Crosslight June 2015

Crosslight No. 255 June 2015

03

07

05

12-14

Choir members in Hobart find hope and belonging through sharing songs.

We speak with departing leader of the Greens, Christine Milne, about her life as an advocate for change.

Nigel Tapp examines the proliferation of payday loans and finds there’s no such thing as easy money.

How do we achieve redemption and rehabilitation in the justice system?

17

The attitude of world leaders towards asylum seekers has been in the headlines again.

This month’s pageChristians image is of a Rohingyan child being processedproclaim after spendingthese weeks Christ is front risen. all around the world at sea. The plight of refugees struggling to survive has brought out the best and the worst words, and have so forpoorest centuries, in acknowledgement in humanity.

While somedone of the world’s people, Aceh fishermen, rushed to help, politicians bickered andgrace armed forces were deployed to stop Happy the boat loads of desperate of the hope and of the risen Christ.

Easter. people from coming ashore. As for the reaction to this humanitarian crisis from our own leaders? All we can say is “nope, nope, nope.”

Image courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd

Tim Lam reviews Evaporating Borders, a film that explores the difficult issue of seeking asylum.

24

Synod Snaps brings you images from throughout the Church and beyond.

Regulars Reviews - 18 to 19 Letters - 19 to 20 Placements - 20 to 21 Opinion - 22 Moderator’s column - 23

Editorial Protecting the innocent PENNY MULVEY

“NOBODY wants you, nobody cares about you. You’re just a nobody,” Gordon Hill, known for many years only as ‘29’, told the Royal Commission into institutional responses to Child Sex Abuse during the hearing in Ballarat last month.

Communications & Media Services

UCA Synod Office, 130 Little Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Phone: (03) 9251 5200 Email: crosslight@victas.uca.org.au ISSN 1037 826X

“People were called by boat ID. People had no value. No guards called me by name.

They knew our name, but only called by boat ID,” (a 16 year old boy is quoted in The Forgotten Children report, Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014) “But the pain, I just couldn’t keep bringing it up over and over again. Because it’s unbearable. If you’ve never been in that situation then you don’t know. You would never know the pain. And one day I hope that I will feel happiness. I will be happy.

But at the moment I’m just plodding along as I am.” Barbara Kickett speaking as part of the Stolen Generations’ testimonies: http://stolengenerationstestimonies.com/ index.php/testimonies/985.html But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom

of God belongs to such as these. Luke 18:16 Our governments, our institutions – churches, schools, clubs, synagogues, and behind the closed doors of family homes – have much to answer for the ways we have treated, and continue to treat, the most vulnerable and the most trusting members of our communities – our children.

It is hard to fathom the horrors inflicted on children by the Catholic Church in the Ballarat region for so many years. And yet, tragically, these stories are not isolated, historic or unique. The psychological impacts of abuse and detention are lifelong and inter-generational, as is reported by members of the Stolen Generations.

“It’s filtered right down through the system, like gone from first generation to the second, to the third and to the fourth and to the fifth. We’re looking at now, I think six

generations. And it’s affecting the children today. That’s why a lot of the kids are getting in trouble too. Because the life that their parents have had, and their grandparents, the not knowing whether they would see their children again. I think that plays a big part on the way that, their usage of the alcohol, not so much drugs back then, but the use of alcohol mostly. But today society it’s more alcohol and drugs,” 53 year old Melbourne Hart, speaking as part of the Stolen Generations’ Testimonies.

How many royal commissions, enquiries, court cases, will it take before this nation recognises our full responsibilities towards the care and wellbeing of all children, no matter their colour, ethnicity, socio economic or legal status. “…the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Crosslight is a monthly newspaper produced by the Communications and Media Services unit of The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania.

It is published 11 times a year.

Opinions expressed in Crosslight do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the policies of The Uniting Church.

Circulation: 21,000 (publisher’s figure).

Staff:

Deadlines: Advertising and editorial.

Executive Editor - Penny Mulvey Managing Editor - Deb Bennett Design and Digital Illustration - Garth Jones Journalist - Ben Grundy Senior Advertising & Print Services Officer - Andrew Juma Communications Manager - Nigel Tapp Online Content Coordinator - Emmet O’Cuana Communications Officer - Tim Lam P.A to Executive Editor - Heather Thomson Senior Media Officer - Ros Marsden

Advertising: Crosslight accepts advertising in good faith.

Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement.

Advertising material is at the discretion of the publisher.

Distribution: Crosslight is usually distributed the first Sunday of the month.

Please check exact dates on our website <crosslight.org.au>.

Closing date for July – Friday 19 June 2015.

Printing: Rural Press, Ballarat Visit Crosslight online: crosslight.org.au

ucavictas

ucavictas

News Senator Christine Milne moves on NIGEL TAPP SIX years as a boarder at St Mary’s College in Hobart taught Christine Milne that people with skills need to give back to their community.

It was this lesson from the nuns which took the former North-West school teacher first to the national stage as the spokesperson for a community action group which stopped the Wesley Vale pulp mill in Tasmania in 1989, and then to state and federal parliaments.

Senator Milne announced last month that she would not be re-contesting her seat at next year’s federal election and is expected to leave parliament by the end of the year.

She spoke with Crosslight about her achievements in the social justice and environment spheres.

Ms Milne’s first foray into activism began when she campaigned to protect huts in Tasmania’s famous Cradle Mountain region. Then, in 1983, she was arrested and jailed during the campaign to save the Franklin River from a proposed dam for a Hydro Electric power scheme.

In November 1987, multinational company Noranda and North Broken Hill announced its intention to build a pulp mill on farm land at Wesley Vale, in Tasmania’s North-West. Ms Milne found

School’s service THE Aitken College community recently gathered for their monthly Sunday worship at school. The service included a pet blessing service and was followed by a picnic lunch.

Aitken College chaplain Rev Jeanne Beale said the services at the college have been running since 2013 and have steadily grown as a fresh expression of church.

herself thrust into the role of spokeswoman for concerned farming families and the wider local community.

It was a campaign undertaken very differently to the slick multimedia marketing of today. For a start it was done at her kitchen table and there was no such thing as mobile phones, the internet, email or social media.

“My press releases were written by hand, the only phone was on the wall in the kitchen and when we sent scientific reports to Hobart it was by bus because it was quicker than posting them,” she recalled.

But the result was effective.

In March 1989, sensing the growing community hostility, Noranda withdrew from the project and Liberal premier Robin Gray called a snap election to seek a mandate for a mill. Mr Gray’s government was soundly beaten and Ms Milne was one of five anti-pulp mill supporters to win seats and allow Labor to govern in minority with an agreement that spelt the end to a mill.

She went on to become the first woman to lead a political party in Tasmania and finally to leadership of the Australian Greens in federal parliament. Ms Milne said the time was now right for her to step away from parliament, as she believes in the abilities of her fellow Greens in the federal arena.

“My job is not done and it is never going to be done because the two major parties and the Nationals come from an ethos of

exploiting the planet and that is going to go on for generations,” she said.

“But it is the right time because there is a great team in federal parliament to carry on.”

Ms Milne is not about to simply fade away.

She will remain a passionate advocate for policies which protect the environment convinced there are only years, rather than decades, before a significant world agreement is needed on the issue Ms Milne would dearly love to have seen marriage equality enacted in Australia before she left parliament, particularly after watching the over-whelming support in Ireland at last month’s referendum.

“It is such a blessing being able to share in worship,” Ms Beale said.

“Our monthly Sundays offer a way into the gospel that is non-threatening and speaks to today’s young family.

“We have a half hour worship reflection, followed by cuppa, cakes and conversation, while we work together on reflective activities. It is wonderful to lead worship and I am just about the only one with grey hair!”

Chris Ward, director of chaplaincy at

Aitken College, said the Sunday worship was one way the college is reaching out to the broader community.

“We have been running a variety of worship and community building opportunities since 2004,” he said.

“Our most successful is our monthly Wednesday evening messy church where we regularly have over 100 in attendance.”

This month’s Sunday service at Aitken College will focus on the theme “Spiritual Journey”.

Insights into our culture A DESIRE for goodwill to others featured strongly in the recent culture survey conducted by the Major Strategic Review (MSR). Being theologically reflective, focusing on mission, discipleship and faith formation also featured as desired attributes for the Church’s future.

The MSR conducted an online survey from mid-February to early March in order to better understand the current and desired culture of the synod. More than 1000 responses were received from people throughout the life of the Church.

“We would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey,” Dr Mark Lawrence, general secretary and

chairperson of the MSR, said.

“The survey results have given us some deep insights into our life together as a Church across the synod.”

The attributes of compassion and social justice were consistently selected by participants across their personal, current and desired categories.

“Having values repeated within all the categories tells us how people identify with the Church currently and suggests they would support a vision that builds on these values,” Dr Lawrence said.

“The results also indicate people want changes in a number of areas, calling for greater accountability and leadership development. It appears that our positive energy is focused outwards towards others, but we are unfortunately lacking in areas of self-care and internal community spirit.

“The MSR has heard similar messages as we have talked and listened with people across the Church. This survey reaffirms that we have strengths we can build on and people are also calling for change and renewal.”

A summary of the survey findings is available on the MSR Listening Post website (www.listeningpost.victas.uca.org.au).

Results have also been shared with the Synod Standing Committee, the Centre for Theology & Ministry, as well as the senior leadership team for synod-based ministries and operations. The findings will support the development of future training, leadership programs and strategic planning.

The next service will be held Sunday, 21 June at 10.30am, members of the wider community are welcome to attend. For more information please contact Jeanne at jbeale@aitkencollege.edu.au, or call 9333 1866 during school hours.

Children and pets enjoying the picnic.

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

3

Profile “Our concern centres on the fact that the apparent rehabilitation of Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran was not taken into account. Rehabilitation is a fundamental aspect of successful prison systems. Mr Chan became an ordained Christian priest; Mr Sukumaran became a renowned artist. Both were spending their time in jail helping to reform and improve the lives of other prisoners in the Indonesian prison system.” JULIE BISHOP, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 29 APRIL 2015 THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE DEATHS OF ANDREW CHAN AND MYURAN SUKUMARAN HIGHLIGHT NOT ONLY THE SENSELESSNESS OF EXECUTION AS PUNISHMENT, BUT ALSO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SUCCESSFUL PRISONER REHABILITATION. IN THIS FEATURE, ROS MARSDEN EXAMINES WHAT REHABILITATION IN AUSTRALIA LOOKS LIKE FOR PRISONERS AND ASKS IF WE CAN START REFORM EVEN BEFORE AN OFFENDER IS SENTENCED.

‘Out Into the Cold – Where to Now?’ ON 24 March 2015, Lentara UnitingCare, the Uniting Church in Australia Presbytery of Port Phillip West, the Royal District Nursing Service Homeless Persons Program and Yarra Housing presented a one-day conference, Out Into the Cold – Where to Now? The conference, held at the Hopper’s Crossing Uniting Church, was funded by the Presbytery of Port Phillip West’s Simpson Bequest.

The Conference

walk straight through you.”

Another challenge for former prisoners is the preconceived ideas of others. Kevin spoke emotionally of an experience he had while working with a charity. Even after working with a co-worker for 12 months, his colleague refused to let him work unsupervised.

“Simple as it sounds, ridiculous as it sounds, that hurt me more than someone calling me a crim. That person should have seen what I had done, seen what my worth was and judged me on that, not on my past.”

Kevin spoke of the importance of training programs within prison. While there were still barriers to overcome, training and education showed prospective employers that he was willing to commit to something.

“A company took a chance with me knowing full well about my history, knowing full well that they could see I was big and ugly and I really didn’t fit their mould. But the company took a risk and hopefully I’ve paid back that risk they’ve taken. Proudly, I was the acting operations manager for three weeks while my manager was overseas.

“I continue to study. I want to emphasise strongly that, apart from housing, study is the most important thing people can have. If everyone in jail gets their fork lift licence and their occupational first aid, that will help them get a job. Basically I just want to say is what people need is not empathy or sympathy, they need respect, not just from you but from themselves. If they don’t respect themselves, they’re not going to respect laws, they’re not going to respect communities; you have to have self-respect and you only get self-respect if you feel worthwhile.

“You need to emphasise strengths and do not judge.”

The conference brought together people working to support the successful reintegration of offenders into the community after their release from prison.

A total of 93 people attended from a wide range of disciplines, including employment agencies, mental health services, housing services, asylum seeker support agencies, Department of Corrections, Department of Justice and agencies specifically providing prison support, pre-and post-release.

A common theme that emerged at the conference was the disconnect between state government initiatives and the day-to-day issues of people recently released from prison.

Participants noted the lack of emphasis the government currently gives to community based rehabilitation programs.

Keynote speaker, Christopher Trotter, is a professor in the Social Work Department at Monash University and director of the Criminal Justice Research Consortium. Prof Trotter cited evidence that if a support person demonstrated high levels of socialisation and empathy, then the offender would be influenced by these models of behaviour and have more chance of a better outcome.

The conference highlighted the need for a post-release support information package for every person leaving prison to ensure they can access basic services. In addition to this, participants emphasised the need for careful planning for released prisoners in relation to securing accommodation, employment and a range of support services, particularly health related assistance.

From a congregational perspective, the conference offered the opportunity to create ‘Communities of Hope’ for people exiting prison. A key objective was to look at ways to The book offer assistance which also built quality relationships between all involved within a safe and supported environment.

Australian criminal defence lawyer Russell Marks, in his book Crime & Punishment: A current resident of Judy Lazarus Transitional Centre – which provides a supervised Offenders and Victims in a Broken Justice System(Redback 2015) argues that prison pathway back into society for selected prisoners nearing the end of their sentence – spoke increases the chances of an offender committing further crimes about his journey through the Victorian justice system. and that restorative justice and community correction is the way He noted that the centre provided him with the selfforward. He believes that finding a job after release is almost confidence, motivation and opportunity to turn his life I was walking down impossible and that medical, dental and mental health problems around. are “rarely addressed properly inside”. Added to that, the rigid At the end of the conference, participants agreed that there the street dancing, just atmosphere inside does not prepare prisoners for taking care of was a need to work more collaboratively in order to address trying to stay away from themselves after release, particularly if friends have lost contact current service gaps. A steering group has been formed to and they only have ex-prisoners for support. continue to develop a plan of action based on the conference people because it was Marks also blames the media for playing on outrage and painting findings. just so alien offenders in simplistic terms of evil villain motivated by evil intent. He gives examples of journalists littering their copy with The personal story words like thug, coward and scum without questioning whether the offender may be a “kid who fell through the cracks.”

