Liturgy News Winter 2020

9 Winter 2020 LITURGY NEWS 4. Over the next ten minutes, the liturgy preparation team explored the suggested liturgical actions for Sunday Eucharist as set out in the NATSICC resource. For most of them it was a revelation that a rite for blessing and sprinkling of the assembly with water was encouraged on this Sunday. This was a long-standing rite on the Sundays of Easter in St Josephine’s and they welcomed its potential for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. Val noted that they might use a vessel called a coolamon for this water rite. It would establish a connection with traditional culture and might be more worthy than the sadly tarnished holy-water bucket in the sacristy. Bing learned that, right at the start of the Sunday celebration, it was possible, nay encouraged, to acknowledge and recognise the traditional Aboriginal custodians of the land and nearby creek on which the parish sat. He remembered the powerful Welcome to Country ritual enacted in the local Council Hall at his citizenship ceremony last year. It had been sung by a female elder in the traditional language of Aboriginal people from the region. Aunty Ali also wore ceremonial clothing for the Welcome . During this Welcome , it dawned on Bing that he was becoming a member of a new community which included those who had nurtured the lands and waterways of this vast continent for over 60,000 years. It also spoke to his family story of generations of village life in The Philippines. As Bing skimmed the resource further, he became increasingly aware of important protocols to be observed in this rite as with other symbols of Aboriginal peoples, a smoking ritual, for example. He marked this part of the NATSICC resource with a red pen – there was much to learn here. Angela and Toni prepared the Prayer of the Faithful on alternate Sundays. They found several of the examples helpful and decided to draft them together for the first time. During this introductory preparation, the new pastor considered the Eucharistic Prayer. He suggested the two Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation and those for Various Needs and Occasions. In light of the Sunday gospel, the team settled on number four for Various Needs: Jesus, Who Went About Doing Good. The team asked the new pastor to recommence the practice of writing about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday in the bulletin. They suggested he describe the different liturgical actions, prayers and vessels that they had decided on that evening. They would evaluate their experience at the July meeting. Each agreed to also ask other members of the community about their experiences of this Sunday Mass on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. It was getting close to 7.30pm. Toni knew the drill for those who had an early start on Thursday morning. 5. The liturgy preparation team gathered on the second Wednesday of July. Their introductory 15 minutes of formation had been prepared by Toni. She had assembled a list of books which were helping her understand Australian Indigenous history and life issues. She introduced them to the team.  Bill Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia (2012) .  Marcia Langton, Welcome to Country: A Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia (2018) and her follow-up book for children, Welcome to Country: Schools Edition (2019).  Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture (2018). She noted that Pascoe had also published Young Dark Emu: A Truer History (2019) and Dark Emu in the Classroom: Teacher Resources for High School Geography (2019). Toni concluded, My children and I haven’t been taught any of this at school. I’m rethinking a lot of what I thought I knew and believed about Aboriginal peoples… it’s scary and exciting! The team reviewed their celebration of the parish Eucharist on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday, attending to the symbols, actions, gestures, sights and sounds of the liturgy. They noted what worked well in terms of liturgical symbols: Bing: Father walked through the entire assembly sprinkling the people, so lots of holy water fell upon the congregation! Val: People asked about the coolamon and some good conversations were begun. Toni: The ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ before the entrance hymn caught some people by surprise. Comment was mixed. The team discussed other ideas which could be taken up next year. Angela: We found writing the six prayer petitions was more difficult than usual. Perhaps at each meeting, the team could ‘brainstorm’ some prayer intentions. The new pastor remembered some liturgical suggestions from the 2025-2016 Jubilee Year Mercy: A different dismissal was suggested for the Concluding Rites; perhaps it may help us next time. Val: I’ve begun exploring contemporary Indigenous design from local artists. I wonder if we could commission a local Indigenous artist to create a suitable hanging or even vestments for this Mass. Bing: Let’s find out who are the local elders in our region. We can then look at some of the protocols in the NATSICC resource. Toni thanked the team for this brief review. She was conscious that they finished at 7.30pm and there was still preparation needed for the next few Sundays.  John Fitz-Herbert, pastor at Boonah in Queensland, has made special study of liturgy for National Sorry Day and Aboriginal and TSI Sunday. 