Two-tiered system set to separate churches by Elspeth ...

THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • October 2021 • 1 • tma.melbourneanglican.org.auPLUS: Introducing TMA’s new Editor, p3; Anglicans’ future in Melbourne’s west, p6.

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Archbishop’s Conversation on

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by Stephen Cauchi

Demanding and difficult times are ahead for churches as they are forced to offer

separate services for vaccinated and unvaccinated attendees, Archbishop Philip Freier has warned.

He also warned that unvac-cinated clergy and medically vul-nerable vaccinated clergy “will not be able to exercise full ministry”, because of risks and restrictions in mixing with people.

Indoor church services will be able to resume on 26 October in regional Victoria and on 5 November in Melbourne, if vac-

cination targets are met when projected.

From 5 November, services will have a size limit of 150 indoors for

fully vaccinated people. The limit for unvaccinated services will be 20 people indoors. The services will be subject to the one person per four-square-metre rule.

Outdoor church services will be permitted from 26 October, but Archbishop Freier said he did not expect parishes to offer them.

By 5 November, it is expected 80 per cent of people aged over 16 will be fully vaccinated.

Writing in a Diocesan COVID-19 update, Archbishop Freier said that from 5 November, church ministry was going to be extra demanding and difficult.

Two-tiered system set to separate churches by Elspeth Kernebone

For Mansfield’s Anglican parishioners an earthquake is just the latest challenge to overcome.

They have already made it through devastating fires and a pandemic within the past two years. On Wednesday they were at the epicentre of one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in Victoria.

But parishioners and townspeople escaped unharmed, along with their historic church building.

Mansfield Anglican priest’s warden Jane Freemantle said many congregation members were quite shaken after the earthquake, but the church had pulled together with its

existing pastoral care systems to check in on its members.

When the earthquake hit, Dr Freemantle was on her property listening to the news, getting ready to head down to church for morning prayers.

Suddenly instead of the television, all she could hear was “a massive crackling”.

Then everything began to shake, the pictures fell off the wall, and the lightshades fell over.

The 5.9 magnitude earth-quake had struck a few dozen kilometres south of the town, at a depth of 10 kilometres.

The shaking had stopped by the time Dr Freemantle got herself out of the house, but she

Mansfield church still strong despite fires, pandemic, quake

October 2021, No 607

by Dr Audrey Statham

CHURCH-LINKED groups have been among those to rally in support of Afghan refugees

set to arrive in Melbourne after fleeing Taliban-controlled

Kabul.Scores of people

have attended a Melbourne informa-tion session about

mentorship groups, designed to help refugees settle in their new home.

Interest has been high, but

volunteers are still needed for the men-

torship program.The Taliban’s

recent takeover of Kabul and overthrow

of the Western-backed Afghan government has sparked a humanitarian

crisis, causing many people to flee the country rather

than risk persecution or death.

There are fears anyone who has worked with foreign aid groups or been involved with the American military and allied forces will be perse-

cuted, along with minorities such as the Hazara religious

ethnic group, and women and girls.

Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia chief executive Lisa Button sprang into action to begin organising mentor groups for the expected wave of refugees when she heard about the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan.

Through its refugee mentorship program, piloted in 2020, CRSA provides everyday Australians with a practical opportunity to support refugees during their resettlement.

Ms Button saw an opportunity to harness the compassion shown by the Australian public about the plight of the Afghan people, to support refugees through the mentorship initiative.

On Wednesday 15 September an online information session hosted by Melbourne Grammar School – where Ms Button is a parent – about the mentorship program was packed with more than 100 people from seven schools, and the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne Social Responsibility Committee.

A mentor group involves five or more adults – who could be friends, neighbours, colleagues, families or church groups – who are then matched with a refugee household.

Call for help to welcome Afghan refugees

• Continued – Page 2

“Church [will] not be able to offer vaccinated and unvaccinated services at the same time.”

Archbishop Freier

• Continued – Page 4• Continued – Page 4

Melbourne groups are preparing to support a wave of refugees from Afghanistan. Photo: AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe

http://www.tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

THE MELBOURNE ANGLICAN • October 2021 • 2 • tma.melbourneanglican.org.au

TMATHE ARCHBISHOP WRITES

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God amongst other things to

“Give us today our daily bread”. For those who have prayed this prayer daily or for a lifetime, it may seem that these words are like the water running over the smooth rocks in a mountain stream, predictable and soothing. We need, of course, to regard our daily sustenance as answered prayer and as a gift from God. For those amongst us who have known want and faced the uncertainty of our “daily bread”, it is more intensely apparent that the essentials for life are a gift from God. If we have known only abundance and grown firm in our confidence of the certainty of “daily bread” being there for us, the exer-cise of daily thankfulness to God needs to be nurtured.

Writing in the 16th century, Teresa of Avila gave some firm advice on this very subject: “It is

vital that we know what we are doing when we say, ‘Our Father’. Take heed that when He grants you your request, you do not cast it back in His face. Be very careful what you say to God.”

Teresa uses confronting language to shake us out of our complacency. She knows that God is not to be trivialised and to speak to God as “Our Father” is to place the prayer in a familial relationship with the Divine. The Lord’s Prayer

is both simple and deep, easy to say but far reaching in its mean-ing. Like much of Jesus’ teaching, it needs to be received faithfully but never superficially.

This is where the problem can arise for many of us who have not known hunger or learned to pause with deep gratitude as we approach the simple gifts that sustain us. Even more so when we may have learned this prayer as one of the earliest things that we were taught.

This is where the words we use in thanking God for our meal, habits of fasting and our general demean-our towards food are relevant to us, lest we “cast it back in God’s face”. These are long-established disciplines in Christianity even if they have been subdued in the ris-ing prosperity of Western society. I recall visiting a café in Addis Ababa some years back and noticing that they had an ordinary menu and a “fasting” menu, such was the seri-

ousness and frequency of fasting in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

There is a long tradition in the Western Church of saying verses 15 and 16 from Psalm 145 before a meal: “The eyes of all look to you O Lord and you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand satisfying the desire of every living thing.” Bishop Charles Gore followed in the Teresian tradition when he prayed: “Lord forgive us that we feast while others starve.”

These are all small things that nurture our disposition towards God and our thankfulness in receiving God’s gifts but are none the less important. Intention and expectation in prayer have their corollary in thankfulness and appreciation.

Nurture deep gratitude for ‘our daily bread’“If we have known only abundance ... of ‘daily bread’ being there for us, the exercise of daily thankfulness to God needs to be nurtured.”

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Clergy MovesVacant Appointments as of 22 September 2021:Bellarine Anglican Parish; St Edward, Blackburn South; St Martin Belgrave Heights (from February); St Peter, Bundoora; St Faith, Burwood; St Catharine, South Caulfield; St Alban, Coburg West; Darebin South; St Peter (Eastern Hill), Melbourne (from 2022); St Matthew, Glenroy with St Linus’ Merlynston; St Cuthbert, Grovedale with St Wilfrid, Mount Duneed; Pascoe Vale-Oak Park; St Aidan, Strathmore; St Thomas, Upper Ferntree Gully; St James Wandin with St Paul Seville Appointments:FAN, The Revd Jianzhong, appointed Incumbent from Priest-in-Charge, Holy Name of Jesus, Vermont South, effective 26 August 2021 HTOO, The Revd Saw Donnie, appointed Assistant Priest, Authorised Anglican Congregation, St Stephen – Karen Community, effective 2 September 2021 SMITH, The Revd Matthew, appointed Renewal Priest-in-Charge, St John, Healesville with St Paul, Yarra Glen, effective 22 January 2022WEBSTER, The Revd Steven, appointed Incumbent -extension, St Michael, North Carlton, effective 1 December 2021 Permission to Officiate:PARKINSON, The Revd Howard Shore, appointed Permission to Officiate within the Diocese of Melbourne, effective 26 August 2021PEACOCK, The Revd William Bernard, appointed Permission to Officiate within the Diocese of Melbourne, effective 9 September 2021SWEENEY, The Revd Mark, appointed Permission to Officiate within the Diocese of Melbourne, effective 17 September 2021Resignations:SAVAGE, The Revd Jennifer Rose, Incumbent, Mount Eliza, to take up an appointment in the Diocese of Waikato Taranaki, New Zealand effective 31 January 2022SWEENEY, The Revd Mark, Chaplain, Peninsula Grammar School, effective 17 September 2021Retirements:PEACOCK, The Revd William Bernard, Chaplain, Grimwade House, Melbourne Grammar School, effective 26 January 2022 Obituaries:BAUMGARDNER, The Revd John Edward, 6 September 2021

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Mentor groups help refugees find employment, progress in their education, learn English, navigate essential services, find friendship and explain local knowledge.

There is a 12-month commit-ment and a small fundraising component, to provide a budget. CRSA aims to have 200 mentor groups matched with households of newly arrived refugees by late 2021.

On the night, a Sydney couple, Nigel Stewart and Sally Tsoutas, who took part in the

2020 pilot program shared about the personal and community benefits of mentoring refugees.

“It’s just a great pleasure to be helping others … in need of tre-mendous assistance … whether you’re teaching them to swim, to drive, to deal with parking tickets, to deal with careers, to move house, giving them laptops, anything,” Mr Stewart said.

“You act as their family in a different environment.”

To respond to the refugees’ needs, the Social Responsibility Committee is bringing two motions on Afghan refugees and Medevac refugees to the

Anglican Synod in October.They urge the Federal

Government to expand the intake of the humanitarian program to include people fleeing Afghanistan, to grant permanent visas to Afghan refugees on temporary visas, to release into the community and grant visas to Afghan refugees being detained indefinitely onshore and offshore, and to expedite the process of releasing Medevac refugees who are still being indefinitely detained onshore.

To support Afghan refugees and people seeking asylum, Melbourne Anglicans can:

• Sign the petition Christians United for Afghanistan: unitedforafghanistan.com.

• Donate to CRSA at refugeesponsorship.org.au/donate/ or to the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project at basp.org.au/you-can-help/.

• Write a letter as an individual or church to Immigration Minister Alex Hawke ([email protected]).

• Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper including the name of your church in your sign-off.

• Get a group together from your church, friends,

neighbourhood or school community to discuss sponsoring Afghan refugees through the CRSA mentorship program. Find out information at refugeesponsorship.org.au

To receive updates or to inform the SRC about actions

and advocacy in your church and local community for refugees

and asylum seekers, email [email protected].

Audrey Statham is a parishioner at St Mary’s North Melbourne and a

member of the SRC.

How church groups can help welcome Afghan people seeking asylum in Australia• From – Page 1



http://www.youtube.com/anglicanmediamelb


TMA AROUND THE DIOCESE

by Chris Shearer

State and federal gov-ernments must show greater political courage to tackle

the root causes of disadvantage that lead many former prisoners back into prison, two social welfare experts have warned.

Speaking at the most recent Conversations with the Archbishop, lawyer and chairwoman of female prisoner advocacy group Flat Out Amanda George and Anglicare Victoria chief executive Paul McDonald agreed that while some progress had been made in recent years, governments needed to be braver when it came to fund-ing housing, education, mental health and other support services that help prevent the cycle of incarceration.

“If we have a look at how much money the Victorian government has been spending on social and public housing, education and public hospitals in the last six years, social and public housing has gone up one per cent, educa-tion has increased 25 per cent, public hospitals 48 per cent and prisons 90 per cent,” Ms George said.

“So it’s been a truism, the more prisons you build they always get filled.

“What courageous and sensible policy is about is looking at the drivers for crime.”

Ms George said that the biggest predictor for women reoffending after leaving prison was whether or not they had housing stability and a support base.

She said research from NSW showed that a woman with more than two changes of address in her first year out was basically on her way back into prison.

“It’s really important that the focus is on building homes and not building prisons,” Ms George said.

“That will impact on young people and children, and their future, and it will impact on

women who are already criminal-ised and caught up in the system and their future and the future of their children.”

Mr McDonald pointed to a number of pilot projects already showing promise in Victoria, such as Village 21, developed by Kids Under Cover in partnership with Anglicare Victoria, and the recent efforts during the pandemic to move rough sleepers into hotel accommodation and then more stable housing.

“We know that we can do this and do this well, so we should take confidence about that. We’re locking in quite a strong pathway from homelessness, [to] hotel, into ongoing housing,” he said.

“So we need to start thinking about, ‘What are the other cohorts that could benefit from this locked-in pathway out?’ A third of prisoners who go in are homeless. About half of those exit homeless.

“We know in this state what to do. I think it’s about a belief in, ‘Let’s scale, let’s invest in these community-based options, these pathways out’, and take confidence

that the evidence that we’ve seen in these trials will scale into larger outcomes across the community.”

Mr McDonald also praised the Victorian Government’s $5.3 bil-

lion Big Housing Build plan, which is set to deliver over 12,000 new social and affordable dwellings in the state. But he said the federal government should confront the issue as well.

“Why the feds haven’t leant into the homelessness, housing issue around the country is beyond my grasp, because it’s one of the high-

est social policy issues this country is facing,” he said.

“Credit to the Andrews govern-ment that they’ve put in $5 billion. If the feds had matched that, matched Victoria’s investment, I don’t reckon - and I’ll say a big statement here - I don’t reckon we would have a housing crisis if the feds had come through with another five [billion].

