planet radical discipleship australia

Dave’s latest newsletter

2010-03-10T01:13:29+00:00

G’day all, for those interested in some news about what Seeds Bendigo is up to, go here.

Political Evangelism

2010-03-08T23:10:24+00:00

This is the text of a talk I gave up in Bendigo last night. The pdf is here.

Political Evangelism – the good news in the public sphere
Once upon a time, a young man in Europe was in court. His father, a wealthy textiles businessman, had taken him there because he had stolen some silk from his father’s factory, sold it and used it to fund some property development. During the public hearing, he renounced his father’s wealth, stripped off his clothes and strode away, naked, promising to serve ‘Lady Poverty’.

A while before that, another young man led the respected people of his nation to the rubbish dump, and informed them that they were responsible for a coming catastrophe. He told that they had filled the land with innocent blood, and that in return they would experience a military siege so terrible they would turn to cannibalism of their own families to survive. As a finale, he held a clay pot above his head and smashed it – “This pot is the house of Jerusalem and the house of Judah”.

The first young man was Francis of Assisi, and the second young man is the prophet known as Jeremiah. They were both prefiguring and continuing one of the most common practices of Jesus, which I call Political Evangelism.

Definitions
I realise I am using two words which are contested – often used for many different purposes. So let me define them.

By “political”, I mean:

That which concerns power and its use
That which concerns the public sphere
It is always personal, but never private (secret)
I do not mean…’party politics’

By “evangelism”, I mean:

That which concerns the good news, or the ‘evangel’ (GK) – the good news of God..a word used by the gospel writers to convey the message of the kingdom of God, which they had appropriated from the Caesars, who used the word ‘gospel’ to convey their victory in battle.
That evangelism includes both a NO and a YES, judgement and mercy, criticism and invitation to a new life.
Let us try to remove stereotypes of evangelism from our heads.

Political Evangelism, for the purposes of tonight is: Acts of public witness to the good news of God and his reign

Politics and Religion
Tonight I want to explore what place political evangelism might have in the life of the church, and in the interaction of the church with the surrounding public. We are often told that “religion and politics don’t mix”. The witness of the Bible and Christian history says that such a viewpoint is inaccurate, and also impossible. The problem is not that religion and politics mix, it is HOW they mix.

Tonight I will focus on one element of that mix – that of publically declaring (in word and deed) the good news. There are so many others ways that Christians act politically: from letter-writing to the clothes we buy, from how we make decisions in church to how we vote. Every act and decision we make is political, because human life is about allegiance. Who will we be loyal to? is the question to which the Christian answer is “Jesus is Lord”, not simply in a general sense but in a specific sense. Is Jesus our Lord in our finances, our employment, where our kids go to school, the kind of toilet paper we buy, how we produce and eat food etc etc etc .

I don’t have the whole picture, nor do I regularly do what I am going to talk about, but it’s something that I think needs to be thought about in the church, and acted upon. Also, I have my own political persuasions, but this seminar is not meant to be about my particular beliefs. I think that Christians of all political persuasions should be acting publically and politically. Again, the argument is not whether doing so is warranted – the argument is about HOW we do so.

Biblical Examples of Political Evangelism
Apart from the Jeremiah example, there are plenty of biblical instances of public acts of witness:

Moses and the plagues (Ex 9-10)
Elijah & the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40)
Jesus illegally healing on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:9-14)
Jesus eating illegally on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28)
Triumphal Entry to Jerusalem (John 12:12-15)
Acts of Apostles: constant examples of healing and preaching in public, often provoking unrest, arrest, imprisonment and sometimes death.

Let us look at 3 of them, and for each I will look at what constitutes these acts of public witness: the setting, the symbols, the showing & telling, the consequences and why they are political and evangelistic acts.

1. Jeremiah 19 – the clay pot

Setting: deliberately public – he leads the elders and senior priests to the entry of the Potherds Gate (entry to the rubbish dump)….sometimes called the Dung Gate (KJV)
Symbol: clay pot – visual as well as verbal; acts of public witness often use symbols to convey a message
Showing and Telling of God’s judgement upon the idolatry and violence of Judah and Jerusalem:

Because the people have forsaken me, and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, and gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt-offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind (Jer 19:4-5)

Consequences: Jeremiah is imprisoned and ‘struck’ (whipped?) in chapter 20.
Political – pitting the powers of Judah and Jerusalem (the elders and priests) against that of God.
Evangelism – God’s judgement is always for the purpose of God’s eventual mercy and restoration of Israe

2. Matthew 12: 9-14 – illegal healing

Setting: the setting is a synagogue on the Sabbath…illegal to do any work on the Sabbath
Symbol: the man and his withered hand is the visual method that Jesus uses to demonstrate the heartlessness of the Pharisee’s way.
Showing & Telling: Jesus commits a crime for 2 reasons: one is to heal the man, but the second is to create a counterargument about the Sabbath and what its purpose is. (see previous story of illegal eating). Ongoing battle between Jesus and the powers – “…so that they might accuse him” (v. 10b)
Consequences – the Pharisees conspire to destroy him.
Political – it is about who has the power to say what is legal, and an ongoing battle of myths between religious leaders and Jesus.
Evangelism – Jesus is communicating that healing is more important than a law.

3. John 12 – messianic battle
This story is one of the most obvious examples of Jesus acting in public and political way. Let us look at the sequence of story:

Enters Jerusalem
Hears the crowd’s messianic myth – “King of Israel”….what is a King for them? Violent, restoration of Israel. Look at Jesus reaction to this last time! (John 6:15)
Decides to get a donkey
Rides it, providing a countervailing myth of what it means to be Messiah

Public: 6 days before Passover, Jerusalem is filled
Symbol: donkey, a ridiculing of the stallion, the usual victor’s steed.
Showing & Telling: Jesus does no telling, but his message is clear – his kingship is different.
Consequences: all the people go after him!
Political – they want him to have power over them, to violently restore Israel
Evangelism – the good news of a nonviolent Lord

So, in summary, political evangelism:

Is public – people are watching, they can see us!
Communicates a message about God and his good news.
Almost always in conflict with other messages in society which are taken as normative
Uses symbols to communicate
Consequences are inevitable, both punitive and positive.
Nonviolent

Political Evangelism in Christian history

Telemachus (404): intervening publically in gladiatorial contest
Francis of Assisi (1205): disrobing to demonstrate non-attachment to possessions
Martin Luther (1517): nailing theses to the church door
Civil Rights movement (1960s): counter sit-ins
Pro life (20^th C): picketing abortion clinics
Oath Keepers (20^th C): taking public oaths
Women Christian Temperance Movement (late 19^th C on) : prayer inside saloons
St Maximilian (295): refused in court to be conscripted and was executed

Political Evangelism Today
When Crown Casino was being established, a small movement existed to call attention to its degrading social effects, and the inappropriate relationship between the government and the casino owners. Each Sunday, we got together outside the site and prayed. We had a banner, and talked to people who approached us. We had T-shirts made up that communicated our message and also used the Crown Casino logo in a humourous way. We had a plenty of verbal abuse hurled at us, but also plenty of people who agreed with us.

I found this to be a good experience, but also a hard one, not least because of the reactions of Christians I spoke to about it. From those conversations, I began to think about the barriers to political evangelism.

Barriers to Political Evangelism
Acting publically and politically is difficult for all of us. There a few key barriers to Christians acting publically and politically.

1. FEAR:

This includes embarrassment, wanting to avoid criticism or abuse, and the fear of being recognised by someone who may think badly of you.
These things are absolutely understandable, but are also predicted by Jesus as expected consequences of following him…it may even show that we are on the right track

2. PRIVATISM: this is the belief that religious concerns are separate from political concerns, therefore Christians should keep their faith out of the public sphere.

As I showed before, faith is a matter of allegiance, and allegiance is a matter of which power we will be loyal to.
Christian faith is always personal, but it is never private. It is impossible to look at Jesus, and the church of Acts, and conclude that our faith is meant to be kept out of the public sphere.
Christian faith is not captive to party politics, but that hardly means it is nonpolitical. Again, look at the conflicts Jesus has with the powers of his day; look at the way the apostles come into conflict with the powers of their day.

3. QUIETISM: this is the belief that ‘making a fuss’ in public is unproductive, and that the general public will be alienated from Christianity by public acts of witness.

It is true that political evangelism will alienate people, as it will attract some people. Jesus predicted this, and demonstrated it in his own ministry. So that’s not an argument against political evangelism
The question I would ask is – When has our social conformity assisted the church?
Nonconformism was the order of the day in the early church, and that attracted people!
I’m not arguing to be nonconformist unthinkingly, but for us, the church, to be our true selves, and not worry so much about what the world thinks
Quietism is actually a product of the Christendom worldview, in which state and church gave each other power. The church didn’t want to rock the boat because it had that power. Well, now we don’t have it! Let’s enjoy the freedom!

4. THE POWERS AND FAITH

The most insidious reason we don’t want to do Political Evangelism is that we believe that the powers of state and corporations are basically in sympathy with the aims of the church, that we are walking arm in arm, that we basically have the same idea of what a ‘good’ society is.
Now, if you believe that, then there is no reason for you to think about Political Evangelism.
But if we don’t believe that – that is, if we believe that the aims of the community of Jesus are in conflict with the aims of political and economic powers, then we need to use every weapon in our arsenal to bring that conflict to light.

Conclusion
Public witness to God’s kingdom is clear throughout the Bible and in Christian history. The questions is not whether to do it, because that has been answered, the questions are WHEN and HOW.

Surrender 2010

2010-03-04T22:56:23+00:00

Mar	Mar
5	8

Hi Guys,

Have you registered for surrender conference yet? Well get onto it. Good speakers and workshops are the norm, including this year has Dave Andrews “plan be” stuff and workshops run by the usual suspects of the radical discipleship, social justice and peace mobs. Oh and tear are running slum survivor plus the youth night is a fun celebration. So cya there.

What is it?

SURRENDER is a message (and a conference!) that invites and encourages Jesus followers on a journey from believer to disciple. It’s an invitation to follow Jesus among the poor, to influence the broader climate of church opinion and sow seeds for the future of incarnational mission. SURRENDER does this by focussing primarily on inspiring young adults to engage directly with God through the bible, people facing oppression and fellow disciples on the road.

http://surrender.org.au/

Palm Sunday Peace March 2010

2010-03-04T05:15:59+00:00

Mar

1:15 pm

Build not Bomb

Church Service - 1.15pm church service at Wesley Uniting Church, Lonsdale St

Peace March - 2.00pm @ State Library for silent march through city

Endorsed by: The Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament; Medical Association for Prevention of War; Japanese for Peace; Pax Christi; Maritime Union of Australia; Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative; Solidarity; Stand Fast

palm-sunday-poster (poster pdf - pls distribute)

Plus there’s a Vigil against the war on Afghanistan
Tue 16 March, 4-6pm, Defence Plaza, 661 Bourke St, Melbourne.

justact action - Help UCCP workers

2010-03-04T05:03:15+00:00

Get online and help Dr Alexis Montes, a lay leader in the health ministry of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and his health Worker colleagues.

There have been illegal arrests, disappearances and detentions.

This is an awfull situation involving people being put in danger. There has been llegal arrest and detention of 43 health workers in the Philippines including the prominent lay member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Dr Alexis Montes

We would be very grateful if you would consider using this easy online action in support of the doctor and his colleagues.

http://www.justact.org.au/just-take-action/

(Scroll down the link)

Please consider passing this on to interested friends or colleagues.