One of the speakers at the Out Into The Cold conference, Kevin, spoke of his journey The author questions the crime and punishment model and believes that because matters following his release from prison after five-and-a-half years in a correctional facility, heard in the magistrates’ courts can be less serious, there may be a chance to assist noting that he overcame a range of personal and societal barriers upon his release. He offenders to reform. Marks suggests exploring models like ‘community conferencing’ is now in full employment as a result of long-term support through the Communal before sentencing, or a NSW model called ‘forum sentencing’ and the Victorian model Justice Project at Lentara UnitingCare. When it was first suggested that he go to Lentara of ‘group conferencing’. These models can range from face-to-face meetings with victims he thought ‘bloody church group’, but at the conference, he commended their care and through to intervention plans. But all these models rely on good resourcing and excellent support. convenors.

“I made the decision when I went to jail that it wasn’t going to change me. It changed me Ultimately Marks states that we need social solutions to social problems and that offenders dramatically,” Kevin said. often struggle with several forms of disadvantage. “It is really a failure by the entire “People talk about getting out of prison – you never get out of prison. You may escape the society, and one that society has a responsibility to address” the author concludes. actual walls but it will stay with you forever. But with proper support, with community Mark Zirnsak, director of the Justice and International Mission unit, said the Uniting help, people can and do get up again.”

Church is planning a significant public campaign in Victoria for the state government to Actually being released from prison was the first very small step on Kevin’s journey to look at alternatives to the current justice system. ‘freedom’.

“The prison focussed policies of the previous state government have resulted in an increase “The worst thing about being released is that people on the street do not respect your in the number of people who reoffend after leaving prison,” Dr Zirnsak said. space. That was the scariest thing for me.

“We will be advocating for programs, and responses to people who break the law, that “In jail you keep your metre distance otherwise you get belted. After five-and-a-half years take them off the path from becoming serious criminals and which reduce crime rates by of keeping my metre distance I was walking down the street dancing, just trying to stay away from people because it was just so alien. People just don’t respect your space and they preventing crime. Such responses are good for everyone as less people become victims of crime and fewer people are in prisons.”

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 1 3:3) CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

5

News Home is where the heart is BEN GRUNDY THE plight of refugees and asylum seekers can be an exasperating issue for those who campaign for just and humane policies towards people displaced by war and persecution.

Scarcely a week passes without various tragedies appearing in the media that expose the lived experience of such individuals.

The ongoing humanitarian crisis of refugees and asylum seekers stranded in the Andaman Sea, and the Straits of Malacca, is only the latest instance of such events.

Another recent story details the discovery of at least 140 bodies in Thailand’s Songkhla province. The bodies, dumped in shallow graves, are suspected to be Rohingya people – an oppressed ethnic minority from Myanmar. Other discoveries have uncovered makeshift cages presumed to hold victims of people smuggling.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in their native Myanmar. They often flee religious persecution only to fall victim to human traffickers peddling claims of safety and a better life.

A common thread embedded within these and other tragedies is the desperation of people seeking safety, freedom from persecution and a place to call home.

Such stories, particularly in light of the Australian political response to refugees and asylum seekers, may paralyse some into despondency and inaction.

The realities of such injustices can seem a world away and it often appears there is little that one person can do to help.

However, there are opportunities to provide practical support for refugees and asylum seekers in towns, cities and suburbs throughout the country.

The Lentara UnitingCare Asylum Seeker Project (ASP) has a long history of

Building Harmony through cricket and song LARRY MARSHALL UNITING Through Faiths (a Commission for Mission project) organised the second annual Sri Lankan Harmony Day on 28 March at Wesley College in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

supporting some of the most vulnerable individuals living in our community.

For many years the ASP has assisted asylum seekers lawfully living in the community while their claims for protection are processed. The veritable maze of bridging visas and limited government support afforded to some of these individuals is perhaps best surmised as complex and grossly inadequate.

Many struggling to survive with no government assistance rely heavily on organisations such as Lentara UnitingCare.

In combination with material aid, casework support and other support, the ASP housing program is an initiative that links individuals and groups that own underutilised property with those in desperate need of housing.

Many Uniting Church congregations and individual members are deciding to offer property to support the ASP. Marian (not her real name) is a lively Melbourne woman in her 80s who has long-standing connections with the Uniting Church.

Marian’s laid back matter-of-fact approach to helping others made offering an underused holiday property to house asylum seekers an easy decision.

“It was back in 2011 that I just thought ‘I’m not really using the property’, so I rang the Asylum Seeker Project and someone came out and we went to see if it might be suitable.

“The rest is history,” she said.

Marian made the decision to pay the property rates as a further commitment to provide practical support in the face of harsh policies imposed upon individuals being assessed for asylum.

Of a generation that lived through the

depression, Marian is quick to point out the relative wealth of many Australians compared to those who have so little. Like many advocates, Marian is guided by the moral imperative to treat all people with respect and dignity.

“I am ashamed of our government – I cannot believe that they can treat people so badly,” she said.

“In some people’s books I probably don’t have a very privileged life, but in many ways I think I’ve been very privileged. So I feel if I can help someone else who hasn’t had advantages, why wouldn’t I do it?”

Since offering her outer-Melbourne property to the ASP, various individuals and families have had a place to call home.

Many formed meaningful bonds with local communities.

Several former occupants of the property have gone on to gain qualifications and employment while continuing to live in the community.

“It’s very heartening to hear the community has embraced people who have lived at the property and that I was able to play a small part in that,” Marian said.

“A sense of community and home is very important – if you don’t have a home how can you have any sort of a life?”

This notion of home is a driving factor for the many groups and individuals who decide to offer underutilised property to house refugees and asylum seekers through the ASP. There are currently 16 other properties that have been provided to house people seeking asylum, many of whom would otherwise face homelessness.

North Essendon Uniting Church is an active congregation involved in a range of local community support work.

The congregation also made the decision to offer property for the ASP. Rev Fran Barber said the congregation began discussing the option to offer property late last year., and it now houses five people seeking asylum.

“The congregation considered the missional needs in our area and one suggestion from the start was offering a property to the ASP housing program,” she said.

“There was a feeling amongst the congregation that we’ve got this house and it can’t be left empty, so let’s try and do something really positive with it.”

The church arranged for a Lentara UnitingCare staff member to come and speak with the congregation about the agency’s work supporting refugees and asylum seekers.

“I think it was really helpful to have a representative from Lentara speak with us, because we hadn’t fully appreciated how little asylum seekers actually live with,” Ms Barber said.

“They don’t have access to anything really – other than 30 odd dollars a week.

“There’s no Medicare and no legal rights to work – I think once any reasonable person starts to think about what that would be like, you really just want to help.”

Like many congregations, the North Essendon Uniting Church was committed to assist in any practical way possible. In doing so the church join a host of groups working towards a shift in the national discussion surrounding displaced peoples who seek safety and a place to call home.

“In our church there is great discomfort with the way Australia is presenting itself to the world,” Ms Barber said.

“The act of offering a property is really subverting the national narrative about asylum seekers.

“Subversion is a strong word but in the current climate of politicisation of this issue it is a subversive act to say ‘you’re welcome here’. We’re aware of that and want to make that stand.”

More than 350 Sri Lankans from all ethnicities and religions came together in hope and celebration. They were joined by many friends of this large Sri Lankan diaspora.

The mood of the day was set by a rich cultural concert of ancient temple music, fusion dance, children’s voices raised in song, innovative youth theatre of reconciliation and fabulous choirs.

The finale saw choir master Rushan Hewawasam lead the whole audience in a rousing chorus of the national anthem in both the Sinhala and Tamil languages.

This is the first time this has been done in Australia and it provoked many smiles and hugs in the audience.

Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese singing together is an important symbol of a new mood of reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Recent presidential elections in January dislodged a war-time leader and ushered in a new administration more in tune with the deep yearning of the people for healing. There is a new energy and hope for building a sustainable and peaceful future together.

The Harmony concert was followed by

a sumptuous feast of curries and freshly made roti provided by Sri Lankan asylum seekers and staff from Lentil as Anything.

The day was made complete by some glorious cricket played in bright sunshine on the lush green ovals of Wesley College.

A perfect Sri Lankan day – good music, hot curries and cricket.

For more information on the Asylum Seeker Project contact Lentara UnitingCare on 9326 8343.

Go to Crosslight online to read more about the visit of Sri Lanka United.

Harmony Day celebrations.

6

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

News Inspiration in India DENISSE SANDOVAL EARLIER this year I went to India for 10 days as part of my work with the Justice and International Mission unit.

The purpose was to meet with NGOs working on the ground and build relationships for possible future collaboration.

I was last in India 11 years ago. On that first trip, the younger me journeyed with a different sense of self. I was searching for an answer to the world’s problems and I did not find it. Leaving from Melbourne in 2015, I psyched myself up for a challenging yet rewarding trip.

Delhi has changed a lot over the last 11 years; less beggars, a clean and frequent metro rail system, less animals in the streets. It wasn’t as exciting as I remembered, but it’s still confronting to a Westerner. Fortunately after four days there, I went to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where I was quickly reminded of the India I had met over a decade ago.

On my first day there, I met the good folks from Prayas, a local NGO which advocates on behalf of migrant workers, Dalit and Adivasi people.

The director, Preeti, asked if I would like to come along to a meeting in a slum where housing would be discussed. I agreed and

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

off we went to what would be the most hard-hitting experience of my 10 days in the great sub-continent.

The four of us rode on motorcycles going against traffic. I was soon praying for my life as the driver dodged oncoming cars, cows, and a bus. Red lights didn’t mean much that day. There was a police checkpoint attempting to hand out tickets, but this was laughable on a street where people break the traffic law every day.

We arrived at our destination. This slum is just off the highway, in the wedge between the off ramp and the train tracks.

A one-room school (built by Indian corporation L&T as part of their corporate social responsibility) caught my eye, as it was the only solid concrete structure there.

The sacks where people lived were hitched up with branches, making square tents on the bare hard dirt ground.

The communal toilet looked like a tall rectangle with a hodgepodge of sacks hanging from it.

Some wire cots were dragged out of tents as we gathered around. Soon I was ushered to sit next to Preeti on a cot, with the other NGO workers next to me.

We waited while more people gathered and skinny dogs milled around sniffing us. Children played on the train tracks above; I kept turning to observe for fear of an accident. The smell wasn’t so bad, even though we were right next to the toilet sack tent.

The meeting was underway when I noticed a very smiley woman sitting down in front of me. At first I thought she was just sitting

Hasumita with her family.

in a peculiar way – only when she moved did I realise she had no legs. To move about, she had to shuffle forward, then turn around, grab the sack from underneath her, place it in front of her, and shuffle again.

She was smiling directly at me, and since I speak no Gujarati, this is what I focused my attention on.

Other things I noticed were two women sharing a pair of flip flops, taking turns with them at the toilet tent. The children played barefoot with large square plastic dice. As it got darker one woman was busy building a fire with twigs inside her tent. Everyone looked clean, as if they had recently showered, and one lady came to the meeting with freshly wet hair. Their saris were a bit tattered, and the women wore jewellery on their wrists and ankles, either plastic bangles or dark looking silver.

They would shoo the dogs away with a large stick when they came near us.

Hundreds of people live along these train

tracks, and they are all being threatened with eviction in order for the metro to be built. They are Adivasi people who have lived here for more than 20 years. They had lived in a different slum before but were forced to move because a road was built right on their slum.

The woman with no legs, Hasumita, has a family who work as vegetable sellers, pushing around a large rented cart. I later found out that they all went to the housing rights rally, and pushed Hasumita along in the vegetable cart. She lost her legs in a train accident.

The next step is for the local municipality to guarantee in writing that the people living along the tracks will receive a fair relocation package. This is not easy, as it was explained to me by the NGO workers, and each step requires a fight. I will not soon forget Hasumita, nor the inspiration I felt as I left Ahmedabad.

7

Obituary Essie Tremewen: the heart and soul of The Grove 21/10/1920 – 5/5/2015

Essie and Bella

Adding life to the worship experience JUST over a year ago a small group of singers in Hobart began working with respected Christian singer/songwriter John Coleman to write songs to enhance the worship experience at Scots Memorial Uniting Church in the city.

Once a month their songs are performed as part of Sunday morning worship with the lyrics inspired by the chosen lectionary passages.

Now a wider audience will have access to their labour, with the Thirsty Ground

8

ESSIE Tremewen was the matriarch of The Grove Uniting Church in Box Hill – that is not in doubt. According to her daughter, Margaret Tremewen, I was her ‘toyboy’, the difference in our ages was a mere 14 years.

In ringing the Tremewen home, I would simply say ‘toyboy here’.

How I have enjoyed the phone calls, the visits to Whittens Lane and working with this amazing woman. For 14 years we worked together, Essie was secretary, I was chairperson of the then-church council.

We joked that we made beautiful music together.

As secretary she had a way of committing words to paper, be it a congratulatory letter or a formal letter to officialdom.

Her strong faith, and dedicated service to The Grove Church was like no other; for longevity of time, 68 remarkable years and holding many leadership positions, some from the inception of the organisation. She taught Sunday school, and was a steward then an elder for as long as I have been at The Grove.

She was indeed a stalwart of the church,

group launching a CD of their work at Scots last month. On 20 June they will take to the road to perform at Launceston’s Pilgrim Uniting Church from 7pm.

All are members of the Hobart Choir of High Hopes, which has been supported by Scots since its inception in 2007.

The Choir – which provides backing vocals on three of the tracks – offers people who sometimes struggle to become part of a community in a meaningful way the opportunity to find acceptance. Many members have experienced significant disability or illness; participation in the choir offers them a sense of purpose and friendship.

