sustain:if:able kiwi

preamble communion words

Throughout this week, Uniting College has been participating in the Destiny Together week of prayer and fasting. This is a week to pray and fast for justice for the First Peoples. We’ve been praying daily at 9:30 am each morning as a College and chapel has been open over lunchtime for those who might want to fast. Today at Community worship we shared worship with folk from our local Congress Church – an embodiment of Destiny Together.

I was leading communion and aware of the occasion, wondered what words might shape the practice of communion. I began to wonder if the Preamble, which was drafted in 2009 as a way to constitutionally acknowledge Aboriginal and Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia might be of us. It became a rich journey, exploring how those words, based on extensive consultation with the church, offer a theology of truthtelling and in turn might now become Eucharistic life. To do this would surely be a step toward Destiny Together, a sharing of an agreed document and God in our past, present, future.

So, here is what I drafted, mixing Preamble phrases into a communion liturgy. I used the shape of Uniting in Worship 2, seeking for phrases from the Preamble to give shape. I think it ticks all the boxes – there is epiclesis, confession, Lords prayer, God’s action in history, eschatology, Words of institution (modified slightly but in keeping with other aspects of Eucharistic theology).

With the elements served to us by the Aunties. Wonderful.

Communion:

The Lord be with you

And also with you

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

It is right to give our thanks and praise

We bless you Creator for this earth, for the Dreaming and Song lines sung long before human

We thank you for the Spirit already in the land revealing God to the people through law, custom, ceremony

We bless you for the same love and grace that was fully and finally revealed in Jesus Christ

Who took bread, broke it, said Take, eat, in solidarity with those who suffer

Who took the cup, gave thanks, said This is my blood of the new covenant, poured out in hope of life to the full

We bless you for the church and all the storytellers and whisperers of hope through history, called to seek a renewal of its life as a community of First peoples and of Second Peoples from many land.

We lament the silence of the church in the face of broken relationships, Jesus lamb of God

Have mercy on us

We grieve the processes of dispossession, Jesus bearer of our sins

Have mercy on us

We confess the practices of colonisation, Jesus redeemer of the world

Grant us peace

We eat this bread as a foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation

We drink this cup, as a sign of our destiny together, praying and working together for a fuller expression of our reconciliation in Jesus Christ.

Pour out your Spirit on us, that these gifts of bread and wine, may make us one with each other and in ministry in the world

Lords prayer in Kaurna language:

Yeowa-rna Marngari-tti
Jehovah-’s request / pray-thing ‘The Lord’s Prayer’
Ngadluko yerli karralika tikka-ndi;
Our father on high sits ‘Our father sits in heaven’
Ninna narri tampi-rna, kuinyunda kumarta-ppi-rna;
You name acknowledge-let sacred apart-cause-let ‘Let your name be acknowledged, let it be kept sacred.’
Ninko yerlti-yerlti-nya pintya-rna;
Your advice/command create-let ‘Let your rule be established’
Ninko padloni-tti yerta-ngga wappi-rna
Your want-thing earth-on do-let ‘Let your want be done on earth’
Karra-ngga nammutannaintya-ndi
High-on resemble-ing ‘As it is on high’
Ngadluko mai yunggu-ndo!
Our food give-you! ‘Give (us) our food.’
Ngadluko wakkinna kumba-ppi-ndo!
Our sin remove-make-you! ‘Take away our sin.’
Ngadlu tangka waia-re-ndi kumarta-nna-ityangga wakkinna wappe-ndi
We liver move-itself-is separate-pl-with wrong do-ing ‘Have compassion for those who do wrong.’
Wakkinna-anna warti-tti
Sin-to draw-don’t ‘Don’t draw us into sin.’
Wakkinna-unangko tirra-tirga-ppi-ndo
Sin-from protect make-you! ‘Save us from sin.’
Ninna mattanya, taingi, wilta, burti burti tarkari tundarri.
You owner strength power gladness future forever
‘You are the boss, the strength, the power, the glory for ever and ever.’
Wappi-rna!
Do-let! (i.e. let it be done)
‘Amen.’

Benediction:

Go in peace to live a Destiny together