Print Post Approved PP100003514 VOL 47 NO 10
NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. [Romans 12:2a] Vol 47 No10 P349
NOVEMBER 2013
Front cover: Amy DeMartino and Tom Smith from Faith Lutheran College, Plainland Qld assisted in worship on the closing day of ACLE in Brisbane. Story page 6. Photo: Rosie Schefe
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Gary Hermann is about as far as he can get from his home in Ipswich, Queensland and spiritual home with the Bethany congregation, but he can download The Lutheran app onto his iPad. Close to the ruins of Urqhart Castle, on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland, Gary does still need to keep one eye free for spotting strange shapes in the water …
As the magazine of the Lutheran Church of Australia (incorporating the Lutheran Church of New Zealand), The Lutheran informs the members of the LCA about the church’s teaching, life, mission and people, helping them to grow in faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. The Lutheran also provides a forum for a range of opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or the policies of the Lutheran Church of Australia. The Lutheran is a member of the Australasian Religious Press Association and as such subscribes to its journalistic and editorial codes of conduct.
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Stranger danger. It’s one phrase almost certain to kick off negative images in our minds. How often have we exhorted our children not to talk to strangers, to be wary, to stay away? It doesn’t seem to matter that statistics tell us that it’s not strangers our children need to be wary of. Sadly—and horrifyingly—within Australian society, the monster is much more likely to be lurking inside our homes than prowling around, outside in the dark. But we find it easier to focus on the strangers and the danger that they pose. I’m not intending to belittle any attempt to keep our children safe. We must do everything in our power to protect them from harm (and it’s never an easy balancing act, protecting them and at the same time encouraging them into new experiences and challenges). What troubles me is the climate of fear built around the stranger. In my experience, fear is a great crippler. If you ever doubt the existence of the devil, talk to somebody who is prone to anxiety attacks. Fear closes you down, stops you from building relationships, stops you from acting in love. The devil uses fear incredibly effectively. He uses it to stop us from growing, sharing and becoming the radical change-makers that Jesus intended his followers to be. The Bible is full of examples of God’s people showing hospitality—not just a lukewarm kindness—to strangers. Abraham entertained angels (Genesis 18) and in Hebrews we are reminded of this: ‘Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it’ (13:2). In Matthew, Jesus goes further: ‘I was a stranger and you invited me in …whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:35b, 40). In fearing the stranger we don’t just miss out on an opportunity to put God’s love for us into practice, we reject Jesus himself. In a world that is divided between them and us, the haves and the have-nots, it is more important than ever that we welcome the stranger. That we who have much are generous to those with nothing. That we who are strong support those who are weak. That we back up our words with real action. Who knows how we might be blessed as we overcome our fear of the other?
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FEATURES
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05 Wise up! ACLE draws Lutheran educators northwards 21 Lighting the darkness 24 From Yirara with love
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COLUMNS 04 Heartland 10 Rhythms of Grace 11 Reel Life 12 Little Church
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13 Inside Story 15 Directory 16 Letters 18 Stepping Stones 20 Notices 23 Bookmarks 26 Heart and Home 28 World in Brief 30 Coffee Break
It takes a long time to build an empire. It takes even longer for that empire to die. For many years we have been watching the slow death of European empires that were built up over a period of 500 years and more. We are in a time of change and a shift in the balance of power—globally, regionally and locally. As a result many people are suffering through no fault of their own. Australia itself was once an imperial penal colony—literally, a prison to which Britain exported its criminals. It was a brutal period that has marked the national character. New Zealand, fortunately, never suffered the same fate. Today we think of ourselves as liberal democracies. We are free and open. We no longer lock people up on arrival. We offer a welcoming home to new migrants and refugees far away from fear and the threat of death. Or do we? It’s true that generations of migrants and refugees have arrived here and found a welcome. Sometimes the full sense of welcome was a struggle that took many years. It can never be taken for granted. This is shown
in the current Australian debate over the relatively small numbers of desperate people who arrive with no official refugee papers. Governments are rising and falling over this sensitive issue. Many of us were once refugees or migrants, or our parents or grandparents were. How does this affect our attitude to the stranger? Do we freely welcome him or her, or do we instinctively protect what we think is rightfully ours, unwilling to share? Do we live in fear, or in love and trust? This question goes to the heart of the love we believe God has for the world and for all people. Recently, Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land visited Australia. He is a Palestinian refugee from 1948. In Brisbane, before nearly 1000 Lutheran educators, he spoke powerfully of God’s call to welcome the stranger. ‘My faith teaches that compassion, mercy, love and hospitality are for everyone: the native-born and the foreignborn, the member of my community and the newcomer.’ Lutherans across the world are taking this seriously, along with fellow Christians and those of other faith communities. One fruit of this is the resource
Welcoming the Stranger: Affirmations for faith leaders. You will find it on the LCA website (www.lca.org.au). I encourage you to read this short document. Think and pray about your attitude to the stranger among us. Reflect on the Bible’s radical command to love our neighbour (Matthew 22:39; 25:35; Hebrews 13:1,2).
