You can read and watch parts of the service on another part of our website here.
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 15th Assembly of the Uniting Church in 2018 arising from a request of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC). We need not wait for any specific invitation to reflect on the effects of invasion and colonisation on First Peoples, but this is a particular day on which we can gather formally to do so (see below for a brief history of this day).
In marking a day of mourning, we hear the call of Jesus to 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 pray that our Church and our nation will continue on this journey of confession, truth-telling and seeking of justice and healing. On Sunday 20th January, 2024, we are likely to be using a combination of material from the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, and Common Grace. We will seek to hear aboriginal and islander voices in both word and song and encourage you to listen, to pray and to feel.
Common Grace’s Aboriginal Sunday Resources will include Bible readings, prayers, sermon notes and worship resources, and a creative activity to help us as a congregation explore the injustices facing Aboriginal peoples. You will soon be able to sign up to receive these resources, should you wish to organise your own gathering. Check out their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice page here.
In 2023, Common Grace staff wrote: “This is a powerful moment for your church to go deeper in listening to the call of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander injustice and for you to be inspired to learn, engage, pray, and be equipped to take action as a community together. We are also excited to be sharing news about how your church or faith community can join in listening to the voices of our Aboriginal Christian Leaders as we call together for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in 2023.” You can read more here.
Brief history: On January 26 1938, Aboriginal leaders including William Cooper, met for a Day of Mourning, seeking equality and full citizenship (though it would take another 30 years).
The Australian Churches were then asked to set aside the Sunday before January 26 as Aboriginal Sunday (previously called Aborigines’ Day), a day for Christians to act in solidarity with Aboriginal peoples and the injustices being experienced.
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