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WELCOME
A time to reflect
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. Over the last two years but particularly the last six months of Covid lockdown, I’ve been walking for dear life in company with an entire suburb of people and their dogs (well, pets really because I have seen a few cats on leads as well!). We’ve walked at all hours, in all weathers and we’ve become very nimble at avoiding all the newly mounted Mulga Bill’s who’ve dressed themselves in cycling clothes and taken to the paths with great enthusiasm and boundless confidence. I confess that I’ve loved every minute of every walk from walking into the dawn and hearing the birds wake up and get busy, to walking in serious rain and watching stormwater trickles turn into raging torrents, to having complicated work-related conversations sitting on a tree stump in the bush and walking late at night as the world quietens down. I was always a walker but it was just for ‘exercise’, now it’s for ‘dear life’ and simple joy and I wouldn’t miss it.
Most of the story of Covid has been expressed in terms of the threat of illness and death, the need for restriction of personal freedoms in the interest of public safety, the economic consequences for individuals and small and large businesses, the educational consequences for whole cohorts of school children and tertiary students. Mostly and perhaps surprisingly the community has accepted the necessity for restriction and dealt with or just borne the consequences. In many ways, it’s been a period of enforced public ‘fasting’ from a lot of the things we’ve taken for granted. For many people, it has also been a period of taking stock, a time to reflect on life’s priorities and direction in the light of their Covid experience. Many of us now know that working from home is a real option, there are stories anticipating a ‘great resignation’ as people act on their Covid learnings to make new life choices and we all realise the life-giving importance of relationship – family and friends – as the foundation of a healthy community. As I write this, the jacarandas are in full shout which always tells me that Advent is around the corner. While we don’t currently associate Advent with fasting, both Advent and Lent are actually penitential seasons (hence the purple colour) – both seasons in which the church turns inward to reflect and take stock and the spiritual discipline of fasting has been integral to that process. Which is to say, quite simply, that there is much more to Advent than ‘getting ready for Christmas’. Advent itself is a time for the church to turn inward, a time for reflection and active, eager waiting, not for Christmas (which will come ready or not) but for fulfilment of the great promises of God. Admittedly, it does take deliberate effort to ignore ‘Christmas creep’ as the Christmas marketing frenzy ramps up after All Saints Day. It’s hard to focus on Advent when we’re craving the warmth of family and the comforts of familiar routines. However, it is important that the church remembers that we always live in the Time Between – between the first coming in a stable in Bethlehem and the second coming ‘in glory, to judge the living and the dead.’ Advent is always an edgy time between the now and the not yet – the edginess and disruption wrought by the Covid experience is simply the latest live example. Will pre-Covid and post-Covid be the same? When is ‘back to normal’? What is normal and will it be worth having? Of course, these and other Advent questions arise in relation to any significant – public or personal – disruptive event and the pandemic hasn’t been the only one to claim our attention in recent times. Front of mind for me are the bushfires of 2019-20, the murder of George Floyd and the eruption of Black Lives Matter anger, and the catastrophic explosion in Beirut – all of them symptomatic of the larger system failures that press upon us and which must be held in tension with the promise of future glory and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring. I well understand Karl Barth’s exclamation – ‘What other time or season can the church ever have but that of Advent!’
Keep awake, watch and be prepared, wait actively for dear life for the God who comes!
ADVENT IS A TIME FOR THE CHURCH TO TURN INWARD, A TIME FOR REFLECTION AND ACTIVE, EAGER WAITING, FOR FULFILMENT OF THE GREAT PROMISES OF GOD
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From growing up in the church to what they hope for from the future, our writers share their experiences in their own words
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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.
Keep up with the Moderator by following these hashtags on Facebook and Instagram. #moderatorinsession #AllOfThisIsUs There are purpling jacarandas, already, in our paddocks and streets. As small children, our daughters learnt that as the jacaranda turns, so does our season, towards the harvest and Advent, then Christmas. It was the first sign, bearing witness of the celebration and story to come. The contracted lives we have led over these last two years, drawn into our homes and into our selves, has also mean a contraction of experience, of memories and therefore, markers for the weeks and months. Things that happened months ago seem like days, or weeks past and the last two years have collapsed into a journey hallmarked by “before COVID” and everything else. It will be an extra challenge as we prepare for Christmas; creating and crafting worship for our congregation and community after finding our way in this uncertain terrain in which we have found ourselves. Many of us were confronted by bushfires two years ago, so we have been working ourselves out for a while.
Part of the recent destabilising is that many of us have an inner sense of how Christmas should be, how it should “feel”. It is hard to articulate, but we know it when we see – or feel - it. Paul Kelly will be making gravy, while Tim Minchin’s family will be drinking white wine in the sun; we have stories of our own which enable us to find our way. Twenty years ago, soon after my mum had died, I visited Dad at our family home in the weeks before Christmas. As I entered, there was the sudden perfume of pine trees from the lounge room and, unbidden, memories of excitement and family and decorating the Christmas tree flooded through me. In the heart of Christmas is a story which is, essentially, all of us – a baby, born. Something each one of us knows.
The angels and the magi, even the shepherds are not the sign of God in the world, but a tiny infant, at wondrous risk in the world, is the evidence of God being with us, with all creation.
Pause for a moment.
A baby asks something of us; care, protection, a cuddle. Immediately, we are engaged, and the story of God embraces us, as we embrace Emmanuel.
