From the beginning

From the beginning

From the beginning as continents drifted

God’s Spirit hovered over this land;

sculpting, renewing; rock, tree and lizard,

rainforest richness, waves crashing on sand.

Having sung country into existence,

the Spirit calls out: First Peoples, come!

This is your land now, tend and enjoy it,

step with its rhythms, dance to its thrum.

We thank you, Lord, for this ancient wisdom,

feeling the heartbeat, singing its songs;

harvesting grasses, trapping the fishes,

lighting the fires to keep country strong.

We thank you, Lord, for this ancient culture,

generously shared with recently come.

Help us remember, and to acknowledge

centuries of pain and dispossession.

We thank you, Lord, for being there, present

with those who struggle, from country removed;

living in two worlds, seeking a future,

may they find hope and know that they’re loved.

Lord we rejoice in the wonder of songlines;

Spirit connections throughout our wide land.

Welcome love’s offer to journey together,

healing the nation to meet love’s command.

© Ken Rookes. Revised 2024

Freely available for use in worship.

Tune: Bunessan. TiS 156

Reposting with some further amendments, ahead of Sunday 21st January, designated Mourning Sunday by the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, being the Sunday before Australia Day, For First Nations people, Australia Day on the 26th of January, (a public holiday), marks the beginning of  the violent dispossession that marked colonisation here in Australia.

Oz day haiku 2019

In this wide scorched land

fear settles red, a dust film

smothering justice.

Who chose this dark day

of dispossession and death

for celebration?

© Ken Rookes 2019

Australia Day

I know this will not be a popular reflection, but as Australia day approaches, I feel ashamed about many things that our government is doing on our behalf at the moment. Foremost in my mind are the way we are treating Asylum seekers, our approach to international aid and the way continue to treat the indigenous people of Australia. So, this is a prayer that says much of what I feel this Australia day.

 

"May our eyes remain open even in the face of tragedy.

May we not become disheartened.
May we find in the dissolution
of our apathy and denial,
the cup of the broken heart.
May we discover the gift of the fire burning
in the inner chamber of our being—
burning great and bright enough
to transform any poison.
May we offer the power of our sorrow to the service
of something greater than ourselves.
May our guilt not rise up to form
yet another defensive wall.
May the suffering purify and not paralyze us.
May we endure; may sorrow bond us and not separate us.
May we realize the greatness of our sorrow
and not run from its touch or its flame.
May clarity be our ally and wisdom our support.
May our wrath be cleansing, cutting through
the confusion of denial and greed.
May we not be afraid to see or speak our truth.
May the bleakness of the wasteland be dispelled.
May the soul's journey be revealed
and the true hunger fed.
May we be forgiven for what we have forgotten
and blessed with the remembrance
of who we really are."
—The Terma Collective,