Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mission Grants

This Easter, we welcome you to contribute to the vital work of the Anglican Board of Mission’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mission Grants.

Mission Grants are overseen by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Commission (NATSIAC).

These are small grants, usually less than $20,000, which support the ministry and mission of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Recent grants have supported ministries as varied as a women’s bible camp in the Northern Territory, school chaplaincy in a Western Australian Aboriginal Community College, teenage pregnancy support in central New South Wales, and help with transport for Aboriginal ministry in the Diocese of Willochra.

The Reverend Canon Auntie Di Langham shared with us the impact that one such Mission Grant has had on her community at Toronto, NSW. Auntie Di is a Buandik woman, the chairperson of the Nikinpa Elders and the Director of Reconciliation at the Newcastle Anglican Diocese..

“I’ve been the recipient of Mission Grants, and for me, it’s probably the only way that we can get funding to do Indigenous ministries. It just means a lot; it takes a worry out of your space when you’re trying to organise to have different ministries in your community.

The last grant I got has to do with Indigenous ministries working alongside Toronto Anglican Church. We’ve been doing what we call campfire ministry, where we hold a service that we call Yinbillikin, which is a local word for ‘light the fire’. There are a lot of struggles in our community, so we thought this would be a good word for our ministries.

We start at five o’clock on a Sunday night, and we usually have a meal…a lot of our people here are dependent upon food banks and different charities for food at the moment…we share a meal on the Sunday night so that the kids and the families are fed for the beginning of the week.

We then have a service around a campfire. Yinbillikin has an Indigenous flavour to it, with Indigenous prayers and songs.

We hold Yinbillikin once a month and have between 30 and 40 people come along.”

For those who minister, like Auntie Di, the grants are imperative to bring communities together through these unique and culturally inclusive initiatives.

“Without the Mission Grants, we wouldn’t be able to run it at all. The grants from ABM have been a seeding of a ministry that can then extend.

ABM has always been really supportive of Aboriginal ministries or ministries for people who are on the fringes of the church.”

Your gift to this appeal will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglicans as they witness to the Good News of Jesus.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ,
your love for us stretches from heaven to earth,
from beyond the grave to us here in this life,
from celestial eternity to our time-bound existence.

Help us, your servants,
to share that love – as you have commanded us to do –
in practical ways.

During Easter, may we share that love by encouraging our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sisters and brothers though our giving towards the mission grants which support them to take their rightful place in the Church.

Send your Spirit to urge us to pray for partners,
and to stand with them in effective and down-to-earth ways,
for it is in truly loving them
that we show our genuine love for you.

Hear this prayer for your love’s sake.

Amen.