In the face of transience

2010-03-03T10:18:12+00:00

Today I got a phone call from the police. A friend of mine had been listed as missing – did I know anything? Two weeks ago, I had sat in his loungeroom-come-bedroom listening to his news that he would be moving away. Moving to a place a couple of hours drive away. “How long til you move?” “Oh, could be any day.” It was: 2 days later I got a call from the nurse at the facility he’d gone to, a much better place for him to be than in a 1 bedroom flat in Long Gully. He’d moved so quickly he hadn’t time to let his family know, hence the missing report.

Even though I know he is in improved circumstances, I feel a wave of frustration rise and fall. What is the use of building relationships when they are constantly eroded by transience? I have, many years ago, resolved that long-term relationships were necessary to unveil the reign of God, whether among the poor or whoever. I had decided that speaking out the good news needed to happen on the platform of trust and respect.

But it’s a lonely stance. Often, those we relate to want to move on to something else quickly. This is the case whether we are among the poor who want to rapidly escape, or among the general population for whom the next best thing can’t arrive too soon.

How do we deal with transience, when our theology inspires us to grounded lives and longevity?

Here’s a couple of ideas:
(1) We rid ourselves of any heroism: our desire to be the ‘key’ people in others’ transformation can cripple us when we no longer have the opportunity to be that ’significant’ person.

(2) We re-member ourselves: “re-membering” is recalling the fact that we are members of a body, a movement, a people that is far-spread. We, as individuals, are not it. That should give us some hope in the face of transience. As the biblical saying goes: some sow, others reap, and we enter into each others’ labour. When we can no longer be a part of a person’s life, someone else will take up the labour.

(3) We recall the Trinity: relational mission struggles with the tension of ends and means. Is the relationship for the purpose of more effective evangelism, or so that the person will have a better life? Or is it simply for the sake of the relationship? I don’t think there is an answer to this one, but in the face of transience we need to remember the Trinity; the Godhead in which relationship is essential to the character of God.

morepraxis gathering 2010

2010-02-25T04:55:11+00:00

Sep	Sep
17	19

It is time to think about 2010.

praxis10 - ???

Think, pray, play and meet with more of your tribe who long for a Christian spirituality that interconnects social action and theological reflection.
Been waiting for this? Good, so have we.

Where: Clifford Park Scouts camp site - Clifford Rd, Wonga Park VIC (Melways 24 J6)
45 mins from Melbourne
Online Rego soon and facebook event to help spam the gathering soonish

Costs PP: $45 Cabin, $30 Camp, Food $25 Adult/$15 Kids, Day Pass (including lunch & Dinner) $35, Dinner $30

This is an All Play event - Come ready to share.

You have been preparing all your life to lead a conversation on something - come prepared to engage that conversation but don’t stress on the preparation. Currently options include ‘lightning talks’ (your 5minutes of fame to spark more conversations), sacred space installation, labyrinth, teepee time, a tech hub, activist hub, a kids quest, sumo suit and music + your ideas/talents we would enjoy??

Also, there will be a space set aside for participants to propaganda/promote their group, cause, next action, t-shirt, study, book…. you get the idea. (byo for your promo space)

If you are at a junction where you need to think and chat about your vocation and the direction of your life with active, prayerful and wise mentors and co-travelers … there will be a bunch at praxis>10 to bounce ideas with.

If you are a family that is interested in connecting social justice and spirituality then this gathering has space for your needs. The site is well equipped for free play and organised chaos

Check out last year here http://www.regonline.com/praxis09

Put this in your diaries and help shape what we do here in the comments bit-

From the feedback from of last time - people like the campsite and all the options of how to attend, the dinner with guest speaker (Last year the infamous Lin H-D), the lightning talks, hanging out with interesting people and their families and the set workshops. Basically the shape was pretty good we just need a better way to signal when the next thing is starting and have some more teams.

The tricky bit is the feed back that a high point was meeting with different groups trying different things and that this is what was attractional to whether or not peeps came. SO that means for interesting people to come they need to know that interesting people are coming. Chickens and eggs comes to mind. So if you are coming and will be wowing us with your lightning talks and stories of fun adventures we need to know ahead of time so we can advertise you will be with us Great plan isn’t it!!

A basic night goes a little something like this..

2010-02-25T01:40:30+00:00

morepraxis hub is a UCA initiative that seeks to encourage, coach and engage young adults to be active locally and deeper spiritually.

The group will meet weekly on a Monday. The nights will involve elements and approaches of narrative and peer reflection groups, discussion, coaching, alt worship and bible study. For a while I have had an idea kicking around in my head that links social work theory, mystic wondering and bible reflection. This seems like a perfect opportunity to get it out of my head and let peeps play with it.

Plus, we will join with the Upper Room Project on the first Monday of the month a Shine Bar as a more social night.
and
Once a term we will have a night that focused on a topic or issue (chosen by the group) as arty, open mic, spoken word, improve styled creative something (I trust that is clear) :)

So a Basic night (goes a little something like this…)

Alt Worship. Reflective time in the space.

Welcome gathering time

Shared Journey 1 - Members chatting about how their life and spirituality is going.

Input - topics by request or a gospel chapter to ponder (starting with Mark)

Shared Journey 2 - Members chatting about their projects, ministries, current plans etc.

Reflect/Worship - Song prayer end

Food & Chat

Sound good?

UpperRoom - MPH RoadTrip

2010-02-25T00:44:26+00:00

Welcome Back!

The upper room project meets the first Monday of each month (6:-8:30pm) to engage with spirituality and justice as struggled with and fought for by the Prophets and Jesus. We meet upstairs in the Shine Café/Bar (74 Kingsway Glen Waverley) with gallery space, discussion corners, opportunity for practical response and pondering space.

We hope the upper room will be

Space to rest/relax with your tribe

Be challenged by the prophetic call of compassion

Connect with heartbeats for living

There will be food, wine and friends plus

Please bring your friends - all are welcome

This month Upper Room - We will have all the info for getting involved with the MAKEpovertyHISTORY road trip in May. Check their website here and our info here.

Basically it is 1000 16-26 yr olds traveling from the capital cities through marginal seats cause trouble and raising issues of poverty - converging in Canberra for a sum it with speakers, workshop bands etc. UCA is partnerin with our halls, cooks, agencies and trouble making ways

Get on board.

Oh and naturally we need ideas for the UpperRoom for the rest of the year and if you want to chat about the young adult hub … please do

Facebook event if your on it

Rob Bell: "the most inspiring book" An interview with Sara Miles

2010-02-24T08:01:36+00:00

My good mates over at JesusManifesto.com have posted an interview I have done with author Sara Miles about her new book which Rob Bell has called “

jesusfreak-200x300.jpg

Financial Survey for Seeds Bendigo

2010-02-24T00:36:40+00:00

This is a post out of the ordinary.

Some of you know that some of my income comes from donations kind people give me. This enables me to do work in my community in a flexible way, and gives space for things that governments probably won’t fund.

At the moment I’m trying to diversify my support base, and to help me do that, I need to know a few things about how people donate money.

I’d really appreciate if you could fill out the survey (follow the link). It’s anonymous unless you choose to give me your contact details. It is 10 multiple choice questions, and will take about 10 minutes. Cheers!
Click here to take survey

Ordinary Courage book launch: Donna Mulhearn with Neville Watson and Jo Vallentine

2010-02-22T06:54:54+00:00

‘In this powerful memoir, Donna Mulhearn’s courage and principles stand in damning contrast to the lies told in our name.

Orindary-courage-book-l.jpg

The Poor will always be…

2010-02-19T11:49:03+00:00

Tony Abbott, the poor and Jesus

ANDREW HAMILTON FEBRUARY 19, 2010 Eurekastreet

It is a commonplace to associate Tony Abbott’s politics with his Catholic faith. He certainly refers easily to the Catholic tradition in his speeches. This is helpful because it provides one gate to reflection on his policies.Last week at a meeting of Catholic Social Services he was asked whether he would commit himself to Kevin Rudd’s pledge to halve homelessness in Australia by 2020. He declined.

He expressed the desire to improve the present situation, but said many people chose to be homeless. He also expressed scepticism about the value of large gestures of commitment by politicians to heal social problems, contrasting it with the remark of Jesus, ‘The poor you have with you always’. He set this within a Catholic tradition of realistic social commitment to do what is possible, but not to expect to make the world perfect.

As casual remarks, Abbott’s comments were commonplace. But together they suggested that he does not see homelessness as a major priority. His remarks also provided the skeleton of a Christian justification for that position. So it may be helpful to look in a little more detail at the argument embodied in Jesus’ statement that we always have the poor with us. The phrase has often been used in Christian conversation to diffuse the claim that the poor make on us. But in context it is much richer in meaning.

The phrase, ‘The poor you have with you always’ occurs in a story told in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and John. The story occurs late in the Gospels when the hostility towards Jesus is moving to his arrest and death. A woman comes up to Jesus, breaks open a jar of expensive perfumed oil and pours it over his head. This leads to criticism of the extravagance of the gesture — the jar should have been sold and the money given to the poor. The criticism is variously attributed to bystanders, to Jesus’ disciples and to Judas who, it is noted, was a thief. The critics, plainly, are not the heroes of the story.

Continue reading over at Eureka Street

Lent Bible Studies

2010-02-19T02:08:26+00:00

Hi Guys

Peter Mallen has put together a Series of Bible studies to help you and your small groups prepare for Easter. The six Bible studies take up some core themes of discipleship. They are based on various readings from

the book of Acts, which forms a companion text to this year’s lectionary readings from the Gospel of Luke.

Acts records some of the exciting adventures of the early Christians but also provides many insights into the

joys and challenges of the Christian life.

Week 1 People of the Way
Week 2 Daring to be different
Week 3 Knowing the story
Week 4 Living the story
Week 5 Co‐operating with God
Week 6 Walking the way of the cross

Download here

PS. Tell me what you think and how they are working with your group(s).

easy hate, hard love: Cornel West on Obama & Climate Justice

2010-02-17T02:45:26+00:00

If you haven’t seen this

Cornel_West__Mos_Def.jpg

AVAAZ Action - Uganda

2010-02-16T10:27:18+00:00

Stop Uganda’s Gay Death Penalty

Uganda’s parliament is preparing to pass a brutal new law that would punish gay people with prison — even death.

Initial international criticism drove the President to call for a review. But after a well-funded and vicious lobbying effort by extremists, the bill looks set to be passed — threatening widespread persecution and bloodshed.

Opposition to the bill is rising, including from the Anglican church. Ugandan gay rights advocate Frank Mugisha writes, This law will put us in serious danger. Please, sign the petition and tell others to stand with us – if there’s a huge global response, our government will see that Uganda will be internationally isolated by the proposed law, and strike it down.

With the decision expected in days, only an irresistible wave of worldwide pressure will be enough to save Frank’s life and many others. Let’s build a huge petition to stop the gay death law — click here to take action, then forward this email:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_rights_4/?vl

The petition will be delivered to President Museveni and the parliament at the end of this week by top Ugandan civil society and Church leaders. Pro-death penalty advocates have also planned a march this week, so our voices need to be louder than theirs!

The bill proposes life imprisonment for anyone convicted of having same-sex relations and imposes the death penalty for “serial offenders”. NGOs working to prevent the spread of HIV could be imprisoned for up to 7 years for “promoting homosexuality”. Even members of the public face up to three years in jail if they fail to report homosexual activity to the police within 24 hours!

The bill’s advocates claim that it defends national culture, but its strongest critics come from within Uganda. The Reverend Canon Gideon Byamugisha is one of many who’s written to us – he says,

It is violating our cultures, traditions and religious values that teach against intolerance, injustice, hatred and violence. We need laws to protect people — not ones that will humiliate, ridicule, persecute and kill them en masse.

By rejecting this dangerous bill and supporting the breadth of opposition to it, we can help set a crucial precedent. Let’s build massive support for Uganda’s human rights defenders, and save lives by stopping this bill — sign now here, then tell friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_rights_4/?vl

With hope and determination,

Alice, Ricken, Ben, Paul, Benjamin, Pascal, Raluca, Graziela and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES

African letter to Ugandan President to throw out Anti-Homosexual Bill:
http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=22761

Ugandan church leader brands anti-gay bill ‘genocide’:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/dec/04/gideon-byamugisha-homosexuality-bill

Human Rights Impact Assessment of Uganda’s Anti-homosexuality Bill By Sylvia Tamale, The Dean of Law at Uganda’s Makerere University:
http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/african-affairs/human-rights-impact-assessment-ugandas-anti-homosexuality-bill-sylvia-tamal

MPH roadtrip

2010-02-16T01:25:03+00:00

Endorsing Statement from Adrian Greenwood (Wow! I know!!)

Make Poverty History (MPH) is a campaign the Uniting Church has supported and engaged with for many years from policy development, to political lobbing, education, service and aid partnerships throughout the world. The MPH Roadtrip is a great opportunity for our young adults to put their faith in action.

At NCYC in Jan 2009 young people of the UCA articulated, demonstrated and celebrated a Good News that is both personally and socially transformative. Thousands of us engaged in public liturgy, acts of protest, service, social action and pranks, flash mobs and research. This May I am proud to encourage our UCA young people to join the MPH Roadtrip to engage their towns and country to make poverty history. We as the UCA are in an excellent position to help with local actions, provide hospitality in our churches and opportunities to see our agencies working to make a better world. So join in already.

http://www.theroadtrip.com.au/

So the UCA are partnering with the roadtrip. This means churches can host groups (accom & food), help organise actions and activities in your town when they come past. Also we (uca) have found some $ to help get your young peeps to it 50 UCA people get $100 towards their costs.

Contact oaktree, Tess, me or your state youth person to chat more about getting on board the roadtrip.

mph-roadtrip-information-final pdf info file

Al’s support letter (the useful one )

Rev Alistair Macrae - UCA President letter of support

Warm New Year greetings to you!

I write this letter to tell you about the Uniting Church in Australia’s involvement in the 2010 MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Roadtrip, organised for May this year.

The Uniting Church has been strongly involved in the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign for many years and is committed to doing our part to combat global poverty.

The MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Roadtrip will mobilise young people from across Australia, including many of our own young people, and equip them with valuable skills and experiences in advocacy and campaigning for a fairer world. The Roadtrip also aims to raise awareness about the Millennium Development Goals and issues of poverty with both the young people taking part and members of the community involved along the way.

I encourage you to read the enclosed information about the Roadtrip. Please consider ways your congregation might be involved in this exciting opportunity to engage with and support this journey of these passionate young people acting against poverty.

There are many ways you can be involved ranging from encouraging and sponsoring your youth to participate in the Roadtrip, to providing hospitality for the group passing through your area. The Oaktree Foundation is coordinating this project and the Uniting Church has been asked to take this particular role because of our long involvement in the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign, our concern for justice and our reputation for hospitality.

The Uniting Church joins with Christians worldwide in calling and acting for equality and justice for all. Your support of this Roadtrip is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate that we take this call seriously.

I am looking forward to supporting and participating in this road trip myself. I might see you somewhere along the way!

I commend it strongly for your prayerful attention.

May God bless the worship, witness and service of your congregation in 2010.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Rev Alistair Macrae

EPYC's Emma Palandri on “Why care about the poor?”

2010-02-15T07:22:43+00:00

Dr. Cornel West while speaking at Martin Luther King’s church in Atlanta on Martin Luther King Day this year said “To aspire to be a saint is to be a redeemed sinner who looks at the world through the lens of the heart.” E.P.Y.C.

Emma_Palandri.jpg

Youth Development & the Media

2010-02-15T00:36:03+00:00

Last Friday, a Central Victorian teenager (19 y.o) was sentenced to 18 months in a youth justice centre for being involved in 3 high-speed pursuits in the past 18 months, a sensitive issue in Bendigo given our ‘hoon capital’ status. At this point, you are probably looking for a hyperlink to the news article in which I found this information, but I’m not going to give to it to you.

I’m not going to give it to you because this post is not about the rightness of the sentence (the young man is obviously a danger to others) but about the media’s role. The newspaper is tabloid-sized, and this story completely covered the front page with a photo of the man, plus his name in the headline. I realise that, given he is 18 and had pleaded guilty, his face and name can be published. The newspaper acted legally, but did they act ethically?

As we go beyond the headlines, we find that this man’s father was killed in a car accident 10 years ago. Suddenly he transforms in our eyes from a 19 year old hoon to a 9 year old boy discovering his father is no longer alive. Any superficial study of youth development tells us that parents, particularly fathers, are key to a young boy becoming a responsible adult. A $65,000 payout from the TAC was put in a trust fund after this accident. At age 18, the boy promptly wasted it in a predictable stream of prodigality. I think we can confidently assume that this boy has not had the opportunity to develop in a healthy way.

This newspaper’s actions are unethical. There is no public benefit served in publishing this story in this way. There is no benefit to the man found guilty. There is no deterrent effect, because any other so-called ‘hoon’ will see this as a special case because of his father’s death. The only effect is to stir up ill-feeling towards young people. Of course, this is not an isolated occurrence in the media. Young people doing stupid & criminal things are constantly in the news. In youth and social work this is called a ‘deficit approach’, in which the media chooses to highlight negative characteristics of young people. On page 13 of the same newspaper, Father Chris Riley (right) from Youth off the Streets spoke to 300 young people about leadership and character….putting that on the front page would have been fantastic.

Publishing this story is legitimate, but allow an obviously damaged young person the privacy needed to rehabilitate.

about face 2010 applications close soon

2010-02-12T01:19:26+00:00

Applications for the About FACE 2010 program close in 2 weeks – Friday 26^th February, 2010!

About FACE 2010 is a Faith And Cultural Exchange for young adults between 18 and 30 years, to take place from 26^th June to 17^th July, 2010. Participants will elect to spend two weeks in a placement with either an Aboriginal community in Australia, or with one of our partner churches in the Asia-Pacific region. The About FACE program is an exciting and strategic opportunity for young adults to participate in the reconciliation and covenanting process with Aboriginal communities in Australia, and to share in solidarity with partner churches in the region.

The program will raise awareness of what it means to live in a global community, and to share resources and opportunities responsibly and with justice. It aims to create an ‘about face’ in the attitudes and lifestyles of participants, and to build relationships and bridges of understanding. About FACE is not simply an event for an individual, but is a shared experience with congregations and communities.

In 2010, placements will be within indigenous Australian communities, SE Asia, South Asia and the Pacific.

For more information please visit the About FACE website – www.aboutface.org.au (the website is currently in the process of being upgraded, so it may look a little different from when you visited last time). You are also welcome to contact either Jill or Tess in the Justice & International Mission Unit on (03) 9251 5271 or info@aboutface.org.au

note from Age

Hi guys if your thinking of applying but are unsure if it is for you …. then that wonder mean yes it is you - register already and I will see you at briefing. - I’m already looking forward to this years mob - gotta love about face!!!

facebook event here

If Jesus had a gun who would he shoot?

2010-02-04T23:07:37+00:00

Article in the Age by Simon - the picture selection by me

As reported in The Age last week (22/1), the Australian Defence Force has swiftly removed biblical references from soldiers’ gunsights manufactured by US company Trijicon.

The gunsights, which some US Army commanders have dubbed ‘’spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ”, have scripture references stamped next to their serial numbers.

These revelations have once again raised questions over the connection between religion, particularly Christianity, and violence. As a Christian and a church leader I could not be more appalled at the distortion of Christianity these inscriptions represent. It seems timely then to make a solid defence of the non-violence of Christianity. As the great Indian independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, said: ”Jesus Christ is the most perfect example of non-violence in history,” and paused before adding, ”And the only people who don’t realise this are Christians.”

Of course, there have been times throughout history when people have invoked the name of God or Jesus to justify their violence. However, this should not be confused with genuine Christianity, even when it is sanctioned by high ecclesial authorities.

The Christian church remained faithful to the non-violence of its founder for the first 300 years of its history, as even those in the military who converted refused to bear arms. It was only when Christianity became imposed by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century that Cicero’s ”just war” theory was adapted to justify Constantine’s plundering.

Non-violence itself is often mistaken for passivity. This is a misnomer - one must be actively engaged in the struggle against violence and oppression to be non-violent. Non-violent people not only refuse to threaten, hurt or kill those who oppose them, but they actively engage the other’s humanity, seeking their opponent’s transformation as well as their own and those they defend. This is what the church was intended to be - a non-violent army transforming the world not with a gun, but with active love.

However, non-violent action sometimes raise tensions or causes disruption to the status quo, as Jesus frequently demonstrates. While he overturns the tables in the temple and drives out the sheep and cattle (saving them from being sacrificed), he never hurts anyone. But he is absolutely not passive.

continue reading and looking at the comments over here

Out of interest I went looking for the bible reference and look what I found.. the ACOG4X32JN8:12.

John 8:12 = When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

That’s a nice passage to inspire the soldier to shoot - pity the context leading up to this statement is the whole ‘who will cast the first stone at the woman’, everyone leaves from the oldest to the youngest and Jesus final statement to her John 8:11″Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

morepraxis eastside

2010-02-04T22:57:29+00:00

Hi peeps I am here to recruit you.

The St Stephen’s Community Living Centre (SSCLC) has granted us (by us I mean you and me) a year to see what a morepraxis young adult hub may look like, get up to and become.

SSCLC is where Ringwood East UC congregation used to meet before joining up with Ringwood UC. We have the opportunity to help develope with SSCLC the church end of the building to be a more arty and spirituality type of space for us and the community. Very cool.

I would like to begin this thrilling adventure with a weekly Young Adult gathering and running an easter week art installation.

What will we do? Well naturally the weekly group would be open to be shaped by the needs of the group. However as base I am keen to host this group with time spent on growing personal discipleship/spirituality, time to focus on projects that members have back in their own congregations, action groups etc and some input that help both of these. I hope we will be YAs who are looking for a place to think, chat, question and grow (and don’t get it in other places) and YAs who are busy leading groups but need something for themselves. Basically I hope we strengthen each other to do new and better things back in our existing world but with a new place to find support and whinge.

In my official chats with SSLC it goes a little something like this…

morepraxis hub “seeks to encourage, coach and engage young adults to be active locally and deeper spiritually”.

Hub = a network of Young Adults in the region meeting to grow in discipleship and support each other. Sharing their faith journey and supporting helping each other with their ministry and projects

Locally = members in congregations on the eastside, leaders of youth groups, action groups and communities where they currently participate

Coaching = host/key leader and peers meeting to bounce ideas off and help think through missional, creative and radical initiatives.

The goals of the hub would be

Firstly to create a place for people to grow in discipleship while not removing people from their local contexts & communities.
Secondly, to create a strong network of Young Adults that can help our UCA start and sustain new endeavors.
Thirdly, to simply create a space for young adults to explore, question and grow in their spirituality.

So if you are a keen to join the organising group or simply interstetd in joingning the group. Contact me. age@morepraxis.org.au

Currently the organising group has Tess, Jen, Rod and myself… the group itself has at least one other member not on the team… so you see we do need you to join.

(This will be too far away from many but it is a start and I am happy to see and help other morepraxis hubs pop up westside, southside, broadside, farside wherever… )

So What do you think?

olympic games 2

2010-02-03T01:49:58+00:00

Found this on the back of Issue #47 of the Brisbane Catholic Worker paper ‘Mutual Aid’ (circa mid-2000). I offer it as we go into the circus that will be the Winter Olympics…

Young people charged with Bendigo fires

2010-02-02T04:49:57+00:00

I read with trepidation that today, 2 young people have been arrested and charged over the Black Saturday fires in Bendigo.

In one sense, I am glad that someone has been caught. The stupidity and malice of lighting a fire on that day is obvious, and I still recall with fear making my home safe and helping neighbours as the fire burned in Long Gully.

The lives are lost, the houses are burned, the land is scorched. Those things have happened and cannot be undone. People are rebuilding their homes and communities are licking their wounds together, and beginning to recover. It has been a time of unprecedented cooperation, imbued with a generous spirit.

As well as being a Long Gully resident, I am also a youth worker. I know many of the local young people, and their families, and I am checking through them in my mind, wondering if it is one of them. The condemnation that will rain down upon them and their families will be harsh.

As these 2 young people come to the Bendigo courthouse today, I pray that a spirit of pity would be there. It would be easy for us to persecute, rather than simply prosecute, these 2 young people.

Hear me clearly; if they are found guilty, they deserve punishment. Justice must be done. But it needs to be the kind of punishment, and the kind of justice, that restores them as full members of our community, with a sense of responsibility and care towards it, so that they may never again harm our community. If we persecute and punish them beyond repair, they will hurt others in return. Somehow, we need to discipline with love, a difficult task but we have seen the courage and strength that Victorians have. Let us bring that same courage and strength to our enemies.

Simon Moyle

2010-01-30T07:02:16+00:00

When I saw the ‘Jesus gun’ scandal while I was away last week, I wanted to respond publicly and loudly.

So here it is: my life’s work in one opinion piece…obviously it doesn’t say all that can be said, or must be said, but it’s a start.

The Virgin & the Abbott

2010-01-29T04:34:34+00:00

Sex and politics – always such a winning combination. And politicians can’t win. If they have an extramarital affair, they are pilloried. But if they advocate abstinence, they are barbecued. Seems the only option for a politician is to shut up about sex (but make sure they have a stable marriage). Tony Abbott, Federal Opposition leader, found that out this week. For those not in the know, Abbott recently gave an interview with the Women’s Weekly in which he said the following:

I would say to my daughters, if they were to ask me this question, I would say … it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don’t give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say.

The slapdown from the media and in the political arena was fairly rapid. Julia Gillard: “These comments will confirm the worst fears of Australian women about Tony Abbott”. Gabriella Coslovich in The Age: “If I were one of Abbott’s daughters I would be furious to have my value reduced to the state of my hymen”. Most of the responses centred on the desirability of bonking whoever you like without criticism.

Tony Abbott was trapped by the fact that politicians, like every public figure these days, must engage on a personal level as well as a political level. To challenge Labor, he must be liked by the Australian people, as well as having attractive policies. Hence the Women’s Weekly interview. However, Abbott’s insistence that the piece was a ‘personal’ and ‘not political’ doesn’t stand up either because the only reason we care is because he is a politician. Most of the hysteria whipped up on his comments is simply fluff that we can safely ignore. Many commentators simply don’t like Tony. Abbott is an abrasive politician, and those opposed to him will take any opportunity to denigrate him. This is to be expected, and Abbott shouldn’t be surprised. But there are a couple of interesting issues touched on in this episode.

The first is Is it valid for politicians to comment on so-called ‘private’ matters? I argue that not only is it valid, it should be positively encouraged. I want to know what my political representatives actually think, not just rely on carefully controlled media releases. One of the attractive things about Tony Abbott (bar budgie smugglers) is the unscripted nature of his public appearances. That could be spin too, but I prefer it to the airbrushed image that Rudd conveys. Added to this is the artificial separation between private and public issues. Rudd referred to this in his response to Abbott, opining that governments should focus on health, climate change and war-mongering, and leave the ‘private’ issues to individuals. I assume he means that sex is a private issue. That didn’t stop him writing a long essay on his religious faith before the election.

These issues are ‘personal’ but they are not ‘private’ in the sense of having no public interest. All relationships, including sexual ones, have to deal with the public dimension, even if it extends only to excluding the public. In fact, our definition of what is ‘private’ and therefore off-limits to politicians, god-botherers and in-laws, is quite fluid. For some, our voting choices are strictly private (though regulated by government), for others it’s our bank balance (though regulated by government), for others it’s our eating habits (though regulated by government). For others it’s our choice of school (though regulated by government). All our supposedly private choices are regulated to some degree by government. Even, yes, sex is regulated by government.

So, to get down the root of it all, the real issue is not whether politicians should comment on ‘private’ issues, but Should government regulate relationships? And how should they be regulated? And, for the god-botherers like me, is there any validity in trying to persuade such regulation on the basis of my religiously-grounded beliefs?…stay tuned

Missionary Virtue of Keeping Your Trap Shut

2010-01-22T04:41:08+00:00

A while ago I wrote on the Missionary Virtue of Talking Over People. In that prior post, I argued that:

Missionaries need to talk over people. Regularly. Frequently. With godly vigour and fervour. I’ve been through some soul-searching over this one, people, but the kingdom of God requires rudeness beyond measure, inconsideration like we have never dreamed of. Yes, we need to start interrupting monologues with witty comments and jokes. Brothers and sisters, divert the flow of verbal sewerage into the decontamination plant of conversational purity with well-placed questions. Ah yes, even questions that have nothing to do with the conversation whatsoever. Place a gag in those overworked gums of that child of God, fill that space where they drew breath with a barrage of your own trivial stories…

Well, maybe I got a bit sweaty about that one, a little extreme. So, in the interests of paradoxical truth, let me know speak of the opposite. Keeping my trap shut is a lovely phrase, which I’ve never thought about until now. ‘Trap’ being my mouth….now that’s an intriguing metaphor. What does my mouth entrap exactly? Most of the time, myself. Little wonder that short passage in James has become so famous.

Yet, I feel strangely unmotivated writing about shutting up and letting someone else talk. ‘Being a good listener’ has become such a part of “good” Christian identity that I am loathe to add to the mass, or morass, of verbosity about why we should listen and how we should listen and that listening to people’s stories will change the world. It’s all so…polite, which is probably why I vented my spleen previously.

But, I will manfully try to justify why keeping your trap shut is a missionary virtue:

I don’t often have anything useful to say: in mission, you will often befriend people who are in pain. They may be isolated, unemployed, ill, mentally unwell, oppressed, abused, dirt poor; often simultaneously. I haven’t experienced this kind of enduring multiplicity of pain, my daily experience of hardship being lack of chocolate. Talking much in the face of this pain is harmful; the best we can do is make sure they know we’re listening

When I do have something useful to say, it doesn’t need many words: in graced moments, the right thing worms it way through thickets of useless platitudes. Our words and the situation of the person happily congeal. When this happens, stop. Keep your trap shut. Say your bit and don’t wreck it by (my personal downfall) repeating the same truth in 3 other ways.

Well, that’s about all I can think of at the moment.

Butchering Bikes

2010-01-19T02:28:41+00:00

Bike Butcher, the social enterprise run by Ali Turnbull and Finn den Otter in Long Gully, has been getting some attention in the local Bendigo press. It’s one of 2 social enterprises in the Seeds Network – the second is the Urban Bean cafe in Norlane, run by the Urban Seed. In addition, the Seeds Bendigo mob has initiated a business forum for Long Gully. For a network primarily interested in relationship & hospitality, why are we supporting businesses?

For those of you who know me a bit, you will have heard me rave about “The Social Entrepeneur”, a book by Andrew Mawson, an English clergyman who turned his decrepit church into a centre for social enterprises – initiatives that are based on the following principle:

We know that every human being has a unique talent. By applying these talents in local communities it is possible to make them strong and vibrant instead of soulless and “deprived”. What matters is backing people before structures.

Andrew sought out people in his disadvantaged area who were passionate about an idea, and supported them to get it going as a business. I cried when I read his book. It wasn’t sad, rather the joy and hope that sang through his stories got to my heart. He was describing truly Christian community development.

Welfare Mentality vs Social Entrepreneurship
One of the sad things about Christian community work is that it often gets dependent on handouts, just like the people it aims to serve. Once dependent, we stick with programs that will ensure the transfusion of funds that we need. We eventually find we have strayed from our original purpose. We internalise the same Welfare Mentality that afflicts many of those we serve and become unable to break free of its bonds.

Social Entrepreneurship rejects this way of being and working. It starts with what people are passionate about, not what gains funding. It supports that passion, but always with the aim of self-sufficiency. I think this is incredibly important in poorer communities, because independence from outside help breeds confidence, dignity, responsibility and generosity. The constant supply of government benefits, cheaper housing, food handouts etc breeds apathy, boredom and self-loathing.

The Kingdom & Social Entrepreneurship
The links between God’s reign and social entrepreneurship need to be teased out. But some preliminary thoughts are:

God created humans with passions and desires to create. Social Entrepreneurship taps into those passions and desires, whereas Welfare Mentality drains passion and desire from a person.
Dependence, as in Welfare Mentality, is the flip side of domination. God did not create people to be dependent on others, but interdependent. Social Entrepreneurship enables people, especially the poor, to contribute to others as well as receive.
God created humans with the need to give. Welfare Mentality focusses on receiving, which makes us bloated and unhealthy. The gospel motivates us to give, and when we do we find that feel more human than ever.

More to think about here…

But for now, if in Geelong go to Urban Bean, and if you want to support Bike Butcher, buy a cool fixie.

Haiti Appeal

2010-01-15T06:02:29+00:00

Many congregations and individuals have expressed their desire to help in prayerful and practical ways the people of Haiti, following the recent earthquake that has devastated the island.

The UCA Vic/Tas Moderator, Ms Isabel Thomas Dobson has commended the Haiti Earthquake Relief Appeal by the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCC), who is raising funds for distribution.

“The images from Haiti of utter destruction from the earthquake prompt our response as Christians in prayer and practical aid.

“Please pray for all in the complex and desperate task of rescue and rebuilding.

For practical assistance the National Council of Churches of Australia, through its relief agency Act for Peace, has launched an appeal that will connect with the international churches and churches in Haiti,” Ms Thomas Dobson said.

The NCCA has requested that congregations conduct a retiring offering this Sunday or the next. You can donate directly to the NCCA website: www.ncca.org.au

Alternatively, SHARE, of the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania has indicated they will collect funds from individuals and congregations and forward them through to the NCCA for its Haiti Appeal.

People can donate via the SHARE web site www.shareappeal.org.au, by phoning 1800 668 426 or by posting to GPO Box 4355, Melbourne, 3001.

Whale Wars, South Park & a table turning nonviolence

2010-01-14T04:23:36+00:00

[first posted on Jim Wallis’ blog: http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/13/south-park-eco-prophets-and-whale-wars/]

sea-shep-interview.JPG

Simon Moyle

2010-01-13T02:12:29+00:00

It’s taken longer than usual, but here’s my soundtrack to 2009. Like a movie soundtrack, music accompanies events and periods of my life. This is a way to reflect on my year AND have a productive outcome – a compilation album of quality music. I recommend any and all of these songs and the albums they come from. Enjoy!

Marker in the Sand – Pearl Jam
I went on a massive Pearl Jam bender for the last 6 months of the year, just putting every Pearl Jam album I have on my mp3 player and soaking it up. Who knows why? But this was a standout. Great light and shade.

Counting Crows – Cowboys (live from Palais Theatre, Melbourne, 27-3-09)
After cancelling their Australian tour 4 years ago, they finally came back – and it was worth the wait. In two nights they blew through two MASSIVE sets of more than 22 songs each, repeating just one. The main song I wanted to hear was Cowboys. When they opened with it, I knew it would be a good night.

Wake Up – Rage Against the Machine
One night this year I just happened to catch a new documentary called Chicago 10. Strangely I’d never heard of these guys who had been arrested and tried as the Chicago 7 (then 8 when Bobby Seale was indicted, and now they call themselves the Chicago 10 because their lawyers got caught up in it…). Anyway, it was a truly inspiring story of a bunch of activists who proceed, at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, to make a public mockery of the government and judicial systems by their wit, humour, and anti-establishment spirit. The director decided that if he was going to tell this story in 2009, he would need to update the music. This is from the soundtrack.

Adelaide – Ben Folds Five
I made two trips to Adelaide this year – once to be keynote for a Uniting Church young leaders conference, and the other to hang out with my friend John Dear for the weekend. Both were amazing. I did warn the UC crew with my opening line, “I might as well apologise now. Everything I know about Adelaide I learned from Ben Folds.”

Onion Skin – Boom Crash Opera
I picked up the best of BCO for about $10 and it transported me back to my high school years like a crazy time machine…anyway, January 2009 was devoted to them as well. I have a vivid memory of listening to all of these on repeat during the National Christian Youth Convention I was involved in, so this was the soundtrack to having 150 Christian kids descend on BAe Systems, the world’s 3rd largest weapons manufacturer. Weird? Yes.

Inside Job – Pearl Jam
Great patient buildup.

I’ll not lose my faith
It’s an inside job today
I know this one thing…

Landslide – Lior
Yeah, what can I say. I just like it.

Live Forever – Oasis
Counting Crows do an amazing piano version of this as an intro to Long December, but if you don’t already know the original you really need to. Classic. I listened to this a lot this year.

Maybe
I don’t really wanna know
How your garden grows
‘Cos I just wanna fly…

Ain’t Got Time to Die – Acapella
The first time I heard this song was Jarrod singing it in the back of the police transporter on the way back to Rockhampton. We ran through every spiritual we knew, and then taught each other ones we didn’t. It was so much fun, and I realised that this is what group singing is for – to collectively affirm truths when we most need them, and to deepen the meaning of things at such times. If we don’t practice them together beforehand we don’t have them to reach for when we need them.

Lord I keep so busy workin’ for the Kingdom
I keep so busy workin’ for the Kingdom
Keep so busy workin’ for the Kingdom
Ain’t got time to die

Come in from the Cold – Joni Mitchell
Have I had a yearly soundtrack without Joni in it? I don’t always listen to her, but there’s always a time of year when I listen to her a lot. This happened to be in the dead of winter. Perfect.

Back in 1957
We had to dance a foot apart
And they hawkeyed us from the sidelines
Holding their rulers without a heart
And so with just a touch of the fingers
It could make our circuitry explode
All we ever wanted was just to come in from the cold

Counting Crows – Miami (live from Palais Theatre, Melbourne, 30-03-09)
As I said, they repeated just one song in their two Melbourne shows. That song was Miami, and they did it electric the first night, and then acoustic the other. This is the acoustic version, and includes a new interlude.

If you knew everything
If you could see everything
Before it happened
What would you do?
If you knew that the love that you threw away
Would mean everything to her
If you knew it would ruin her
What would you do?

Let It Go – Resonance Choir
This is the closing song for inspiral evening prayers (a Leunig poem set to music), but it gained new meaning for me in Queensland in July. It was my first night in the lockup, and we put in solitary. They wouldn’t let us eat, and wouldn’t give me my prayer book, but I sang this song to the cells around me for an hour as a prayer and a meditation. This is a recording of Anthony’s old choir too – listen out for him!

The Path to Your Door – Gyan and Leunig (with Paul Kelly)
My birthday gift from Chris and Jane was this remarkable cd of a woman called Gyan who has put a whole bunch of Leunig poems to music. From the strange (Billy the Rabbit is dead) to the beautiful (Summer Palace), it’s a truly fascinating listen. I never fail to find this one deeply moving.

UCAyouth Kickoff

2010-01-12T01:20:19+00:00

Jan

7:30 pm

UCA YOUTH KICKOFF on the 30^th of Jan.

As you can see we have a great line up of Simeon, Tam Peters and DJ Rave’nMad. Check out Simeon and Tam’s websites, they have samples of their music.

We are inviting you with your friends to go the beach for the arvo then have fish and chips for dinner before you walk up the road to St Andrews where we will have the open air café happening and dance hall going off.

This is a great chance for groups to kick off the year together and be part of the wider community of young people in VicTas. If you are from the country and would like to stay overnight, please get in touch with me and we can organise something.

If you are unable to make it to our gathering can I suggest you get together with your group and go out for dinner. This way you can be part of the greater gathering even though you are unable to make it to Black Rock. If this is what you are doing then please let me know about it.

cya all there!!

Facebook event here

eurekastreet-vigil for slain Indian student

2010-01-08T02:17:23+00:00

Below is a great reflection from Cara. Thanks and good stuff Cars.

Keeping vigil for slain Indian student

CARA MUNRO JANUARY 06, 2010

They came to stop the violence. Four, maybe five of them, in dark hooded jackets and pale, worn jeans. Hovering uncertainly in the car park. Shadow-like. Haunted.

Wrongly, we assumed they had come to join us. It was 9.30pm, and we were gathered outside the place to which he had come, bleeding, begging for help. We had initiated this gathering: ‘Bring a flower. Bring a candle. Spread the word. Spread the word.’ And so with short notice we had gathered. With short notice, the word had spread.

Now, these newcomers. It was ‘the media’, angling for a statement, that had alerted them: ‘How do you feel about the protests planned for outside Hungry Jack’s tonight?’ Not wishing for violence to answer violence, the small group of Indian students, who introduced themselves as the housemates and friends of Nitin Garg, had come to stop us.

Greg was the first to respond, with a pastor’s face, wise to the inadequacy of words at times like these. Then Xingi, or was it Soph, with long stalks of white roses. Candles.

On the mutual ground of the restaurant car park we explained that we were simply people from the community. Christians, many of us. Concerned. Compelled. Our desire, like theirs, was for the violence to end. We asked them to join us.

continue reading over at eurekastreet

Where you stand determines what you see

2010-01-08T02:15:57+00:00

Hi Guys,

I have always believed it to be true that where you stand determines what you see. Thus, I think it’s a radical discipleship practice to stand with those without the power.

Below is the ICR’s Video of the crash and then below that the Sea Shepherd’s Video of the crash.

Both are using the footage of the same incident to back up their own position.

What do you think?

ICR’s Clip

Sea Shepherd’s Clip

resisttalismansabre

2009-12-30T19:53:31+00:00

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/12/24/protesting-pair-found-guilty-of-blocking-army/ It wasn’t until I went to Christmas mass that I grasped an appreciation of our anti-war court scene and witness in Rockhampton this past Christmas week. Our local priest gave a fine reflection on the nativity, juxtaposing the empires of this world, the endless wars of Pax Romana/Americana countered by the absurdity of the nonviolent [...]

defence plaza

2009-12-29T23:50:03+00:00

About fifteen of us gathered outside Victoria Barracks on a perfect sunny day in late December. It was a day many people were hunting for the post-Christmas Day bargains, and many others were immersed in the dramas of the Boxing Day test. It was also the eve of the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the day the church commemorates the children killed by Herod in an attempt to get to Jesus and maintain his grip on power. A day we remember all modern day regimes which see thousands of lives as acceptable “collateral damage” in their quests for power, control, resources and military might.

Beginning with an acknowledgment of the history of this feast day, and of how far away such wars seemed to us, we read the story from Matthew together. We then spent some time naming modern day situations where innocents continue to be killed by power-hungry elites.

East Timor. Afghanistan. Sudan. West Papua. Phillippines. Iraq. Australia’s refugee policy. Each with thousands of innocent victims of power politics and military domination. Each considered acceptable collateral damage. We rang a bell for each of them.

Finally, we remembered the plight of the Palestinian people, recognising that even as we sat together, thousands of people were gathering on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza, preparing to nonviolently break the blockade, bringing food, aid and medical supplies to the people of Gaza. This was particularly poignant given the Matthew passage, which speaks of “a voice heard in Ramah” (the modern day West Bank), “wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be consoled, because they are no more.” The contrast of fear exhibited by Herod and modern day Israel, and the resulting victims of their fear, with the angels appearing to Mary, Zechariah, the shepherds, each time greeting them with the phrase, “Do not be afraid!” These stories continue to play themselves out before our eyes, on the evening news.

With that, we rose together and began to make our way north to the centre of the city, led by our four metre banner reading “End the Afghanistan War”. In peak shopping season, the city was packed. Reaction was mixed – from mouthed “thankyous”, clapping and nods, to rolled eyes, to outright hostility. Mostly it just registered on people’s faces as an interruption to business as usual (literally).

Turning through Bourke Street Mall we made our way west to Defence Plaza, a fairly nondescript city building housing the Defence Department in Melbourne. Here we paused to reflect on the experience, on connections we had made, and on where to from here.

We finished with prayer, and dispersed from there.

My own reflections are on how we do this action/reflection stuff deeply and honestly and yet involve our children. War and its effects on innocents are confronting issues. We brought our kids (3 under 6), and did our best to explain to them the significance of the day. I think it’s important that we continue to do that. But we shied away from anything graphic or affecting, talking only in general terms. This is something we will continue to wrestle with as parents and as activists.

I also think that continuing to act in concert with the liturgical year will greatly enhance our understanding of the gospel and our faith and discipleship, and our ability to sustain action over the long haul. Wrestling with these stories as part of an action brings them home, sharpens their contours, and deepens our engagement.

Feature Clip - Muppets

2009-12-29T22:31:49+00:00

Happy New Year

Clipping an angel’s wings

2009-12-28T23:44:53+00:00

http://cpt.org/

28 December 2009

HEBRON REFLECTION: Clipping an angel’s wings

by Johann Funk

She is the vision of innocence, peering up into the dull eyes of a soldier towering over her. She can only be four or five years old. Black slacks with a green striped short skirt fanning out beneath her short black jacket indicate that she is a kindergarten student. She strains to hand the backpack, which is half her length, up to the soldier who orders her to stop. He systematically opens every zipper and plunges his hands into each pocket before handing the backpack back. It slumps to the ground. The little girl carefully closes the zippers and with considerable effort slings the backpack onto her back; the young soldier, who has moved on to the next search, has already forgotten her. She stumbles as she hurries to catch up with her friends. This encounter is a significant part of her education under the Israeli occupying power, which seeks to clip her fragile wings.

I feel helpless, angry and sad all at once. What can I do? I observe, I document, I report but it is not enough, it is never enough to change significantly the severity of the occupation, let alone to end it. I rationalize that what I do is part of a larger struggle but this answer is never completely satisfying. My angel at Qitoun Checkpoint is still dehumanized as an enemy, invisible to international geopolitics, despite my feeble efforts. All I can do is reflect, pray and enter into the suffering God must experience when he sees what is done in his name for the sake of Israeli settlers in Hebron.

Why direct action for climate change?

2009-12-18T04:36:59+00:00

This was first posted at Jim Wallis’ blog God’s Politics here

cop15-fb2.jpg

Obama's Nobel War speech: What if?

2009-12-18T02:46:14+00:00

Over at Jim Wallis blog God’s Politics I’ve been asking “What if” Obama took a different direction at Oslo?

OObama_sorry_cliamte_change.jpg

jarrodmckenna

2009-12-18T02:24:54+00:00

What if Obama had made a study of the few places nonviolence was tried against Hitler (like in Denmark) and successfully halted Hitler’s armies and saved the lives of 7,000 Jews? What if instead of merely quoting the Balkans, Obama made a real study of the nonviolent movement “Otpor!” that brought down Slobodan Milosevic? What if Obama fought terrorism by taking the billions in his war budget (which exceeds that of George W. Bush), and invested it in grassroots community development, health care, and education in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq (and at home)?

Climate Justice clips EPYC thinks worth watching

2009-12-18T01:40:38+00:00

Over at Jim Wallis blog I’ve being blogging in the lead up to and during COP 15.

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Let us put away childish things…

2009-12-17T04:02:28+00:00

In an effort to inject a smidge of reality into our family Christmas celebration, we’ve been trying to get hold of a quality nativity scene lately, and finding it pretty difficult. Australia is apathetic towards the Christian meaning of Christmas, so we’ve been looking overseas. Catholic countries in Central America do a roaring trade, and there are nativity scenes from many different cultures.

At the same time, I’ve been organising publicity for a Christmas Eve celebration, and wanted to find a nativity image for a poster. Corny, cliché, soppy are words that come to mind. Finally, I found one by Fritz Eichenberg, a refugee from Nazi Germany who became a Quaker. He also contributed many wood-gravings to the Catholic Worker.

This engraving is called “Christmas”, and I want to reflect on it briefly.

Firstly, apart from Mary and Jesus, the people’s characters are ambiguous. The figure on the right is probably Joseph but the trio could either be the shepherds (indicated by the sheep) or the three kings. Secondly, there is a combination of biblical story and an urban context. The scene is dark, Mary and Jesus sleep on a bed of hay, farm animals surround them (though not actually in the text) and an angel sings above them. However, the backdrop is urban and Joseph holds an oil lamp. This is a consistent theme of Eichenberg’s religious imagery. I immediately think of “Christ of the Breadlines”, in which Christ stands in a line of men waiting for food. Eichenberg repositions biblical stories and themes into poor urban scenes.

Thirdly, and most intriguely, there is an ‘underground’ meaning to this image, and that’s where it differs from any other nativity scene I can remember. Beneath the scene of familial bliss, albeit poor, is a disturbing scene. Literally under the floor lie 3 beasts, from left to right, 2 crocodiles or dragons and a pig. I’m not sure what the pig means (link to a Roman military cult), but I think the crocodiles represent Egypt. The Egyptians feared crocodiles so much because of their ubiquity on the Nile, that they had a god, Sobek, who was the deification of the crocodile. In some versions of Egyptian stories, he crawls out of the ‘waters of chaos’ to create the world. There are resonances with the Nativity story in a couple of ways. Egypt itself is the archetypal enemy of the people of God. The crocodile’s presence introduces the memory of freedom from oppression. It also brings to mind the holy family’s flight to Egypt from Herod’s massacre. Sobek’s creator status beings into view an ensuing battle of myths.

I admit that I could be reading a little into Eichenberg’s intentions here, but a the very least he is inserting a minor note into a peaceful scene, reminder of the violence that is soon to envelop the destiny not only of Jesus’ infancy, but of his life.

Song sung for Barwon by Shobie Luff

2009-12-17T04:32:16+00:00

This is the song that Shobie sang for Barwon at his dedication. It is such an amazing song. And Shob's sang this to Barwon in such an intimate and beautiful way. As soon as Shob's began singing Barwon looked up and watched. Thanks Shob's for chosing a great song and singing it wonderfully.

Xavier Rudd – Messages

So now come sit down
Will you talk with me now
Let me see through your eyes
As if we wander the night
We are biding our time
As these histories unwind
For these changes we will confront

But please take care
Don't get tangled up down there
When you talk from your soul
I feel these things we know
For the trees that we see
Can not forever breathe
And neither can we, alone

CHORUS:
You know some people they just won't understand
no I just won't understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don't understand
no I just won't understand
These things

For this sacred land
It has seen many hands
Its been green and gold
Now its fragile and old
And those too greedy to see
Just won't believe
the changes we must confront

So speak to all
Of the things you are sure
And if you love this land
Hold it in the palm of your hand
'Cause the way that it shines
May just dwindle with time
With the changes it might confront

CHORUS:
You know some people they just won't understand
no I just won't understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don't understand
no I just won't understand
These things

So hold nice and close
Once you get to your soul
So that when it is cold
You won't feel so alone
'Cause the roads that you take
May just crumble and break
With the changes you will confront

With the times that we share
We may heal and repair
Each day that we live
We see what we can give
Well I know you are strong
May your journey be long
And now I wish you the best of luck
Well I know you are strong
May your journey be long
And now I wish you the best of luck.

CHORUS:
You know some people they just won't understand
no I just won't understand
These things
Thank you for your message but I don't understand
no I just won't understand
These things

Little Barwon's Dedication and Naming Ceremony

2009-12-17T04:23:36+00:00

Kaylene and I were thrilled to see so many of our wonderful community of Family and Friends here on this day to witness our dedication of and to Barwon and presentation of his name.

It was held in the beautiful Australian bushland regions of the Yarra River (Jumping Creek) up near Warrendyte.

Here is a short outline of our ceremony which was led by our good friend Joel McKerrow. Joel led the ceremony in an amazing way bringing our attention to care for the most vunerable (our young), attention to our communities responsibilties in raising children and the importance of elders, drawing connections to the care of creation and the acknowledgement as Barwon arriving to join God's wonderful creation here on this earth as a son of God.

WELCOME/OPENING SPIEL (inc. Welcome to country)/ land acknowledgement

SONG: Shobie Luff – Xavier Rudd ‘Message’ (See next post for the words to this unbelievable song!)

GRANDPARENTS GIFTS:
In our society grandparents and elders are not given the opportunity to contribute nearly as much as they used too, often being placed in homes away from other generations, especially babies and children. Barwon is the first Grandchild on both sides and is lucky enough to be blessed with 6 doting grandparents and 2 great grandmothers. Simon and Kaylene believe that we have a lot to learn from the elders in our lives, and have invited Barwon’s Grandparents to present him with a gift that draws upon their wisdom and life experiences.

Raymond and Kaye (nan and pa)
Glennis and Rob (Granma and granpa)
Will and Harley (Papa Billy and Nana Harls)

SCRIPTURE PASSAGE: Isaiah 58 (selected) - Andrew Reeves
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
...

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.

DEDICATION:

Reading from Kahlil Gibran The Prophet

• Simon and Kaylene:

Earth representing God’s creation
Do you recognize Barwon as God’s creation and that Barwon is now part of the rest of humankind, an equal child of God, caretaker of the earth and all its living creatures?

Water representing life
Do you promise to be Barwon’s primary care givers; to love him, look after him and never harm him?

Leaves representing uniqueness
Do you acknowledge that Barwon is his own person, a son of God and not yours to own? Do you promise to guide him into finding his true self and God within him, putting aside all personal desires and dreams for his life?

Stone to represent unwavering support
Will you support him through whatever he chooses, and take him to soccer practice, even if you think he would make a great ruckman for Geelong or Carlton?

• To Barwon’s community of family and friends gathered today:
(If you are willing to make this commitment today please respond with ‘we will’)

Do you, as Barwon’s Aunties, uncles, cousins and grandparents, promise to love, support, guide and nurture Barwon along his life’s journey?

Do you, as Barwon’s Aunties, uncles, cousins and grandparents, promise to support and encourage Kaylene and Simon on their journey as parents?

SILENT PRAYER/THOUGHTS FOR BARWON: Everyone

PRAYER : Joel

NAME MEANING: Simon and Kaylene

Barwon means River and is an indigenous name to symbolize our respect, concern for and desire to learn from the all indigenous people of this land…that their identity, language, culture and deep wisdom are past down to the children of this country.

River, symbolizing a reconnection to land and creation. A connection we as people have severed for profit and greed, at the loss not just to us but our future children who may not share the same earth that we now know. The name Barwon for us represents the hope of new life for this earth and those of us who share it together. Hope that flows like living water.

Isaiah, well he’s a kick arse Old Testament prophet whose words still ring truth today! Together we have our little river prophet and Kaylene and I are truly blessed to be given this responsibility to care for and love this little (or should I say big) one!

avvaz action - Copenhagen

2009-12-16T22:11:37+00:00

Dear Friends,
With three days to go, the crucial Copenhagen summit is failing.

Tomorrow, the world’s leaders arrive for an unprecedented 60 hours of direct negotiations. Experts agree that without a tidal wave of public pressure for a deal, the summit will not stop catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees.

Click below to sign the petition for a real deal in Copenhagen — the campaign already has a staggering 10 million supporters - let’s make it the largest petition in history in the next 72 hours! Every single name is actually being read out at the summit — sign on at the link below and forward this email to everyone!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now

An Avaaz team is meeting daily with negotiators inside the summit who will organize a spectacular petition delivery to world leaders as they arrive, building a giant wall of boxes of names and reading out the names of every person who signs. With the largest petition in history, leaders will have no doubt that the whole world is watching.

Millions watched the Avaaz vigil inside the summit on TV yesterday, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu told hundreds of delegates and assembled children:

“We marched in Berlin, and the wall fell.
“We marched for South Africa, and apartheid fell.
“We marched at Copenhagen — and we WILL get a Real Deal.”

Copenhagen is seeking the biggest mandate in history to stop the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. History will be made in the next few days. How will our children remember this moment? Let’s tell them we did all we could.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen_now

With hope,

Ricken, Alice, Ben, Paul, Luis, Iain, Veronique, Graziela, Pascal, Paula, Benjamin, Raj, Raluca, Taren, David, Josh and the whole Avaaz team.

Simon Moyle

2009-12-07T23:43:34+00:00

“We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature, is total – but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial. So a whole will and a whole heart and a whole national life bent toward war prevail over the velleities of peace. In every war since the founding of the republic we have taken for granted that war shall exact the most rigorous cost, and that the cost shall be paid with a cheerful heart. We take it for granted that in wartime families will be separated for long periods, that men will be imprisoned, wounded, driven insane, killed on foreign shores. In favor of such wars, we declare a moratorium on every normal human hope – for marriage, for community, for friendship, for moral conduct toward strangers and the innocent. We are instructed that deprivation and discipline, private grief and public obedience are going to be our lot. And we obey. And we bear with it – because bear we must – because war is war, and war good or bad, we are stuck with it and its cost.

But what of the price of peace? I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder. How many of them are so afflicted with the wasting disease of normalcy that, even as they declare for the peace, their hands reach out with an instinctive spasm in the direction of their loved ones, in the direction of their comforts, their home, their security, their income, their future, their plans – that five-year plan of studies, that ten-year plan of professional status, that twenty-year plan of family growth and unity, that fifty-year plan of decent life and honorable natural demise. “Of course, let us have the peace,” we cry, “but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor the disruption of ties.” And because we must encompass this and protect that, and because at all costs – at all costs – our hopes must march on schedule, and because it is unheard of that in the name of peace a sword should fall, disjoining that fine and cunning web that our lives have woven, because it is unheard of that good men should suffer injustice or families be sundered or good repute be lost – because of this we cry peace and cry peace, and there is no peace. There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war – at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.”

