By Rick Sarre of Adelaide, South Australia

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Between the 1920s and 1970s, thousands of Australian First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families under the guise of protection and assimilation. This was done by both government agencies and church missions. The impulse came from the paternalistic belief that these children would be better off away from their culture and kin and integrated into white society.

In 1997, the Australian Human Rights Commission published its Bringing Them Home report. It included 54 recommendations to support healing and reconciliation for what became known as the Stolen Generations, their families, and the Australian public more broadly. One of the recommendations was that there ought to be formal government apologies nationwide.

On February 13, 2008, the then Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, moved the following resolution: “That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.”

His words were powerful. He continued: “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants, and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”

Each year since then, Australians acknowledge February 13 as Sorry Day. “It is a day when white Australia needs to listen, and reckon, and try to understand how the actions of their forebears still live on in the houses, skins, and minds of Australian Aboriginal people. And how those scars are borne by people who are disproportionately living in poverty, in prison [and] in pain” (Julia Baird, Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything, Fourth Estate, 2023, pp. 192–193).

Acknowledgement and apology sit at the heart of racial justice.

Prayer Phrase

“…he has given us a new birth into a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3).

Spiritual Practice

Weaving a Life

Hold, or imagine yourself holding, a piece of patterned cloth. Examine it carefully. Notice overlapping threads mingling colors that form the design. Write a journal entry or meditate about the threads and patterns of your life. What design do you see? How does the life pattern you are weaving create justice and wholeness in God’s world? What new pattern is God calling you to weave in 2025?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.