Tma july 2020 a3 colour

TMA T h e M e l b o u r n e A n g l i c a n

Young Christians call for climate justice pages 12, 13, 16

Church must confront its own racism, says Aboriginal bishop page 9

July 2020, No 593

From UK ski champion to Anglican lay minister by Stephen Cauchi

IONA ROSSELY found God on a journey which has taken her from champion UK skier and equestrian to Australian Anglican lay minister, and her new autobiography Racing on Empty tells the story. Like many others, Ms Rossely found that success in itself wasn’t fulfilling, but it took a skiing accident at 160 km/h for her to think seriously about spiritual matters. “What was hindering my relationship with Jesus was my stuff and my possessions, my horses, my winning, my obsession with competing. And I dropped that,” she told TMA. “As soon as you drop your idols, then God can actually really get into your life.” Born in Britain in 1961 into a strict Catholic family, her passion for speed skiing had led to her win some major professional titles, including the Ladies British Overseas Champion and New Zealand Ladies Champion in 1986.

Economist, priest hymnwriter, vicar honoured by Mark Brolly

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prominent economist who worships at St Jude’s Carlton, a pioneering female priest and hymn-writer whose ministry began in Melbourne and is now in the Western Australian Goldfields, a veteran vicar and c ommunit y-bui lder in t he Dandenong Ranges, a law professor with a passion for social justice who is a parishioner in Geelong and the former principal of a leading church school are among Anglicans who have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Professor Ian Harper, a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia board and the inaugural chairman of the Australian Fair Pay Commission from 2005-09, was among only 53 people nationally to be made an Officer of the Order

of Australia (AO). His citation said the honour was “for distinguished service to education in the field of economics, and to public and monetary policy development and reform”. He chaired the Competition Policy Review from 2014-15, known as the Harper Review. A former partner and senior adviser with Deloitte Access Economics, Professor Harper has been Dean and Director of the Melbourne Business School since 2018. The Vicar of St Jude’s Carlton, the Revd John Forsyth, said Professor Harper was “a very involved member” of the parish. Professor Harper’s wider church involvement has included being a Director of Ridley College since 2012, where he held a Senior Academic Fellowship from 1999-2006, and Chair of

the Stipends Committee of the Diocese of Melbourne since 2015. He was a Director of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students from 2011-14 and a Director of the Australian College of Theology from 2012-14. Since 2014, he has been Patron of the Australia and New Zealand College of Organists and was Chairman of the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ Committee from 1996-2001. His book, Economics for Life: An Economist Reflects on the Meaning of Life and What Really Matters, won the Australian Christian Book of the Year in 2011. The Revd Dr Elizabeth Smith, who was among the earliest groups of women ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in Melbourne in 1987 and 1993 respectively, was Continued on page 4

But while competing in the World Cup in France in 1987, her right ski accidentally came off and she began tumbling down the track at 160 km/h. This sort of accident had caused death before and Ms Rossely thought she was “finished”. “The only thing I thought of was who’s going to look after my dog,” she said. But she felt God’s presence throughout: “I had this amazing feeling … I felt God was holding me on the way down, like there was a divine presence.” She broke her leg in eight places and it took more than a year before she could walk again. While recuperating in Cyprus she had her first experience with Christianity since her Catholic upbringing and education at St David’s Ursuline Convent in Wales. She felt alienated from God while growing up, in part due to her experiences at the convent, but this time was different.

“My physiotherapist was a Christian and she invited me to a Bible group,” Ms Rossely said. “So I was very reluctant but I went with her and I was overwhelmed by just the love that I was shown by these people. Loved reading the Bible and we went on Christian retreats into the mountains. Continued on page 10

Victoria’s COVID-19 spike puts brake on church openings by Stephen Cauchi

Plans to reopen St Paul’s Cathedral and other churches across the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne have been halted after the Victorian Government reversed its decision to ease coronavirus meeting restrictions. The Government had planned to raise the limit on indoor meetings from 20 to 50 people on 22 June, but a spike in coronavirus cases has forced this move to be delayed until at least 12 July. Private homes have a new limit of just five visitors. St Paul’s Cathedral, which had planned to reopen to the public on Sunday 28 June, will now remain closed for at least another month. The Cathedral authorities said in a statement that “with great reluctance the Cathedral ministry and administrative staff have decided not to reopen”.

“We will extend our current livestream service schedule and fellowship pattern for another month until at least 26 July. While we hope to reopen on 2 August, we will need to review this plan on 14 July.” The statement added that “we felt very strongly that … we should not encourage staff and members to travel across various local government areas to be present at St Paul’s”. Bishop Paul Barker, whose episcopate of Jumbunna covers Melbourne’s southern and eastern suburbs, told TMA that a number of suburban churches had postponed opening as a result. Parishioners and clergy were “disappointed” and “frustrated”, but not “frustrated in the sense of angry”, he said. “Disappointed, yes, because people longed for a bigger Continued on page 4

PLUS: Meet the new Anglican Primate (page 10); winter reading special (pages 19-22)

THE ARCHBISHOP WRITES

TMA

‘Forgotten blessings’ rediscovered in lockdown T he COVID-19 shutdown has reduced opportunities for activity for all of us. This has not just been an Australian experience but shared throughout the world. It has been an unusual time and one that we are all approaching without lived precedents. Even the little spaces when things used to slow down, where entertainments and commerce paused for a while, like Good Friday, have been increasingly appropriated as times for ordinary activity to continue. We are a society that seems to aspire to fill all time with as much activity as possible. No wonder the COVID-19 pandemic has been confronting in a society like ours, even if the health impact of the virus has been restrained. Our society is one where we all seem to share an expectation that something adverse is sure to be able to be “fixed” by human ingenuity. It is a bit like expecting that there is a scientific, medical or engineering solution to every problem. This

“We might look to the COVID-19 shutdown as a chance to reset our expectations and as an invitation for us to consider what God intends for us in the post-pandemic world.”

anthropocentric view of the world is profoundly different from the worldview of most people who ever lived before us. For most of human existence the role of humanity seemed small when contrasted to natural forces. The ancient wisdom of our culture contains notions that sound eccentric or hyper-religious to many Australians. The idea that the balance of work and rest was ordained in the very fabric of creation, while perceived by those who successfully argued for the eighthour working day a century ago, is

an alien concept for many today. “And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all of the work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2.2-4) The revelation of the law to Moses further enshrines this principle in the life of the covenant people. The Sabbath day, the Sabbath year and the Jubilee year are all expressions of this creation principle that

have shaped our society in one way or another until recent times. We might look to the COVID-19 shutdown as a chance to reset our expectations and as an invitation for us to consider what God intends for us in the post-pandemic world. The year of Jubilee, part of the divine revelation to Moses in the Book of Leviticus, was an enactment of this creation principle. Coming at the end of seven cycles of seven years, the year of Jubilee was a holy year in which slaves would be freed, debts forgiven, the people restored

to their ancestral land and the land itself given a year of rest. How much did the dispossessed and poverty-stricken in Israel long for Jubilee to arrive? It was a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to reset the circumstances of life for those who had not fared well over the previous 49 years. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for this to be the opportunity for our own citizens, those who have become homeless or languish on Manus Island or Nauru? In saying this I don’t underestimate the real cost of the long lockdown for the economy and its impact on people’s lives. Just as many have rediscovered forgotten blessings, both communal and spiritual, in the lockdown there is more for us to reach for as we forge the future of Australian society together.

SRC calls for input to bring about ‘meaningful action’ on climate by Shane Hübner

The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it Psalm 24.1 Welcome to what is hopefully the start of more regular articles in TMA from the diocese’s Social Responsibilities Committee concerning issues and responses to climate change and faith. While a lot of our collective energy at the moment is addressing living as parishes and individuals in a COVID-19

world, this should not mean that other important issues are forgotten. The Diocesan Social Responsibilities Committee (SRC) is keen to raise the profile of actions being undertaken by Anglicans and other Christians to reduce greenhouse emissions in line with the very challenging goal expressed in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord (to limit warming to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels.) The SRC’s immediate focus is two-fold: (1) suggest actions that can be taken by individuals and parishes in our diocese which lower their environmental footprint;

Clergy Moves Vacant Appointments as of 25 June 2020: Activation of appointment processes will be on a case by case basis; St Michael & All Angels Beaumaris; St Barnabas, Balwyn; St Stephen, Belmont; St Edward, Blackburn South; St Faith, Burwood; St Mary, Caulfield with St Clement, Elsternwick; Darebin South; St James, Glen Iris; St Hilary’s Kew, North Balwyn and Mont Albert, North; Holy Trinity, Hampton Park; Holy Trinity Lara with Christ Church, Little River; Hume Anglican Parish; St Nicholas Mordialloc; Upper Yarra [from August 2020]; All Saints Newtown/Geelong West; Anglican Parish of Yarraville Appointments: BICKERDIKE, The Revd Bruce Norman, appointed Archdeacon of Maroondah, effective 25 August 2020 KERR, The Revd David Gregory, appointed Assistant Curate, St Oswald, Glen Iris, effective 1 July 2020, continuing as Assistant Curate, St John Camberwell NEWMARCH, The Revd Caroline Ruth, appointed Priest-in-Charge, St Philip, Mount Waverley, effective 1 July 2020 Permission to Officiate: BOND, The Revd Randle Edwin, appointed Permission to Officiate as Priest, Diocese of Melbourne, effective 4 June 2020 HARROWER, The Right Revd John Douglas, appointed Permission to Officiate as Priest, Diocese of Melbourne, effective 12 July 2020 MOORE, The Revd David John, appointed Permission to Officiate as Priest, Diocese of Melbourne, effective 6 July 2020 PEAKE, The Revd David George, appointed Permission to Officiate as Priest, Diocese of Melbourne, effective, 24 June 2020 PAYNE, The Revd Emily, appointed Permission to Officiate as Priest, Diocese of Melbourne, effective 13 July 2020 ROGERSON, The Revd Shane Christopher, appointed Permission to Officiate as Priest, Diocese of Melbourne, effective 11 June 2020 Retirements: MOORE, The Revd David John, Priest-in-Charge, Christ Church, Kensington, effective 5 July 2020 Relinquish Licence or Permission to Officiate: CAIRD, The Revd Grahame, effective 18 June 2020 GARDINER, The Revd Stuart, effective 17 June 2020 SIMPSON, The Revd Michael, effective 16 June 2020 For Vacant Parishes listing contact registrar@melbourneanglican.org.au See Tributes at www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au Clergy Moves is compiled by the Registry Office and all correspondence should go to registrar@melbourneanglican.org.au

2 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

and (2) update the Diocesan Environmental Policy so that it reflects more current thinking. These two steps help our diocese honour its commitment made when it passed the 2007 General Synod Protection of the Environment Canon, which requires meaningful action and reporting by participating dioceses on steps taken to reduce their environmental impact. As an initial place where individuals and parishes can find simple resources and inspiration, the SRC recommends highly the work of the Australian Religious Response

to Climate Change (ARRCC). Its website (https://www.arrcc. org.au) has many actions and steps that any individual or any parish could take as a first step. Recommended is downloading the Christian Climate Action Kit, which has tools for learning, reflection, action and advocacy. A place to start could be by asking the question – what is our parish carbon footprint? Then finding out how to go about lowering this footprint! The SRC is also looking for Anglicans with a passion for this work to join together to help reform the

STREAMING SERVICES at St Paul’s Cathedral

Sundays 8am BCP Eucharist with Sermon 10am Sung Eucharist with Hymns, all-age Bible Talk and Sermon 1pm Mandarin Eucharist 華語崇拜 Weekdays 12.15pm Lunchtime Eucharist (Tuesday & Thursday) Sung Evening Prayer* (Wednesday & 5.10pm Friday) *During term time

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diocesan policy framework on this issue. Taking our lead from the work of the Newcastle, Brisbane and Perth dioceses on environmental issues, the SRC is holding an open Zoom meeting on Thursday evening 23 July at 7.30pm. If you want to be involved and want further details please email the Revd Shane Hübner at vicar@anglicansboxhill.org.au The Revd Shane Hübner is Chair of the Environment Sub-Committee of the Social Responsibilities Committee of the Diocese of Melbourne.

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Game on for creative ministry in Beaconsfield elderly. The church has been split up into groups of five or six with a leader for each group to ensure everyone is contacted during the week. Because not all of the parishioners are able to use Zoom, only morning tea is live-streamed. For services, a written service – including a sermon – is emailed out.

by Stephen Cauchi

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anding out free board games and ringing the church bell as a sound of hope has been part of the Revd Shannon Lee’s unique strategy for dealing with the COVID-19 restrictions. Ms Lee, who is Vicar at St John’s Upper Beaconsfield, came up with the board games idea after realising that the church opportunity shop would have to close during the pandemic. After taking all the games and puzzles and sanitising them, Ms Lee put them in two giant plastic tubs along with a note urging people to help themselves. Some were also given away at the local primary school. “We had to refill it. They just went. People were just coming and using them, which was really lovely, and we got some great feedback on our Facebook page on that,” said Ms Lee. “People were just blown away.” People did not have to return the games, prompting some to offer money for them. But Ms Lee politely declined and instead used the giveaway as a chance to minister. “We put our phone number there, saying if you need to call do so, we’re happy to chat.” The long-dormant church bell also got a workout. The church alerted the Upper Beaconsfield community Facebook page that “every time you hear the bell ringing, just know that it is us praying for you, caring for you, thinking about you”, said Ms Lee. “That became a big thing. People were like, ‘We heard the bell today, thanks for praying for us. It was really nice’ … That was really encouraging as well, people being able to comment about that.” Ms Lee admitted she did not know how to ring the bell. Fortunately, her request for tips on the community Facebook page met with a response. “I’m not into bells but it became

The Revd Shannon Lee: “We’ve had this great community involvement …”.

“[The] bells ... became an audible symbol of the fact that the church is still here and that we are thinking of you, we haven’t just disappeared.” an audible symbol of the fact that the church is still here and that we are thinking of you, we haven’t just disappeared.” The old rugged cross at the front of the church was also given prominence in new ways. It was covered in chicken wire and then decorated – with, for example, flowers on Mother’s Day. “People were walking past and seeing the change in the cross and going, ‘They’re still there’.” COVID-19 is the latest struggle for the 137-year-old church, which burnt down in the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983. Parishioners were also killed in those fires. “This church has been through so much,” said Ms Lee. “They’re

resilient and tough people. They are amazing. So, so faithful.” The church is small, with just over 30 parishioners, and many are

The flower-decorated cross at the front of the church.

Parishioners who don’t use Zoom are asked to email Ms Lee a photo of themselves lighting a candle as part of the service. Ms Lee then sends a group email with the photos and comments. “So even though they can’t connect via Zoom, we’re still getting to see their faces.” St John’s is also gathering stories and photos for a book on how the church withstood COVID-19, she said. “We’ll take photos of that first day back together and use that as the front cover,” she said. When it’s safe to do so, Ms Lee is planning to host “real” morning teas, not Zoom ones, at various times of the day. Five people will gather together to eat, drink and pray. “It’s a chance to just connect face-to-face for the first time in a long time,” she said. Ms Lee said that as a result of the church ministering to the community during COVID-19, numbers may increase when physical church services are allowed to resume. “We’ve had this great community involvement that we’ve never really had in this way before,” she said. “If we’re only allowed so many people during a service and people turn up and we have to turn them away, I would be devastated.”

Plastic tubs of games and puzzles: “People were just coming and using them …”.

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US pastor tells local parish of distress at George Floyd’s death by Stephen Cauchi

A leading African-American pastor has told Melbourne’s City on a Hill Anglican Church of his distress at the killing of George Floyd in the US city of Minneapolis and the ongoing oppression of African-Americans. Léonce Crump Jr, the founding and senior pastor of Renovation Church in Atlanta, told City on a Hill that police brutality against African-Americans was common. “It doesn’t matter how educated you are, it doesn’t matter how well-spoken you are, it doesn’t matter how upstanding you are, it doesn’t matter if you’re a pillar in society, and it keeps getting proven over and over again.”

“Christians [have] to learn to lament that racist history of their countries.”

Pastor Léonce Crump Jr.

In the video interview, conducted with City on a Hill senior pastor the Revd Guy

Mason, Pastor Crump said that some years ago he and his wife had been pulled over by white police for no apparent reason. They were separately ordered out of their car and interrogated. Their child was in the car at the time. It was one of the most

traumatic experiences of his life, he said. He, his brother and father, while watching the news, said that “even as well-educated, well-established, upwardly mobile African Americans, we were not precluded from the trauma of the brutal policing and the systemic injustice that leads to those things in this country”. Pastor Crump, who spoke at City on a Hill while visiting Melbourne in 2014, also criticised President Donald Trump for stating “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. “I think it is racist, reckless, ungodly and un-American. It is a gross lack of integrity in leadership.”

Pastor Crump said Christians had to learn to lament that racist history of their countries. Churches had to ensure that their documents and vision plans used Gospel-rooted anti-racist language that actively pushed back against racism, he said. Countries needed to revise their cultural attitudes to race – including Australia. A change in culture might lead to more people asking “why is it that Aboriginal people die in custody at such an astonishing rate compared to non-Aboriginal Australians?” he said. To watch the interview, visit: https://youtu.be/LbkQ7NVr2Xg See articles on pages 9, 14, 18.

Economist, hymn-writer and vicar to the hills honoured on Queen’s Birthday – from page 1 made a Member of the Order of “‘I always try to be inclusive who for 34 years was Vicar of Australia (AM) “for significant in my writing and preaching – of St Mark’s Emerald and at times service to the Anglican Church women, and of all the other people led congregations in Cockatoo, of Australia, and to liturgical God loves but the church often Monbulk, Belgrave Heights and scholarship”. overlooks or excludes. Selby, was honoured with a Medal Dr Smith, who has spent the “‘A Prayer Book for Australia of the Order of Australia (OAM) past 12 years in the Diocese of Perth, is great, but it can’t possibly cover “for service to the Anglican Church served curacies in the parishes all the situations when Anglicans of Australia, and to the community”. of Altona and Mount Waverley want to pray. I aim to fill some Dr Crawford, whose ordained before doing doctoral studies at of the gaps, and keep developing ministry began with curacies at Berkeley in the US. She returned an Australian voice for Anglican St John’s Toorak in 1977 and later to Melbourne where she was Vicar liturgy.’” at St Columb’s Hawthorn before of St John’s Bentleigh until 2008, In all, 933 people were rec- moving to Emerald in 1981, was a when she moved to WA. ognised in the Queen’s Birthday co-founder of ECHO Youth and An article about her honour on Honours, which were published Family Services (formerly Emerald the Perth diocesan website said Dr on 8 June. Centre for Hope and Outreach) in Smith was in her 20s when she first A parishioner of Holy Trinity 1984 – a year after the devastating committed her hymns and prayers Balaclava and Elwood, Mr Ash Wednesday bushfires – and its to paper. Anthony Snell, has been honoured president from 1984-2015. “For most of her adult life, Dr with an AM for significant service A member of the Emerald Smith has been filling gaps and to politics in Victoria, to the com- Emergency Planning Group for 10 developing a distinctly Australian munity, and to the law. years and Regional Coordinator of voice for the Anglican liturgy,” the Mr Snell, a former State Emergency Recovery and Deputy article said. “She’s also been a mem- President of the Liberal Party and State Coordinator of the Victorian ber of the Liturgy Commission for past member of the party’s Federal Council of Churches from 1995a number of decades – the group Executive, has been a member of 2004, he also served on the that helps process and critique her the Parish Council at Holy Trinity Emergency Planning Committee work. since 2001 and was Vicar’s Warden for the Department of Human “Inclusive language is key, and twice, from 2005-12 and in 2018-19. Services from 1995-2004, the kicked-started Elizabeth’s work 40 He has also served as Honorary Victorian Government Regional years ago. Secretary and Honorary Treasurer. Recovery Planning Committee “‘The women’s ordination moveThe Vicar of Holy Trinity, the from 2000-04 and the Cardinia ment in the Anglican Church was Revd Kathryn Watt, said Mr Snell Shire Emergenc y Planning building momentum and the sexist “has served, and continues to serve Committee from 2005-15. language in many of our hymns our parish with grace, courage and In the wider Church, Dr and prayers stuck in the throats of generosity”. Crawford was a Director of the people keen to see women recogMr Snell, who has been a mem- Anglican Evangelical Trust from nised as leaders in the Christian ber of the Liberal Party for 33 years, 1981-2015, a board member of church,’ she explains. is Group Manager Legal for the Ridley College, Secretary of the “‘In our hymns and prayers, Australian Energy Market Operator Evangelical Fellowship in the God was always a king and father; and was a Partner with King Wood Anglican Communion from 1982-91 human beings were men and broth- and Mallesons from 1995-2005. and a member of Archbishop-iners; and it was always mankind. The Revd Dr Peter Crawford, Council from 1995-2002.

