Aboriginal Day of Prayer

This worship service has been designed for use on Aboriginal Sunday in June. The service could also be used at other times during the year to focus on themes related to Aboriginal rights or to justice and right relationships with Aboriginal peoples.

Worship Service Overview

Lectionary Readings:

• Lesson: Isaiah 11:1-9
• Psalm: Psalm 8
• Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
• Gospel: Matthew 5:21-24

Sermon

May emphasize how God's love for us is manifested by reconciling us to God and calling us to be reconciled to each other.

Possible scripture references:

• Isaiah 11:1-9: The peace and harmony of all creation
• 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 Reconciled to God and to each other
• Matthew 5:21-24: We are called to be reconciled before offering our gifts

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A Prayer for Native Peoples

By Laverne Jacobs

Great Spirit, whose breath I feel in the wind, whose voice I hear in the birds, whose eyes I see in the children, listen to us.

You are the God of all our yesterdays, all our todays, and all our tomorrows. You know the plans you have for all your people.

As they strive to take their place in your church, show to the Native Peoples of Canada your will for them in the life of your church. Give to them eyes to see the Sacred Way you have prescribed for them. Teach them to walk in the footsteps of your Son, the Chief of chiefs. May their hearts beat as one with yours.

You make all things new. May they, your church, and all creation rejoice in the New Way you are preparing for them and your church, in the Name of our Brother, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Hymns

"The Gospel Came with Foreign Tongue" (to the tune of "Winscott", Voices United, #589, The Hymn Book (red) #302)

The gospel came with foreign tongue
disrupting all the ancient ways,
Beside the merchant and the gun,
in search of profit, souls and slaves

With God we weep, lament, confess
how holy zeal and bloodied hand
Reached out to kill and dispossess,
proclaiming love and taking land.

How hard, today, to meet and share
our needs, suspicions, hopes and fears,
When some have ease, and food to spare,
while others walk a trail of tears!

In hope we come, by grace reborn,
As clashing stories still collide,
to listen, pray, and travel on,
companions of the Crucified.

We tell our varied memories,
assembled in our global room,
that Christ may wash our histories,
as threads for Love's eternal loom.

Words by Brian Wren
© 1975, rev. 1994 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
For permission to reproduce this hymn, visit: www.hopepublishing.com*

Other Suggested Hymns:

• VU #308: "Many and Great"
• VU #678: "For the Healing of the Nations"
• VU #684: "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace"
• VU #691: "Though Ancient Walls"
• VU #697: "O For a World"

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Community Prayer

Leader: Creator God, you are with us in bright sunshine -- in the sparkle on winter trees.

All: Creator, come to us.

Leader: As we stand alone at the side of a river, struggling with direction in our lives,

All: Creator, come to us.

Leader: As we witness pain in the lives of our people, as we wait for change founded on respect and gentleness, a healing place,

All: Creator, come to us.

Leader: In our humility as we struggle with our self-esteem,

All: Creator, come to us.

Leader: In a blizzard, touch and uplift us, in the gushing wind, bring us healing.

All: Creator, come to us.

Leader: In Christian ways and in Traditional ways, in wind and grass, in birds that fly and in our places of prayer.

All: Creator, come to us.

Leader: In our quiet places, in the longing of a child for the love of a parent,

All: Creator, come to us.

Leader: We see you in the pain of peoples in prison, caught in structures of injustice. Help us to bring healing.

All: Creator, come to us as our hearts and minds are joined in the circle.

From "The Dancing Sun Volume, I "

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A Closing Prayer: Thanks for Differences

Creator,
We give thanks that you speak to us
in our own ways, in our own Traditions.
Thank you that you also speak through
the traditions of others.
Help us to see your love in all things
and to be guided with loving hearts
to do that which is best in our homes and
in our communities.

From "The Dancing Sun, Volume VI "

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Additional Prayers for June 20, 2004 and other Gatherings for First Nations Day

Opening Prayer: Call to Worship

One: Let us give thanks to our Creator, for the Creator is always with us.

All: God is with us in the call of a loon and in the flight of an eagle.

One: Our Creator is with us in the changing of the seasons.

All: God is with us when we gather together and when we are alone.

One: Our Creator is with us in our giftedness and in our search for new understandings of ourselves, new visions of our communities.

From "The Dancing Sun, Volume VIII"

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Thanksgiving for Peoples of the World

Creator,
We give thanks for the knowledge you give
in all traditions of the world.
Help us to honour the gifts of all traditions.

Refrain: Teach us to know how to love and to live.

We give thanks for new life, for youth,
represented by the eastern direction.
We give thanks for new learning,
for the sun which rises to begin each new day,
and for the teachings of the peoples of the east,
the yellow-skinned peoples.

Refrain: Teach us to know how to love and to live.

We give thanks for the south,
for the black-skinned peoples of the world,
for the growth of the summertime in our lives,
the learnings of our adult lives,
to be kind and accept ourselves.
Teach us as parents to love and respect our children,
to care for the elders and those who cannot care for themselves.

Refrain: Teach us to learn how to love and to live.

We give thanks for the west,
for the gifts of Aboriginal peoples of the world,
for understandings of care of the earth,
for teachings about rocks, leaves, and trees,
for the knowledge we have in our own teachings,
all of these given by our Creator.
Help us to use our understandings
to bring joy and new life to our communities.

Refrain: Teach us to learn how to love and to live.

We give thanks for the northern direction,
for the white-skinned peoples of the world,
and white-haired peoples in our families and communities.
Help us to receive gifts of wisdom from all peoples.
Help us to grow our roots deeper through life's journey,
That we may grow in kindness to ourselves and each other.

Refrain: Teach us to learn how to love and to live.

From "The Dancing Sun, Volume VII"