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The Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative
A Call for Jubilee |
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The texts and suggestions for ritual given below are meant to be resources for a prayer or worship service you may wish to organize. Please feel free to select and organize them as you wish. Many options for song, readings, prayer are included. In this service we suggest the use of a circle and the medicine wheel. These materials are intended to provide a focus for listening attentively to aboriginal voices and aboriginal cultures in our midst. They are not intended to be an appropriation of aboriginal culture. The whole church includes aboriginal peoples and honours their presence. Preparation Materials
Setting
Worship Service Welcome Explain the meaning of the circle and the medicine wheel. Invite participants to join in blessing this sacred space. (To understand these symbols better, there are many resources including the writings of Art Solomon and Basil Johnston.) Hymn We are Standing on Holy Ground I See A New Heaven (Voices United 713) Opening Prayer God of all people, Great Spirit, Holy One, listen to our prayer.
Readings Isaiah 60: 14-22
Nehemiah 9: 5b -6
Revelations 21: 1-4
Lamentations 5: 1-5
Response Psalm 104 A Litany of Healing The litany incorporates an Ojibwa prayer for healing. Local communities may want to include more specific items related to their region. Voice 1 Grandparent God, look at our brokenness. We know that in all creation, only the human family has strayed from the Sacred Way We know that we are the ones who are divided And we are the ones who must come back together to walk in the Sacred Way Voice 2: As we reflect on the history of the relationship between the church and Aboriginal peoples, we pray for openness. All: In our learning and our growing, may there be healing. Voice 1: As we open ourselves to the stories of Aboriginal peoples hurt and wounded by abuse of power, we pray for compassionate listening. All: In the telling and hearing, may there be healing. Voice 2: As we feel the pain of individuals and communities, and come to recognize our impoverishment of spirit through our failures to honour the ways, gifts, and visions of different cultures, we pray for a hunger to seek new ways of walking the Earth together. All: In our recognition of the need for forgiveness and change, may there be healing. Voice 1: As we work together to embody the spirit of reconciliation and healing, we pray for expectant anticipation that our life together in the church will be enriched and deepened. All: In the giving and the receiving, may there be healing. Voice 2: As we move forward as the people of God, lifting up and supporting our sisters and brothers of All tribes and races, we pray for God's richest blessings. All: In the honouring and the sharing, may there be healing. Voice 1: Grandparent, Sacred One, Teach us love, compassion and honour That we may heal the Earth. And heal each other. All: Amen Hymn Amazing Grace (Common Praise, 352; Voices United, 266) The Servant Song (Voices United, 595) A Litany For the Dispossessed This text, written from the perspective of the settlers, can be adapted to the concrete circumstances of the local community. One: We found the land unoccupied... except for them. One extended a hand, another saw the land, and so ..... All: they grew poor, One: while we grew wealthy. All: They became powerless, One: while we grew powerful All: They were pushed aside. One: while we thanked God for land All: They filled our jails. One: while we thanked God for freedom All: They despaired. One: while we grew wealthy. One: Then the Lord replied: Woe to those who pile up stolen goods, and make themselves wealthy by extortion. All: How long must this go on? One: Woe to those who build up their realm by unjust gain to set their nest on high. All: How long must this go on? One: Woe to them who build a city with bloodshed and establish a town by crime. All: How long must this go on? One: Woe to them who give drink to their neighbours pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk so that they can gaze on their nakedness. All: How long must this go on? One: The Lord is in the holy temple. All: Let all the Earth be silent before God. Hymn For the Healing of the Nations (Common Praise 576; Voices United 538) A Litany of the Circle This litany is inspired by texts attributed to Chief Seattle in 1854. During this litany, pass around symbols of the Earth. One: Every part of this Earth is sacred. All: Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, One: every mist in the dark woods, All: every clearing and humming insect is holy. One: The rocky crest, the juices of the meadow, the beasts and all the people, All: all belong to the same family. One: Teach your children that the Earth is our mother. All: Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the children of the Earth. One: The water's murmur is the voice of our father's father. All: We are part of the Earth and the Earth is part of us. One: The rivers are our brothers; they quench our thirst. All: The perfumed flowers are our sisters. One: The air is precious All: For all of us share the same breath. One: The wind that gave our grandparents breath also receives their last sign. All: The wind gave our children the spirit of life. One: This we know, the Earth does not belong to us; All: we belong to the Earth. One: This we know, all things are connected. All: Our God is the same God, whose compassion is equal for all. One: For we did not weave the web of 1ife; All: we are merely a strand in it. One: Whatever we do to the web, All: we do to ourselves. One: Let us give thanks for the web and the circle that connects us all. All: Thanks be to God, the God of all. Principal Resources Roberts, Elizabeth and Amidon Elias, Earth Prayers From Around the World: 365 Prayers, Poems and Invocations for Honoring the Earth. San Francisco: Harper, 1991. Aboriginal Rights Coalition, "Worship Resources Booklet," So Long as the Sun Rises and the River Flows: Land Rights and Treaty Rights. (Education and Action Kit.) ^ Top of page ^
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