THE Archbishop of Canterbury has visited two Australian Indigenous ministries in Sydney, in advance of visits to Indigenous communities in the diocese of North Queensland over the weekend, the last leg of his two-week Australian tour.

In Sydney, Archbishop Welby joined in singing Indigenous hymns with leaders of the Scarred Tree Ministry at St John’s Anglican Church in the inner Sydney suburb of Glebe. The ministry is named for a ‘”scarred tree” in the church’s grounds: a tree from which bark was cut to create canoes, shelters, or shields in pre-colonial times.

Sydney Media reports that the theme of the Archbishop’s talk at the Scarred Tree Ministry was about reconciliation. “Reconciliation starts with Jesus,” he said. “God does not give us just enough reconciliation, he gives us oceans of reconciliation and he says let that overflow.”

Actions, not just words, were needed to heal, he said, adding that history could not be changed. Terrible things had been done, but the future could be changed. “When we repent as a people and turn, that’s when reconciliation becomes possible.”

He presented Pastor Ray Minniecon with a reconciliation award, and was given a boomerang-shaped cross by the Revd Michael Duckett, who chairs the Sydney Anglican Indigenous People’s Ministry Committee.

Archbishop Welby also visited an Indigenous campus for primary-aged First Nations children at St Andrew’s Cathedral School, in Sydney, before lunching with students and staff at Moore Theological College.

From Sydney, he went to the diocese of Grafton, in northern New South Wales, where he is due to visit the city of Lismore, inundated by a record-breaking flood in February this year. He will attend a midday prayer service at St Carthage’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in the city.