Members of Thirsty Ground form part of the regular Tuesday morning worship at Scots, which John facilitates. They gather separately on a Thursday to meditate on

being a strong worker at the fete we held every two years.

She loved singing and enjoyed the Christmas carol service, where she donated the candles that lit up as we waved them in the dark, and was a long standing member of the choir, even taking over leadership when Betty Fox retired. Essie was a member of the special women’s choir formed in the early days.

Essie performed with The Grove Players, they produced Cinderella. There is a photo of Essie standing on the platform in a very short very pink tutu, that photo will stay with me forever.

The writing of the History of the Grove that we published in 2006 would not have been possible without her encyclopaedic memory of people and events.

Her presence on the committee organising the 150th year celebration was invaluable for providing names of people who should be invited and their current addresses.

Essie was one of six ladies – Nance Ormston, Minnie Warr, Jean Burgess, Dorrie Krahe and May Hamilton – who travelled once a month to the Carlton Mission to prepare lunch, providing fish, mashed potato, and hot soup. They distributed flowers to those lacking a garden at home.

Essie and Nance also worked at the Charity Shop at the corner of Whitehorse Rd as well as the one in Station St supporting Orana Children’s Home. scriptural passages and create the lyrics that John sets to music.

John said the project had given all participants a great sense of ownership and pride.

“The opportunity to have their understanding of faith and life experiences put into song is a very powerful thing,” he said.

“The presentation of this work to the wider church has allowed their gifts to be revealed and the church and the members of our group are enriched because of this sharing.

“There’s been great feedback. And it’s a lot of fun.”

The members will quickly tell you what the project meant to them personally.

Wayne Aherne said all the words came from the heart and Kirby Harris said “it

She was President of the Young Women’s Fellowship formed in1950, The Friendly Circle and was chairperson of elders.

She has left us a lasting legacy, inspiring us here at The Grove by demonstrating the power of one person having the faith, the love, the service, and the dedication for this church.

Essie has left us a lasting visual legacy, having donated the beautiful, lead light window in the sanctuary, in memory of her mother Mrs Esther Crellin, Esther being Essie’s middle name. She was a mentor to elders and ministers alike.

As Essie had a way with words, it seemed appropriate that she write the introduction to the History of the Church 150 years on.

She wrote, “we hope that you will wander down memory lane with its memories, some sad, some glad, of the times of worship, fellowship, service and fun that we have experienced over the years.”

Yes Essie, we will wander down that same memory lane, with so many happy memories of your faith, and remarkable years of service to this church that you loved and served for so long. You have inspired us all. We will not see the likes of you again.

To meet her was to admire her, To work with her was to respect her, But to know her was to love her.

This is the tribute given by David Lord at the Thanksgiving Service for Essie Tremewen

is nice to be wanted and it is also a good thing to share who I am”.

“Sharing love and laughter through songs and worship brings love inside you,” Terry Le May said.

Scots has underwritten all production costs associated with the project, meaning the money raised from the sale of CDs will be used to advance the work of the Choir of High Hopes and L’Arche, an international federation of faith communities where people with and without an intellectual disability share life together.

Anyone interested in getting a copy of the CD can contact the church: scot-memorial@bigpond.com, or (03) 6231 4498.

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Profile Serving Springvale BEN GRUNDY LIKE most churches Springvale Uniting Church has longstanding ties with its local community. Located in a thriving multicultural hub south east of Melbourne, for decades the Springvale congregation has fostered links with the area’s successive waves of new migrants.

Springvale UC minister Rev Paul Creasey believes the church needs to not simply reach out but respond and engage in the changing landscape of local communities.

Several years ago a chance encounter neatly intersected with the congregation’s ongoing conversations about active ministry.

“I was asked to get in touch with a local man who had lost family and become very socially isolated,” Mr Creasey said.

“At that time we decided to develop our ministry, particularly in the area of multiculturalism and providing community space.

“That’s sort of how it started – it’s been a pretty long road from back then.”

This chance encounter struck at the heart of the congregation’s discussion around ministry and how it envisioned engaging with the local community.

Congregation member Rev John Gardiner (retired) said the idea for a community space was born from these early discussions.

“We had the idea for a community centre where people could come and get involved, meet and talk, learn English, play games or just have a cuppa,” he said.

“We talked and talked about it and eventually got a committee together from congregation members and the broader community.”

In recent years the congregation has fundraised and worked to develop

programs while strengthening links with other community groups, council members and local business leaders.

This work recently culminated in the opening of a multicultural Men’s Shed, utilised as a springboard for many other outreach and community support programs.

The four-year journey towards opening the Men’s Shed links into a broader missional community space now called ‘Wominjenka Place’ – ‘Wominjenka’ is an Indigenous word for welcome.

“It’s certainly not a typical men’s shed – we’re the first multicultural men’s shed in Victoria, I think the first in Australia,” Mr Creasey said.

“It’s more to do with families; the men’s shed is just one aspect of what we’re doing.

Wominjenka Place is about embracing the wider community around food, hospitality, culture and faith.”

The congregation has also operated an Op Shop for more than 20 years, and is continuing a no-interest loan program to assist new migrant families.

Various congregation members have also been heavily involved with establishing the Free Burma Café, a social enterprise café assisting Burmese migrants with training and employment opportunities.

In addition to these initiatives, Wominjenka Place hosts art, craft, music, hospitality and English language courses as well as many informal social groups.

“We’re a congregation of about 60 to 80 people, but we try and punch above our weight,” Mr Creasey said.

“The Men’s Shed was a four year journey.

From concept to actually getting the building up and operational has been a lot of work – we’ve worked with our local community, local government and neighbourhood house.

“Now it’s all really coming together.”

Building up the congregation’s work in the community was in no small part due to the dedicated commitment of the diverse

community at Springvale Uniting Church.

The congregation boasts more than a dozen different cultural backgrounds and a broad range of age groups.

The community support work of several congregation members has been recognised with awards noting their commitment to multiculturalism and community development work in the Springvale region.

A number of congregation members were also included in Voiceless Journeys (pictured) – a community art project celebrating diverse ethnic groups.

The project produced striking photographic portraits of community members from different backgrounds.

The images were publicly displayed to raise awareness of those who survive conflicts and create community connections through sharing stories.

With a view to employing a project worker for Wominjenka Place, Springvale UC is planning to further strengthen its community outreach and support programs.

Mr Creasey is adamant the congregation will continue to look to their community for opportunities.

“The whole idea is to be relevant to the community,” he said.

“It’s fine to run weekly church services but the challenge for us has been to grow within the local community.

“In a small congregation it’s easy to turn inwards – this congregation has never done that. It’s always had a focus towards what’s happening around it.

“I think that has been the defining strength for Springvale Uniting Church – the ability to embrace these newly emerging cultures in Australia.

“With government changes and cutbacks to services, the need to provide different styles of community support and more self-initiated programs is becoming increasingly important.”

Nyuok G.

Kuckon A.L.

Narath E.

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

9

News Sharing the burden this winter NIGEL TAPP HARRISON UnitingCare faces the very real prospect of walking away from offering an emergency relief support service in Knox in the wake of a federal government grant funding cut which amounts to about $1000 a week.

The agency’s general manager of homelessness services, Mark Dixon, said the loss of funding – representing about 50 per cent of its emergency relief dollars – would severely deplete the relief offering unless there was significant support from the Share Appeal.

Mr Dixon said emergency relief was under review because the agency did not want to provide a token service which would do little for either clients or volunteer staff.

His comments come as Share launches its annual winter appeal, with emergency relief funding support a key target, according to Share’s director of operations and development Angela Goodwin.

“Donations to Share have never mattered more,” Ms Goodwin said.

“Without our support there are emergency relief programs that will have to close their doors.

“The Winter Appeal gives people the opportunity to help ensure this doesn’t

have to happen and it means individuals and families in crisis will have somewhere to turn to for help.”

As it stands at the moment, Mr Dixon said the service offered would be dependent on donated food, which varied from day to day each week.

The idea of being forced to turn people away with minimal or no assistance was not something he wanted to foist onto the agency’s volunteers.

“They do this work with a real passion…

It would rip them apart to have to turn people away,” he said.

“That leads to the question – if we cannot assist in a meaningful way do we bother to offer assistance?”

Mr Dixon said the funding allowed the agency to plan its activities over the year, as when donations of food were low it could be supplemented by purchased food vouchers.

While emergency relief is not Harrison’s mainstay service, Mr Dixon said it is a conduit to get people “through the door who actually need housing assistance”. This initial meeting allows the agency to work with clients before they reach crisis point.

“In our region alone each week hundreds of families and single people on limited incomes have to choose between paying their rent, paying their utilities bills or buying food.”

Mr Dixon said he was also concerned at how the small number of remaining agencies still with relief funding in the

area would manage with less dollars but an increased client pool because other services had not been funded.

UnitingCare Harrison is not the only agency desperate for good news from the Share Appeal.

Melbourne’s outer eastern and western regions take in Wesley Mission Victoria’s services at Ringwood and Footscray, which have seen a cut of $43,500 a year, or about 16 per cent.

On top of that almost half the services which existed in the area prior to March this year have not been funded, which will put even more pressure on the remaining agencies.

It is something Janene Evans – Wesley’s crisis and homeless services’ manager – knows is coming, with figures already showing more people are presenting for assistance at both Ringwood and Footscray.

On average, staff at Ringwood would see a new face about every ten minutes from 9 am until 4 pm on week days, with demand increasing by about 130 per cent since the 2012-13 financial year. Footscray operates three days a week and staff are extremely busy.

How much the demand will grow over winter – with the cut in funded services and growing demand – is anyone’s guess.

What Ms Evans does know is that there will be very few food vouchers handed out, with the agency relying more on food which comes in through its annual Food for Families appeal.

While any food is better than no food, Ms Evans understands that the donated food does come with some limitations.

“The food, generally, does not include things such as fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy products or meat,” she said.

Reduced funding will also have a knockon effect in terms of how often Wesley can support clients. When there were 13 agencies in the area the burden could be shared much more easily. Now with seven agencies and less funding, clients are likely to be coming through the door at Ringwood more frequently.

Whereas once Wesley would assist a client and perhaps not see them again for months, now they are seeing repeat visitors.

To help meet the extra demand, Wesley has applied for $100,000 in funding from Share for emergency relief, half of which would be earmarked for back-to-school assistance for disadvantaged children.

Last year Wesley received $40,000 for emergency relief across its crisis and homelessness services.

Agencies have requested more than $880,000 in emergency relief funding from Share this year, which is double the amount distributed last year. Ms Goodwin said with about 16,000 Uniting Church members in Victoria and Tasmania it would take just $50 from everyone to be able to meet these urgent requests.

“We are asking all members to give as generously as they can this year,” Ms Goodwin said.

Your donation to Share can help families doing it tough this winter.

10

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Review

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

11

Feature

BY NIGEL TAPP

12

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Feature THE payday lending industry has boomed in Australia in less than two decades. Today more than 1.1 million Australians take out a short-term loan each year.

While the industry promotes such loans as convenient, quick and easy finance, the exorbitant interest rates are trapping many Australians in a seemingly never ending cycle of debt.

NIGEL TAPP investigates the industry and the work Uniting Church agencies are doing to tackle the problem.

Mary (not her real name) is a single mother in her 40s living in a regional Victorian city. To look at her she appears no different to many other single parents juggling the demands of a teenager on a fixed income.

Money is tight. Mary’s part-time job at a local supermarket is casual and she cannot predict how much, if any, work she will have next week.

Most of the time Mary and her 14-year-old daughter manage to get by, although there are very few luxuries. The car is 15 years old and even the television has seen better days.

Sometimes the only way Mary can make ends meet is just a way into deeper debt – a payday loan.

For months, Mary has been taking out small loans to meet unexpected expenses she has no way of budgeting for – to get her car fixed when it suddenly broke down; to buy a laptop for her daughter’s education and even paying for her extra asthma medication when she lost her inhaler.

Rather than just paying off the loans – never more than $300 at a time – and moving on, Mary fell into the trap of mounting debts as the amount she owed skyrocketed with fees, penalties and other charges. She found herself paying up to three times more than she borrowed in the first place Before long Mary took out other payday loans to pay off the existing small loans.

The slippery slope quickly became a massive slide, until a financial counsellor stepped in and helped her establish a more manageable payment plan with lenders.

The counsellor also provided Mary with some advice on alternatives to payday loans.

Mary’s story is sadly common in Australia today – this is the real face of payday lending.

The first payday lending outlet was opened on the Gold Coast less than 20 years ago.

In 2014, a report in the International Journal of Social Welfare (IJSW) titled ‘How Australians Experience Payday Loans’ estimated that in 2011 more than 1.1 million Australians (15 per cent of the working age population) took out three small-amount short-term (payday) loans that year.

In Australia the average payday loan is about $340, with more than half of users borrowing between $50 and $300.

Such small amounts are not attractive to regular banks and credit providers, who largely stay out of the market in terms of being direct providers of credit.

But, according to a report in The Finsia Journal of Applied Finance (Issue 3, 2014) the major shareholders in marketleading payday lender Cash Converters International include one of Australia’s big four banks - the Commonwealth.

Another big four member, Westpac, is one of two major bank service providers to the company.

Payday loans are predominantly used by people on low incomes seeking to tide themselves over to their next payment – often a Centrelink benefit. But sometimes they are employed, albeit on a wage which does not stretch to meet even the most basic of needs.

On the surface these loans may seem harmless, but it is below where the real

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

danger lurks.

The ‘killer’ of such a credit arrangement lies in the exorbitant interest rate which applies to payday loans and the fact repayments are generally due in line with the borrower’s next payment, wage or benefit.

As an example, a loan of $100 would have a maximum loan establishment fee of 20 per

Put simply even in Australia today getting money can be easy. Too easy in fact.

The depressing cycle experienced by many who have become trapped by payday loans is something Lentara UnitingCare financial counsellor Seval Meric sees often in her work.

Ms Meric stressed that a large majority of

cent and an interest rate of 4 per cent. In effect that equates to a monthly interest rate of 24 per cent. Over a year this would total 288 per cent.

