Jamie Thom welcomed us to worship on 7th July. We celebrated NAIDOC week and considered how to find life and rest rather than get weighed down the things that burden us.
- Watch the service again on Youtube
- Jamie invited Tim Mollineux to talk about his role with Synod
- Watch Cath’s sermon
- Read the Order of Service
Prayers of Adoration & Confession
Watch or 7:20
Our prayers of adoration and confession this morning are adapted from a prayer by Rev Will Pickett, Proud Noongar man, National Co-Chair, Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) written for NAIDOC week.
Let’s pray
Creator God, Spirit of the land and Lord of all peoples,
Lord, we remember that before there was a Church in this land,
there was Your Spirit moving across Country—
through the songlines, the rivers, the mountains and the ancient stories of First Peoples.
You were here.
Your presence was never absent.
Today, we gather with hearts full of gratitude as we celebrate
the fiftieth anniversary of NAIDOC Week.
We give thanks for all who have walked this journey of truth, justice and reconciliation,
and for the witness of First Peoples who continue to share their wisdom, faith and hope.
Today we also give thanks for the witness of the Uniting Church in Australia,
and especially for the sacred Covenant between the Church
and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress—
a Covenant born not simply from words,
but from truth-telling, repentance, relationship and hope.
We thank You for its call to walk together, to listen deeply,
to respect one another, and to seek justice, healing and self-determination.
May this Covenant never be reduced to words on paper,
but remain a living commitment, calling the Church
into truth, humility and right relationship.
We acknowledge the pain of the past:
the wounds of mission, the loss of language, land and culture,
the silencing of voices, and the breaking of families.
Pause
Renew us by Your Holy Spirit.
Help us honour the resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,
their faith, their survival, and their leadership within Your Church.
Help us continue to grow in justice and deepen our partnerships,
Help us seek healing for Country and people,
That may we continue to walk gently on this land,
honouring the Creator, following Christ, and listening to the Spirit
and become a Church—and a nation—
that more faithfully reflects the reconciling love of Jesus Christ.
Give courage to the leaders of the Uniting Church in Australia,
strength to the leaders of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress,
and wisdom to all who seek to walk this shared journey.
Let us now pray these words together
Ground us in Your truth.
Lead us in Your grace.
Unite us in Your love.
Amen
Word of Grace
Hear then the words of Grace
In the name of Jesus Christ, who makes all things one.
Our sin is forgiven
Thanks be to God.
adapted from a prayer by Rev Will Pickett, Proud Noongar man, National Co-Chair, Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) written for NAIDOC week.
offered for worship by Jamie Thom, 05/07/2026, Pentecost 6A
Prayers of the people
Watch or 46:25
Let us pray, and I will take the Christ candle to the Chapel for your own prayers after.
Place your feet on the ground, feel the Wurundjeri earth, feel the Spirit as She surrounds and is within us
God, your Spirit is across the land, within the deepest part of our souls.
We pray for the First Peoples of these lands giving gratitude for their wisdom, their deep cultural knowledge of the Earth’s way, their listening to ancestors, their healing knowledge, the geographic and cosmos knowledge, timing of actions, their wondrous creativity, their seeing of souls with quiet reflection and the ongoing songlines across Country.
We celebrate them this NAIDOC week, especially the UAICC brothers and sisters and the Covenant we have with them and all First Peoples. We thank you God for the Creator spirit, though your goodness and humility that motivated us as a church, to receive and listen to the Welcome, Smoking and deep learning recently received from Wurundjeri teachers Thane and Joe. We are grateful for this rare opportunity.
Pray you will move the good in us, through our wrestling, so we can hear Your voice in how we can act to follow up this precious teaching. Help us to accept we have ego, fears of doing the wrong thing, the anger at First People’s treatment, in all our steps with First People’s and let this not deter us in our responses. Help us to hand over this wrestling to you, use it as motivation and strength and find our rest in Jesus and God’s love.
In this same way, we pray that the world’s powerful leaders will wrestle with their ‘good’ and ‘sinful’ selves to find the good, through you O God, with human empathy, to see the impact on humanity of their actions. May they forego the ego’s call for power, resources and money they crave, and see through the ‘simple eyes of a child’, in the conflicts in Israel-Palestine, Lebanon-Iran-USA, Ukraine-Russia, Sudan Myanmar, coastal West African nations, Congo and Haiti (to name the major conflicts), the burden and upheaval they are creating and the need for rest for all.
For those in grief, the loss of a loved one, loss of relationship, pet, friendship, youth, health, we ask for the comfort and rest you offer to embrace them with, loving God.
May we as a Church and Community continue to wrestle and work for justice, see the nuances, the complexities but still continue to act in love founded in the rest that Jesus and God offer …. ‘For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Amen
Jenne Perlstein, offered for worship 05/07/2026m Pentecost 6A
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