He has been Honorary Life Vice-President of the Church Missionary Society since 2000, having served on the CMS Victoria board. A parishioner of All Saints Newtown, Emeritus Professor Adrian Hellier Evans, was recognised with an OAM for service to legal education, and to the law. Professor Evans, who was Professor of Law at Monash University from 2012-18, coordinated legal practice programs at the Faculty of Law there, of which he was a member from 1988 until last year, from 2000-09. Last year, he founded the Climate Justice Clinic at the faculty. A director of the Springvale Legal Service from 1988-2000, Professor Evans was a founder of the Joint Legal Clinic at the South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault in 1993. He is a former member of the International Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for Justice Education and a former Co-Chair of the Professional Ethics Committee of the International Bar Association. Professor Evans told The Geelong Advertiser that he had worked to help law students understand that they had an obligation to society beyond “making money”. Mr Simon Gipson, Head of St Michael’s Grammar School in St Kilda from 2000-17 and a past parent, was honoured with an OAM for service to secondary education. He came to St Michael’s from

another leading Anglican school, Guildford Grammar School in Perth, where he had been Deputy Headmaster. Since 2018, he has been the Archbishop’s nominee to the Council of Trinity Grammar School in Kew. In 2009, Mr Gipson received the Hedley Beare Educator of the Year Award from the Victorian Branch of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders. An organist for 64 years at churches including St James Ivanhoe, Mr Noel Griffith, was recognised with an OAM for service to music and to the community. Mr Griffith, 92, also was Secretary of the Music Department at Ivanhoe Grammar School from 1984-85 and Tutor in Music Appreciation at U3A Banyule, of which he is a Life Member, for 25 years. His other community work has included being a former volunteer at St George’s East Ivanhoe Op Shop. A former Dean of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, Dr Peter Tregear, was awarded an OAM for service to music education and to professional organisations. Dr Tregear, who was Dean at Trinity from 2006-08, became Dean of St Mark’s College, an Anglican residential college in Adelaide, in February this year. See http://tma.melbourneanglican. org.au/ for full version of this article.

Victoria’s COVID-19 spike puts brake on church openings – Continued from page 1 relaxation sooner but not in any way a sort of disagreement with the Government or anything like that.” Bishop Barker added that “this is a much harder time for clergy than the lockdown at the beginning, I think, because it’s spread over time with uncertainty … I think clergy are facing quite a few pressures. “It’s quite wearying for people I think. Some churches have not been able to find a COVID safe officer. Some have said we can’t do anything until [gathering limits are raised to] at least 50 if not 100. “Some church members don’t want to come back yet anyway, they

just feel a bit fearful regardless of what’s possible.” Keeping churches closed was also especially appropriate in municipalities that were hotspots, he said. Nevertheless, a “small minority” of churches had reopened with the current size limit of 20. The main reason most remained shut was the question of “fitting people in … how do you cater for everybody?”. Some churches were zooming their Sunday service from the church and inviting people who did not use Zoom to physically attend, he said. A “handful” of churches

4 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

were holding Wednesday services. Archbishop Freier said that, on Small groups, meanwhile, were a global level, Victoria’s number of mostly still meeting on Zoom, with COVID-19 cases was “still at a very a small number meeting in church low level but this is no reason for buildings. complacency”. Archbishop Philip Freier He prayed, from the New addressed the issue of re-imposed Zealand Prayer Book: “Jesus, you restrictions in his weekly YouTube know rejection and disappointment video message. … give us courage and cheerfulness “I’m sure this must be very frus- to go the second mile and all the trating for the people who are regu- miles ahead.” lating our health,” said Archbishop Financially, the crisis manageFreier. “It’s frustrating for many of ment committee of Archbishop-inus who were anticipating a gradual Council allocated money in June for reopening and the celebration with parishes with significant financial our communities of more people needs. being able to attend church.” Assessment relief will be granted

to all parishes in the form of an assessment credit calculated at 50 per cent of the amount assessed for the current 2019-20 year. This credit will be capped at $10,000. This relief will cost the diocese about $1.6 million, but will be offset by expected JobKeeper receipts ($1.45 million), Federal Government Cash Boost funding ($100,000) and the foregone cost of the assessment grants program ($140,000). The diocese has also made an out-of-budget allocation of $600,000 in 2020 to fund crisis relief grants of up to $20,000 per parish. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

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Gardenvale growth a blueprint for revitalisation by Chris Shearer

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s churches across the diocese begin the slow process of reopening for face-toface services after lockdown, many face the same question: how do you not only restore your place in the community, but grow it? For many, this is not a new question. It wasn’t at St Stephen’s Gardenvale when the Revd Paul Carr took over just over two years ago. At the time, Paul remembers, the weekly congregation was “ageing, and attendance was small, sometimes with around 16 to 18 wonderfully committed people a week”. Rebuilding St Stephen’s into an important part of the Gardenvale community was going to take work and a fresh approach to ministry in the traditionally-minded parish. “The requirement was ‘there was lots to do’ spiritually, numerically, operationally, which included forming a parish council, updating rooms and buildings, reviewing outreach, mission direction, finance streams, but above all seeking and defining the spiritual direction of the parish and people’s sense of call and engagement within it,” Paul says. Guiding this redevelopment was a strategic plan titled Towards 2030,

The Revd Paul Carr’s tips for revitalising a parish • • • • • • • • • • • •

Don’t be afraid to challenge and change. Keep the doors to the church OPEN as much as possible. Be present in the community. Don’t stick to hard and fast ritual at the expense of creativity and faith expression that is compassionate, listening, open, and welcoming – but don’t deny tradition either. Don’t tolerate poor behaviour. Grow new leaders. Encourage, encourage, encourage! Be comfortable in giving away control – if the priest takes a monopoly control of everything, this is poor management and leads to nil growth. Listen to others, listen to the community. Fail well! In other words, try something new and if it fails just learn why. Accept that you will never be all things to all people. Accept that people fear change far more than we realise but don’t let dissent dampen the direction of change. People may leave, but that’s okay too because change and trimming often brings new growth to the garden. Remember that it’s God that does the converting; we just create the spaces for people.

which over four stages outlined the immediate to long term changes needed to grow the parish. Among a range of changes, the plan called for establishing a ministry team, a new worship team, and a well-organised parish council with roles, expectations and clear responsibilities. “Many people I have found just needed releasing and encouraging into a sense of mission vocation and to test out their sense of call,” Paul says. “This has seen the growth of

much fruit and many people finding purpose and growing the church.” Further development focused on how the St Stephen’s community engaged in outreach. Today it runs a growing youth group, an Alpha course, prayer groups, musical groups, several alternative forms of worship, a barista club and even a cycling group. “We needed to recognise our part and place as a responsible part of the local community and ‘not just an old churchy by-standing building hid-

den away behind trees’ as someone once said,” Paul says. “The church in Gardenvale has to consider the needs of the local community and its place of Gospel proclamation. All too often we hear how church is inaccessible, unwelcoming, disconnected – it doesn’t have to be this way, and we simply hit a ‘reset button’ here by asking ourselves ‘what makes church, church?’ and ‘what are people looking for really?’ “New groups have formed, rooms and buildings refurbished, income is

diversified, new community groups partner with us, teaching, preaching and leading now involves different people, and the worship and ministry team is full of some previous but many new people all following a healthy direction of travel together. The place feels ‘lighter, fresher, warmer, and still small enough to care that we are here’ said one young couple.” These changes had been bearing fruit for St Stephen’s before the beginning of the pandemic and resulting lockdown. By late last year its weekly attendance had quadrupled to around 85-90. “Overall, St. Stephen’s has been described as ‘a new church plant in older soil’ – but I tend to think that whilst much has changed, it didn’t need much doing really, just watering, encouraging, and re-framing a little,” Paul says. “What excites me the most is that it is not just the newcomers bearing cultural and age differences that are making the changes, but it’s the enthusiasm and passion that mixes with longer-standing parishioners that melds well and is infectious. “We are not a Hillsong, or a King’s of Cambridge: we are growing our own identity in Christ with the people that reflect the needs of this community and beyond of Gardenvale.”

Late Ridley principal’s pastoral gifts, gentle wit recalled by Rhys Bezzant

Maurice Stanley Betteridge (1927-2020) was the seventh Principal of Ridley College. He brought to the position broad experience of the worldwide church, keen academic interest in church history (especially the Reformation), a heart for evangelistic preaching, and experience of leadership in ministry contexts. But perhaps he is remembered best of all for his gentle wit and kind pastoral ways. He and his wife Jacqueline, who predeceased him, invited many students into their home and made the Ridley community a more collaborative environment for study and work. Maurice was a New Zealander, the second to be appointed as Principal of Ridley. His links with

the College were built early, as he was ordained in 1951-1952 in the Diocese of Nelson by Bishop P.W. Stephenson, who was Ridley’s first graduate in 1914. He studied at the General Theological Seminary in New York, served as Chaplain to the University of New England, and was General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society Australia from 1973-1978. As Principal of Ridley (1979-92), which at that stage incorporated both a theological college and a residential college of the University of Melbourne, Maurice brought energy and resolve. A fit-to-purpose library was completed in 1984, with new lecture rooms beneath, a new bookshop, a new degree in theology was launched, certificate level courses were offered in suburban locations,

Maurice Betteridge (in blue) with Ridley College staff.

and the faculty tripled in size. Maurice saw himself as first among equals and cultivated an esprit de corps which suited the mood of the times. Ridley began several new programs to win new enrolments. Intentional youth ministry training was initiated, and study tours to

the Middle East were introduced. Different overseas speakers were invited to lecture at the College. Maurice supported women called to the ordained ministry of the church, first to the diaconate in 1986 and to the priesthood in 1992. His hobby was to bind books,

many of which will make their way to the Gravitas Room for display in our refurbished library. His last visit to Ridley was a happy time of sharing stories over lunch with former students. We brought him into the Dining Room to introduce him to a new generation of students, and he received a warm ovation. Maurice was keenly aware of the responsibility of Christians to their community, and of our obedience motivated by Christ’s atoning death. We can be thankful as a College community for a life well lived and a servant now being welcomed home. The Revd Canon Dr Rhys Bezzant is Senior Lecturer at Ridley College. Read full tribute at http://tma. melbourneanglican.org.au/tributes

Anglicare Victoria’s specialised education program:

TEACHaR

TRANSFORMING EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN AT RISK Anglicare Victoria’s TEACHaR Program has made a huge difference to the education of vulnerable children and young people for almost a decade. Education Specialists (teachers) work collaboratively with children and young people, their carers/parents, school staff and other professionals to transform their feelings and attitudes towards learning.

To learn more email TEACHaR@anglicarevic.org.au www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 5

IN FOCUS

What does it take to be a bushfire volunteer? Tammy Shepherd, a member of the St Hilary’s Network, says she feels “personally called” to volunteer where she can. Ellaine Downie, who worships with Tammy, spoke to her earlier this year about her volunteering experiences, the most recent of which was relief work in bushfire-devastated East Gippsland. “I was interested that she would volunteer for the dirty work of bushfire clean-up, which many would see as a ‘menial’ task,” says Ellaine. “Yet her commitment to volunteering reveals a philosophy and understanding of volunteering as Christian service that I find quite inspiring.”

seen SP in action and it inspired him to come and do the same. So what did you actually do on the ground? The owners of burnt-out properties put in a request for help, through the local council, I think. BlazeAid, Samaritan’s Purse and other local service organisations then provided the practical response. I ended up working on three properties, mainly clearing burnt bushes and small dead trees. We used chainsaws and other cutting tools plus spades and sieves for sifting through the ashes.

completely flattened. You could see the remains of twisted metal sometimes – things that were recognisable as an exercise bike or a kitchen chair … but there was really nothing left but a small pile of ash and other debris. Did it seem to you, being there several weeks after the fires, that these people were still in shock? Definitely. People talked about the guilt they felt if their house was still standing while someone else’s was not. The ones who had stayed to defend their houses all said they would never do it again.

Tammy, your most recent work as a volunteer was going to East Gippsland last week to help clean up after the bushfires. How did that happen? I went to Bairnsdale with a Disaster and Relief Team from Samaritan’s Purse, a US-based Christian charity. Samaritan’s Purse plays a role during floods, bushfires and other disasters, both internationally and in Australia.

How did that make you feel when you walked into a place of such devastation? Did you find yourself feeling anxious, thinking “This could have happened to me!”? I think I was actually able to distance myself from it a little bit, emotionally speaking. That is probably because I’ve had a bit of experience of having to “step back” emotionally in other traumatic situations.

So you left your job as a physiotherapist in Melbourne to get your hands dirty in the bushfire clean-up? Yes. For me it feels like it is too easy to just give money. I am a practical person; I wanted to be there and physically help.

Like when you were volunteering as a physiotherapist on the Mercy Ship and in the Congo? Yes. If I were the sort of person who got overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, I probably wouldn’t still be going regularly to the Congo. I think I tend to be fairly pragmatic and say, “Well I can only do what I can do” and what God gives me the opportunity to do.

What was the daily routine? Samaritan’s Purse had set up its coordination centre at a local church site in Bairnsdale. Each day we would meet at 7am at Riviera Church for breakfast and devotions, talk about the plans for the day, where we were going and what had to be done. Samaritan’s Purse had a container onsite full of equipment – chainsaws, spades, trimmers, helmets – and all the required safety gear. It was really a portable mobile disaster centre! And you were in a team of about 10 volunteers? Yes, Samaritan’s Purse sent two main groups of people – a chaplaincy team of four, and our on-theground teams. About a third of the people came from interstate, a third were Victorians, and a third were internationals from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

What kind of people volunteer to help clean up bushfire disasters? All kinds of people really! One man got involved with Samaritan’s Purse after he had lost his job. He felt at the time that he was worthless and had lost all his selfesteem. Since volunteering, he and his wife have been to help in extremely needy places like Haiti during its cyclone disaster. His wife said this work has given him back his life. Another volunteer was a salesman who was just passing through Bairnsdale on his way to somewhere else. He had a spare day and offered his time. He wanted to do something practical to help. And one day a person just turned up out of the blue with a bobcat! He was not a Samaritan’s Purse volunteer but had come across other SP volunteers cleaning up his father’s burnt-out farm at Sarsfield. He said he saw what great work they were doing and volunteered to bring his bobcat to help with the hard lifting. He had

“To be a volunteer ... you just have to offer yourself.” So the volunteers were asked to sit on the ground and sift through the ashes?! Yes – especially where whole houses had been totally destroyed. Elderly people particularly needed help to go through the remains to try and find any precious belongings … anything of personal value. That must have been heartbreaking for them. Yes. It was difficult seeing just how little there was left of a whole house destroyed by fire – to see what little was left from a whole life. On two out of the three properties I worked on, the houses were

TMA

When we finished the work, we always left a Bible signed by members of the team and encouraged them to link in with their local church community. You work four days a week as a physiotherapist, you are a wife and mother, you volunteer weekly with disabled people, you are always cooking for events at church, you head off each year to Africa to help in a hospital there, and now you take time off to do the dirty cleaning up after the bushfires. Why on earth do you do all this? I guess I feel personally called to do it. It is my Christian mission to help in this way. We are told by Jesus to be “fishers of men”: I want to help use the gifts and skills that I have to help grow the kingdom of God. So I have arranged my life to work casually to have flexibility. This way I can be available to be a volunteer as part of my “normal” life. People often ask me about going to the Congo, for instance. The place is very unstable with much violence. So they wonder why I keep going to such a dangerous place. Or why I want to get involved in “menial” tasks like cleaning up bushfire debris in Gippsland. I tell them I feel called to volunteer and I have been encouraged by others who do the same – people like Gary Brandenburg [of Dallas Theological Seminary and board member of Mercy Ships]. He has a lot to say about Christians being open to volunteer practical help wherever it is needed. I have found the following quote of his very helpful whenever I have had doubts about continuing my work as a volunteer: Don’t ask, “If I go, what will happen to me?” But rather, “If I don’t go, what will happen to them?”

How did the property owners react to you coming onto their land? We only did the work that the owners wanted – we were guided by their needs. If they wanted a particular tree left, we left it – so long as there was no safety issue. But our brief was not just to do the dirty work. If the owners were present we stopped work and talked with them. The work was What has this experience really about showing love and care of volunteering in a bushfire to these people. setting taught you? Many said they were so appre- I have learned that you don’t have ciative of the love and the fact that to have specific skills to be useful as people were prepared to travel long a volunteer. The bushfire survivors distances to help them. didn’t need me as a physiotherapist, On one particular property, after they just needed me as a person, as we had chatted with the owner for a Christian person who wanted to about half an hour, our team leader show them God’s love. said, “Would you mind if we prayed You don’t have to have a set of with you?”, and they were happy to “skills” to be a volunteer; you just do that. have to offer yourself.

PLEASE REPORT ABUSE CALL 1800 135 246 The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne does not tolerate abuse, harassment or other misconduct within our communities. If any person has concerns about the behaviour of a church worker, past or present, they can contact Kooyoora Ltd.

6 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

We are deeply distressed that there have been occasions when abuse and misconduct have occurred in our communities. Kooyoora Ltd is independent of the Diocese and receives and manages complaints about abuse and misconduct by members of the clergy and church workers.

The Diocese of Melbourne is committed to doing all that is possible to ensure that abuse does not occur. All complaints of abuse are taken very seriously and we do all we can to lessen harm. We offer respect, pastoral care and ongoing long-term support to anyone who makes a complaint.

You can contact Kooyoora Ltd by calling 1800 135 246 For further information: www.kooyoora.org.au www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

IN FOCUS

TMA

Lambeth Palace offers life-changing ‘gap year’ Lambeth Palace has opened its doors to young people, and a Roman Catholic community, to offer a “gap year” with a difference. Roland Ashby investigates.

for each other and those in need. The members remain with us in Community. Some showed symptoms very early on and we moved quickly to change our patterns of

B

ehind the walls of Lambeth Palace, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s 800-year-old home beside the Thames in the heart of London, a little-known but remarkable experiment has been taking place. Since 2015, young men and women between the ages of 18 and 35, from all denominations and from all over the world, including Australia,* have been taking up residence to form a new monastic community, the Community of St Anselm. Anselm, one of the great Archbishops of Canterbury who served from 1093-1109, was a Benedictine monk, contemplative, philosopher, theologian and reformer. The Community’s formation has been partly under the inspiration and guidance of the French Roman Catholic community Chemin Neuf, which combines Ignatian spirituality with charismatic worship. And the Community’s Rule of Life also makes clear Roman Catholic spirituality is core to the Community’s mission: “The way we learn from Jesus is given shape by the inheritance the Holy Spirit has given us in St Benedict, St Francis and St Ignatius.” Given that it was the Church of England’s founder, and Supreme Head, Henry VIII, who broke with Rome and ordered the destruction of the monasteries, to say this development is rich in irony is an understatement. It also seems a little surprising perhaps for an archbishop accused by some of pushing a managerialist and success-driven corporate agenda. If Justin Welby’s own eclectic spirituality – including being a Benedictine oblate, having a Jesuit priest as spiritual director, and, early in his Christian discipleship, membership of the charismatic evangelical church of Holy Trinity Brompton in London – is reflected in the creation of the community, then so too is his clear aim as archbishop, stated at the beginning of his incumbency, to make “the renewal of prayer and religious life a priority”. Also at the heart of this monastic project is a gospel imperative, and one of the greatest challenges facing the Church today: unity. The Community’s Rule of Life calls for “the unity which is irrevocably ours in Christ, who has given us his Spirit so that we know that we remain in him, and he in us”, and urges “a unity that is visible, tangible and deep, as Jesus says, ‘so that the world may know that you have sent me’”. Asia Sikorska, one of the four members of Chemin Neuf who live in and support the Community, also told TMA that the vocation of Chemin Neuf “is to give our life for the visible unity of Christians”. Dean of the Community, the Revd Simon Lewis, told TMA that the Community normally consists of 16 residential and 20 non-residential members who join www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

Chemin Neuf member Asia Sikorska with the Dean, the Revd Simon Lewis, at Lambeth Palace.

“Despite our differences and shortcomings, the intention to keep choosing to love each other, as Christ chooses us and loves us, was beautiful, and kept us together.” the Community for 10 months, from September to June*. The Community follows a modified form of the Benedictine monastic daily office, with four times of daily community prayer and worship, and two hours of silence each day for personal prayer and reflection. There are also opportunities for theological study, and on Thursdays and Fridays residential members of the Community are required to do voluntary work for local charities. “Our four charity partners are St Thomas’ and St Guy’s Hospital, a L’Arche Community for the disabled, a hostel for alcoholic men and a hostel and drop-in centre for vulnerable women.” Dean Lewis says that the Community has been able to continue functioning as a traditional Benedictine community during the COVID-19 pandemic and that it has brought “unexpected blessings”. “We have seen in the tragedy around us many signs of hope as we have been drawn into greater care

life and to help them self-isolate. Returning them to their countries was much higher risk. Thankfully all were well by Easter so we were able to celebrate together, although socially distanced, and not using our normal worship spaces.”