A cash advance on a credit card would only attract an annualised interest rate of about 21 per cent, meaning a $300 cash advance would cost $4.94 in interest if paid after four weeks.

While $24 a month may not seem a lot, in the context of a single Newstart allowance of about $520 a fortnight it can be quite a hurdle, particularly if the customer has more than one loan outstanding.

And as the money is deducted as soon as your next payment arrives it can lead to being broke again very quickly.

Hence, many low income earners become trapped into literally living from payday loan to payday loan. And it is there that the real problem exists, an issue which is concerning many in Australia.

the clients she sees are not taking out loans for the latest television or electronic gadget.

Most are people who can budget but who find their income does not meet even the most basic of needs to the point one unexpected expense throws them.

“Usually clients want money for basic needs – food, utility bills, car repairs, school expenses or medication,” she said.

“They are for day-to-day living expenses.

Some people who have addiction issues may find payday loans easy to access and, even worse, some use them to pay off other payday loans. But most just need money for car repairs so they can go to appointments or work or because their electricity is going to be disconnected.

Basic needs.”

Ms Meric’s clients aren’t unaware of the pitfalls, such as exorbitant interest rates.

“If there is no alternative and they have a desperate need for the money and a payday

loan is the only resort, that is what they are going to do,” she said.

Once clients find themselves on a roller coaster of living from loan to loan it becomes difficult for them to get off without someone going into bat for them.

Ms Meric is also concerned by the requirement of lenders for payments to be made by direct debit or through Centrepay, which means the money is taken from the Centrelink funds of the client before they even see it.

This can lead to clients quickly racking up a host of bank dishonour or overdrawn fees which further eats away at their meagre payments to the point that another loan is the only alternative.

Legislative changes in 2013 were meant to stop lenders from entering into a contract with borrowers who are in default with another lender, or who have had two or more small loans in the previous three months. Ms Meric said that was not the reality.

Ms Meric said Lentara offered community education programs to assist people to understand the dangers of such credit arrangements and raise awareness about alternatives.

She supports microfinance arrangements such as the No-Interest Loan Scheme and Step Up Loans.

The fact payday loans are made available virtually straight away, while other loans can take a few days or even a week to organise, increases their attractiveness.

Consumer Action Law Centre chief executive Gerard Brody said a recent review by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) found some payday lenders were continuing to flout small amount lending reforms introduced in 2013.

In March ASIC said its review of 288 consumer files for 13 payday lenders found “particular compliance risks around the test for loan suitability which must be considered when the consumer has multiple other loans or is in default under a payday loan.”

The report also found “systemic weaknesses” in documentation and record keeping.

ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell warned the sector that it was on notice to “improve its practices or further enforcement action is inevitable”.

Recent enforcement action against payday lenders by ASIC has included $19 million in penalties levied by the Federal Court against Cash Store for irresponsible lending and unconscionable conduct.

Mr Brody said the existing business model of payday lenders ‘required’ repeat business from clients, ‘hooking’ them into the recurrent use of high cost loans.

“While lenders look at an applicant’s income they don’t look as closely at outgoings as they are required to.”

He said he understood that many clients saw payday loans as an easy option for them when there were few alternatives.

Mr Brody said there needed to be more enforcement action by ASIC to ensure payday lenders played by the rules. He feels that lenders paid little more than lip service to the requirement to adequately assess the repayment capacity of borrowers.

13

Feature Funds management seeks to make credit fairer for all UCA Funds Management is leading a group of like-minded ethical investors and other players seeking to tidy up the payday lending and consumer leasing industries in Australia.

Funds Management chief executive Michael Walsh said the group – which also includes financial counsellors, the Church’s Justice and International Mission unit, the Community Action Law Centre and internationally recognised investment specialists – is engaging with publiclylisted companies involved in the industry

to ensure adherence to existing credit legislation.

In 2013 a credit code was introduced which capped interest rates and repayment schedules that can be applied by the payday industry.

Mr Walsh said it was staggering that an Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) inquiry earlier this year found that many providers were not complying with this legislation.

ASIC reviewed 288 consumer files from 13 payday lenders. It found some lenders were engaging in conduct which breached responsible lending obligations and were failing to meet new obligations introduced as part of the small amount lending reforms in 2013.

“It is quite remarkable ASIC found it to be a sector-wide problem,” Mr Walsh said.

“But it did confirm what we have heard from financial counsellors in relation to

people having more than two payday loans being hit with exorbitant fees and charges and taking loans out under duress.”

Mr Walsh said his group wanted companies to agree to undertake independent compliance audits.

He said shareholders in companies involved or associated with the industry would be concerned by non-compliance.

“There is a widespread view out there that the sector is not complying (with the credit legislation) and that is a very serious issue, he said.

“Shareholders are concerned about risk.

The risk of not complying with the law is pretty obvious.”

The consumer leasing – or rent/buy – component of the industry was another trend which worried UCA Funds Management, particularly given it is not subject to the credit code and consumers are subjected to excessive fees and charges.

Mr Walsh said the fees and charges are often far in excess of the interest rates charged on payday loans.

Unlike payday loans, consumer leasing contracts are not subject to repayment caps as a percentage of a client’s Centrelink payment, nor is there a cap on their duration.

As a result, many clients pay hugely inflated prices for items such as televisions, computers and furniture – upwards of 300 per cent more than the item bought directly off the shop floor.

Mr Walsh wants the existing credit code principles to extend to consumer leasing.

He said he expects the collaborative engagement to lead to positive outcomes over the next 12 months in terms of consumer financing.

If you are in financial difficulty, there are cheaper alternatives to payday-style loans such as:

Negotiate with your utility provider

If you are having trouble paying an electricity, gas or water bill, contact your utility provider. Most companies have hardship officers who can help you work out a plan to pay the bill in instalments or apply for emergency utility bill vouchers.

NILS or StepUp loans

If you are on a low income, you may qualify for a no or low interest loan to pay for essential household goods or personal services such as medical treatment.

Centrelink Advance Payment

Recipients of Centrelink benefits may be able to get an advance payment on their benefits, with no interest charges. The Department of Human Services website can offer more advice (www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/subjects/managing-your-money#a5).

Ask Your Employer For An Advance

You might be surprised by just how willing employers are to help you out in times of need. Many have processes set up for employees who need such help.

It doesn’t hurt to ask, and you could save yourself a lot of fees and charges.

Ask Creditors To Extend A Due Date

Most creditors have processes set up to help you pay them back. After all, they want their money and most will be more than happy to set up a payment plan, as it means they will get paid.

Sell Unwanted Goods

Have a look around your house and see if there is anything you don’t need or don’t use anymore.

You could sell it on websites like eBay or Gumtree or take unwanted goods to a local pawn broker. Be prepared for a low price though as pawn shops are known for offering low valuations.

Sources: www.moneysmart.gov.au, www.moneybuddy.com.au

14

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

People

70 years of ordination FAMILY and friends joined the congregation at Glen Waverley Uniting Church on 26 April to recognise and celebrate 70 years (to the day) of ordination to the ministry in the Presbyterian and Uniting Church for Rev Bill Morgan (pictured). Bill, who turns 100 in October, is still active in ministry. He offers pastoral care in the village where he lives, leads village and nursing home services, and

Images of hope THIS month, John Vander Reest will celebrate 50 years since his ordination as a minister in the Church. As well as sharing the occasion with family and friends at a special service in Campbellfield, John has used his half-century anniversary to display his latest artwork in an exhibition titled Je suis refugee.

John has been painting in watercolour and oils for many years, but this is the first time he has worked to a theme. Most of his paintings are about ‘creation’ and depict a very wide variety of subjects. He is a member of the Victorian Artists Society as well as the Woodend Art Group, and exhibits regularly in Woodend.

John said the exhibition was inspired by the 70th anniversary of the Second World War. “The title of the exhibition reminds us that we cannot overlook the needs of the thousands, or even millions, of refugees,”

Farewell to church building LAST month, the congregation at Arnold Street Bendigo Uniting Church bid a sad farewell to their place of worship.

Arnold Street had been a place of Christian worship for many people over the past 141 years. Formerly Methodist, it once had a

occasionally fills in to preach or preside at communion at nearby congregations.

Bill was recognised for his leadership of worship, his passion for preaching, the leadership he has given the church and the wonderful pastoral care he has offered people over the decades. To this day, Bill is committed to supporting the mission of the church. Speaking about the highlights of his ministry, Bill recounted the two terms he served in Vanuatu, which he described as a privilege. He said he would never forget his humbling final service in Vanuatu. More than 1000 people attended, many having to sit out on the lawns, and there was not enough communion wine.

Bill served as moderator of the Presbyterian Church and another highlight was successfully guiding the Presbyterian Church in Ormond into the Uniting Church. There were divided views among the congregation. After he put in place a process of information sharing, studying the Basis of Union and a debate with a speaker for and against, all but one family made the transition into the Uniting Church.

Those present joined together in prayer giving thanks to God for Rev Bill Morgan’s 70 years of ordination and his faithful and dedicated ministry and service to the church and the community.

Dave Csinos

Dave Csinos tour CANADIAN theologian, speaker and author Dave Csinos was recently in Australia for the first time to deliver a series of seminars on the issues of reimagining faith formation, faith formation in smaller churches, and the end of Sunday

John said.

“I, for one, can remember how people rejoiced once the oppression of the war was lifted, freedom was celebrated and food became available again. Freedom to live, like freedom of speech, is a most precious right. It is part of our stand for social justice that people are entitled to work towards and demand that freedom.”

John explained that the exhibition unashamedly takes its name from Je suis Charlie, the Parisian protest following the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine.

“I believe that refugees need a voice and that in a world of free speech refugees need to be heard. Je suis reminds us that freedom is a precious possession and if one does not have it, the urge to obtain it can become so strong that one is prepared to risk one’s life for it.

“This painting (‘The Walkers’, pictured) reminds me of the Emmaus walkers (Luke 24:16) busy discussing their plight. We are not told what they are talking about, but it

is not surprising to see them on their way to a new and better future. Wherever we turn in the world, that is the image: people on their way to a more hopeful and better future.”

Proceeds of the exhibition will support Lentara UnitingCare and the synod’s Justice & International Mission unit. Turn to Crosslight notices for more information on the exhibition or go to: www.jvreest.com.

vibrant community with many and varied activities over the years.

Due to declining numbers, the time had come to make some rational and objective decisions and, on 17 May, the church was officially decommissioned.

In July last year the congregations of Arnold Street, Neale Street and White Hills merged to form the Weeroona Congregation.

The last service officially held in the building was 28 December 2014.

Since then the congregation has worshipped with other members of the Weeroona Uniting Church Bendigo, alternating at Neale Street and White Hills sites.

The decommissioning service was organised and led by Judy Berridge, presbytery minister administration Loddon Mallee Presbytery. Rev Lorene Day, a past presbytery chairperson, delivered the reflection.

Various congregation members, past

school – and why that’s a good thing.

A global leader in the delivery of faith formation, Dave is the founder and president of non-profit organisation Faith Forward, which aims to bring together children’s and youth ministry leaders to inspire the development of innovative theology and practice.

The Centre for Theology & Ministry helped to ensure Dave could deliver his message to regional centres Ballarat and Geelong and the Mountain View Uniting Church in Mitcham. As well as the UCA events he presented in Dandenong and Mulgrave. All up 270 people registered with the Centre to hear him speak.

Dave said he was pleased with both the numbers of people attending and their knowledge of faith formation issues.

“I’ve been seeing many of the same challenges and opportunities in Australia that we have in Canada and the United States,” Dave said.

“But in many ways you’re more advanced than we are and a little more towards where we’re headed.”

In Australia for two-and-a-half weeks, the Nova Scotia resident’s last night in Victoria was spent at the Centre for Theology & Ministry’s Maclean House before a final seminar and the long return flight to Canada.

John Vander Reest

and present, assisted in the procession of symbols and Bible readings.

Congregation members were each given a stone as a symbol to remind them of the memories, gifts and lessons learned during their time at Arnold Street.

Towards the end of the service, the congregation was led out of the building by a group carrying the Bible, cross, candle and Holy Communion elements.

Decommissioning service at Arnold Street Bendigo Uniting Church.

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

15

Did you know?

Why Unite?

REV RANDALL PRIOR (WITH GRATITUDE TO NORMAN YOUNG, D’ARCY WOOD AND GRAHAM MCANALLEY) IN the 1990s, in the city of Knox in Melbourne’s outer east, I was involved in a local Uniting and Anglican Churches initiative to establish a single worshiping community. It failed.

After three promising years there was a change in priestly leadership in the Anglican congregation and the regional diocese decided that, for the sake of a stronger Anglican church in Knox City, the newly emerging partnership with the Uniting Church congregation would need to dissolve.

When the Uniting Church challenged the Anglicans about the decision they had made, the response was that such cooperative ventures can only work when the ‘glue’ that holds any such cooperation together is the fact that neither partner can survive on their own.

In other words, only a threat to the survival of a congregation will sustain a commitment to join two local churches into one.

The genius of the Uniting Church and the reason for its successful birth in June 1977 was that the coming together of the three separate church traditions – Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian – was driven, not by any ‘glue of survival’ but by the compelling call of the gospel itself. Let me explain.

At the very heart of the Christian gospel is the astonishing news that in Jesus Christ, God has acted to renew the whole of creation, to overcome the powers of sin, evil and death which destroy and divide nations and peoples, and to reconcile all creation to God’s own self. Nothing less

than this renewal, which is both cosmic and personal, has been accomplished in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It is both the gift and the promise of the Christian gospel, for all people, for all creation. This gospel message finds rich and varied expression in each of the New Testament writings as well as in the Basis of Union (eg para.3).

Thus the apostle Paul declares to the Corinthians: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to God’s own self ” (2 Cor 5:19). Preceding this declaration is the statement: “It is the love of Christ which compels us – for one has died for all, therefore all have died.”

In other words, the love of God, expressed in Christ, is such that we are ‘born’ into a new way of living in the world – a way which is marked by a renewed relationship with God and with others.

