Welcome
Acknowledgement of country
Leader: We acknowledge the Dharawal people, the traditional custodians of the land we are on today. This is a beautiful and sacred Country and we are all so thankful to be surrounded by stunning bushland on all sides of these suburbs.
We acknowledge that the First Peoples of this land had already encountered the Creator God before the arrival of the colonisers, and that the Spirit was already in the land revealing God to the people through law, custom and ceremony. We recognise the continued ministry of First Peoples within the church, and their continuing connection to their land and living cultures. We acknowledge the ways in which we, the church, have been and continue to be complicit in the oppression of first peoples.
All: In doing so, we recommit to the path of reconciliation and justice that God lays before us.
Today, we join with churches across these lands now called Australia to mark National Reconciliation Week 2026. Each year from 27 May to 3 June, National Reconciliation Week invites all Australians to reflect on our shared history, to learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to commit ourselves anew to justice, healing, and right relationship.
This year, Common Grace invites us into the theme “All In: Reciprocity as Reconciliation.” It is a call to step off the sidelines and commit wholeheartedly. Reconciliation is not the responsibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples alone – it belongs to all of us. It calls us to listen deeply, tell the truth, build real relationships, and take shared responsibility for justice. As we gather today, may we come with open hearts – ready to learn, to pray, and to walk together in humility and hope.
Call to worship (Lighting of the Christ Candle)
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 rhythm of delight
and even the stones rap out their praise.
Let our voices mingle with the song of the earth
May our hearts join the beat of her joy
For our triune God is with us:
Our creator surrounds and upholds us.
Christ Jesus walks beside and upholds us.
The Spirit moves within and between us.
Blessed be God, our wonder and our delight.
Rev Jenny Tymms
Hymn: Where Wide Sky Rolls Down (Tune: Hanover)
Where wide sky rolls down and touches red sand
Where sun turns to gold the grass of the land
Let spinifex mulga and waterhole tell
Their joy in the One who made everything well
Where rainforest calm meets reef tide and storm
Where green things grow lush and oceans are warm
Let every sea creature and tropical bird
Exult in the light of the life-giving Word
Where red gum and creek cross hillside and plain
Where cool tree-ferns rise to welcome the rain
Let bushland farm mountaintop all of their days
Delight in the Spirit who formed them for praise
Now people of faith come gather around
With songs to be shared for blessings abound
Australians whatever your culture or race
Come lift up your hearts to the Giver of grace
CCLI Song # 5205211, Elizabeth J. Smith | William Croft © Words: 1997 Smith, Elizabeth J.; Music: Public Domain For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI License # 31951
Introduce guest: Jane Kelly. What country have you come from, what role do you have with Common Grace.
Prayer of adoration and confession
The work of the creator is visible.
Let us respond with praise.
The example of Jesus is apparent.
Let us respond with imitation.
The wind of the Spirit is blowing.
Let us respond with joy.
The word of God is calling.
Let us worship in spirit and in truth.
Gracious God,
we have failed to live together in harmony.
We have hurt each other and ourselves.
Accept our heartfelt repentance for all the times we have failed to be our best selves.
Words of Assurance/Affirmation
Friends, hear once again the promise of the Christian faith:
The gift of life is to be embraced and not feared.
In the love of Christ we have our peace,
and we have our healing.
Thanks be to God. Amen!
Choir: Voices for Reconciliation is a choir project that started in 2022 as a way of bringing people together ahead of the referendum on the Voice to Parliament, and we have joined every single year. We all owe a debt of gratitude to music teacher Andrea who has selflessly given of her time and skill to wrangle an enthusiastic crowd into a choir each year.
Beds Are Burning, written and performed by Midnight Oil, is a powerful anthem that hit a chord nationally and internationally and became a defining soundtrack of the land rights movement. The song was organised by Reconciliation Australia with the support of Midnight Oil and Sony Music Publishing.
Cast your mind back to 1985, if you were alive. Uluru and Kata Tjuta (formerly known as Ayers Rock and The Olgas) were handed back to the Anangu people. This inspired the writing of this song over the course of Midnight Oil’s 1986 concert tour with Warumpi Band through the Western Desert and Arnhem Land Aboriginal communities.