On the Community’s website Archbishop Welby describes the life of the Community, of which he is the Abbot, as “transformative”. Much of the transformation, Dean Lewis believes, is seen in personal healing and growth in depth of relationship with God. “It’s deeply personal for each individual. It’s a rooting in Christ in a sense of God’s love for them and the possibility of what God can do, and is doing, in their life.” For Asia Sikorska, an important part of the transformation is discernment of where the Holy Spirit is guiding, learning to follow the Spirit, and to find God in everything, key components of Ignatian and Charismatic spiritualities. “The Community enables people to open themselves to what God is saying to them and the space to hear it.” Two alumni, Andy Walton and Tollin Thumra, also spoke to TMA about how their time in the Community had been transformative for them. Mr Walton, who now works in Archbishop Welby’s media office, grew up in the north of England and his first experience of Anglicanism was at university through a charismatic evangelical church. He was 34 when he joined the Community and found one of its “biggest gifts” was the other people “and the diversity among them”. “We had to live with people of very different and deeply-held theological and political views and work through some difficult issues. The lived experience of that is not easy, but we did it.” He also found his charity work profoundly life-changing. “I was in St Thomas’ Hospital as part of the chaplaincy team. That was wonderful, and a privilege to be able to pray with someone who is very sick or even dying. But again it was hard. The first time you’re faced with someone who is seriously ill and unable to speak or having difficulty speaking really puts you to the test. There’s no easy answer in that situation and you just have to do your best.” It was through this ministry that he also discovered that the vulnerable and weak, and people who are in trouble at certain times, have something important to teach those of us who don’t find themselves in those circumstances. “I’ve always agreed with this in theory as a Christian but to live it is deeply moving. For example, I might be

reading a psalm to a patient and I felt ministered to by the patient. To see someone in difficult circumstances but who is sustained by faith is a powerful witness.” Tollin Thumra is a Baptist from North India and participated in the 2017-18 program. The 29-year-old stayed on as part of the staff but plans to return to India after further study to work in pastoral care and counselling for women who have been sex workers and are survivors of human trafficking. She told TMA that one of the things about living in the Community she treasured most was the silence. “When you’re in deep silence, physically and verbally, you go to the depths of the oceans. It took time to really enjoy silence and to be able to know what silence is, but as we began to learn I realised that was one of the best

Andy Walton: diversity a great gift.

times I could hear God, deeper and clearer.” She also grew to love Ignatian meditation on Scripture, where you imagine yourself physically present in a Gospel scene. “It was quite a challenge in the beginning, but I found that in the mystery you see so many things you have never seen before. It became really precious to me.” Although she sometimes found Community life “really hard”, the commitment to live with, and love, one another will always remain with her. “Despite our differences and shortcomings, the intention to keep choosing to love each other, as Christ chooses us and loves us, was beautiful, and kept us together.” *Melbourne priest the Revd Jonathan Lopez, and his wife Rachael, were part of the first intake. *Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the next intake will begin in January 2021 and will comprise 12 residential members and 12 non-residential members.

Tollin Thumra from North India: what she “treasured most” was the silence.

To find out more about the Community of St Anselm, and how to apply to join, visit: https://www.stanselm.org.uk/ THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 7

AROUND MELBOURNE

TMA

Youth given a chance to shine during pandemic Hugh Kabengle, a young server at All Saints’ East St Kilda, shares his experiences assisting at livestreamed liturgies during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Toorak Ecumenical Movement (L to R): St John’s Anglican, St Peter’s Roman Catholic, Swedish Church and Toorak Uniting churches.

Cooperation, generosity celebrated as Toorak Ecumenical Movement reaches milestone by Brenda Mouritz

This is a history of 40 years of growth and friendship; a story of faith together in Christ; a story of differences but sameness; a story of cooperation and generosity. The Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic clergy started meeting in 1972, and the first combined service was held in 1973, later combining for the Women’s World Day of Prayer, Lenten studies, and Advent and Pentecost services. This unity continues today. The Agreement was formalised between Toorak Uniting Church, St Peter’s Catholic Church and St John’s Anglican Church on Pentecost Sunday 1980 at a combined service at St Peter’s. (The Swedish Church formally joined in 2007.) The first outreach was the Toorak Ecumenical Refugee Relief Appeal in 1979, where the churches worked closely together, especially in support of Vietnamese boat people. The op shop opened in 1980 and has gone from strength to strength. In 1981, the first distribution to various charities and agencies was $6400. By 2019, the amount donated had risen to $296,000. Around $3.3 million has been distributed since 1981. This is an amazing result for a shop run entirely by volunteers. It has also had a major impact on smaller agencies that do not receive Government support. In 1986, monthly Prayers for Christian Unity began, rotating between the four churches. This grew from the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in 1985. He preached at an Ecumenical service in St Patrick’s Cathedral on the theme “One Light for One World”. A special candle travels to the host church every month and is also used at all ecumenical services. In 1990, Food for Friends commenced. For 10 days each year, starting in early December, non-perishable food is collected at two Toorak supermarkets. Sorting and packing take place at the Toorak Uniting Church for agencies to collect and distribute. The Toorak community is incredibly supportive: $50,000 value of goods is donated annually, with a team of over 250 volunteers rostered to stand near the trollies being filled with items. In 2004, we began the Good Friday Way of the Cross and it is a vibrant, visible witness of Christian Unity. The Toorak Ecumenical Movement continues to enjoy full cooperation and support of the clergy and the laity in showing Christ’s teaching and love for the whole community. Each church enjoys its identity, and we all learn from each other as we work and worship together. Brenda Mouritz is Secretary of the Toorak Ecumenical Movement.

Melbourne priest’s literature award A new Chinese-language book of stories by St Silas North Balwyn’s the Revd Stephen Zhang is believed to be the first Chinese Christian literature ever launched in Australia. The Last Summer of the Water Spider is based on the book of Genesis. Mr Zhang was also in May awarded the Ewing Trust Writers’ Prize through Yarra Council for his poetry series Fitzroy, A 24 Hour Melody. 8 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

Hi, I am 12 years old and an altar boy at All Saints’ East St Kilda. I have been serving every week during the coronavirus pandemic, as luckily we have been able to have private and livestreamed masses. Until 2019 my role was in the All Saints’ choir which was founded in the 1800s. I joined the choir at age seven and now I am head chorister. You can hear a couple of us still singing in the masses during the pandemic via the church’s Facebook page or on Vimeo at https://vimeo. com/414123143 (go to 17:22 and 59:21 minute marks in particular. That’s me singing the treble line). In the middle of 2019 our parish priest, Father Rene Knaap, asked my mother whether I would also like to train as an altar boy. My mother knew I would like serving so said yes and she was right because I do like it. At first I think the old-time servers thought I would start off being the boat boy (carrying the incense) but that is a job for a junior probationer, not the head

Hugh Kabengle, a young server at All Saints’ East St Kilda.

chorister, let me tell you! I started from the beginning serving in the sanctuary, at the Saturday evening vigil masses, and during the holidays I would sometimes serve at a weekday 7am mass. But it was only during the pandemic that I did my first Sunday mass. And then I did many of them, because so many adults were self-isolating. In Melbourne we were allowed to have five people for a livestream – the priest, a server, the organist, then usually a reader and a cantor. We moved a lectern into the sanctuary and the readings and sermon were given from there so they could be seen on

the livestream camera. Some weekends were very busy – on one Saturday afternoon I sang the treble part for the recorded mass which is at the Vimeo video link above, served at the vigil mass at 6pm, and then on the Sunday morning I served again. That’s three masses in less than 24 hours! In the last couple of weeks another younger chorister has started server training. I hope that we’ll soon have four or five boys who can serve. It’s a challenge to serve correctly. There are so many objects and positions to remember and the Prayer Book on its stand is very heavy to carry. Even the bells are heavy. The next challenge for me is the incense! I have heard of some altar boys who set things on fire by accident but I’ll try to avoid doing that! The pandemic has given children like me the chance to take on some important roles. I was even the server for Easter Sunday. There is a Guild of Servants of the Sanctuary, based in the UK, and soon I’ll be inducted as a member. I hope more boys will take up serving and we’ll see more pictures of them and articles about what they are doing in TMA.

Henry Speagle and Francis Andersen remembered A long-serving lay leader of the Melbourne diocese and founding Chairman of the Prayer Book Society in Victoria, Mr Henry Speagle OAM, died on 1 June, aged 92. Former Wangaratta Bishop David Farrer told Mr Speagle’s funeral service at All Saints’ East St Kilda on 9 June that St Paul’s reference to “abounding in the work of the Lord” was a good description for Mr Speagle, who was a Synod representative for St Michael and All Angels Parish in Mt Dandenong, a member of General Synod, a Lay Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1979-98, and who also served on the Archbishopric Election Board, Archbishop-in-Council, the Council of Ridley College and for almost 40 years from 1962 as a member of Tintern Grammar’s School Council. Bishop Farrer said Mr Speagle – a public servant and author – was highly organised and that attention to detail was crucial to him. “That was essential for his major life work as an editor and was also a gift to the Church,” he said. “Henry Speagle never did reveal much about his early life: the journey from a Jewish family in Munich to a place in Melbourne establishment is a remarkable one ... The journey from Munich, to Australia via Milan and Zurich, was far from easy,

there were family battles, stones thrown, conversion to Christianity ... They were all baptised at Christ Church South Yarra in 1939. “A great passion of his was the Prayer Book Society. He agreed with the author P.D. James, a former Vice President of the UK Society, when she wrote: “The Book of Common Prayer is a deep liturgical well from which generations have drawn life-giving and sustaining spiritual sustenance...” Mr Speagle is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jean, his son Donald and two grandsons. See Bishop Farrer’s eulogy for Mr Speagle at http://tma.melbourneanglican.org.au/tributes.

The Revd Professor Francis Ian Andersen, a highly regarded international scholar in Biblical studies and Hebrew who spearheaded computer analysis of biblical Hebrew syntax, has died in Melbourne, aged 94. Christianity Today’s obituary quoted the late Ridley College principal Stuart Barton Babbage, one of his spiritual mentors, who said that Professor Andersen had “brought the machines of science into the service of the Church and the proclamation of the Word of her Lord”. Professor Andersen’s teaching career included two periods at Ridley College.

Changes at Eternity After more than 10 years and 109 editions, national Christian newspaper Eternity has ended its printed publication with its April edition. Editor John Sandeman wrote in a letter to readers that the COVID-19 pandemic had made “the idea of a national newspaper distributed to Christians gathered in churches simply an impossibility”. “When I started Eternity newspaper, I thought it would last five years before spinning off [into] an internet news service which would take its place. I was wrong,” he recalled. “Eternity lives on as a daily news service online – the one I prophesied about but got the timing wrong. And a small fleet of Eternity podcasts, led by With All Due Respect, Undeceptions, and Salt, form a convoy around eternitynews.com.au.” Mr Sandeman added that Bible Society Australia is producing a new magazine, which will include Eternity content, material from the supporters’ magazine Sower and part of the Koorong catalogue. For more information, readers can contact Mr Sandeman at john.sandeman@biblesociety.com.au, or sign up to the mailing list for the new magazine via donor.support@biblesociety.org.au www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

ACROSS AUSTRALIA

TMA

Church blind to own racism: Aboriginal bishop by Mark Brolly

A

ustralia’s National Aboriginal Bishop says the Church has a blindness to its own racism and if it wanted to speak with integrity about Black Lives Matter, or any social justice matters, it needed to look at itself as well. Adelaide-based Bishop Chris McLeod, a person of Gurindji descent whose mother Margaret and grandmother Dolly were part of the Stolen Generations, was speaking in a video interview with the Anglican Board of Mission – Australia after issuing a statement about the global Black Lives Matter campaign and its relevance to Australia on 5 June. “We in the church have a blindness to our own racism in the church,” he said in the ABM video, which may be viewed at https:// www.abmission.org/. “I want to say that if the church is really going to speak with integrity about ‘Black Lives Matter’, and speak with integrity about any issues around social justice, then we actually have to look at ourselves as well. We actually had to confront our own racism, and who better than me, I guess, to say it?” Bishop McLeod’s statement included an endorsement by Australia’s new Anglican Primate, Archbishop Geoff Smith of Adelaide, encouraging the Church and the community to continue to work towards recognition and reconciliation and a just society for all. In his statement, Bishop McLeod said that the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation, held during the National Week for Reconciliation, had not gone quite as planned. “Not long after it commenced we were all, I am sure, appalled by the death of George Floyd in America,” he said. “It seemed to me to be so violent, senseless and unjust. This senseless action has triggered off a series of protests and riots around America, and protests here in Australia. It also reminded us that since the findings of the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report (1991) there has been a further 432 deaths

in custody. Just in the last few days we have also witnessed the violent arrest of an Aboriginal teenager in New South Wales. We can see quite clearly that reconciliation means far more than saying the right words

“We can see quite clearly that reconciliation means far more than saying the right words and uttering the right prayers for one week of the year.” Bishop Chris McLeod.

and uttering the right prayers for one week of the year. Something is very, very wrong with racial equality in both American and Australia, and needs to be changed.” Bishop McLeod said The Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report made for harrowing reading. “How I wish that it simply described the past, as bad as that is, and is not in some way a prophecy of the present. I quickly add that not all police officers are violent murderous bullies. There are many

“‘Black Lives Matter’ because we need to focus our thoughts and actions on those who suffer the most.”

fine police officers, just as there are many faithful Christians that make up their number. However, there is something wrong within mainstream Australia and America. Something deeply wrong with our institutions; including those set up for our wellbeing. It is systemic racism. “Most people I know would not accept that they are racist, and many take deep offence if you suggest that they might be. Systemic racism operates at the deepest levels of our society. Systemic racism, or institutional racism, by another name, refers to how ‘white superiority’ functions as the norm. It is the lens by which we see all things. It shapes the political system, police force, the educational system, legal system, employment practices, and, yes, even our church. It shapes both you and me. All our social contexts are dominated by the, often unspoken and unrecognised, premise that being ‘white’, with all its associations, is inherently normative. This is why ‘Black Lives Matter’! “People of colour are just not seen as being on the same level of those who are not. The basic institutions of our society were established

“Jesus provides the model. Jesus showed solidarity with the poor, the outcast, the marginalised, and rejected.” to serve and protect the dominant ‘white’ culture. ‘Black Lives Matter’ because we need to focus our thoughts and actions on those who suffer the most. People will be quick to say ‘but all lives matter’; and, of course they do. However, it is far too easy to gloss over the particular when we focus on the general. This is why we also focus on violence against women, but we all know violence against anyone is wrong; we focus on the protection of the children, but we all know that all people need protection from any form of abuse. Focusing on the particular helps us to address the

universal. Jesus said ‘… just as you did it to one of the least these who are members of my family you did it to me’ (Matt 25: 40).” Bishop McLeod said the 432 First Nations people who had died since the The Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report was released, like George Floyd, had names, families and stories of their past. “Many were arrested for relatively minor crimes. They were human beings with feelings, thoughts and blood running through their veins. They had possibilities for change. They are not just numbers. They were like you and me. They were God’s children. “The Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report made 339 recommendations of which only a few have been enacted, and, clearly, given the continued deaths in custody, have not addressed the core issues. What should we Christians do? For my part, Jesus provides the model. Jesus showed solidarity with the poor, the outcast, the marginalised, and rejected (Luke 4: 18–21). Surely, in our context, that is the First Nations peoples, and other people of colour. As Christians we should be some of the strongest advocates for justice for First Nations peoples, and work tirelessly and prayerfully to see the end of the senseless deaths in custody. Write to your state and federal parliamentary member and ask them what they are doing about it. I am! We also need to ask the hard questions of ourselves. As a church when it comes to systemic racism we also have some ‘logs to take out of our own eyes’ (Matt 7: 5). We have significant changes to make in our own church. As people of the light we can begin to walk in the light, and drive out the darkness (John 1: 4).” He concluded his statement with a quote from slain US civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that’.” View Bishop McLeod’s video interview at www.abmission.org

Make JobSeeker permanent, urges Anglicare by Stephen Cauchi

Anglicare Australia has urged the Federal Government to make the JobSeeker allowance permanent given the soaring unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But while Anglicare praised the Federal Government for considering a JobSeeker extension past September, it criticised the Government’s HomeBuilder announcement for failing to boost social housing. “We know that people will be recovering from this pandemic for months and years to come,” said Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers on 19 June. “We also know that children and families have been some of the biggest beneficiaries, and www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

that thousands of children will be plunged back into poverty if [JobSeeker] rates are cut in September. “These people need certainty. That means a permanent increase – not a delayed cut-off.” Australian unemployment reached a 19-year high of 7.1 per cent in May. Hundreds of thousands of Australians had lost their jobs and their livelihoods during this pandemic, said Ms Chambers, while others were already out of work and living in poverty. “Some 1.6 million people are now locked out of work. Many are families struggling to support their children. More than ever, we owe these Australians a safety net that will protect them.“ The peak social advocacy organisation for more than 40

Children and families will suffer if JobSeeker rates are cut.

Anglican agencies, Anglicare Australia also said that the HomeBuilder announcement of early June had failed renters and people on low incomes.

“Renters are on the frontline of this downturn. Many are losing their incomes, and some are scared of losing their homes,” said Ms Chambers on 4 June. She said that social housing was a “simple solution to this problem”. “Building social housing would have kept a roof over people’s heads and given a badly a needed boost the economy,” she said. “Today’s announcement was a lost opportunity to end our social housing shortfall and help people in need. Instead we’re back to business as usual – handing out money to people who can already afford to renovate or invest.” Payments to first home buyers and renovators won’t give enough of a boost to the economy or tackle the housing crisis, she said.

“Social housing projects would create more jobs than renovations or grants for new builds. Modelling released just yesterday shows that social housing investment would boost construction by $15.7 billion and boost GDP by $6.7 billion. “It would also create 24,500 jobs in the regions that need them the most. “This kind of boost is much stronger than lining the kitchens and bathrooms of people who can already afford it.” Ms Chambers said there was a shortfall of 500,000 social and affordable rentals across Australia, and a worsening homelessness crisis. “Investing in social housing is a no-brainer. We will keep calling for investment ahead of the Federal Budget.” THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 9

ACROSS AUSTRALIA

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General Synod, Lambeth in doubt: new Primate by Mark Brolly

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ustralia’s new Anglican Primate, Archbishop Geoff Smith of Adelaide, questions whether the deferred meetings of General Synod and the Lambeth Conference of the world’s Anglican bishops will go ahead in 2021 but expects both to be shaped by the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 if they do. He said the adaptations forced by coronavirus offered huge opportunities for Anglicans to explore how an online Church presence might work. Archbishop Smith also said some of the Church’s decision-making governance structures “do not assist us in discussing complex matters”, making the nurturing of relationships very important to avoid fragmentation. He identified two initiatives of his predecessor as Primate, Melbourne’s Archbishop Philip Freier, that he wants to follow, as well as pursuing existing priorities of his own. And, in an email interview with TMA last month, he revealed that he and his wife Lynn are beekeepers! The Brisbane-born Archbishop succeeded Dr Freier, whose resignation after almost six years as Primate took effect on 31 March, after an electronic ballot by the Board of Electors in early April. “Coronavirus has meant that the start of my time in the role has been very different to what I had imagined and just how things will develop is not at all certain yet,” Archbishop Smith said. “Having said that I think there is

a great deal of goodwill among the bishops of the Anglican Church of Australia and a real intent to work together and work through the challenges we face. I look forward to being a part of that. “Archbishop Freier initiated a couple of things which I hope will continue. One of those was a training program for new bishops, and the other was an intentional developing of relationships between bishops in the Pacific. I am already involved in the Council of the Church of East Asia and I hope to continue to build relationships with the church in that part of the world. Given our autonomous structure, relationships are vital in helping to keep the Anglican wheels moving forward together so I hope to continue to build on those important relationships.” Asked how General Synod and the Lambeth Conference might be different in 2021 than they would have been this year if not postponed due to coronavirus, Archbishop Smith replied: “I think there is a question mark over whether those two gatherings will take place in 2021. There is still a great deal of uncertainty about next year. If Lambeth happens as an international gathering, many bishops will be attending whose dioceses have been severely impacted by COVID19, with many deaths, a great deal of illness and significant economic hardship. I think if Lambeth happens it will be a sombre event with much focus on those parts of the world that continue to suffer. “If General Synod happens next

Archbishop Geoff Smith.

year as a face-to-face meeting and if Australia continues to be free or largely free of COVID-19, I expect the meeting will be marked by thanksgiving, but again mindful of the people who are suffering especially in an economic sense. That might prompt the Synod to reflect on our priorities as a church reflecting the love of God to the world.” Archbishop Smith, asked how well placed the Anglican Church of Australia and the worldwide Anglican Communion were to respond effectively to secularism in the Western world, to regain public trust and confidence after the child sexual abuse revelations in recent decades and to deal with contentious issues such as same-sex

marriage, said there were a variety of circumstances ranging from rapid growth to rapid decline across the Communion. “The Anglican Church of Australia faces a long road to regain public trust due to the influence of secularism and atheism especially fundamentalist atheism, and given the revelations of child sexual abuse which for many people just reinforced what they already thought about the Church. The way to regain public trust will be by action, not words. “Some of our decision-making governance structures do not assist us in discussing complex matters and that makes relationships very important. Given the challenging times we face missionally, we need to work together not allow ourselves to fragment. My view is that there is goodwill and a desire to work together, but doing that will require energy, commitment and hard work.” He said COVID-19 had provided the Church with huge opportunities. “Clergy and lay leaders have shown significant capacity for rapid change and creativity. People who are not usually connected with the worshipping life of the Church have shown they can be interested if the medium actually works for them. We will need to work through what a continuing online church presence looks like ...” Archbishop Smith, who has led Adelaide’s Anglicans since 2017, said he was baptised in the Anglican Church when he was two months old and has been participating ever since.

“Knowing God through Jesus Christ is a huge privilege, and for me it is dynamic with a very present experience of God leading and guiding, prompting and teaching me. Sharing in God’s vision of the Kingdom of God gives me purpose and great hope for the world. “Anglicanism has a system of balances which I appreciate. There is a balance between word and sacrament, between centralised authority and autonomy, between episcopal leadership and synodical control, between word and deed. “My uncle, who is a priest, asked me when I was about 15 whether I had thought of being a priest,” Archbishop Smith said. “I said, ‘No, I want to be a barrister’, but actually the idea of ordination stayed with me from that time.” He has served in ministries ranging from Rector of Taraka in Papua New Guinea, first Vicar of the Parochial District of SawtellBonville in Grafton diocese, National Director of the Anglican Board of Mission – Australia and Bishop of the Southern Region, and later Registrar, of the Brisbane diocese. Archbishop Smith and his wife Lynn have two adult children and a daughter-in-law – all in Brisbane. In Adelaide, they have two beehives in their backyard and also relax by cycling (“on flat terrain”, the Archbishop adds), bushwalking and exploring South Australia. See http://tma.melbourneanglican.org. au/ for full version of this article.

From UK ski, equestrian champion to Anglican lay minister – Continued from page 1 “Unfortunately, I still had this obsession with my identity and who I was – which was all wrapped up in sport.” Her application to study at a UK Bible College was rejected, which didn’t help. “That threw me a little bit, I don’t do very well when God says no. I just walked away from Jesus very easily.” Although her skiing career was now over, she became a champion equestrian competitor instead – show jumping, playing polo and, later, endurance racing. With her equestrian career blooming, she moved in the 1990s to Bahrain and then Dubai, married her first husband, and began working in public relations for the Rothmans/Williams/Renault Formula One racing team. She also competed in the equestrian world championships representing Ireland (her mother was Irish), separated from her first husband and met her current husband Jeff. In the 1990s, Ms Rossely was a “fairly wild party animal”. “I worked hard and I played hard. But by the time I met Jeff, I’d actually calmed right down. I was like, this is not working,” she said. “We lived in the most amazing place, we had the horses, the cars, we had everything, but I kept saying to Jeff there’s got to be more. “You can win and win and win and have great success but it didn’t actually make me feel any different.”

Her spiritual life had moved away from her Christian experience on Cyprus to beliefs that included Buddhism, New Age philosophies and tarot cards. But after moving to France in the early 2000s, she met a Christian Brethren couple who became close friends. They were “so compassionate, so loving”, she said. “I was fascinated with how they lived and

overwhelming sense of love. In that moment I realised that I didn’t want to carry on running my own life, I just really needed to let go of my obsession with my identity and my sport. “I had this overwhelming sense of peace and an overwhelming sense of freedom that I’d never really felt before. It was just amazing. The only way He could get my attention

“I’d retired from endurance racing. I knew I just wanted to compete for God.” breathed Jesus. They prayed into everything, they prayed before breakfast, lunch, dinner. We did the Alpha Course together because they wanted to help me on this journey.” Ms Rossely said that at that stage she considered herself a Christian but “was struggling with hearing God’s voice”. But while qualifying for her third World Equestrian Games in 2009, disaster struck again. The day before the race, her horse had an epileptic fit. “I was really quite distraught because I couldn’t understand why God would allow that to happen when it was important to me.” Shortly after, she walked into her kitchen and saw her open Bible on the table. “It was like Jesus walked into the kitchen. I just had this

10 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

was to take away from me what was actually hindering our relationship.” Her spiritual life had now settled for good on Christianity. She began an online Bible studies course with Masters College in the US. And, desiring to be part of a Christian community, she and her husband moved to the UK in 2010 so they would have a greater choice of worship options. After living in Devon for three years and attending a Congregational church, she and Jeff began to tire of the British weather. They moved to Australia in 2013. “I’d retired from endurance racing. I knew I just wanted to compete for God. I just wanted to do whatever He wanted to.” She originally wanted to

attend a more “charismatic” Sustainability Development Goal denomination than Anglicanism 8, and involving leading clergy but a visit to All Saints in and entrepreneurs including Murwillumbah, NSW, changed Archbishop Justin Welby and her mind. “The people were so Richard Branson. Her role as colovely,” she said. ordinator involved organising highShe was t houg ht hig h ly profile events at Lambeth Palace, e n o u g h o f t h a t s h e w a s the Vatican, Westminster Abbey approached to be a lay minister. and the United Nations New York, She agreed, but admitted that she and working to get philanthropists struggled with doing that. and entrepreneurs from around “Then we found out there was the world involved in tackling the a little church just down the road problem of human trafficking. from us that no-one was really “I was working on this 24 hours a interested in. I think there were day, seven days a week, and I really three people all over 90 who were burnt out big time. I was doing a going to Tyalgum. lot of travelling. I managed to do 15 “They only had a small service months and then I felt it was time once every month. And we walked to move on.” in there and immediately knew that The network is still very strong, this was our church, and this was said Ms Rossely, and she remains where God wanted us. actively involved where she can be. “We built it up from three people For the past three years, Ms to 40, 50. It’s a bit lighter on the Rossely has been busy writing liturgy and a bit more charismatic. her book, travelling and doing lay “Because it was the only church ministry work with her church at standing in Tyalgum, we had Tyalgum. Presbyterians, Baptists, Catholics, “Everything I want to do I can do Pentecostals – we had just the most as a lay minister. This is the right amazing group of people.” place. I’m loving Australia,” she said. Juggling church duties and a Currently, amid COVID-19, full working farm with cattle and she is planning outdoor worship horses was difficult enough, but services while conducting Zoom then Jeff was offered a job in Dubai prayer meetings every Sunday. and she found herself spending a “We’re just growing and growing lot of time there as well. and growing,” she said. But this led to her becoming involved, in 2015, in the Global Racing on Empty is available now Sustainability Network (GSN), an from booksellers. interfaith-led organisation relating See http://gsngoal8.com/ for more on to anti-slavery and United Nations the Global Sustainability Network. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

WIDER WORLD

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Government urged to oppose annexation plan T

he Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network has called on the Australian Government to pressure the Israeli Government over plans to annex large areas of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley – “the food bowl of Palestine” – from 1 July. A statement from PIEN on 15 June said the threat of further annexation was “a deplorable denial of Palestinian rights”. It urged Foreign Minister Marise Payne and the Australian Government as a whole not to remain silent but to pressure the Israeli Government to cease “these latest land grabs” and to comply with international law and United Nations resolutions. “It is time to defend the Palestinian peoples’ inalienable rights to their own homeland,” the statement said. “If the Australian Government continues to assert its position for a Two-State solution, then it needs to step up and recognise the State of Palestine on 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem as its capital.” The statement came as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Roman Catholic Archbishop

of Westminster wrote to both the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Mr Mark Regev, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressing their opposition to any move by the Government of Israel to annex West Bank territory after 1 July 2020. The letters from Archbishop Justin Welby and Cardinal Vincent Nichols followed the recent warning from the leaders of Churches in the Holy Land that Israel’s proposed annexation of West Bank territory would “bring about the loss of any remaining hope for the success of the peace process”. In each letter, the British church leaders made clear they “unambiguously support the fundamental right of Israel’s citizens to live in peace and safety but these prospects can only be secured through negotiation rather than annexation”. It was essential that both Israelis and Palestinians live without violence or the threat of violence from each other or other armed groups, they said. The statement from PIEN, Australian Christians who seek lasting peace for the people of Palestine and Israel, said the organisation believed that for any peaceful out-

Settlement expansion near Bethlehem.

come to be achieved and sustained in the Holy Land, there needed to be a peace that was imbued with justice. This justice included peace and security for all people in the land of Israel and Palestine. “Where is the justice for Palestinians in the so called ‘Deal of the Century’, devised by the Trump administration, and planned to be delivered by the newly formed Netanyahu/Gantz Israeli Unity government, as early as 1st July 2020?” it said. “No Palestinians were privy to the planning of this ‘peace plan’. “Where is the justice when the State of Israel plans to further annex large areas of Palestinian territory in

the West Bank, including much of the Jordan Valley, the food bowl of Palestine? “Where is the justice for Palestinians, who will continue to come under the existing Israeli military policies of home demolitions, blockades, the indefinite detention of children and growing Israeli settler violence? “The State of Israel has frequently ignored the opinion of the international community with relative impunity since its establishment in 1948, progressively occupying more and more of the lands of historical Palestine beyond the original UN Partition Plan. For that reason, the

Netanyahu/Gantz/Trump plan merely reflects longstanding, illegal Israeli annexation policies and Israel’s abiding intention for there never to be a Palestinian state.” PIEN said the threat of further Israeli annexation worsened the already unacceptable status quo and was in direct contravention of a series of UN resolutions. “These land acquisitions will continue to undermine the viability of a Palestinian state, which will be left with isolated pockets of disconnected territory and will escalate tensions and erode any genuine advancements for peace,” it said. “We note the many voices who have spoken out against these latest unilateral annexation plans. Voices from European governments, from the World Council of Churches, from the Heads of Churches in the Holy Land, and from Palestinians and Jewish people the world over. “To these voices we add our own, to implore our Foreign Minister and Australian Government not to remain silent but to pressure the Israeli Government to cease these latest land grabs and to comply with international law and UN resolutions.”

Sydney rector slams Trump’s brandishing of Bible ‘as a stage prop’ Prominent Sydney rector and commentator, the Revd Dr Michael Jensen, says he doesn’t think he has ever been more offended by a political leader than by US President Donald Trump’s using the Bible “as a stage prop in his pantomime of power” outside St John’s Episcopal Church, near the White House, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests. In an article in The Sydney Morning Herald on 3 June, Dr Jensen wrote: “The terrible irony is that the President – who, when asked, cannot quote a single verse of scripture – used the Bible further to stoke the situation triggered by the brutal killing of George Floyd, a man who, it transpires, not only read the Bible, but lived by it. “The Bible is not a book to be weaponised. It’s not a talisman or a lucky charm. It’s a book to be read and to be lived – or not at all.” Dr Jensen, the Rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Darling Point, wrote that the Bible holds up a

mirror to human nature and human society. “It tells us (as if we needed telling right now) that all is not well. And one of its chief targets is political and religious hypocrisy. To display religious piety while ignoring the poor and the oppressed is the worst of sins, biblically speaking. Jesus was especially critical of exactly this.” Dr Jensen wrote that while the “insanity” in the US was to be deplored, Australians should look to their own house, with more than half of the population owning the name “Christian”. “But are we – am I – any better than the President at reading it?” The Episcopal News Service [ENS] reported on 23 June that the 204-year-old St John’s Church, “the Church of Presidents”, had been vandalised again the previous evening during another night of clashes between police and protesters. St John’s, where one of the pews is reserved for the President, has taken on a new symbolic status as

“The Bible is not a book to be weaponised,” Dr Jensen wrote.

a backdrop for escalating conflicts in American society. During riots that followed protests against racial violence and police brutality on the night of 31 May, a fire was lit in the basement of the parish hall, destroying one room but leaving the rest of the property unharmed, except for some graffiti. The next day, police forced protesters and clergy out of the area in

front of St John’s so that President that we are as a Church to be those Trump could pose for photos hold- who set our own house in order and ing a Bible in front of the church, who acknowledge our own historic an action condemned by Episcopal errors and failings. As a person, I leaders. acknowledge that I come from • In Mississippi, Bishop Brian privilege and a place of power as a Seage has joined other church lead- white person in this country.” ers in calling for the Confederate Bishops Martyn Snow of flag, symbol of the Southern states Leicester, Christopher Cocksworth that fought to retain slavery during of Coventry and John Stroyan of the American Civil War in the 1860s, Warwick were among the bishops to be removed from the state flag. and clergy to “take the knee” for “I believe this flag belongs in eight minutes and 46 seconds – the museums and in archives and in his- time a Minneapolis police officer tory books,” Seage told ENS, calling knelt on George Floyd’s neck as he it a “deeply pastoral and moral” issue struggled for breath and died – in rather than a political stance. support of the protests. • Archbishops and bishops of • The Archbishop of Canterbury the Church of England, expressing and five Australian bishops – support for the Black Lives Matter including the President of the movement, have declared that it is National Council of Churches in time to “own up to” and “repent” of Australia, Bishop Philip Huggins white privilege within the Church as – are among 80 bishops to have in other parts of society. signed an Anglican Communion Archbishop Justin Welby of Environmental Network statement Canterbury said in a video posted saying that black lives are most at on social media: “... I feel within me risk from environmental collapse. again today that great call of Jesus [with ENS, RNS, Church Times]

Dr Sentamu ends tenure as Archbishop of York as successor prepares for ‘virtual’ start by Mark Brolly

Archbishop John Sentamu marked the end of nearly 15 years as the 97th Archbishop of York on 7 June when he laid his crozier on the High Altar of an almost empty York Minster, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dr S entamu’s success or, Archbishop-designate Stephen Cottrell, is to officially take up the role on 9 July at the Confirmation of Election Service, which will be broadcast entirely via video conference due to coronavirus restrictions. Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury has granted special permission for the virtual service to take place. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

The retiring Archbishop, accompanied by his wife, the Revd Margaret Sentamu, laid down his crozier witnessed by the Dean of York, the Rt Revd Dr Jonathan Frost, and Head Verger Alex Carberry. “Today, in the simple and symbolic act of laying down his crozier, Archbishop Sentamu brought his ministry as Archbishop of York to a close,” Dr Frost said. “In current circumstances we have been unable to fulfil our hope to gather together for a service. However, in households and communities across the Diocese of York, the North and Nation, those whose lives have been graced by Sentamu and Margaret give thanks for their

witness to the joy, simplicity and compassion of the good news of Jesus Christ.” Archbishop Sentamu was born in Uganda in 1949 and practised law as an advocate and, briefly, as a judge at the High Court in Kampala. He fled dictator Idi Amin’s Uganda for Britain in 1974 and turned to a life in the Church. He has served in ordained ministry within the Church of England for 41 years. Dr Sentamu will continue to live in the North of England and has said he will continue with his work on the case for income equality and sustainability. Archbishop Welby paid tribute to Dr Sentamu at General Synod

on 13 February, saying in part: “We know that his Ugandan experience was as a judge, as imprisoned, beaten, persecuted, as fleeing for his life, and as an exile. Which other recent Archbishop has so shared in the ecumenism of suffering? Which other can thus speak with such authority? Which other has purchased that authority with bruises and blood? “We all know of his interests and the priorities he sets for himself and for other people. He is always keen to listen to people and specially to spend time with those beyond the walls of the church. We bishops were privileged to hear him reflect on his pilgrimage around the dio-

cese of York at one of our meetings. The mission he did walking all over the diocese of York and everywhere sharing the gospel and saying the Lord’s Prayer was truly remarkable and has had such a profound impact. I cannot find another ABY (Archbishop of York) who did this since before the Norman Conquest. He is an Archbishop in the mould of the Saxon saints. His leadership of the bishops in the northern province (of the Church of England) in recent years has stirred us all into thinking again about our priority to mission. His leadership like all good prophetic leadership leaves many feeling uncomfortable and asking questions. We need more.”

THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 11

VIEWPOINTS

Linking care for planet with care for poor

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Oscar Delaney, a young Anglican from Brisbane, reflects on growing up in Indian slums, how climate change will hit the worst-off first and hardest, and why he is taking on mining tycoon Clive Palmer.

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wake up to the sound of our ceiling fan slowly creaking to a halt. The electricity has just gone off for the second time in as many hours. It is not long before I am soaked in sweat. But, not to worry. I will need to get up soon for my 4.30am online Maths lesson anyway. That was two years ago when I was doing Year 12 via the Brisbane School of Distance Education from a Lucknow slum, in Uttar Pradesh, northern India. My parents, inspired by Jesus’ example of seeking out the downtrodden and caring for “the least”, moved to India in 1995 to work for and live with people living in Indian slums. Rather than imposing a Western worldview or coming in pretending they had all the answers, they chose to listen deeply and advocate alongside the slum dwellers for their rights, from health to education and housing to employment. Sweltering monsoon nights with intermittent electricity gave me a keen appreciation of how unpleasant extreme heat can be. It’s little wonder much of the tropics are projected to become uninhabitable by 2100, with temperatures set to rise further if the path we are on continues. But soaring temperatures are not the only reason I am worried about climate change – it is also a matter of faith. Knowing how hard it already is for my Indian friends to eke out a decent life for their families, I fear for how they will cope once temperatures soar, seas rise, deserts expand, cyclones pound and crops fail. The World Bank, not known for its alarmism, predicts that living standards will worsen for nearly half of India’s population by 2050 – the half that is already really struggling. An older farmer told my family and me a few years ago that when he was a young man he could predict when the monsoon would start – and thus when to plant his rice – almost to the day. But now he finds the seasons are chaotic and unpredictable, with premature deluges drowning his seedlings some years and a failed monsoon parching his land the next. He hadn’t heard of “climate change”, but was already feeling its sting. City dwellers will be particularly vulnerable to the social and political strife caused by climate change. I remember walking home from preschool one day with Dad amid a political riot, and that later a tear gas canister flew into our courtyard. It was scary to imagine how bad things could have gotten if the situation spiralled further out of control. I worry about the socio-political impacts if food or water run short in the future and the possibility of violence following. It would be particularly bad for Muslims and Dalits (sometimes referred to as “untouchables”) – groups already scapegoated for some of India’s problems. Currently, some Muslims are being ostracised and sacked

based on misinformation that they are primarily responsible for spreading coronavirus, my Indian friend, Gulnaz, tells me. Therefore, I have decided that one of the most important things I can do for my Indian friends while I am not living there is to help combat climate change. That is why I am a vegetarian, use public transport, buy things mainly second-hand and only fly once every few years (to go between India and Australia). One of the many things I have learnt from Jesus is that the personal and the political go hand in hand. Jesus did not just pray for the world; he went out and changed it. And, we are called to do likewise – in whatever ways we can. So that’s why I write to elected representatives and business leaders urging them to build a better world and a safer climate. That is why I talk with people at polling places and at my church, youth group and university about climate change. That’s why I go to peaceful protests. Before COVID-19, I participated in a few acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. On one occasion, 10 of us were arrested while making origami wind turbines as we did a peaceful “sit in” within the lobby of a large engineering firm (then contracted to work on Adani’s mine). After the bushfires nearly razed a colleague’s home in December last year, we took some of the charred wood from his street and symbolically placed it at the door of another Adani mine contractor. Many of the things we now take for granted both locally and internationally, such as women’s suffrage

Oscar Delaney in an at-home #StopAdani solidarity action during the COVID-19 restriction period.

ahead at a federal level and is cur- effects. When the woman of Luke rently being considered at the state 7 washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, level, where draft environmental it may not have amounted to much approval has been granted by the at the time, but her example, as Queensland Government. Through an individual act of kindness in a our court challenge, we hope that broken world, is something we still the Land Court will recommend talk about today. that the State Government rejects Sometimes I wonder when final environmental approval. advocating for a safer climate: There has been significant “Will my next email to a mining support for Youth Verdict’s court CEO lead to the awakening of his challenge, including sympathetic conscience?” or “Will my going media coverage on the ABC’s 7.30 to another protest or not buying with Leigh Sales, which is great. a new gadget save us from climate So, caring for creation and car- change?” I always come to the ing for people living in poverty in same conclusion: that we are all India are intimately intertwined for called to act justly and do our little The climate activism work I me. bit towards creating a fairer world, am most excited to be involved While there is lots to like about even when it seems like just a drop in currently is with a new group India, the preponderance of rub- in the ocean. The way individuals called Youth Verdict. A diverse bish in public spaces always grated have collectively pulled together for group of 25 young Queenslanders, on me. “We don’t like it either,” one the common good to help flatten we will argue in the Land Court of our neighbours mused. “But the COVID-19 curve shows what we can achieve when everyone does their bit. I am hopeful that as part of the growing groundswell of grassroots advocacy and creation care, together our efforts will amount to something. I dream of a world united by common cause to mitigate climate change and simultaneously eradicate poverty though a fairer sharing of earth’s plentiful resources. I yearn for a world where everyone is aware of the deep social and ecological suffering caused by lifestyles of overconsumption, and change their habits accordingly. Like Paul, I groan with creation, expectantly hoping for a time when we no longer need coal mines because clean energy flows abundantly and no longer need “environmentalists” because every Oscar at home with his mother, Cathy, and friendly neighbourhood kids Adil and Javed in Lucknow in 2017. person cares for creation. and American civil rights, were of Queensland that Clive Palmer’s everyone else leaves their litter in achieved through nonviolent civil proposed Waratah coal mine, the street or tosses it in the drain, so Oscar Delaney is a youth group disobedience. Christians have a which would extract four times as what difference can I make?” Upon leader at St Andrew’s, South long and proud tradition of leading much coal annually as the Adani my return to Australia, I sometimes Brisbane. He is a second-year peaceful social activist movements, mine, endangers our human rights heard people commiserate with me science student at the University of including journalist and activist to life and property by causing about the perils of climate change, Queensland, with a special interest in Dorothy Day (now a candidate more frequent and severe extreme but then in the next breath absolve climate justice. for canonisation in the Catholic weather events. This landmark case themselves of responsibility by Church), Baptist minister Martin is the first to link climate change to saying there is nothing they can do For more on Youth Verdict visit Luther King Jnr; martyred Lutheran human rights in Australia, and a that will make a difference in the https://www.youthverdict.org.au/. theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and win could have profound ramifica- bigger picture. Anglican Archbishop Desmond tions for other carbon-intensive Thankfully, as people of faith, This article was first published in Tutu. Such inspirational Christian projects around the country. we know that the actions of an anglican focus on 27 May 2020. role models motivate me to go on. The mine has been given the go- individual can have lasting ripple See https://anglicanfocus.org.au/

12 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

“One of the many things I have learnt from Jesus is that the personal and the political go hand in hand.”

www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

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‘Climate justice’ must be part of our vocabulary Christian communities are ideally suited to be agents of change in the environmental movement, writes young activist Catherine Ward.

