New Times - May 2011

May 2011

Women

Issue 30, No 4 May 2011

finding faith beyond that fateful fruit

Rural health concerns Less support, increased need, p. 6

Bibles, Boase and Balabanski Two scholars, two Testaments, p.10

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New Times is the voice of Uniting Church SA. Published monthly, February through December, New Times represents the breadth, diversity and vision of Uniting Church members in SA. News policies, guides and deadlines appear online at sa.uca.org.au/new-times-home. Articles and advertising do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor.

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missing generation

Ever wondered where Gen Y went? You’re not alone. For most churches, attempting to retain young adults beyond the age of 21 is proving too difficult. We’ll be covering issues that your church needs to be thinking through seriously and honestly - now.

... of faith “Only girls phone home,” states the ads for new alien-comedy movie, Paul. Paul, unlike his famous predecessor, ET, is not to be considered a ‘girl’. NOTE: you need to read ‘girl’ here as weak, needy and unable to stick it when times get tough.

Yes, it’s just a movie. BUT it’s a movie which has been launched this year. And though it’s a joke, truth is often revealed in humour.

Now, I don’t get my identity from a movie poster. Nor from media, though it does love to give my self-esteem and identity a daily, vigorous shake.

But as a girl, it’s not very inspiring. Paul the alien says: all I can ever be, even on my best day, is weak, needy and flighty. The media comments that I can be more – I can be supremely powerful, but it must be in a ball-breaking, man-hating way or in a manipulatively sexual way.

So I turn to the Scriptures. The bible isn’t altogether encouraging in its female characters and metaphors though. Eve – the first to sin. Delilah – caused a mighty man’s downfall. Jerusalem/Zion - metaphors in the feminine, and largely turning away from God. Corinthian women - silenced by Paul (or so one way of teaching leads us).

We need to recover the Scriptures for women and reclaim our faith as women, w omen who love one another, accept one another, believe in one another.

In this New Times we’re discussing faith with women and pushing some boundaries as women – and we’re doing so for the sake of female faith.

When men have failed to leave equal room for us, we need to put our case forward.

We are told that we are weak, lesser – just sexual objects (yes even in churches, often in subtext and humour).

Women! We can do better.

We’re more than we think we are – and we’re terrified of that. But someday, I’m looking forward to realising my equal ranking under God - and living up to it.

More spice than sugar,

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ed

The Ed.

Happy anniversary New Times!

Yes, it’s the first anniversary of New Times in its news-zine format. How wonderful to celebrate with the traditional anniversary gift of... paper. This one’s for you, New Times readers, for the special times we’ve shared over the past year.

It’s not always easy to find references to women in the Bible. In the great ‘giants of faith’ honour roll in Hebrews 11 we only find two women mentioned, in a list of approximately 16 names from the Hebrew Bible.

But read the New Testament and the picture starts to change. We encounter Mary, who sacrificed her youth and reputation to put herself completely at God’s disposal. Then followed others such as Dorcas, Priscilla and other women of the early church.

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And a tradition of strong women of faith has continued onwards, one that has remained constant into our time.

I’m not just thinking about iconic women like Mother Teresa; instead I’m thinking of ordinary Christian women who have given themselves completely to Jesus. These women have made a difference in their families, their church and their communities. Many of us hold the faith we have because of mothers who have prayed, taught, and modelled the Christian life before us.

Then there was a young female school friend who had the courage to tell me she couldn’t reconcile my weekday and Sunday behaviours; a female elder whose unconditional love helped me grow in my attitude and practice of pastoral care; another, though crippled with arthritis, who had such a passion for social justice it just ‘rubbed off’ on everyone around her – myself included.

My spiritual journey has been influenced by several women whose faith has made an enduring impression on my life.

So it’s not just the women whose names are readily recognisable in the public arena that we ought to honour as ‘women of faith’. It’s also women such as those who have had a profound influence in my life – and yours.

The first was my mother, from whom faith was caught and taught. There was my three adult sisters sharing their gifts in my local congregation. As they expressed their faith, it drew out my leadership, teaching and musical beginnings.

I encourage you to celebrate the women of faith in your life and in your church. It may be too late to say ‘thank you’ to that special female teacher whose patience you tested each week in Sunday School.

But it may not be too late to express your thanks to current female members of your congregation whose living faith inspires and encourages all they meet. Do it now!

Rev Rob Williams

Moderator Rev Rob Williams takes to the giant slide at KCO this year with Ella, Meg and Jade from The Vines Uniting Church.

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Removing death threats one of them was injured by the explosion of yet another bomb.

The incidents took place on farmer Haji Barzan’s land, half of which is covered by these deadly weapons.

“The firefighters asked us to stay away from the fire,” said Haji. “But watching that hero fighting the fire and getting injured because of the cluster bomb was like hell for us.”

The presence of cluster bombs means a lack of access to safe land, limiting agricultural development, the reconstruction of vital infrastructure, and the work of relief and development agencies.

With support from Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, mine action teams

have cleared more than 52,700 square metres of contaminated land in Bawa Mahmod, safely removing and destroying deadly cluster bombs.

The teams have also delivered mine risk education to villagers to prevent them suffering the same fate as Abdul-Ghafar and his friends.

These action groups are helping villages recover their freedom and earn a living from the land again.

Haji, and the two displaced families living on his land, are now able to plough the farmland and plan for future crops.

“The money that the land will generate will improve my life and the lives of the two families working in my land and all that is because of this life-saving work.”

Australia is currently considering legislation to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. Act for Peace is concerned that the Australian legislation contains loopholes allowing for use of cluster bombs under certain circumstances.

You can join with Act for Peace by signing the online petition telling the Attorney General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP, that we don’t want Australia to assist in the use of cluster bombs under any circumstances.

To find out more and sign the petition, visit: actforpeace. org.au/clusterbombs

Whatever happened to Goodwill?

We urgently need your pre-loved shoes, clothing & homewares.

For collections phone 8202 5070

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Cluster bombs, or cluster munitions, are weapons which can be dropped from the air or fired from the ground releasing hundreds of smaller bomblets, or submunitions.

They aren’t just an immediate threat though.

Bomblets which fail to explode on impact pose the threat of death or injury long after their deployment.

Recently, an 11 year old boy, Abdul-Ghafar, was killed and two of his friends lost their legs. The explosion took place five years after their village of Bawa Mahmod, northeast of Baghdad in Iraq, was bombarded by cluster bombs.

This explosion started a large fire which subsequently detonated several other cluster bombs. When firefighters began tackling it,

Cost concern for rural health

news

Sarah Urmston

Concerns are growing over the rising cost of health care for those in rural areas.

During March a partnership of community service, health and rural organisations combined to run a statewide ‘phone in’ to hear from country people who struggle to afford basic health care.

Sixty calls were received.

Bev Argent, Low Income Support coordinator at UnitingCare Wesley Port Pirie, says the financial barriers for country people’s access to healthcare are rising, leading them to turn to UnitingCare for assistance.

