Truth-telling, lament and relationship
Written by Stuart McMillan, Assembly Consultant Covenanting
“Our stories and family lines entwine across seas, lands and skies ….” Grace Williams, Artist, Leprena Centre, UAICC Tasmania
On 24 January 2021, Uniting Churches and agencies across the country marked the Uniting Church in Australia’s annual Day of Mourning in creative and meaningful ways, lamenting and truth telling within the context of worship.
We have been delighted to see the growing participation across the life of the Church each year. Thank you to all who have shared stories about your gatherings – they offer great encouragement to our First Nations sisters and brothers and to one another. We have shared some of these below.
For the first time we conducted an Assembly Worship from Nunyara in the Adelaide Hills led by Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) Interim Chair Ps Mark Kickett and UCA President Dr Deidre Palmer. A number of young leaders from SA UAICC helped lead the service. Read more about and watch the service.
Australia’s first Day of Mourning was held on 26 January 1938, a protest organised by First Nations Peoples and Second Peoples joined.
The intention was always about justice for First Nations Peoples. So too in marking the Day of Mourning in worship, the UCA seeks to engage in truth telling, lament, acknowledge and apologise for the role of the church in the destructive, violent and traumatic history of our nation.
We seek to build new relationships based on love and understanding and to stand with First Nations Peoples who continue to struggle for justice today. In the UCA, we believe we have a destiny together in this ancient land. From her First Nations Peoples, there is much we have to learn.
And so, we are filled with hope. This is a moment in time, a God moment, something new is about to spring up. Do you perceive it?
Stories Shared
Uniting AgeWell
Hawthorn, Victoria
The Uniting AgeWell Hawthorn community shared the Day of Mourning Service 2021 on Thursday 21 January 2021. It came about at the request of residents to remember our First Nations People.
As on resident said, “they were here first”. The group of 10 residents with Chaplain Marian Bisset lamented, remembered and reflected with a generous and open spirit of reconciliation. After the service, the conversation moved to listening to the story of a resident who had lived under British, Dutch and Portuguese rule in his homeland prior to coming to Australia. He was able to articulate for us all the impact it had on him, the resulting affinity he felt towards the treatment of First People in Australia, and the disappointment and surprise he had felt. It was a powerful, sobering and humbling time together.
Marian Bisset
St. Andrew’s by the Sea,
Glenelg, SA
Our Day of Mourning worship included a prayer of lament (see below). We held glass beads as a symbol of our tears as a prayer of lament was read
This was followed by the invitation to lay the bead on a circle of fabric (in Australian land colours) and to light a candle.
Rev. Christine Gilbert
Manningham Uniting Church,
Victoria
On Sunday 24 January on a beautiful mild January morning, with the sound of birds singing, around 50 members of Manningham Uniting Church gathered to observe a service of mourning in nearby Westerfolds Park in Templestowe, Victoria.
A service led by our minister Rev Claire Dawe and members of the congregation, took us through a moving liturgy. Claire led us through an interactive reflection on the Romans 8:19-27 and Micah 6:6-8 readings as we considered the effects of invasion and colonisation on Australia’s First Peoples and our identity as a nation.
Ruth Hodges
Griffith Uniting Church,
NSW
This year - for the first time - a Day of Mourning service has been undertaken in this congregation.
For me the most significant part of the Service took place after the Prayers of the People when the congregation prayed the Lord’s Prayer together in Noongar. (Noongar was the first Aboriginal language I encountered while ministering in WA).
The Uniting Church in Griffith is a multicultural congregation representing 6 language groups (English, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Niuean and Cook Islanders). The various language groups usually decorate the front of the church with their respective country flags. On this Sunday we displayed the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Australian flags.
Rev John McKane
North Ryde Community Church
Howard Clark shared a short message in the NRCC online service:
"Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.'
This is from this Sunday’s Gospel reading; describing the start of Jesus’ Galilean Ministry. Christians, as people of the book, follow the stories of Jesus as heard, retold, translated and written down.
The Indigenous people of Australia have followed a journey of faith from the Creation of the World through to the present day. The Dreaming stories are passed through generations as heard, retold, translated and written down, not in a written text as many of us understand it, but in song and dance and art.
On the Sunday before Australia Day, Uniting Church congregations are encouraged to reflect upon and lament the effect of the invasion and colonisation of this nation upon First Peoples."
Koonung Heights Uniting Church,
Victoria
The Day of Mourning Service touched many people in our congregation. The UCA resource was wonderful with songs and prayers. In my reflection I shard a personal story about being called to a new understanding in our relationship as First and Second Peoples.
Rev. Heather Hon.
Services shared online
St Luke's Uniting Church,
Highton, Victoria
The Sunday before Australia Day we joined with our sister churches in a Day of Mourning to reflect on how God is calling us to respond to the ongoing challenges faced by our First Australians – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Northmead Uniting Church,
NSW
Ahead of our (online) Day of Mourning service, eight of us walked in Parramatta Park (Walking Church) with a discussion topic based around a scenario in which Australia is invaded. Participants were asked to share how they would respond. Then they were asked to walk the Burramatta trail in the shoes of Aboriginal people. One participant told me that was a very powerful way of bringing home the experience of the First Peoples.
Rev Niall Reid
Leichardt Uniting Church,
NSW
Weerona Uniting Church,
Victoria
TOP PHOTO:
The Wonthaggi and Inverloch Uniting Churches on the Bass Coast of Victoria hosted two Day of Mourning services and participated in the Common Grace service.
As part of the service they made some connections with their local First Nations community, including sharing a painting by 12-year-old Indigenous artist Arieta Fergie called “Together”. In this photo, Minister Rev. Wendy Elson, Gippsland Presbytery ministers Rev Jennie Gordon and Rev Arnie Wierenga are pictured with Arieta, her some of her family and Uncle Anthony a local elder.
Wendy says: "I have believed for a long time that in order to thrive as a nation we must commit to listening and to owning up and to truth-telling. So it is my honour to develop relationships with first peoples and to encourage deep respect toward the culture that has long lived here and been custodian to the land. In this is our shared future and our thriving."
St Andrew's By the Sea -
PRAYER OF LAMENT
Creator Spirit:
In ancient days, you wove dignity and peace through this land
and showed peoples how to flourish in the midst
of red desert, brown hills, green natives and blue sea.
Yet in recent times, your beloved country has been scourged,
and her people desecrated by unthinkable violence and bloodshed.
We pray:
How long, O God, will this land burn with injustice?
How long will her waters flow with tears?
We hear of youth abused in detention centres,
remote communities without adequate services,
dispossessed people struggling to live their identity,
to honour culture, to heal from trauma.
We pray:
How long, O God, will this land burn with injustice?
How long will her waters flow with tears?
Our fore-parents came in ignorance
and took without mercy.
Though sand has poured through indigenous hands,
apologies made, and words to an anthem changed,
still we are not one nor are all free.
And so we pray:
How long, O God, will this land burn with injustice?
How long will her waters flow with tears?
Receive and hold the deep, unspeakable lament in our hearts we pray…
(glass beads are laid and candles lit)
Source of forgiveness and healing:
You are gracious and merciful,
abounding in steadfast love for us and all creation.
Through tears and regenerative fire,
reveal the path to a new future.
By your creative Spirit,
give us the courage to walk together.
towards justice with peace. Amen.