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he inside of a giant nemoshaped mascot suit is very, very warm. It is 2017 and I am dressed as the eponymous fish, standing outside a local bank doing what so many students have done before: creating a nuisance in the hope of creating some change. In this case, that change is pressuring a single bank to rule out funding a new coal mine. But it worked; the bank agreed to cease funding new coal, and then there was another little battle, and another, and another. I first got involved in environmental activism like so many others, at university, where the new ideas and passionate people kicked my interest in social and environmental issues into high gear. I was introduced to student activism via the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Australia’s largest youth-run organisation dedicated to environmental advocacy. For several years I was part of the leadership team for the on-campus arm, alongside a group of other passionate students. At the same time I became involved with TEAR Australia, a Christian organisation familiar to many for its wonderful aid and development work with a strong environmental focus. Now a recent university graduate, I have lost count of the number of protests, sit-ins, vigils and campaigns I have been part of. But early on something became obvious: the Christians were not showing up. I should be clear: some were showing up, the same ones in small numbers, dedicated to using the purpose of their faith to protest our government’s lack of action on climate change. But it was a concern to me, mostly because I make no secret of the fact that I am

a Christian too, and our absence on a large scale from the environmental movement was frustrating to me. I sensed a reluctance among areas of my Christian community to engage with the political aspects of climate change, to be viewed as an agitator, or to be associated with the idea of an “activist” identity.

“God has also called us to be agents of reconciliation ... This reconciliation must extend to reconciling humanity’s broken relationship with creation ...” Catherine Ward at a climate change rally.

Because of this, it’s been heartening to become involved in the work of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, a community that felt like a natural fit for my interests. ARRCC has attracted me because of its willingness to use the language of faith in peaceful, visible ways and in its ability to engage with political and community-level solutions for climate justice. This term I use, climate justice, is

one I firmly believe must enter the vocabulary of Christians. To call for climate justice is to call for action not only to combat climate change, but also to realise that doing so combats the poverty, discrimination and pain that vulnerable communities disproportionately suffer when we harm our planet. It is those in the Global South, our Indigenous people, and the poor and marginalised who are the first to be harmed by

Photo: Alexander Watson.

climate change and who are already feeling its effects. My experience over the summer, as one of thousands evacuated by sea from Mallacoota after the devastating drought-fuelled bushfires, has given me an unforgettable sense of these effects. Christians have long had the willingness to lend their voice to combating social injustice, but unfortunately I feel that for too

long we have failed to make the connection between this work and care for our planet. God has called us to be stewards of the earth, and God has also called us to be agents of reconciliation in the world. This reconciliation must extend to reconciling humanity’s broken relationship with creation, a struggle that is set to become an era-defining battle. Naturally, none of this is relevant to communities of faith if the science is not believed. To those who are unconvinced I would simply say: we must place our faith in those with knowledge, such as in the 97 per cent of climate scientists who agree that human-caused climate change is real. Resources such as the IPCC reports and material from TEAR and Common Grace are there to be read. It is my view that Christian communities are ideally suited to be agents of change in the environmental movement. Since the beginning of our faith tradition we have been equipped with the language of peaceful resistance, the theology of sin and brokenness, and the desire for justice and the flourishing of all creation. It is therefore not enough for us to only wish for change, not when our faith explicitly calls us to action. That may look like many different things to those with many different callings. But I urge Christian communities not to settle for silent assent to the movement for climate justice, or for distrust of its methods or ignorance of its goals. Instead we must adopt an attitude of action, persistence and the use of a righteous and powerful voice, a stance God called us to long ago. Catherine Ward works in children’s ministry at St Michael’s North Carlton where she co-ordinates a Climate Action Group. She also works as an actor and theatre producer and is frequently seen on the Melbourne stage.

Remembering who we are as church, wherever we worship by Carol Clark

We currently face a range of questions and views about our churches returning to public worship. Some church members want everyone back worshipping together now – others want their home-based worship option to continue. As one person observed, “You don’t even have to clean your teeth to go to church at the moment.” So, should our focus still be on our weekly public worship – or will we open up more opportunities for internet-based worship people can access anytime? Some priests are encouraging their people to slow down – to wait a little and first consider why they gather and what kind of community they’ll be after their time of exile. “How are we to be the Body of Christ as we emerge from lockdown?” one priest is asking her people. Another priest asks a congregation: “What is God’s call to us now as we emerge from COVID?” www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

In response, that church moved quickly back to public worship, offering three smaller services each Sunday. As they changed service times and simplified their liturgies, they found to their surprise that they could adapt for the sake of the whole body. Their minister was witnessing “a more dynamic approach and newfound abilities” emerging. These priests’ questions help us remember who we are as the church. It’s not just about when and where we might gather but for what purpose – and what kind of people tion. At the same time, Christians we will be when we get there. “should celebrate every way in In his new book God and the which the living Lord whom they Pandemic, Anglican bishop and worship in church buildings is out theologian N.T. Wright suggests and about, bringing healing and church buildings are a bridgehead hope far beyond the visible limits into the world – worship spaces of church property”. that offer advance signs of the time But with our churches closed when God’s glory will fill all crea- for this period, there’s a danger of

reinforcing a current Western view of “religion” as a private matter. In fact, I’ve had conversations with people who were surprised to learn that Christians have continued to meet for worship during the pandemic. For them, the closed church doors were a sign that churches had stopped functioning for this period.

Bishop Wright wonders if our recent worship arrangements unintentionally support the view of Christians as another group of like-minded people sharing a private hobby. Instead, he sees our church buildings and public worship as physical and audible reminders on our main streets and in new suburban developments of that spiritual vitality and purpose the church has offered our society for centuries. So, as we return to our places of worship – with or without livestreaming – how will we be using them to celebrate the salvation that God the Trinity brings to us in all its truth and beauty? How will we offer God’s gifts to one another, so that our sacred spaces do in fact offer an experience of healing and hope – to the people who gather and then beyond our buildings as we move out and about in our community. Carol Clark is Parish Renewal Co-ordinator for the Diocese of Melbourne.

THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 13

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COVID-19 exposes myth of work-life balance Cheryl McGrath hopes that the coronavirus pandemic might finally highlight how harmful it is to be “always connected and constantly working”.

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s COVID-19 turns our work lives upside-down, I’ve noticed numerous checklists for how workers can maintain their mental health as they deal with the changes.

Common tips include: • Encourage each other to create boundaries between “home time” and “work time”. • Take regular breaks. • Connect often with family and friends. • Recognise that productivity is not always the best measure of success. Call me crazy, but aren’t these things we should be doing all the time? I know – being in a global pandemic isn’t a normal situation. Our lives are complicated by things like working from home and home schooling, and many of us are feeling more vulnerable than we might usually. But what strikes me is that this is a time when – for once – we are being encouraged not to put our work first. We are acknowledging the harm that can come from not maintaining work/life balance during COVID-19, and we are more aware than ever of the importance of creating good boundaries for the sake of our health. And, honestly, I welcome it. Maybe a global pandemic is what it takes to challenge our 24-hour work cycle and its harmful results on our psychological health. Long before COVID-19, the boundaries between “work life” and “personal life” were already blurred for many of us. We enable push notifications for our work emails, and we monitor inboxes while on annual leave. We answer work calls while at our child’s swimming lessons or work extra hours after bedtime. This is nothing new, exactly. In 1990, sociologist Joan Acker wrote that organisations assume the

existence of a “universal and disembodied worker” who is devoted to their job 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, every year of their careers. (If you don’t believe that, ask yourself why, as a worker, we learn not to mention our families in interviews and feel guilty for needing flexible arrangements.) But, while this “ideal worker” mentality isn’t new, the rise of technology has made it even easier to be married to our job. No longer do we work on weekends by commuting into the office – just pick up your smartphone, and boom. This blurring of boundaries is so ubiquitous that some argue it’s necessary, and even liberating. Recent articles suggest that “worklife balance” is outdated, and that integrating work into life is the way forward. Hypothetically, this means greater flexibility, seeing “synergies” instead of quarantining different parts of life. Your nine-year-old walking into your conference call, and all. Increasingly, abandoning boundaries between work and life isn’t just easy – it’s rewarded by many parts of the workforce. But did we stop to ask ourselves if it was good for us? I’ve long had my doubts, and I’m not alone. You can read articles debating the value of an eight-hour work-day and stories about workers struggling to do right by their career and their families. You can listen to TED Talks on the importance of taking holidays. Ironically, you can even find growing consensus that quantity of hours isn’t even that great for employers, with Deloitte concluding that: While companies may benefit from tech-enabled increased productivity in the short term, the blurring of the line between work and life follows a law of diminishing returns. Concepts like “work-life integra-

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This is the moment we were forced to admit, collectively, that we are not just employees but whole selves.

“Maybe a global pandemic is what it takes to challenge our 24-hour work cycle and its harmful results on our psychological health.” tion” seem awfully convenient for employers, and less so for employees. If work and life are seamlessly integrated, when will family take priority over deadlines and meetings? When will your nine-year-old feel like they have your undivided attention? And what about the compelling research that suggests that deliberate psychological detachment from work is critical to our health? So, now that our work lives and home lives are literally under one roof, the harm we are causing ourselves is exposed.

Certainly, we don’t normally have work and school in the home. But is it really that surprising that the average American has worked three hours more per day since mid-March? Or that working from home is pushing high achievers to the brink? Or that working mothers are working the equivalent of two full-time jobs to keep their households running? Our time-hungry work culture, now in collision with a time of serious global stress, has highlighted a problem that was previously hidden behind closed doors. As Danielle J. Lindemann writes in Quartz: By bringing domestic life and work into radical collision, COVID-19 has destroyed the façade of our work-life balance. We have stacked up the various elements of our lives like a teetering mess in a kid’s closet. All it took was for someone to thrust open the door, and the board game tokens and jigsaw puzzle pieces came cascading down. Being always connected and constantly working was never good for us. Only now, as workers burn out in their thousands, we are having to address the elephant in the room. As Lindemann adds:

For a long time, we’ve pretended we are “disembodied workers”. The truth is, we’re not. We have families, children, parents, partners, loved ones. We have personal, emotional and spiritual health to maintain. What we’re learning about worklife balance during COVID-19 isn’t just for now, a time when many of us are feeling vulnerable. It’s a lesson we all should enact every day. When COVID-19 is over, most of us won’t keep home schooling our children. But we will still have loved ones who need our time and undivided attention. We won’t always be trapped in home offices. But we still need to understand that detaching from work for spans of time is essential. (Yes, even those emails you get on a Saturday.) We won’t always have the pall of a global pandemic hanging over our heads. But more than half of Australians will go through a mental health issue in their lifetime, and no one should ever be expected to be “always on”, all the time, forever. I am grateful that I work in an environment where I’m being allowed to make my health a priority. But I know not everyone is so fortunate. If there’s one thing I hope to see after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, it’s that we’ll abandon the harmful idea that the 24-hour work cycle is healthy for anyone. I just wonder if this lesson will continue after COVID is gone. Cheryl McGrath is a Melbournebased writer and editor. Her blog twenty-six letters, where she writes about faith and culture, is at http:// twentysixletters.org/. She worships at Red Church in Nunawading, a Churches of Christ congregation. This article was also published on the website of Ethos, the Evangelical Alliance’s Centre for Christianity and Society. Visit http://www.ethos.org.au/

Why the Old Testament is as relevant as ever to modern world There are strong parallels between the world of the Old Testament and the world we currently find ourselves living in, writes Trinity College Theological School’s Dr Rachelle Gilmour. The Old Testament has never been so relevant. It covers plagues, detailed regulations for hand washing, community quarantines, and enforced periods of “rest” in which normal work is not allowed. Aspects of the Old Testament that may have seemed so foreign just a few months ago have now also become major concerns in our daily lives. But the Old Testament has always been relevant, filled with narratives, poetry and prophecy that strike to the heart of human experience – especially the

experience of those who have a sense of God but don’t always know how, why or where this God should be worshipped. One of the dominating events in the Old Testament is the “exile”, when the people of Israel were conquered by a neighbouring empire: their temple destroyed, their community structures abandoned, and many of the people taken from their homes to live forcibly in a foreign land. From this context, the Old Testament gives us the language of lament: words for the unimaginable grief that overtakes so many; words that bring us back full circle to a faith in God even in the unknown. The Old Testament also provides wonderful songs of joy and hope, even through difficult

14 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

times. There are words of tender comfort from God to the people; words of joyous praise in the psalms of the people sung to and

about God; and beautiful visions of a restored future. Joy and hope are expressed, even in times of very real darkness. Finally, the Old Testament challenges us in our ethical responsibility and faithfulness to our creator. In the face of impending disaster, the prophets call on the people not to wander from their God. They exhort the people to social justice and critique the reigning establishment. The looming threat of judgment in the form of exile prompts the prophet Isaiah in the first chapter of the Book of Isaiah to exhort: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good;

seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. We are not the first generation to ask, “How did we get here?” and “What do we do now?”; and even, “God, why are you doing this to us?” We are not the first generation in which the suffering of others flows from exploitation by a few. Attention to the riches of the Old Testament allows us to hear the voice of the God of Jesus Christ as it was heard by many generations. Dr Rachelle Gilmour is Trinity College Theological School’s Bromby Senior Lecturer in Old Testament. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

OVER TO YOU

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May we draw closer to God in uncertain times P rofessor Mark Lindsay’s excellent article about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s understanding of God in times of trouble (June TMA) is so relevant in these coronavirus times! Disruption, unemployment and uncertainty have shaken many of us. It’s at just these times that we’re forced to rethink our perceptions of God. The article is reminiscent of J.B. Phillips’ work of the 1960s, Your God is Too Small. We need to relate Streamed services a valuable opportunity Fortunately during this pandemic our church has held weekly services online. Someone I know who is not a Christian but acts like one has seen these every week. She appreciates these services although she has not become a Christian. She has told me that after the pandemic she would like to continue to view the services, but does not feel comfortable about attending church in person. If churches continued to stream their ser vices online after the pandemic, it could be a valuable opportunity to spread God’s word. Also this could be useful for believers, who perhaps because of illness or advanced age are not able to attend in person. Older people might find using the internet challenging, but perhaps a church representative or a young relative could show them how to link up. Marguerite Marshall Eltham

Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Palestinian lives matter Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he plans to annex large areas of the West Bank in July 2020. He had gained the support of the Trump administration for this illegal action. The Australian Government supports Israel’s illegal action through its silence. Netanyahu has also said that the Palestinians in the annexed West Bank will not be Israeli citizens; this makes them stateless and formalises the apartheid currently in place. Israel’s latest land grab will highlight the apartheid system that flourishes with impunity, flouting international law with systemic, discriminatory layers of regulations to suppress and dispossess Palestinians. Israel already possesses 78 per cent of historic Palestine. The annexation includes Palestinians’ most fertile land in the Jordan Valley. Most of the foods needed by the Palestinians are grown in the Jordan Valley. It is time Christians of the world stand up to prevent Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians and organise a worldwide movement

Pilgrim – to be constant with God, “Come wind, come weather”! Let’s not forsake our Christian pilgrimage at uncertain times, but remember Christ’s promise to “be with us, to the end of the age”. May we all come closer to the true God at this time of pandemic, and emerge with a stronger, surer faith.

to the true God – Creator of our world, vast, all-knowing, and not to be tamed to our liking! At the same time – as Professor Lindsay notes – this God is with us through our toughest times, journeying with us, till we come to the place of peace and victory. The story of Job makes the same point. Job only found restoration through his troubles, after he had acknowledged God’s awesome power. And Jesus said: “In the world you

will have tribulation” – no promise that God would instantly solve our problems! He gave us the promise of hope also: “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Bonhoeffer was in fact trying to explain the truth of God’s Word as seen through Scripture: God is no instant “problem solver”, but the One who is with us through all that life throws at us. On a recent Sunday at my church we sang the hymn To Be a

“Palestinian lives matter”. Time is running out.

lives and cutting it at His discretion. Pope Francis has expressed We do not have to believe that support for it, and the Anglican God is the direct cause of everything. Church of Canada has written a Christians believe in a personal God letter to Justin Trudeau about it. who is with us in our living, suffering It is unambiguous about poverty’s and dying. unacceptability, whether it is given There is a lot of “folk” religion to one fleeing their home, an aspiraround, while Leonard’s book gives ing entrepreneur, or business owner a statement of faith which is well- seeking to avoid bankruptcy. Jesus reasoned and more acceptable than said, “If therefore your eye is good, Dear Advertiser, the cult-like dogmas which we often your whole body will be full of encounter. light … [if] the light that is in you Thank you for advertising with TMA (The Melbourne Anglican). God has given us free will, and is darkness, how great is that darkWe have received artwork, have Automation checked it has as enabled carefully as with decision makingyour comes respon- andness?” truly possible. However, be completely certain, please checkselfless that thework ad below sibility. Don’t blame to God! Spirit-motivated, with has reproduced as you expected. If not, please immediately on less hours,call as Bryce opposed to the selfish (03) 9653 4219. James Moore mindset governing our obsession Kogarah, NSW with employment. Christians ought Artwork opened in compatible program and visually checked 9 to promote an ethic revolving around Artwork placed in InDesign and preflighted (fonts, graphics Promote unconditional this unpaid work, enabling thisetc.) free9 wage for all dom for others, just as Israel abanPDF created from InDesign CS4 (this PDF will be placed in TMA) The9 COVID-19 pandemic has dem- doned Egypt to work by their hands onstratedPDF thatpreflighted no one is(checked immuneagainst in their land.standard) The Christian work PDF X/1a 9 to falling into financial hardship, ethic does not necessarily equate to test-printed PostScriptmodern printer employment and its creation especially under fears of on a second 9 PDF wave in Victoria. I advocate a cause of inherently exploitative relationEmailed to client for approval 9 PDF dependent not on political dichoto- ships. With a universal basic income, mies that tend towards the anti- we encourage a thanksgiving ethic religious or religious, but by God’s for the abundance we actually have. covenant. We Christians ought to advocate an unconditional wage for Vincent Amos all – a universal basic income. Springvale

Dr Bill Mathew Parkville See article on page 11.

Don’t blame God for pandemic I’m thankful that I’ve not heard anyone blaming God for COVID-19 and claiming that it was sent as retribution or to focus our attention. Some believe that God is a capricious dictator sending misfortune to pull his subjects into line. In Sydney, a senior cleric claimed that a damaging hailstorm was sent as punishment for the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, while another said that the recent drought was God’s reminder that we are dependent on Him. Richard Leonard SJ writes in his helpful book Where the Hell Is God? that God is not out to get us. The world is less than perfect, and suffering, disease and pain are realities. Some of these problems we create for ourselves and then blame God. God does not kill us off, as if He was one of the Norns in Norse mythology, measuring by rope the length of our

Interested in helping shape Diocesan Policy on the Environment?

Angles on Science, Faith and Culture

For an Anglican Approach

You are invited to attend a zoom meeting Thursday 23 July 2020 at 7.30pm

Angles is a podcast on faith, science and culture produced by the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne in partnership with ISCAST (Christians in Science and Technology).