This renewed relationship crosses all distance and separation between ourselves and God, and therefore between ourselves and others.

It is this explosion of renewed relationships which is celebrated by the Church and to which the Church is uniquely called to bear witness.

In doing so, the church embodies the faith of the gospel and holds up a light to the world – a light which illuminates a new way of living in the world and which forecasts a renewed world, one which is no longer marked by destruction, division and death, but by reconciliation and life. This is the gift and the hope of the Christian faith.

It was this fundamental and far-reaching insight which was the catalyst for the birth of the Uniting Church.

If the Christian gospel speaks about the reconciliation of all peoples and the renewal of the whole of creation, then this must be apparent in and mirrored by the Christian church. The fact that there were separate church denominations which

divided Christians from each other was understood to be an anathema to the gospel itself; it constituted the living of a lie, a failure to obey the compelling call of the gospel, a rejection of the accomplished work of God’s love … and something needed to be done about it. It was no longer possible simply to live with the separation of the churches as if this were normal and acceptable.

One of the other passages of the New Testament which was influential in driving the inauguration of the Uniting Church was the prayer of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John, a prayer for the unity of all Christian disciples. But in this case, the nature and purpose of this unity are defined.

Jesus prays “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). In this passage, the unity arises from our immersion in the unity of love between the Father and the Son (“just as you are in me and I in you, that they may be in us”). It has an evangelical impact in the world; the unity is not for its own sake, nor for the sake of the church, but for the sake of the world (“that the world may believe”).

In this sense, the separation of the churches was a denial of the unity between the Father and the Son, and was an obstacle to the evangelical vocation of the church.

One question which arises is how this unity is to be expressed. More particularly, is the organic union of different denominations the only or necessary form of unity? The founders of the Uniting Church were strongly influenced by the answer given to this question by the World Council of Churches when it met in Lund, Sweden in 1952.

In response to the question of the form which unity ought to take, the ‘Lund

Principle’ determined that churches ought “to do separately only those things that for conscience sake cannot be done together”.

It was the conviction of the three separate Churches that came into union that there was nothing that ‘for conscience sake’ they needed to be doing separately. Then ‘why unite?’ became ‘why not become one organic Church?’

Thus, the catalyst for the coming together of the three Church traditions to form the one Uniting Church had nothing to do with what was then called ‘ecclesiastical carpentry’. In other words, it was not about convenience, rationalisation of property and resources, a strategy for greater social or political influence, nor a necessity in response to the threat to survival.

Rather, it was seen to be the only obedient response to the Christian gospel; in the face of this gospel, the separation of the churches stood in shameful opposition.

Of course, the vision which compelled the birth of the Uniting Church is a vision which encompasses all church traditions … which is why the inauguration of the Uniting Church was never intended to establish one new Church tradition to replace three others. If the call to unity and reconciliation is a call which embraces all Christians, indeed all humankind, then Christians can never be settled and satisfied until that end is reached.

Therefore, those who were involved in this new church decided to name it ‘Uniting’ and not ‘United’; what was being created was not a new denomination but a dynamic movement whose vision was the unity and reconciliation of all people.

Thirty-eight years after the inauguration of the Uniting Church, it may be timely for this vision to be reclaimed by the Church, both for its own sake and for the sake of the world.

Reflection Impressions of an outsider AS one new to the Uniting Church, I thought that I might relate my first, and uninformed, impressions. These no doubt occupy a narrow band of experience and fail to reflect the range of UCA constituencies.

But, fresh eyes sometimes highlight the unexpected and encourage conversations otherwise difficult to initiate.

First and foremost, the welcome my family and I received has been second to none.

I have worked across four continents and no other institution has come close to the care shown us by the Uniting Church. This includes a feeling of excitement regarding the positive contribution my work might make to the life of the church. I have experienced it as a quite humbling thing.

It speaks well, in my opinion, for the lived theology of the Uniting Church.

After welcome, however, ‘anxious’ perhaps best summarises my impression of the UCA. One of my first meetings consisted of largely uninterrupted lament over the dying of the Church. Following this came a consistent narrative of declining numbers, greying congregations, budgetary restrictions, ministries under ‘threat’, the impact of Uniting our future, the need for ‘new models of the church’, etc.

Though this reflects pressures today 16

common to church in the West, the UCA appears to be in the middle of a sustained panic-attack. Nor does this appear benign; it seems to direct much of our thinking and acting.

That is an impolite claim, and I only have space to give two examples. The first focuses on institutional culture. As an outsider, I might name this ‘emotivist’.

There seem to be a great number of simmering tensions which find expression in binaries and categorical statement, and not a little degree of sniping.

Anxiety at once intensifies the rhetoric while encouraging an impatience and immediacy. Discussions lack proper depth and complexity, and polices become determined by judging between oppositional positions.

This produces ‘winners and losers’ and associated frustrations and disaffections.

I have been party to a number of discussions that suffered from somewhat superficial questions, a paucity of informed opinion, and yet which pushed findings due to a profound sense of urgency. It makes for unsatisfactory decisions.

This is not to suggest a lack of professionalism. It is to say that institutional controls become the necessary form of mediation within an emotivist culture. Professionalism can, in this context, be confused with the doctrinaire and the mandating of universal principles formulated to control and direct unruly subordinates.

We are left with an environment which

advises ‘flying under the radar’, and against ‘rocking the boat’ (actual quotes to me from various parts of the synod), because the percentages say that any realignment will likely be downward.

We appear to be tied in knots and lacking in grace.

The second and related example concerns the place and role of theological discourse.

I have been informed that the ‘Uniting Church is a broad church’. This seems to indicate that the Church encompasses a spectrum of evangelical and liberal voices within it. But it seems to me that we suffer from a lack of robust theological engagement. The ‘breadth’ in question takes the form of isolated binaries held together within an institutional framework.

For fear of being pigeon-holed within an oppositional discourse, we seem only to be able to utter a plaintive cry: ‘the gospel does have something to say (doesn’t it)’?

Bloodless and boring.

There is nothing wrong with theological contention and disagreement, with argument. Within an emotivist culture argument often turns septic. Theological contention should be the very opposite.

In my own experience, institutions that promote only one theological voice are sterile.

Know that there is proper theological disagreement, that this can be open and contentious and not ‘resolved’, and that such is necessary for the life of the church.

Argument is a skill that can be learnt.

It belongs to theology as a sustained

historical investigation, a living economy, a wrestling, all governed by the common table. This is all basic to theological creativity. Anxiety is killing off the very discourse that is part of the Church’s historical continuity.

Much of this might be fruitfully related to the ‘identity’ question.

Identity is found in the positive and the creative, not in the fearful and controlling, not in an institutional dogmatism where the answers lie in process and minute counting.

We seem mired in an anxiety which declares the message to be false: the religion of fierce liberation is bound by paper chains. We seem to be cowed by the threat of a parking ticket.

Where is the creativity, the excitement, the discovery of the pearl of great price?

The gospel is explosive, a public doxology.

It is resurrection, not death and dying. Joy. Hope. Love. Peace. Patience.

The challenges are real. So is the pain. But the clamour of panic leads to superficial engagement and poor decisions. Relax.

Have a glass of wine. Break some bread.

Proceed in the sure knowledge that God in Christ died for you, and as you share in this death so shall you share in God’s life. This life is abundant, a life of joy.

If you want to know why the church is growing outside the west, the answer lies here.

Rev Dr John G Flett Coordinator of Studies – Missiology Pilgrim Theological College CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Letters Walking down the road LATER this month the Uniting Church will mark its 38th anniversary. In June 1977 the Sydney Town Hall was packed with those who witnessed the birth of the infant denomination. The world was very different then and, in an Australian context Church membership and attendance was relatively high. Yet as we reflect over these past 38 years, the events that have marked the mileposts on the Uniting Church’s journey thus far have, in many ways, contributed to and shaped the church we see today.

Space does not permit the cataloguing of these events and each of us can easily recall those which at the time and even now, have determined both our individual and corporate lives. Those 38 years have seen many of the people who witnessed the inauguration of the Uniting Church leave as we journeyed. Whilst new members have joined us within the various faith communities in our fellowship, our journey now brings us to the crossroads.

The signposts are confusing, we are faced with decisions, some hard and difficult to accept. The surrounding topography of life is very different, even strange, certainly nothing like the location we left at the start. So too the landscape. The familiar landmarks we left behind have given way to the new. The shingles outside the buildings continually remind us of the new world of compliance, regulation, social change, community attitudes amongst many more.

All these raise doubts in our minds, what should we do?

Yet despite these distractions on what now may seem like a road to nowhere, we are part of a group with a clear purpose based on a faith that has seen the test of time. As I journey with the fellow members of the Uniting Church, I sing the words of Robin Mann’s ‘Walking down the road’: “Oh, stay by my side, Jesus, you be my guide/ don’t you know how I trust in you/Show me where I should call, pick me up when I fall/as I’m walkin’ down the road with you”.

Allan Gibson OAM Cherrybrook NSW

Church for the people THE final paragraph of the Moderator’s reflection (May 2015) brought a real sense of joy and encouragement to my heart.

Here was someone who has fittingly expressed not only my fears but that of many others for the future of the Uniting Church and not so far distant at that.

The Church is not buildings and property, it is not financial and business affairs and management, it is not synods, presbyteries, parishes, it is not committees, programs …

The Church is ‘People’. People who know and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

The editorial ‘Challenge for the Church’ in the same issue of Crosslight asks ‘what kind of culture do we long for?’ Again it relates to ‘People’.

People – human beings – regardless of age, race, sex, religion, wherever they may live: cities, large towns, remote rural...

Many carry heavy burdens which cannot be relieved with government and other assistance. They just need someone, someone who cares enough to listen. Most are not in the churches although many do sit in our pews.

These people are in shopping centres, waiting rooms, at the gym, in a caravan park, farms, the schools – the list is endless.

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Listen to their troubles although we may not be able to help but they have been heard and known empathy. In the gospels we find Jesus where the people were.

Years ago I was told at a Christian counselling course we do not have to seek people – God brings them to us – He opens the way.

Is this the way for the church of the future?

Connie Carlyle Corryong, VIC

MSR panel THERE has to be transparent spiritual leadership with a genuine commitment to restore the Church and its mission, a belief and faith in God and his Son. It must not be top heavy and riddled with waffle. It should be trying to understand what is going on in the community and if they expect lay preachers and pastors to help then they must contribute.

The only way the UCA is going to survive as an organisation is to change the ‘management’ so that every secular aspect of the church business is handled by qualified personnel. We don’t need committees creating reports. It is fine to state that “Steady as you go” (in other words stagnation) is not an option. The synod is quite right. It is not an option.

But Synod appears to have little or no idea as to what to do about it. This has to be corrected, not today or tomorrow but yesterday! We need pro-active decision makers.

How do we grow the church in our present culture? We have to be like a river, lively and energetic in its youth but, as it ages and gets nearer the sea, it calms down but still moves inexorably on. Joining it as it flows are other lively tributaries called Renewed Commitment, Freedom of Association, Relevance to today, Youth involvement, Co-operation with other Churches, Schools Access, etc., which alter the flow, and perhaps even the direction of the original river, but still move on to the same destination. We have to welcome these rivers to refresh us. We have to absorb and be changed by these new ideas without altering our end result. Getting to the sea of Jesus’ eternal kingdom.

This is a wake-up call to synod. Synod has to say, not that “change starts here in synod with you. No! Change starts here in synod with us.”

Alexander Drysdale Lay Preacher Lyndhurst, VIC

No conspiracy THE article ‘It’s a conspiracy’(May) inadequately describes the Church as a ‘conspiracy’; which in itself smacks of a real conspiracy aimed at appeasing a society which ridicules and rejects the very being who creates the Community of Church, namely Jesus Christ.

The facts are that we are members of the Church community through baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and our place in this community is sustained by participation in worship of the Triune God, (particularly in Holy Communion) and by serving others in Christ’s name.

The Church is the Body of Christ in the world. It is not a conspiracy.

Why should the synod of Victoria and Tasmania try to find fudging words and concepts to describe who we are or what we think of ourselves or how the Church will be sustainable into the future? Is it not enough for us to live each day trusting that the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love

of God the Father and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with us?

It is worrisome to think that some of our members may seek to find their ‘identity and humanity’ in any community to which we may belong, by ‘breathing in and breathing out love’ and neglect our primary commitment to acknowledge and proclaim Jesus Christ who alone creates and sustains His Church in His World. We love because He first loved us.

Rev George Grimmett, Glen Waverley VIC

What next?

THANK YOU for your article, Dev, (‘On being intercultural’ by Rev Devanandan Anandarajan). I agree that we need to actively encourage and develop leaders within the Church who reflect the diversity of the wider community. I’d be interested to hear about effective strategies for doing this. Too often the ‘Uniting Church’ brand is associated with middle class, white, Anglo-Celtic (and elderly) culture and values; many people from other cultural backgrounds wouldn’t think to walk through our church doors.

Justine Wall Via email

Fostering understanding I WORK as project manager for Uniting Through Faiths in the Uniting Church synod. Our mission is to encourage honest and open dialogue about our various spiritual journeys in this multi-cultural and multi-faith community in which we all live.

Interfaith dialogue can help us to make sense of and celebrate our great religious diversity. This dialogue must be premised on deep and respectful listening to others, engaging both the heart and mind.

Therefore I was very interested, and a little concerned, to learn that in the current heated environment the Understanding Islam seminars in North Ringwood UC opened without a single Muslim spokesperson present. This would be akin to another faith group organising a forum on ‘Understanding Christianity’ without inviting a single Christian to speak about their precious faith. This is not respectful and it is not a dialogue. It allows contentious interpretations and statements about another faith to be made without any balance or challenge.

I was extremely pleased therefore to read the second report by Andrew Juma and know that two Muslim speakers had been invited (albeit belatedly) to North Ringwood in week two. As Sheik Ali Dirani said, “religious intolerance stems from a lack of understanding and personal prejudice”.

If UCA communities do have questions about Islam and would like to organise an honest, respectful dialogue with women and men of this faith then please contact us at Uniting Through Faiths. We have many wonderful friends across the small but diverse Muslim community in Melbourne.

