A Triumph, In and Out of the Ring
Insights Magazine
Tue, 8th Oct 2024
Leichhardt Uniting Church recently decided at a church council meeting to ‘pay the rent‘. The congregation will give 10 percent of offerings to two First Nations-led initiatives.
Rev. Radhika Sukukumar-White is one of Leichhardt ministers at Leidchardt Uniting Church.
“Reparation is a stronger and more just paradigm for relationship with First Peoples than reconciliation,” she said.
“This is particularly important because churches like LUC continue to operate on sovereign, unceded land.”
“Reparation is rightly demanding, sacrificial, practical. It is biblical and it must be ongoing. Reconciliation is God’s work; reparation is ours.”
The congregation previously sought advice from Nathan Tyson, Synod’s Head of First Peoples Strategy and Engagement.
Followings his recommendations, Leidchardt Uniting Church has committed to support the First Peoples Theological Scholarship, which supports First peoples to undertake theological study. The church will also support Deadly Connections, a Sydney-based, Aboriginal-led not-for-profit providing support to break cycles of systemic racism, disadvantage and trauma.
“At LUC, we choose to pay the rent to acknowledge that we are on stolen land,” said, Alex Long, chairperson of Leichhardt Uniting Church Council.
“The land we are on was forcibly taken from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the colonial systems continue to exclude and oppress our First Nations siblings.”
- Categories: Features, First Peoples, News
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Jonathan Foye
Jonathan Foye
4 thoughts on “Leichhardt Uniting Church to Pay the Rent”
Well done to LUC for sharing 10% of its budget with a fund set up to assist Aboriginal students, and with an Aboriginal Community Controlled organisation. To be applauded.
Let’s not call this ‘paying the rent’ though, as none of this money will be going to to a recognised Traditional Owner group which has responsibility for the land on which LUC standes. (Such as, for example, the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council).
‘Paying the rent’ implies that some kind of agreement or treaty has been negotiated between two parties, one of which is using the land of the other. I don’t believe this has occured. So let’s call this generous act what it is. A gensture towards justice, a decision to donate funds. But not ‘paying the rent’. Please.
Yes I agree, it’s a generous donation which should not be bound by any obligation.
In the scriptures it states that GOD Loves a cheerful giver.
Thank you for your comment, this is the organisation that LUC is supporting https://paytherent.net.au/
I concur. It’s insulting to call it rent if it’s not market value!! However, it’d be great to have more local congregations acknowledging the land they are on in more than just words. The difficult conversations around recompensing First Peoples need to be had in the pews, as well as regional and national assemblies.