Tel: (03) 9888 1672

Meeting details from Reverend Shane Hübner vicar@anglicansboxhill.org.au

It’s hosted by the Revd Dr Chris Mulherin, Anglican priest and Executive Director of ISCAST. Each episode Chris is joined by guests from a range of fields to talk about the religious, scientific and cultural angles of the major events and developments in the modern world. Listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your podcatcher of choice, or at https://angles.buzzsprout.com/

Social Responsibilities Committee

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REPORTING CHILD ABUSE If a child is in immediate danger at any point What is Child Abuse? Abuse and neglect includes but is not limited to: physical abuse, emotional abuse, family violence, sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, grooming, neglect

Who can report neglect and abuse of a child under the age of 18? Children, parents, staff, volunteers, anyone

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What sorts of things must be reported? All child safety concerns must be reported: • Disclosure of abuse and harm • Allegations, suspicions or observations • Breaches of the Code of Conduct CHILD PROTECTION

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All suspicions or reports of child abuse must be reported to the groups below: • Ministry Supervisor • Child Safe Officer • Kooyoora Professional Standards

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THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 15

FAITH / SCIENCE

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Love and vulnerability: alternatives to extinction by Roland Ashby

The third world war – of profit versus life – is already underway. Humanity itself is on the brink of the abyss: our potential extinction.

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o states an article “Why we rebel” by the UK vision team of Extinction Rebellion (XR), the global environmental movement established in the UK in 2018 to use non-violent civil disobedience to raise awareness about the potential for climate and ecological catastrophe, and convince governments of the urgent need to tackle climate change. Melbourne XR activist Dr Cullan Joyce, a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Divinity and a convert to Roman Catholicism, told TMA that involvement in XR’s civil disobedience had taught him that vulnerability is at the heart of Christian faith, and that it’s through willingness to make yourself vulnerable that your faith grows. “Being Christian is not just a hobby, and it’s not there just to make you feel good. Involvement in civil disobedience gave me a sense of what life was like for Jesus who placed himself in very vulnerable positions, and I began to understand that making yourself vulnerable is essential to making the connection with Him.” Dr Joyce, a former Buddhist, said he had been drawn to Christianity because he found Jesus “such a compelling figure of extraordinary courage and faith”. “Jesus understood that faith was an enormous, insane risk. He chose not to resist his arrest and execution, but was resurrection guaranteed?”

munities I’ve experienced.” He says it shares with Christianity some key aims, including a “regenerative culture” which is about “enshrining a culture of respect and love”. One of the formative influences on the XR movement was also the non-violent resistance philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr, which was not simply about the need for physical non-violence, but also the imperative of showing love and respect to the public and the opposition, even in the face of hatred Dr Cullan Joyce beside the Yarra River in Warburton. He says that and violence. Christians have a responsibility to care for God’s creation. He believes that one of the main Dr Joyce knows what it’s like to obstacles to combating climate feel vulnerable at a protest, and was change is human nature. “As human once badly hurt by police. “I share a beings we like being comfortable sort of chaplain role with others in and we’re very reluctant to give up XR. We offer practical and emotional our comfort, which is understandsupport to those protesting and able. Once we have a certain level of being arrested; they are physically lifestyle we’re not really prepared to and emotionally in a very vulnersacrifice it. able place. Once I was handing out “Most of us don’t necessarily do water when the police, unprovoked, it intentionally, but we turn a blind charged at the line of protesters, and eye to the massive destruction of one policeman hit me with his baton community to be “very religious ecosystems in order to maintain our on the arm and wrist, and I found and Christian” in the way people lifestyles. To that extent we’re quite myself trapped against a wall. It hurt treat one another and its aspiration happy for politics to remain as it is so a lot.” towards love. “And the community that the status quo can be preserved. Although XR is not a religious is much more vulnerable, open and “I think much of our failure to movement, he said he finds the XR energetic than many church com- take effective action has to do with

“Jesus understood that faith was an enormous, insane risk.”

Prayer Diary JULY

Sun 5: United Church of Pakistan (Bp Humphrey Peters); Diocese of Tasmania (Bp Richard Condie, Missioner Bp Chris Jones, Clergy & People); St John Chrysostom Brunswick West (Steve Sonneman, Len Fir th); Holy Trinit y Hastings – pastoral visit (Bp Paul Barker); St Paul’s Cathedral – pastoral visit (Bp Genieve Blackwell); St Thomas’ Werribee – pastoral visit (Bp Kate Prowd); Mon 6: Diocese of The Murray (Bp Keith Dalby, Clergy and People); Ivanhoe Grammar School (Gerard Foley, Principal, John Sanderson, Chaplain); St Timothy’s Bulleen (Ben Wong, Ivy Wong, Fan Zhang); Tue 7: Diocese of the Northern Territory (Bp Greg Anderson, Clergy and People); Spiritual Health Victoria Council (Cheryl Holmes, CEO); St Peter’s Bundoora (Jobby John); Wed 8: Diocese of Wangarat ta (Bp Clarence Bester, Clergy and People); Archdeaconry of Essendon (Vanessa Bennett); St Bartholomew’s Burnley (Matthew Healy, Wendy Crouch); Thu 9: Diocese of Willochra (Bp John S tead, Clergy and People); Janet Clarke Hall (Damian Powell, Principal); Church of the Ascension Burwood East (Anthony Frost); Fri 10: Anglicare Australia (Bp Chris Jones, Chair; Kasy Chambers, Exec Director); Victorian Council of Churches (Bp Peter Danaher, President; Ian Smith, Executive Officer); St Faith’s Burwood; Sat 11: Theological Colleges, Church

Schools and Church Kindergartens; Working Group on Aboriginal Matters (N AT SI AC); Parish of S t T homas Bur wood (John Carrick , Michael Prabaharan, Ruth Newmarch, Joshua Millard); Sun 12: Pray for the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea (Abp Allan Migi); Mission Agencies of the Anglican Church of Australia; Hospital Chaplaincy (Stephen Delbridge, Co-ordinator and Chaplains); St Dunstan’s Camberwell (Rober ta Hamilton); St Mat thew ’s Cheltenham – pastoral visit (Bp Paul Barker); St James’ East St Kilda – pastoral visit (Bp Genieve Blackwell); St Mary’s Melbourne North – pastoral visit (Bp Genieve Blackwell); Mon 13: Religious Orders serving within the Anglican Church of Australia; Korowa Anglican Girls’ School (Helen Carmody, Principal; Kirsten Winkett, Chaplain) ; S t John’s Camber well (John Baldock, Helen Creed, Jonathan Chaintrier, David Kerr); Tue 14: Locums and all retired clergy; Anglican Board of Mission Australia (John Deane, Executive Director); St Mark ’s Camberwell (Greg Allinson, Fionna Chia, Ben Hewitt); Wed 15: Anglican Church of Australia (Primate Abp Geoffrey Smith, General Secretary Anne Hywood, the General Synod and the Standing Committee); Archdeaconr y of Frankston (Helen Phillips); St Mary’s Camberwell South (David Huynh, David Shannon); Thu 16: Diocese of Adelaide (Abp Geoff Smith, Asst Bps Denise Ferguson, Timothy Harris, Christopher McLeod;

16 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

human nature, but also the fact that our politics is very much geared towards maintaining a certain standard of living.” As for the criticism by some of XR’s strategy of occupying bridges and blocking roads as counterproductive because of the major inconvenience they cause, he responds: “The recent bushfires were inconvenient. The virtual collapse of the Murray-Darling is inconvenient. And, you know, Melbourne shuts down streets for football carnivals. “The important point that critics need to reflect on is this: what is so compelling that these people are driven to place themselves in situations of potential danger?” He says he is also dismayed by some conservative Christians who believe there is no need to act on climate change because God has it all in hand; and at the second coming the new heaven and earth will arrive. “This is God’s creation, and as Christians we have a responsibility to take care of it. Every time we lose a place, or a species, or an ecosystem, we lose something sacred and irreplaceable.” Dr Joyce will present a paper comparing XR and early Christianity at the forthcoming online ISCAST Conference 10-12 July: A Hopeful Future? Christians, Creation, and the AI World. In a paper co-authored with Nadira Wallace, he concludes that XR and early Christianity share “a mass commitment to collective love, and deep vulnerability, as the only alternative to extinction”. For more details of the ISCAST Conference see: www.ISCASTCOSAC.org

(Can also be downloaded from https://www.melbourneanglican.org.au/spiritual-resources/) Clergy and People); Low ther Hall Anglican Grammar School (Elisabeth Rhodes, Principal; Emily Fraser, Fiona Raike, Chaplains); St Paul’s Canterbury (Rachel McDougall); Fri 17: Diocese of Armidale (Bp Rick Lewers, Clergy and People); ACCESS ministries (Dawn Penney, CEO); St Jude’s Carlton(John Forsy th, Alex Zunica, Amy Brown, Samuel Oldland, Michael Phillips); Sat 18: Diocese of Ballarat (Bp Garry Weatherill, Clergy and People); Anglican Development Fund; St Michael’s Carlton North (Steve Webster); Sun 19: Pray for the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (Bp Joel Atiwag Pachao); Diocese of Bathurst (Bp Mark Calder, Clergy and People); Angliss Health Services; Parish of Caroline Springs (Jonathan Smith); Parish of St Martin’s, Belgrave Heights w. All Saints, The Carlotta Tye Memorial Church Selby – pastoral visit (Bp Paul Barker); Mon 2 0: Diocese of Bendigo (Bp Mat t Brain, Clergy and People) ; University of Divinity (Peter Sherlock, V ice-Chancellor); Casey Anglican Dinka Congregation AAC (Peter Alier Jongroor); Tue 21: Diocese of Brisbane (Abp Phillip Aspinall, Regional Bps Jeremy Greaves, Cameron Venables, John Roundhill, Clergy and People); Aged Care Ministry; St Catharine’s Caulfield South (Adam Cetrangolo, Heather Cetrangolo); Wed 2 2: Diocese of Bunbur y (Bp Ian C ou t t s, Clergy and People) ; Archdeaconry of Geelong (Jill McCoy); Oaktree Anglican Church, St Mary’s

Caulfield with St Clement’s Elsternwick (Rod McArdle, Locum; Andrew Stewart, Kaveh Hassanzadeh, Kate Jacob); Thu 2 3: Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn (Bp Mark Short, Asst Bps Stephen Pickard, Carol Wagner, Clergy and People); Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School (Toni Meath, Principal; Kirsty Ross, Chaplain); St Paul’s Caulfield North (Howard Langmead); Fri 24: Ministry to the Defence Force (Bishop Grant Dibden, Chaplains and Members of the Defence Forces);: Anglican Boys’ Society – CEBS (Bruce Anderson, Secretary); St Matthew’s Cheltenham (Colleen Clayton); Sat 25: Diocese of Gippsland (Bp Richard Treloar, Clergy and People); Anglican Cursillo Movement; Chinese Mission of the Epiphany Melbourne (Richard Liu); Sun 26: Pray for the team responsible for preparing the Lambeth Conference, which was due to be taking place now – please pray for them as they consider the implications of its postponement in light of the COVID-19 pandemic; Diocese of Grafton (Bp Murray Harvey, Clergy and People); Inner West Church Kensington (Peter Greenwood); St James’ Dandenong – Patronal festival (Bp Paul Barker); Yarraville Parish – pastoral visit (Bp Kate Prowd); Mon 27: Ministry with the Aboriginal people of Australia (Bp Chris McLeod, National Aboriginal Bishop, Aboriginal Clergy and People); Melbourne Grammar School (Philip Grutzner, Principal; Hans Christiansen, William Peacock, Malcolm Woolrich, Chaplains); City on a Hill Melbourne East (Nicholas Coombs);

Tue 28: Ministry with the Torres Strait Islander people of Australia (Torres Strait Islander Clergy and People); Anglican Early Childhood Services; City on a Hill Melbourne (Guy Mason, Andrew Grills, Matt Keller, Stephanie Judd, Luke Nelson, Andrew Pearce); Wed 29: Diocese of Melbourne (Abp Philip Freier, Asst Bps Paul Barker, Bradly Billings, Genieve Blackwell, Kate Prowd, Clergy and People); Archdeaconry of Kew (Greg Allinson); All Saints’ Clayton (Charlie Fletcher, Abraham Amuom, Jeremiah Paul); Thu 30: Diocese of Newcastle (Bp Peter Stuart, Asst Bps Charlie Murry, Sonia Roulston, Clergy and People); Mentone Girls’ Grammar School (Natalie Charles, Principal; Philippa Lohmeyer-Collins, Chaplain); St Alban’s Coburg WestPascoe Vale South (Kate Heath); Fri 31: Diocese of North Queensland (Bp Keith Joseph, Clergy and People); Anglican Historical Society (Wendy Dick, Chair); Holy Trinity Coburg (Farag Hanna).

AUGUST

Sat 1: Diocese of North West Australia (Bp Gary Nelson, Clergy and People); Archdeaconry of La Trobe (Gavin Ward); St Luke’s Cockatoo (Owen Prout); Sun 2: Pray for the new Province of Alexandria; Diocese of Perth (Abp Kay Goldsworthy, Asst Bps Jeremy James, Kate W ilmot , Clergy and People); Mentone Grammar School (Mal Cater, Principal; Andrew Stewart, Michael Prabaharan, Chaplains); St Philip’s Collingwood (John Raike); Parish of Upwey – pastoral visit (Bp Paul Barker).

www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

THEOLOGY

TMA The Revd Dr Tim Foster is Vice Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne.

Locating our vocation in God’s redemptive work As God’s co-creators and co-redeemers we are also engaged in creating, ordering, sustaining, equipping and saving the world so that it conforms to God’s creation purposes, writes Tim Foster.

3. As we trace the trajectory of salvation history through the Bible we see that Israel struggled and failed in this mission. This failure which culminated in their exile from the land eventually led to a new hope

sion were unique and final, he calls his people to continue his ministry of redeeming the world (John 14:12). Shortly before his ascension Jesus commissioned his people for this task saying, “As the Father has

M

arco and Sue are always looking for possibilities to improve their future. Out of the blue they decided to open a pizza shop in a town along the coast. Sadly for our church this meant that Marco and Sue, along with their two girls, would be moving away. At this point I could have wished them well, prayed for their success and sent them off with our church’s blessing. But as their pastor I wanted to explore with them how this new venture could have a missional impact. Marco and Sue are wonderfully hospitable. That’s one of the things that drew them to open a pizza shop in the first place. They also realised that the suburb where they planned to open their shop was characterised by a level of social dysfunction and family breakdown. Slowly they began to see less of a shop and more of a community hub. It could be a place of welcome, warmth and hospitality. They thought about the possibility of training a young person to be a chef and other people in different aspects of hospitality. As they saw the possibilities, they had renewed motivation, energy and vision. Created for a purpose One of the biggest obstacles to people seeing their work in terms of God’s mission is our separation of the secular and sacred and narrow understanding of mission. “Mission” is not something that was first given with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-21). God’s people had a job to do from the very beginning. In Genesis 1 and 2 we see God creating a universe and giving humans authority to rule within the boundaries that he establishes (Genesis 1:26-28). The command for the humans to “fill” indicates that God’s creation remained unfinished. God declared it to be “very good”, which means that it conformed to his purposes, but it does not mean that it was complete. The role given to humanity means that the creation requires ongoing rule, further ordering, and still needs to be filled. In his wisdom and grace God has designated humans to be his cocreators. Humans are to use their knowledge, will, power, organisation, ingenuity and imagination to accomplish his purposes. That is our mission. The judgment of human sin in Genesis 3 implies that God has not abandoned his creation purposes. Humans will still fill, only it will be painful. They will rule, but with enmity. They will work, but with difficulty. When Noah and his sons www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

are blessed and commanded to “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1) we see that, despite our sin, we remain God’s image bearers (Genesis 9:6), we continue to rule (Psalm 8:6) and will fill God’s creation (Genesis 9:1). A redemption mandate God may have been determined to recover his purposes and renew his

of a kingdom, established by the Messiah, in which God’s purposes would finally be realised. As the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus fulfilled the mandate given to humanity. He announced the coming of the kingdom (Mark 1.1415), showed signs of what it would be like (Luke 4.18–21) and invited all kinds of people to enter it (Luke 19.10). In his life Jesus began

“Humans are to use their knowledge, will, power, organisation, ingenuity and imagination to accomplish his purposes. That is our mission.”

creation mandate, but since the fall this will take place in the context of brokenness, sin and evil. The project is infinitely more difficult. Like an egg, it is easy to scramble, but unscrambling it is impossible. Nevertheless, “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). He will undo the profound impact of the fall through a process of redemption to bring about a new creation. And, just as God enlisted humans in his creative activity, he enlists his image-bearers as the means through which he will achieve his redemptive purposes. We see this in his call to Abraham (Abram) and his descendants, Israel, in Genesis 12:1-

redeeming the world, reversing the effects of sin and recovering God’s creation purposes. In his death and resurrection he “unscrambled the egg” by atoning for sin, destroying evil and defeating death. While key aspects of Jesus’ mis-

sent me, so I send you”, breathing on them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20.21-22). Those who belong to Jesus by faith are now God’s Spirit-filled means of realising his purposes for the world as his co-creators and co-redeemers. God’s mission and ours What does all this mean for Marco and Sue and their pizza shop? In what way does making pizzas relate to their calling to be God’s co-creators and co-redeemers? To help us answer this question we need to consider what it means for God to create and redeem. What are the main creative and redemptive activities in which he is engaged? Paul Stevens, in his book The Abolition of the Laity: Vocation, Work and Ministry in a Biblical Perspective, offers a thoughtful, detailed and inclusive list of the work in which we see God engaged: making, adorning, separating, organizing, cultivating, beautifying, improving, fixing, redeeming, renovating, informing, announcing, revealing outcomes, healing breaches,

making peace, helping, sustaining, being with, communicating with, celebrating, expressing joy, making beautiful things, imagining, dealing with evil, designing, planning, enlisting, empowering, consummating, entertaining, welcoming, providing a context, showing hospitality, serving and bringing to a conclusion. Many of these activities fit into the broad categories of creating and redeeming. To create means to plan, construct, produce and manufacture. Ordering the creation entails managing, administering, discovering and beautifying. God’s providential work is seen as he nurtures, feeds and causes food to grow. For the creation to prosper, people need to be equipped through teaching, instruction and empowerment. As a fallen creation in need of redeeming, God works to heal, reconcile, rescue and repair. As God’s co-creators and coredeemers we are also engaged in creating, ordering, sustaining, equipping and saving the world so that it conforms to God’s creation purposes. The diagram below shows the work that God does. We can see how our activities mirror his as we share in the task of creation and redemption. So, the landscape gardener might see that, like God, they are involved in construction and beautification. The nursing unit manager is administrating and healing, while the social worker is healing and reconciling. That means that when we promote justice, protect the marginalised or provide for the poor we are serving as God’s co-creator and coredeemers, transforming the world through our activity. The same can be said for nurturing our children, building a home or teaching a class. When we join God in the work of building, discovering, managing, nurturing, producing, teaching, inventing, healing, reconciling or rescuing we are serving his mission. When we can locate their vocation in God’s creative and redemptive activity, we find new meaning and missional significance to our lives. This is an edited extract from Tim Foster’s forthcoming book and podcast: Pastor, it is not about you! How to decenter church, unburden the pastor and liberate the laity.

CREATE

ORDER

SUSTAIN

EQUIP

SAVE

Plan/Design

Manage

Nurture/Parent

Teach

Heal

Construct

Administrate

Feed/Clothe

Consult

Reconcile

Produce

Discover

Produce

Empower

Rescue

Manufacture

Beautify

Deliver

Invent

Repair/Clean

THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 17

GROWING IN FAITH

TMA

Lament, hope too, as we adjust to ‘new normal’ Bishop Kate Prowd reflects that while church life has changed during the pandemic, there is much to be hopeful about, and to thank God for.

foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish

O

ne of my favourite titles is Hit the Ground Kneeling: Seeing Leadership Differently, by Stephen Cottrell, the new Archbishop of York. Where else would we find ourselves as we watched the grieving masses express their ongoing horror and sadness and anger at the death of George Floyd? Where else would we want to be but marching, if not literally, in our hearts, alongside those who chanted “Black Lives Matter”? What else would we be listening to but the daily tallies – emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual – related to our global COVID-19 statistics? We celebrated Pentecost where we read with joy how Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into those fearful disciples and gives them New Life. We worshipped our Trinitarian God who, as the Revd Canon Mark Oakley wrote, “is beautifully and lovingly beyond, beside and within” us. But these theological truths are not just to be “observed” on one or two respective Sundays per church calendar year! We have all been made to respond to an event we didn’t anticipate or orchestrate. No one

The Revd Rachel McDougall, St Paul’s Canterbury.

wanted this lifestyle and the very real concerns and uncertainty that accompany it. This is cause for lament. Deep lament. I’m reminded of Ezra 3:10-13, when the faithful gathered to worship for the first time in the new Temple, which in comparison with the old one was, for some, “as nothing”: “And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its

Photo: Nick Scott.

“Praise God for new people who are being reached because of that technology!” the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly

that the sound was heard far away.” the Zoom services that are encourAnd so we are daily adjusting to aging connection and community. what we are now calling our “new Give thanks for the dedication and normal”. As our churches slowly commitment of leaders who are open, it’s important to think about hand-delivering pewsheets and what words we are using to frame paper copies of sermons each week the decisions we are making about to the letterboxes of those whose the way forward. Many lament technological access and capacity how it all once was, just a few mere is limited. months ago. I do. Definitely. At a Let’s take our spiritual hats off deanery meeting earlier this week, to ourselves, as we painstakingly one priest said about his church: “If trawl through the regulations in you go in to our church right now, order to make our worship spaces it looks like a TV studio”: full of the safe and hospitable. And don’t necessary equipment for making forget to remind ourselves – we are their digital Sunday happen. still doing ministry, now, however Yes, church life has changed! So, “hybrid” it seems! It’s not as if minif grief is what you still feel, grieve istry has paused during this panthe loss of the days when, in this demic. Navigating worship is one clergyperson’s case, 200 would issue. In the meantime, ministry is comfortably gather on a Sunday happening, whether it be via virtual morning to worship. And that was gatherings or one-on-one visits, only one of the services held on any and now, by people beginning to given Sunday! Who knows when or gather in small groups in homes if it might be like that again? and in public spaces, to pray and But, as we imagine the tech- study and socialise. nological artistry that greets that Our communities are still able church leader upon entering his to be faithful to our identified church, wonder too at the gifts this Gospel values. We need to continue artistry might be bringing, now, to hit the ground kneeling as we and in the future. Praise God for take one small step after another in new people who are being reached this time of lament, and of adaptabecause of that technology! Marvel tion and change, and hope and at the ways in which relationships expectation too. are made possible and personal faith journeys are maturing because Bishop Kate Prowd has oversight of people are now joining Bible studthe Oodthenong Episcopate in the ies and life groups online. Rejoice in Diocese of Melbourne.

Jesus’ non-violence echoed in Floyd family plea for calm by Roland Ashby

One of the most shocking aspects of the brutal treatment by police towards George Floyd, which caused his death, was that it was so brazen, and so calmly and routinely carried out. This suggests a fundamental and intrinsic problem of the police seeing him as less than human. Hence the resurgence, and necessity, of the Black Lives Matter campaign. What is also remarkable is that his family appealed for calm and peaceful protest in the face of such treatment and suffering. To understand this we have to recall the profound influence of the Revd Dr Martin Luther King Jr on America’s Civil Rights Movement. He said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Martin Luther King Jr was also greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, and both dedicated their lives to overcoming prejudice and discrimination, fear and hate, and speaking truth to power. Both understood the necessity of taking up their cross, and the suffering this entailed. Both endured enormous suffering, and both were murdered. The truth they sought to make the basis of their lives was what Gandhi called satyagraha (“truth force” or “soul force”), a spiritual force which saw one’s enemies not as opponents to be defeated, but as fellow human beings, who, while being misguided and

ignorant, and often hateful and violent, also shared a common humanity, and are also made in the image and likeness of the God who is love, and are capable of being moved by the suffering of those they opposed. Gandhi was powerfully influenced by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, particularly the exhortation beginning, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). This helped to form the basis of his non-violent resistance to oppression, prejudice and discrimination. Part of the power of satyagraha, “soul force”, a love so great that it can even love and forgive enemies, is that when it is embodied in non-violent protest, it holds up a mirror to

18 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

the perpetrator of the violence and oppression in which they see both the ugly disfigurement of their hate, but also that the basis of their true humanity is something perfect and beautiful

active love and respect for the persecutor. This is to know God. As St John said: “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because

“‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34). Here was a love so powerful it has reverberated throughout millennia.” – not hate, but love. They see that they too are capable of this love, and they are at their best when they show this love. It not enough for the non-violent protester merely to passively accept suffering, he or she must also demonstrate an

God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8). The supreme example of this love can be seen in the death that Jesus accepted, an agonising death on a cross, and his forgiveness for his persecutors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Here was a

love so powerful it has reverberated throughout millennia. Being prepared to suffer is an essential part of such love. According to US writer and peace activist James W. Douglass: “Gandhi followed Christ in identifying genuine faith and discipleship with the taking up of one’s personal cross. In a talk given to a group of Christians on Christmas Day, he said: ‘We dare not think of birth without death on the Cross. Living Christ means a living Cross; without it life is a living death.’” The suffering endured by nonviolent protestors also plays its part in helping the oppressors to see their victims as just as human as them. Douglass explains: “The logic of non-violence is the logic of crucifixion and leads the person of non-violence into the heart of the suffering Christ. The purpose of non-violence is to move the oppressors to perceive those whom they are oppressing as human beings. Humans commit acts of violence and injustice against other human beings only to the extent that they do not regard them as fully human. Non-violent resistance seeks to persuade the aggressors to recognise in their victims the humanity they have in common; when that is fully recognised violence is impossible.” A shorter version of this article was published on The Sunday Age website on 14 July. Roland Ashby is the former editor of TMA. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

BOOKS

TMA

Faith a form of ‘living light’ in a complex world Phosphorescence: on Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark, by Julia Baird (Fourth Estate/Harper Collins, 2020) reviewed by Clare Boyd-Macrae

I

t was the subtitle of Phosphorescence that really appealed: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark. Dr Julia Baird, acclaimed author, journalist and host of the ABC current affairs program The Drum, has written a part memoir, part collection of scientific research on what helps us to develop resilience, find and nurture the “light within”, and live with courage, authenticity and kindness in this beautiful, complex and too-often brutal world. I wasn’t disappointed. The four sections of the book – which are broadly about awe, wonder and silence; the need to tell our imperfect stories; friendship; and looking and savouring – captured the practices that many of us know are good for us. But then Baird fleshes these could-be-clichés out with meticulous research and compelling writing. The fact that someone of her calibre and stature has done this work, weaving the science seamlessly with her own

Clare Boyd-Macrae.

the sea (she is a passionate ocean swimmer) and enough beauty, fresh air and deep friendships for several lifetimes. She is also a survivor of a rare and vicious type of cancer. The illness itself and the treatment were brutal, and it has returned twice; Baird knows about the world going dark. Her wisdom is hard won, wrought in the crucible of what she calls “the diabolical pairing of pain and impotence” that besets the gravely ill. In the prelude, she lists the things that have enabled her to discover a light within: “First, pay attention. Second, do

body of science that provides a substantial evidentiary basis for all these principles.” As a person of faith, I had a particularly keen interest in the chapters about living with an awareness of the Divine. Appropriately, in a book about discovering the light within, a book called Phosphorescence, she lists

“Show kindness; practice grace, eschew vanity; be bold; embrace friends, family, faith and doubt, imperfection and mess; and live deliberately. ” experience, may well inspire us to be more intentional about how we live what the poet Mary Oliver called this “one wild and precious life”. Baird would be the first to admit she is privileged, with a strong family of origin, education, professional success, a home by

not underestimate the soothing power of the ordinary. Third, seek awe, and nature, daily. Fourth … well, so many things: Show kindness; practice grace, eschew vanity; be bold; embrace friends, family, faith and doubt, imperfection and mess; and live deliberately. To my delight, I have found a burgeoning

the quotes in both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures that describe God as light, introducing them with this: “According to the Bible, God is light, the ultimate source of phosphorescence, the light we can absorb to later emit.” She has a sense of God as “large, expansive, forgiving, infinite, and both incomprehensible and intimate”.

Her groundedness and commitment to social justice emerge when she writes: “Faith may be a form of living light, but it is not neat and ordered. It exists in mess and chaos and doubt and brokenness.” I wrote down so many delicious quotes from this book. My favourite might be this, in a section on savouring the ordinary: “Enjoying a freshly brewed pot of tea on my porch, after a swim or a run, is the best thing on Earth …We all have these moments, where we are sated by simple pleasures. Luxuriate in them.” The timing of the release of Phosphorescence just as COVID19 was hitting the world must have been coincidental, but what timing! Maybe with the Western world’s fresh awareness that we are not in control, and our enforced cessation of the frenetic activity we are addicted to, this book will appeal to a great many people. I hope so. Reading it is one of the things that has sustained me, and it is one I will return to when, as it surely will, once again my world goes dark. Clare Boyd-Macrae is a Melbourne writer and a member of the Uniting Church with a deep commitment to contemplative prayer. She is a regular TMA contributor. Her blog is www.clareboyd-macrae.com

Rich Anglican history to be found in final in Mantel trilogy The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate, 2020)

child from Putney so different to all the others. Then there is the fascination of Henry himself. His six wives, too unbelievable for fiction. In four years he moves through three wives. Yet he is pious, he has qualms and doubts, and it is Cromwell’s job to deliver him from these. He wants to marry for love, but the state cannot allow that. When Anne of Cleves “flinches” at the first sight of him, all is lost, for Cromwell and for Anne.

reviewed by Cathy Altmann

From the stunning opening line, “Once the queen’s head is severed, he walks away”, to the drawn-out, achingly beautiful final moments of Thomas Cromwell’s life, this novel holds up a mirror to the past – and through it, to us all. The Mirror and the Light covers four years between 1536 and 1540. This final instalment in a trilogy which began with Wolf Hall (2009) takes us from Anne Boleyn’s execution, through Henry VIII’s wives three (Jane Seymour), four (Anne of Cleves) and five (the wedding to Katherine Howard). You can launch straight into this novel without reading the previous two, but there is also an excellent BBC miniseries Wolf Hall (2015) to whet your appetite. The Mirror and the Light may seem intimidating at 800+ pages, but it is hardly dry. There is constant drama. The death of two queens, treachery and the political machinations of Emperor Charles and the King of France form the backdrop. Heretics are burnt at the stake and it is a mercy to be www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

beheaded. Leavening this is Hilary Mantel’s wry humour. Mantel’s complete imaginative immersion in the mind and world of Thomas Cromwell is a triumph. Cromwell, a blacksmith’s son from Putney, grows to become the most powerful man in England. He is 50 as the novel opens. We come to know him intimately, the fragments which run through his mind, poems by Wyatt, rhymes from his days in Italy, memories of beatings and the way he is haunted by the burning he witnessed as a child. Mantel’s imagination probes what makes this

“Mantel holds up a mirror to us all, to human nature ...” There is rich Anglican history here, relevant to anyone who reads the Bible in English, or their own mother tongue. Tyndale is burnt at the stake, but we have his New Testament. Mantel inhabits the past when the future was unknown. There are fierce debates about whether the body of Christ is literally present in the sacrament, whether priests may marry and whether women may teach: Henry himself takes the floor and puts his

Cathy Altmann.

hand to his hat in reverence at the mention of the “body of Christ”. John Lambert burns for denying it. Cromwell grieves, but is powerless. This is a time when “the Pope’s name is taken out of the service book, but parishes have simply glued strips of paper over it, thinking the world will turn and Rome rise again”. What Cromwell does, though, is turn “monks into money”. Monasteries are disbanded and their land given to the crown. There is the striking insight that “once lands are given out, no subject will want to give them back to the church. Prayers may be rewritten, but not leases. Hearts may revert to Rome,

but the money never will”. In this way, Cromwell knows his work “is safe”, even after Henry dies. His eye is on “the prize: the English Bible. With this good book in your hands, God speaks to you as your father and mother spoke … in this close, this loving, this familiar tongue”. Mantel holds up a mirror to us all, to human nature, whether in the guise of kings or commoners, and this is why the book matters. It’s why we read and why the past is preserved. Even if rats gnaw at the parchment on which Cromwell’s last plea for mercy is written, we pray that they may not “chew their way in, to the secret history of England”, so that writers of genius like Mantel can show us what we need to see. Cathy Altmann is Deputy Head of English at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne. She is the author of two books of poetry, Circumnavigation (2014) and things we know without naming (2018), both published by Poetica Christi Press. She worships at St Thomas’ Anglican Church, Burwood. Read the full version of this review at http://tma.melbourneanglican.org. au/film-and-book-reviews THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 19

BOOKS

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Poetry opened the door to faith Paul Mitchell tells of how an initially-covert interest in poetry as a young man led him on his Christian journey, and a writing career of his own.

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chose to do Year 11 English Literature because I liked to read. It might sound like a casual approach to take, but it was the only way to make a subject selection in the ’80s because you didn’t get subject information. Like, this subject will see you read a style of writing with which you haven’t engaged since you were a toddler, poring over storybook rhymes. Or, this subject will introduce you to a book that’ll change your life: Seven Centuries of Poetry in English, edited by John Leonard. My giggling peers and I pencilled rude drawings in our copies of Leonard’s compendium. At my high school, students who showed the least interest in schoolwork were ipso facto the coolest. And I had to sketch the rudest drawings during poetry study because I was secretly the most interested student. At home, I read Seven Centuries’ poems in a way I later understood was close to lectio divina; I inhabited the works, allowed them to settle in me and drop deep roots. I’d no religious upbringing, no belief in God, and I’d never read the Bible. But I wanted to know why on earth I was on earth. And, in Seven Centuries, the poets to whom I gravitated – William Blake, Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot – seemed to be writing about something I understood as being “beneath” physical existence:

I have enjoyed some more time to read at night over the past two months. Three lockdown reading highlights so far: Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads, a world history with an Eastern focus, rather than told with European and colonial eyes. Tom Holland’s Dominion, a history of Christian influence on the Western mind. Both exceptional books, highly recommended, engaging and stimulating. And Peter Carey’s The Tax Inspector for light relief, along with a range of Italian and Icelandic crime fiction. Hoping the lockdown continues long enough to read Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light and Dickens’ Bleak House. Bishop Paul Barker is Bishop of Jumbunna Episcopate. He is on TMA’s book review committee.

Fiction highlights include Charlotte Wood’s book The Weekend, a beautiful exploration of friendship, and Heather Rose’s book Bruny, a thriller and love story set in Tasmania. A more reflective read is Leigh

“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the son beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief . . .” T.S. Eliot – from “The Waste Land” “There came a Wind like a Bugle – It quivered through the Grass And a Green Chill upon the Heat So ominous did pass We barred the Windows and the Doors As from an Emerald Ghost –” Emily Dickinson – from [“There came a Wind like a Bugle”] “When the stars threw down their spears And water’d heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” William Blake – from “The Tyger” I stared out my bedroom window at Mum’s rockery, the banksia, shrubs and fountain grass. What was beneath physical existence? Was it under Mum’s garden?

Sales’ book Any Ordinary Day, Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life – a deep exploration of resilience through stories of those recovering from trauma. Spiritual reading has included Fragile Mystics: Reclaiming a Prayerful Life by Magdalen Smith and Incarnational Ministry: Being with the Church by the Revd Dr Samuel Wells, who says the word “with” is one of the most important words of the Christian faith.

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The Revd Rachel McDougall is Vicar of St Paul’s Canterbury.

Paul Mitchell.

Careful to hide the fact from peers and, well, everyone, the footy-playing jock that I was started writing his own versions of Blake, Dickinson and Eliot’s poems. He plumbed the universe as he knew it, scrawling plaintive doggerel, trying to write his way through to this realm beyond the rockery: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite.” William Blake – from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” I finished Year 11 – and 12 – English Literature, but didn’t put Seven Centuries up for sale to a new cohort. And I kept writing poetry, until, when I turned 20, one of them became a prayer. Seven Centuries’ poets had lit a fire and I’d been, without realising it, investigating Christianity for three years. A couple of friends, U2 and stray copies of The Plain Truth led me to think deeply about

It seems I’ve been reading books about women claiming freedom. In Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Eleanor is drawn from her skewed isolation into a series of awkward encounters that change her life. Tracey Chevalier’s A Single Thread presents another solitary woman, Violet, who’s lost a brother and fiancé in WWI. She finds the will to leave her bitter mother and move to Winchester where she joins the society of broderers – women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral. It’s an unusual move towards an authentic life.

Jesus. But when preachers shouted at me on Friday nights in Geelong’s CBD and scandals hit American prosperity gospellers, I couldn’t see myself becoming Christian. Simultaneously, I understood my Seven Centuries’ poets were writing about the spiritual realm. They were even, sometimes, writing to God. I thought I’d give that a go. I still have the poem I addressed to God in pencil, complaining about religious violence, church hypocrites and moralists. And, to cut a blockbuster movie-style conversion story short, editing out Blakean visions of heaven and hell, two weeks later I believed in God. Writing and reading poetry has remained part of my Christian journey. Earlier this year I started reading the late Denise Levertov’s The Stream and the Sapphire, a collection of religious poetry from her books. I listen for the spirit in her rhyme and meter, seek the Word within her words. Poets whose work engages seriously with the divine – Kevin Hart, Les Murray, Wendell Berry, Maura Eichner, Annie Dillard, R.S. Thomas, to name fewer than I want to – have helped me explore faith, doubt, heartbreak, peace and failure, made me remember light lives in me and will break through my darkness. Which often happens through writing poetry. I’ve poured my faith, doubt, rebelliousness and hope into three poetry collections. Before I published my second, I was reading from my first book, Minorphysics, in an event at Readings Bookshop, Hawthorn in 2006. Afterwards, a man with longish grey hair and glasses with one frame shaded

And in Being Well When We’re Ill, Canadian theologian Marva Dawn explores the journey to wholeness and hope amidst multiple chronic illnesses. I didn’t connect with it all, but am grateful for its insights. Carol Clark is Parish Renewal Co-ordinator for the Diocese of Melbourne.

Less than two years have passed since Malcolm Turnbull had the Prime Ministership wrenched from his grasp, yet his recently released memoir A Bigger Picture sometimes seem

black told me how much he’d enjoyed my poetry. I said thank you and he introduced himself. John Leonard. Seven Centuries of Poetry in English! My heart didn’t skip a beat, but it did some kind of gymnastic trick. Seven centuries of poetry and mine was going okay? John gave his time to me freely as I worked on my next book, Awake Despite the Hour, helping me craft poems and give the manuscript shape. I’ve had some divine experiences in the poetry world: a masterclass with the late Les Murray where he told me my work was full of love and reading my poems live in New York. But to get John’s encouragement and guidance made me feel more than ever that my poems could help give the doors of perception a quick wipe so we can see what’s beyond there, or underneath: “I am breathing my eyes open, air leaves me, a mist of words. I am speaking to the breathing air. And what the air’s missing I speak. There is no answer to my breathing, but I hear the flutter of a bird’s wing, the curl of a cloud through air. This is as close as I come.” Paul Mitchell – “Prayer” – from Awake Despite the Hour. Paul Mitchell is a Melbourne-based poet, fiction writer and essayist. He has published three poetry collections, a volume of short stories and a novel – www.paul-mitchell.com.au

to be of more distant times. The reason is coronavirus. When Mr Turnbull began writing the conclusion of his book on 5 January, the “apocalyptic” (his description) bushfires of last summer were scorching much of Australia. “It looks like the end of the world, people are saying,” he wrote. “But what if it doesn’t just look like it, but is?” Had he known what was to come, he might have posed the same question about COVID-19’s impact on the world we knew up till last Christmas. Mr Turnbull’s book is not about a life lived quietly, with steady progress through the years. It is one shaped by personal and professional triumphs, losses and frequent changes of direction, fuelled by ambition, intellect and perseverance – often played out in the public glare: as a journalist, lawyer and in a 14-year political career, including almost three as PM. Mark Brolly is a TMA journalist. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

BOOKS

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Daring to love in a war zone The Kabul Peace House, Mark Isaacs (Hardie Grant Books, 2019) by Nils von Kalm

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hat if love and peace really could change the world? Does that sound hopelessly naive? What if you were in Afghanistan, one of the most war-torn countries on the planet? If you told people living there that love and peace is what the country needs, you may well be advised that it’s a nice ideal but that you need to start living in the real world. Such idealism is often the product of youthful fantasy. But in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, a small group of young people have been committing themselves to this ideal for almost two decades. The Kabul Peace House is the story of a group of young men and women who dare to believe that their country could actually live in peace. They are led by Insaan, a peace activist who has committed his life to nonviolence and has started a share house where young people are taught the ways of nonviolence and peace, as well as

reaching out to street children and running a community centre. The story is told with passion by journalist, Mark Isaacs, who has written other books designed to facilitate action for peace and justice. Like any good journalist, Isaacs listens to the stories told by the locals about why they are so audacious to envision what a peaceful

Afghanistan could look like. For a country that has been invaded by the former Soviet Union, harboured the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden, was bombed relentlessly after 9/11 and gave birth to ISIS, imagining peace is a tall order indeed. What Isaacs finds though is that these people, and Insaan in particular, not only believe in their vision, they have the temerity to live it out. Like the 12 disciples, their little group consists of the most unlikely of colleagues and friends. Having Pashtuns in the same group as Hazaras or Tajiks is like having tax collectors working with zealots, or Jews working with Samaritans. It was hopelessly idealistic, yet it happened, and it is still happening. It is incredibly difficult to imagine what the constant disappointment and loss of dreams must do to the mental state of people living in a country that is known for its conflict. So the fact that this community remains as committed as ever to nonviolence shows the depth of conviction and resilience these young people have. The book is based on countless

hours of interviews. The result is that Isaacs is able to delve deeply into the thoughts, hopes, fears and dreams of the people he has come to know. The way he reflects on and articulates the dreams of these young people is testament to his capacity as a journalist and as someone who cares deeply about what he has taken on with this book. You will come away from this story feeling like you know people like Insaan and some of his friends; people like Muslimyor, Hafizullah and Horse. The Kabul Peace House is above all a story of hope amidst what is seemingly a hopeless situation. It is a story of deep resilience and enormous commitment, and it is

Nils van Kalm.

the story of youthful idealism in a world of cynicism; a reminder that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Nils von Kalm is Church and Community Engagement Coordinator at Anglican Overseas Aid.