Daniel Berrigan, No Bars to Manhood

2009-12-06T02:42:37+00:00

HolyHardware: Goodnews from Word

2009-12-04T10:57:52+00:00

Dec

11:30 am

UPDATE: GOODNEWS! WORD HAS JOINED THE CONVERSATION!!!!

This morning Word updated its public purchasing policy and this afternoon they begun dialogue with the JIM unit.

So now you can join me tomorrow for a celebration of where we have got to in the holy hardware campaign. Maybe present Word with a thank you gift. Please come and thank them with me, hear the story and pray for those still exploited by our faith product industry.

This is good news because we now have both key players in the Christian retail sector helping find ways we can better the conditions of working people who make products for Christians.

Age

Keen to join me in a little Abolitionist Anti-Sweatshop Caroling and public liturgy? Good book it in, email me and turn up

Have you ever thought about the conditions in which products are made?

Then join us in a little Abolitionist Anti-Sweatshop Caroling and public liturgy? Outside Word Bookstore Head Office.

When: DEC 5 11:30am-12:30pm

Where: 11-13 Moncrief Road
Nunawading

We are asking that they join into the conversation on slave labour and Christian products.

Why? Slave Labour 4 Christian Products is a Sin.

Yes! I totally am up for a little holy mischief! Who do I tell that I am in?

All your friends to help spread the word and of course Age (age@morepraxis.org.au)

FaceBook Event here (please only say attending if you are coming - we are counting on you. Facebook slacktivism will not cut it.)

More>Background info.

A 2007 report found that employees in China at one factory involved in making crosses were forced to work regular 14 to 15.5 hour shifts a day, seven days a week. They were paid as little as 30 cents an hour, just over half the legal minimum wage in China. (US National Labour Committee (NLC), Today Workers Bear the Cross).

“The products had to be finished by the 25th [of April] and all of the workers in our department had been working until three o’clock in the morning. We had been working non-stop for just about 16.5 hours. We were making crucifixes…. At 8 am, the morning of the 26th, it seemed as if our heads had just hit the pillows before out coworkers began to call for us to get up and get back to work again. The manager arranged for me to load the boxes for shipment. I, along with everybody else, was busy moving things into the truck. In total, we had close to 300 boxes of crucifixes and other things as well. Everything was so heavy; each box was about 20kg! We were so tired. My shoulders, legs and waist went weak. While we were moving the boxes of crucifixes, one of my coworkers suddenly cried out: “Jesus, take pity on me! I’m going to die of exhaustion.””

In late November 2007 the US National Labor Committee (NLC) released a report, Today Workers Bear the Cross, exposing members of the Association for Christian Retail (ACR) for selling crosses manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop. http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=479

Word Bookstores Pty Ltd is a high-profile and successful Christian retailer involved in the selling of a range of products made in China where there are documentedcases of gross disregard for the fundamental human dignity of working people.

Why Word Bookstores?

Word Bookstores is one of the biggest Christian retailers in Australia. With its roots in the old evangelistic ministry called Gospel Film Ministry Ltd (founded in Sydney), we want to remind Word that heeding the Gospel means supporting working people to be treated with dignity. We don’t think that all the gift items that Word sells are made in sweatshops, but we are concerned that items (particularly those made in China) could very well be. So we are calling on a key player in the Christian retail sector to get behind our campaign to find ways we can better the conditions of working people who make products for Christians.

The Justice & International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Australia has repeatedly tried to contact this company to start a dialogue about these issues; but there has been no response.

The JIM Unit contacted the VCC and the Victorian Heads of Churches. This broad group of Christian denominations expressed strong appreciation for the work done on this topic. In November 2008, the Heads of Churches gathered agreed with the document `A fair trade in Christian Goods’ and officially endorsed the accompanying ‘Christian Goods Standard’.

The Sunday AGE ran a small article which highlighted the issue: http://www.theage.com.au/national/slave-trade-in-religious-souvenirs-20081206-6swy.html

UpperRoom - Christmas

2009-12-03T03:17:23+00:00

Christmas, Consumption, Sustainable bits and bobs

We hope the upper room will be

Space to rest/relax with your tribe

Be challenged by the prophetic call of compassion

Connect with heartbeats for living

There will be food, wine and friends plus

Please bring your friends - all are welcome

This month Upper Room - We have Jonathan Cornford from Mana Gum coming to share some environment/sustainable living ideas. Also, we will have the Everything in Common and Tear gift catalogues, environmental christmas info idea, maybe some share appeal gift tags for asylum seekers you know the usual. (Plus, There could be a buy nothing christmas action to conspire with too.)

Facebook event if your on it

Cya All there.

The Missionary Virtue of Talking Over People

2009-11-25T09:26:54+00:00

My mother takes listening very seriously. As she sat on the phone during another long pastoral conversation we would mimic her repetitive ‘mmm’ing gleefully. She modelled, and I learnt to listen to people carefully, and respond to what they say. My parents instilled in me the respectful practice of allowing people to say their piece without thinking of the next thing to say or interrupting with my similar, but more interesting, experiences. Listening well is important to me.

Which is why it pains me to say that, yes, missionaries need to talk over people. Regularly. Frequently. With godly vigour and fervour. I’ve been through some soul-searching over this one, people, but the kingdom of God requires rudeness beyond measure, inconsideration like we have never dreamed of. Yes, we need to start interrupting monologues with witty comments and jokes. Brothers and sisters, divert the flow of verbal sewerage into the decontamination plant of conversational purity with well-placed questions. Ah yes, even questions that have nothing to do with the conversation whatsoever. Place a gag in those overworked gums of that child of God, fill that space where they drew breath with a barrage of your own trivial stories…

Having got that mini-sermon out of my system, let me continue. In my neighbourhood, there are many people who cannot stop talking. It seems that once verbal momentum is gained, attempting silence is akin to inhaling while underwater. Some people are just glad to talk to someone who will listen, others have axes to grind, others are nervous, others have stories they wish to repeat now and forever, others want to dominate the situation or haven’t had attention like this in too long. All these are perfectly rational reasons for talking continuously.

So how am I to respond? Being in a neighbourhood where crowded houses, arguments and noise abound, my middle-class nicety of waiting for people to finish talking is a disability. I have to interrupt, I have to verbally counterpunch. If I don’t, I will have a ministry of nods and mmms. There are valid reason for talking over people:

to get the conversation on an open track, because nonstop talking is often a defensive manoeuvre to keep the other person at arm’s length
to teach dialogue, not only conversational but intellectual
to enable the other person to see me as someone having a valuable contribution to their life, not so that my needs can be fulfilled, but that they can look to others for enrichment

nb. To be followed by a post entitled “The Missionary Virtue of Keeping Your Trap Shut”

Revolutionary Road Parable

2009-11-18T22:54:05+00:00

A comfortable viewing experience Revolutionary Road is not. Though set in the 1950s, the skewering of romantic delusions is just as awkward and painful as if it happened right now.

A young couple (Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet) are brought together by their dissatisfaction with the American dream. They marry and plan to move to France, an exciting plan they share with their jealous friends. The plot consists of this plan painfully unravelling, unmasking their true desires.

Revolutionary Road is parabolic. In Jesus’ parables, we are sucked into the world of the story, which is then given a twist that shakes us into a new way of seeing reality. The classic in this tradition is the Good Samaritan. The wounded traveller is passed by the priest and levite, whose distancing reaction to a possibly dead (and therefore unclean) body in totally understandable within Jewish culture. The listeners are lulled into the story, waiting for the 3rd person to come along, who will provide a punchline – and the punchline is a Samaritan, the epitome of uncleanness.

In the same way, we dream with the couple of Revolutionary Road, encouraged that they are breaking from the stifles of hack job, domestic trivia and superficial relationships. I found myself (perhaps naively) willing them on as they bought the tickets and prepared to fly. And I found myself experiencing the same heartbreak as their plans fall apart, mainly due to the husband’s bluster which hides an insecure man.

He is the villain of the piece, as he inspires his wife with dreams of a heaven outside their current drudgery, and then refuses to follow through. The film is a tragedy, and the last few scenes are painful in their inevitability.

"MODELS OF SURRENDER

2009-11-17T22:55:22+00:00

From Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations

Question of the Day:
What enabled John the Baptizer to surrender?

John the Baptist is the prophet who rejects the system without apology, eats the harsh food of that choice, and wears the clothes of rejection.
Like our native peoples here in New Mexico, he goes on his vision quest into the desert where he faces his aloneness, boredom and naked self. He returns with a message, a clarity, a sureness of heart that reveals a totally surrendered man.
First he listens long and self-forgetfully; then he speaks, acts and accepts the consequences. Transformed people transform people, and John’s little offbeat ritual down by the riverside (outside of the temple where his father served) has become for us the very symbol of Christian transformation. And Jesus went along with it!"

Australian church denounces cluster bomb financing | Ekklesia

2009-11-17T22:48:03+00:00

An Australian church leader has strongly criticised one of the country's largest financial institutions for providing financial support to an international firm that manufactures cluster bombs - writes Kim Cain.

The Uniting Church in Australia has claimed that in 2007, the Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) provided a $US37.5 million line of credit to Lockheed Martin, a company that produces cluster bombs despite an international convention banning their manufacture, trade and use.

Mark Zirnsak, director of justice and international mission of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, said the ANZ has a policy that it will not directly fund the production of cluster munitions or landmines, but continues to provide finance to companies engaged in such activities.

"The ANZ is trying to have its cake and eat it. They don't want to be seen to be to facilitating the production of cluster munitions, but they still want to profit from being able to provide loans to companies involved in producing these dodgy weapons," Zirnsak said.

He claimed the ANZ was the only major Australian bank involved in supporting the making of cluster bombs.

The Uniting Church is Australia’s third largest denomination, and is a shareholder in ANZ. The church claims come as the Australian parliament is to consider a recommendation which calls for the prohibition of Australian investment in companies that manufacture cluster bombs.

Zirnsak said he has just discovered that the bank made the loan to Lockheed Martin back in 2007. At that time he was negotiating with the company to disinvest in businesses involved in the manufacture of cluster bombs or land-mines. "At no point did the ANZ disclose that it was in the process of providing such finance as an on-going activity," Zirnsak said.

He told Ecumenical News International that the church would continue to challenge ANZ on the issue and let the wider Australian public know of ANZ’s activities.

"We cannot understand why the bank would continue to invest in such companies with this level of commitment, and which could potentially embarrass them here and internationally when there are so many other excellent investments that they could make," Zirnsak noted.

An ANZ spokesperson was reported by Melbourne's Age newspaper as saying "the bank's defence policy explicitly prohibited directly financing 'controversial weapons', but the policy allowed general financing of the defence industry".

However Zirnsak said, "The reality is that to provide finance to one part of a company still frees up funds for all the activities the company is involved in. The ANZ cannot pretend that its hands are clean."

A cluster bomb contains multiple small explosives designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the explosives over a wide area.

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

Global Mission Expo & CafePraxis

2009-11-17T00:35:05+00:00

Nov

2:00 pm

Sunday 22^nd November, 2.00 - 5pm

Pilgrim Uniting Church, 20 Westfield Drive, Doncaster

Speakers, stalls, music and chats about the work of Uniting World (previously Uniting International Mission), how you can support international mission and our partner churches, and volunteering.

Hear from a special guest from the Kiribati Protestant Church, Kathy Pereira the Associate Director Experience Programs of Uniting World and a range of previous volunteers who have spent time with our partner churches all over the world.

Great Fairtrade coffee will be available from Café Praxis and the chance to support the Uniting World disaster appeals for the Philippines, Indonesia and Samoa.

