Reconciliation Liturgy
This liturgy is produced in collaboration with the National Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC)
Create a sacred space
Contact your local Reconciliation group or local link-up body for suggestions about symbols that can be included in your sacred space.
Opening song: We’ll Build a Nation
(Neil Murray and Kormilda College, 1999. Reconciliation: Stories of the Heart / Sounds of the Rock)
This CD is available from Caritas Australia for $15 (plus postage and handling).
Contact details: 1800 024 413
We begin today’s liturgy by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we gather, the land of the ____________________ people.
(Please visit www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/australia_education.htm for further suggested words of acknowledgment of the traditional owners).
Introduction:
On May 26,1997, the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, called the Bringing Them Home Report was presented. It included the sad and painful stories of the removal of thousands of Indigenous children from their families. The Report recommended that a Sorry Day should be held. A year later, 26 May 1998, over half a million people responded by signing Sorry Books and joining in ceremonies for the inaugural National Sorry Day.
In response to this, members of the stolen generations came up with the idea of ‘A Journey of Healing’, a community initiative of Indigenous and non-Indigenous working together to help all who suffer as a result of the removal policies. This year, a major part of the commemoration will be the unveiling of a national memorial in honour of those who have suffered under the removal policies and practices. This memorial will be unveiled at Reconciliation Place in Canberra at the end of May.
Immediately following National Sorry Day, or Journey of Healing as it is now called, is National Reconciliation Week. This week is framed by two very significant dates. May 27 is the anniversary of the 1967 referendum in which over 90% of Australians voted to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Indigenous people and include the original inhabitants in the census. June 3 marks the 11-year anniversary of the High Court of Australia’s decision in the MABO case. The decision recognised the Native Titles Rights of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples, the original inhabitants of the land. It overturned the myth of “terra nullius”, that the country was empty prior to colonisation. The theme for National Reconciliation Week this year is: ‘Pathways to Reconciliation: Together We’re Doing It!’
We gather today to commemorate these events.
Opening prayer:
God of justice and forgiveness,
Guide us as we continue on our pathways to Reconciliation. Grant us the courage to speak out against the injustices that our Indigenous brothers and sisters continue to suffer. Help us to see with new eyes, to listen to the stories of our Indigenous brothers and sisters and to feel with a heart of compassion. Help us to build right relations with each other based on truth and justice. We ask this prayer through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Reading:
The foundations for forgiveness and reconciliation are truth and justice.
The basis of the national movement for reconciliation must lie in the basic honesty to acknowledge the fact that the oppression and injustice to which Indigenous Australians were subjected in their land under our Federation were not merely acts of individuals who are long since dead. They were the acts of the nation itself of which all living Australians are a part. [We need to accept the fact] that past oppression and injustice remain part of the very fabric of our country. [There must be a] national apology, redress of disadvantage and reconciliation.
(Sir William Deane’s Address on the Conferral of Degree of Doctor of Laws, University of Technology, 2003)
Prayer for Guidance:
Creator of all things,
Both seen and unseen.
Speak to us in your great wisdom.
Make us strong as we seek
Your help and guidance.
Teach us to love all people
Regardless of race or colour or belief.
May we listen with great care
To the heartbeat of this land
And to its people
Who cared for it so well
And for so long.
May the peace these people and their land
Have always enjoyed
Continue to be strengthened and preserved
By all who wish to come and be part of
This country and its ‘Ancient Dreaming’.
(Used with the permission of Elizabeth Pike,1998).
Prayers of the Faithful:
Loving God,
On this day we acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people throughout Australia. We turn to you in prayer and seek the help of the Holy Spirit as we commit ourselves to journeying together in a spirit of Reconciliation.
Reader:
We pray for a better understanding and respect between all peoples of our country. Help us as we grow to appreciate one another: in your eyes we are one. Help us not to see colour, race or creed, but to see you, Lord, in each person created by you, so we may freely love and accept one another.
Lord hear us.
Response: Lord hear our prayer.
You are invited to write your own prayers of the faithful.
Prayer for the Journey of Healing
Almighty and loving God,
you who created ALL people in your image,
Lead us to seek your compassion
as we listen to the stories of our past.
You gave your only Son, Jesus,
who died and rose again so that sins will be forgiven.
We place before you the pain and anguish
of dispossession of land, language, lore,
culture and family kinship
that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
have experienced.
We live in faith that all people
will rise from the depths of despair and hopelessness.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
have endured the pain and loss of loved ones,
through the separation of children from their families.
We are sorry and ask God’s forgiveness.
Touch the hearts of the broken, homeless
and afflicted and heal their spirits.
In your mercy and compassion
walk with us as we continue our journey of healing
to create a future that is just and equitable.
Lord, you are our hope.
Amen.
(Used with the permission of the Aboriginal and Islander Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia, (NATSIEC) 2003
Closing prayer:
National prayer
Creator Spirit,
All creation once declared your glory,
Your laws were honoured and trusted,
Forgive us our neglect as our country approaches
The most critical moment in its history.
Listen to our prayer as we turn to you,
Hear the cry of our land and its people,
Just as you heard the cry of Jesus, your Son, on the Cross.
Help us to replace our national shame with true national pride
By restoring the dignity of our First People whose antiquity is unsurpassed.
May our faith and trust in you increase.
Only then will our nation grow strong and be a
Worthy place for all who wish to make their home in our land.
Amen.
(Used with permission of Elizabeth Pike, September 1997, Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Melbourne).
Closing song:
Be Reconciled as One (Christopher Willcock, 1995 As One Voice Vol 1)