Larry Marshall Project Manager - Uniting Through Faiths Commission for Mission

Time to act

BY MID-YEAR we have a window of opportunity to tell our government we want it to act fairly to keep our climate safe.

This December, almost 200 countries will meet in Paris to try to avoid catastrophic climate change.

According to 97 per cent of the world’s climate scientists, humans are causing climate change. Effective action to maintain a safe climate is necessary now.

Our government said that mid-year it would announce our target for greenhouse gas emissions cuts, which Australia will bring to Paris. The Climate Change Authority recommends Australia cut GHG emissions by 30 per cent below 2000 levels by 2025.

Australia’s actions are important because we are the world’s second biggest coal exporter and the world’s 13th biggest GHG emitter, says the CCA. To have a reasonable chance of a safe climate, 80 per cent of global fossil fuel reserves must stay underground, say experts such as the Climate Council.

Renewable Energy could supply the world’s electricity by 2050 or earlier according to the WWF and other experts. Technology to store the sun’s energy for electricity night and day is being used in several countries including the U.S. Yet now globally, renewable energy supplies only about 20 per cent of electricity.

We can: • visit, call or write to MPs by midyear deadline for Australia to submit its target, and demand at least the CCA target of 30 per cent below 2000 levels by 2025 http://www.aph.gov.au/ Senators_and_Members • buy solar panels and hot water systems or 100 per cent green power.

• Divest our fossil fuel shares http:// gofossilfree.org Marguerite Marshall UCA member trained to give free presentations Solutions to Climate Change

by Al Gore (managed in Australia by the Australian Conservation Foundation). margueritemarshall@bigpond.com

Walking for justice I READ the article in the May issue of Crosslight, and while I was delighted at the size of the response, and the leading of the UCA contingent by president Andrew Dutney and moderator Dan Wootton, there are some things I find disturbing.

It will not be enough to remove the punitive detention measures and ‘turning back the boats’ policies currently in place, without putting in place other measures to stop the process of ‘People Smuggling’.

It should be noted that the present government’s approach, however harsh, is certainly doing that.

My own preferred solution would be to send safe and free Australian ships to a recognised port, say Singapore, to collect refugees and bring them to Australia for processing.

Sure, we’d probably get tens of thousands of people turning up for the ride, but at least none of them would drown.

I listened to an African woman on ABC radio recently talking about the equivalent situation in Europe. Many of the boat people arriving in Italy and Spain are economic refugees, not refugees from persecution. The lady in question was very angry, not with European governments, but with African ones. She said the message needed to get through to wouldbe immigrants that the life in Europe would be no better, and possibly worse, than that in their home country (slavery, exploitation, unemployment).

Australia cannot support a flow of hundreds of thousands of economic refugees. Such people would need to be returned to their country of origin, as happens at present.

The only practicable way forward is 17

Letters to work out a regional solution. Our neighbouring countries, and in particular Indonesia, are as distressed as we at the cost in lives and money of people smuggling. We need to work together.

Consideration to the safety of refugees and stamping out the inhumane practice of extorting large sums of money to pack huge numbers of people into unsafe boats must be an essential part of any solution.

We need to support those political parties that have the will to work for a humane solution to the problem.

Barrie Robinson Swan Bay, TAS. I WAS deeply moved in May by the willingness of fishermen in Aceh, Indonesia, to rescue and support refugee boat people stranded near their shores.

These fishermen showed government leaders and all people around the world the humane and decent way to respond to children, women and men fleeing genocide, war, hunger and terror.

Their actions reminded me of the teaching of Jesus in the Parable of the Good

Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).

When challenged by a lawyer asking him who exactly was his neighbour, Jesus responded with his now famous parable and concluded by asking the lawyer, ‘Who acted like a neighbour to the person in need?’

As I witnessed the welcome and support shown by the Aceh fishermen to the boat people in desperate need of care, I couldn’t help but think that here was a beautiful contemporary example of what Jesus was seeking to teach.

I was also left feeling deeply saddened, angry and embarrassed that the two largest political parties in Australia have no desire to show this kind of neighbourly mercy to asylum seekers and refugees in our region facing similar crisis situations as those who were shown compassion by the fishermen in Aceh.

Rev Robert Van Zetten Highton VIC

Review

Thinking metaphorically REVIEW BY GARTH JONES BOOK | BEYOND LITERAL BELIEF: RELIGION AS METAPHOR | DAVID TACEY IN Beyond Literal Belief, Professor David Tacey presents a passionate treatise, brimming with reverence and ambition, on rescuing the perception of religious faith from literalism and the idolatry and fundamentalism he suggests it potentially begets.

Presenting a series of allegorical readings of well-known Biblical parables, Tacey delves into the work of renowned philosophers and applies their insights to a poetic reading of the scriptures.

Citing the work of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and St Thomas of Aquinas (amongst many others), Beyond Literal Belief unpacks and explores a mythical approach to understanding the Bible, as opposed to the trend to approach it as an historical document devoid of the literary techniques of allusion and metaphor.

This approach is, of course, challenging and perhaps even controversial to many readers. The author’s brazen, contentious language can occasionally border on unforgiving. But, as he notes, the basis for his thesis is rooted in philosophical thinking which has been prevalent for the last several centuries.

Tacey reflects on the compelling spiritual truths locked within biblical text.

18

His ultimate objective is to provide a contemporary framework upon which to build on biblical engagement and the exploration of spirituality, a movement gaining renewed relevance in the 21st Century (consider also Daniel Dennett’s recent Caught In The Pulpit: Leaving Faith Behind).

Unlocking elemental concepts – including the Resurrection, the Apocalypse, the Virgin Birth and the Kingdom of God itself – Beyond Literal Belief investigates the core literary devices employed by the Bible’s authors to unlock the latent spiritual knowledge detailed therein, canvassing a gamut of beliefs and the lessons they impart.

While bemoaning the abandonment of religious principles, Tacey acknowledges the attraction of secular attitudes and new age thinking. The author proposes a renewed investigation of the parables, a religiosity which is, as he puts it, ‘not delusional but metaphorical’, acknowledging the essential role of mythology in regulating the spiritual life of the community.

As the writer appreciates, ‘the Bible is a tapestry of stories designed to challenge and enhance life’s meaning’. He feels it is a catalogue of transcendent realities, collected wisdom and universal truths perhaps best characterised as a handbook for the enrichment of the soul itself.

He also acknowledges the views of Hitchens and Dawkins, whose case for extreme atheism rests on the fact the texts are not literally true, which the author asserts is to miss the point of faith entirely.

Tacey’s work proposes to liberate and reimagine millennia of dogmatic, entrenched religious thought in a spirited attempt to revivify the spiritually nourishing essence at its root. He embraces a broad array of thinkers, philosophers and theologians in an effort to re-frame the modern attitude to faith.

Beyond Literal Belief: Religion As Metaphor can be a thorny, confronting proposition.

But is one with which it is well worth persevering, offering, as it does, an intriguing investigation of alternative principles upon which to frame one’s faith.

Review Borders around our heart REVIEW BY TIM LAM FILM | EVAPORATING BORDERS | R EVAPORATING BORDERS opens with an image of the Mediterranean Sea. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers cross the Mediterranean every year to find refuge in Europe. Cyprus is one of the most common entry points into the European Union.

Screening as part of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival in Melbourne, Evaporating Borders is a poetic visual exploration of the racism underlying antiimmigration attitudes in Cyprus.

Director Iva Radivojevic is a former refugee from Yugoslavia who sought asylum in Cyprus when she was 12.

Evaporating Borders is her debut featurelength film and the narrative is presented through five vignettes.

Each one charts the experience of asylum seekers in Cyprus and their struggle to adjust to a new life in the face of open hostility. Together, they blend into a larger story of identity, conflict and xenophobia.

The documentary is particularly timely given the humanitarian crisis in the SouthEast Asian seas, with Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand all turning away boats of Rohingya and Bangladeshi asylum seekers.

While governments obsess over the tightening of borders, Evaporating Borders shifts the focus onto the human stories that are often forgotten in the debate.

Radivojevic describes the documentary as a ‘visual essay’ and some viewers may find the editing and narrative pace slow at times. Yet the most powerful moments in the documentary are when the camera simply lingers on the faces of the refugees.

The use of cinematography is visually rich and contemplative. It invites the audience to see refugees as human beings with their own hopes, fears and dreams.

Cyprus and Australia may be more than 12,000 kilometres apart, but Evaporating Borders reveals the striking parallels in the refugee discourse of the two countries.

Like Australia, Cyprus is an increasingly multicultural country. It is also an island.

It is perhaps this sense of geographical isolation that heightens the paranoia over migrants. The refugees on Cyprus are trapped in a state of limbo with limited social protection and few work rights, much like refugees in Australia on Temporary Protection Visas.

In one of the most confronting scenes, far-right nationalists take to the streets of Cyprus to protest against the presence of immigrants, whom they see as diluting their national identity. The nationalist rhetoric espoused by these far right groups evokes memories of the recent Reclaim Australia rallies.

Refugees are not the only subjects interviewed in the documentary. Far-right politicians, neo-Nazi extremists and antiIslamic groups are given the opportunity to present their views.

Their arguments for why Cyprus should turn away refugees – that they steal welfare from citizens, that they do not assimilate, that they threaten a unified cultural identity – are familiar to Australian audiences.

The extreme views of some of the groups can be challenging for audiences to hear, but it creates a more nuanced and balanced debate. Evaporating Borders is not concerned about finger-pointing. Instead, the documentary asks the audience to reflect on their own values and thoughts on what is a complex and multifaceted issue.

A persistent theme of the documentary is the danger of reducing all refugees into a collective mass stripped of individuality and identity. Evaporating Borders opens a space for voices that are often missing in mainstream conversations about migration: a dad unable to work and facing an uncertain future for his family; a refugee who had his application rejected after just 15 minutes; a teenager worried about his mother back home.

Through the exploration of these individual stories, Radivojevic restores humanity to a debate that frequently descends into generalised stereotypes about ‘the other’.

Evaporating Borders reveals that the most insidious borders are not geographical. It is the borders blocking our hearts from listening to the cries of those lost at sea that need to be broken down.

Scene from Evaporating Borders.

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Review God in the wasteland REVIEW BY EMMET O’CUANA FILM | MAD MAX: FURY ROAD | MA WHEN I was far too young, I was shown a film that featured horrific violence, death, fascist oppression and, ultimately, the end of the world.

The reason this was thought acceptable for young Emmet to watch was because the film in question, Russell S. Doughten’s A Thief In The Night, was part of a series of Christian apocalyse films from the US. It was considered a religious picture and therefore suitable viewing – despite that niggling detail of Catholicism not subscribing to the theory of the Rapture.

This was during the mid-80s, with the rise of the apocalypse picture a trend already 10 years in. These films were largely amateur productions that earned large profits due to church screenings.

This was also the time of the dreaded video nasty, with British tabloids heavily promoting the idea that violence in films creates desensitised young hoodlums.

You can imagine my confusion. How was it the scenes of faithful Christians being callously guillotined in films like A Distant Thunder or Image of the Beast were less disturbing than, say, George Miller’s Mad Max. Miller’s apocalypse has no explanation, it simply is the end of the world and we are introduced to Australians still somehow surviving despite the collapse of civilization into barbarism.

My generalised understanding of the purpose of religion as a kid was that it was meant to give life a sense of meaning.

Meaning is heavily dependent on the ability to hope for a better tomorrow.

What the likes of Doughten were marketing to church congregations across America and increasingly the rest of the world was religious fear.

Questions of faith REVIEW BY REV COLIN JOHNSTON BOOK | GOD, ETHICS AND THE SECULAR SOCIETY. DOES THE CHURCH HAVE A FUTURE? | JOHN GUNSON THE Christian churches in Australia are in serious decline. The world has stopped listening to us. The church’s reaction is, here and there, to try a few new ways of

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

This came to mind while I was thinking about George Miller’s latest film, Mad Max: Fury Road. Gibson has been replaced in the title role by Tom Hardy and the shoot took place in Namibia instead of Geelong, Victoria or Broken Hill in New South Wales. But this is still definitively a Mad Max film, retaining its Aussie sensibilities in the African desert.

It is also a film that questions the purpose of hope directly.

The plot, stripped back to the barest essentials, concerns a monstrous warlord called Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) who controls the supply of water to starving thousands in the desert. His army are legions of ‘war boys’, painted white and eager to die in his name in order to ‘enter Valhalla’. Furiosa (Charlize Theron), his most trusted lieutenant, helps his harem of wives escape in a reinforced truck. The film follows a deadly chase between the escapees and an endless horde of gibbering punks on motorbikes, drag cars and any other vehicle they can use.

One inventive scene involves a forklift.

Theron is the real star of the film, a determined guardian for the young women in her charge, smearing her face with engine oil before going into battle.

Hardy, for his part, breaks from Gibson’s more laconic interpretation of the character. Here Max is a severely disturbed man, muttering to himself, subjected to visions of the dead, nerves so raw he visibly twitches.

He is a survivor, whose sole instinct is to run. The trauma of enduring this postapocalyptic ‘Australian’ landscape has left him suspicious of any promised safe haven.

He does not believe in a better tomorrow,

doing church, but above all it demands that we stay faithful – but to what? We are unwilling to face the fact that what we are determined to stay faithful to is a definition of Christian faith defined and institutionalised some 1500 years ago in terms of the then-fashionable Greek philosophy, it was a world understood in pre-scientific terms, at a council overseen

by Imperial power and fiat.

Biblical scholarship has helped us to better understand our Christian origins, and Nicaea doesn’t stack up too well. We can understand what it was trying to say in the context of the times, but we need to translate it in today’s language, thought forms and new understandings of ourselves and our world.

In God, Ethics and the Secular Society, John Gunson critically examines what we mean by ‘God’, who is Jesus of Nazareth, what light does contemporary scientific knowledge in the fields of physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, brain research and psychology, throw on our understanding of God, of ourselves and of our universe, and what this means for Christian faith.

