Insights Winter 2018

insights Growing ourarehearts captured

faith

Pastor Jon Owen

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pulse Pulse seeks to grow vital Christian communities where emerging generations thrive

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W E L C O M E F R O M T H E G E N E R A L S E C R E TA R Y

FAITH REQUIRES

courage and imagination

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REV. JANE FRY GENERAL SECRETARY The General Secretary is appointed by the Synod to provide leadership to the Church by actively engaging in strategic thinking about the life, direction, vision and mission of the Church.

hen we talk about faith and calling as we are doing in this issue of Insights, we often do so from the perspective of the individual and we talk about ‘my’ faith and ‘my’ calling.

However, ‘my’ faith and calling only makes sense within the context of the (one, holy, catholic and apostolic) church’s faith and calling of which the Uniting Church is a particular expression.

I have, from time to time, expressed the view that if the Uniting Church didn’t exist, God would have to invent it. Why do I say that?

Like many ministers and members of the Uniting Church, my faith and discipleship were formed in another denomination and I’m forever thankful for the spiritual foundation and ecclesial discipline that guided my formation and for the wise mentors who supported and challenged me along the way.

COMMITMENT TO UNIT Y IN DIVERSIT Y WILL A LWAY S REQ U I RE COURAGE AND COMMITMENT

However, we eventually came to a (very painful) parting of the ways over the question of who could be ‘called’ (men) and who could not (women). In that environment, there was always a very strong sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ with ‘us’ being the ones who had been saved and blessed, while ‘they’ were everybody else.

The task of the church — put crudely — was to convert ‘them’ into ‘us’ within certain limitations. While ‘they’ might flirt with Christianity, ‘we’ were always the true believers, ‘we’ were specially blessed and could afford

to feel a bit superior to everyone else. These days I think of it as ‘I’m on board, pull up the gangplank’ theology and it appears to be alive and well in many places.

The Uniting Church, on the other hand, seems to me to have a ‘shoulder to the wheel’ theology in which disciples are called and gathered into the Jesus story and then sent — individually and collectively — to work for the common good and to make a difference in the world. The fundamental task of the church (Unitng Church-style) is to participate in the reconciling work of Christ and to be a ‘fellowship of reconciliation’. In an increasingly polarised and polarising world, this is the call to create community across difference, and it has been reflected in many of the decisions and commitments made by the Uniting Church over the last forty or so years: • union across traditions with particular and cherished theologies and practices; • the mutual ministry of women and men; • the covenant with the indigenous people of Australia; • the commitment to being a multicultural church; • among other things.

This commitment to unity in diversity will, humans being humans, always be a work in progress, always require courage and commitment — faith — as we respond to God’s call to reach beyond our differences and learn to be human in God’s image.

Let’s not pretend that this

is in any way an easy or a comfortable thing to do. It obviously isn’t because we hear every day the escalation of polarising rhetoric and we see every day the consequences of fractured relationships which erupt in violence of one sort or another. In this environment, the call to create community across difference takes on a particular urgency. It’s no small responsibility. The church exists:

• to live the Jesus story of what it means to be human together; • to act on behalf of those whose humanity is somehow called into question and who fall through the cracks; • to speak out on behalf of those whose voices aren’t heard; • to work together for the common good of creation and humanity; and, • in short, to change the world.

This requires all disciples, and all faithful communities to put their shoulders to the wheel and it is important work. I strongly resonate with a comment recently made by Pope Francis who said, ‘I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.’

In the end there’s nothing secure or comfortable about call, and faith requires courage and imagination to follow Jesus in challenging times.

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Growing together in faith

As the people that often introduce us to faith, both our Church and biological family play an important role in our formation. In this issue we look at how we can foster faith in our homes and Churches and grow in faith together.

REGULARS 3 WELCOME 6

YOUR SAY ONLINE

7 NEWS 28

THE TWO OF US

32 MAKING MONEY MATTER 39

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BELIEF MATTERS

40 LECTIONARY REFLECTIONS 44

CULTURE WATCH

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ENTERTAIN ME

The Uniting Church in Australia is one of the country’s largest denominations.

Our vision is that it will be a fellowship of reconciliation, living God’s love, following Jesus Christ and acting for the common good to build a just and compassionate community of faith.

MANAGING EDITOR Adrian Drayton EDITOR Jonathan Foye PRODUCTION/DESIGN Rana Moawad EDITORIAL/ADVERTISING/ DISTRIBUTION INQUIRIES PHONE 02 8267 4304 FAX 02 9264 4487 ADDRESS Insights, PO Box A2178, Sydney South, NSW, 1235 EMAIL insights@nsw.uca.org.au WEB www.insights.uca.org.au Insights is published by the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of New South Wales and the ACT. Articles and advertising content do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or of the Uniting Church. Contents copyright. No material from this publication may be copied, photocopied or transmitted by any means without the permission of the Managing Editor.

CIRCULATION: 15,000. ISSN: 1036-7322 Commonwealth of Australia 2018.

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M O D E R AT O R ’ S R E F L E C T I O N

We need to talk

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ou know that feeling when your partner, or employer, or doctor, says “We need to talk”? There is that sense of trepidation, even if they declare that there is nothing to worry about. The relationship moves, suddenly, to a new level.

REV. SIMON HANSFORD MODERATOR The Moderator is elected to give prophetic and pastoral leadership to the Synod, assisting and encouraging expression and fulfilment of faith, and the witness of the Church.

Some folk avoid these conversations at all costs.

Sometimes it seems too hard, or we would rather be left in the dark. Sometimes the news is not easy to hear.

And sometimes our conversation heralds a new beginning.

I’ve been trundling around worship and other gatherings since October last year, talking about our life together, as disciples in the Uniting Church. I have heard and seen how we are serving God and our communities across our Synod. I am challenged and thankful by how much God is doing – and inviting us to experience – in the ministry we offer.

In these last few months our sense of urgency, about needing to talk, has grown.

The question, resolved by the majority of our community, and legally by our parliament, is before us as a community of faith. The Uniting Church

has elected to engage deliberately, while our friends in other faith traditions watch us and wonder, knowing that people in every congregation across every church and beyond, are seeking to understand what same gender marriage means for our community.

So, I have invited people across our Synod to talk, from congregations and presbyteries, ordained and lay, of every age and background.

Two questions guide the conversations: How will we bear witness to Jesus Christ, within our community, as we have this conversation?

How will we find a way forward, together, with Christ?

Some people arrive with their minds made up, some come with the certainty of what God intends, while many come ready to hear – and discuss – how we can be the church, while we seek to understand and resolve an issue which appears difficult and costly. Some people will not come through fear, or cynicism, or woundedness.

All of these return us to our guiding questions.

As I have mentioned in our Conversations so far, have you talked with your hairdresser, or your barista, or your mechanic, about marriage? Or have you simply kept your own counsel and talked with the folk with whom you agree?

How might the Spirit whisper a new word to us about our witness in the world?

Are we brave enough to pray honestly that God will bring us to resurrection on this (and other) challenges?

Resurrection is not what we expect, nor does it always appear as we hoped. We are in the hands of the risen, crucified Lord.

Let us commit ourselves to finding our way, together.

Please, pray for our church and for each other; please, pray for all those who lead our church.

The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself.

Keep up with the Moderator by following these hashtags on Facebook and Instagram. #moderatorinsession

Since Easter the Moderator has visited Pitt Street, Tamworth Southside, West Epping, North Ryde, St. David’s Haberfield, Mangrove Mountain, Bathurst and Adamstown congregations. Looking ahead: Windsor, Ebenezer, Broken Bay, National Assembly (Victoria) and Broken Hill.

#talkingmarriage

Follow this hashtag for updates on the marriage forums at Warner’s Bay, Turramurra, Ramsgate, Wesley Canberra, Bowral, Centre for Ministry, Carcoar, St. Stephen’s Macquarie Street, Wagga and Tamworth.

If you have any questions/feedback about the marriage conversation, please contact the Moderator on Moderator@nswact.uca.org.au

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COMMENTS

your say ONLINE

WE’VE ROUNDED UP THE BEST COMMENTS THAT YOU’VE LEFT ONLINE. If you would like to leave a comment

on an article or have a viewpoint to share - just go online to www.insights.uca.org.au and leave your comments.

IN RESPONSE TO LIAM MILLER’S PAPER PRESENTED AT THINGS THAT MAKE FOR PEACE CONFERENCE “IS IT OK TO PUNCH A NAZI” Thanks, Liam, for your timely provocative article.

This was the same dilemma faced by pacifist Dietrich Bonhoeffer during the Nazi regime. It came home to him when a Jewish in-law was a part of Hitler’s final solution. He offered himself as part of a conspiracy to kill Hitler.

When this failed, he was hanged just weeks before the war ended.

Getting a statement against injustice heard and accepted requires risk and sometimes a realignment of a triage of values that may often require sacrifice.

I would find it inadvisable to punch a Nazi but I would not penalise any who choose to do so.

Christopher Ridings (full response is on the Insights Facebook page)

 Read the full article at

bit.ly/IsItOKtoPunchANazi

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IN RESPONSE TO OUR STORY “DISABILITY AND THE BODY OF CHRIST”

IN RESPONSE TO OUR STORY “IS THE BIBLE POORLY WRITTEN”

When we were members of Berowra Uniting Church, our 30 year old Autistic son was on the roster to read the Bible passages to the congregation. Now, as members of Gosford Uniting Church, he is included in readings as part of the service. We know he is loved and included by the church community without regard for his disability.

From my own theological training it was emphasised that the ‘untidy’ feel of the bible is precisely what reflects the different times, communities and purposes for which it was written. Even though I approach the bible primarily as a sacred text that offers human accounts of human experiences of God, my sense of its authenticity emerges from it being a compilation of works that reflect this contextual diversity. I would not expect pure consistency or literary brilliance unless all the inconsistencies and variations of experience and language competency were ironed out to create a single seamless narrative.

Ian Abbott

 Read the article in full at bit.ly/DisabilityAndThe BodyOfChrist

IN RESPONSE TO OUR ONLINE REVIEW OF “BREATH” BY RUSSELL MATTHEWS A good review, Russell. I saw the film last night and enjoyed it immensely. It’s made me want to read the book, so I downloaded it on my kindle this morning!

You’re right with your comment about Simon Baker’s use of light. All the outdoor scenes have that brilliant, bright, crisp white light that you get in Australia that you don’t tend to see in films made in Europe or North America. You feel like you’re riding a bush track with the boys on their bikes, it’s so realistic.

Warren Bird



Read the full review at bit.ly/BreathReview

Kim Langford

 Read the article in full at bit.ly/IsTheBiblePoorly Written

news

UNITING CHURCH ADVOCACY ON THE

#RIGHTTRACK The Uniting Social Justice Forum in partnership with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), is helping Uniting Church congregations and communities change the conversation around refugees and people seeking asylum, through the #RightTrack practical workshops.

The #RightTrack campaign and workshops teach participants about framing and ways to use persuasive language focused on values and personal narrative.

The workshops also present a number of key messaging principles developed from the findings of the ground-breaking, sector-commissioned “Words That Work” research by Anat Shenker-Osorio.

Shenker-Osorio’s research was aimed at finding more effective ways of speaking about refugees and people seeking asylum.

PARTICIPANTS FROM THE HUNTER WORKSHOP WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM VARIOUS LOCAL FAITH, ADVOCACY AND ACTIVIST GROUPS.

Hunter Presbytery social justice committee member, Debbie Carstens, said that the workshop made obvious how often “we have been drawn into using the security frame of language when it comes to this issue.”

Debbie, who also co-hosted one of the recent sessions, said that she was reminded by the importance of language framing in this context I T I S I M P O R TA N T after hearing her friend’s TO EQUIP PEOPLE comments.

WITH THE SKILLS

It is a time of heated debates around immigration policy, and Australia’s treatment of people seeking A N D S T R AT E G I E S “One friend commented asylum. More NEEDED FOR that she had used than ever, it is MORE OPEN the concept of important to equip C O N V E R S AT I O N S framing regularly in her people with the professional life, but had skills and strategies not considered how it could needed for more open be applied in campaigning on conversations about social justice issues,” said Debbie. this issue that aren’t solely grounded in concerns around security, The Hunter workshop was one of two terrorism and border control. Continuing presented in February. It was coto use language in this frame, according hosted by the Hunter Presbytery Social to the research, perpetuates negative Justice Committee, Newcastle Anglican perceptions that demonise refugees and Social Justice Taskforce, Maitlandpeople seeking protection.

Newcastle Catholic Social Justice

Council, and Newcastle-Lake Macquarie Grandmothers against Detention of

Refugee Children. Over 60 people attended the workshop.

The Uniting Social Justice Forum team also presented a workshop for the Georges River Presbytery at Bankstown Uniting Church following a successful first session at Roseville Uniting Church in November last year. At Bankstown, participants were lucky to be joined by some people with refugee background from the community who shared their own stories and thoughts on the issue.

The next step for workshop participants and other Church members wishing to effectively advocate for refugees and people seeking asylum, is to have more conversations with those around them and, particularly, with local Federal MPs. This was a key take away from the workshop, according to Debbie, who will be encouraging members of her presbytery to, “start talking to persuadable voters and in turn get them talking to their local MPs.” This, according to the ASRC and other organisations in the sector, will be essential in influencing policy and party position on this issue in the lead up to the next federal election.

For more information on bringing these workshops to your congregation or community and for support in organising an MP meeting, contact Alex Hogan at Give Hope: ahogan@uniting.org / 02 9407 3230.

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N E W

P L AC E M E N T S

UNITING APPOINTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Uniting and the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of NSW and ACT today (19 March) announced the appointment of Ms Tracey Burton as Executive Director of Uniting NSW.ACT. Ms Burton will succeed Mr Peter Worland, who in November 2017 announced his intention to retire after five years with the organisation.

Ms Burton most recently held the role of Executive Director Eastern Hospitals, St John of God Health Care. Tracey also held roles including: CEO St George Private Hospital, Ramsay Health Care; General Manager Corporate Services, St Vincent’s & Mater Health Sydney; Executive Director Mater Private Hospital, South Brisbane; and, Project Manager and General Manager, Hawkesbury District Health Service.

