National Reconciliation Week has been celebrated this week from May 27 to June 3. This year’s theme Bridging Now to Next is an invitation to consider the past, present and future. Elliot Keane from Baptist Mission Australia has prepared the following helpful reflection and resource guide.
The theme – Bridging Now to Next – encourages Australians to look ahead and continue the work of reconciliation, learning from the past and moving towards a more hopeful future.
In God’s story we have a wonderful invitation to consider the past, present and future and an invitation to live now as signposts to what is and what will be. We are invited to be living storytellers of a new way of being that learns from the past, connects the present reality, including its mess and brokenness, with the wonderful new future where all things are reconciled.
The good news of our story is that King Jesus enters our present, walking right into the disfunction and confusion and ushers in a new way and a new world. He comes offering forgiveness for past wrongs, healing for present realities and the hope a bright new future.
As followers of Jesus, we are invited to be co-reconcilers with Jesus in our world. It makes sense then, that we move towards our Indigenous neighbours with confession and forgiveness, witnessing to the reconciliation we know to be possible in King Jesus.
How can you be a beacon of hope, Bridging Now to Next?
Here’s some ways you can take next steps:
Read:
Watch:
- First Australians, 2008, SBS On Demand
- In My Blood it Runs, 2023, Netflix
- The Last Daughter, 2023, Netflix
Do:
- On the last Sunday of the month, join Jason & Emily to visit the Aboriginal Berean Community Church
- Explore local places of significance in our area like Colebrook Reconciliation Park
Give:
- Support the development of emerging Indigenous Christian leaders by investing in the BCSANT Aboriginal Ministry Support Fund. Baptist Mission Australia is partnering in this great initiative. There is a wonderful young leader taking next steps in their ministry development and we invite your support. https://bcsant.giveway.org.au/aboriginal-ministry-support-fund
Elliot Keane
BMA, First Nations Engagement Facilitator
(used by permission from Baptist Mission Australia)