“We have micro-finance loans that assist people to go to medical appointments, dental appointments, and so on,” she says.

“What we are seeing is people severely impacted by having to travel to Adelaide on a regular basis and not being able to budget for it.”

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The Government offers funding in the form of the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme (PATS) paying 16 cents per km and there are transport services available.

However, these services fall short, stopping at Franklin St, Adelaide, leaving those attending Lyell McEwin Hospital or Flinders Hospital with extra, often expensive, transport needs.

“It would be wonderful if people in the city could volunteer to provide transport for these people,” says Bev. Transport is just one of a range of issues facing rural health.

Greg Were, Service Development Project Officer for UnitingCare Port Pirie says, “It’s a combination of a range of issues, including long waiting lists, lack of bulk billing for patients, low level of reimbursement for accommodation and the

closure of regional hospitals.

“The low accommodation reimbursement doesn’t include the first night of accommodation, which makes it expensive for people who only need to stay in Adelaide for one night,” he explains.

Those in the country on low incomes, can find it hard to pay their medical bills.

“Quite often clients can be required to pay upfront before they can see their GP,” says Bev. “We have heard stories of people whose doctor refused to forward on medical records where a debt is outstanding,” Greg adds.

“Another lady drove 100km to the nearest hospital with a bad headache only to find it closed for the day, requiring her to find accommodation for the night.

“On a stand-alone basis, schemes to assist people’s access healthcare look

good,” says Greg, “but put them together, especially for pensioners and families, and the way they intersect falls far short of what is needed, putting people at risk of not getting the care they need, or delaying treatment for low-level problems.

“Healthcare is actually a deep, hidden cost of living in the country, especially for the elderly or families with sick children.”

Concerns about access to health care in the South Eastern region of SA is also growing in light of the threatened closure of Keith Hospital.

Ron Hier, Lay Ministry Team Leader at Keith Uniting Church, saw the despair caused by the threatened closure of the hospital and called his church to arms, holding a 24 hour prayer vigil from 6.30pm on Wednesday 23 March.

Altogether 43 people from five churches, ranging from Catholic to Church of Christ, took on 70 thirty minute prayer slots, to pray for the hospital, its Board, the Government and the community.

“We could sense that people in the town were starting to feel as if they were banging their head against a brick wall with the Government,” explains Ron. “We were praying at the same time as the Federal Government was passing a motion to provide funding for the Hospital. We believe that God was, and still is, in control.”

Health consumer groups, as well as UnitingCare Wesley Port Pirie will continue to lobby the Government, using case studies from the phone in.

National Churches Gambling Taskforce established Mark Henley pre-commitment scheme, from the Church’s perspective, is that the scheme must be mandatory, that all machines in Australia have the capacity for pre-commitment and all gamblers are required to use a device with pre-commitment capacity.

A trial of a gambling pre-commitment system in South Australia conducted in 2010 found that only about 1% of gamblers who could have activated a pre-commitment function, actually did use it. Unfortunately, it seems that gamblers regard a pre-commitment as something that is only for people with a gambling problem.

Community and church groups, however, recognise that by focusing on pre-commitment as an approach to provide greater consumer protection, the approach can help any poker machine player from sliding towards more problematic gambling.

It is suggested that the gambling industry is in the process of implementing a $20 million campaign against gambling pre-commitment. It is imperative that local communities and churches are heard in this debate. An easy way to do this is to join in with a postcard campaign (the second in one year) organised

by South Australian and Victorian church gambling taskforces.

The cards, addressed to the Prime Minister, are free but require a stamp and the address of the sender.

Churches are encouraged to join, or rejoin, this campaign.

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On 22 March this year, the Australian Churches’ Gambling Taskforce was established in Canberra, modelled on the success of interdenominational gambling taskforces in Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria. UnitingCare Australia has played a lead role in establishing this national group which will be chaired by Rev Tim Costello.

The National Taskforce has also been established to provide a clear national voice, as part of the current debate regarding the establishment of gambling pre-commitment programs.

The argument for gambling pre-commitment is clear: the Productivity Commission report from last year identified that 30% of regular poker machine gamblers either have an existing gambling problem or are at high risk of problematic gambling behaviour.

With the exception of tobacco, it’s difficult to think of another product where it would be acceptable for 30% of regular customers to experience harm. Poker machines are an unsafe product that needs to be much safer.

Gambling pre-commitment is simply another term for budgeting to gamble. Churches generally favour an approach whereby every poker machine in Australia has the capacity to be operated through a pre-commitment system, and every gambler is required to use a device with data memory capacity (eg card with magnetic strip) to activate a poker machine.

This device would include limits on gambling that were pre-set by the gambler and could not be increased with less than 24 hours notice. It is preferred that once the preset limit is reached, no further play is possible on any poker machine in the gambler’s state and territory.

The gambling industry, led by Clubs Australia, is arguing that pre-commitment must be voluntary. A crucial element of any

Mark Henley is an Uniting Church nominee to the SA Churches Gambling Taskforce.

To obtain postcards, or for further information, please contact Mark Henley: e. mark.henley@ucwesleyadelaide.org.au (preferred method of contact)

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Guess who’s coming to dinner People are being encouraged to hold Welcome parties in Refugee Week, June 19–26 2011, as part of Welcome to Australia, a collaborative initiative of churches, NGOs, community groups and individuals.

“Welcome to Australia is an initiative for people and groups who want to change the culture of ‘unwelcome’ to new arrivals that seems to be simmering,” says Sarah Williamson, Solidarity & Justice Officer, Uniting Church SA. “Our aim is to publicly declare that every person deserves a warm, dignified welcome - no matter where they have come from, how they arrived or the circumstances that caused them to try and make a home on our shores.

“We want to provide a way for all

Australians, whether they have called Australia home for months or generations, to be a part of cultivating a welcoming, receptive culture that celebrates diversity.”

To achieve this purpose, and also to educate the wider public about asylum seeking and refugees, Welcome to Australia parties will be held during Refugee Week. The idea is simple. Throw a party.

Invite guests. Listen to someone’s story of seeking asylum. Get talking about the issues, and the people behind the issues. The parties can be on any scale - in homes, businesses, sporting clubs, churches, streets and offices – anywhere.

Anytime. With anyone.

“I think you can tell a lot about a country’s heart by the way they treat people who have fallen through the

cracks,” said musician David Bridie, ambassador for Welcome to Australia.

For more information, go to: w. welcometoaustralia.org.au facebook. Welcome to Australia or contact Sarah Williamson: e. swilliamson@sa.uca.org.au p. (08) 8236 4257 Organiser’s note: We acknowledge and respect the traditional custodians whose ancestral lands we are now part of. We acknowledge that a welcome to Australia comes, by its nature, either from the Indigenous peoples of Australia or on behalf of them. We acknowledge and remember the horrific atrocities inflicted upon them.

This is and will forever be their land.

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Mission with the incarnated Christ On 13-15 May, Grow & Go 2011 will be exploring what it means to be truly present ins God’s mission – in local places and cultural settings.