Heather Watson, Chair of the Uniting Board said: “We are delighted to announce the appointment of Tracey Burton as Uniting’s new Executive Director. Tracey is an experienced CEO with more than 30 years’ experience in the Australian health sector, including leadership roles in public and private hospitals and within the Catholic healthcare sector across NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

“The Board and I look forward to working with Tracey on Uniting’s strategic vision for the next ten years, implementing a holistic, community-based approach

that delivers long-term benefits across NSW and the ACT,” Ms Watson said. “On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Peter Worland for his significant contribution to Uniting during his tenure as Executive Director, and wish him well in his retirement.”

In addition to her executive management roles, Ms Burton has also served as a Board Director for Aged Care Services, Disability Services in New Zealand and for a Medical Research Foundation.

Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Health Administration (UNSW), Masters of Business Administration (AGSM), Graduate AICD and an Executive program at Columbia University (NYC).

Ms Burton has a strong reputation for building high performing teams and achieving growth in response to changing community needs. She is uncompromising when it comes to safety for clients and employees, and is genuinely committed to bringing to life, the healing mission of Christ through the experience of service and care.

Ms Burton commenced in the role of Executive Director on 16 April 2018.Mr Worland will continue to support the handover and transition until his retirement on 30 June 2018.

SCHOOL OF DISCIPLESHIP TO CELEBRATE 15TH ANNIVERSARY When School of Discipleship convenes on 6 July, it will mark the 15th time the event has run.

The first keynote speaker was theologian Rev. Thorwald Lorenzen back in 2004. Subsequent keynotes have included Rev. Chris Budden, Dr Deirdre Palmer, and Dr Liz Boaze.

School of Discipleship took place at the ACT’s Greenhills Conference Centre from 2004 to 2010. Since 2011, the School has met at the Namaroo conference centre in Chatswood.

It is about discipleship that is costly, prophetic and courageous 2008 was a landmark year for the conference, with keynote speakers Dr Ched Myers and Dr Elaine Enns.

In a statement, Dr Myers and Dr Enns said that they enjoyed their time with the School, “the chilly venue [was] offset by the warm sense of community among participants.”

“In our view, the importance of curating these sorts of spaces— where seminary, sanctuary, and streets intersect, and where body and spirit are nurtured by the gospel—cannot be overestimated,” they wrote.

“SOD is a strategic gathering where pressing issues are vetted, kindred spirits connected, and new leadership raised up. As such it is a gift to the church, and a small but significant demonstration project of good news to the broader society.”

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World Vision Chief Advocate and Micah Challenge CEO Rev. Tim Costello was the keynote speaker in 2016. He told Insights that, “The School of Discipleship echoes the biblical message in contemporary times.”

“This evangelical message is expressed less in ‘you must be born again’ but more in ‘they left their nets and followed Him’,” Rev. Costello said.

“It is about discipleship that is costly, prophetic and courageous.

I am encouraged that a decade on the School of Discipleship is still issuing the call to follow Jesus in fearful times when nations and groups are retribalising and turning inwards.”

School of Discipleship 2018 takes place at the Namaroo conference centre from 6 to 8 July. Dr Geoff Thompson will be speaking on the theme Good News and Fake News.

Registrations are now open here: schoolofdiscipleship.org.au/register/

Single Touch PAYROLL? WHAT IS

Single Touch Payroll is a government initiative to streamline business reporting obligations. It will become a mandatory reporting obligation for every employer in Australia.

Under Single Touch Payroll (STP), the following payroll information must be automatically sent to the ATO from the employer’s payroll system every time they process their payroll. salary or wages; and pay as you go (PAYG) withholding; and superannuation guarantee information For further information about STP Readiness visit bit.ly/STPReadiness

WHAT DOES SINGLE TOUCH PAYROLL MEAN FOR UNITING CHURCH ORGANISATIONS? STP means that every Uniting Church organisation will be required to process their payroll through a payroll software system and ensure that their payroll software system is capable of supporting the Single Touch Payroll software.

Depending upon the number of persons on the payroll, this enhancement must be ready to be operated by Uniting Church organisations with: 20 or more persons effective from 1 July 2018; and less than 20 persons effective from 1 July 2019.

All Uniting Church organisations that remunerate 20 or more persons will therefore need to urgently review their current payroll systems and ascertain whether the systems are capable of being upgraded to accept the new software.

If the payroll system is: Capable of upgrade: Uniting Church organisations should purchase and install the reporting-enabled software ensuring it is operable by 1 July 2018 Not capable of upgrade: Uniting Church organisations will need to consider alternatives to ensure they comply with their obligations.

WHAT CAN WE DO IF OUR CURRENT PAYROLL SYSTEM IS NOT STP COMPLIANT? One alternative for those organisations whose payroll systems are not capable of upgrade is for them to consider transitioning their payroll functions across to the Payroll Bureau Service (“PBS”) currently operated by Uniting Resources.

The PBS is available to all Uniting Church organisations in NSW and the ACT and it has the capacity to undertake the processing of payroll and ensure that Uniting Church organisations are meeting their obligations under prevailing legislation.

This will obviously include compliance with the Single Touch Payroll reporting regime.

Please refer to the PBS Brochure for further information. PBS Brochure.

bit.ly/URPayrollBrochure

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS TO BE UNDERTAKEN?

We ask that you please review your current payroll software to confirm that it will be capable of supporting STP reporting from 01 July 2018.

IF YES:

We will require an undertaking from your organisation representative that the software is compliant.

IF NOT:

We would urge you to seriously consider transitioning your payroll functions across to the Payroll Bureau Service (“PBS”) currently operated by Uniting Resources.

Please contact the Synod Payroll Team on payroll@nswact.uca.org.au or alternatively, please call (02) 8267 4288 for further information.

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Making decisions amid God’s abundant grace

UNITING CHURCH MEMBERS FROM AROUND AUSTRALIA WILL COME TOGETHER IN PRAYERFUL COMMUNITY AT BOX HILL TOWN HALL IN JULY FOR THE 15TH ASSEMBLY MEETING.

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n Sunday 8 July, members of the 15th Assembly will install Dr Deidre Palmer as President. Dr Palmer has chosen Abundant Grace Liberating Hope as the theme for the Assembly and the triennium.

“As the Uniting Church we have been greatly blessed by the abundant grace of God, calling us into being and shaping our life and mission,” Dr Palmer said.

There will be a landmark statement encouraging action and advocacy on climate change and a consultation process proposed regarding voluntary assisted dying. Assembly members will also consider a report and proposals on marriage and same-gender relationships.

Assembly agencies such as UnitingCare Australia, UnitingWorld, Frontier Services and other Assembly groups will have a marketplace of information stalls.

“This theme Abundant Grace, Liberating Hope invites us to reflect God’s DR PALMER WILL BE INSTALLED AS PRESIDENT generous and overflowing There will be two public love, in our relationships lectures. The first is hosted with one another, in our local by the Uniting Church National community and in the wider world.”

History Society on Saturday 7 July from Prof Stewart Gill, Master of Queen’s From 9 July the College, Melbourne Assembly’s 265 on “No Gods and members, drawn Precious Few Heroes: from across the Why We Need to councils of the Remember Our Church, will decide History.” the Church’s national priorities The Cato Lecture, for the next three a regular feature years. Together of every Assembly they will consider meeting, will reports and be delivered on proposals on a Wednesday 11 dauntingly diverse July by Bishop Ken set of issues.

Carter of the United Methodist Church in These range from the US state the Church’s of Florida. response to the Royal Commission Daily Bible studies into Child Sexual will have a Pacific Abuse, the flavour led by Rev. challenge of Dr Sef Carroll of domestic and UnitingWorld and family violence and the continuing Rev James Bhagwan of the Methodist conversation on Indigenous sovereignty Church in Fiji and will be in line with the in light of the Covenant relationship focus on climate justice. between the UCA and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress.

we have been greatly blessed by the abundant grace of God, calling us into being and shaping our life and mission

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The worship program is being coordinated by Rev Ian Ferguson of Brunswick Uniting Church.

The 15th Assembly will attempt to go paperless. All proposals, reports and timetables will be provided to members’ mobile devices on the Crowd Compass app previously used for VicTas Synod meetings.

Uniting Church members will also be invited to join in 40 days of prayer before the Assembly meeting from Tuesday 29 May.

WHO ARE MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY? Representation at Assembly meeting is set out in the UCA Constitution and Regulations.

One minister and one lay member appointed by each Presbytery Ministers and confirmed lay members appointed by Synods Ex-officio and other members Sixteen members of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress In Synod and Presbytery representation and overall, the number of lay members shall not be less than the number of ministerial members.

One in 10 members must also be of a “youthful age” (under 25 at the beginning of the Assembly).

For more information, see Section 40 of the UCA Constitution and UCA Regulation 3.3.8

www.

Follow what’s happening in the lead-up to the Assembly on the website http://uniting.church and register for regular updates.

Benestar appointed as provider of Employee Assistance

The health, psychological safety and emotional wellbeing of our employees and ministers and their immediate families is a key priority for the Uniting Church Synod of NSW and the ACT. In conjunction with our colleagues at Uniting, Benestar has recently been appointed to manage our Employee Assistance Program across the Synod.

Employees of Uniting Resources, Uniting Financial Services, Uniting Mission and Education, Uniting and employees of all Synod and Assembly entities including our congregations, presbyteries, schools and our ordained Ministers as well as their immediate family members, can access Benestar’s free and confidential services by calling 1300 360 364.

As well as proving confidential counselling and coaching, services include mindfulness and meditation recordings and tips for managing your life, mind, body, work, relationships, family and finances.

B E N E STA R O F F E R S A R A N G E O F R E S O U RC E S TO H E L P YO U A N D YO U R FA M I LY M A N AG E YO U R H E A LT H A N D W E L L B E I N G Roxanne Harris Head of Human Resources Uniting Resources

Benestar offers an enhanced experience with mobile access via their app, which can be downloaded for free from Google Play or the Apple App Store. You can access the Benestar hub at www.benestar.com to set up your account and access the live chat function to get support in real time, online.

Our previous provider, Assure, will continue to provide counselling services for those currently receiving support, however they will not be accepting new referrals.

For more information contact; Roxanne Harris, Head of Human Resources, Synod of NSW and the ACT & HR Advisor to the National Assembly roxanneh@nswact.uca.org.au

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ENDING POVERTY for the next generation Puta and Wayan lean in close to look at the pictures of my family on my laptop. They smile at Brydie and Jem– pale skinned and honey haired. Their own son, Gede, peers over their shoulder.

This is family. We get it.

Strong, determined, and creative people are more than capable of providing for their children – when we work together to share what we have, that next generation will thrive

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y Indonesian extends to a few phrases vaguely remembered from Year Seven classes — their English is much better. We mime and grin our way through a conversation with all the usual elements — how have our UnitingWorld partners helped them change their lives? What was life like before? You can read their story on the page opposite —it’s inspiring.

This is poverty ending, for real people, right now.

And then comes a question I often wonder about, loaded as I am with my iPhone, Mac and expensive camera.

Internet is widespread throughout Indonesia, as it is throughout most of the world. Everyone, no matter what their situation these days, is made painfully aware of all they do not have.

The people of this community are no exception. I ask Puta and Wayan, with the help of our interpreters, how they deal with this knowledge.

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I watch them smile and nod, their eyes meeting mine as they listen to my question translated. They are grateful to be asked.

“It’s hard. It’s so hard.” Wayan tells me. “What we do now, we do for our children. For us, no school, no learning, but for them—we believe they can have something so much better. Better food, better homes. We are working hard for them. Everything for them.”

It’s an honest, dignified reply and it stays with me. I think of all that I invest in my family. There is no great gulf between what I can provide for them, what they have or what they long for, the way there is for Puta and Wayan. Internet and globalisation has radically changed the game for people in developing countries.

Since the turn of the century, extreme poverty has more than halved. So have deaths from malaria, maternal deaths and childhood mortality. That’s worth celebrating. And when I imagine what legacy I want to leave, it’s not only about

my own children. It’s about contributing to the next generation for whom ending extreme poverty is not just possible — it’s urgent. Never has inequality been more obvious or more painful. Strong, determined, and creative people are more than capable of providing for their children — when we work together to share what we have, that next generation will thrive.

Right now, in recognition of the Uniting Church’s success working with communities overseas through UnitingWorld partners, we have the opportunity to make a big impact by combining your gifts with Australian Aid Funding. We’ve committed to raising $1 for every $5 we’re eligible to receive from grants from the Australian Government to make six times the impact. Please give if you’re able.

Cath Taylor, UnitingWorld. *Names have been changed to protect the identity of the family.

We’re better

together

Give before June 30 for six times the impact My name is Puta. I live in Bedugul which is a village high in the mountains about two hours by motorbike from Denpasar. We live by growing our food on land owned by others and life has been hard. At times our children go hungry, and we feel despair.

Two years ago the local Christian Church saw many of us sick and struggling, and we talked together about what might make our lives better.

First they showed us how to breed goats. Whole families got invol ved, shovelling manure to sell to coffee farmers nearby. Our coffee is the best anywhere and all because of our goats! We take the goats to the market to sell so we have more income for food, school fees and oil for cooking. Trained health workers taught us about HIV and Aids, and explained to us about using clean water. They visit us for health checks and especially for us women , our health has improved so much!

My son walks to school each day. I have seen what education can do. My dream is that one day, he and my daughters will go on to stronger and healthier lives.

I could never have imagined that such change was possible.

Each day we are building a better life together and better with your help. Thank you so much for joining your heart with ours.

Love Puta. *UnitingWorld has committed to raise $1 for every $5 for which we’re eligible through Australian Aid funding - thus ‘up to six times the impact.’

YES! I want my gift to go up to six times further toward ending poverty STEP 1: Please accept my gift of:  $25

 $50  $100  My choice $ Please accept my regular monthly donation and debit my credit card:  $20  $30  $50  My choice $

STEP 2: Payment method

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I N T E R G E N E R A T I O N A L FA I T H

PRAISE HIM, YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN. PRAISE HIM,OLD MEN AND CHILDREN

GROWING TOGETHER

PSALM 148:13

in faith

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INTERGENERATIONAL FAITH FORMATION 14

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P20.

FAITH AT HOME

Intergenerational faith formation. What does it mean and how does it work in practice? Put simply, it means we are all responsible for discipleship and growth in our relationships with each other as the Body of Christ and our church communities. But if it were that simple, we would have scores of thriving congregations with active family ministries. Insights spoke to a number of ministry agents across the Synod about how healthy church communities can be transformed through intergenerational faith formation and what that means for the average congregation.

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exercise or something that requires very low engagement for the kids that is counterproductive.”

So how can churches address this, not just for the sake of children’s faith journeys, but for all of us?

The first step must surely be to address the issue of how much intergenerational contact we encourage in church. This needs an intentional development of intergenerational programs.

And for this there are already natural connections between generations which are often ignored in churches.

to attach to these stories of Australian Synod on an significance,” explains Emma. intergenerational resource “Godly Play is also quite widely Engage Together. Her view used in the Messy Church is that churches are ideally placed to do intergenerational setting because it is an approachable way to engage ministry well. a group in wondering about “When it comes to all the the scriptures that happens generations together, in my Ian Robertson, Alan Walker during the celebration time in opinion it is the way that Lecturer on Mission and Messy Church.” church should be and there Evangelism at United At the Messy Church are so many places in the Theological College, refers Conference in February there The church is ideally placed to community where people to the natural connections was an elective that looked are already separated into rise to this intergenerational between young and old that at how to make the most of different age groups,” she challenge, after all God should and can exist as the Godly Play. This demonstrates “awesome, or wicked grannies explains. “Church is where requires us as a body of a growing interest in often we have the richness Christ to be a functional effect” when older people integrating the two forms of of the Body of Christ to “team” for whom each recognise how important creative gospel sharing. have different generations member has a purpose. In the mentor/grandparent present. We can and should a society in which extended relationship is in the church A typical Sunday morning be making the most of that by families are geographically community in encouraging for many churches involves actually doing things together. dispersed, childcare is and building up faith in consecutive services for There’s wisdom for older outsourced, and child-free young people. different congregations with people to hear from resorts and retirement younger people and villages are becoming conversely there’s more common, churches wisdom for the young are one of the few natural to hear from the old. intergenerational spaces left.

It goes both ways, And it is in these spaces we it’s not just about can model community even bringing up young as society is in a state of flux. people in the faith, To be vital churches, it’s that we have our intergenerational wisdom to share relationships need to thrive, across generations.”

WISDOM, WONDER age-stratified groups running providing places for all ages AND GODLINESS in parallel for the purposes While some churches are to worship and experience The most obvious gain of teaching. The sending not quite there yet, there the transformational love with intergenerational out of children and young is a growing number of of God. relationships is the wisdom people at the beginning of imaginative approaches to This theological vision may that comes from perspectives the service and receiving all-age services like Messy not always be reflected other than our own. Spending them back to ‘show and Church where learning and in church practice, and time with people from other tell’ is a widely recognisable worship takes place with the aspiration to be generations will expose formula. This is, however, everyone together. intergenerational usually different preferences and the antithesis of good Godly Play, which was remains just that – a good beliefs. Sharing experiences intergenerational practice. originally designed for idea that is not realised in of faith with one another is “Sunday School is something children is something that is the everyday of ‘being’ an important cornerstone of that can be done well,” also used across age groups church together. church life, even if the way explains Emma. “But if it is and sometime within Messy those stories might need to Emma Parr, part of the just about age segregation Church itself. be told might need to adapt.

Resourcing Team at Uniting and keeping the children busy “Godly Play isn’t always used Mission and Education has then it’s not really serving the intergenerationally but it’s a been working with Chris whole of the community to really approachable tool for Barnett from the Synod of actually help and develop and people who may not yet have Victoria and Tasmania and grow children in faith. When the language of Christian faith it becomes a babysitting Mel Neumann from South here are large international research programs in the secular world devoted to intergenerational issues.

It is now widely recognised that good intergenerational connections are a source of hope for healthy societies and a peaceful world in the future.

To be vital churches, our intergenerational relationships need to thrive

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I N T E R G E N E R A T I O N A L FA I T H

“We need to hear the spiritual experience of our elders,” Ian Robertson explains.

“Grandparents have had significant experience and when you ask them about that and why they are still Christians, then you get something pretty amazing and very powerful, very relevant and life oriented – and these are not necessarily religious reasons – but life-oriented reasons about why their wisdom is important.”

“A lot of older people think they’ve got to ‘do’ church, but in fact what they have to do is love in Jesus’ name. It’s important for grandchildren that are three to 33, hearing a fresh testimony that’s life-oriented rather than ‘church’ oriented.”

This concept of sharing wisdom makes perfect sense: Older married couples can share their experiences with younger married couples; talking with elders of the church (40s through 60s) can help us see what growing into responsibility and faithfulness looks like; elders of the church sharing their faith journeys and testimonies can nurture younger people in their faith; and younger people share their sense of enthusiasm, liveliness, optimism and openness to change with elder people in the church.

Intergenerational relationships can lead us to grow together in faith.

They do this first by forcing us to love more maturely.

Loving someone different from us requires us to love more deliberately.

The current narrative is that the Western church is in decline, and many older veterans of the faith share grief about the fact that church is so different to what it was when they were younger, but also that their children and grandchildren are no longer going to church.

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successful is through the Messy Church movement.

Judyth Roberts of Messy Church Australia stresses the importance of hospitality for all ages as part of the intentional faith sharing that undergirds Messy Church.

And this raises another important question in enhancing intergenerational church: How open are we as a church to see change and be open to new ways of doing and being church together?

CHURCH GETS MESSY

Perhaps one of the major ways we can see church culture change is in the way that different age groups can interact in meaningful ways.

Many youth programs in churches actually segregate age groups. But young people need to be completely enfolded and know that they are part of the Body of Christ.

Churches can be transformed through vital interactions across generations through the passion of young people and the wisdom and faith sharing of our elders.

Church congregations can creatively bring generations together and one important way that has been very

“Messy Church is a phenomenon that has taken most by surprise,” says Judyth. “Churches experimenting with Messy Church are surprised at the simplicity of the premise and how many families come and keep returning. Families who come are surprised at how much they enjoy coming to church, exploring faith stories, being creative, having fun, worshipping and eating together. They are experiencing real Christian hospitality and fellowship, but importantly the people of God are strengthening their faith through action.”

Messy Church Australia held their national conference in February this year in Melbourne. The keynote speaker was Lucy Moore, who began the Messy Church movement.

Moore’s Messy Church began with a simple question: “How can our small church reach the many families in our community?” And so began a journey of discovery and

the birth of Messy Church, shaping worship, learning and fellowship around the needs of families with children.

Messy Church was created for those outside the church, and became church for them, not a stepping stone to Sunday morning church.

There are now thousands of Messy Churches all around the world in most denominations. Across Australia there are more than 220 Messy Churches.

A typical Australian Messy Church meets monthly and includes a flexible, relaxed arrival time; a creative learning time; a short but explicit time of worship with story, music, and prayers, finishing with a sit-down meal for all.

As Kaye Lewis, Family Ministry Pastor at Freshwater Uniting Church on the Northern Beaches of Sydney explains: “Messy Church is designed around five core values; Christcenteredness, creativity and joyful celebration in a spirit of generous, inclusive hospitality for all ages.”

“Throughout the whole two hours we try and honour all of these core values and even when we choose the songs we don’t do children’s songs, they are for all ages. Even the craft isn’t dumbed down, it’s not all glitter and glue; there is something to take home to remind them of what they

MODELLING CHRIST TO THE COMMUNITY

There is a growing body of research, initially from the USA, but also more recently from the UK and Australia that suggests that churches experience real benefits where individuals of different ages are brought together

generations. Even if those get people to begin to generations are 50-80 year engage intergenerationally olds. in worship,” explains Emma Parr. “Worship is one of those “Worship resources are the contexts where 99% of the first step in helping people time churches have a worship and congregations see the service and so giving them value in interacting in an some tools for that first 20 intergenerational way with minutes of worship and give worship which is already some ideas for all ages for a present across the scope of churches. So now we have looked at the first 20 minutes of a church service we are moving into developing resources that look more broadly at what is intergenerational Church and how communities can begin to adapt what they have using these resources.”

intergenerational churches are better placed to help troubled families addressing loneliness and modelling a way of life that challenges society’s tendency to fragment families have learned that they can talk about at home.”

Messy Church is important in that the model is very different to the segregated group programs of the Sunday School-type models of faith teaching.

“Forming relationships across ages is so important,” explains Kaye. “We’ve had four year olds and 94 year olds at Messy Church and its reciprocal. We’re not just giving to the families, the older people get value and enrichment from the relationships.”

“Freshwater Messy Church happens eight times a year, but we are thinking about doing it monthly. Churches need to have a passion for Messy Church and realise that it isn’t a stepping stone to traditional church – that this is church for the families that gather. It is a church in its own right. Churches considering this model need to prayerfully consider it and remember that it is for all the family not just for grandparents and children.”

intentionally for teaching, worship and service. It strengthens the sense of unity in a church, enriches the spiritual learning and is a great opportunity for faith formation through mentoring.

There is also evidence, in particularly from recent research carried out in the UK into Family Ministry, that intergenerational churches are better placed to help troubled families, addressing loneliness and modelling a way of life that challenges society’s tendency to fragment families.

call to worship, in scripture readings, in prayers, in songs. And the resources are not necessarily for making sure children are engaged, because we are aware that some churches don’t have children, how can you make sure you are engaging across

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

For many, especially where parents are separated from their children through family breakdown or work pressures, the gathered worship of a church may be the only time when they can come together.

Recognising that this time is so precious should help us see that keeping parents in the service and sending their children away from them is not the best approach.

The Engage Together resources address the fact that gathering together is the perfect opportunity for all ages to come together.

“The idea behind the resource was how we could try and

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I N T E R G E N E R A T I O N A L FA I T H

who may have been involved peripherally through play group and other activities.

It gets them to come together and own Messy Church as theirs.”

“The older people from the core traditional Church at Freshwater Uniting Church volunteer on tables. Older people in the congregation realise the value of the interactions and sharing conversations and relationships with families that come.”

If we want to see the Christian faith caught and nurtured today the young need to be alongside the old so they can hear and learn from those with experience of what it means to trust God in all the ups and downs of life.

Likewise, the old also need to be alongside the young who can bring the gift of a lively questioning spirituality and an eager sense of wonder; and Christians of whatever age who have a mature faith need to be alongside beginners of whatever age to help them explore new ways of seeing life and encountering God. Ian Robertson has produced an app for individuals to download called Makes You Wonder. Launched last year the point of the app is to assist “people being people and talking to each other about what was on their hearts. And if you open your heart to somebody, they meet the Jesus who lives there.”

The Makes You Wonder app puts a program developed by Ian Robinson while on beach mission into the hands of people in their busy lives.

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“Makes You Wonder is a resource which helps people connect with their communities and their world.

The overall theme is to help people find their voice, with their own faith, in their own world. It doesn’t ask people to run more programs, but put this kind of authenticity into the people you already are,” says Ian.

WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD?

Messy Church has been particularly inspiring, as long as it is seen not as a technique for getting more people into ‘Sunday church’ but rather as a place where people can experience faith and be creative together in a congregation in its own right.

It is not uncommon for example in congregations who have adopted the Messy Church approach to find that older adult participants become, at least for the two hours of the service, honorary grandparents to the young children they encounter, who both give and receive around the activity tables, during the celebration and over the meal together.

As Kaye Lewis explains Messy Church “brings people from the fringe and people who don’t normally come to Church. It gets the people

“In some ways it is more enriching for me than actually going to Sunday Church services sometimes. We share a meal together and the whole two hours will be designed around a theme.”

Let’s get

Appy!

We’ve rounded up the best apps for intergenerational worship.

1. YouVersion Bible Find and share your favourite passage.

2. iDisciple A one stop shop for faith content and tools to help your spiritual development.

3. Share your faith Supports multiple languages to help share key Bible concepts through diagrams making it an easy to use evangelism tool.

4. First 5 App Daily scriptures and passages. You can also bookmark scriptures and make personal notes.

5. K-Love Christian music all in one place. Learn more about the artists and the lyrics. myKLOVE also allows you to connect with other listeners and there’s also resources to help deepen your faith.

CREATIVE WAYS OF MIXING GENERATIONS

Thinking outside the ‘Sunday church’ model offers some creative ways to mix generations. Many of the creative forms of worship n recent decades have been pioneered by youth workers in churches, but there is an increasing need to include all age groups in worship and the church community.

Godly Play, which was initially developed in the USA to accompany children on their spiritual journey, and is now being extended to explore how all ages can benefit from this reflective storytelling approach to the Bible.

Faith at home or in an atmosphere akin to a home, is another expression of generational connection in which the church has for far too long neglected to invest.

“We don’t do faith at home or at work so those primary aspects of discipling adults are almost completely missing except maybe in the Sunday sermon if you’re lucky they may take something home,” explains Ian in relation to the way family units connect about faith. “All you have to do is address the issue and the context, which is not necessarily anthropological.

The challenge is that pretty much all of us at home and at work are facing the same issues. We need to empower people more effectively for family ministry or workplace ministry.”

Generational connections of the sort described so far are vital not just for our fractured society but for the health of our churches who are called to be salt and light in this world. The much quoted proverb ‘It takes a village to raise the child’ can be applied more widely, since there is no doubting that ‘it takes the whole church to raise any one of us in the faith’.

Too many churches see the hour they are together on Sunday as their primary worship space but as Emma Parr says with Engage Together they are working on what can happen outside of this time together.

“So now we have looked at the first 20 minutes of a church service, we are moving into developing resources that look more broadly at what is intergenerational Church and how communities can begin to adapt what they have using these resources,” says Emma.

the young need to be alongside the old so they can learn from those with experience of what it means to trust God in all the ups and downs of life

“We are working on some fact sheets for churches to outline just what and how to do intergenerational worship and trying to nutshell a few things and some ‘have a go’ tips and hints. And the other piece we are working on is looking at intergenerational ministry beyond worship.

And these resources will be looking at ministry beyond Sunday worship. The resource is helping people out with tools and building them up to ministry rather than chucking them in the deep end.

“When I am doing consultations with churches I think it is important to look beyond the one hour on Sunday to see how the Church community can reach more effectively into things like young adult ministry.”

A healthy church community is one that embraces all-age diversity and celebrates God-given differences; is one where there is the dynamic of encounter of like and unlike which is the recipe for healthy Christian growth.

“We need to be instilling publically and in our homes the values of the Kingdom of God and standing up for them,” explains Ian. “The

For more information about Engage Together, Godly Play and Messy Church resources visit childrensministry.org.au

For more information about Messy Church Australia visit messychurchaustralia. com.au

To download the Makes You Wonder app visit Google Play or iTunes

more we share our faith, the more we have to live up to it so it’s a win-win. Where you spend your money, how you sacrifice for others and how you have people in your home – these are all great educational opportunities. Great lessons come out of our hospitality with others. If we all do it together it makes it easier. We don’t have to be clever we just have to be courageous about it.

“In Deuteronomy 1:3 Moses is about to depart the earth and he tells the people how they are going to endure in the Promised Land. He says firstly, not to take it for granted and most importantly to talk to your children about what God has done and do it as you walk in the way.”

The perspectives of someone who has lived through war in the past century compared with that of a young person who is a 21st century digital native may be vastly different, but each undoubtedly needs the other to enrich both lives for each to transform as fruitful disciples of Jesus.

Adrian Drayton

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I N T E R G E N E R A T I O N A L FA I T H

GRANPARENTING

with Christ Lyn Worsley reflects on grand-parenting and sharing our faith with those who matter most to us.

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s I ponder this article I am sitting here with a one-week old baby boy in my arms. This is our first grandchild and it is pertinent that I write about this new phase of our lives.

For us the arrival of our little grandson is huge. We feel too young to be grandparents and were caught off guard as our daughter announced 10 years ago that she and her husband had decided they didn’t want children. Opting then for a café, inner city lifestyle. So, the announcement of the pregnancy caught us all by surprise.

Our daughter also decided some 20 years ago that she did not want to follow Christ. This was a blow for us and, as it would be for many Christian parents. It meant our relationship took on a different turn. We didn’t love her any less, but the sharing of our faith was now off the table. Over the years as we have brought up our love of God and his relevance in our lives, she and her husband have seemed politely interested, and when times are tough

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have asked us to pray for them. Until of course the arrival of their son.

Suddenly, they are in awe of creation and are overwhelmed with the responsibility as parents for his every need including his spiritual life. Our role as grandparents now begins to emerge having a spiritual responsibility.

Many Christian grandparents find themselves in a similar position, as their own children have walked away from God. What then is our role in raising the grandchildren in the way of Christ and how do we negotiate this?

As a psychologist, I am constantly aware of the boundaries that parents and grandparents and in-laws must respect, as I have so many stories told of interfering and disapproving parents and in laws. The challenges associated with different values across generations and the guilt linked to managing the tension between work and family life can take its toll on all family relationships.

Grandparents can run the risk of stepping back and being too careful to bring up deeper values and therefore being completely ineffective as the wise counsel they could be. On the other hand, they can run the risk of becoming dogmatic and pushy with their religious views and so may turn the next generation away completely.

How do we find a balance? The balance of really loving our children and respecting their views, but at the same time consider the deeper issues of telling our grandchildren about Jesus.

Several issues come up as I ponder these tensions.

THE SECOND HALF OF LIFE

If we consider the deeper issues at hand here, we begin with the emerging wisdom and emotional and social development of the grandparents themselves. Richard Rohr talks about the first and second half of life in his book, Falling Upward. He notes that during the first half of life we spend our time “becoming” and building our identity, to find that in the second half of life that it really doesn’t matter and that life is more than who we are and what we can do.

The second half of life has the pressure removed and the permission to consider what really matters most. For Christians, this is a revelation when we begin to relax into the arms of our God who has been there before, and knows where we are heading. The all-knowing, and loving Father, Grandfather, Great grandfather and so on. So, as grandparents we then

have the opportunity to be more focused on our grandchild’s inner character, loving them as Christ loves us. We can be set away from the hurried aspects of life such as saving for a house, managing dual incomes and career tensions.

We can be focusing on the Kingdom experience for our grandchildren rather than what is happening to us.

One of the activities I use with the young parents, is to get them to reflect into the future and think about their own grandchildren sitting around a dinner party as adults. I ask the young parents to reflect on what behaviour and values their grandchildren will be exhibiting that will show that they have influenced them in a good way. What will they be talking about? How will they treat others?

And what will tell you that this is your grandson or granddaughter? This is a great values exercise, and helps parents to begin to focus on what they really want to have as lasting value rather than the little things that pass over time.

Fast forward with this exercise and consider that this is now happening.

Your grandchildren are here and you have another opportunity to influence them in Kingdom values. The urgency of influencing the children in a good way with the values you hold dear becomes closer. This doesn’t mean that we “have to” get them to church, which can be interpreted as a tick the box, obligation for “religiosity”. It means that the relationship we have with them becomes even more important. Research tells us that the relationship with grandparent is one where the family principles and values are often passed down. So how do we do this?

When we consider the Gospel’s account of Jesus’ relationships, He was allknowing, but never controlling. Consider His comment to Peter, Who do you say that I am? He understood how people thought, consider His reflection to Zacchaeus, “I am coming to your house today”. He also considered their needs but didn’t necessarily give them what they wanted; note the experience of the rich young ruler. He gave them wise counsel, but didn’t push it on them. He waited and was available for them, sometime wandering along the road, sometimes reclining at a table, or sleeping in a boat, but all the while he was living alongside them and being in their space.

THE INITIATIVE STARTS WITH US

As grandparents, we may not have the luxury of living close or being readily available, however the initiative starts with us. We can set up times to Facetime, or send snail mail letters and puzzles and games. We can remember times that things are on and ask about them, showing that we are on their team. We can also set up times where we have more time to reflect on what

to read and ponder when they come to visit. Each of them sharing the values of justice, mercy and grace as Jesus demonstrated. She has theme books which she read to us as children such as Uncle Toms’ Cabin, To Kill a Mockingbird and C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series. She listens to songs and recites poetry to the grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Not all of them follow Jesus, some do, but all their hearts are filled with gratitude and love. They would all know about Jesus Christ through their relationship with their great grandmother.

unhurried, considered, thoughtful and all the time loving caring and teaching is going on in their lives. We can bake, take shared time, walk, talk and slowly share the meaning of life. Often, these unhurried moments are times when a child remembers the values and love being shared. As grandparents, we can also take time to tell Bible stories, and to share the meanings and relevance to our lives today. Children do remember.

My mother is elderly, she is 98 years old, and in a nursing home. She has 33 great grandchildren with one more on the way.

She has a calendar near her bed with all their photos on it, and remembers each of the grandchildren’s birthdays. She has set up a library of books for them

She talks in a whisper, has difficulty hearing and can’t walk; but she has a cupboard set up in her room with toys, puzzles and books especially for the great grandchildren. They love being there and feel loved.

Jesus is loving them through her, and she knows that He has them each in his hand.

She longs to see them again in paradise.

As I ponder my new role as a grandparent, and how to pass on the values I see as important above all else, I think of how Christ calls us to ‘Love your God, with all your heart and mind and soul.’ Grand parenting then for me is to do this as Christ has done this for me. Unhurried, considered and thoughtful and all the time loving, caring and teaching. May I too, see them in paradise.

Lyn Worsley is a Clinical Psychologist at The Resilience Centre

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Committee

A N O U T S TA N D I N G

The Synod Standing Committee serves an important role in guiding the life of the Uniting Church. However, not many people know about this committee and what exactly it does. Insights interviewed members of the Standing Committee, asking them what their work involves, and what this means for the church’s life

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he Synod Standing Committee meets monthly and is elected during the Synod meeting every 18 months.

The current committee was instated at the 2017 Synod Meeting. At the same meeting, the Synod decided to reduce the size of the Standing Committee down to 11 or 12 members. Membership is open to both ordained and laity.

Members of the current committee are from rural communities and the suburbs. They represent a wide range of the Synod’s functions and the Uniting Church’s membership.

Synod Standing Committee is responsible for oversight of the Synod budget. It receives reports from the various Synod boards. It considers a wide range of matters, and every meeting is different.

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Synod General Secretary Rev. Jane Fry told Insights that the committee was “‘the Synod between Synods’, the body charged with particular ‘synodical’ responsibilities by the Uiting Church Constitution and Regulations.”

“You could say that the task of the SSC is to translate big picture Synod discernment into deliberate missional action and results,” Rev. Fry said.

It endorses the thinking of being a part of the ‘body of Christ’ and each person has a part in the kingdom work of God

Continuing along these lines, former Synod Associate Secretary John Thornton explained the purpose of the committee as “basically the Synod that meets regularly between the 18 month cycle of Synod meetings.”

The committee, he said, “has the capacity to be a key player in strategic thinking for the Synod.”

David Barrow has been on the standing committee for 18 months, having been re-elected at the last Synod meeting.

He believes it to be, “one of the most wonderful expressions of the charism in the Uniting Church.”

“It puts laypeople and ministers together in a collective council that discerns the work of the church,” Mr Barrow said.

Part of the reason for this breadth is that Uniting Church committees like the standing committee work in lieu of bishops.

Meredith Yabsley is the Chair of the Uniting Resources Board. This role means that she is part of the standing committee.

“We are not a hierarchical organisation and so it is important the people know and understand the complexities of the issues with which SSC deals,” Ms Yabsley said.

“The issues can range from acknowledging the passing of a faithful servant of the church through to complex relationships involved in ministry placements or the finance around the re-development of a church site.”

“Coming to terms with how SSC carefully holds the creative tension between the Basis of Union, the Constitution, and its Regulations, and Synod’s By-laws, is a great church lesson for all.”

A VOICE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

There’s been a strong commitment from the church to put young people “It is not every day that you are on the committee… so that young people have a stake in assertively asked to nominate for SSC by an amazing group of women and that the directions of the Synod,” this nomination was affirmed through Mr Barrow said. the voting of the Synod.”

In keeping with this theme, David Barrow said that he appreciated “being given an opportunity by the Synod to use the skills from my vocational life in service of the Church.”

AN OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE THE CHURCH

Members of Synod Standing Committee have the opportunity to play a significant role in shaping the Uniting Church.

According to John Thornton, membership provides the chance “to be a part of the big picture thinking of the UCA.” “Being a part of the SSC reminds you that we are part of something much bigger than a congregation, or a presbytery or particular agency,” he said.

“It endorses the thinking of being a part of the ‘body of Christ’ and each person has a part in the kingdom work of God. Too often our thinking about God is too small.”

Along similar lines, The Rev. Danielle Hemsworth-Smith says that she saw her committee role as discerning the will of God in the work of the church.

“I think that my role as a member of SC is to listen and to question where God is in the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ and ‘what fors’ of what we do as church,” Rev. Hemsworth Smith said.

“Where is the hope? Where is the justice?

Where is the love? Where is the church of Christ? Where is God in all of this?”

Standing Committee member Jacki Watts told Insights that the committee had the ability to represent a wide range of Uniting Church members.

“One of the things I noticed about the Uniting Church is the perception at times among congregations of the ‘them and us’ mentality,” she said.

“That perception can be thought of whether it is to do with the Presbytery, Synod or Assembly. Some people assume that it’s their congregation against the other Councils of the Church.”

“It wasn’t until I got involved with the other Councils of the Church that I realised ‘them’ is ‘us’. I’m a lay female member of a country congregation and my voice along with others contributes to seeking to discern God’s will for us as a church.”

“Do I think that God wanted me to be on Synod Standing Committee?

Undoubtedly, yes.” Rev. Hemsworth Smith said.

“I encourage more lay people to think of that,” he said.

Jonathan Foye

James Ellis was one such young person, first joining the Synod Standing Committee in 2009 and serving until 2013.

“When I was first on it, I was a fresh out of school 17 year old,” he recalled.

“I was able to be involved in some really important talks. My memory of it all, was that despite my age, I was valued for the gifts and skills I brought—and I think that really strikes at the heart of what leadership in the UCA is all about.”

As Mr Ellis pointedly told Insights, drawing younger people into bodies like the Standing Committee serves to enhance their vitality.

“It’s important that Standing Committee doesn’t become stagnated with the same people time and again,” he said.

“For these types of bodies fresh blood is important alongside the experienced blood.”

Many of the committee members told Insights that they felt called to committee membership.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE According to Mr Barrow, the standing committee is currently talking more about the Uniting Church’s future direction.

“We are deeply reflecting on what it means to be a church that is small but significant in Australia,” Mr Barrow said.

“There are clearly tough decisions to be made. That doesn’t fall onto one bishop’s shoulders.”

This, he says, is about considering the role the Uniting Church has to play in wider society. “What is the unique contribution the Uniting Church can make…in New South Wales and the ACT? We don’t have to do everything.”

Sue Graves said “I have never had such a stronger call to something.”

“At that Synod meeting I…had a very strong urge to nominate for the SSC,” she said. “I was quite shocked to get elected but really felt it was God calling me.”

insights 23

PROFILE

BILL CREWS Exodus Foundation If you’re involved in social advocacy if not internationally then in Sydney, you would have heard of Uniting Church minister Rev. Bill Crews and/or his initiative, The Exodus Foundation.

I

n Sydney, Bill has spearheaded the Ashfield Uniting Church to become not just a place of worship but a safe haven for under-privileged people living on the outskirts of society. At one side of the church’s property there is the Loaves and Fishes restaurant that distributes free meals. Then at the back of the property is the Exodus Foundation’s medical centre that, among other services, provides free dental work for the homeless.

long for him, through sips of coffee, to launch into his life and faith story with such openness and trust.

He mentions his lonely childhood and slowly how his journey to Jesus took him by surprise.

In the 1970s, after witnessing the large amounts of homeless people on the streets—particularly children—Bill felt drawn to social advocacy and later to God.

It was the time of the Vietnam War, and Bill worked a lot with rejected homeless people and those dealing with drug problems at the Wayside Chapel Kings Cross crisis centre.

“I just saw every issue that you could imagine and I just felt like I was home.”

After 13 years in Kings Cross, he decided it was time to move on and explore his personal faith. By 1986 Bill had completed theological college and was ordained as a Uniting Church minister of the word.

“It was the kids and the people It doesn’t stop that moved me,” says Bill there. Through NEW MINISTRY who started doing voluntary FA I T H FO R ME the Exodus Taking up ministry in Ashfield, Bill was work at the Kings Cross H A S S U D D E N LY Foundation and again shocked to see so many homeless Wayside Chapel, coffee BECOME TRUST the Bill Crews teens—many of whom began “crashing” shop. It was here that he AND YOU Charitable Trust, in the pews of the church and in the found his calling.

DON’T HAVE TO there are now church hall for the night.

PROMOTE IT “I was walking up the Literacy Centres YOU JUST HAVE With the initial funding from two gracious stairs to the coffee shop… that deliver Multi TO DO IT people, the congregation was able to and it was like time stood Literacy Programs open the Loaves and Fishes restaurant, still,” says Bill. including academic to at least provide hot meals for the support for disadvantaged “It must have been an instant but it homeless. Bill says the restaurant has students in Gladstone and felt like timeless, and it was like a voice been open continuously since 1986 and Darwin, with another to open in Ashfield. but it wasn’t, it was a knowing. And it is now open seven days a week, with Internationally over the years Bill has said you have got to leave your job, you food vans servicing more suburbs. been involved in supporting a number got to come and work here (Wayside). of initiatives in Thailand, Hong Kong, “Today at the very least we’ll do 800 “You got to always work with the poorest Burma, Cambodia and Europe for meals a day,” says Bill thanks to of the poor, always. children at risk of exploitation. donations and dedicated volunteers.

At 74 years old, his commitment to social “It said you will become well known This morning, Bill leads the way to because of that but don’t worry. And it advocacy has only seemed to have the kitchen which is in full swing with also said the cost of that will be that your breakfast being served. Today the grown over the years mirroring the reach personal life won’t be that happy.” achieved by the Exodus Foundation and kitchen team is from a business sponsor. local ministry. On this Monday morning As we continue the tour, we’re stopped So Bill quit his job at AWA and went from Ashfield Uniting is already bustling with multiple times by friends, people who a research engineer’s salary to earning life, with a long line of people forming thankful for the services available or just $11 dollars a week. He laughs outside the restaurant. When I finally people who work either in the kitchen when he says that people were quite meet Bill in his office, there is a sense or the office. The way Bill interacts with concerned for him but he said he knew of calm. So much so that it doesn’t take it’s what he had to do.

24

insights

each is with same respect as the next and vice-versa.

He seems to take on each individuals problems as he tries to see how he or his team can help but just as the ‘vision’ had predicted it has not been without its personal toll.

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES

A few years ago, while in the Calais Jungle refugee camp in France (it was later demolished), Bill stumbled on a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Since Bill had organised NA meetings for people recovering from drug addiction in Sydney he decided to sit in. Here 20 men and women Middle Eastern, Iranians, and Africans—not only refugees but fighting drug addiction—sat in a circle and told their stories in all different languages.

them working. But I would walk away more lonely than they were.

“I realised you had to come in from the cold, and be in there with them. And it changed my life.

“I feel now like that I am on a new trajectory. That at the very time that most people’s lives are closing down mine has opened right up.”

think faith (for me) has suddenly become trust and you don’t have to promote it, you just have to do it.

“It’s not words. All words do is encourage smugness. It’s instead living it, doing it and I think what Jesus challenges me to do is be authentic every moment which is really hard.”

LIVING AUTHENTICALLY

That authenticity is what he tries to convey in the work and mission here at Ashfield Uniting and through the Exodus Foundation.

“It was like coming in from the cold,” says Bill.

To prove this point further Bill relayed a conversation he had with the Dalai Lama (like, the actual Dalai Lama). The two, Bill tells me, are actually good friends as Bill gets up to show a gift the Dalai Lama “This isn’t a place where we do good to presented him on his last trip to see him. the poor. This is a place where we be and they be and maybe the group of us It was in these talks with the Dalai Lama together can get somewhere,” says Bill. that Bill says he discovered something about faith.

As our conversation comes to an end and as people come to talk to Bill, hug or “When you look someone in the eye… shake his hand you begin to see what he you just vanish and then you suddenly means about appreciating connections come back. And that’s what Jesus meant with individuals and really listening. No when he said to find yourself you need to matter their walk in life there is a great lose yourself. level of respect and that’s something to be admired.

“Jesus is deeply subversive. When we vanish, it’s a timeless now and the Melissa Stewart kingdom is now.”

“All my life I had set up groups for lonely people and I would set them up and get

“It’s made me in awe of him as a human being, then I just trust his relationship. I

When it was his turn to speak, Bill says it was emotional talking of his two failed marriages, how his kids have suffered because of it and his own hardships in his childhood. Once he was done, the group got up and said welcome.

(L-R) EXODUS VOLUNTEERS | ANN-MARIE CALILHANNA- EXODUS HEALTH & WELLBEING CENTRE | THE DALAI LAMA AND BILL | PROVIDING FREE MEALS | CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS| BILL AT EXODUS

Find out how you can volunteer or help the ministry and mission Ashfield Uniting and Exodus Foundation at exodusfoundation.org.au

MEET WAYSIDE CHAPEL’S NEW PASTOR AND CEO

REV. GRAHAM LONG AND JON OWEN (IMAGE SUPPLIED)

26

insights

Pastor Jon Owen is the new Pastor and CEO of the Uniting Church’s mission Wayside Chapel in Sydney.

J

on will officially take the reins from long-time Wayside Chapel leader Rev. Graham Long in July 2018. Rev. Long announced his retirement last year after being in the role for 14 years, building up Wayside Chapel out of financial crisis and into a thriving mission helping disadvantaged people in NSW.

“There’s no place quite like Wayside and there is no leader quite like Graham,” said Jon. “He [Graham] is a rare mix of just utter humility and dogged determination that doesn’t quit on people. And just gives himself over and over again to everyone who comes into his life.”

Despite working alongside Graham as Assistant Pastor at Wayside since 2016, Jon first met Rev. Long over a decade ago, when Jon was given a tour of Wayside.

“I was immediately deeply moved by the work of Wayside. It was always in my mind and in my heart,” said Jon, who is the third person to be appointed head of Wayside Chapel since its inception in 1964 then led by the late Rev. Ted Noffs.

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

When the question of the future of Wayside, Jon pointed to the history of Wayside and its response to crisis.

In 1964 Rev. Ted Noffs pioneered the Wayside Chapel as response to the growing drug culture particularly among youth. In the 90’s amidst the heroin crisis the then CEO Rev. Ray Richmond, helped put together a safe injecting room called “The Tolerance Room”; which led to the opening of Uniting’s Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. Then in 2004, Rev. Graham Long through leadership helped Wayside out of financial crisis and into a strong community organisation.

That’s always been the strength and the power of Wayside, to come and be met and to be changed.

So we can take that message out further and further

“What’s always attracted me to the Wayside is that there’s such harmony with the call that’s on my family’s life, which is to live out the best ways we can to follow Jesus in a way that really lives in solidarity with those on the margins.”

As for the future, Jon wants to see Wayside get back to the “spirited protest” that began with Rev. Ted Noffs.

“I’d really like to think the opportunity before me is not one of crisis that we’re facing internally but maybe we can return to the roots of Ted Noffs.

“Let’s rediscover that protest not necessarily be chaining our necks to politicians fences but let’s just offer a beautiful invitation once again, to the community. To say you know, ‘what are we doing, how are we living and how do our choices affect each other?’

“I think for too long we’ve gotten away with saying if I take care of me and myself then the rest of society is going to be okay.

“That’s always been the strength and the power of Wayside, is to come and be met and to be changed. So we can take that message out further and further. And to do that from the family of the Uniting Church, is a real honour and it’s a real privilege,” said Jon. Jon explains that rather than invent we detect our mission in life through opportunities and doors that open and close.

Jon’s ministry began 20 years ago. Since then he has been involved with a small protestant missional order Urban Neighbours of Hope that saw his family living in tough neighbourhoods and sharing their home with refugees, people seeking asylum and people in recovery. He also studied social work as a way to deepen his ministry.

“Our lives have been just one series of conversations leading to the next and leading to the next. So that’s the journey into Wayside has been through a relationship with Graham, it’s been through a deepening relationship through the Uniting Church.

While living in Mt Druitt, he helped plant a Uniting Church in the area and it was there that he completed his period of discernment. He is now recognised as a pastor in the Uniting Church and is on track to being ordained.

“It’s been through a deepening relationship with the visitors who come through our doors. As one door continues to open after another one, then our hearts are captured by this amazing mission that everyone is in awe of.

“That was my introduction into the Uniting Church and it’s continued from there.

“It’s been a wonderful journey. The heart of any community is in relationships and it’s just been a real honour and unexpected joy to have met such wonderful people who are in their own patches trying to serve God,” said Jon.

“It’s kind of this deepening sense of convictions that says now is the time and here is the place. We can be the people.”

The Wayside Chapel runs a Community Services Centre, Day to Day living programs, an Aboriginal program, the Wayside Café, an Op Shop, and chapel services, all bringing together and helping people from all walks of life.

Melissa Stewart

insights 27

T H E T WO O F U S

Enriching

faith each other in

It’s not often your grandmother teaches you Sunday School and your grandfather is the Lay Minister. But that was Jemima Taylor’s experience growing up in their local Church in Bowral. Yvonne Cooper and her grand daughter Jemima reflect on growing together in faith.

YVONNE

What was it like worshipping in the same place as our family?

We changed churches to where our daughter and son-in-law attended after our first grand daughter was born and it seemed very comfortable and natural to worship with them. We’d always been close. Seeing the contribution that our family was making to the congregation confirmed our decision to make the change. Although I hadn’t considered teaching Sunday School again, when it became obvious there was a need I decided to give it a go.

I discovered it was ok if I didn’t know or have all the “accepted” answers, which made me think about how I’d always viewed traditional teaching. It was a joy to see the children’s faces each week and their cheery greetings and offers of help to set up for Sunday school etc.

these children grew older, I found myself saying: “This is what I think—some people would not agree with me, but perhaps this is something you can decide when you are older?” Asking them what they thought stimulated some amazing discussion! It enabled me to feel as if I was being honest but perhaps it helped Jem to understand that it’s ok to be unsure and to question.

As Jem grew older and moved into the youth group, I missed those discussions, yet she continues to grow and explore, and I feel confident that her love for people will not waver.

So my faith has been enriched with a great hope for the future and the knowledge that even at my age, I can question and grow!

My main regret was that I missed out on the messages brought by my daughter and son-in-law in the church service, because I was taking Sunday School!

What was it like growing up in a Church where your grandparents also worshipped?

How has your faith been enriched by seeing your granddaughter Jem grow in faith?

I think I had a pretty unique experience in my church. For me the lines between family and church blurred.

Watching Jem grow in faith has been an amazing process for me. As a young child she accepted Bible stories the way most young children do, but it wasn’t too long before she started asking the “why” and the “how”, not in any cynical or disrespectful way, but with a lovely enquiring curiosity — wanting to understand the meaning of these stories for her life.

I always looked forward to going to church every week. I went with my best friends and then at the start of the service (after we’d danced to all the hymns) we’d go out to Sunday school with Gran. Pa would often be leading the service or preaching People later talked about how they appreciated what he said. As I got older I listened to his sermons and really enjoyed his messages — they made a lot of sense to me. Even the fact that I saw my grandparents at the very least once a week, mostly about two or three times,

From a very young age, Jem has had a wonderfully warm sense of justice for all people, of equality and fairness.

Life and faith can be difficult, and as

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JEMIMA

it was really special, and I think it’s something that lots of kids miss out on.

How has your faith been enriched by seeing your grandparents in action and being taught by your gran in particular?

I went to Sunday School every week from the time I could pretty much walk to when I started high school. I don’t think people realize how much these years shape us and how we see the world we live in, and so having Gran there every week had a huge impact not only on my faith but on the way I view the world.

It was those cold Sunday mornings all huddled around the tiny heater out the back sitting on cushions where we’d get so off topic and travel all over the world together that probably had the biggest impact for me. She let us ask questions about our faith and this inquisitive eye for life is possibly one of the most valuable skills I will carry with me into the future. Our world is so unpredictable, and if we’re taught from a young age to simply do as we are told without questioning then where does that leave us for the rest of our lives?

I don’t think Gran knows this, but it was through her actions that she taught us most about love and faith. It was the way she patiently listened while we went on rants or tangents that were very irrelevant, the positive feedback about our unconventional cotton wool sheep and her genuine interest in our lives.

We’d watch her welcome new people, come up with new and creative ideas for us and see the effort she put into our little church that showed us what love really meant beyond all the talk.

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insights 29

V

IS IT OK TO

PUNCH A NAZI?

On 21 January 2017, the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration, white nationalist and alt-right leader Richard Spencer was struck during a live interview. Video of the punch quickly spread, mostly by Twitter. The incident provides a contemporary case study for the question of whether the presence of Nazis influences the acceptability of violence: stated otherwise, ‘is it ok to punch a Nazi?’ For those who would cite theological reasons for answering no, while being otherwise supportive of opposing Nazis, the nonviolent teachings and practices of Jesus will be centred as grounding for the condemnation of any kind of violence.

A

lthough this approach has merit, there is tendency to fall into one or more of the following problems. First, the development of theology (or ethics) in abstraction; this refers to theology which seeks to ignore or deny its particularity in favour of a claim to universality. Second, the conflation of violent act and response, obscuring the hidden violence of an unjust society. Third, the sentimentalising of love, where the loving of an enemy necessitates the forgoing of selfhood. And fourth, the prioritising of the life and words of Jesus of Nazareth over the spirit of the risen Christ in the establishment of an ethical guide.

Against these problems I turn to the work of the late James H. Cone (the father of Black Theology in the US) to provide four complications to the above problems.

COMPLICATING ETHICS

Cone’s theological starting point and commitment is to the oppressed community. His project is an attempt to relate the Christian faith to the struggle for black freedom in a way that bolsters rather than hinders such a pursuit. Cone critiques theological approaches that neglect the concrete situations in which they are written and read, especially those which do so as ‘evidence’ of their universality and neutrality.

Cone’s approach complicates the posing of universal ethical questions which presuppose that there is an answer suitable to all contexts, all communities. For the Christian, the ethical question of violent resistance needs to be shaped by the

30

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theological source of the community “that is, what God has done and is doing to liberate the oppressed from slavery and injustice.” Given that God relates differently to the oppressed as God does to oppressors, what it means to respond to the will of God must differ depending on where one finds themselves on that divide.

Whether or not it is ok to punch a Nazi is a question that the oppressed community must be allowed to ask and answer themselves without being beholden to universalised ethical demands, or religious convictions developed outside of their community. Not only are the oppressed community more suitably poised to understand the ethical response most appropriate for their struggle for liberation, they are also better located to perceive the often hidden violence of the state.

COMPLICATING VIOLENCE

When confronted with the footage of Richard Spencer, many viewers see just one moment of violence; the punch. Cone’s theological project assists us in seeing that violence was already present in this scene, due to the very existence of someone sharing a Nazi ideology in a public space.

“There is nowhere we can go without being confronted with blatant manifestations of violence.” Cone makes this observation of black life in a society forged by, and committed to maintaining, white supremacy. Ethical discussions which isolate an incident, such as the punching of Richard Spencer, from the violent fabric of society, will inevitably favour the

E C N E L O I V status quo and demand an account only from those whose violence is more explicit, given its lack of structural forces.

Cone writes, “injustice in any form is violence, and it comes in many manifestations”. Yes, there is violence in the slum, but there is also “the violence of the slum”. Bringing justice to the foreground means that violence is more than a momentary attack on the body; it requires the consideration of violence against personhood. The violation of personhood and culture is a violent act towards the God of Pentecost and the translatability of Christianity, which Lamin Sanneh observes, recognises that all cultures count equally before God. It is also a violence against the work of Christ, which has liberated all people to be a new being. Cone defines the gospel, as the good news that the oppressed do not have to accept their dehumanisation; they can do something about it. Taking our case study, while the unknown striker’s physical body was not under immediate threat during Spencer’s interview, his personhood was. His act to disrupt the interview and challenge the proliferation of views such as Spencer’s may not be vengeful or thoughtless, rather, these acts of selfdefense and resistance are faithful attempts to live into the image of God.

the violent forces hidden behind the orderliness of the status quo. We must consider that Cone’s challenge, “no one can be non-violent in an unjust society” means that a refusal to punch a Nazi does not mean that violence hasn’t occurred.

COMPLICATING LOVE

God’s love is the impetus behind God’s acts of liberation, both cosmically and concretely. For this reason Cone cannot accept a notion of love that is separated from righteousness and justice. Rather than forsaking a claim to self, to respond appropriately to God’s loving act of divine liberation, the oppressed need to remain a Thou in a society that would make them in It. This is the foremost guide for the development of a Christian ethic: an affirmation of humanity and commitment to liberation. Cone argues that we should not think about this assertion of Thouhood as anything but the work of sanctification. By refusing to be dehumanised, the oppressed share this love with their oppressors in the hope that they too will encounter the event of divine liberation.

The Christian tradition of nonviolence needs to be interpreted within the community of the oppressed

The Christian tradition of nonviolence needs to be interpreted within the community of the oppressed so it does not obscure

COMPLICATING JESUS

Advocates of Christian non-violence often draw their beliefs, principally, from the earthly life and example of Jesus of Nazareth. Cone, on the other hand, contends that it is to the Spirit of the living Christ, encountered in the oppressed community struggling for freedom that Christian theology and ethics must account.

To use the Jesus of history as an absolute ethical guide for people today is to become enslaved to the past, foreclosing God’s eschatological future and its judgment on the present.

It removes the element of risk in ethical decisions and makes people slaves to principles, “for the resurrected Christ is not bound by first-century possibilities”

CONCLUSION

Ethical questions regarding the appropriateness of modes of resistance, need to be particularly developed within the community of the oppressed, not applied universally from outside. This is not only because the oppressed are the ones most at risk and most attune to the hidden violence of unjust societies, it is because that is where the event of liberation, Jesus Christ, is found today.

This is an edited version of a paper presented at United Theological College’s ‘Things That Make For Peace’ conference.

Liam Miller is the Uniting Church Chaplain at Macquarie University.

insights 31

M A K I N G M O N E Y M AT T E R

l

Keeping wealth in perspective

ike many when they heard the news that Billy Graham had passed from this life, I went looking for quotable quotes from his preaching and writing. One that stood out was his declaration that the only time God didn’t answer his prayers was on the golf course. I can relate to that!

On a serious note, there was also this perspective on money: “there’s nothing wrong with (people) possessing riches”, he said. “The wrong comes when riches possess (people).”

I thought this comment was relevant when I recently read the passage from John Chapter 2 in which Jesus cleanses the Temple during Passover. That seems a fairly clear case of the way people’s attitudes, priorities and behaviours get distorted when they become driven by earning money, rather than hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

It’s a great story. Large crowds.

Excitement and anticipation. Hustle and bustle. Noise and clamour.

Pilgrims looking up and gasping, “there it is! The Temple – the place we’ve come to see.”

Nothing wrong with the scene so far – it reminds me of many events that I’ve been to over the years, such as the Sydney Olympics, the night the Socceroos qualified for the 2006 World Cup or, of course, the Billy Graham Crusade in 1979.

But pay close attention to the crowd. Can you detect among some of them a growing sense of unease?

Once they entered the Temple courts, instead of joining with others eager to meet with God, they found instead rows of tables where the money changers swapped shekels for temple cash. You couldn’t get in without having the right currency, but there was only one place to spend it and that was with the traders who sold the necessary sacrificial animals - bulls if you were rich, sheep if you were middle class and pigeons if you were poor. So many traders, all crying out for business, promising a better deal than the scoundrel at the next stall, all the while knowing full well what a fat margin had already been built into their price.

Is this how it was meant to be? Was it meant to be this stressful worshipping God? Was it meant to be this expensive?

Into this mess Jesus entered. A righteous indignation burned within Him. No, it was not meant to be like this! A house of prayer was not meant to be a rabble, a profiteering exercise that took advantage of God’s chosen people or a place where the eighth commandment was so flagrantly broken. Consumed by zeal for His Father’s house, Jesus of Nazareth calmly wound a corded rope into a whip and used it to drive them and their

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animals out of the Temple courts; He tipped out the moneychangers coins and overturned their tables. “Take these things away,” He ordered. “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” What a breathtaking moment that would have been to witness!

What Jesus did was a powerful, dramatic and authoritative declaration of His own divinity. Just as faithful Jewish people would cleanse their own homes of leaven at Passover, PEOPLE’S ATTITUDES so Jesus cleansed His Father’s GET DISTORTED house, in the process declaring WHEN THEY BECOME Himself the unique Son of God DRIVEN BY EARNING with authority higher than that MONEY, RATHER THAN of the priests and the Temple HUNGERING FOR building itself.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

What Jesus did was a powerful, dramatic and authoritative demonstration that His ministry was one of cleansing. Just as He cleansed the Temple that day of all that distracted from God, so He continues to work to cleanse us of that which keeps us from a healthy relationship with God.

To bring it back to the Billy Graham quote, there was nothing wrong with the requirement that dedicated money was needed for use in the Temple precincts.

What was wrong was the practice of exchanging it for everyday money at extortionate rates. There was nothing wrong with traders selling sacrificial animals to pilgrims visiting Jerusalem for the Passover – after all, they needed them in order to participate in the ceremonies. What was wrong, however, was doing it in the Temple precincts. Not only did this compound the impact of a bad exchange rate, but it turned the place that should have been set aside to allow worshippers to approach the house of God prayerfully into a “den of robbers”, as Luke’s account puts it. The desire of the priests and the traders to make money meant that the earthly elements of the process took over the focus and the attention from the heavenly, from God. Some of us could have afforded to buy a bull at Passover; many of us would buy sheep; and others could afford only pigeons.

Whatever our financial situation, however, the challenge we’ve been given, by both Jesus and the man who preached His gospel faithfully for so many years, is to keep our wealth in perspective and allow the temple of our lives to be cleansed by the Son of God. There’s nothing wrong with us possessing riches; the wrong comes when riches possess us.

Warren Bird, Executive Director, Uniting Financial Services

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insights 33

WHAT MAKES FOR A

Godly marriage?

While not a sacrament in the Uniting Church tradition, marriage holds an important place in church life. As a discussion paper prepared by the Assembly Doctrine Committee puts it, “the light of God’s face is turned towards marriage in a peculiar way; that there is an intimate and mysterious bond between the human speechact of promise and the divine speech-act of blessing; that as two human partners speak words of love to one another, God bestows a word on both of them and makes them one.”

Insights decided to speak to couples, marriage counsellors, and theologians to address the question, “what makes for a godly marriage?”

D

v r Peter Powell is the

director of the Pastoral Counselling Institute (PCI). He told Insights that his experience in this role (and marriage of more than thirty years) had taught him that, “a godly marriage is one that models the way of Jesus.”

been involved in running a marriage enrichment course.

“I see a godly marriage as one with three partners: God, husband and wife,” Mrs Crook said.

“Each spouse has an individual relationship with God as well as a ‘couple’ “So the kind of qualities seen relationship with God. When in Jesus and are described in each person sees the other Scripture would be essential as a special child of God, to the way a godly marriage the marriage focus will be operated,” Rev. Dr Powell said. on supporting and building

Each spouse has an individual relationship with God as well as a ‘couple’ relationship with God “Basically what we read in 1 Corinthians 13. So there will be equality and respect of persons, a gentleness and listening and so on.”

Kaye and Andrew Crook worship at Blacktown Uniting Church, where they have

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each other up to be the best person God wants then to be.”

“After we attended a marriage course, we were asked to consider joining the presenting team (something that excited me a lot). As we continued to attend courses,

Don’t forget singles

Dr Katherine Grocott has previously researched the theology of singleness, something that she says is a God-given gift.

While researching her Bachelor of Theology Honours Thesis A Singular Focus, Dr Growcott found that, “the Evangelical Church has elevated the status of marriage and family well above that of singleness.” She told Insights that she had heard many anecdotes during interviews that reinforced this.

“Single people are often denigrated and ignored by a theology that understands the nuclear family as the Godgiven norm,” Dr Growcott said.

“When that happens, the theology is in error. Singleness, just like marriage, is a good gift from God. Both have

our relationship changed and grew stronger,” Mrs Crook said.

“That led to a desire to share with others. So we looked for a course that we could run at our church. We found the Marriage Course from Holy Trinity Brompton was an easy course to run and supplied couples with practical tools.

Each time we run a course, we learn something new about each other and our relationship continues to grow.

It is a great feeling to see others catch some of those benefits too.”

Andrew was more reluctant to begin with, but came to share Kaye’s enthusiasm.

Assembly to talk about marriage

The triennial assembly meeting (8-14 July 2018) will consider how the Uniting Church defines marriage. Same gender marriage became legal in Australia on 7 December 2017.

Uniting Church Ministers are given legal permission to conduct marriages under the Rites of the Uniting Church in Australia, and these rites cannot be changed until the Assembly Meeting at the earliest.

The Assembly’s Working Group on Doctrine have prepared a eport on marriage. The report “When we were offered the and proposal is available at opportunity to be a part of the https://uniting.church. Uniting presenting team, I hesitated,” Church NSW and ACT moderator he said.

Simon Hansford recommends reading the report “It was way outside my comfort ahead of Assembly. zone. However, I could see

struggles, joys, temptations and benefits. There may well be practical advantages for single people, however, especially in relation to freedom for kingdom ministry. The teaching of both Jesus and Paul views single people as whole and valuable, made in the image of God and able to do much in the kingdom.”

This, she says, has implications for the church and how we treat single people in our congregations.

“Instead of making unhelpful judgements or assumptions about single people in congregations, churches need to get to know them as individuals,” she said.

“Find out who they are before assuming that they’d love to babysit or have loads of time to dedicate to the flower arranging ministry. Then include them in church in ways that are actually meaningful and respectful for them.”

that Kaye was very excited by the prospect and so I agreed “Following the life of Jesus to take the challenge. The personally and corporately benefits we both experienced is tough.” from learning about and conducting marriage courses, “We have a simple process at were tangible to the point PCI, if you are more irritated where people at church than curious with your would comment about our partner you cannot sustain a relationship.” healthy marriage. So curiosity is critical to our notion of STUMBLING BLOCKS marriage, as is the need to be Maintaining a godly marriage flexible.

If you’re curious and is a challenge. According to flexible you can live happily Rev. Dr Powell it is, “probably with Attila the Hun.” one of the hardest tasks any

human being can undertake.” “[There is] obviously no place for male or female control, “The key challenge to godly domestic violence, sexual marriages is that we are not control, [or] financial control,” godly enough,” he said.

Rev. Dr Powell said.

Jonathan Foye

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B

G N I K A E R

n o i it d tra wit h

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With Meghan Markle baptised and confirmed into the Church of England and her subsequent marriage to Prince Harry on 19 May, Insights asked Charles Rae, News International’s royal correspondent for over two decades, to take a deep dive into the religious conventions that have shaped the royal family.

R

oyalty and religion: they are two institutions that have existed as strange bedfellows for the last 500 years. It has only been in the last decade or so that the rules of 'who was in and who was out' have been relaxed, and this has usually been at the convenience of those finding themselves directly embroiled in the pomp and process.

This relaxation of the religious conventions of the monarchy has also slowly been moving with the times, never more evident in the relationship and marriage of Meghan Markle to Prince Harry. Ms Markle’s faith background is a multi-layered one: She is a Protestant who attended a Roman Catholic high school, her mother, Doria Ragland, is Protestant and her father, Thomas Markle, is Episcopalian – the US branch of the Anglican Church — and the 36-year-old was married in a Jewish ceremony to Trevor Engelson from 2011 to 2013.

While some conventions may have been overlooked, there is no doubt that some will stay the same. This is evident in the fact that prior to their wedding, the Suits star was baptised and confirmed into the Church of England. There is no denying however, that Ms Markle’s background and understanding of faith will be an excellent foundation on which to move forward into her new life in the royal family and all this entails.

Traditionally every member of the royal family is christened into the Church of England. The reigning monarch holds the title of Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Interestingly, Ms Markel’s status as a divorcee was no impediment to a Church of England service. Since 2002, the church has agreed that divorced people can remarry, with the discretion of the priest. Despite this ruling, in the three years before his marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles — Prince Charles, Meghan’s new father in law — still fell foul of convention.

Despite the fact that he is a future monarch and Head of the Church of England, for his 2005 wedding to Parker

Bowles, Prince Charles was denied a Church of England service and had to settle for a civil service and a church blessing.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROYALS

Going further back, Princess Anne as a divorcee, was also denied a Church of England service when she married Commander Tim Laurence in 1992. Instead, the couple wed at Crathie Church near the Balmoral Estate in a Church of Scotland service.

Catholic wife, Princess Michael of Kent, 37 years ago.

Moving forward, Prince George's children could be affected if his wife is Roman Catholic. Their children could be brought up in that faith and would be barred from becoming monarch and supreme governor of the Church of England because of their faith.

AN UNCONVENTIONAL WEDDING

Meghan and Harry were married in St George’s Chapel on 19 May in Windsor Castle where the Prince was christened.

The ceremony was unlike any other in the royal family’s history.

It was conducted by The Dean of Windsor, the Rt Rev David Conner. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, officiated as the couple made their marriage vows.

The hardline of the Church of England This was followed by a sermon from The – albeit slightly softened of late – Most Reverend Michael Curry, head of started in 1534 when Henry VIII the Episcopal Church in the US, who established it, over a row was invited by the bride and with the Pope regarding groom. His impassioned his divorce from his message was about the MS MARKLE’S first wife Catherine of power of love preaching U NDER STA ND IN G Aragon. Henry wanted from Song of Solomon 2: OF FAITH WILL BE the Pope to grant 10-13 and 8:6-7.

AN EXCELLENT him an annulment, He began by quoting FO U N DAT I O N TO on the grounds that MOVE FORWARD Martin Luther King. “We the marriage was INTO A NEW LIFE must discover the power illegal and incestuous IN THE ROYAL of love, the redemptive because Catherine was FA M I LY power of love. And when we the widow of his dead discover that, we will be able brother Arthur. After several to make of this old world a new failed attempts to persuade world. Love is the only way.”

Rome, Henry split and made himself the head of a new church.

Ms Markle’s heritage was acknowledged throughout the service with the Kingdom Since then, any Roman Catholic was Gospel Choir singing “Stand By Me” banned from becoming a Monarch, and a performance of cellist Sheku and members of the royal family who Kanneh-Mason — an award-winning marry a Catholic lose their place in the 19 year old — while the couple formally line of succession. signed the register.

This all changed three years ago however After the ceremony, the first people to when new rules on royal succession congratulate the couple included some came into force, removing male bias and of the 2,640 charity workers, community discrimination against Roman Catholics, champions and local schoolchildren who except for one - they still cannot become were invited to watch the wedding from a monarch. The change was made at inside the walls of Windsor Castle. the same time as allowing young women to take their rightful place in the line It was clear from the marriage service of succession and not be bumped out and its many breaks from tradition that by a younger brother, as happened the Duke and Duchess of Sussex plan previously. Under those former rules to insist faith has a large part to play in of male primogeniture, royal sons took their duties and — as the royal family precedence over their female siblings, have done slowly over the last decade — including first-born royal daughters. will look to refresh and re-energise our perception of the royals, in what is the So, for instance, Prince Michael of Kent, family’s boldest move yet. the Queen's first cousin, is now back in Charles Rae the line of succession at number 47.

He was removed when he married his

(Left) Official photo from Clarence House, Kensington Palace and The Royal Family by photographer Alexi Lubomirski

insights 37

A TRADITION OF CHRISTIAN CARE AND CONCERN

Richard & Deborah Spiteri, proprietors

FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED FUNERALS CONDUCTED THROUGHOUT SYDNEY

MEMBERS OF THE FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION OF NSW

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B E L I E F M AT T E R S

Energising

hope

mission

for

Mission Development Minister Rev. Maggie de Leeuw of Far North Coast Presbytery, sought support from Rev. Jan Reeve, who is the Consultation Coordinator of the Mission & Property Project Team in finding resources and support for Life and Witness Consultations in May 2017. Maggie shares her reflections on the way this work has energised and given hope to congregations in the Far North Coast of NSW.

t

t

In some cases, it has helped smaller congregations to explore he resources and support for Life and Witness combining together, to share their resources as one, rather consultations have been a God-given tool in the than struggling on as separate congregations. This is life of our Presbytery. We have completed just allowing for new expressions in ministry. over half of the congregation consultations to date. Each of the congregations have It has helped to clarify and bring into focus responded in a very positive way to the central call of the Gospel — the Great the consultations and embraced the Commandment and the Great Commission, AS MEMBERS OF ongoing journey that has resulted from and what that looks like.

HIS CHURCH WE participating in the consultations.

HAVE NOT ALWAYS Jesus clearly said that He will build His The data gathering has helped to create RECOGNISED church! However, as members of His church a picture of the spiritual life and witness OUR NEED FOR we have not always recognised how to live of the congregation. This included such INTENTIONALIT Y IN out the Great Commission. In response, things as its missional aspects, having a OUR REL ATIONSHIP our Presbytery has introduced a tool called clearer understanding of how the church WITH JESUS EvangelismSHIFT, which is helping to create councils are functioning, which included a clear understanding of being a ‘sent’ people. time management and financial acumen.

Together with the resources and support for Life and Witness Consultations, this tool is enabling the The anonymous member surveys have been Presbytery to go through a paradigm shift from ‘doing’ invaluable in the process. church, to becoming Kingdom builders.

The surveys have helped to inform the direction of the consultation discussions with the leaders, opening up areas for As a Presbytery, we can sense a palpable stirring of renewed life and witness of the Spirit taking place in our midst that is exploration that otherwise may not have taken place. creating a new energy and a real sense of hope for the future.

The resources enabled us to grasp the hopes and dreams for I would highly recommend the Life and Witness Consultations the future of the congregations. It has also helped to identify throughout our Synod, to gauge the pulse of the church and the obstacles that were preventing the congregations from recognise the Spirit’s life-giving steps towards becoming a actualising their hearts desire to move forward in their spiritual Kingdom-building people. life and witness.

Rev. Maggie De Leeuw This has led to opportunities for the Presbytery to engage in workshops with the leaders of the congregations on For information on these resources contact areas of leadership, mission and spiritual development. It Jan Reeve on janr@nswact.uca.org.au has created opportunities to lead special services of healing and reconciliation.

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L E C T I O NA RY R E F L E C T I O N S

June

living life in Christ heart will be in my throat and I will just want to pack up and go home, but these too will pass and provide us with more bricks in the divine castle of life.

What was the last brick you remember making?

JUNE 17

2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17: FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

JUNE 3

MARK 2:23-3:6: SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Is it lawful to do harm or good on the Sabbath? Our story begins with Jesus in the field plucking wheat, this was seen by the law as working which was not permitted. No form of work was permitted, it was a sacred day for God. This reading explains why we do not celebrate the Sabbath in the same way, but in doing so have we lost sight of what it was all about?

In a 24/7 culture where we never switch off, where it is normal to work long hours and hard, to make sure our kids are getting all they need, tutoring, music, swimming.

The idea of being, keeping relationships as a priority, and making space to relax and appreciate God or even just life is lost.

The leaders of the time had lost their way, the law was more important than the purpose. Jesus turns this around and transformed lives.

I wonder whether we have lost what is important about the Sabbath.

Have we filled our days in this new found freedom and

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become slaves in a new way?

Does our Sabbath do harm or good?

JUNE 10

2 CORINTHIANS 4:13-5:1: THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

I am about to go on a camping trip. Most of my friends will be surprised by this, as camping is not really my thing, I like flushing toilets and hot showers. Our reading this week talks about our life as a temporary tent and that it will be destroyed but we are making a house in the heavens. For me I hope it is a castle with all the modern conveniences!

The thing with tents is they are great in mild weather but when things get really rough, cold, wet or windy or even hot, they don’t serve so well. It is easy in these moments of to be discouraged, or even want to pack up and go home. But it also when you survive these moments you often have the best memories of time shared together.

It becomes one of our treasures, a building block for a divine castle. It is good to be reminded of this as I head out on the journey. It will not always be easy or smooth travelling.

There will be times when my

What do you think it means to no longer view someone from a human point of view?

In our understanding of Jesus, it is that we no longer know him as a human walking the earth and teaching, but as the Spirit and wisdom through the Bible. Those people who were even blessed to know him, after his death also had to change the way they related to him.

When we choose to be part of Christ we become a new creation. So what does this “new” look like? Is it about love? If grace, hope, justice are the new lenses we wear, how do they impact our daily lives? How do they impact on the way we see others?

The temptation we have as humans is to only see people from our own experience, how they have always been, but as followers of Jesus we are always striving to be more like Jesus. I would hope that I am better at it today than I was at it yesterday.

Do we offer others the same grace that Jesus does?

Do we encourage their strengths and build their weaknesses or would we prefer them just to go away?

www.

JUNE 24

MARK 4:35-41: FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Recently I have been involved in a project that has gone surprisingly well. You might think this is a good thing, and it is, but now, something I imagined to be the size of a football field is more likely a suburb, bordering on a country.

To be honest this is scary and I know how we got here. It was God who inspired us to move on this project, it is God putting all the right people in the right place, at the right time. But I’m still scared. What if I mess this up? What if I stop listening? What if, what if, what if…

At times there is so much going on I feel caught in a windstorm in the middle of the lake. God don’t you care what is going to happen?

God steps into my world, who, by the way, was there all along and says,” Where is your faith?” So I grab God’s hand and the friends I am on this journey together with, the wind dies down and we keep sailing, or rowing or however our boat is going to move.

Whether it is good times or bad times that cause the storm, know that God has been with you all along and look out for the hand that has been sent to hang onto.

Who is the hand of God for you?

Rev. Karen MitchellLambert, Church Engagement Leader– Parramatta Nepean Region.

For more of Karen’s Lectionary Doodles visit her website lectionarydoodles.wordpress.com

L E C T I O NA RY R E F L E C T I O N S

July

The pur pose driven life 1 JULY

MARK 5:21-43

Two stories about healing

In one story, the healing is sought privately, but Jesus makes it public. The woman with the haemorrhage does not want to draw attention to herself. She is the walking unclean. How dare she be in a crowd contaminating all those people like that? Yet, critical to her complete healing, physical, religious and social, is the public recognition that it has occurred.

The other story is about preachers being sent into unfamiliar turf. Sent with an elevated sense of vulnerability. Those being sent are physically dependant on the reception they get from the strangers to whom they are going. The very presence of these vulnerable envoys invites a response from the strangers that is concomitant with the kingdom. It will not be sufficient simply to say one believes. It will be the practical response to the presence of these preachers that will prove far more eloquent.

In the other story, healing is openly sought, but Jesus In your sharing of the gospel, acts privately. Jairus is a well what difference have you known and highly respected noticed when you have man. His falling at the feet gone forth in strength and of Jesus would have created when you have gone forth in quite a scene in front of the large crowd that had gathered. vulnerability?

But Jesus sends everyone 15 JULY away. After the healing Jesus MARK 6:14-29 ordered that no one should Two types of leadership know about it.

Jesus was careful not to make himself a centre of fascination. He was purposeful, moved by compassion and always acted strategically.

In what ways has the gospel made your own life purposeful, moved by compassion and strategic in what you do?

8 JULY

MARK 6:1-13

Two examples of preaching

One example is focused on Jesus on his home turf.

People are struck by the message but then distracted by the common identity of the preacher. They see no need to make a response. How are we to believe in a person who we have known as one of us?! His audience were remarkable… at not believing!

The one type of leadership is motivated by something greater than self-interest.

There is a sense of accountability to something more than whatever happens to suit a person most at the time. It flows out of a deep tradition of accountability that forms a community that honours all members equally and holds each to the same standard.

The other is motivated by the desire to scratch the itch of the moment. Those with power act with impunity.

They successfully quash any dissonant voice from within or without. They will do whatever is required to maintain their position of power.

Yet the first forever haunts the second. Both know the truth.

One upholds it and the other is constantly fleeing from it.

Where can you identify these two types of leadership in your own life and the leadership of those around you?

22 JULY MARK 6:30-34, 53-56

Two reasons to go with Jesus

The first reason is about sharing, learning, integration and being formed as a follower. Jesus calls his disciples away to a secluded place where they might avoid being interrupted by the ever growing and increasingly excited crowds.

The second reason is about getting something. Getting a look. Getting a healing.

Getting a meal. Some come to Jesus not for Jesus, but for something else they want that they believe Jesus can deliver to them.

There are all manner of reasons people seek Jesus out. The only reason people persevere with Jesus is for Jesus himself.

What drew you to Jesus.

What moves you to persevere with him?

29 JULY JOHN 6:1-21

Two responses to need

Before the days of convenience stores, Jesus and the disciples find themselves faced with a lot of hungry people in a remote location.

In a world of never ending need, it is easy to identify with Philip... "What can we do?"

That is precisely where many of us stop. We cannot solve the whole problem so we figure we have nothing to offer.

Andrew’s response is more helpful. "We have this... it’s not much, but hey!" We are not told the precise mechanics of this miracle. But just as fear and selfishness can be contagious, so also can generosity.

How well do you understand your own response to a world of need?

Rev. David Gore, Mustard Seed Ultimo Uniting Church and Uniting Chaplain at UTS

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L E C T I O NA RY R E F L E C T I O N S

August

5 AUGUST

Our response to Jesus

JOHN 6:24-35

Two kinds of hunger

Every person hungers for that which their body requires for sustenance. Our survival instinct alerts us to the need to satisfy this hunger. Obviously, it is not a once-off hunger. As our bodies use up the energy we have stored, we hunger for more.

But we use the term hunger to speak of more abstract human needs and desires as well. For example, we can hunger for companionship or for meaning in life.

inclined to be persuaded by the notion that Jesus is just one of us.

Many in Jesus’ community were rightly scandalized by his outrageous claims about his identity. The choice of naming himself with the metaphor of bread of life made it all the more challenging. Cannibalism was anathema in Jewish culture.

In keeping with the pluralism of our day, many Christians have gone to great lengths to synthesize Jesus’ claims with those of other religions.

How do you hear and understand Jesus’ absolute claims in the context of our current pluralism?

19 AUGUST JOHN 6:51-58

Two different approaches to life

The first is the evolved or default way of operating in the world. It is the way that is marked by the priority of survival. It is the automatic preference we all have to do what ever it takes to remain among the living for as long as possible.

Jesus identifies himself as the bread of life. Those who receive him discover a profound satisfaction. It is not the absence of desire.

