{"id":5669,"date":"2021-12-21T02:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T02:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilgrimwr.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=5669"},"modified":"2026-01-19T10:34:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:34:55","slug":"day-of-mourning-20jan2019-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrimwr.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=5669","title":{"rendered":"Day of Mourning (Australia)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every year on the Sunday before<\/em> Australia Day, the Uniting Church marks a Day of Mourning to reflect on the dispossession of Australia\u2019s First Peoples and the ongoing injustices faced by First Nations people in this land. All congregations and communities are encouraged to mark the Day of Mourning in worship (in 2025 it’s January 19th) as an expression of our commitment to covenant, truth-telling, justice and healing.
We celebrate the strength, survival and resilience of First Peoples.
We pause and reflect on the truth and pain of our history.
We lament the violence, dispossession and trauma faced by First Peoples and our own complicity. We hear in this day a call to action that joins us with First Peoples in the ongoing struggle for justice.
We give thanks to God for our covenant with the UAICC – Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, as together we seek a shared future for First and Second peoples marked by costly truth-telling, justice and reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Day of Mourning <\/a>allows Australians to stand together in remembering the truth of our history and honouring the culture of Australia\u2019s First Peoples, their families and the next generations. The 15th UCA Assembly in July 2018 endorsed the proposal that the Sunday before Australia Day be declared as a Day of Mourning. The proposal was brought to the Assembly by our sisters and brothers in the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC), and was endorsed in the spirit of our Covenant relationship with the UAICC. The Day of Mourning Worship Resource invites all Uniting Church in Australia congregations to hold worship services that reflect on the effect of invasion and colonisation on Australia\u2019s First Peoples and our identity as a nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH<\/strong>
We believe
That God has revealed God\u2019s self as the one who wishes to bring about
justice and true peace among people;
That God, in a world full of injustice and enmity,
is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged.
That God calls the church to follow God in this;
for God brings justice to the oppressed and gives bread to the hungry;
That God wishes to teach the church to do what is good and to seek the right;
that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need,
which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against
any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream;
That the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands,
namely against injustice and with the wronged;
That in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who
selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others. AMEN.
The Belhar Confession<\/em> (1982)
(The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) recognizes the Belhar Confession, a South African document from the apartheid era, as a “continuing witness” to the Gospel, highlighting unity, reconciliation, and justice as core to Christian faith, and calls for the church to actively challenge division and oppression, providing liturgical resources and discussion guides for its members to engage with its call for a united, just, and healed world, relevant to issues like reconciliation with First Nations people. Read more here<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Order of Service<\/strong> prepared by 19th January 2025 by Rev Deacon Sandy Boyce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia Day 2025 Reflection and Discernment Guide <\/a><\/strong>– National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day of Mourning 2025<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Day of Mourning resource 1<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Day of Mourning Resource 2<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It may also be helpful to look at resources on this<\/em> website for Australia Day<\/a>, Reconciliation Sunday<\/a> and NAIDOC Week<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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