Do we freely welcome (the stranger), or do we instinctively protect what we think is rightfully ours, unwilling to share? The LCA’s current motto is ‘Where love comes to life’. We show that love personally and locally in our worship, congregational and ministry activities. In an uncertain and often violent world, in the midst of change, our combined Christian voice can also help our countries— and our politicians—make sure that we remain welcoming societies, showing compassion and care for those in need.
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Wise Up! ACLE draws Lutheran educators northwards Photo: Academy Photography
by Serena Williams and Rosie Schefe
Transforming minds, bodies and hearts
Pioneer of internet usage in the classroom, US educator Alan November skypes into ACLE to deliver his keynote address. Approximately 1000 participants gathered in the humid embrace of spring in Brisbane for the fourth Australian Conference on Lutheran Education (ACLE) from 30 September to 2 October.
afternoon: an extended opportunity to try something new, visit the Brisbane cultural precinct or meet with colleagues to discuss mutual areas of responsibility.
The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre main hall was transformed into an auditorium for worship and keynote addresses, while a nearby exhibition space provided room for sponsors and exhibitors to talk to participants during breaks or less formal parts of the program.
Meeting under the theme ’Wise Up! Transforming Mind, Body and Heart in Lutheran Education’, the conference drew not only teachers and other educators, but also pastors, people in non-teaching roles and international guests from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the United States.
The strong elective program included a ‘mini-conference’ on Tuesday
But it wasn’t just about professional and spiritual development: ACLE has
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always been about meeting old and new colleagues from around Australia, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones, as people share their experiences and memories of service in Lutheran schools.
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Photo: Rosie Schefe
Amy DeMartino and Tom Smith were two of many students from Lutheran schools and colleges taking part in worship activities and keynote sessions at ACLE. On the stage were 16-year-old Amy DeMartino and 17-year-old Tom Smith, bringing tears to the eyes of some of the 900 assembled teachers as they sang How Great is our God in opening worship on the final morning of ACLE. When Tom started school at Faith Lutheran College, Plainlands, in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley, he was so shy he would not even strum his guitar in public. Amy DeMartino would not share with others her talent for singing because she was terrified that she’d be laughed at. Then Tom and Amy felt called to join the school’s worship band, ’Shine’, and God began working in them, through the teachers who ran the band.
after the stunning duet. That regular way of focusing on God has given her confidence not only in her singing, but also in other endeavours. She has written her own song, The Stolen Generation, based on her Aboriginal heritage, and her talent has led her to become Cultural Captain at Faith. In this role she has been part of a team from Faith that visits Dirranbandi State School each year and takes part in cultural activities with them. Dirranbandi is more than 500 kilometres west of the Lockyer Valley, and the school has a significant population of Indigenous students.
‘I believe it was meant to be, that I joined Shine worship band. When I sing worship songs, I think “This is about God, not about me”’, Amy told The Lutheran
Tom Smith’s journey has been even more dramatic. The boy who would not play in front of anyone else has grown into Faith’s Spiritual Leader (of the students). He regularly leads chapel, went to Uganda to help build a house for war orphans—and has now written a song to raise money for them.
What collective noun do you apply to a group of teachers attending a conference on Lutheran education?
the altar—Anthony also went deeper, searching out its Greek root word ‘akolouthos’, meaning follower.
Organiser Anthony Mueller came up with the perfect name: ‘ACLE-ites’!
So participants became ACLE-ites, as they worshipped together and followed keynote speakers through the maze that is modern educational thought and practice.
Noting the similarity between the acronym and the English word ‘acolyte’—meaning an attendant at 6
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He credits Faith College and the Shine worship band for this amazing growth.
When I sing worship songs, I think: This is about God, not about me ‘Shine was a booster. We’ve also done a couple of school musicals and public speaking, and this has just really encouraged me in my love of music.’ As a young Christian, Tom says he connects with God in quiet times such as prayer and at church, but he feels God’s presence more among his youth group, when he is having fellowship with others his own age. To access Amy’s own song, visit www.soundcloud.com
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Blessed are the peacemakers On the opening morning of the ACLE conference, the leader of the Lutheran World Federation and bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Rev Dr Munib Younan, evoked a powerful image of reconciliation, an image born from one of the most explosive religious media storms of recent times. The year was 2005; a Danish newspaper had inflamed the world by publishing cartoons derogatory of Islam. Across the Middle East violence and bloodshed had flared, spilling towards the West. In Lutheran school classrooms in the Holy Land, where the student population is almost evenly split between Christians and Muslims, students from kindergarten to Year 12 were asked to wrestle with the question: ‘Does freedom of speech give us the right to desecrate religious symbols and traditions of the other?’ And so something which had caused hatred became, in the classroom, a means of discovering each other’s point of view, and learning how to overcome difference through peacemaking. ‘In this dialogue, they recognised that mutual regard and respect for the other is the foundation of peaceful co-existence, of a life filled with hope’, Bishop Younan said. Bishop Younan is himself a Palestinian refugee—he holds a UN refugee card from 1948—and credits his education with helping him to overcome victimhood to live a full life of witness to Jesus. ‘In my own life, were it not for the many teachers and mentors who taught and nurtured me throughout my life, I would
have simply accepted the status of refugee and resigned myself to being a victim. It was through education that I learnt victimhood is not God’s intention for me’, he told the conference. And he believes education is the way to overcome terrorism. He quoted Malala Yousafzai, the courageous young woman from Pakistan, who was critically injured by extremists for promoting education for women. She told the UN that the extremists are frightened of education. ‘We were created to be enlightened’, Bishop Younan told the conference, ‘and our enlightenment is a gift from God that draws us closer to our creator. Education is about more than sums or proper grammar. Education is the light casting out the darkness; it is love casting out fear; it is strength casting out weakness.’ He challenged Australian Lutheran schools and churches to think about how they can partner with their counterparts in the Holy Land, for our mutual education about others. Peace-building was a strong theme throughout the conference, with workshops on practical processes for schools. In his keynote address Rev John Henderson, Bishop of the Lutheran Church of Australia, told delegates he felt that the church and its key ministry, the schools, often failed to understand each other and that peace-building was required between them. ‘The church is reasonably ignorant of the world of its schools, and sometimes you at the schools see the church making decisions you think are arcane’, he said.
‘I deeply regret that sometimes the relationship seems to be about who holds the power. Power struggles are natural wherever you have people, but I’m interested in creating a space where we can move beyond that.’
Education is the light casting out the darkness Bishop Henderson said he had personally suffered trauma at school, as the family had moved often because of his father’s work. It had taken him many years to be able to even set foot in a classroom. ‘As teachers you hold a lot of spiritual power, you run the risk of inflicting spiritual abuse’, he said. ‘Do we as a church give you enough guidelines on how to promote the gospel?’ Bishop Henderson has asked schoolteachers to send him emails describing how the church might better support schools and teachers in this area. ‘You carry the message of Jesus. You are ambassadors of the cross. That’s the reason I will support you—in that we are totally equal. You have a more direct access to children, every day, and that is the most precious thing you can have.’ Full transcripts of Bishop Younan and Bishop Henderson’s keynote addresses to ACLE are available at www.lca.org.au A profile of Bishop Younan will appear in the December issue of The Lutheran.
In the opening service Bishop John Henderson preached on Romans 12:1,2 urging Christian educators to understand the important role they have in helping young people experience the transforming power of the gospel. While people often consider schools to be places of conformity, he said, schools and educators are in fact Vol 47 No10 P355
Photo: Academy Photography
Transforming lives agents of transformation, encouraging their students to change from within. ‘As Christian educators, you also offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God’, he said. ‘You become fully presented to God, to each other and to yourselves. You engage in spiritual worship in everything that you do, not just in a single, specified activity. You carry worship within you’, he said.
Bishop John Henderson preaches on the opening verses of Romans 12. The Lutheran November 2013
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Photo: Academy Photography
A panel discussion and questions followed Bishop Munib Younan’s keynote address. Bishop Younan shares a little extra time with student panellists Sam Roehrs, Raashi Agarwal and Simone Wilson from St Peters College, Indooroopilly and facilitator Dr Bronwyn Dolling from Pacific Lutheran College, Caloundra.
Inspiring, enlightening, growing, dancing … When 1000 teachers and others involved in Lutheran education make their way to Brisbane to discuss continuing the Enlightenment through Christian education, you could expect a major buzz. But the crackle at ACLE was much more than just a gathering of teachers to discuss their business. It was an amazing festival of hope renewing itself. Many came exhausted from term three—juggling NAPLAN, behavior management, Year 12 exams—and found themselves energised by the conviction that what they do makes a difference. From the beginning, when Bishop Munib Younan opened with a message from the Holy Land of hope and peace through education, through to modern lessons in how to teach students to discern truth from within the most mindblowing technological explosion in the world’s history—the regular celebration 8
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and examination of the church’s ministry of education put a sparkle into even the oldest teachers’ eyes. Each day began with focus on the Lord Jesus, as it does in our schools. And just as in the schools, the worship was led by teachers, students and chaplains, who danced, sang, spoke and even clowned to ensure the focus of the day was on the Saviour. ‘One little girl who’d just danced her heart out for Jesus told me she’d got up at five am—in her holidays—to do this’, Lutheran Education Queensland Director and organising committee member Sue Kloeden told The Lutheran: ‘The worship was absolutely inspiring and amazing.’ Ms Kloeden said ACLE had achieved its aim of reflecting ‘who we are, as a group of Lutheran educators’. ‘It was fantastic to see so many people bubbling with excitement about what they were learning and being challenged by’, she said.