Over the past four years, Grow & Go has been established as significant time of encouragement and learning for Uniting Church members, from urban to rural settings.

“It was an excellent opportunity for us to attend as a leadership team. The variety of learning streams was invaluable. Our team frequently refer back to Grow & Go 2010,” commented Rev Ian Dow, Naracoorte Uniting Church.

The event’s learning streams are multi-tracked to better facilitate team dynamics and a diverse range of ministry and mission modes, including Bible teaching, children’s ministry, Christian beliefs, preaching, pastoral care, discipleship, faith sharing, being a pilgrim people, creative arts and more.

This year, the keynote speaker on the Friday evening will be Rev Dr Steve Taylor, Director of Missiology at Uniting College for Leadership & Theology. Steve will offer a multi-sensory experience: Together we will trace the feelings of Jesus in the gospels.

Grow & Go is an initiative of Uniting College for Leadership & Theology intended for ministry teams and leaders, lay and ordained, to be refreshed in their missional vision, and plan effectively for the year ahead.

Nature at your service Established in 1972, World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June. Over the past 39 years, it has become one of the main vehicles the United Nations uses to stimulate worldwide awareness of the environment and encourage political attention and action.

Each year WED highlights a particular environmental issue.

As 2011 is the International Year of Forests, WED will focus on the importance of the world’s forests in the created order, and their connectedness with human survival. Themed as ‘Nature at your service’, WED will highlight some important relationships, discussing at length the role that forests play in the bigger picture of how we relate to creation as a whole.

UnitingJustice Australia has produced a collection of worship and education resources for Church members. The free resources include tools for educational use, theological reflections, liturgical resources, sermon starters and activities for children and families.

With WED falling on a Sunday this year, these resources offer an excellent opportunity for congregations to engage with significant environmental discussion.

These resources are being distributed electronically. They can be downloaded or requested as PDFs from UnitingJustice: w. unitingjustice.org.au e. unitingjustice@nat.uca.org.au p. (02) 8267 4236

Women of faith With pressure to be capital S Superwomen, women are pulled in a million different directions, taunted by media, boxed by cultural expectations and undermined by their own peers – and their own second guessing. There is, however, the constant call for women to change the future of female culture. So, how are women of faith trying to change a culture?

Women: agents of change Her Majesty The Queen, Head of the Commonwealth On the 8th of March, we marked the hundredth anniversary of the first International Women’s Day. The idea of having women’s day was first proposed against the backdrop of the rapid industrialisation of the early twentieth century. From small beginnings, this idea has grown to become a widely recognised way of celebrating women around the world. While some people use this day to acknowledge the love, admiration and respect for women, others use it to remember the great social and political strides made both by and for women in the last hundred years. There is no right or wrong approach.

recognising that women are ‘agents of change’ in so many ways: as mothers and sisters, teachers and doctors, artists and craftspeople, smallholders and entrepreneurs, and as leaders of our societies, unleashing the potential of those around them.

In the Commonwealth, every year, 26 million girls are born; and this equates to one new baby girl arriving almost every second of every day. In the time it takes to hold the Commonwealth Observance Service at Westminster Abbey, nearly 4000 girls will have been born in Commonwealth lands. And every one of these births marks the start of a new life, a journey which begins with the hopes of parents, families and communities, and which is continued through the aspirations of those girls themselves.

In all this work the commendable goal is to create a greater opportunity for women as children and adults to pursue their hopes and dreams, to attain their goals, and to make best use of their talents and knowledge.

This year, the Commonwealth celebrates the important role that women already play in every walk of life and in every Commonwealth country – from the richest to the poorest areas, across continents and oceans, from villages to places of international debate, in every culture and faith –

And also this year the Commonwealth reflects on what more could be achieved if we were able to play an even larger role. For example, I am encouraged that last year the Commonwealth launched a global effort to train and support half a million more midwives worldwide.

This year, and on Commonwealth Day especially, as governments continue to search for new ways to tackle these important challenges, let us all give a thought to the practical ways in which we, as individuals or as groups, can provide support to girls and women – so that everyone can have a chance of a fuller and more rewarding life, wherever they happen to be born.

This was released on 14 March as Her Majesty The Queen’s Commonwealth Day Message for 2011.

In the Commonwealth, every year, 26 million girls are born; and this equates to one new baby girl arriving almost every second of every day.

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Big Questions and the Bible

Women of faith

Caryn Rogers

Dr Elizabeth Boase and Dr Vicky Balabanski hold almost 30 published works between them, have two Bachelor degrees apiece and PhDs in their respective Testamental theologies; Liz in Old Testament (OT), and Vicky in New Testament (NT).

Though the Co-Directors of Biblical Studies at Uniting College for Leadership & Theology have both proven to be extremely successful in their field of choice, the path hasn’t always been straight forward.

“My parents died when I was at primary school,” Vicky says. “For me that was the beginning of taking very seriously the faith they had instilled in me. It confronted me with big questions.

“I was really into the bible, unlike everyone at my school and in my whole universe. At Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne, I was the only student in biblical studies in Year 12. It meant I had night time classes, and put me a bit out of kilter with the rest of my peers.

“People said to me, ‘You can’t go study theology straight after school - you need experience. I allowed myself to be talked into it, and went on to Ormond College to do an Arts degree, graduating with honours. I met and married my husband and we travelled.

“But after that - I went into theology.”

Liz’s guidance counsellor wasn’t really sure what to say when the ‘preacher’s kid’ joked about studying theology in her final years of secondary school. She went on to discuss her plans to become a speech pathologist - he agreed that was a good choice.

After working for five years as a speech pathologist, Liz was challenged by her parish minister about the thought of ordination.

“After I picked myself up off the floor, I told my husband. He said he could picture it,” Liz recalls.

“So I enrolled in a couple of units at Murdoch University (WA) to see what I thought about studying there. A lot of things started making sense, and

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stopped making sense, during that time.”

“What became clear over a few years of study was that ordination wasn’t right for me, but biblical studies was.

“My OT teachers really encouraged me to do my own thinking, creating a place where I could use my brain in a way I’d never been encouraged to before.

“I wanted people to catch a picture of how wonderful the Old Testament is.

It wasn’t where I’d expected to go when I started studying, but it made sense in terms of the directions I’d always been heading in.

“There’s something about OT theology that resonates with my sense of God. The sense of a Creator God who encounters us in our full humanity is what I find in the OT; it resonates in a way with who I am. I struggle with a whole lot of OT elements too, but there’s something profound in the divine human encounter that helps me to understand.”

“If I was transported back to my life as a 14 year old, I definitely looked like I’d pursue Old Testament - everyone at school thought I was Jewish with how much I enjoyed talks from the Rabbi!”

Vicky laughs. “I tried to learn Hebrew at the synagogue after school but later on, unlike Liz, my OT teachers were very frustrating – ‘what does it mean’ was seen as an irrelevant question.”