Released in 1987 on the Diesel and Dust album, the song became an international hit, reaching #1 in New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, #17 in the USA, and #6 in the UK and at home in Australia. So it’s quite well known across the English speaking world. While its broader themes resonated with land rights struggles around the world, the Oils made sure the song’s central call was crystal clear: justice and land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The song has been covered and reinterpreted multiple times and featured in the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony in 2000 – if you were alive then, can you remember what they wore, and why? The band performed the song wearing jumpsuits with SORRY written in large block text, protesting the Howard government’s refusal to apologise to the Stolen Generations.
So here we are, decades later, and the message still resonates. This Reconciliation Sunday, the song stands as a powerful call to action to know our history and be “All In” to create a more just, equitable and reconciled future for us all.
Our rendition will sound a little different to the Midnight Oil recording – for a start, you’re going to hear the actual melody in the opening lines, which you don’t exactly get from Peter Garrett’s performance. Secondly, a soprano line was added into the choral arrangement for interest and effect. So listen out for the cockatoos!
Choir sings.
Creative Activity.This creative activity invites you to reflect on the beauty and depth of reciprocity. Created by Safina Stewart, this colouring sheet features gum leaves – a meaningful symbol often used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders in Welcome to Country ceremonies to offer welcome and safe passage onto their lands.
Each leaf contains a word that expresses something of what reciprocity looks like: giving and receiving, mutual, relational, ongoing, courageous, and more. As you colour in the leaves and words, take time to reflect on the Pitjantjatjara principle of Ngapartji Ngapartji – “I give you something, you give me something.”
Reciprocity is about walking together in right relationship – with one another, with God, and with Country – where giving and receiving are shared, and everyone is changed for the better.
There’s also a blank version of the sheet with “Reciprocity is…” at the top. This creates space for you to write your own words or phrases, reflecting on what reciprocity means to you. You might like to display the finished page, or cut out the leaves to create a shared wall, poster, or prayer space – a visual reminder that reconciliation is ongoing, shared work that calls each of us to be “All In”.
HEARING THE WORD
Bible Reading (Melanie)
Today’s readings have been chosen this year by First Nations leaders at Common Grace. Aunty Donna Meehan is a Gamilaroi woman, born in Coonamble, and one of the Stolen Generation. A committed Christian and peacemaker, Aunty Donna has devoted her life to bringing healing to her people – particularly to broken and wounded-hearted women. Her ministry spans broadcasting, writing, prison ministry, community leadership, and public speaking.
Safina Stewart is a Wuthathi and Mabuiag Island woman and Common Grace’s Storyteller and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lead. She lives on Bunurong Country and is passionate about culture, education, the arts, justice, and faith. She is also a professional artist, and we are proud to own one of her works here.
We will be hearing from Jane in person, but you can find the video message in this week’s bulletin. In it, Aunty Donna and Safina explore the idea of reciprocity as a foundation for reconciliation.
Let us pray: God, please open our ears and minds and hearts so that as we hear the words of the Bible, you will speak to us and bring us new life.
The first reading is from 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet,
“I don’t need you!”
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Colossians 1:19-20 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Reader: Through these readings we hear God speak.
All: Thank you, God, for your words of life.
Guest Speaker Jane Kelly (Jane throws to Safina video at the conclusion of her talk)
RESPONDING TO THE WORD
Response
Find the “take action” details in the bulletin
- Attend a local or online event: https://bit.ly/3WL2kPn
- Reconciliation reads: https://bit.ly/49SSIYv
- 25 films in 25 Years: https://bit.ly/4nEueYE
- Get involved in Reconciliation: https://bit.ly/42OEvIn
Announcement: The Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress is made up of Aboriginal and Islander members of the Uniting Church in Australia (and other denominations) seeking to fulfil their calling as Christians among their own people, especially in the area of wholistic community development and bringing to an end the injustices which hold Aboriginal and Islander people on the fringes of Australian society. The UAICC determines its own goals and objectives and decides its policies and priorities and runs its own programs and institutions. The 2024-2027 Walking Together Action Plan of the NSW Synod of the Uniting Church requires all NSW Church Councils to allocate a minimum of 3% of all proceeds of property sales into a fund to support UAICC Ministry and Mission activities. Some Uniting Church bodies are voluntarily directing 3% of rental income into this fund, and at our congregation AGM last year, we agreed to donate 3% of our manse rental income to UAICC. We have chosen Reconciliation Week as the time of year to make that annual donation and are pleased to have made our first one this week.
