Prayers for Reconciliation

RECONCILIATION PRAYER

Holy Father, God of Love,
You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history
and the sufferings of Our peoples,
and we ask your forgiveness.
We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus
to reconcile the world to you.
We pray for your strength and grace to forgive,
accept and love one another, as you love us
and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history
so that we may build a better future for our Nation.
Teach us to respect all cultures.
Teach us to care for our land and waters.

Help us to share justly the resources of this land.
Help us to bring about spiritual and social change
to improve the quality of life for all groups
in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.
Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations
on which we build our families,
our communities and our Nation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

– Wontulp-Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group, 13 March 1997, Brisbane

THE RAINBOW PRAYER

Dear Loving Lord, Creator of all,
you created us all in your own image,
one image – many colours,
one image – many cultures.
You made us come togeter like a rainbow,
separate parts but coming together in one creation.
Help us to see the beauty you have created in each and every one of us.

Dear Loving Lord, we are your creation,
hear the cries of your people.
You gave us ears to hear and eyes to see,
open our eyes to what you want us to see,
help us always to look to you to see the wisdom of your ways.

Dear Loving Lord, Creator of all,
you gave us hearts to love and minds to reason.
Help us to understand our differences and grow in love for each other.
Help us to come together as the rainbow comes together, many colours, shining as one creation over all the earth
as you intended us to be.
In the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

– Rev’d Robyn Davis, NATSIAC Life Member, Diocese of Bendigo

RECONCILIATION PRAYER

Lord God, bring us together as one,
reconciled with you and reconciled with each other.
You made us in your likeness,
you gave us your Son Jesus Christ.
He has given us forgiveness from sin.
Lord God, bring us together as one,
different in culture,
but given new life in Jesus Christ,
together as your body, your Church, your people.
Lord God, bring us together as one,
reconciled, healed, forgiven,
sharing you with others as you have called us to do.
In Jesus Christ, let us be together as one.

Amen

– Bishop Arthur and Mrs Colleen Malcolm, A Prayer Book for Australia p.203

A THANKSGIVING FOR AUSTRALIA

God of holy dreaming, Great Creator Spirit,
From the dawn of creation you have given your children
the good things of Mother Earth.

You spoke and the gum tree grew
In vast deserts and dense forest,
and in cities at the water’s edge,
creation sings your praise.

Your presence endures
as the rock at the heart of our Land.

When Jesus hung on the tree
you heard the cries of your people
and became one with your wounded ones:
the convicts, the hunted, and the dispossessed.

The sunrise of your Son coloured the earth anew
and bathed it in glorious hope.

In Jesus we have been reconciled to you,
to each other and to your whole creation.

Lead us on, Great Sprit,
as we gather from the four corners of the earth,
Enable us to walk together in trust,
from the hurt and shame of the past
Into the full day which has dawned in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

– Rev’d Lenore Parker, NATSIAC Life Member, A Prayer Book for Australia p.218

A PRAYER OF CONFESSION IN THE FACE OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE
FOR USE BY THE SETTLER CHURCHES

God of Jesus Christ
we come to you because there is no-where else to turn.
There is a famine in our land, a famine with regard to living and telling the truth.

We confess that we invaded this land and enslaved its peoples,
the people who have cared for this country and its waterways for thousands upon thousands of years.

We confess that we have wilfully ignored the wisdom of the First Peoples,
wisdom about how to live in this country in a way that honours and preserves all life,
that we have trampled their knowledge underfoot and treated it with contempt.

We confess that we have treated the land itself with contempt,
and its seas and waterways also.
We have not cared for it as we ought to have done.
Instead we have exploited and raped it to feed our selfish appetites.

Now the land is sick.
It weeps and cries out in pain.
Its plants and animals, the rich tapestry of its eco-systems,
are burning up for lack of nourishment and care.
And it is our fault.

Teach us, O God, to amend both our lives
and the political and economic systems in which they are embedded.
Teach us to treasure the First Nations of this land
and their wisdom about how to live here with respect and sensitivity.
Teach us to treasure the country and waterways on which we depend,
its cycles and seasons, its plants and animals, its fragile and beautiful ecosystems.
Teach us to call our political leaders to account.
Teach us, O God, to live and tell the truth.

God of Jesus Christ,
We come to you because there is no-where else to turn.
Have mercy on us and free us from our sins.

Amen.

– Offered to the settler churches by Garry Deverell a Trawloolway man and Anglican priest from Trouwerner (Tasmania, Australia)