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Covenant Prayer with the Land

Today, we make a covenant with this land.
As a branch is grafted onto a mature stock,
So we want to be grafted onto the ancient heritage of this land,
So that its life may flow through us.
We commit ourselves to the land we live in and to all who belong to it,
Most particularly our Indigenous people
And also the newcomers to this country,
Who have bound themselves to this land.
We will care for it with gentleness, patience, simplicity and compassion,
Rather then merely something to be bought and sold.
We will see the land as a gift for which we are truly thankful,
And undertake the privileged duty of respecting and looking after it.

We thank God, the Great Creator Spirit, for all the earth provides:
Water, food, and all the riches above and below the ground.
We undertake to use them sparingly and thoughtfully.
As we enter more deeply into the Spirit of the land,
We see the land as a Sacrament and Icon of our mothering Creator Spirit.
Be still.
Listen to the breath of the Spirit which has blown through it for ages past,
Today, and always;
For this is: The Spirit of the Dreaming.

- Betty Pike