Offertory prayer
“Thank you to everyone as you bring your gifts of loving service and financial support through online giving. If you prefer to use cash, it can be placed in the wooden box at the back, and you can also make one-off donations via the QR code on the box. Let us pray:”
(adapted from the liturgy provided to the churches in 2008 following the Prime Minister’s apology to the stolen generations)
Let us pray: We confess that what has happened in the past in this nation has not always been done in accordance with the hopes and possibilities that God had for us.
We resolve that by the grace of God we shall strive to make good as much as we are able and to live differently so that our Aboriginal brothers and sisters may share equally with us in the bounty of this land.
We pray that we will support in any way we can the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, its ministers, elders and congregations as they minister to the spiritual, social, mental and emotional well being of Aboriginal Australians.
Bless and use these gifts and through the power of your Spirit move us to acts of true reconciliation and change us so that we might make a difference. Amen.
Prayers of the people (Jan)
The person on prayers shall commence with an announcement along these lines: “If you would like personal prayer, Karen, Judy or Rev Paul will be available each week Sunday to pray with you. They will be at the front of the church after the service – please feel free to go and speak with them.”
Eternal and ever loving God, we believe that our worship draws us near to you, and towards our neighbours on earth.
We pray for the whole creation:
May we all learn before it is too late to respect the uniqueness, fragility, and beauty of our earth and all its creatures.
We pray for all people, especially for the first peoples of this land:
May our actions and our lifestyle bear out our belief that all people everywhere are our siblings, whatever their identity.
We pray for peace in our torn and troubled world and for a country that discriminates and marginalises Aboriginal people.
We pray that weapons and prejudice may be discarded instead of people and guns silenced instead of the voices of the poor.
We pray for the church of Jesus:
May it be true and joyful, wholesome and active, always rediscovering that you called it into being for the service and healing of others.
We pray for the mission of our church community:
As we grow in faith, love and hope, help us to understand that no planning for the future, no matter how carefully conceived, can relieve us of the necessity of going forward into a future of risk and of hope in your incalculable grace.
We pray for ourselves:
Not one of us has ever found or given too much tenderness or love in our life, too much beauty, goodness, and joy. We are always travelling to a new tomorrow.
Lord, we pray for our world, we pray for others, we pray for ourselves.
We pray because you have put within us an unquenchable hope.
We pray because we live for the ultimate.
We pray because Jesus is our Lord and your kingdom is in our midst.
Amen
We usually end the prayers of the people by saying the Lord’s Prayer together but today we are going to enjoy hearing it sung by some Tiwi Islanders in their own language, courtesy the Catholic Diocese of Broome.
Some of you may have sung this song before in English – the chorus is “You are our Father, You live in Heaven, We talk to You. Father, You are good.” and then the verses are interspersed: “We believe Your word, We are your children, Give us bread today. We have done wrong, we are sorry, Teach us God All about Your word. Others have done wrong to us, and we are sorry for them, God today. Stop us from doing wrong, Father, Save us all from the evil one.” And it finishes with the chorus. You may join in prayer in your spirit during this 2-min song or just enjoy the music and the language.
Lords Prayer (in Tiwi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7vcWu5PbK0&list=RDF7vcWu5PbK0&start_radio=1
Thank you to everyone who did something to help out today. We love you and you are appreciated!
Benediction
God of justice and reconciliation, you have made us one body, with many parts.
Send us out now, All In for reconciliation – offering our whole selves.
Teach us to walk side by side, to listen deeply, and to honour people and Country.
Guard us from shallow words and empty gestures.
May we be people who bring healing, seek justice, and nurture restored relationships. Amen.
Benediction 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
(In the name of Christ)CCLI Song # 2563901, Julie Perrin | Robin Mann © 1996 Perrin, Julie; Mann, Robin For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI License # 31951
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