The Diocese of Armidale is blessed to have the Reverends Brian Kirk, George Ferguson, Paul Foster and Jum Naden meet together regularly with Bishop Rod Chiswell and Dixie Skuthorpe as the Indigenous Sub-Committee to combine their wisdom in planning, praying and providing support for the valuable and important ministry to Indigenous people in the Diocese. Jum Naden reflects on some of the joys, reasons for thankfulness and challenges.

The task and vision of the Indigenous Sub-Committee is to reach Indigenous people with the gospel in the Armidale Diocese, and to resource and support this ministry. While there are many things that as a committee we are hoping to do, the most significant is to take the gospel into our communities and resource our wider diocesan church family to reach Indigenous people. We would encourage churches to continue to think hard about how the gospel speaks into Indigenous communities, and one way is to take advantage of the themes that come through during NAIDOC week which provide an insight into some of the thinking and worldview into which the gospel is to be communicated. Identity, cultural heritage, oppression, amplifying silenced voices, justice and equality are all themes that the Bible speaks about at length, and these provide opportunities to be able to speak into these communities in these moments with the gospel, even if we do not agree with everything that specific NAIDOC themes are saying or calling for.

In keeping with our task and vision statement, members of the committee have sought to reach Indigenous people with the gospel in the Armidale Diocese and resource our wider diocesan church family to do the same. Whilst Brian Kirk has recently formally retired from his role as Armidale Hospital Chaplain he continues to be involved in the Indigenous Sub-Committee, and at a national level as a life member of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council.

Exciting Indigenous ministries occurring. In South Tamworth, the Coledale Frontyard fellowship continues to steam ahead and we
celebrate that the vision of building an outdoor ministry centre has reached fulfillment after a long four-year process.

Last  December Dixie Skuthorpe began a monthly Fireside catchup in Uralla. We are thankful for Dixie’s initiative and for the relationships it has established and continues to deepen. Dixie writes: The idea of Fireside is to engage with the Aboriginal community and people who are not engaged in Church. We’ve had a good response and Fireside is slowly growing with participants developing a sense of ownership and belonging and becoming more involved with the gospel. One of the elders now reads the Scriptures for each lesson. We meet at 5pm and gather outside St John’s Hall around a fire pit on which Johnny cakes are cooked. We have a reading, hymns and prayer. We are currently going through the miracles of Jesus. There are discussions on the reading, and we are left with thoughts to consider about the lesson. Afterwards all gather in the hall for dinner and those attending now  contribute to the meal. In December we will have two Firesides — one a Christmas lesson — and participants have agreed to continue with two lessons each month in the new year.
For NAIDOC this year Dixie also initiated a women’s event that was well attended and saw Kathie Naden come and share her experience as an Aboriginal woman and her Christian faith.

In Walgett, George Ferguson continues to carry out a tremendous number of funerals for our Aboriginal community members and
even though it is tiring and emotional work he has seen it as an opportunity to be able to preach the gospel to those who attend. George is grateful to be able to meet up regularly with the Reverend Kurt Langmead to pray, read the Bible together and encourage each other in ministry. The Walgett and Collarenebri fellowships continue to think hard about how they can engage their Aboriginal communities with the gospel and have tried their hand at a few different things such as accepting invitations by the community to participate in local NAIDOC celebrations as well as holding holiday kids’ clubs with the help of mission teams from Moree and Sydney. They have also established kids’ clubs that happen on the first Saturday of the month in Collarenebri and the second Saturday in Walgett. The groups meet at 1:30pm and begin with cooking sausages. Usually by around 2:00pm everyone is eating
together, afterwards sharing in a Bible story and some songs. The afternoon finishes with a craft related to the Bible story. George and his wife Carmel report that unfortunately multiple monthly gatherings for the year have been cancelled due to funerals, but having the holiday kids’ clubs has helped to keep some momentum going.

In Lightning Ridge, Kurt & Bec Langmead have recently had a local Indigenous mum look to them after her five-year-old daughter
was given a Bible and wants to know answers to questions like, “When it rains is Jesus having a shower?” Bec is hoping to meet
up with this little girl in school next year when she starts Kindy Scripture classes. In addition to opportunities they’ve created in
the Bible Discovery group on Tuesdays and Brekkie club on Sundays, Lightning Ridge Community Church continue to hold monthly
gospel gatherings with generous support from a Diocesan Indigenous Ministry grant which covers the cost of food and venue hire. Gospel gatherings are held on the third Saturday in Goodooga and fourth Saturday in Lightning Ridge and typically include ‘good tukka’, gospel singalong, and Bible teaching for all ages. The main aim in meeting is to grow in the ability to minister with and to local
Indigenous Communities in partnership with Indigenous leaders from surrounding centres like Brewarrina, Walgett and Moree, with a particular prayer and desire to be raising up Indigenous Christian leaders from within our communities.

There are other ministries that happen and we continue to give thanks to God for all who have tried to reach our local Aboriginal
communities. With the number of Aboriginal people in our diocese significantly higher than that of the national average, we see
outreach to this specific group as something that God has uniquely positioned us for as a diocese. To this end we would encourage any parish to make contact with the committee to chat about ministry opportunities and ways we can help. Over the last couple of years the committee has run training days in Narrabri with the intention of giving parishes ideas for local ministries and outreaches to our Aboriginal communities.

In 2022 Kurt shared: Whilst the gospel content never changes — Jesus and the resurrection — the gospel context changes constantly. Am I ministering amongst opal miners? Am I fellowshipping with farmers? Am I seeking to introduce all people, including Indigenous people, to Jesus and help them home to heaven? Even when Indigenous ministry seems hard going and slow, we must not be tempted to give up on what the gospel is and short-change Indigenous ministry with something the gospel isn’t. Indigenous ministry certainly won’t be speedy, and it’s unlikely to be spectacular. But neither is the way a mustard seed grows, yet by the end of Jesus’ story, the branches of this tree are broad enough to give shelter to all the nations.

Challenges and Learnings. One of the identified challenges to ‘having a go’ in Aboriginal ministry in the Diocese has been in some cases a lack of financial resources. This past year we have had a few parishes apply for financial support to run ministries that specifically have as one of the goals outreaches to our Aboriginal communities and it’s been a great privilege for us as a committee to be able to approve funding for these events.

Ongoing funding to support current and future Indigenous ministry initiatives is a concern for both the Sub-Committee and the Diocesan Council. Another challenge that has been identified has been the raising up of Indigenous leaders, and as a committee we
continue to think about what this looks like and pray about the way in which God would have us be involved in this work.

Please join us in praying for the Indigenous Ministry Initiatives in the Armidale Diocese. We would value your prayers for the Sub-Committee as we seek promote the vision of Indigenous ministry and encourage Christians to be proactive in reaching out with the gospel.

This article was originally published by the Diocese of Armidale in The Link Issue 94 and is reproduced with permission