Neither is it the fulfillment of any desire. It is the freedom to experience the fulfillment of every desire that follows in the manner of Jesus’ selfgiving love.

When we follow Jesus in the desire to give ourselves, nothing and no one can thwart the fulfillment of that desire. We are always free to serve in the most appropriate manner according to our capacities.

To the extent that this is what we desire. we can be eternally fulfilled!

How do you know when your desire is following in the manner of Jesus’ selfgiving love?

12 AUGUST

JOHN 6:35, 41-51

Two ways to see Jesus

There is one sense in which not living contemporaneously with Jesus’ earthly life is advantageous. We are less

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The way of Jesus is the way of those things that are eternal. love, grace, compassion, forgiveness, justice and mercy. It is not the way of selfish gains and short-term ends. It is the way of the things that stand forever.

When you hear Jesus’ invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood, what do you hear Jesus inviting you to do?

26 AUGUST JOHN 6:56-69

Two responses to Jesus

Many are willing to see Jesus as a good man with some helpful moral and ethical teachings who performed remarkable healings in his day. But the challenge of Jesus is that he subverts many of the things we assume as true.

Many are happy to go with Jesus while he seems to be delivering the things we already desire. But when it comes to challenging how and what we desire, it can be a bridge too far.

Yet, if we are to believe the gospel accounts, Jesus (who himself lived in a pluralist context) made the synthesizing project all but impossible.

A more fruitful task would be to clarify the nature of Jesus’ uniqueness. Not the uniqueness of his title or identity. But the uniqueness of what Jesus offers and what it matters. What has Jesus’ intervention in the story of human progress and development offered that no one else has?

But the survival approach is inevitably short lived. It is a mugs game that everyone ultimately fails at. We have no life in ourselves. The data is in. We simply do not survive perpetually.

Jesus offers his way as an alternative. It is an alternative as shocking as the ‘eat my flesh’ metaphor Jesus used was to his original audience. Eat my flesh means abide in me.

Live my way. Not the way of temporal survival but the way of eternal self-giving.

Here, Jesus asserts his divine lineage without softening any of its scandalous impact. Jesus is not simply a good man. He represents something altogether other, something utterly counterinstinctual. If you accept Jesus, you are opting to be counted among the NOTnormal. You are choosing to believe in someone and something well beyond normal.

In what ways has following Jesus made you NOT-normal?

Rev. David Gore, Mustard Seed Ultimo Uniting Church and Uniting Chaplain at UTS

makes you

wonder

N E W S F RO M U N I T I N G C H U R C H A D U LT F E L LOW S H I P ( U CA F )

Fellowship news

VALE RHODA GATES

Adult Fellowship was saddened by news of the death of Rhoda Gates on 16 March 2018. Rhoda served on the UCAF NSW/ACT Synod Committee from its inception in 1977/78.

She went on to serve as Chairperson and later National Chairperson. An outstanding leader, she and her husband Neal visited other states and fellowships in NSW, attended seminars of South Pacific region of Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women and represented the Uniting Church at ACW. She loved getting people together, organising bus trips, rallies, and President’s Table gatherings.

BRAIDWOOD GET TOGETHER

At Braidwood in the Canberra region, 40 gathered to hear Rev. Noreen Towers as special guest speaker. Rev. Alistair Christie reminded those attending that the first UCAF rally held in 1977 was held at Braidwood with Mrs Lillian Wells, the first NSW Moderator as guest speaker.

"MY FOUR WHEELS ARE MY CHURCH"

Resources on faith sharing A lot of gentle exercises that really will help you to find your own voice with your own faith for your own world.

• In your own world: because that is where the church meets the world, all those relationships and connections that you make every day.

• With your own faith: because your journey is unique and so is the person you are talking to, and it doesn’t work trying to tell anyone what to think or what to say.

• Your own voice: because when the words come from your heart and experience, people are powerfully touched. Yes, God has a part for you to play that no one else can.

Macquarie Darling Presbytery held their Rally at Nyngan and Rev. Noreen Towers travelled to bring greetings and support from the UCAF Synod Committee. Rev Phil Matthews, Rural Chaplain for Riverina, Macquarie Darling and New England North Presbyteries was guest speaker.

He spoke of his work with rural communities. When visited by the Moderator he was asked where his home church was, and he replied, “My four wheels, (his four-wheel drive) are my church, I do everything from there”.

SHARING STORIES, SOWING SEEDS

In the Hunter, 60 attended Tarro Uniting Church with two guest speakers. Rev. Christine Shepherd led in the morning sharing on her roles of ministry in mental health, interfaith relations and ecumenism. In the afternoon Paul Procter, Operations Manager of Newcastle Wesley mission spoke of the centre's outreach to homeless people in the city area.

Rev. Noreen Towers bought greetings as UCAF NSW/ACT Chairperson and encouraged all to start writing their stories for “Sharing Stories, Sowing Seeds”.

Sydney Central Coast Presbytery met in April at Woy Woy for their annual picnic. Seven church centres were represented and enjoyed a windy wet day. The UCAF NSW/ACT Synod Committee again hosted the Moderator’s Retired Ministry Persons lunch at Turramurra. About 70 enjoyed a wonderful opportunity to share and reminisce.

RALLIES

Parramatta-Nepean: Saturday 28th July at Northmead.

Macquarie Darling: Friday 14th September at Mudgee

What is ‘Makes You Wonder’ ? makesyouwonder.org

Hunter Presbytery: Thursday 30th August at Morisset Mid North Coast South: TBA at Chatham.

If you would like to share your fellowship news or have any questions, please contact: Judy Hicks on judyh_rnh@hotmail.com

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C U LT U R E WAT C H

Hollywood’s higher power

Proving that seeking success doesn’t have to mean relinquishing what you believe, Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman is relieved to have carved a path that has afforded him no small amount of both creative and spiritual satisfaction, as Insights discovers.

E

very actor dreams of the role that will turn them into a star who gleans the respect and admiration of his peers, but actor Chadwick Boseman took things one step further, revealing he actually prayed for the part of King T’Challa/Black Panther in Marvel’s latest smash hit film. “It was strange because the movie had been on my mind for a long time, and people had said to me that they thought I would be great for the role. But even so, you don’t actually expect the call…” says the handsome 40-year-old. “That shows that when you pray for something, it can actually happen. And that is powerful!”

heroes who don’t conform to the usual stereotypes, and see black people do extraordinary things.”

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Despite his humility, Boseman is certainly an extraordinary man who has come from humble beginnings to take control of his career with passion, courage and honourable intentions.

Hailing from Anderson, South Carolina, Boseman was raised by his mother, Carolyn, a nurse, and his deeply religious father, Leroy, who worked in a cotton factory. Initially he had little intention of becoming an actor, showing an early flair for drawing and design, and eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in theatre at Howard University, Washington DC.

Even the modest actor couldn’t predict what an enormous success Black Panther would He moved on to the become. And with THE EMERGENCE OF Digital Film Academy in international boxTA L E N T E D A C T O R S New York, but a twist of ALL OF WHOM ARE office earnings of $1 fate – and subsequent A B L E T O S P E A K billion and counting, change in career O P E N LY A B O U T T H E I R Boseman has not direction – came while FA I T H I S N O T H I N G only attained A-list the prodigious youngster B U T D E E P LY status, but alongside REFRESHING was at high school. “I it his own personal film started writing after one franchise, with recurring of my friends who played on roles in the Avengers my basketball team was shot films. It’s a stunning triumph for and killed. So my response to that was Boseman, a rare talent who previously to write a play about my community,” played legendary real-life black figures he says thoughtfully. “That started me such as James Brown in Get On Up, on the path to becoming a writer and Jackie Robinson in 42, and US Supreme director… to want to express myself what Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the I saw around me rather than be told eponymous biographical legal drama. what to think and feel. And it was only He’s also aware that Black Panther is later that I went into acting because I not only a role model and source of pride realised that if you want to be a director for those of faith, but also represents a you need to understand the work and watershed moment in Hollywood history the process of the actors you’re trying by proving that a film driven by a black to direct.” superhero and largely African-American cast can attract mass audiences across Boseman’s evident worldliness and the globe. desire for conscientious change is echoed by his childhood pastor, Samuel “It’s an inspiration to be able to play Neely, who recalls fondly his memories someone on the screen in whom you of a boy who was focused and driven, can recognise yourself - even in a but also an inspirational force. “He did superhero movie,” Boseman says. “It’s a lot of positive things within the church also important and enlightening for and within the community… from singing non-black viewers who can identify with in the choir, to working with the youth

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group, he always was doing something, always helping out, always serving. That was his personality,” Neely told Fox Carolina, adding: “I’ve just seen him mature, and blossom into a man. And he’s doing an excellent job.”

On the set of Black Panther, Boseman found another church, of sorts; a group of actors whom for many, God played an important role in nurturing, guiding and supporting them throughout their careers. Sope Aluko, who plays Shaman in the film, is an outspoken Christian, who often posts uplifting quotes on her social media, while Letitia Wright, who stars as T’Challa’s nerdy younger sister, Shuri, even took a break from her career to allow time and space to acquaint herself properly with higher powers. The British actress believes acting to be the ministry within which she spreads His word and was often found praying on set.

“There was a lovely sense of faith, understanding and energy when shooting this film,” says Boseman. “It was an extraordinary feeling to have so many people sharing common values and beliefs, and I’m not sure if we’ll ever get that again in this sort of setting.

“It’s a time I’ll always cherish, and I think our collective energy really turned this into something completely special.”

TALKING OPENLY ABOUT FAITH

At a time when Hollywood continues to struggle with a deep seam of moral bankruptcy, the emergence of such talented actors, all of whom are able to speak openly and candidly about their faith, is nothing but deeply refreshing.

Role models are vital when it comes to galvanising the disenfranchised youth to aim higher for themselves, and while Boseman is not entirely comfortable yet with his own status as a cultural hero, he has much to say about those who inspired him when he was growing up.

That said, Marvel fans may be surprised to learn that Black Panther wasn’t his favourite childhood character.

“I was more of a Batman and Spider-Man fan,” he says with a laugh. “I used to play in the trees behind my grandma’s house and pretend to be Spider-Man. But my real hero growing up was Muhammad Ali. He still is. I worship Ali and I like wearing T-shirts with his face on them.”

Among Boseman’s other heroes are his parents, iconic global leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, plus fellow actors Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington. Having played several important figures in black history, Boseman is clearly drawn to characters who possess real mettle and unrelenting courage. And King T’Challa’s fictional status has not prevented the philosophical star from musing over the important lessons gleaned from playing such a noble leader.

“It makes you think about your sense of responsibility; what you contribute to the world. In his case, he’s faced with so many difficult decisions. There’s the key line in the film, ‘It’s hard for a good man to be king.’ It’s complicated to decide whether it’s right to do bad things for the sake of preserving justice and peace, or whether anyone has the right to decide who lives or dies,” says Boseman.

He adds: “Playing him, sometimes I felt like the Godfather, but that’s an altogether different project!”.

Karen Anne Overton Black Panther is out on DVD/Blu-Ray and Digital now.

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REVIEWS

Entertain me REA D THIS

BIG SCREEN

TABOO

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (M)

At the beginning and in an afterword to Kim Scott’s new novel, Taboo, he writes about the difficulty of conveying indigenous culture in the English novel. Taboo is about the struggle of Aboriginal people to crawl through the wreckage left by the clash of cultures. Telling the story of ‘magic in an empirical age’ can only be done in faltering steps.

Much like its main character, Solo is something of an enigma.

This difficulty is mirrored in the adventures of the Aboriginal characters in the novel where a group of Western Australian Noongar people visit the site of a nineteenth century massacre.

This land happens to be of a kind-hearted white farmer who wants to honour his deceased wife’s wishes, and his Christian beliefs, by seeking peace with the present traditional owners for the sins of the past.

Things don’t exactly go to plan.

At times it is grim reading, with abuse, swearing, drugs and alcohol. But there is also love, generosity, determination and a depth of connection with the land.

Solo brings up interesting points about human trafficking, ethical decision making and belonging

The novel’s strength lies in Scott’s ability to sensitively portray Aboriginal people negotiating the complexities of how culture survives. In their muddling through and their not quite meeting expectations, there is no idealisation. Instead, Scott paints a realistic picture of the dual pressure to both fit into white culture and be ambassadors of indigenous culture, while being cut off from the land that sustains that culture.

There are parallels to a church. In the book, there are traditionalists who bemoan the lack of zeal in their fellows and who tally genuine loss, and there are those who see culture as fluid and adapt, though sometimes too much. There are flawed individuals who come within the embrace of community, who are trying to keep the threads of tradition while wrestling with the challenges of modernity.

Nick Mattiske

With a May release (that was somehow not the 4th) and a long lull before the trailer was released, it seemed as though Disney had a flop on their hands and were trying to mitigate the embarrassment.

This, however, is not the case.

Perhaps it was the controversy surrounding the firing of the film’s previous directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, because Solo exceeds early expectations. Beyond sheer novelty, it contributes to the broader Star Wars story and sets up new characters and storyline directions.

Solo follows a young Han Solo, who abandons his post in the imperial army for a life of crime. With a big job offering him all the money he could need, we see him transform into the iconic character that fans love. In an atmosphere of corruption and the selling of human beings for profit, Solo brings up interesting discussion points about human trafficking, ethical decision making, and belonging.

Longtime Star Wars fans will undoubtedly get the most out of Solo, with numerous references, call backs, and Easter eggs from other films.

The way the film shows the Millennium Falcon in a pristine, new state is an impressive piece of set building.

While unexpectedly strong, Solo is far from perfect. At points, it neglects the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule of storytelling, with dialogue dominating scenes where visual cues would suffice to explain what is happening.

With James Mangold tipped to direct a Boba Fett film, an Obiwan Kenobi film reportedly on the way, and the potential there for a Lando spin-off, Star Wars’ anthology series continues to show the galaxy has more stories.

Jonathan Foye

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Which seeds will you help grow?

Seeds of Growth is a new program which invites every congregation to help support mission opportunities that breathe new life into our communities and bring God’s love to the world.

Seeds of Growth stewardship program begins

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Contact your Presbytery Representative or Synod Financial Services on fmsg@nswact.uca.org.au for more information.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE ON NSWACT.UCA.ORG.AU

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