we live the song
How can we live the song
Verse 5
How can we bring the Lord’s peace
In this strange land
How can we bring the Lord’s peace
In this strange land
With justice raining
When poor are blessed
With love outpouring
From east to west
How can we bring the song
How can we bring the song
CCLI Song # 7148819 CCLI Licence # 31951
Craig Mitchell | David MacGregor
Prayers of the People – Karen
OFFERING PRAYER
God of Love
You gave the wildflower soil to stand in, sunlight to grow in, and water to rest in. You have done the same for us, but so much more.
In gratitude for the countless gifts you have given us—for community and love, food and shelter, dreams and hope—we give back to you.
The offering of money, food, the offering of our service, of what you have purposed in our hearts, enable us to carry through. In the upside-down world of the gospel, we measure our wealth not by what we have, but what we can give away. May we strive to work for reconciliation and make good as much as we are able and to live differently so that our Aboriginal brothers and sisters may share equally in the bounty of this land. We pray that we will support the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, its ministers, elders and congregations and Common Grace in their ministries. May we individually, and our church as a whole, be known for our extravagant love
AMEN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Benediction – Brooke Prentis – Kathy
May our footsteps, on these ancient lands,
remind us of creation and connectedness, in our search for truth.
May the Gum Tree, from its roots to its branches,
remind us to dig deep and reach high, in our action for justice.
May the Eagle, who soars in the sky,
remind us of the power, in our call for love.
May the expanse of the lands and seas, of the sky and stars,
remind us of God’s timing in our faith in hope.
May the Holy three, Creator Spirit, Lord God, Papa Jesus,
remind us of community.
So with grace, mercy, and peace, go in truth, justice, love and hope.
Blessing Song ‘For you deep stillness’
For you, deep stillness of the silent inland
For you, deep blue of the desert skies
For you, flame red of the rocks and stones
For you, sweet water from hidden springs.
From the edges seek the heartlands
and when you’re burnt by the journey
may the cool winds of the hovering
Spirit soothe and replenish you.
In the name of Christ, In the name of Christ.
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