Reflection questions from the 2022 #ChangeTheHeart service
Reflect on the service and what impacted you? Look through the different elements of the service and consider your thoughts, feelings and responses.
This year marks 10 years since Aunty Jean Phillips first called people to prayer before January 26 and has become the national #ChangeTheHeart service around in these lands now called Australia. Reflect on your participation with Aunty Jean Phillips, and #ChangeTheHeart over the last 10 years. Share when, how, and where you have attended and participated, whether this is your first #ChangeTheHeart service or your tenth. Ask how has #ChangeTheHeart impacted you and how has it helped create the space for listening, learning, and loving?
________________
“It’s only through the cross that there can be forgiveness in this country and as Australia thinks about its history, and it’s not a very good history, but how can we make it right - it’s through the cross”. Aunty Jean Phillips
________________
In 2022, we are invited to #HearTheCall of Great Creator Spirit, God, Papa, Jesus, echoed through Aboriginal Christian Leaders of the past, present and future, and across all Creation. A call to come on a journey towards national truth-telling, justice, Reconciliation, friendship, and healing together. Reflect on the #ChangeTheHeart 2022 theme of #HearTheCall.
Ask how might you #HearTheCall towards learning the true history, the shared history, of our nation? Ask how you can join in prayer to #ChangeTheHeart and accept the Aboriginal hand of friendship in 2022?
________________
“You’ve heard Aunty Jean Phillips tell you about the true history of these lands now called Australia and how it’s not a very good history. Aunty Jean has invited you to learn. Aunty Jean often says, ‘Your history is our history. Our history is your history.’ As she speaks to our shared history of the last 250 years, this is a shared history which includes the injustices of stolen land, stolen wages, stolen children with the Stolen Generations, and stolen lives. It includes massacres, it includes racism. It also includes the injustice of the lack of Treaty with Aboriginal peoples.” Brooke Prentis
________________
Reflect and Share what stood out to you in the Treaty video?
Ask and Share how can we respond to the calls from Aboriginal peoples for truth and justice, with prayer and action, when pursuing friendship and Reconciliation, “with open minds to learn” and “with open hearts to care”?
________________
“Let us paint a new picture, let us sing a new song, let us dance in new colours,
let a new story rise up from the campfire”. Brooke Prentis, Treaty Video
________________
Reflect, Share, Ask, Take Action Consider how you could take action for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice? There are ideas for action on the Common Grace website here: www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_campaigns
Pray Spend time in prayer for truth, justice, and healing in these lands now called Australia and to #ChangeTheHeart of our nation.
Spend time in prayer for healing and justice in these lands now called Australia. Below is a copy of the prayer of the Common Grace movement prayed during #ChangeTheHeart, other prayers are available here: https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_prayer_resources
Common Grace #ChangeTheHeart Prayer
Great Creator Spirit, God, Papa, Jesus
We gather together.
All peoples, of all cultures,
From generation to generation.
Across these lands now called Australia.
We hear the cries rise from the land and your peoples.
We join our voices, and together, we call to you, "How Long, O Lord".
We Hear the Call,
And we pray.
We come in acknowledgement of the peoples you placed in these lands thousands of years ago.
We come in lament of the injustices of the past and present.
We come in confession of not loving our Aboriginal neighbour as ourselves.
We come in thankfulness for the Aboriginal Christian Leaders of the past and present.
We come in solidarity as we lay down indifference and ignorance.
We come in repentance, seeking restoration.
Jesus, forgive us.
Jesus, unsettle us.
Jesus, guide us.
We pray that the truth will set us free.
We pray justice will roll down.
We pray in declaration for the healing of the nations.
Tuning in Together, we Hear The Call -
Of our heartbeats, of all creation, and of you - our Creator.
We pray you bring all into rhythm.
In the dawning of a new day,
Jesus, help us to see like never before.
Jesus, help us to hear like never before.
Jesus, help us to love like never before.
Jesus, inspire us, as we step into a new day
On ancient lands, in a new way - your new way -
As we pray for healing in these lands now called Australia
And pray to #ChangeTheHeart of Australia.
Amen.
Psalm 23 – Aboriginal Style by Uncle Rev Ron Williams
My big fella boss up in the sky is like the father Emu.
He will always look after me and take me to green grass,
and lead me to where the water holes are
full and fresh all the time.
He leads me away from the thick scrub and helps me keep safe from the hunters, dingoes and eagles.
At night time when I am very lonely and sad,
I will not be afraid,
for my Father covers me with his feathers
like a father emu.
His spear and shield will always protect me.
My big fella boss always give me a good feed
in the middle of my enemies.
In hot times he makes me sit down in a cool shade and rest.
He gives me plenty of love and care all of my life through.
Then I will live with my big fella boss like a father emu:
that cares for his chicks in good country,full of peace and safety
For evermore and evermore.
Treaty video
The Treaty video was released as part of Common Grace’s campaign, Treaty and Truth Telling for Healing Country, across National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week 2021, and shown as part of the #ChangeTheHeart 2022 broadcast. To watch this video again, please visit here.
Closing Blessing
Written and Spoken by Brooke Prentis
As we see the beauty of the sunrise -
May we hear the call of the kookaburra.
As we taste the saltiness of the beach -
May we hear the call of the ocean.
As we smell the eucalyptus of the gum trees -
May we hear the call of the wind.
As we feel the heat in the desert -
May we hear the call of the red dust.
As we listen on the concrete of the city -
May we hear the call for truth and justice.
As we walk hand-in-hand in friendship -
May we hear the call of each other's heartbeat.
And so now,
with all our human actions,
and with all Creation -
Go to Hear The Call of Great Creator Spirit, God, Papa, Jesus
Amen.
A New Day
'A New Day' is a poetry collaboration between Brooke Prentis and Helen Wright and was released January 26 2021, as well as shown as part of the #ChangeTheHeart 2022 broadcast. To watch this video again, please visit here.
Where to from here?
Consider how you could take action for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice. Below are some ways you can join in prayer and action with Common Grace for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice in 2022.
Sign up and follow us on social media - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Help amplify the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples @CommonGraceAus, www.commongrace.org.au
Learn about and speak up for Aboriginal justice
Ideas to learn, engage and take action are available on the Common Grace website here.
Join in recognising key moments in 2022
Check out the Common Grace calendar and share with your church
www.commongrace.org.au/common_grace_2022_calendar
Help change the heart of Australia. Donate now.
You can help pursue a world where we are led by our Aboriginal Christian Leaders to see friendship and Reconciliation in our lifetime. By donating to #ChangeTheHeart you help acknowledge and lament the true history of these lands now called Australia. Your donation helps empower Aboriginal Christian Leaders to lead our nation and followers of Jesus to listen deeply, advocate for truth-telling, and change the heart of Australia. Donate here.
You can also download Download a copy of the Order of Service here which includes the full credits and these resources.
The broadcast of the #ChangeTheHeart 2022 prayer service is available to rewatch and share with others here.