He argues that while most Christian theologians claim to accept evolution as a

but he also refuses to die. Largely uncommunicative for much of the film, one of his few conversations with Furiosa features the line “Hope is a mistake”.

And yet, it is Max, the non-believer fighting against the army of child soldiers eager to martyr themselves for Immortan Joe and his promised Valhalla, who makes the choice to help the escaped brides.

The terrified young women repeat the phrase “We are not things!”

Immortan Joe’s regime is based on controlling access to water, healthy blood – Aussie actor Angus Sampson plays a character called The Organic Mechanic – and ultimately, sex. It is also a regime based around a religion of fear.

The conflict in Fury Road focuses on these two opposing forces, ultimate power and the freedom for an individual to choose.

While Max is wary of hope, that is because he has experienced incredible loss.

When pressed to it, he chooses hope over fearful submission to Immortan Joe. Miller’s film depicts a dying world, full of cruelty and suffering. But, in showing how these women and men continue to fight to survive, to have a choice in how they live even at the end of all things Fury Road is oddly hopeful.

scientifically established explanation of our origins, they fail to acknowledge the logical disconnect between this and belief in a benevolent and loving creator.

Gunson, unlike many religious commentators, argues that the secular society, rather than being anti-religious and a bad thing, is both inevitable and a good thing; and that though religious language (which is essentially mythological) is no longer meaningful, the values to which it points can still be retained.

The author argues cogently that a new way of understanding Christianity and being the church in fact takes us back before Nicaea to our New Testament roots. We lose nothing of value in the process but gain the possibility that the world might listen to us again. He also introduces us to a new, and I believe helpful, concept which he has coined, called ‘ethical ecology’ or ‘ecological ethics’ as the answer to the question “How should we live?”

Best of all, for those interested in the recent and contemporary scholarship that supports the thesis of the book scholarship regrettably ignored or dismissed by the church’s leaders and scholars - in a series of Appendices this book helpfully summarises, interprets and

critiques the work of a dozen scholars, including Bonhoeffer, Tillich, and the ‘Death of God’ theologians, Crossan, Borg and Spong.

The church’s theologians unfortunately are no help to clergy and lay people who are confronting difficult questions in today’s world because they see their task as defending orthodoxy rather than the disinterested search for truth.

On the other hand this book is courageous, honest, helpful and hopeful. You won’t find anything else quite like it.

Published by Australian eBook Publisher, and distributed by Amazon, ibooks, Google and Kobo.

19

Placements

Call for photos for 2016

CURRENT AND PENDING PLACEMENT VACANCIES AS AT 15 MAY 2015

Calendar

PRESBYTERY OF GIPPSLAND Koo Wee Rup-Lang Lang-Corinella Presbytery Minister – Mission and Education

The synod is seeking photo submissions for the 2016 Giving is Living calendar. Photos should capture activities in your congregation or faith community that celebrate a spirit of generosity.

PRESBYTERY OF LODDON MALLEE Cohuna (0.5)** Dunolly (0.5) (P) Eastern Mallee Rural (Lake Boga, Manangatang, Meatian, Nyah West) (0.5) (P) Kerang (0.5) (P) Nardoo Loddon (Boort, Charlton, Powlett Plains, Wedderburn)** North Central Living Waters (Birchip, Donald, St Arnaud, Wycheproof) (P) Presbytery Minister – Mission and Education (P) Robinvale (0.5) (P)

A caption explaining the scene should accompany each photo. Each person included in the photo must complete a permission form, which can be downloaded from this link: bit.ly/GiLForm

PRESBYTERY OF NORTH EAST VICTORIA Rutherglen (Rutherglen/Chiltern-Corowa) (0.5) Wodonga West, North Albury, Kergunyah**

Do you have a photo that showcases a unique aspect of your congregation?

Please send your photos and permission forms to tim.lam@victas.uca.org.au by August 1. Please call Tim Lam on 9251 5203 for enquiries.

Find us at uca.victas.org.au

ucavictas

PRESBYTERY OF PORT PHILLIP EAST Brighton (Trinity) Endeavour Hills (0.5)** Frankston (High St) Monash Noble Park (St Columbas)** Ormond

ucavictas

We seek an enthusiastic and committed person to work with our children and families.

This is a part-time position, 20 hours per week, initially for 2 years, preferably commencing Monday 13 July 2015.

To obtain a copy of the Position Description contact Heather at the church office, phone: (03) 9560 3580, or email: office@gwuc.org.au Applications in writing by 5.00 pm on Monday 15 June to: The Office Manager, Glen Waverley Uniting Church, Corner Kingsway and Bogong avenues, Glen Waverley, Victoria, 3150 or office@gwuc.org.au

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Queenscliff-Point Lonsdale Uniting Church

This creative and community focused church seeks someone to assist with co-ordinating a diverse and exciting range of activities. The role requires: *Hosting, communication, administration and team skills. *A sense of life as sacred, generosity of spirit and valuing inclusivity.

This position is 20 hours per week, with a need for flexibility around working times.

For a full position description: www.unitingqueenscliff.org.au or contact The Chairperson, Jill Stuckey Phone: 5258 4008 Email: coljill7@gmail.com Applications close on Tuesday 30 June

PRESBYTERY OF PORT PHILLIP WEST Macedon Ranges Partnership (3 placements) (P) Melton (P) Pascoe Vale-Glenroy ReGen (P) Pascoe Vale-Glenroy (Pastoral) (0.5) PRESBYTERY OF TASMANIA Hobart Scots Memorial – Royal Hobart Hospital Chaplaincy Hobart (Wesley)** Presbytery Minister – Leadership Formation (P) PRESBYTERY OF WESTERN VIC Corangamite-Otways Region – Middle (Camperdown, Derrinallum, Apollo Bay) Creswick-Clunes (0.5) (P) Yarriambiack Creek (Warracknabeal, Beulah, Brim) (P) PRESBYTERY OF YARRA YARRA Epworth Hospital Pastoral Care Coordinator - Senior Chaplain Montrose-Lilydale Strathdon Uniting AgeWell (0.8) Parkdale (0.2)** ** These placements have not yet lodged a profile with the Placements Committee, therefore they are not yet in conversation with any minister. There is no guarantee that the placement will be listed within the next month.

(P) These placements are listed as also being suitable for a Pastor under Regulations 2.3.3 (a)(ii).

A non-ordained minister may offer to serve the church in an approved placement through a written application to the Synod.

Further information on these vacancies may be obtained from the Secretary of the Placements Committee: Ms Isabel Thomas Dobson.

Email: placements.secretary@victas.uca.org.au.

Formal expressions of interest should be put in writing to Isabel.

MINISTRY MOVES CALLS AND APPOINTMENTS FINALISED Susan Malthouse-Law called to Bendigo – Weeroona Commenced 1 June 2015 Gay Loftus (Deacon) called to Northern Rivers (Bamawm, Elmore, Rochester, Tongala-Wyuna) to commence 1 July 2015 Jeff Savage (WA) called to Hobart North to commence 1 January 2016 CONCLUSION OF PLACEMENT (Retirement) Chris Venning to retire from Uniting Agewell Chaplaincy Aldersgate Kings Meadows 1 July 2015 Tony Floyd to retire 16 July 2015 Robert Johnson to retire from Frankston 31 July 2015 CONCLUSION OF PLACEMENT Ron Upson transferred from the Synod of NSW-ACT RECOGNITION WITHDRAWN Robert McUtchen Recognition withdrawn at minister’s request Reg 2.10.3(a) 25 February 2015

Volunteers needed

Uniting AgeWell Strathdon, Forest Hill We need volunteers to support the congregation of more than 50 elderly people with reading the bible or being a steward during the 10.30 am Sunday worship service.

Contact, Deborah Hildebrand, M: 0488 033 996, Ph: 8822 3636 or E: dadelladah@gmail.com

20

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Notices, Classifieds and Advertisements CLASSIFIEDS

NOTICES THE HUB – A WELCOMING AND FRIENDLY PLACE FOR ALL Glen Waverley Uniting Church, corner Kingsway and Bogong Avenue.

You are welcome to come in for a chat, a cuppa, enjoy some company, relax or practice speaking English in an informal way. The Hub is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays (10.00 am to 2.00 pm) and Wednesdays (10.00 am to 12.00 pm) during school terms.

Information, Ph: 9560 3580 HERITAGE BOOK SALE SATURDAY 6 AND SUNDAY 7 JUNE 10.00 AM – 4.00 PM Habitat Uniting Church, Spirituality St Andrews Uniting Church Hall, Gisborne Road, Bacchus Marsh.

Children’s books and other treasured works from the 1850s to 1950s are available during this sale, supporting Frontier Services.

Information, Mavis Blackie, Ph: 5367 3023 or E: lutoncourt@gmail.com GRANDSTAND FOR THE ENVIRONMENT PUBLIC FORUM: “THE ECOLOGICAL EMERGENCY AS A CRISIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS” TUESDAY 9 JUNE 7.30 PM Function Room 2, Manningham Civic Centre, 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster.

The event features guest speakers Prof.

David Tacey, Emeritus Professor of Humanities at La Trobe University, and Mary White, Facilitator of the Centre for Ecology and Spirituality in Glenburn, Victoria. It is supported by the city of Manningham.

Free entry, no booking required.

Information, E: info@agrandstandfortheenvironment.org WATOTO CHILDREN’S CHOIR SATURDAY 13 JUNE 3.00 PM Manningham Uniting Church, 152 Andersons Creek Road, Doncaster East.

The event is free but you are encouraged to donate to this wonderful choir, which supports orphaned children and vulnerable women in Uganda.

Reservations, trybooking.com/HSVI or E: moses.lee@manninghamuc.org Information, Don, M: 0413 126 753 COMMISSIONING OF OPERATIONS CENTRE SUNDAY 14 JUNE 9.30 AM TO 12.00 PM Corner Torquay and Reserve Roads, Grovedale.

UnitingCare Geelong and Grovedale Uniting Church invite you to the official opening of this centre. The day’s program commences with a church service that includes an address by Moderator Dan Wootton, and concludes with a barbeque lunch. RSVP by Friday 29 May Vanessa Thomson, Ph: 5243 6573 or E: dougathomson@hotmail.com

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

FRIENDS OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND THE SOLOMON ISLANDS SATURDAYS, 27 JUNE AND 24 OCTOBER 12.00 – 4.00 PM Gardiner Uniting Church.

These gatherings bring together people who have lived or worked in these countries, allowing sharing of common interests, updating on current developments, and provision of practical support.

Information, Marg White, Ph: 9889 7345 or Don Cracknell, Ph: 5623 6058

CONNECTING WITH EARTH’S WISDOM SATURDAYS: 18 AND 25 JULY, 1 AND 8 AUGUST 2.00 – 4.00 PM Sophia’s Spring, Learning Centre, CERES Environment Park, Brunswick East.

The ecofeminist community of the Uniting Church invites you to this series of four ecology workshops: Cosmic Walk; Council of all Beings; Growing your ecological self; Dance of Ecology.

Information, Jan, M: 0402774883, E: sophias-spring@ceres.org.au or W: sophias-spring.unitingchurch.org.au

CAPE WOOLAMAI Summerhays Cottage. Sleeps 3. Tranquil garden. Stroll to beach. Discount for UCA members. Ring Doug or Ina 0403 133 710. summerhayscottage.com.au

CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS SATURDAY 20 AND SUNDAY 21 JUNE St Andrew’s Uniting Church, Deakin Avenue, Mildura.

Join us for this weekend full of activities and an address by the Moderator Dan Wootton.

Information, Ph: 5023 3724 or E: Mildura.uca@bigpond.com

TRANSFORM – A UCA MINISTRY WITH YOUNG ADULTS SATURDAY 25 JULY 2.00 – 4.00 PM Brunswick Uniting Church.

Join us for this winter picnic featuring a conversation with Old Testament scholar Monica Melanchthon.

Information, W: www.transformgatherings.com

LORNE: Spacious apartment, breathtaking ocean view, open fire, peaceful, secluded, affordable. Ph. (03) 5289 2698.

READING GROUPS Reading groups considering Marcus Borg’s Meeting Jesus again for the first time, over 6 weeks in July and August - Tuesday nights in North Melbourne and Friday mornings in Hawthorn. All welcome! For more information, marktheevangelist.unitingchurch.org.au BUSINESS, FAITH, LAW & MORALITY: THE ASYLUM SEEKER DEBATE Monday 29 June Wesley Uniting Church 148 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne 7:30 pm.

Panel speakers include UCA President Rev Prof Andrew Dutney: Julian Burnside, AO QC and Pamela Curr, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

For details & ticketing: bflm.eventbrite.com.au

JE SUIS REFUGEE THURSDAY 2 TO 16 JULY 10.00 AM – 4.00 PM Scots Uniting Church Hall, 1702 Sydney Road, Campbellfield.

This is a topical art exhibition by John Vander Reest. The official opening will be at 6.00 pm on Friday 3 July, light refreshments will be served.

50TH ANNIVERSARY OF REV DR. JOHN VANDER REEST’S ORDINATION SUNDAY 12 JULY 10.00 AM Scots Church, 1702 Sydney Road, Campbellfield Please join us in celebrating this momentous occasion. There will also be an exhibition of John’s artwork, for sale in aid of Lentara UnitingCare’s refugee program.

RSVP: Neville Thomas, E: nevt1966@live.com

150TH ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY 16 AUGUST 10.30 AM – 12.30 PM Romsey Uniting Church.

The day begins with a communion service and concludes with lunch.

Information, Ph: 5429 5447, 5429 5231 or E: strackhesket@hotmail.com FIJI VILLAGE LIFE PROJECT – QUOTA FILLED The group quota for this project has been filled. Thank you for the overwhelming response, please contact Rev Chris Meneilly for further enquiries, E: meneillychris@gmail.com 160TH ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY 15 NOVEMBER 10.00 AM Brown Hill Uniting Church, corner Humffray and Thompson Streets, Brown Hill.

Featuring special guest, Moderator Dan Wootton, this service is followed by a luncheon. Past members and clergy are invited to share their memories and reunite with each other.

