Ritual of Reconciliation
Music: Didgeridoo / Bush or nature sounds
Location: Bush setting- Beach setting-Open Air if possible
Welcome to Country ... (by an Indigenous person present) ....
Leader: (Acknowledgement of Land, Traditional Owners and Community Elders if only non-Indigenous people present)
We acknowledge the traditional owners / caretakers who have walked and cared for this land for thousands of years, and their descendants who maintain these spiritual connections and traditions.
Let us observe a minute of silence to reflect on the millions of footprints that travelled the Dreaming pathways and our own loved ones who have gone before us.
Opening Prayer:
O God, Creator of all peoples, we thank you that you are found and worshipped in every land, in dance and community, in suffering and peace-making, in silence and singing and in the faithfulness of your people.
We especially thank You for the gift of Your servant, Pope John Paul, who came to our land twenty years ago and met with the first peoples of this country. We recall his challenges to us and commit ourselves to work together to become the Church that Jesus wants us to be, to be a Church where Indigenous people are able to make their contribution to her life and where that contribution is joyfully received by all.
Forgive us when we have failed to heed the Pope's call, when we tie our own hands through prejudice or an ungenerous spirit. Lead us, together, to value our many traditions and to listen to the wisdom that we can offer each other. Give us new hearts to be people of reconciliation in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
L: We pray for a truthful mind and heart. May we listen with care to the stories of the peoples of this land.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: May we listen with wonder to the story of endless generations of Indigenous human presence and cultural activity in this land.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: May we listen openly to the painful story of conflict, dispossession and suffering that followed the invasive arrival of our European forebears and the taking of the land.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: May we hear in our hearts the determination of those who survived and the courage of those few new arrivals who opposed the violence of these times.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: May we hear with excitement all those who in our own day work together to build a more just and respectful community for all Australians.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: We pray for the gift of respect for one another. May we welcome and appreciate every person whom we meet and value all that makes us different from one another.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: We pray for a commitment to justice. May we grow in our understanding of the rights and responsibilities of all the people who make up our community.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: May barriers of race, culture, suspicion, misunderstanding and fears be overcome.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after
L: May we all seek to be agents of God's justice, love and reconciliation.
All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.
L: As a sign of our desire for reconciliation we join with all who seek the same reconciliation by saying together the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's Vision and by passing to each other the Message Stick as a symbol of our passing on the Spirit of reconciliation to all we meet.
All: We desire "a united Australia which respects this land of ours, values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and provides justice and equity for all".
Suggestions For Use With Eucharist.
Penitential Rite
You call us to be one human family, united in love. Lord have mercy.
You hear the cry of the poor and the dispossessed. Lord have mercy.
Your love opens the door to true peace and reconciliation. Lord have mercy.
Final Blessing
May the God who dances in creation, Who embraces us with human love, Who shakes our lives like thunder, Bless us and drive us out with power To fill the world with justice and with peace; And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit, be upon you and remain with you always Amen.
Some suitable songs from "As One Voice"
50: Act Justly, 91: Prayer for Peace, 121: Love Will Bring Them Home, 157: Mother Earth, 158: A New Heart for a New World, 162: Be Reconciled As One