Ruminations - Spring Summer - 2021

- Renewing Rev. Mark Faulkner | Director of Rural and Remote Ministry Initiatives.

Welcome friends to this edition of Ruminations with our theme of Renewing.

The Saltbush team are thankful for the willingness of our writers to bring their thoughts and perspectives on this theme – Jason John, Mel Graham, Mick Pope and Sharon Hollis.

Each of our contributors have, completely independently of each other, reminded us that renewing is a particular occurrence that takes place outside of the ordinary.

It is in Sabbath, grief, loss, seeking, honesty, separation and discernment that the seeds of renewing can be planted. Renewing, as our authors tell us, comes with an element of surprise and is a gift to us, even a divine blessing and does not come without work, struggle, effort and yet is a human responsibility.

In that way then renewing is fragile, perhaps easier to avoid and within the seemingly contradictory acts of both practice and absence.

Each edition of Ruminations has a single word theme which we choose as a means of connecting our readers with issues relevant to both life and faith. We deliberately choose our themes to be difficult and challenging while holding onto our sense of hope. Our themes for 2022 are – Family – Death – Land.

The difficulty and challenge around our theme of Renewing is found in the tension between our longing for renewing and yet our struggle to both make it happen (practice) and allow (absence) it to happen.

We all seek a renewing in one form or another (family – church – relationships – environment – wellbeing – security – happiness – hope – justice…..) and yet we easily