WELCOME

WELCOME FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY The Dangerous Wind

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. As we contemplate another summer ahead with slight apprehension of what possible crisis may occur, what new imagination is stirring, what courage is being forged for hope-filled witness to the living God? And where is the dangerous wind blowing open musty churches and disrupting its fossilised traditions? From where I sit, there are many, many often very surprising reasons for hope. Unwrapped from the anxiety of, ‘Will the church survive?’ preoccupations, I hear and see signs of new thinking and new creativity that the Synod’s Future Directions framework is designed to catch and explore but, with or without the Synod or the church, the dangerous wind will blow through hearts and minds bringing change. Increasingly it seems that ‘crisis’ characterises our times, whether induced by climate (horrendous fire events, catastrophic floods and mudslides and weather events of unusual intensity), health (the global pandemic), politics (the mad war in Ukraine) or economics (the cost of living crisis, the ever-growing gap between rich and poor people and nations). The church is not immune – all the Councils of the UCA (from congregation to Assembly) are having to grapple with a range of challenges to which the ‘crisis’ label is frequently applied. In its very long history, the church has lived through many and varied times of crisis and upheaval. Perhaps that experience can give some perspective and insight for how the church might navigate today’s turbulent times. Like it or not, crisis always brings change and change is not always welcome. Ben Okri writes that ‘the opportunity to change our destiny depends on the best lessons we take from suffering, not the worst lessons we take from tragedy’. These are not times for a narrowness of heart and hope. They invite us to live more fully into the promise of creation and the adventure of human being in God’s image. In a recent meeting that I attended reference was made to a Chinese proverb to the effect that crisis is opportunity riding a dangerous wind. ‘Dangerous wind’ seems like a very good epithet for the person that the church knows as the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity, occasionally called the Comforter but usually associated with ‘tongues of fire’ and the disruptive birth of the church at Pentecost.

I HEAR AND SEE SIGNS OF With no such thing as the Basis of Union and without a handy NEW THINKING guidebook of Regulations, without

AND NEW even anything resembling a Bible,

CREATIVITY a disorganized, mostly mystified bunch of disciples used their remnants of memory and experience to share a miraculous story of encounter and relationship with the living God. Person to person to person that story took hold around the world. Along the way, the church was organised and eventually became a global institution, but the institution is not the story. Carried on the dangerous wind of the Spirit, the story always travels person to person, heart to heart, mind to mind, forming new relationships, fostering new imagination and bringing – always – change. Often enough, this story has called forth amazing courage and extraordinary witness in times of crisis (think of Andre and Magda Trocme and their actions to save Jewish people in World War II. Worth looking up if you don’t know their story). It's not always easy to grasp the danger and disruption when it comes wrapped up in the Hallmark sentimentality of the Christmas season but, make no mistake, Jesus did say I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly. Have a blessed Christmas!

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The Presbytery Project is the focus for how we will turn the fifth 2021 Future Directions commitment into action. This work is core to how we “do church” across the Synod of NSW and the ACT. Synod Future Directions

REGULARS

3 WELCOME

6 YOUR SAY ONLINE

7 NEWS

26 BELIEF MATTERS

32 PULSE

41 LECTIONARY REFLECTIONS

44 ENTERTAIN ME

20 26

28 36

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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.

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In te midst of it all, a baby

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.

Lend a helping hand

This Christmas we encourage those of you that can lend a helping hand and those that are in need to visit our website: findafeed.uca.org.au where you will find a range of support services and help.

Keep up with the Moderator by following these hashtags on Facebook and Instagram. #moderatorinsession #AllOfThisIsUs Tiny and defenceless, the promise and presence of God. In this wondrous moment, in the simple vulnerability of God in the world, hope is asserted. This assertion is not only about Jesus’ birth offering hope for humanity; God’s hope reaches even more profoundly. The birth of Jesus is how God asserts hope in humanity. In us. This single grain of sand in the whirlwind of Caesar’s empire is what transforms everything. This assertion of God that we are worthy of hope and life; God’s hope, God’s gift of life. Sit with this, for a moment. Too easily and too often we have been convinced it is our failure which motivates God’s act, as if God is harnessed and haltered by us. Too simply and too loudly we are told that God was so angry at our sinfulness that God’s son is only born to die, making our lives and prayers engagements of fear over love. We are too quickly inclined to believe the worst of ourselves and the worst of God. As God breaks into the world as Jesus, we hear and see – and proclaim – God’s absolute engagement, God’s entire commitment to our lives and to our world. At the heart of the Christmas event is God’s statement of faith in us. The gift of Jesus for the sake of the world. What does that mean right now, that God has hope in us? As I write this piece, the travesty of Russia’s invasion and war continues in Ukraine; while war scars other nations not deemed as newsworthy. What does hope mean as Ukraine fights for its very existence? As empires which we have trusted, or feared, for these last few centuries topple and seem likely to fall – into disrepair, or despotism - there are echoes of Herod’s violent jealousy as a tiny baby destabilised everything he believed about power. What sense does the birth of Jesus make as we consider formalising a voice to Parliament for our First Peoples?

The still, small voice of Jesus spoken into a corner of the Roman Empire rose to become a song which questioned the meaning of Empire and reordered the world. What might the disciples of this Jesus say about advocating to those in power, offering a voice when so many have been unjustly silenced? What sense does the advent of God make for communities addressing the immediate challenge of floods, or striving for recovery after a season of extraordinary rainfall? When we are overwhelmed with loss, GOD IS or chaos, or with grief, the presence

PRESENT IN of God in the world is found in the THE CHAOS OF starkness of a stable, or even

OUR LIVES. less. Our loss is not airbrushed,

EMMANUEL or ignored, but God is present in “GOD WITH US" the chaos of our lives. Emmanuel, “God with Us” means precisely that, and never more than when all sems to crumble. God, exercising extraordinary hope in the birth of Jesus, invites a response from us: to act in hope, in life, as God has acted, and continues to act. God elects to offer life, because God is completely convinced of our value. The truth that God has chosen to become precisely like us is not just a wonder, but the profound assertion of the inherent worth we have to the God of all creation. Can we believe that at Christmas – and in the astounding wonder which awaits the world at Easter – that we see the best of the living God, because God believes in what is possible for us? As Mary and Elizabeth sing with prophecy and power, as the angels’ song fills the sky, as shepherds stumble to the light and magi find their way, as Herod’s depredations appal us still, and as we wait for the family’s return from Egypt; We name a God who is with humanity in all our wonder and all our frailty, and yet declares in the child born where all God’s hope resides – in Jesus and thus, in us.