TMA T h e M e l b o u r n e A n g l i c a n
Ken Spackman: challenges, opportunities for the church page 9
How Nouwen classic fostered priest’s ‘inner work’ page 23
October 2020, No 596
Perth girls’ school’s mask initiative sends packages of care by Chris Shearer
The idea grew out of a simple desire to help people in need. For weeks the wider community of St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School in Perth had watched as Melbourne’s second wave of COVID-19 had paralysed the city. They’d heard stories about vulnerable people being unable to afford essential masks, and spurred on by Deputy Principal Sheevaun Darby they decided to do something about it. Together, St Mary’s staff, students and families sewed more than 600 reusable masks to donate to Melbourne, which began to arrive in the city in mid-September. Each came in its own sealed ziplock bag with a personal note Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral the Very Revd Andreas Loewe delivers boxes of masks to St Mary’s House of Welcome CEO Robina Bradley.
Keep JobSeeker up to avert poverty plunge Many lives had been lost, with people often dying alone and isorchbishop Philip Freier lated and their families and friends has urged the Federal continuing to grieve. Government to reverse its “So too have many livelihoods decision to cut the JobSeeker pay- been lost,” Archbishop Freier said. ment by $300 a fortnight from “The unemployment data shows that 25 September, warning that the there are now more than a million decision would plunge people into Australians unemployed. And that poverty – including more than one number is expected to grow over million children. the coming months. In fact, some Dr Freier, who is also Chair of forecasts suggest it will almost the Brotherhood of St Laurence, double by next year. Across NSW said in a video released on 16 and Victoria, there is now only one September that the Government job available for every 10 people should be commended for the unemployed. swift and decisive action it took to “The Government should be support Australians when the crisis commended for the swift and broke six months ago. decisive action it took to support But he said that as long as the Australians when the crisis broke. crisis continued, Australians needed This includes introducing JobKeeper, the Government to continue to as well as the coronavirus supplefocus its resources on providing the ment to JobSeeker, which effectively support and stimulus needed. doubled the payment to the unemby Mark Brolly
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ployed. These actions have saved millions of Australians from severe hardship and poverty. “But that is soon about to come to an end. The issue is, the crisis has not ended. What will happen to the 1.4 million people these programs support when they end? “The picture is grim. “As long as the crisis continues, Australians need the Federal Government to continue to focus its resources on providing the support and stimulus needed.” Archbishop Freier said the choices governments at all levels made now would have consequences for communities for years to come. If the government stimulus that was needed was pulled back, recovery would not only be delayed but made much harder. Continued on page 12
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Melburnians face a ‘long haul’, says Archbishop by Stephen Cauchi
Archbishop Philip Freier has addressed the “demoralising” lockdown fatigue afflicting Victorians while churches within the Diocese of Melbourne attempt to plan annual general meetings and, possibly, Christmas services and events. In a YouTube message in September entitled “Facing the next hill”, Archbishop Freier likened the lockdown restrictions to the multi-day Jatbula Trail hike in the Northern Territory. “You reach a certain point that you think is the top of a hill but when you get there you turn a bit of corner and you see another long rise facing you. “Now that’s quite a demoralising feeling. I suspect it’s rather like that for all of us with the roadmap that’s been opened up … by the Premier.
PLUS: Two perspectives on lockdown, leadership and the church (page 15)
“There’s a new climb we’ve got to make.” Dr Freier said he was “very grateful” for the one-hour extension of the curfew to 9pm but added that the journey ahead would be “challenging”. “We have a long haul ahead of us,” he said. However, “God gives you a lot of resources through his grace and his spirit to equip you to cope with that. “We are called to continual endurance, to dig in deeper and to look for God’s grace present even in this difficult time.” Lockdown afforded an opportunity, said Dr Freier, to “be at our best, to rely on God and to have that kind of care for ourselves and each other that we know we’re going to need in these months ahead”. By December, he said, some degree of normality may return to people’s lives, “even though Continued on page 6