PS - Hey guys anyone heading to this that wants to help me in the cafe?

Eurekastreet/UCA - Rudd’s Apology

2009-11-16T22:54:16+00:00

Rudd faces ugly story of abused innocence

John Honner - nov 17 - Eurekastret

“At 11.00am yesterday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia, formally apologised to generations of Australians who were subjected to harm in children’s homes through the twentieth century. ……

…Kevin Rudd said ‘great evil has been done, therefore hard things must be said’. He drew prolonged (and unselfish) applause when he declared that such systematic abuse should never happen again. He hoped that the apology would become a turning point, and he promised several steps to assist a healing process: ….

……Perhaps. We may still have a long way to go to protect the ever-expanding generation of children and young people in the care of the state today, particularly in helping them find a sense of identity and belonging. Christian communities are in a particularly critical position. Past failures in church-run homes have had far-reaching consequences. On the one hand, the government has now become a fastidious regulator of care, and principles of social work set the parameters for the provision of care. On the other hand, the self-sacrificing love that once inspired members of religious communities to welcome ‘the orphan and the widow’ appears now either to have burnt itself out or to be seeking new directions.”

Read it in full here

Great to see another apology from our government but it is hard seeing the church as part of the abuse again. And yes I know the UCA apologies years back and works to change stuff (see below) I think John Honner has raised an interesting question for Christians and people of good will “Will we welcome the orphan and the widow?

Personally, I can’t understand how and why compassion becomes abuse?

UCA Press Release on Apology

The Uniting Church in Australia has today welcomed the Federal Government’s formal apology to the Forgotten Australians.

President of the Uniting Church, Rev Alistair Macrae, said that the church had also acknowledged and apologised for its role in any harmful institutional care practices.

“Following the 2004 Forgotten Australians report, the Uniting Church apologised for any physical, psychological or social harm that may have occurred to individuals in the care of institutions of the Uniting Church and its predecessor churches,” Mr Macrae said.

“We congratulate the Australian Government on taking this step today.

“Symbolic gestures such as an apology can ease the hurt experienced and recognise the impact of the neglect and abuse suffered at the hands of caregivers.”

National Director of UnitingCare Australia, Lin Hatfield Dodds, said that the apology must now be supported by action.

“We urge all governments to take the next step of implementing constructive measures to continue the healing process begun today by this apology,” Ms Hatfield Dodds said.

“The Uniting Church, through UnitingCare, is committed to ensuring that children and families receive the best facilities and care possible and we are constantly working to improve them.

“Today’s apology is a reminder that we need to work together to ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated.”

UnitingCare Australia is an agency of the Uniting Church in Australia. It represents the Uniting Church’s network of community service providers, of which there are over 1300 service delivery sites nationwide.

Rev Macrae and Ms Hatfield Dodds are available for comment. Phone 9251 5222

Lest we forget a cruel act of dispossession

2009-11-16T22:52:33+00:00

Peter Lewis (many of us know through AboutFace and other places) and Richard Franklin have a remembering article in the Age about the Aborigines Protection Act 1869

It is an odd coincidence of history that the 11th day of the 11th month is a day of several anniversaries of great significance for Australian identity. The first anniversary that comes to mind is Armistice Day, marking the end of the First World War - a war where too many young Australian men met their deaths and the legend of the digger was born.

The next most remembered anniversary is the dismissal of the Whitlam government, which brought to an end a dramatic period of progressive government in Australia (if we ignore East Timor and the economy).

It is also the anniversary of the execution - in 1880 - of the legendary bushranger Ned Kelly. Kelly was either a villain or an imperfect embodiment of the Irish-Australian radical tradition, possibly both.

But an anniversary that has been forgotten is one that has even more relevance for understanding the ironies of Australian identity.

Eleven years before the hanging of Ned Kelly and 140 years ago this year, the Victorian colonial government passed an act ”To Provide for the Protection and Management of the Aboriginal Natives of Victoria”, more commonly known as the Aborigines Protection Act 1869.

This gave government control of where Aboriginal people could live, of how they would relate to Europeans, of their labour and earnings and of the ”care, custody and education” of all Aboriginal children.

It was this act that created the conditions for Aboriginal containment and assimilation, and its legal platform enabled policies that led to the stolen generations and stolen wages.

For us it raises an interesting question - why have we so rarely included this anniversary in our remembering?

keep reading here

The Missionary Virtue of Noticing People

2009-11-13T09:58:21+00:00

I take some local young guys on outdoor trips as a way of opening up their lives to new experiences and opportunities. We sat down to ‘frame’ the experience of climbing a mountain, so that they could see the mountain in metaphorical terms. One boy was being really disruptive until I mentioned an observation of him I had made. He shut up immediately and listened intently. My observation was pretty mundane, but he didn’t care – he simply loved being noticed.

After returning a young man to his residential unit (where he lives), his 2 housemates both started mooning our car, despite the best efforts of their workers to raise the level of the conversation and their shorts.

What we give to get noticed! I get noticed all the time, having a job that involves facilitation and training groups, but I always like it. As a secondary school teacher, I found that young people were always trying to get noticed: through acting up, excelling at something. Even those people who seem to love hiding away in a corner so no-one mentions their existence appreciate quiet acknowledgement.

It’s not just young people and children who love attention, though. Adults seem to thrive on it. I know I do. I think it comes back to the fact that we are mostly cowards. When people notice our efforts it gives us the courage to keep going.

Refujesus: asylum seekers, xenophobia, Australia and Jesus

2009-11-13T05:12:30+00:00

Refujesus (n. That provokes v.): the reality that biblically how we respond to every refugee reveals how we respond to Jesus himself.

Here are links to two articles I’ve recently written for Jim Wallis’ blog “God’s Politics” about ‘Refujesus’.

The Plank in Australia’s Eye

refujesus-I-was-a-stranger.jpg

ILLEGAL BIBLE STUDY AT PINE GAP

2009-11-11T23:10:25+00:00

Last Tuesday on the 27th October Chris, Johnny and I headed to the Pine Gap US Military Spy Base 20kms outside of Alice Springs. This was my first visit to Pine Gap and the experience was more significant than I expected. Kaylene, Barwon and I only had a couple of weeks in Alice Springs and when Chris asked me what I would like to do whilst here, I mentioned that I had heard much about this Spy Base and would like to pay a low key visit, just to have a look etc. Chris suggested it might be interesting to do reading from the Gospel of Mark whilst there (as we are keen followers of the Gospel of Mark) as often the place and context you read Scripture profoundly influences the message. This I thought would be a great experience but also quite low key. It turns out that you can’t do low key at Pine Gap.

We found the unmarked turn off quite easily from Stuart Highway as Johnny had attended a couple of the protests in previous years. We drove along Hatt Road in the empty darkness around 8pm, outside of Alice Springs which is in the heart of Australia’s Outback and Wilderness, 1500kms from a Capital City, heading to a site known as one of the world’s largest ECHELON ground stations, home away from home to the US National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency and a place where missiles and other weapons are guided to their destinations in places such as Iraq to harm, kill and destroy. Needless to say I felt a deep sensation of heading into the surreal, which was ironic as, on one hand we were entering the vicinity of what is largely an invisible piece of our society, yet on the other hand is a place that is deathly real.

As we got deeper in we passed two signs indicating we were approaching the Joint Defence Space Facility and should turn around now. We’d never seen such signs before on a public road and wondered about their legal status. We drove on; surely they were just warnings for lost tourists? Surely we had a right to look at a facility built in the country we live? As we approached the last bend we came in view of the entrance to Pine Gap. Lights flooded the road and illuminated the huge wire fences that were only shadowed by the enormous gates and security measures (bit like Jurassic Park really…the theme music stuck in my head for days after). We pulled up underneath a third sign about 100 metres from the gates that indicated if we passed this point we could be imprisoned for 7 years, which wasn’t in my list of things to do in Alice Springs.

As we turned off the engine someone asked if we had a plan, to which we all said ‘nope’. But we did have some Bibles and we got out and sat in the back of the Ute tray, Aussie style, underneath what I’d like to say was the beautiful night sky, but instead it was the scores of security lights burning wastefully into the night. No sooner had we got comfy, looked at one another and comprehended where we were, we heard an alarm and noticed the gates opening slowly to an Australian Federal Police vehicle. “Is this for us?” we asked. Surely not, we were not even close to their ‘prohibited land’ and hardly causing a threat as three blokes with a bible sitting in the back of a Ute. But you guessed it; this was our welcome to Pine Gap. I didn’t expect a cuppa, but things weren’t looking up on our arrival at Pine Gap.

Two officers hopped out of the vehicle and enquired about our business at Pine Gap. Apparently reading the Bible is not the business of Pine Gap and it is actually prohibited, and we were asked to leave the vicinity. We politely questioned the police as to why we were required to move on when we were sitting here peacefully and not even wanting to enter the secured area? We were informed that the even the vicinity of the secure area was out of bounds (sounds like we’re in school now). We asked then where could we go for our bible study? They responded that we shouldn’t be anywhere on the 5kms of Hatt Rd at all. Not looking to get arrested we discontinued our questions and agreed to leave. However, they wanted to take down our drivers license details. Why one of us asked? They responded “to get checked”. We asked, “checked for what?” They said to get checked. So I guess they’ll be ‘checked’.

While they examined and noted our beautiful license photos we took the initiative to do our Gospel reading of Mark 13 real fast. They then searched our vehicle and took its details down and thanked us for our cooperation. We said no worries and hoped that we had made their night a little bit more interesting. As we got into our Ute and they got into their massive 4wd Federal Police Vehicle fully decked out I asked in humour if they would like to swap vehicles, which only got me a blank look. Fine. Time to leave ‘the vicinity’ of Pine Gap.

When we returned home we spent some time reflecting on our experience and marvelled at the appropriateness of the reading of Mark 13 (which was found and read under extreme pressure!). We remarked similarities of the disciples stating sarcastically in verse 1 ‘Look Teacher what large stones and large buildings’ and the huge temple of war on our left. We noted the irony of the ‘signs’ (v4) as we sat underneath one threatening to take away 7 years of our life. We read the constant urgings of Jesus to ‘be aware (but not alarmed [wait that’s John Howard])’, to watch out, to stay awake in this time of wars and rumours of wars. To stay awake is a repeated discipleship metaphor for Marks Gospel and incredibly relevant for us as we sit in a country that has been in perpetual war for the last 8 years. We also reflected on Jesus’ warning to his disciples ‘you will be handed over to councils, beaten in synagogues and stand before governors and kings’ (v9) while we stood before the Australian Federal Police and were searched, questioned and our behaviour reported to ‘higher authorities’. However, verse 14 hit us like a ton of bricks and as Chris read it in the midst of the police reporting our presence we turned to look at Pine Gap – ‘But when you see the desolating sacrilege setup where it ought not to be…flee to the mountains’ (except it was dark and we couldn’t see the mountains!) Interestingly, one can see pine gap from the nearby mountains, and also be far enough away as to not elicit the attendance of the Feds.

After setting out for a simple look at Pine Gap and a quiet Bible Study our encounter made us aware that we had experienced something significant. To go to such a place as Pine Gap, to open up the Bible where it is not allowed, to challenge the culture of war with Scripture gave us a little taste of the prophets of old and also the prophets of new such as Martin Luther King. And for once in our life we didn’t fall asleep during a bible study! Maybe more bible studies and church meetings should be held in the places where God’s love has been made criminal, illegal and even traitorous. Where the threat of arrest is imminent and the message of Jesus Christ to not harm one another, to love our enemies, to forgive one another and lay down our lives has been forgotten.

Note : Pictures not our own