Day of Mourning for the Uniting Church in Australia: Ideas to help you and your children fully participate.

For those Worshipping in Australia in a Uniting Church in Australia Day of Mourning Service this week there is a suggested liturgy which your congregation may or may not be using. If they are using it, here are some suggestions to use with your little ones. You will find the suggested liturgy here day-of-mourning_worship-resource

And my ideas for inclusive worship are in italics below.

If you are in Australia and do not want to attend the Uniting Church in Australia and would like to attend a Prayer Service for January 26 please see https://www.commongrace.org.au/jan26_prayer_services?utm_campaign=jan26auntyjean&utm_medium=email&utm_source=commongrace for a service near you.

Please feel free to use by families or small cngregations without a Child and Family Worker, Please note that this work is not endorsed by the Uniting Church in Australia

If your congregation uses the Call to Worship,

Call to Worship

Our land is alive with the glory of God;

desert sands hum and gum trees dance.

Brown grasses sing

and mountains breathe their stillness.

All created things add their rhythms of delight

and even stones rap out their praise.

Let our voices mingle with those of the earth;

may our hearts join the beat of her joy,

for our triune God is with us:

the Source of all being surrounds and upholds us. Christ Jesus walks beside and before us. The Spirit moves within and between us. Blessed be God, our wonder and delight.

Ask your children to draw an Australian landscape as described, gum trees, desert sand, mountains etc.

Or bring with you pieces of native trees, sand, stone (not to small so they can be swallowed, and a strict no throwing policy) To look at or to use to make a picture or a three dimensional project maybe in a shoe box.

Acknowledgement of First Peoples

Today, as we gather to worship, we acknowledge the the first inhabitants of this place from time beyond remembering.

We acknowledge that through this land, God nurtured and sustained the First Peoples of this country, the Aboriginal and Islander peoples. We honour them for their custodianship of the land on which we gather today.

We acknowledge that the First Peoples had already encountered the Creator God before the arrival of the colonisers; the Spirit was already in the land, revealing God to the people through law, custom and ceremony.

During the Acknowledgment of First Peoples you might like to read WELCOME TO COUNTRY BY AUNTY JOY MURPHY AND LISA KENNEDY, by Walker Books it is currently on special here https://www.booktopia.com.au/welcome-to-country-aunty-joy-

murphy/prod9781922244871.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&s=stocked&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6ZGMgoHx3wIVkiQrCh2USg4gEAAYASAAEgLIvfD_BwE

Or Watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEKUyht_fs8

OR WATCH Aunty Joy Murphy do a welcome to country here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeBWuItrpW8

Make sure to emphasise that God was always in this Land.

GREETING listen to the greeting

PRAYER:

Prayer of Invocation LISTEN

Invocation

Abba, Father, Bäpa God, source of all life, answer our call, as a mother responds to the cry of a child in the night.

Jesus Christ, brother and friend, Liberator, stand beside us as bearer of our humanity, and sharer of God’s grace.

Creator Spirit, giver of new life,

purposeful guest,

prod us to praise,

calling us to be a people

of hope and faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Bäpa means father in the Yolŋu languages of NE Arnhemland and in Bahasa languages.

LAMENT AND CONFESSION

This is too long for children

My suggestion is that they pray as they continue working on their picture or three-dimensional project or just look again at the leaves and rocks and pray, eg.

Great God,

Thank you for the (stone, rock , plants, mountains etc, name each in turn after the statement Thank you for)

Help me to share this land

And to learn from those who you first gave this land too.

Help me to not forget past wrongs to the first people

And not to repeat them

Amen

Listen to the Declaration of Forgiveness.

Declaration of Forgiveness

This is the best of all:

When we are empty,

God fills us;

when we are disheartened,

God is compassionate;

when we are wounded,

God brings healing;

when we confess our sin, God forgives.

In Christ, through Christ and because of Christ, our sins are forgiven. Thanks be to God. You refill the cup of life, O God.

In Christ, we find refuge, strength and hope. Amen.

Bible Readings

There are quiet a few suggested. Only a few will be used. I don’t know which ones your individual congregation will use. You could ask your Minister or Elder or go prepared with a selection. Or use this at home to reinforce the service you have just attended with your children.

Psalm 85:7-13

READ:

Psalm 85: Good gifts

Lord, you are so good to us!
You forgave our sin and gave us a new beginning.
You sent your Word, and you pour out your Spirit.
Love is your message and Kindness is your style
Peace greets Patience with a kiss
Gentleness walks hand in hand with Self-control
Joy bursts up out of the ground
Right-ness goes ahead to show the way
and Generosity showers us from above.
These are the gifts of God for the people of God.
(Galatians 5:22)

by Rev. Purdie http://www.conversations.net.nz/psalm-85-see-what-god-is-doing.html

ACTION: Make a heart card with a beautiful picture of something from Australia on it

Micah 6: 6 – 8;

ReAD/Watch Tina the tree

ACTION: use the free downloads or former to do buy the activity pack

OR Read/Watch the Little Golden Book The tawny Scrawny Lion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoZKbkD83sk

ACTION: colouring in sheet https://ministry-to-children.com/kindness-coloring-pages/

John 14: 15 – 24;

ReAD/Watch Tina the tree

ACTION: use the free downloads or buy the activity pack

HOW MANY ACTS OF LOVE DID THE TREE DO?

HOW MANY ACT OF LOVE WERE DONE TO THE TREE?

PLAY WITH nesting dolls.

Acts 2: 1 – 21;

READ; The Rhyme Bible storybook by L.J. Stattgast last page

OR My first read aloud Bible by Batchelor and Boshoff, The Holy Spirit pp.234-235

ACTION: Fire races through Australia, if fire was love what would it look like. Draw your idea.

Romans 8: 19 – 27;

WATCH for aboriginal creation stories you might like to watch red pixels on You Tube eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDl5QwAR8DI or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y3Ta5xcKV4

ACTION: Pray by groaning, eg,

God waits for us to love him, and it hurts God Groan

God waits for us to love others and it hurts God Groan

God waits for us to take care of his world and it hurts God Groan

OR continue drawing or making pictures of Australia or You can find colouring in sheets for Australian animals here https://www.wires.org.au/kids-pages

James 2: 14 – 26;

READ/Watch All these things by Susie Poole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm5EUrLP9zY

PLAY: community play, doll house or cars or animals anything where being kind can be played out.

1 John 4: 7 – 21

Listen/Sing: https://www.seedsfamilyworship.com/product/the-character-of-god-vol-7/# no.3

Prayers of the People

Suggested Actions in Italics

Prayers of the People

Give us the courage to (show your muscles)

accept the realities of our history (look behind you)

so that we may build a better future for our nation. (clench your fists and place them one on top of the other as if building a tower)

Teach us to respect all cultures. (hold your fists together)

Teach us to care for our land and waters. (pretend to plant a tree)

Help us to share justly(pretend to hand someone a piece of cake)

the resources of this land. (spread your arms out wide)

Help us to bring about spiritual and social change (place your hands in a prayer position)

to improve the quality of life (skip)

for all peoples in our communities, (touch the tips of your fingers with both hands)

especially the disadvantaged. (stretch your hand up as if helping someone up)

Help all young people to find true dignity (stand tall)

and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love (make a love heart)

be the foundations on which we: (touch the ground)

walk together as First and Second Peoples; and (walk)

build our families, our communities and our nation. (entwine your fingers)

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Prepared by the Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group, Amended September 2018 Assembly Resourcing Unit