Conger

The Archbishop of Sydney has endorsed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to Australia’s aborigines for past government mistreatment.”

As Christians, we know that repentance and forgiveness liberates people to serve one another,” Dr. Peter Jensen said.

On Feb 13, Prime Minister Rudd (pictured) offered a 360-word statement from the floor of parliament in Canberra. “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry,” he said.

“To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”

“We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.”

Dr. Jensen said he hoped the government’s “apology will help to reconcile indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and that it will make a real difference in the lives of those affected.”

In 1998 the Anglican Church of Australia offered its own apology for its complicity in the mistreatment of aborigines through government assimilation programmes.