Each year, Aboriginal Sunday is held on the Sunday before January 26, continuing the observance Christian Aboriginal leader William Cooper began in 1938, along with a Day of Mourning gathering he led 150 years after white settlement or invasion began in Australia.
That year, the Australian Aboriginals League, with others, asked all Christian denominations to observe “Aborigines Day” on the Sunday before Jan 26. Today, we might say “First Nations” or “Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander”.
In a 2023 sermon, Kanishka Raffel, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, recounted, “In calling on the churches of Australia to mark the Sunday before Australia Day I.., Cooper said: ‘We request that sermons be preached on this day dealing with the Aboriginal people and their need of the gospel and response to it and we ask that special prayer be invoked for all missionary and other effort for the uplift of the dark people.’
” His language reflects the idiom of the time, but in recent years, there have been renewed calls, including by people like Aunty Jean Philips, calling for prayer and action on behalf of First Nations people. Aunty Jean has spoken of the history of her people in this Cathedral, history of which most of us are mostly unaware. Her consistent themes are that we need to know the history of our own country; we need to meet at the foot of the cross as we give expression to the reconciliation that Christ has won for us; we need to approach all of these questions with deep prayerfulness.
“A dozen years ago, Aunty Jean initiated the national prayer movement known as #Change the Heart, in which the Cathedral has participated over recent years. So as we prepare to celebrate Australia Day on Thursday, and to thank God for the beauty and bounty of this country, we want today to pause to acknowledge and lament the unhappy and devastating impact of European settlement on the lives of countless numbers of First Nations people, and also to thank God for the courage and faith and survival of the first Australians, so many of whom are our Christian brothers and sisters, who offer to us an invitation to walk together in humility and hope, forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Common Grace, a Christian group that campaigns for social justice, provides resources for churches to observe Aboriginal Sunday each year. “In the journey of walking together for healing and justice in these lands, there are times when hope is something we have to courageously dare to believe and cling to,” Common Grace says in their 2005 message. “A year on from the Voice referendum, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous allies are still feeling so much grief and sadness, and hope for change feels hard to find with continued injustices including a lack of closing the gap, children as young as 10 being locked up, lack of treaty and truth-telling, high rates of deaths in custody, and children in out of home care. It is in moments of darkness, sadness and heaviness, when hope is not easy to imagine that we activate hope and our faith in our Creator God’s promises that are true and faithful.”
Sign up for Common Grace Aboriginal Sunday resources here https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_sunday_2025
Prayers for Aboriginal Sunday
A Reconciliation prayer for Aboriginal Sunday from Wontulp-Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group, 1997
Holy Father, God of Love,
You are the Creator of this land and of all good things.
We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history
and the suffering of our peoples,
and we ask your forgiveness.
We thank you for the survival of indigenous cultures.
Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus
to reconcile the world to you.
We pray for your strength and grace to forgive,
accept and love one another,
as you love us and forgive and accept us
in the sacrifice of your Son.
Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history
so that we may build a better future for our nation.
Teach us to respect all cultures.
Teach us to care for our land and waters.
Help us to share justly the resources of this land.
Help us to bring about spiritual and social change
to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities,
especially the disadvantaged.
Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.
May your power and love be the foundations
on which we build our families, our communities and our nation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From Common Prayer
Creator God, you made from one man all nations and determined where each should live.
We bring before you the indigenous people of Australia.
We acknowledge the history that has damaged the relationship between them and later arrivals to this land.
Thank you for the steps that have been taken on the journey towards reconciliation.
Deepen this process among us.
Guide national and community leaders to speak the truth in love, to seek justice with mercy and to care for those who are disadvantaged.
Strengthen indigenous church leaders to shepherd your flock faithfully, and strengthen all indigenous Christians to be salt and light in their communities and in the whole nation.
Give indigenous and non-indigenous believers grace to demonstrate the new family you are making in Christ out of people from every nation, tribe, language and people
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From the Uniting Church 2025 Day of Mourning resource https://uniting.church/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Day-of-Mourning-2025_Final.pdf
“Merciful God, we, the Second Peoples of this land,
acknowledge with sorrow the injustice and abuse that has so often marked the treatment of the First Peoples of this land.
We acknowledge with sorrow the way in which their land was taken from them and their language, culture and spirituality despised and suppressed.
We acknowledge with sorrow the way in which the Christian church was so often not only complicit in this process but actively involved in it.
We acknowledge with sorrow that in our own time the injustice and abuse has continued. We have been indifferent when we should have been outraged, we have been apathetic when we should have been active, we have been silent when we should have spoken out.
Gracious God, forgive us for our failures, past and present.
By your Spirit transform our minds and hearts so that we may boldly speak your truth and courageously do your will. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
A call and response from the Uniting Church day of mourning resource
Leader: Loving God, on this day of celebration, we acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people throughout Australia. We turn to you in prayer as we commit ourselves to journeying together in the spirit of Faith. Father, you are good.
All: Lord, fill our hearts with Love and Compassion.
Leader: We pray for all Leaders in this Great Southern Land that they may respect and accept the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and provide truth, justice, peace, unity and equity for all. Father, you are good.
All: Lord, fill our hearts with Love and Compassion
Leader: We ask for your guidance for the youth on their life’s journey, that they come to seek and know you and trust in your love and compassion. Father, you are good.
All: Lord, fill our hearts with Love and Compassion
Leader: We pray for all Elders, those who are sick, the dying, the imprisoned, those who are lost and suffering – we ask for your protection, healing and mercy for all. Father, you are good.
All: Lord, fill our hearts with Love and Compassion
Leader: Lord, thank you for your Mercy, which covers all our Sins, and for the love which you wash over us. Please help us to be strong in Faith and to love everyone as you taught us. Father, you are good.
All: Lord, fill our hearts with Love and Compassion
Leader: Let us all take a moment’s silence as we pray for our personal intentions to our God. Father you are good.
All: Lord, fill our hearts with Love and Compassion
Leader: God, our loving Father, you reveal your care and compassion to us through the life, words and deeds of your son Jesus. Grant us the gift of your compassion so that all peoples may enjoy your promise of peace. With humble hearts we make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.