National Reconciliation Week 2020 

Church Resources - 15-20 minute Service

Service Outline

    • Acknowledgement of Country from your service leader (2:00)
    • Introduction from your service leader (1:00)
    • Song “Incarnate One” (3:35)
    • Bible Reading Old Testament: Micah 6:8 (00:30)
    • Bible Reading Psalms: Psalm 56:10-13 (00:35)
    • Bible Reading Gospel: Luke 10:25-37 (2:00)
    • Video message from Brooke Prentis - Rethinking Reconciliation (9:08) or The Good Samaritan (3:44)
    • Reconciliation Prayer (1:30)
    • Promote Common Grace’s National Reconciliation Week series (1:00)
    • Aboriginal Blessing by Uncle Vince Ross (00:30)

Download the Service Details and Outline here

Service Resources

We have uploaded all the resources for your service onto a shared Google Drive folder which you can access here. We have also listed each resource out below:

PowerPoint Slides

We have put together some slides to guide you through your service. Please download the file and edit to adapt to your service format.

Acknowledgement of Country

It is entirely appropriate for a non-Aboriginal person to do an Acknowledgement of Country, but not a Welcome to Country. We encourage you to find your own words for Acknowledgement of Country but you can find some suggestions here.

Introduction

These words are suggested only as a way to introduce Common Grace, National Reconciliation Week, and this service. You can edit and adapt these words or use your own.

Today, through the support of Common Grace, our church is participating in National Reconciliation Week.  National Reconciliation Week is a national annual celebration that is held from 27 May to 3 June each year and encourages us to continue to build relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples of all cultures in these lands now called Australia. This year’s National Reconciliation Week theme is “In This Together”.

Common Grace is a growing movement of over 47,000 Australian Christians passionate about Jesus and Justice, invites us to be led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders to pursue friendship and Reconciliation in our lifetime. 

Worship Resources

We suggest using the song “Incarnate One” by Pastor Helen Wright of @heartcriesworship. Helen is the Creative & Justice Pastor at Newtown Mission in Sydney and has generously given permission for churches to use this song in National Reconciliation Week 2020 services with Common Grace. The song can be played as a Lyric Video, as a track or played and sung live.

This song invites us to walk in the ways of Jesus, following his example of justice, peace and love.

Bible Readings

We've provided Bible readings and videos of Aboriginal Christian leaders and members of our team reading them. 

Video Message

We recommend playing either of these two messages from Brooke Prentis:

- “Rethinking Reconciliation” (9:08 mins) or

- “The Good Samaritan” (3:43 mins)

Prayer

We've provided a Reconciliation Prayer which is from the Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group, 13 March 1997. We have provided a Video of Bianca Manning, a Gomeroi woman, reading this prayer.

Promotion

Please promote to your church Common Grace’s National Reconciliation Week series that includes:

  • Daily devotions in your inbox throughout #NRW by some of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders. These will be short, powerful reflections and include a call to action.
  • Creative ways to engage and share the message of Reconciliation and commit to #StillWalkingForReconciliation. 

Sign up at https://www.commongrace.org.au/reconciliation_week_2020

Aboriginal Blessing

Uncle Vince Ross, a Madi-Madi elder, has written a blessing which we recommend to use to conclude your service.