The following prayer resources were used in Aunty Jean's 2018 Prayer Services across the country during January, 2018.
If you would like to use these prayers in your own services, please consider making a donation to Aboriginal ministries using the form on this page to support the work Aboriginal Christian leaders do in this country preparing resources like this for churches.
If you would like to access to all the resources produced for these services, please contact us at [email protected].
The 2017 resources are available here.
Prayer of the Aboriginal People
This prayer is to be prayed by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. It was composed for the meeting between Pope John Paul II and the Aboriginal peoples.
Father of all, you gave us the Dreaming
You have spoken to us through our beliefs
You then made your love clear to us in the person of Jesus
We thank you for your care
You own us
You are our hope
Make us strong as we face the problems of change
We ask you to help people of Australia to listen to us and respect our culture
Make the knowledge of you grown strong in all people
So that you can be at home in us and we can make a home for everyone in our land.
Amen.
When we love our Aboriginal neighbour as ourself
Prayer by Penny Kleemann
Creator God, Jesus, Eternal Spirit,
as we pray some of your words back to you,
help us to get them right…
The Spirit of God is brooding over the waters
The salt waters
The salt water tears of our God gush down
As He looks upon our nation.
For He wove a beautiful vision
But those of us who came later
Have ripped and torn the weave
And shredded holes in His design
God gave us instruction not to covet or kill or steal
To love our neighbour as ourself
And not to take anything that belonged to our neighbour
Yet all this has been ignored.
“Justice is driven back
And right actions stand at a distance
Truth stumbles in the street
And honesty can’t enter”
Yet God in His incredible grace
Works with us
And we work with Him
To right what is wrong
We, the people of Jesus
Are the body of Jesus in this land
It is our eyes, that see the pain
It is our ears, that hear the cries
It is our voices, that speak up
It is our hands, that reach out in friendship
It is our feet that help defend sacred land
Australia, your progress has been small,
But our hopes and dreams are big
For we know God revels in the small
And we remember that through 12 people
Jesus changed the world
“From little things, big things grow”
When we love our Aboriginal neighbour as ourself
Our brothers and sisters “have hope
And injustice shuts it’s mouth”
When we love our Aboriginal neighbour as ourself
We too feel the pain and grief and the hurt of the 26th of January
And we know that this is not a day for a party
When we love our Aboriginal neighbour as ourself
No longer do we call each other stranger
Now, we call each other friend
Creator God, may we pray and live and work for the day
When our Aboriginal brothers and sisters
Are looked up to, not down to
When they will have peace at sunrise
And joy at sunset
That time can’t come quick enough
That time is now
Be it so.
A Responsive Prayer for #Jan26
Written by Brooke Prentis
God of Holy Dreaming, Great Creator God, Papa Jesus,
Today we pray together on common ground. Common ground of an ancient land that you created. Common ground of over 65,000 years of peoples and place.
ALL: Lord, we are longing for acknowledgement.
We acknowledge that your creation was disturbed and disrupted in 1788. We acknowledge our failure to break the Great Australian Silence. We acknowledge the true history of the land now called Australia.
ALL: Lord, we are longing for truth.
We grieve the truth of statistics that show we are not equal. Truth of death, sickness, imprisonment. Truth of lack of education and lack of employment. Truth of a gap that isn’t closed.
ALL: Lord, we are longing for justice.
We seek justice for Stolen Land, Stolen Wages, Stolen Children. We seek justice for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
ALL: Lord, we are longing for love.
Today we stand together on common ground. We come together in the love of Christ and the love of our neighbour. We confess we have not loved one another as you have called us to and promise to do better. We long to embrace unity with diversity. We are longing for acknowledgement, truth, justice, love, and hope.
ALL: Lord, give us
comfort for the pain, in our day of mourning,
courage for the fight, in our day of invasion,
strength for the journey, in our day of survival.
Lord, You, are our hope. Amen.
Benediction Prayer
By Francis Bodkin of the Bodkin-Andrews clan of the D’harawal Peoples
May you always see the beauty of the Earth
May you always taste the sweetest fruit
May you always hear the laughter of the People
May you always feel the warmth of the Flame
May you always smell the perfume of the flowers
May your dreams always be happy ones
May your friends always be with you when you have need
May your stomach always be full
May you never feel hurt