8 LITURGY NEWS Winter 2020 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday PREPARING SUNDAY EUCHARIST by John Fitz-Herbert Connect – only connect. Connect the past with the present with the future in the paschal mystery; connect the visible and the hidden in the sacramental life of the church; and ‘connect the dots’ in the saving pattern of life and death larger than ourselves and beyond our own experience. (Austin Fleming) P ARISH L ITURGY P REPARATION T EAM : T ONI ( COORDINATOR ); B ING ( NOTE - TAKING ); A NGELA ( PARISHIONER ); V AL ( LITURGICAL ENVIRONMENT ); T RICIA ( MUSIC COORDINATOR ); AND THE PASTOR . 1. St Josephine Bakhita’s parish liturgy preparation team was a most important parish group… They met on the second Wednesday night of the month from 6:00 to 7:30pm. It was short and focused on liturgy preparation . Yes… liturgy preparation, not ‘planning’. The parish had welcomed their new pastor in January. So far, and much to their surprise, their new pastor was an active member of the liturgy preparation team. The group didn’t know that at the previous deanery meeting, one clergy colleague who asked him how he was settling in had said, Why do you go to that group? He replied, Why wouldn’t I go? 2. It was now the middle of the year. Toni, the coordinator, had prepared the agenda. With time being precious, a short agenda kept them focused and ‘on-track’. The item ‘Sunday Preparation’ included 5 July, 14 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A BORIGINAL & T ORRES S TRAIT I SLANDER S UNDAY ). 3. When they came to prepare the Sunday liturgy, Toni tabled the annual resource sent to parishes from NATSICC – the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council. The new pastor asked, How did our parish celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday last year? What do you usually do? There was a discernible shift of mood in the room. Over the next few minutes, team members shared that this special Sunday was mentioned in the parish bulletin, a prayer from NATSICC’s Sunday resource was also printed, and the painting from the cover of the resource was reproduced on the front of the bulletin. The team nodded in agreement. Val, who coordinated the liturgical environment in the church, recalled the striking cover of the 2018 resource Because of Her, We can! It was of Mother Mary holding a young Jesus to her breast. Bing, note-taker extraordinaire, remembered that, when he and his family first arrived in Australia from The Philippines, the then pastor had written about Indigenous Australians and shared a personal story about a family he knew in Brisbane. He added that the next pastor didn’t continue the practice. The pastor asked again, OK, I hear what has appeared in our parish bulletin. Thanks! Can we now share what happened during the celebration of Sunday Eucharist? What prayers or rites have you included on this Sunday in previous years? He added, This Sunday has been celebrated in our parishes since 1996 – almost twenty-five years – so… The same discernible shift experienced just a few minutes earlier returned. Toni spoke, Well, Father, there are no Indigenous parishioners. So… (The usually confident Toni was speaking with slight apprehension). The new pastor was trying to be attentive to what was being said, while at the same time wondering what was not being said. Actually, he said, your description of the ‘reality’ of our Sunday assembly is pretty similar for the people in the previous two parishes I served. The good thing is that this reality of having no First Nations people present from Sunday to Sunday, is actually identified and addressed in this annual resource (he motioned to the glossy booklet). Tricia, the music coordinator, spoke, Really? The new pastor nodded. Noticing that the hesitation amongst the group was lessening (and also that time was marching on), Toni said, You seem to be conversant with the resource, so would you be able take us through some parts of it? The pastor agreed. So they found the section in the resource, ‘Non-Indigenous Congregations’. The pastor then said, I have found it helpful on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday to remember one thing: this is S UNDAY E UCHARIST . He passed around a one-page handout on Sunday Eucharist and said, I’ve asked Angela to highlight some key points. Angela did so, adding each time, We’ve got to remember that…  Sunday Eucharist is the premier weekly gathering of the faith community who come to celebrate the paschal mystery, to praise and thank God as the gathered Church.  There is only ever one ‘theme’ – the saving mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  God’s word is proclaimed and heard; the Word nourishes and saves, heals and renews, forgives and transforms – us and the world.  The word prepares us to offer our Great Prayer of praise and thanksgiving through Christ, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Our Great Prayer is expressed through gesture, sign and symbol, word, singing and silence.  The Prayer calls us forward as a community of sisters and brothers to receive the sacrament of the Risen Lord. Sharing the holy bread and holy cup strengthens us for works of mercy, justice and peace in the big wide world once we are dismissed with God’s blessing ringing in our ears. The new pastor thought this was a better way to go about the issue at hand because if he had simply spoken to the group it would have sounded like a sermon! His conviction was that the Church’s belief about Sunday Eucharist mattered every Sunday especially when there were specific intentions like Social Justice, World Mission, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday.