- the integration of Christianity and Aboriginal belief systems by many Aboriginal people
• Aboriginal Spirituality is viewed as culture – not as religion
• Formations of various Aboriginal Movements
o National Aboriginal Anglican Council
o 1970s and 80s – Aboriginal evangelical fellowship (AEF) was significant
• Attempts to express Christian meanings through traditional ritual forms
o 1996 Census, 71.45% of indigenous persons identified their religion as Christianity
• Elcho Island Adjustment moment in late 1950’s – openly linked church and traditional systems
• Christian Scriptures have been translated into Indigenous languages
• Principles which are opposed by the Christian and Indigenous spiritualities – efforts to reconcile or syncretise them
• Theologians have used symbols from the Aboriginal Faith within Christian practices
o Saibo Mabo – National Anglican and Torres Strait Islander Bishop in 2001 – Sees Dreaming values and Christian values as complimentary – during Eucharist uses damper rather then wafer, yam rather then bread and coconut milk rather then wine
o Elsie Heiss – performed a traditional Aboriginal Purifying smoke ceremony in Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse in 1995 – in attendance was Pope John Paul II – Says “I have no problem combining the Catholicism I was born to and the Aboriginal spirituality which I was later immersed”
o “For me, Creation Spirituality as Matthew Fox talks about it is like the Dreaming in the way that brings the entire cosmos into our lives, making it a part of us and us a part of it”. – Creation, Spirituality and the Dreaming
• 1986 – Pope John Paul II made Ecumenical statement in attempt to integrate Christianity and Aboriginal belief systems.
^^ I think the above notes that i've typed up covers most aspects of those two questions. You pretty much have to focus on giving concrete examples in your answers and not wishywashy descriptions that go nowhere.