For Vicky, her encouragement came more from her NT teachers, and she pursued NT studies which she puts down to, “the providence of God,” and finding, “enough fascinating stuff to go for that.”

“I can’t think in the abstract way of systematic theology,” she states, as Liz nods in collegial understanding. “I love literature, language, ideas and specific narrative. I’m passionate about those things –that’s why I pursued biblical studies. When I’d finished my honours degree in Divinity, I felt I just hadn’t gotten to the bottom of the Synoptic gospels, so took my studies further in that.”

Liz was also caught up in the literature and the language, initially captivated by the book of Job. “I can still remember

writing a paper on Job 42, having a six month old child, and never wanting the essay to finish because I was so caught up in thinking about the big questions of who God is in all that!

“I still now have that sense of excitement when I think of making the assignment, so much made sense in asking those sorts of questions. It was fun in the end,” Liz finishes with a coy smile, aware of how odd this will sound to many.

She is in good company with Vicky, though, who agrees, before commenting that, “Other women have said they view assignments as hell.”

They grin at each other in a world of mutual academic appreciation that few understand.

When asked to define ‘women of faith’ the pair share that this immediately assumes the form of pious and proper women, like ‘the Brethren women you’d see at the shops’ – which neither of them believe themselves to be.

“I think of women of faith as being people other than who I am!” Liz quips. “It’s silly though - my faith is really important to me. When I think deeply about the title, it’s the image of a strength and surety of who you are before God that sticks with me.

“Women come in many shapes and forms – and so do women of faith,” says Vicky. “I feel very privileged in what God, in faith, has enabled me to see and do and be. I don’t carry my faith as a badge of honour - it’s a privilege that I’ve participated in.”

“Part of me admires the pious thing I respect it. It’s not who I am though, or where God has prompted me to be.

“Particularly at the time when I came into biblical studies, I was riding on the

informative,” mulls Vicky. “I wasn’t a card-carrying feminist, in the way that some of my predecessors had been.”

“We didn’t need to be,” agrees Liz. “I haven’t written anything that has feminist critique in it but I’m shaped by it. In fact the way I talk about God and human beings in relationship with God, the feminist critique is there informing everything I do.”

“For me feminism is a benign word, but that’s not the case in other circles,” says Vicky. “I think I’m the world authority on the parable of the ‘wise and foolish virgins’ from a feminist point of view because it’s an understudied area. I’ve had some nasty things levelled at me over my work on that.

“I don’t care about it, but it can be an emotive thing. For the generation of believers who came after me, feminism became just an awkward word, with that movement being associated with ‘man-haters’ and gender-polarising. ” So the role of gender is something of an ongoing challenge today?

“I think there are some challenges in the Uniting Church around gender and power,” Liz reflects. “At times how that settles down is along gender lines.

Women can sometimes play against women, and destroy community. I think sometimes women feel that they need to play ‘as men’ in the workplace. The way of operating and the use of power in hierarchical ways is not gender exclusive though.”

“We think quite a lot about leadership in the Church,” continues Vicky. “The challenge is in finding coherent ways to have leadership while looking ultimately to God. In the end it’s not the final responsibility of one leader to bring about the reign of God...” “... and how we address these issues of leadership is not only through gender,” Liz finishes.

“It buys into a whole range of issues: how we function as community and how we view leadership in relationship to community and power.”

Dr Liz Boase and Dr Vicky Balabanski love the bible – and big questions.

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Women of faith

wave of others’ commitment to feminist theology and women’s participation in the church. I didn’t have to fight the nasty fights; I got to enjoy the benefits. My predecessors took the knocks, so I feel a bit of a weakling in some ways,” Vicky admits.

“Although Vicky and I are around the same age, I came into biblical studies, career-wise, a good 10 years after she did,” Liz reflects. “Apart from my early days of studying, the issues of women’s roles in the church had, at one level, been neatly packed away. What’s interesting now though is that we sometimes have to go back and address those issues, language issues, roles etc.”

“Sometimes when we speak about women in ministry the attitude is that we’ve done that, we’ve moved on from there,” Vicky says. “But inclusive language has disappeared off the radar really; people aren’t putting the same level of energy into its importance.”

“When doing theology with a bunch of feminist theologians while I was in Melbourne, it was quite good and quite

Women of faith

Shannon Short Every now and then you meet someone who changes your life, someone who does something remarkable (or unremarkable) that sets your life on a different path.

KCO is all about the kids – all 1100 of them – who come from around South Australia for a great weekend of fun and faith sharing.

But I can’t help thinking that KCO is also about the volunteers – all 770 of them – who make the weekend happen.

KCO is a camp for 7-12 year olds which is resourced by remarkably ‘unremarkable’ people.

People like Colleen Brooks, a volunteer at every KCO, bar one.

Colleen was my leader at my first KCO experience as a kid, some thirty years ago.

Back then, we thought Colleen was pretty impressive.

She knew my friend and I were secretly scoffing licorice allsorts late at night. How? Did she have a spy hole into the tent? Did she have a direct line to God?

Colleen Brooks and KCO camper, Bethany.

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(Thirty years on, mystery solved – and obvious to adults. She could smell it.)

This year, Colleen (still very impressive) was on a craft table helping kids make pencil toppers.

It’s a simple idea – but extremely popular. You take a pipe cleaner and wrap it around the top of a pencil, you add a pom pom for a nose, stick on some googly eyes; and - voilá – a little fun pencil creature to make writing more entertaining.

Colleen and her team from Dernancourt Uniting were cleaned out of pencil toppers.

Over 350 were made by wideeyed, enthusiastic children.

So why would someone like Colleen, give up 32 weekends for 32 KCOs? “KCO is always exciting,” explains Colleen.

“Living and faith sharing in this community hasn’t changed much in 30 years, but the dynamics are always different because different kids bring different backgrounds.

“KCO is an opportunity of offering God’s love to children – often beyond our own. It is a privilege to offer spiritual nurture to people who may not get it anywhere else.”

Colleen is part of a network of over 40 volunteers who

make the craft projects at KCO come alive.

Many of the items used in the craft projects are donated

by Fellowship groups across the State. Some of those groups have no children in their congregations, but see their donation as a practical way that they can participate in the faith development of children.

So thank you to the many volunteers, from a nostalgic KCO camper. Many of you will have sparked a ‘licorice moment’ in the memory of child - a memory that will ensure a child knows that they are loved.

And it could just be a memory that sparks a lifetime of faith.

and Genetics, they were keen to pursue an exchange program in Adelaide so that their studies wouldn’t be inhibited.

They managed to secure the last two spots available to New Zealand students – made available through Adelaide University – and they couldn’t be more thrilled to be here.

“We didn’t want to come if our work wasn’t going to be accredited, but it definitely will be. Now we can just look at this as an excellent opportunity.”

“The Uni has been really good to us, helping us catch up on work,” said Elle.

“Publishers have even donated textbooks for us and other New Zealand students.