One little girl who’d just danced her heart out for Jesus told me she’d got up at five am— in her holidays—to do this It was a massive effort. Organisers began planning in early 2012 through a variety of committees. The communications technology used—from apps, to YouTube, to ACLE television, to video linkups with internet education guru Alan November in Boston—was spectacular. There was not one major breakdown (which might almost be officially classed as a miracle!). ACLE organiser Derek Bartels (alias Mr ACLE, or ACLE Man—depending on the day) said he was thrilled that Vol 47 No10 P356
Photo: Academy Photography
Photo: Academy Photography
He said schools had a responsibility also to educate parents, as the internet had completely changed the old maxim that parents know more than their children.
Left: Following the Welcome to Country by Aunty Carol Currie, Adrian Burragubbi and the Wiirdi Binbi Dancers from Belyando River, Central Queensland, performed a number of dances explaining their cultural links to land and water. Right: Tuesday morning worship opens with students from Redeemer Lutheran College, Rochedale, performing a liturgical dance to Shout to the Lord.
We have been challenged and given the confidence to recognise that no longer do we just serve the smaller Lutheran communities of old. Now we are serving new communities, which reflect Australian society the complicated communications technology had worked so smoothly. But he was even happier that so many different arms of the LCA had been present at ACLE to see the church’s ministry of education at its best. ‘Of the four ACLEs I’ve been to, this one had the biggest number of different arms of the church’, Mr Bartels said. ‘It was good to see so many of our bishops on the stage, and also in the audience, getting an understanding more intrinsically of what Lutheran schools are about. ‘Some of the best comments came from people who are new to Lutheran education—many of them said they never realised there were 86 schools across Australia and that it was such a cohesive network’.
Mr Bartels said the emphasis on communications technology had helped the whole group of educators—and the church—to develop new networks. ‘I’ve seen the online communications, reflecting that people are now seeing themselves as part of a very large family.’ He said it was his hope that educators would use the learning they received to engage more with technology as a means of sharing knowledge. Alan November’s keynote address, which has been summarised and put onto the ACLE website, gave much hope for educators who find the sheer size and anarchy of the internet daunting. He gave teachers a set of tools to teach students how to discern the quality of websites and information over the internet.
‘We know that, with internet technology, by far the major part of learning takes place outside the school building—so the school definitely has a responsibility to get the whole family up to speed, so that all students have access to the possibilities that it provides.’ Lutheran Education Australia executive director Stephen Rudolph said ACLE 4 had been a key moment in Lutheran education, as it challenged each teacher and each school to take its place in the world. He said each keynote speaker had opened up new ideas on the modern challenges of education: from Bishop Younan’s comments on education’s power to teach peace, to the opportunities and challenges of the internet. ‘We have been challenged and given the confidence to recognise that no longer do we just serve the smaller Lutheran communities of old. Now we are serving new communities, which reflect Australian society’, Mr Rudolph said. ‘As Lutheran schools, we should be confident in what we are doing locally to equip young people to Christian service in their world of the future. ‘We enable our people to lift their chins and confidently say, “I am going to present myself as a leader in service to my community”—because the gospel gives us that confidence and we base our education on that.’ Mr Rudolph congratulated the organising committee for planning an event which would live on in the hearts and actions of educators for months and years ahead. The next ACLE will be held in Adelaide in 2017.
It was everywhere: there was no escape Almost certainly this was the most technologically focused ACLE ever—with 400 iPads available on loan to anyone thoughtless enough not to bring their own; with a ‘myACLE app’ (essential for navigating the program); and with film and TV students recording proceedings. There was even a dedicated ACLE wifi network in place for the conference: the Convention Centre’s own wifi network was not capable of handling the traffic. Vol 47 No10 P357
For some participants it was quite unsettling to see people concentrating on their mobile phones or iPads during presentations, but for others this was an encouraging sign that delegates were fully participating in what was going on— taking part in online polls, giving instant feedback and writing summaries on the run. And then there were the fashionistas, using mobile apps to search out where certain outfits could be purchased online … The Lutheran November 2013
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