Australian Lutherans Support Government Apology to Aboriginal People
Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) president Rev. Michael P. Semmler has welcomed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recent apology for historic policies that inflicted profound suffering on Australia’s Aboriginal people. “As a church, we hope the Government apology will promote a process to improve the well-being of our Aboriginal sisters and brothers,” Semmler said in a statement titled “Reconciliation and the Lutheran Church of Australia.”
Addressing parliament on 13 February, Rudd (center-left Labor party) apologized for past policies of assimilation under which Aboriginal children were taken from their families to be raised in white households (“the stolen generation”).
Semmler’s statement affirmed Christian understanding of reconciliation and the LCA’s continued commitment to involving the Aboriginal people “equitably in planning to meet their distinctive needs, many of which are largely unmet.”
The 75,000-member LCA has been an associate member church of the Lutheran World Federation since 1994. (152 words)
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