“The people at Lincoln have also been lovely and given us everything - from back packs to trips to the supermarket.

“We’re really pleased we came,” said Marina. “People are saying that Christchurch will take 5-10 years to rebuild. We do need to go back - our Uni won’t allow us to stay at this stage. They don’t want to lose us.

“It’s hard though. I don’t know if I’d be ready to go back too soon.”

The girls are incredibly thankful to all those who have helped them as they’ve transitioned and begun to find their way around a new city and campus.

Lincoln College is South Australia’s Uniting Church residence for University students.

Women of faith

On 16 March, New Zealand University students, Marina (20) and Elle (18) Macartney took up residence at Lincoln College to continue their studies through an exchange program with Adelaide University.

“We were still in shock when we left,” said Marina. “The whole of the city is closed at the moment. The whole character of the city is gone – jobs are gone.

“We just wanted to get out; the aftershocks were very scary and unsettling. Everyone’s really down at the moment - and all the uni students are trying to study in the midst of that.”

The girls, students of Canterbury University in Christchurch, were concerned at the impact the horrific 22 February earthquake would have on their intensive studies. Early communications from Canterbury suggested that studies would be delayed by up to three weeks, before taking place in a somewhat ad hoc form, with some lectures being held in tents.

With Marina in her third year of a Bachelor of Commerce and Accounting degree and Elle in her second year of Science degree in Molecular Biology Elle and Marina Macartney are two University students who have been taken in by Adelaide University and Lincoln College in the aftermath of the devastating Christchurch earthquake earlier this year.

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Women of faith

Mardi Lumsden

Two of the organisers for the Women of the Sun gathering in 1996, Jayne Clapton and Colleen Geyer, preparing for the conference. Photo: Journey archives

What started as a simple conference for Assembly agency ‘The Commission on Women and Men’ (now named Gospel and Gender) turned into a gathering that shook the foundation of what it meant to be a Christian woman in Australia.

The 1996 gathering ‘Women clothed with the sun’, held during a steamy Brisbane January, is still

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remembered fondly as the place many women changed the way they saw their faith, world, church and selves.

One of the organisers, Colleen Geyer, said the group set out to run a conference like no one had experienced before.

“If this was about reframing the church and how it understood who it was, could you do that with the event itself?” said Colleen, now Director of Mission for UnitingCare agency Blue Care in Queensland.

“It was about what

language we would use to describe it, what would the images be that we would use, how would the event happen if it wasn’t a conference with keynote speakers? That was how everything was run at the time, and still is today.

“It wasn’t a conference, it was a gathering. There weren’t sessions with events, there were spaces to explore the story. It didn’t focus on an issue or conference theme, it focussed on a passage in the Bible - Revelation 12:1 - that wasn’t really used or known in the wider church.

“I have women from all over Australia say, ‘Women clothed with the sun was the beginning of me changing how I thought about my faith’, or ‘I’ve grown so much since then I can’t believe I’m the same woman as before I went’.

“When you are involved in something like that you don’t understand what is going to be the impact and how it will keep having an influence on people’s lives.

“There were amazing things that came out of it as well. There was a language change, resources, worship,

a music group that recorded.

Things like that impacted people’s lives.

Rev Yvonne McRostie, minister with the South East Uniting Church Community in Brisbane, said the gathering altered many aspects of her life.

“I was mainly involved in the music. I was young (30) and quite a new student. I hadn’t really gotten into the whole feminist theology,” Yvonne said.

“It was like I had been given an opportunity to be something that I always knew that I was, but had never really been given permission to express it or to say it or be a ‘woman’.

“It was really quite eyeopening. Through the music I think a lot of people felt that.”

Rev Wendi Sargeant was a theological student in placement in Brisbane at the time of the gathering. The minister she was working with refused to let her attend.

Colleen reflects that, for the Church, there is always more to learn.

“I think there is an amazing difference for where women can be in the church,” Colleen said.

“The Uniting Church has always believed that there is equality for the genders holding leadership positions and in representation, but we still, even today, struggle with that.

“I still think what its message was to the Church is that we can be creative and innovative and we can think of new ways of being and doing that don’t take away from what is at the core of our faith.”

Rev Sandy Boyce (Deac)

UC Invest Ad ARPIL 11 OUTLINES (18x12).indd 1

Women take part in all the church activities including at a regional, state and national level.”

Despite patriarchal values embedded in the culture and in the church, Jothi observes that there is a great deal of change and that this is an encouraging sign.

“More women are entering higher education, and the workforce,” reflects Jothi. “They are taking on leadership roles

such as managers and top-level posts.

“The President of India is a woman, Dr Mrs Pratibha Patil. The Parliamentary Speaker is also a woman, Mrs Meera Kumari.”

“I have witnessed effective leadership by women, both in church and in the work place. I would encourage more women to be involved in leadership.

More participation of women leads to a better society.”

Prof Cornelius, Rev Sandy Boyce (Deac) and Mrs Jothi Cornelius enjoyed a cold but wonderful weekend at KCO.

12/4/11 11:54:58 AM

Women of faith

Jothi and her husband Prof Cornelius are from the Church of South India, Diocese of Madras, and currently on a goodwill visit to Australia. In recent years this Diocese has received many Uniting Church volunteers and visitors, a task coordinated by Prof Cornelius, a retired Professor of Mathematics from Madras Christian College.

The Diocese is led by the dynamic Bishop Devasahayam, who has given a priority to creating opportunities for women in leadership and encouraging them in a variety of roles. A high priority is placed on ‘education for transformation’, by the Diocese, including providing better access to tertiary education for young women, particularly those who are disadvantaged.

Jothi notes that there are increasing numbers of women in leadership in the church.

“More women are being ordained as priests now. In the Diocese of Madras, there are about 30 women pastors. There are also women serving as lay preachers, evangelists and Bible women workers.

Max Howland, Adult Fellowships

Women of faith

“You say you have faith and I have only actions. Well I will demonstrate my faith by my actions.” So says the Letter of James.

‘Faith’ for Adult Fellowships members is seen primarily in its practical outworking.

In the Uniting Church Adult Fellowship (UCAF) History book we produced in 2009, there are many accounts telling how the men built the church but the women furnished it, and fitted out the kitchen – even bought hymn books.

Historically, many individual women have given decades of service to Adult

Fellowships in its various activities; many more still do. It’s a huge gift of time and labour.

People, mostly women, are constantly knitting beanies and rugs. Others make up painting smocks and carry-bags for books, which Frontier Services uses in its visits to remote-area children. Many women who normally have nothing to do with church demonstrate their own kind of faith by contributing to this work.

Why do they go to so much trouble?

Because Fellowships members have experienced something of the love of God in their own lives, and they cannot help but pass on that love in caring for those

‘Cuddlies’ are just one way that faith is knitting together remote communities.

around them who go without.

Because ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is among you’, and Fellowships are in the business of making the kingdom real where we are.

Adult Fellowships groups often include both women and men, as well as ministers, preachers and study leaders.

