Here is a recent ‘Prayerful and Pastoral Reflections’, with a poem or “quote of the week” from our emailed resource.
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Welcome to this week’s Prayerful and Pastoral Reflections.
We acknowledge the Wadda Wurrung People of the Kulin Nations
the sovereign First Peoples of this place. We honour their elders past, present and emerging, for their care for these lands, air and waters since time immemorial.
NAIDOC week is an opportunity for us all to grow in appreciation of the original inhabitants of this land, the First Nations Peoples, and grow in understanding of their culture and their sense of relationship with the Land.
I am continually surprised at how gracious First Nations people are towards the later arrivals, given the way that our western culture has (mis)treated, and continues to (mis)treat them. I pray that through greater understanding, we can be blessed with a stronger nation, a more sustainable relationship with the land, and a more just society overall.
The attached prayer sheet includes some reflections on last Sunday’s readings and some NAIDOC week reflections, including a link to RN’s Soul Search program featuring Brooke Prentis. Brooke is a Wakka Wakka woman who now lives on Gadigal land in Sydney. She’s also an Aboriginal Christian leader and she shares about her journey of faith, the Aboriginal Christian leaders that inspire her, and what she’s up to in her current role as CEO of Common Grace, a Christian movement in Australia.
She interviews Aunty Denise Champion, an Adnyamathanha storyteller, ordained Uniting Church minister and theologian. She travelled with Aunty Denise to Ikara, known in English as the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, to walk on Adnyamathanha country. Together they discuss their trip, why the Flinders Ranges is a place that needs healing, and how Aunty Denise navigates that as an elder and as a Christian.
I hope you find their reflections helpful.
May you find blessing in your reflections, and healing for your soul and for the land.
We are a prayerful community,
and we invite you to find
a quiet moment to meditate
with these reflections.
Prayer
is not primarily
about saying words
or thinking thoughts.
It is, rather, a stance,
a way of bing present.
It’s a way of living in the Presence,
living in awareness of the presence,
and even of enjoying the Presence.
Presence knows Presence.
The full contemplative
is not just aware of the Presence,
but trusts, allows, and delights in it.
All spiritual disciplines
have one purpose:
to get rid of illusions
so we can be present. -Richard Rohr
And God said to me,
“My grace
is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected
in weakness.”
Most gladly, therefore,
I would rather boast about my weaknesses,
that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
So I am content with weakness,
with mistreatment, with distress,
with persecutions and difficulties
for the sake of Christ;
when I am powerless, it is then
that I am strong. Paul
LINK-
Brooke Prentis speaks with
Aunty Denise Champion on
SOUL SEARCH for Radio National
NAIDOC WEEK
Grace is the mostbeautiful word
in the language of God.
It means love given freely
and without expectation of return.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby
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