BUV Apology 97 - 98

Resolutions agreed to at the BUV Assembly December 1997

As followers of Jesus we make the following resolutions:

1.    At the March 1998 Assembly, we present this apology personally, within the context of an act of worship that includes the Lord's Supper, to representatives of our Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander brothers and sisters.

2.    We call upon our Baptist leaders to build a genuine partnership in ministry with our Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander brothers and sisters.

3.    We call upon the Prime Minister of Australia to make a sincere apology on behalf of the Australian people for the forcible separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their  families.

Wording of the APOLOGY presented at the March 1998 Assembly:

APOLOGY FROM THE MEMBERS OF VICTORIAN BAPTIST CHURCHES TO THE
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLES

WE THE MEMBERS OF VICTORIAN BAPTIST CHURCHES, with the known support of numerous other Australian Baptists, offer this heartfelt apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We make it acknowledging the injustice, dispossession, the pain and sorrow borne by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for more than two centuries: that their lands were occupied and claimed without fair and just negotiations when people came here from Europe in the eighteenth century; that their presence in the land was not recognised; that their culture, religious freedom and heritage were not respected; that we forcibly sought to assimilate them into our culture; and that children have been taken away from their parents and families.

We make it acknowledging the consequent suffering and injustices they still endure, and in the belief that it is only as we as a church and a nation face the truth of our past, which lives on in us all, that there can be reconciliation, healing and hope for the future.

APOLOGY TO THE ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLES

We recognise this crucial moment in the history of this country. We are conscious of the God given opportunity before its to seek justice, pursue it, and implement it.

We confess that we have sinned before God and against you: we have failed to recognise your prior ownership of the land. Without recourse to just and fair negotiation, we claimed as our own land that was your livelihood and to which you belonged. We have not respected your culture, religious freedom and heritage. In violation of fundamental human rights we have taken so many of your children away from their parents and families.

We confess that our failure to see what we were doing denied our common humanity, degraded us all, and was not Christian.

For all this we are truly sorry and apologise unreservedly. We ask your forgiveness and commit ourselves to work with you, and all other Australians, for reconciliation



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