And there are women of profound faith in God among Fellowships members – of course there are. But that faith is most commonly evidenced in actions.

More faith activities of UCAF: • In South Australia, the annual Packing Day routinely sends 200 – 300 cartons of goods north for Aboriginal communities, and many more for other groups.

• Red Dove Café is an activity of National and World Mission Support, a sub-group of UCAF. It has a specific mission to Royal Show employees, as well as raising tens of thousands of dollars annually for mission work.

• Women and men who are members of UCAF SA raised $10,000 last year to support the work of Frontier Services.

• UCAF members provided support in many different ways for KCO this year, from crafts to caring to Christian input.

• Individual Fellowships groups make gifts totalling thousands of dollars every year to various church and community activities.

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MRN

While I grew up in the Methodist Church, and was aware of God’s love, I would not count myself a follower of Jesus until later in life.

After university I was appointed to a job in Melbourne; I knew no one there. The logical thing was to write to Methodist churches around Armadale, where my new job was located, and ask if someone would have me as a boarder until I could get established.

After a long period of time, I finally received a hand written letter from Mrs Irene Cleverdon offering me a room.

She was around 90 years old.

Mrs Cleverdon was amazing, disciplined in her spiritual practices morning and night. She believed that Christians should shape society according to the values of the Kingdom of God, so she frequently wrote to Phillip Adams, challenging his views.

She accommodated me for around two years; she prayed for me and we engaged in many fireside chats about faith. I was actively involved in the local church but did not know Jesus. She led me to faith.

When she moved into an aged care facility, she doorknocked the whole facility and shared the gospel. She also attended the atheists’ society and argued Jesus’ existence.

She was a great woman of faith.

She was a disciplined follower of Jesus, a shaper of society and a practical evangelist. She continues to inspire me.

REV ROD DYSON Executive Officer, MRN

Getting to know...

Energetic Rev David ‘Diplomatic’ Williamson has taken up the role of Multicultural and CrossCultural Ministry with the Mission Resourcing Network this year. The fit 32 year old hopes to encourage the church to be a place of this radical inclusivity – to break down barriers that exclude and make room to belong; for acceptance, healing and wholeness, within the church and within society. That, and not getting cleaned up by a car that forgot to look for cyclists.

Background: I have lived and worked for the majority of my life in NSW. I studied theology and candidated for ministry at the United Theological College, North Parramatta, but had the unique opportunity to study remotely for the last two years of that while my wife, Sarah, took up a placement in Kingscliff, NSW. Studying ‘beachside’, and travelling to Trinity Theological College in Brisbane certainly offered new and varied experiences in theological and ministerial formation!

After college, I was the first full-time Chaplain at the University of Wollongong. We lived in the ‘Gong’ for four years where our love affair with the beach continued. We left Wollongong for Bright, Victoria, where I was Minister and Chaplain in an exciting new partnership with the local Bright Alpine Parish and the Bright P-12 College.

Why you wanted this job: I get to work with some really amazing people and hear some absolutely remarkable stories! I learn more and more about the radical inclusivity of God to which I feel called, and I learn so much more about my own cultural limitations and strengths.

Favourite Bible verse: Matthew 13:1 Dave is the other half of the Williamson team that has joined the MRN this year; Sarah was introduced in April’s New Times. They have two sons: Kaden and Jai.

A pilgrimage of healing We can make a difference.

This is the catchcry from the partnership of the Uniting Church SA and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress in the lead up to Reconciliation Week, 27 May – 3 June.

The belief that we can make a difference is born out of a necessity, noticed particularly through the connections made at the Congress Uniting Church in Salisbury. As people have continued to connect with that church community, there has been a dramatic increase noticed in Indigenous people moving to Adelaide to access health services for kidney dialysis treatment.

The influx has demonstrated that there are underlying issues which need to be addressed, particularly that of health and nutrition.

In Reconciliation Week this year, the Uniting Church SA/UAICC partnership is focussing on healthy lifestyles, particularly through a more thorough understanding of food, nutrition and exercise. This focus will be targeted through cooking classes, fitness engagement and the establishment of a ‘bush tucker’ garden at the Congress Uniting Church in Salisbury.

We are asking Uniting Churches to join with us during Reconciliation Week as we seek to make a difference. Your church can pray for the Aboriginal people linked with the Uniting Church and UAICC in SA, become a partner church with a Congress congregation and take up a special offering on Reconciliation Sunday 29 May. If you would like more information, please contact Denise Champion: p. (08) 8236 4235

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Is your church too neat for children?

magazine

Heidi Harding Two sheep wander around the side garden of the church. A table full of science-y contraptions wait for play.

Enough glue and paint is present to redecorate most of the church building...

Though there were tables and signs set up in an orderly fashion, there was definitely a sense of chaos filling the air at Coromandel Valley Uniting Church in March this year!

‘Messy Church’ at Coro Valley Uniting is aptly named ChAOS (Church And Other Stuff). Coro Valley is one of five churches who have dared to ‘get messy’ and try what is a very successful form of church in the UK. When I arrived to help out at ChAOS, I was posted on the science table with its magnetic goodies and, to my delight, a levitron. Kids and adults experimented with the equipment as I attempted to apply my limited scientific knowledge to link the biblical message with the exploration.

“Messy Church gives noisy families a chance to be part of the church community without the embarrassment.”

Clare, Parent, Le Fevre Uniting Church

We will be hosting Lucy Moore, the creator of Messy Church and author of Messy Church and AllAge Worship at the ‘Church &...’

Conference August 4-6 at Uniting College. Church & .... is about being all that church with families can be. It will be a time to experience creative, messy all-age worship, explore Fresh Expressions and develop ways for people of all ages, stages and backgrounds to be church together.

After my spiel about how God is like a magnet and that there is something inside all of us that is drawn to God, I’m launched, headlong, into a theologicallywondering conversation about who made God and when...

Music started playing and families moved into the Chapel for singing and to hear a biblical story, unconventionally and hilariously retold. There was much laughter, the occasional screaming toddler and many eager hands raised to be part of the unfolding story.

Prayer followed the story, then dinner time. Families sat outside, eating and chatting. I watched, astonished, as a primary school-aged girl took the initiative to offer drinks to everyone and a boy helped clean up a very grubby toddler.

As the night wound up, families collected crafty creations, and hopefully all of their children, to head home for baths, teeth-cleaning and bed!

It was chaos. And it was church.

Why not check out Church &... It might be just the mess you’ve been looking for!

“Post-Christendom churches will be messy communities where belonging, believing and behaving are in process rather than neatly integrated.”

Stuart Murray, Church After Christendom

“Church should be a reflection of life - and life is chaotic and messy.”

Mel, Parent and ChAOS leader, Coromandel Valley Uniting Church

“The families who come would not come to traditional church because children would be expected to be quiet.”

Leonie, Craft Team, Le Fevre Uniting Church

Interfaith champion honoured On Tuesday 5 April, Reverend Professor James Haire AM KSJ, was awarded Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) highest honour, Doctor of the University.

