Meredith Walker-Harding originally shared this prayer for Common Grace's Listen to the Heart webinar, 2023, in the lead up to the Voice to Parliament Referendum.

 

Dear Lord,

Thank you that when you called us to yourself you also called us into your family.

We want to thank and praise you for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family.

Sisters and brothers to whom you have revealed so many truths, about yourself and about your creation.

Thank you for the generous, gracious and faithful ways our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sisters and brothers have shared these truths with us - through relationship, through stories, through art, through song, through care for country.

This year Lord, we have the exciting opportunity to move forward on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice. Please help the non-Indigenous church here in Australia listen deeply to our Indigenous brothers and sisters calls for justice, for a Voice, for treaty and truth telling. Help us echo, amplify and fight for these calls to come true because, as followers of Jesus, you have called us to be people of love, to be people who pursue reconciliation and justice. We have ignored this call in the past, forgive us, help us not to fail now. 

In the lead up to the referendum God, please protect our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family as they encounter people and spaces and structures that are not safe, that wish them harm, that presume to know what is best without listening to what is being asked for, that spread misinformation, that choose self comfort over justice. Surround their hearts and spirits and communities with your love. Help the non-Indigenous church to also surround them with our love and support and resources. 

And in the midst of what will be an exhausting year, remind our Aboriginal and Torres Strait brothers and sisters that it is ok to rest, to take care of themselves, that their day to day lives are important to you, that you love them and want them to flourish.

Thank you for loving us Lord, please help us love you and each other and your world.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

 

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Meredith Walker-Harding shared this prayer for Common Grace's Post-Referendum Online Gathering, Tuesday 17 October 2023.

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God of love, truth and justice, 

We want to echo Uncle Ray Minniecon in his Redfern Prayer - that you have lived among all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations since time immemorial. That you gave this land to them, that you have not dispossessed or destroyed them.  

We want to acknowledge the truth written in the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart - that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes are the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and adjacent islands and that this sovereignty has never been ceded or extinguished. 

Lord, We lament the result of this referendum. We lament that so many of us chose to say no to such a simple request, and we lament that the process was politicised by those seeking power. 

We want Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to be seen and celebrated, recognised and listened to, to have dignity, self-determination and treaty. We want to step together into a better future, where all people and all creation can flourish. 

Give us the courage to look at our communities, our church denominations, at our government and legal systems, at our own hearts - and tell the truth of what we find. Root out the racism, apathy, paternalism and selfishness that has taken hold. Change our hearts and help us to be the truth-tellers you have called us to be. 

Pour out your love onto our Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander sisters and brothers. Heal the wounds caused by this referendum campaign. Help them recover from these exhausting, painful, heartbreaking months. Fill them up with your spirit, your power, your strength. Help them find rest in you, in creation and in community. 

And help us love our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sisters and brothers like you do - with radical, unconditional, sacrificial love. 

God of love, truth and justice - help us be people of love, truth and justice.

In Jesus name, Amen.