Information, M: 0411 121 134 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Uniting AgeWell Strathdon, Forest Hill.

We need volunteers to support the congregation of more than 50 elderly people with reading the Bible or being a steward during the 10.30 am Sunday worship service.

Contact, Deborah Hildebrand, M: 0488 033 996, Ph: 8822 3636 or E: dadelladah@gmail.com

SENIORS’ SPECIAL: Enjoy a break in luxury surroundings. Three days and three nights, dinner, bed and breakfast for $450 per couple (including GST).

Jindivick Gardens. (03) 5628 5319.

CALOUNDRA, Sunshine Coast, Queensland: Beachside units, from $300/ week, for details, M: 0427 990 161 or E: rayandjean@hotmail.com

GOLDFIELDS HOLIDAY RENTAL: Fully equipped modern architecturally designed house. Situated in the Forest Resort Creswick, double storey house, four bedrooms, sleeps up to 11 people.

Contact Adam on 0414 725 887.

PSYCHOLOGIST Sue Tansey, BA (Hons), MPsych (Counselling) MAPS. Individual and relationship counselling.

Bulk billing for clients who have a referral from their GP and have a low income.

St Kilda. Ph: 0418 537 342.

Email: suetansey@yahoo.com GRAMPIANS WORSHIP When visiting The Grampians, join the Pomonal Community Uniting Church congregation for worship each Sunday at 10.00 am WANTED TO BUY Antiques, second hand/retro furniture, bric a brac and collectables. Single items or whole house lots.

Genuine buyer – contact Kevin, Ph: 0408 969 920.

LILYDALE: PEWS FOR SALE The Lilydale Uniting Church Property has been sold to Melba Support Services.

Thankfully, worship continues at 10.00 am each Sunday. However, we have a number of pews for sale (some with cushions).

Information, Ph: 9735 1990.

CHURCH FURNITURE The following items are available at no charge, as is, where is, to a Uniting Church: 7 small pews, two metre long; Baptism Font; Communion table; Wood rostrum; Large whiteboard. Contact, Noel Dennis, Ph: 9569 5716, Stonnington Community Uniting Church, Malvern East.

21

Opinion Love is indispensable DAVID PARGETER AND yet I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

(1.Cor:13) IT seems to me that we may accomplish all the best re-structuring plans possible but without love what have we gained?

We can craft the most erudite ‘mission’ programs possible but without love where will they take us?

We can build the best of all possible budgets but if we do not have love then what is the point?

I’m not trying to be preachy, or provocative, or even resistant to change – but simply trying to express something from the heart that is really troubling me.

From everything I have read and learned about faith, God’s missio dei is all about love. As a Church we are called into and caught up in the whole enterprise of loving the world as God loves it. And to do that we are invited to also work out what it means to love one another and to love ourselves.

A little while ago I was involved in a pastoral conversation that gets to the heart of my own missiological angst. Let me share the essence of it with you.

Setting the record straight AS THE key organiser and master of ceremonies for the ‘Understanding Islam’ series held on 18 and 25 March 2015 at North Ringwood Uniting Church, (NRUC) I would like to assure readers of Crosslight that the large audience (around 250 on the first night, rising to 300 on the second) was not a ‘voyeuristic mob’ as Andrew Juma alludes in his opinion piece. (May Crosslight).

The guest speakers did not present a narrative of Islam that was ‘simplified to terrorism and burqas’, rather, the event was carefully shaped to reflect the core values of the Uniting Church, with a commitment to truth, fairness, understanding, respect and peace.

By way of background, there were two sessions, each of two hours, with the opening session on the first night providing an academic overview of Islam – its history, traditions, practices and teachings – delivered by an eminent expert in the field,

22

It is a true story but think of it as hypothetical.

Recently I gave an ‘address’ reflecting on something that has underpinned my understanding of mission for most of my faith-life – missiology as pastoral theology.

Someone in the audience came to see me quite some time later to talk about it. Let me call her ‘Mavis’. Mavis is a real person and there are many people like Mavis in our faith communities.

Mavis is the elderly wife of retired minister ‘Eric’. Eric was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s several years ago. Many of us know or can imagine what the journey of that particular illness is like for each of them so I won’t go into that aspect of the conversation.

What I do want to share with you is her experience of her own faith community. It has not been good.

They are members of a large and fairly ‘vibrant’ faith community. Like many congregations, it’s in the process of developing a mission plan, but Mavis and Eric have become invisible.

Mavis has asked her minister and chair of the pastoral committee several times for support – could someone from the congregation just come and sit with Eric for a couple of hours while she goes out either for a walk around the block or just sits and has a cup of coffee in a café?

Her world, along with Eric’s, has shrunk beyond recognition. Over the past few years a couple of people have visited – but only once. It’s not easy spending time with someone who doesn’t remember very much. No-one, except another retired minister, has come more than once.

Mavis and Eric go to church every Sunday – the liturgical rhythm is comforting for Eric but not for her. She listens to the sermons (“reflections they call them now”, she says) about love and community but never experiences it. She sings the songs but the words catch in her throat. She joins in the prayers but only finds herself getting more and more angry with God and the people with whom she is worshipping.

“I might have all the right language for church life, but if I have not love then I am a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal”.

I can’t help thinking that unless the missional response of the Church to God in the world is built on the principle of love then we need to pause for a while, while we learn to love again – even if it is as if for the first time.

The little but poignant story of Mavis and Eric captures the primary pastoral but missional theme of the Gospel – love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and spirit, and your neighbour as yourself.

Dr Bernie Power. This was supplemented by personal viewpoints relating to Islam today, touching on current issues such as human rights and Western democratic traditions.

The second session was structured as a forum, comprising Muslim and Christian panellists, and was chaired by Dr Power; as he has done many times before, in other places, over the years.

The two Muslim speakers who accepted our invitation to participate, Sheikh Dirani (Shia) and Imam Janud (Ahmadiyya) were candid and informative in their deliveries and in fact held the floor for much of the night – which is the way it was meant to be.

The audience seemed to appreciate the richness of the information presented in the first session, and the multiple perspectives that emerged in the second.

Anyone wishing to view the event in full on YouTube need only contact me through the NRUC website for the link.

As to why we didn’t invite Muslim scholars and representatives to speak on the first night, as Andrew Juma presents as his ‘main criticism’, we felt that an academic, factual approach on the first

night, delivered by a man with a PhD in the Hadith (or traditions of Muhammad), who lecturers on the subject at Melbourne School of Theology and who regularly takes students on visits to mosques for conversations with Imams, would lay a sound foundation on which to build our understanding.

In reality, Islam has many branches – Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Druze, Ahmadiyya, Wahabist ... the list goes on, so to begin the series with just one or two ‘Islamic interpretations’ would have been misleading and confusing.

As if to highlight the differences, Sheikh Ali Dirani dryly observed, if he were captured

by Islamic State along with a Jew and a Christian, it’s more than likely that he, as a Shia, would be killed first. And when Australian-raised, fellow panellist and Ahmadiyya Muslim, Imam Janud said that his parents originally came to Australia escaping persecution in Pakistan, it was at the hands of other Muslims. The fact is, Ahmadiyya Muslims are regularly attacked and killed for their beliefs in Pakistan because they are not even considered Muslims and must sign a statement to that

effect if they wish to obtain citizenship.

In closing, whilst we greatly appreciate the reporting of the ‘Understanding Islam’ event by Crosslight, please allow me to express my deep feelings of hurt at its general tone. In particular the Opinion piece, which seamlessly weaves the simple act of us conducting such an event with anti-social behaviour and bigoted perspectives all topped off with the inclusion of a neo-Nazi, skinhead photograph. The intent appears to be to discourage us from understanding the changing face of Australia and entering into inter-faith dialogue.

On the topic of inter-faith dialogue and understanding, one of the Imams was so pleased with the event that he asked our minister to participate in a similar discussion panel at his mosque. The Imam has also accepted an invitation to a footy match with one of our members.

Fostering such good relations must surely be a positive thing.

Robert Latimer School of Ministry North Ringwood Uniting Church

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Moderator’s reflection Putting the ‘G’ into OMG THE other morning as I headed down the hill in the dark, I felt something silently whiz past my face. I walked on, and as the dim light marginally improved, it happened again. This time I could just make out that it was a bat. Not a big fruit bat, this one was only about as big as my hand and its flight was erratic.

I stopped and stood still in the darkness.

There was more than one, I could feel it.

My daily appointment with mystery had begun.

Bats, of course, are not blind; in fact they can see almost as well as we can. But to fly around and hunt for moths in the dark, they use a high frequency system which works in a similar way to sonar. They make calls as they fly and listen to the returning echoes of the various objects near them to ‘map out’ their surroundings.

Eventually I arrived at Hurstbridge and boarded my train. It was still darkish outside but quite light inside the carriage where I could see a teenage girl talking on her mobile phone. “Oh my God”, she was saying, and repeated it.

The acronym/phrase OMG (Oh My God!) seems particularly prevalent these days. I hear it and see it everywhere: texts, emails and oh-so-often on the television with all those previews for home renovation shows.

Generally a hand or hands are placed on the side of the face as it is exclaimed.

According to the Urban Dictionary, “OMG is an exclamation of shock or surprise, often used repeatedly by stupid people who are shocked and surprised by almost

everything and insert it into conversations whenever possible”.

It’s probably fair to say that, today, the religious significance of OMG is more often than not, unintended. It’s simply a way of expressing surprise or concern. But many who would be reading this will have spent quite a deal of their lives trying to form a relational understanding of the G in OMG and would not necessarily use this phrase lightly.

Certainly that was the case in olden days

as I recently happened upon a 1764 edition of The Garden of the Soul: A Manual of Spiritual Exercises and Instructions for Christians who (living in the World) aspire to devotion. It was written by the Right Reverend Bishop Richard Challoner (16911781).

It begins with a section on ‘What every Christian must believe’: “Every Christian must believe that there is one God, and no more than one god: That this God is a pure Spirit, the Lord and

South Pacific women gather for faith celebration TIM LAM DANCING and singing are popular expressions of faith in the Pacific Islander community. Rev Sylvia AkauolaTongotongo (pictured, left) from Burwood Heights Uniting Church and Rev Setaita Kinahoi Veikune (right) from the Methodist Church New Zealand celebrated their Tongan heritage with a performance at the South Pacific seminar in Brisbane last year.

The seminar was organised by the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women (WFMUCW), a global network of Methodist, United and Uniting Church women.

The Federation encourages women to play an active role in the Church. It recognises the contributions they bring to their faith community and facilitates leadership training for women.

More than 200 women from seven South Pacific countries attended the 2014 seminar in July for four days of sharing and learning. Emmanuel College at the University of Queensland provided the

CROSSLIGHT - JUNE 15

Maker of heaven and earth, who has neither beginning nor end, but is always the same; is everywhere present, knows and sees all things …”

Challoner goes on to address God in various ways, “May it please thee, O my eternal God, almighty …” [in modern day parlance, the acronym might be OMEGA].

Elsewhere he writes, “O my God, thou art my God, the God of my heart, the God of my soul, and the God of my Spirit”.

As I listened to the OMG girl on the train, my mind harked back to 30 minutes earlier and the bat in the darkness. My observable universe will of course always be a sphere around me, where ‘I’ am at the centre, whether or not I call out, ‘Oh my God’.

Perhaps this is best illustrated by the bat’s use of sonar or echolocation. Whilst I occasionally bump into the one God or the one God bumps into me, the encounter tells me nothing at all about my position in the universe as a whole. Sure, there’s an element of surprise, but it’s invariably a manifestation of love in some form or another.

What it tells me is that I’ve bumped into an ineffable mystery. Ineffability is concerned with ideas that cannot or should not be expressed in spoken (or written) words.

But I think it’s worth the effort to try and do so.

“God is at home,” Meister Eckhart said, “We are in the far country.”

Dan Wootton Moderator

backdrop for the gathering.

The seminar theme was ‘A Challenge to Live with Risk, Compassion and Celebration’.

Rev Dr Elizabeth Nolan was the keynote speaker. She guided participants on a bible study on prominent women in scripture, such as Ruth, Naomi and Martha.

Rev Amel Manyon, the Uniting Church’s first South Sudanese female minister, shared her faith journey from war-torn Sudan to Australia. Rosemary Young spoke to the audience about her work at Frontier Services working with remote Indigenous communities.

Each country (or ‘units’ as they are referred to in the Federation) gave a regional report on their unit’s activities before entertaining the audience with a cultural presentation.

In addition to providing a space for knowledge sharing, the seminar celebrated the diversity of spiritual expression throughout the region.

The Pacific Islander units were especially enthusiastic and led the participants in a lively musical celebration.

Participants took part in musical workshops conducted by Rev Amelia KoeButler and wrote songs to represent the South Pacific region.

The event marked 75 years since the Federation was established.

Attendees celebrated the milestone with a celebratory dinner and a ferry ride down the Brisbane River.

23

Synod Snaps

Launceston South Uniting Church welcome baby Scarlet into their congregation.

“photography is a love affair with life” - Burk Uzzle

Students from Billanook College, Wesley College, Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC) and Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School (PEGS) gather at the synod office for their Inter-school Social Justice Day.

Carlton Church of All Nations celebrates 50 years involvement in programs for Seniors in the Carlton community.

Opening night at the Sacred Edge festival at Queenscliff Uniting Church.

Congregation members from Altona Meadows Laverton Uniting Church participate in a Relay for Life event to raise funds for the Cancer Council.

An Interfaith Memorial Service took place at St Mary’s Church in Thornbury to express solidarity for the asylum seekers who drowned on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea (from left to right - Herman Roburgh, Dr Seyed Sheriffdeen, Larry Marshall, Bakthedeth)

Krystyna Thomas and Bill Rush at Armadale Uniting Church.

Senator Doug Cameron and John Bottomley at the launch of Mr Bottomley’s book Hard Work Never Killed Anybody at Armadale Uniting Church.

Lawrence Marshall standing alongside a metal sculpture he created. The sculpture was on display at Rosebud Church on Easter Day.

Each month Crosslight will showcase images from throughout the Church. Send your images to crosslight@victas.uca.org.au