He received the award in recognition of his service to the community, particularly through his contributions to interfaith dialogue.

His longstanding involvement in Muslim-Christian dialogue in Southeast Asia, and close relations with Muslim leaders such as former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, were to stand him in good stead. Between 2001 and 2005, Professor Haire played an important role in peace and reconciliation negotiations between Christians and Muslims in the Molucca Islands in Indonesia.

His commitment to interfaith relations continued when he came to Australia in 1985 as minister for the Darwin city parish of the Uniting Church.

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Professor Haire actively sought cooperation between the various denominations, and from 1992 to 2004 co-chaired the National Dialogue between the Uniting Church and Catholic Church in Australia.

Professor Haire served as President of the Uniting Church in Australia, and was Chairperson of the National Heads of Churches, and President of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Since 2002 he has been a member of the Joint International Commission between the Vatican and the World Methodist Council.

ACU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Greg Craven, said Australia was indebted to Professor Haire for his work in encouraging understanding between not only the Christian churches, but between people of different faiths.

See the full article online at sa.uca.org.au/new-times-home

Reconciliation Sunday

Sincere thanks

Sunday May 29th this year is Reconciliation Sunday.

This gives us the opportunity to celebrate one of the major themes of our Christian faith and to do so in collaboration with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters with whom we share that faith and this country.

My very sincere thanks to those readers who responded to the ‘Prayer to an Absentee God’ printed in the March edition of this paper with ‘phone calls, messages and cards. I am not suffering from a personal crisis of faith, but I was hoping to pray in solidarity with those who might be in a ‘dark night of the soul’ However, I was encouraged by the evidence of a caring church, as I was surrounded by such love, prayers, and concern for my well-being.

The Presbytery and Synod of SA agreed in November 2006 to ‘establish Reconciliation Sunday in Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June) annually, to be celebrated across the church, and request Church Councils to include this day in their worship calendars.’

This is the fifth year that we have prepared worship resources for use on Reconciliation Sunday. Included this year is an exciting children’s story about Friederike Meyer. It tells the story of how she helped the Ngarrindjeri people to retain their language.

These resources may be downloaded from the Mission Resourcing Network Website. Go to Covenanting and click on Reconciliation Sunday. http://mrn.sa.uca.org.au/covenanting/reconciliationsunday.html

Send your letters to: newtimes@sa.uca.org.au or PO Box 2145, Adelaide 5001.

Be topical, be brief, be timely.

Letters over 150 words will be edited; responses to previous letters /articles will be considered within two months of the original item’s publication only.

All letters are published at the editorial team’s discretion.

letters to ed

D Champion, Paralowie

L Sutton, Kadina

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For more information please call Audrey on 8202 5077 or 0458 526 646 All Volunteers must undergo a medical health and police background check as per the organisation policy. Expenses will be covered by Goodwill.

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Spirituality in an evolving universe On Friday 1 April, a forum held at the Effective Living Centre engaged over 80 people in modern thought as Bruce Sanguin conversed with local theologian Norm Habel. The discussion focused on Bruce’s book Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos, in which he brings into dialogue the story of the unfolding universe given by the sciences and the Judeo-Christian narrative of the Bible.

The evening was part of a series titled ‘Evolutionary Spirituality’, held from 1–3 April at a number of venues across Adelaide.

Bruce is the minister of Canadian Memorial United Church and Centre for Peace in Vancouver, Canada, a community that has an explicit mission to teach and practise evolutionary Christian spirituality.

Bruce’s visit, with his wife Ann, was a joint project of the Charles Strong Trust, Adelaide West Uniting Church, Brougham Place Uniting Church, the Progressive Christianity Network (SA), and the Wellspring Community.

“I’m passionate about raising public awareness that there is a form of Christianity beyond the belief-based, biblical literalism that is associated with traditional church,” said Bruce.

diary notes

Bruce’s books formed a framework for discussion over the weekend, drawing other theologians and attendees into dialogue. The Emerging Church: A Model for Change and a Map for Renewal was the basis for the Saturday afternoon workshop, entitled ‘Creating Opportunities for Life and Faith’. As part of his presentation, Bruce dialogued with local theologians Deidre Palmer (Uniting Church) and Denis Edwards (Catholic Church).

On Sunday morning Bruce preached at Brougham Place Uniting Church’s worship service, the theme being ‘Living with Creation’.

Bruce Sanguin and Norm Habel engaged in theolgical dialogue at the recent ‘Evolutionary Spirituality’ series of events.

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Mothers Day Art Exhibition & Porcelain Display on now, until 28 May, at The Corner complex (cnr Diagonal & Oaklands Rds,Warradale). Tuesday to Friday 10am - 3pm, Saturdays 1pm 3pm. Supporting Jon & Lyndell Paschke for their mission work in Vanuatu. Contact Pauline on 8376 2666 for further information.

State Mission Fellowship meets on Tuesday 31 May at 10.30am at Scots Church. Morning tea (10 am) and lunch available. Speakers: Denise Champion and Claire Watkinson.

All welcome. Enquiries 8261 3843 or 8522 6188.

Grandparents Playgroup: Dernancourt Uniting (1 Vingara Drive, Dernancourt) is pleased to announce a brand new playgroup specifically for grandparents with their 0-5 year old grandchildren. The playgroup is held on Wednesday mornings from 9.30am – 11.00am during school terms. Call Carol on 0422 688 324 or email DUCplaygroups@gmail.com for more information or just come along. Cost is free, but gold coin donations appreciated.

Small in number – big in heart. Cross Roads Uniting Guild celebrates 100 years of devoted service with a special service at 1.30pm, 20 July 2011. Mr Trevor Ellis will be the guest speaker; his subject will be our local history. Memorabilia will be on display and an enjoyable day will conclude with afternoon tea.

RSVP to Shirley by 24 June 2011 (08) 8825 3622 or (08) 8825 2841.

To have your upcoming event or message published here, email diary@sa.uca.org.au with ‘Diary’ in the subject line.

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Losing religion, gaining perspective?

reviews

Rev Tim Hein

Australia is described as being obsessed with its national identity.

Alongside this sits a discussion about our supposed Christian heritage, into which this book is very welcome.

Losing My Religion tracks the story of the Church in our country, but goes beyond history in what becomes a fascinating reflection on our present overall situation and future prospects.

That the book is written for a wide audience is its strength, and its tone harks of social observer Hugh MacKay, whose own description of, “…a beautiful blend of history, theology and sociology,” is apt.

Frame essentially explores a short history of Christianity in Australia, why there has been an acceptable shift away from belief and, to a lesser extent, the consequences for this country and its people.

Not settled with passionate zeal for religious freedom, Australia is described as a place of quiet religion,

a distant extension of European society.

Church attendance in Australian society was strongest at a time when it reflected the achievement of civil respectability that of belonging and behaving, rather than believing. The climax came post1940 in its embodied alternative to Communism and Fascism, but otherwise most Australians at best maintain a set of, “background beliefs that were informed by Christianity.”