You can support the work of the Kabul Peace House by doing any of the following: • Donate at https://www.erc.org.au/afghan_project • Write a letter: Letters for Peace, Edmund Rice Centre, 15 Henley Road, Homebush West, NSW, Australia, 2140 • Write an email: thekabulpeacehouse@protonmail.com • Host an event: Letter writing events, book talks, anything creative

IS TECHNOLOGY HELPING OR HURTING US? The questions posed by AI are open to all of us. And they demand answers. In response to recent popular accounts, scientist and philosopher John Lennox offers a Christian perspective on humanity’s future, the problems raised by AI and the atheist conception of what it means to be human. 2084 provides evidence-based, credible answers that will help you navigate today’s fast-changing world.

Get your copy today at koorong.com/2084 www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 21

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In seeking reconciliation, we join in God’s work Walking Together: Global Anglican Perspectives on Reconciliation, edited by Muthuraj Swami and Stephen Spencer (Anglican Communion Office, 2019) reviewed by Bob Mitchell

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his timely volume, which was published ahead of the Lambeth Conference that had been planned for 2020, and has now been postponed, is a collection of edited essays written by Anglican theologians and commentators from across the globe. Most of the essays were first presented in Jerusalem at a conference on reconciliation in 2018. The contributions come from a very diverse range of contexts. This is both a strength and a methodological challenge. Each context is very particular and must be considered in its own terms. At the same time, some more universal themes can be extrapolated. The book offers helpful windows into protracted geopolitical conflicts (Palestine), tribal and political disharmony (South Sudan), the treatment of religious minorities (Egypt) and inter-religious disharmony (Nigeria), intergenerational family pain (Jamaica), and much more. T h e fore word , by t h e

As both cooler weather and lockdown restrictions set in, reading Anna Goldsworthy’s Melting Moments was like being wrapped in a warm, comforting blanket. Hid From Our Eyes, the latest in Julia Spencer-Fleming’s mystery series with an upstate New York Episcopal priest as its main character, kept me turning pages late into the night. And while coronavirus may have temporarily shrunk horizons, Jo Lennan’s wonderful short story collection In The Time of Foxes blew them wide open again, taking me from Oxford to Osaka to outer space with a series of memorable characters who made everyday events sparkle.

Archbishop of Canterbury, points out that when we seek reconciliation, we are joining in the work God has already started. It should be part of our DNA as followers of Jesus. There is also a timely reminder from the editors that the Anglican Church is not a union of

churches, but a communion, with all that implies in terms of mutuality, fellowship and support. While the book contains a “how to use this book” section, it does not offer a comprehensive theology of reconciliation. In essence, it is an introduction to a range of different contexts and an invitation to sustained reflection. That said, it

socialist life was like then, but reading Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets compels you to stay intimately with the unimagined reality of living the socialist dream before perestroika. Alexievich threads together many people’s personal feelings and experiences, looking back to the communist regime. Her writing is infused with a deep sense of empathy for a people whose whole way of life suddenly disappeared. The Nobel committee called her work “polyphonic writing”. Her books are made up of hundreds of interviews. It’s non-fiction

Emma Halgren is TMA’s Interim Manager and a member of the TMA book review committee.

During isolation I’ve read a couple of John le Carré novels: Agent Running in the Field and Our Game. I found myself thinking of those who’ve lived with enduring isolation, suffering and no choice. le Carré made me realise just how little I really know of the former Soviet Union, the struggles of the separatists in the Baltic States. During my childhood my head was filled with anti-communist propaganda of the Cold War. I understood so little. I’ve never thought of what 22 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

becomes very clear that the work of reconciliation is a gospel imperative. Followers of Jesus are people of reconciliation, a job made much harder by our human tendency to preference our own agendas and versions of the truth. In relation to this book, the fractured nature of the Anglican Communion is not so much the elephant in the room as an elephant standing at some distance. The internal church debates that have divided the global church are not its main focus. That said, the book was released in anticipation of the Lambeth Conference. It is clear that the effectiveness of Anglican witness is somewhat clouded by its own failure to achieve internal reconciliation. Against the background of many tragic situations outlined in its pages, this book is an implicit call to learn to practise what we preach. A variety of theological bases for reconciliation are touched upon by the different contributors. The image of the church as a communion (koinonia) is seen as offering insights for conciliar fellowship. There is the inspiration of the unity of the Trinity. Reconciliation is posited as a facet of the Missio Dei; and elsewhere reconciliation is framed as an aspect of the character of God. There is also our

but in the tradition of the great Tolstoyan novel. Nicola Templeton is Director of Development and Communications, Melbourne Anglican Foundation.

Soon as lockdown began, I ordered Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall; Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light. The tastes, textures, colours, gore and glory; the trades, households, loyalties and families; the marriages political, miserable, dynastic, adoring, disappointing; the religious quiddities that could keep or kill. The money machine upending feudal soils. The whole

Bob Mitchell.

call to work for the kingdom in the present, while being inspired by the greater eschatological vision of a renewed creation. Impediments to reconciliation presented in the book include theological and cultural misunderstandings about the role of women, and humanity’s general lack of self-examination and humility. A repeated and highly pertinent theme is that justice is the foundation of lasting reconciliation. More than one author references the universal temptation to conflate our own agendas with God’s will. There are also interesting contributions from South America, where the rise of populism and neoliberalism are seen as appealing to self-interest over collective good and social responsibility.

rich context of the Reformation, alight with words that were spoken, or could have been spoken, by characters of undimmed fascination, wit, piety and violence. Glowing prose; impelling story; full of thoughts, words, and deeds that remade churches, courts and countries forward into history. Two thousand pages and I hardly know it’s gone. Susan Southall is a parishioner at St Peter’s Eastern Hill and an assistant at the Carmelite Library.

The biggest read for me was Hilary Mantel’s latest instalment on Thomas Cromwell, The Mirror

Walking Together is a multiethnic book, reflecting the global diversity of the Anglican Church. Because of this, I found it very rich and interesting. It will repay the reader with fresh learnings. Personally, I was fascinated to read about the complicity of the Anglican Church in Japan’s imperialist agendas in WWII, and a passionate debunking of “just war” theory. I was equally interested in the chapter on the rise of prosperity teaching and the new-evangelicalism in Brazil, which has dulled the sense of social responsibility of many churches in that country. At the same time, it was very dispiriting to read about some conflicts that have been going on for decades, including in Palestine, where my own organisation has been working for many years. While lament and fatigue is understandable, the book teaches that we must all resist fatalism and despair. We are reminded that reconciliation is God’s work, and that we too must play our part. As Justin Welby points out in the foreword, reconciliation is painful, messy and often elusive, but our participation in this work is not an optional extra. It is who we are. The Revd Dr Bob Mitchell AM is CEO of Anglican Overseas Aid.

and the Light. It’s a very, very detailed account of his last years, getting inside his thinking as well as his conversations. A bit slow in places, but very insightful. Then to inform my teaching I’ve read Austen Ivereigh’s Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church. Quite inspirational. For light relief, when I got sick of T. Cromwell, Donna Leon Unto Us a Son is Given. Commissario Brunetti is always good. The Revd Dr Ross Fishburn teaches theology and is Academic Dean at Yarra Theological Union, within the University of Divinity.

The Dickens Boy by Tom Keneally passes muster for this avid Dickens fan. It is an imagined account of Edward (Plorn) Dickens, youngest son of the famous author, who came to Australia in the 1860s as an 18-year-old. Sticking closely to historical records of Plorn and his adventures, the novel explores relationships between fathers and sons; colonial settlers and the Indigenous population; young love and desire, with cricket and bushrangers thrown in for good measure. Jennifer Johnstone is a parishioner at Holy Trinity Doncaster and Head of Curriculum – Secondary at Hume Anglican Grammar. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

DIARY

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Home is where the heart is but may I go now? by Barney Zwartz

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n a famous Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown accuses Linus of hypocrisy in claiming to love humanity. “I love humanity,” Linus protests. “It’s just people I can’t stand!” As normality slowly returns, I suspect many of us have felt a bit like that. Of course it has been terrible not to be able to visit grandparents, cafes, concerts, gyms and the like. But ... hasn’t it been pretty good to be spared so many irritating interactions, often with people who have long driven us silently mad? On the occasions I had to leave the house, I was startled and delighted by how little traffic there was (though naturally one would still find two cars determinedly driving at 57kmh side by side on a double lane 80-limit road). I’ve been getting plenty of exercise – the journey from the computer to the fridge is about eight metres, and the same back, so that’s about two kilometres a day right there. And, of course, carrying the extra weight I’ve put on must be making my muscles work harder, mustn’t it? Many people have noted the increasing sociability in our neighbourhoods, and our little group of morning dog-walkers has grown from three to up to eight (all properly socially distanced, of course). And I haven’t lost a single table tennis match since early March – easily my longest run. No matter that I haven’t won any either. Some difficulties from home life during the pandemic have

Barney Zwartz

is media adviser to Archbishop Philip Freier and a senior fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity.

Dave Walker, www.cartoonchurch.com

“Many people have noted the increasing sociability in our neighbourhoods ...” been real, and some have been so trivial that they are really illusory. Here is one, for example, that has taken more time than it should

have: the role of background music while I am working. Is it permissible? Of course, because the Apostle Paul teaches me that

“everything is permissible for me – but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor. 6:12). The problem is, the great composers to whom I turn to enrich my life are too insistent. They don’t stay in the background for long – soon they are in the foreground, and the work has receded. (Perhaps that is true of any music.) So don’t listen, I hear you cry. But in that case I am confined to a silent house, with only my wife’s

wise and dulcet words for company. I was going to say they are not always dulcet, but she told me I couldn’t! Meanwhile the (officially) cutest dog in Ferntree Gully considers any moment of the day not spent catching or chasing a ball, entirely wasted, and she spends those long moments lying at my feet looking at once plaintive and hopeful. We venture out twice a day, her 15-year-old partner ambling amiably around the park while she leaps and sprints. We think he is suffering somewhat from dementia, and I can only hope my final days are as relaxed and pleasant. I don’t believe I have dementia – is one ever sure? – but the pandemic seems to have taken a toll on my capacity for profound and noble thoughts, as this diary demonstrates. Who knows how changed the society will be into which we emerge but, despite the consolations of solitude, I’m just about ready for it.

Follow Jesus’ example of inclusion by Clare Boyd-Macrae

The controversy over the continuing display of statues of men, once lauded, who have since been revealed as toxic racists has received a boost with the recent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s not just the obvious offenders, like Angus Macmillan, explorer, pastoralist and mass murderer of Indigenous Australians. Even Winston Churchill, widely known as the doughty, unglamorous cornerstone of the struggle against Hitler, publicly stated that American “Red Indians” and “Australian Aborigines” belonged to an inferior race. The views of these onceheroes are repugnant to us. No doubt future generations will be appalled in turn by what we are blind to. We are products of our times. Cruelty should always be abhorrent, but many attitudes arise from simple ignorance. The question of whether or not it is valid to judge others in history is fascinating and fraught. It’s a question that makes me, a Christian, even more astonished by the life of Jesus of Nazareth. As a first century Jewish man, he lived, moved and had his being in a deeply www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

a word for all seasons patriarchal culture. We would expect that he would reflect the tribal and racial prejudices of his time. If the stories are to be believed, he didn’t. Jesus criticised the rich and powerful, preferring the company of people on the margins of a society that was as judgemental and exclusionary as Victorian England. Jesus touched – actually touched – lepers, a feared and marginalised group of the time. He befriended a criminal as he was dying. He never shunned the mentally ill, and berated his followers for forbidding children (unimportant creatures back then) to clamber all over him. He engaged with despised foreigners, taking their questions seriously. He visited the home of a collaborator with the hated Roman occupiers. Most striking of all was Jesus’ acceptance of women as people,

to be respected, taken seriously, included. There is a plethora of stories of Jesus and women. Jesus engaging in theological discussion with Mary, impressed by Martha’s spiritual insight, healing a bleeding woman (breaking more taboos than you could poke a stick at), having his mind changed by a feisty Syrophoenician female who challenged his primary focus on Jews, and having a deep, healing conversation with a Samaritan divorcee, at a time when Jews and Samaritans did not mix. That the Church has often and spectacularly not followed his example is a cause for shame. Christ’s followers, far from perpetuating exclusionary practices, are called to be catalysts of justice and respect for all. Clare Boyd-Macrae’s blog can be found at www.clareboyd-macrae.com

Spirit Words There is no amount of darkness that can extinguish the inner light. The important thing is not to spend our lives trying to control the environment around us. The task is to control the environment within us. Joan Chittister O.S.B. American Benedictine nun, theologian, author, and speaker THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020 • 23

IN REVIEW

Spike Lee’s timely reflection on Vietnam War by Tim Kroenert

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a 5 B l o o d s , B l ac k American auteur Spike Lee’s epic consideration of the American war in Vietnam from the perspective of four black veterans, is as complex and didactic as anything in Lee’s filmography. It takes a relatively straightforward story, structured as a buddy comedy come road film, and layers it with so many topical and historic digressions that it’s difficult to digest it all in one viewing. Luckily, it is also so packed with humour, pathos and strong performances from its lead actors that repeat viewings are hardly a chore. Old pals and comrades Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis) and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr) reunite in Saigon with a dual mission. Officially, they are there to locate the remains of their erstwhile leader, Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman), who was killed in combat. But they also have in mind recovering a buried

Director Spike Lee, Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Melvin, Delroy Lindo as Paul, Jonathan Majors as David, Clarke Peters as Otis and Norm Lewis as Eddie.

stash of US gold bars, which they intend to appropriate as symbolic and actual recompense for the oppression of black people within the social and political structures of white America. In this, they share a common enemy with those against whom they actually fought during the war.

During an early scene, as the men drink together in a garish Saigon bar, they are shouted a round of drinks by a pair of Viet Cong veterans. Only Paul resists this gesture of reconciliation and solidarity. He is the most traumatised of the four (for reasons that the film unpacks later), whose status as an anti-

immigrant Trump voter is expressly tied to his experiences of disaffection within white American society. Lee complicates the parallel between the brutalisation of the Vietnamese and of black Americans in compelling ways. During the same scene, Paul cannot look in the face a young, one-legged

TMA

beggar – perhaps the victim of a remnant American landmine, the ongoing presence of which plays a key role in the plot. Also, once they begin their journey into the jungle, Paul almost comes to blows with a merchant whose resentment boils over towards the former GIs turned tourists. There’s common ground here, but also plenty of bad blood. At times, Lee’s preoccupation with such issues comes at the detriment of storytelling. Paul’s son David (Jonathan Majors) accompanies the men on their quest; his chance meeting with Hedy (Mélanie Thierry), the French founder of a charity committed to landmine removal, provides megaphone-level foreshadowing and sets up one of several unlikely coincidences that drive the film’s second half. Even so, Lee’s vision and voice prove to be both potent and timely, as the film’s dialogue with #BlackLivesMatter becomes increasingly explicit. Da 5 Bloods is streaming on Netflix (M A)

Secrets and snobbery are rife as the classes mingle in Belgravia by Wendy Knowlton

Although the urge to compare Julian Fellowes’ Belgravia with Downton Abbey is inevitable, it is an uneven contest. A much narrower focus is necessary in six episodes and it’s more difficult to invest in characters who don’t have seasons to develop and change. Familiar themes permeate this mini-series, however, and it is pleasant to settle in to watch the upper crust and the rising middle class agonise over who should marry whom, where the property, money and titles should go, and how to negotiate upward mobility or repel those who threaten to cross closely guarded thresholds. The series begins in Brussels, 1815, as the Duchess of Richmond throws a ball and Napoleon’s forces move towards Waterloo. Ambitious James Trenchard (Philip Glenister) has made himself invaluable to Wellington’s army by procuring vital

Anne Trenchard (Tamsin Greig) and Caroline, Countess of Brockenhurst (Harriet Walter).

supplies, and his beautiful daughter Sophia (Emily Reid) dreams of a future with Edmund, Lord Bellasis (Jeremy Newmark Jones), despite the fears of her mother Anne (Tamsin Greig) that he can only be enjoying a flirtation made possible

by the chaos of approaching war. Time skips forward 25 years and the legacy of Waterloo haunts the pristine mansions of Belgravia. The tragedies and repercussions of the battlefield have bred secrets. Whilst the servants gossip and feather

their own nests below stairs, ladies laced into crinolines and bonnets manoeuvre like generals amidst the delicate china of the new-fangled afternoon teas. The relationship between Anne Trenchard and the Countess of Brockenhurst is central to all that occurs. Both have known grief, but what might bond them is also a cause for division. Tamsin Greig’s dignified and muted Anne is a formidable foil for Harriet Walter’s steely Countess who wraps her barbs in manners, but is more determined to believe in grasping ambition than the power of love. The worst examples of an entitled upper class are represented by the feckless Reverend Stephen Bellasis (James Fleet) and his thoroughly caddish heir, John (Adam James). Lower down the social ladder the Trenchards’ surly son Oliver is similarly adrift, awaiting an inheritance rather than making anything of his life, whilst his waspish wife Susan (Alice Eve) seeks solace for

childlessness in a dangerous affair. Fresh air is provided by handsome cotton merchant Charles Pope (Jack Bardoes) and well-bred Lady Maria Grey (Ella Purnell) whose mutual attraction challenges societal expectations, just as those of a previous generation did on the dance floor before Waterloo. Belgravia is unashamedly melodramatic, but the impressive cast, period detail and sumptuous settings mean the absurdities can be forgiven, or even embraced. And of course, it can’t hurt to know that a gentleman never brings business papers to his Club, or that there are times to address a nobleman as “Duke”, but others when one must call him “Your Grace.” Until the cinemas can safely welcome back larger audiences and hoarded films are released at last, this series provides such educational gems and enjoyable alternate entertainment. Belgravia is available on BBC First.

Falco shoots right on target but formula-based Tommy has hits and misses by Beryl Rule

The limited range of offerings on free-to-air television means that any new series which doesn’t feature competitive cooks, competitive singers, competitive renovators or people supposedly seeking love and in reality seeking publicity, is worth trying. So the police procedural Tommy, with Edie Falco (The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie) as its star and Paul Attananasio (Bull) as its creator, sounded promising. Falco plays Abigail Thomas, a highly experienced second generation NYPD officer. When sexual impropriety results in the removal of the top ranks in the Los Angeles Police Force, she finds herself appointed as its first female chief. Because she had broken the nose of a predatory superior officer when

he tried to rape her, any promotion for her had been long-delayed. Her informal style (“call me Tommy”) does not sit well with the diehards. Milton Leakey (Corbin Bernsen), her embittered predecessor, still has plenty of support and is doing his best to undermine her, both with the team she has inherited from him and with the public. Mayor Buddy Gray (Thomas Sadoski), who was forced by a Federal judge to appoint her, is driven by the political necessity of keeping in well with influential citizens and he expects Tommy to do the same. Her private life is no bed of roses either. Her realisation that she was a lesbian led to the failure of her mixed marriage, and at 14 her daughter Kate (Olivia Lucy Phillip) went to live with her father,

24 • THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • July 2020

Edie Falco plays Abigail Thomas, the first female Police Chief of the LAPD.

accusing Tommy of putting her career first and being “a terrible mother”. The first three episodes have

been pacy, immediately confronting Tommy with (1) quelling a riot caused by conflict between the police and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement); (2) investigating the death of a police officer found shot in his burnt out car and (3) resisting strong pressure to wrap up a murder case by simply charging the most obvious suspect. While the story lines are interesting, we often seem to miss a few steps on the way to Tommy’s clever solutions. Does she have superior perception, or is it that her family relationships – which unfortunately aren’t very convincing – must have their share of episode space too? As Chief of Police, she spends a surprising amount of time away from her managerial desk inspecting crime scenes and out-classing her detectives. Her interview tech-

nique certainly achieves spectacular results. Resolution to remain silent melts like wax in her presence, and out pours the truth. But is it likely that a Chief of Police would use her own encounter with a would-be rapist as a conversation opener? Falco is excellent, but it is hard not to feel that Tommy has been written to a popular formula: strong female protagonist confronts as many current issues as the series can hold and consistently demonstrates her integrity. In episode three, Tommy’s scores in all areas of the compulsory police aptitude testing had not been equalled since the Korean War period. By then, I was expecting it. Tommy is on Network 10, Wednesdays at 8.30. www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au