Then, most interestingly, Frame suggests that the significant decline in belief recently has seven essential sources. These include the death of the religious profession as acquisition of respectability and the inability of the church to speak with one voice - including the tendency of many clergy to publicly question or reject core doctrine, (here he notes the example of Bishop Spong as one who has gained notoriety beyond the church) which helped Australians form a view that all religion was essentially humanly contrived and best avoided.

In several all-too-brief chapters, Frame also provides historical outlines of the progressive emergence of western scientific and philosophical understanding, of which Australian has been consistently in touch. An interesting chapter is given also to the political nuances of secularism, tolerance and the dimensions to the separation of church and state.

In noting the recent rise of atheism, Frame’s rather introductory overview chapter on Hitchens, Dawkins and several other well-known polemicists, includes several Australians, such as, unsurprisingly, the overrated Phillip Adams.

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In concluding, Frame lets loose and challenges the Church to respond to the current context, prioritise its apologetics, and rise to the dialogue in a more informed unified and coherent way.

Most potent is his call for more than the ‘weak and insipid’ and ‘unintelligible and uninspiring’ Christianity that most Australians have encountered.

Losing My Religion is a readable, fascinating, and I found, quite stirring look into a nation of which much is often assumed, and a Church which has assumed too much. The first and last sections especially are essential reading for anyone passionate about the Christian mission in Australia.

This book is available from the Uniting Church SA Resource Centre.

What does mission look like in the 21st Century? Why are churches in decline? Why are there so few young adults sticking around?

These issues and more will be discussed with the June edition of New Times. But to exercise your brain around the issues prior to that, Rev Tim Hein, Director of Christian Education & Discipleship at Uniting College, has reviewed Tom Frame’s book Losing My Religion.

Breaking our chains

Book: A Better Freedom: Finding Life as Slaves of Christ Christian songwriter and author, Michael Card, tackles the tricky issue of slavery from a biblical perspective in his book, A Better Freedom.

Card writes about attending an African American Church and being perplexed by the way in which Jesus was referred to as ‘Master’. Denny, the pastor, explained that slaves generally referred to Jesus as ‘Master’ to let their earthly masters know they weren’t.

As Westerners, the reference to slavery will always instinctively rankle but, as Card explains, our choice is not between slavery and freedom – “The choice has always only been whose slave you will be.” The title itself, A Better Freedom, comes from a phrase that Ignatius, an early church martyr, wrote to his community on his way to being executed: “Offer a more devoted service so that you may obtain from God a better freedom.”

Author: Michael Card Available from: Harper One Recommended for: Bible study groups, historians, social justice seekers In short: A book that explores the difficult biblical concept of slavery in light of both the early church and African American experience.

RRP: $22.95

Card shows us how Jesus himself lived and died as a slave, experiencing both love and humiliation. I would have appreciated a deeper consideration of the challenge of slavery and poverty today, which is only touched in a brief appendix and a coda by fellow musician Sara Groves. Card acknowledges that such a consideration is beyond the scope of his book, but expresses his hope that readers’ hearts, “Will be stirred to the global calamity that is human slavery.”

Card’s thoughtful, thorough and reasoned scholarship provides a sound starting point for us to consider what enslaves us and others - and what will set us free.

- Michelle Coram

Dreaming dreams

Book: Eat the Word Speak the Word Author: Rachel Hickson Recommended for: Developing congregational prayer ministries In short: A practical guide to developing and using a Biblecentred, prophetic gift

Book: What if?

Editor: Peta Seaton Recommended for: people willing to think sideways about Australia and consider alternative points of view In short: Tangling with politics and faith in the Australian context.

RRP: $19.99

RRP: $39.95

My former lead pastor, several churches ago, was known for saying, “You have heard this before but I am going to keep telling you until you act like you’ve taken it on board.” For me, yet another book on prophetic intercession seems unwarranted, but perhaps we really haven’t taken this message on board.

Hickson’s book is an account of her prophetic ministry. She illustrates what she has learned about the work of the Spirit and how prophecy is done through testimonies from her various conferences and seminar appearances. She addresses how to pray for justice and government, for healing and ‘the harvest’ and

how to do this in ways that will not hurt people or invade their privacy.

“Most of us are not wilfully disobedient, just woefully hesitant,” says Hickson. The best way to start a prayer ministry is simply to stop holding back the compassion stirring in our guts and let God out. Eat the Word Speak the Word is an excellent resource for doing just that.

- Damien Tann

“My goodness,” I thought, “I’m not a political animal. I can’t read this.”

Wrong!

Peta Seaton poses 39 challenging questions like What if there were no states? What if anthropogenic climate change is not harmful? What if school principals were not former teachers? which are all answered by experts in their field, Nick Greiner, Joe Hockey and Julie Novak.

wondering why I was reviewing it for New Times. Well, it seems Jesus was interested in justice and caring for a land and its people and so should we.

Although I felt a bit like the upside down cow on the front cover I was glad to have tangled with the questions raised. You might too.

- Glenys Badger

Seaton suggests the aim is to initiate serious debate about good policy for Australia, since we have paddocks full of sacred cows and consequently fear change and punish new and creative thinking.

I dipped into the subjects that interested me first but I felt compelled to look at them all, and

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reviews

Prophet and Loss

Another year, another KCO! Laughing. Crafting. Singing. Swinging.

Playing. Praying. Faith and friend making. For over 1000 children and 773 leaders this was how they spent 26-27 March at the Barossa Valley Tourist Park for KCO 2011 I Wonder...

“Thanks to everyone who made KCO so wonderful this year,” enthused Mrs Jo Lohmeyer, KCO Event Officer. “The new program elements went really well. We were really happy with the new Sunday program; kids engaged with the more hands on faith experience and the communion in groups has been receiving great feedback.”

KCO (KUCA Camp Out) is a 24 hour camp committed to assisting 7-12 year old children explore faith through their own discovery and encouraging sharing and relationships with their peers.

Next year’s KCO theme is A World of Wonder. Stay tuned for details!

magazine

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4.

8.

1. Dernancourt Uniting girls – Jordan, Amelia, Tonya and Aleesha. 2. More than 1800 people were part of KCO 2011. 3. Campers reflect at the Labyrinth with Rev Gary Stuckey. 4. KCO Comperes - Nick Greb and Willow Fenner. 5. Bridgewater Uniting kids – Josh, Dylan, Tim, Dean, Desmond – learn the value of working together.

6. The sponge throw was a definite ‘hit’ at KCO. 7. Stevie from Woodville Gardens displays her passion for KCO. 8. Participants from Marion Church of Christ join with Rev Rod Dyson for a stack of fun. Top – Daniel, middle Lachlan and Alesha, bottom - Rev Rod Dyson, Lawrie McArthur, Bec Dodd. 9. Murray Bridge Uniting campers.

10. Lewis and Huon from Rosefield Uniting Church get crafty.