“They seem to be pretty quick about writing cheques for sub-marines, but not so much about writing cheques for housing affordability.”

Ms George also used the con-versation to highlight the need for legislative changes around bail.

She noted that changes to bail laws after the Bourke Street massa-cre placed the onus on the charged person to show they deserved bail, and that this had led to a huge increase in the number of people kept in jail on remand. She said five years ago about a quarter of female inmates were being held on remand, but that had increased to 44 per cent.

“Now those women are often

not there for very long. Two-thirds of the women in prison are there for less than one month. But what can happen in one month? You can lose your housing, you can lose your children, you certainly lose your job … So your whole life is catastrophised because you weren’t able to get bail,” she said.

“The remand numbers are a creature of policy and we need to wind back because they’re not making the community safer. It’s not good public policy to change a law on the basis of one tragic case. Governments need to be braver than that.”

Mr McDonald agreed, adding that across the state about 35 per cent of prisoners had not been convicted, with around 60 per cent of young offenders unsentenced. Of those, around two-thirds would receive non-custodial sentences, but the effects of their time in custody remained.

“What we do know, the higher likelihood of someone re-entering prison is because of their experi-ence in prison. So if we’re placing people in remand, we’ve got to actually think, is this the option of last resort?” Mr McDonald said.

“Is it in our community’s inter-est, is it in Victoria’s interest, that we have so many on remand? … Let’s make remand as it once was: as a last resort. It’s not tolerable to society to be placing young people, adults, in prison situations on non-violence offences.

“So we need to take the courage to say let’s not get soft on crime, let’s get smart on crime, and move this back in relation to some of the good options that can be alterna-tives to remand.”

The latest Conversations with Archbishop, featuring Amanda

George and Paul McDonald in a con-versation facilitated by Archbishop

Philip Freier, was held on September 15 as a digital event. You can watch the full video at youtube.com/user/

AnglicanMediaMelb/videos

‘Build homes, not prisons’: Workers call for courage to end Victoria’s incarceration cycle

Archbishop Philip Freier speaks with Anglicare Victoria chief executive Paul McDonald and Amanda George, from female prisoner advocacy group Flat Out, at last month’s Conversation with the Archbishop.

“A third of prisoners who go in are homeless. About half of those exit homeless.”

by Mark Brolly

It doesn’t take long to realise that the new editor of The Melbourne Anglican loves her community, within the church and beyond.

For journalist Elspeth Kernebone her community has been deeply important to both her faith, and her professional life.

It was the community that attracted her to her new role, after working on newspapers in Victoria and NSW.

Most recently Kernebone was a reporter for three years with the Bendigo Advertiser, a daily paper serving central Victoria.

Born and mostly raised in Melbourne, Kernebone has been

involved with the city’s Anglican Church and Christian organisa-tions for most of her life. She said these churches were where she grew up, and where she came to a faith of her own as a teenager.

“I was really lucky to have the strong teachings of Anglican churches. I was taught from a young age about Jesus and about the Bible,” she said.

“But I also really valued the relationships I had with people within my church. As a young person, there were so many people who took an interest in me, who cared about me, and who taught me about the Bible and faith.”

Kernebone has attended a variety of churches as a child and an adult, including St

Jude’s Anglican in Carlton, Bay West Anglican and Soul Café in Hobart, and St Theodore’s and St Thomas’s Anglican

churches in Melbourne’s east. In Braidwood she was a member of the town’s Uniting Church, and in Bendigo South East Bendigo Anglican Church.

After graduating from Monash University, Kernebone’s first job in journalism was with the Braidwood Times, serving the small community of Braidwood, about an hour’s drive east of Canberra.

Kernebone said both Braidwood and Bendigo were strong, diverse and interesting communities, and in that they paralleled the Anglican church in Melbourne.

Kernebone said Scripture Union family missions had also been an important part of her life, attending as a young child, then later as a team member

and director in her teens and early 20s.

Kernebone is also a member of the board of SparkLit, an organisation dedicated to nurturing emerging Christian publishers around the world.

Kernebone said The Melbourne Anglican had served Anglicans in Melbourne and Geelong well for decades, and her goal was to continue to do so. She said she could also see scope to grow the paper’s online offerings, where many people now read their news.

“I’m really excited about the role and really keen for people to come and talk to me,” she said.

“If there’s something exciting your church is doing, please get in touch.”

New editor keen to keep focus on the church community

Elspeth Kernebone.



TMAAROUND THE DIOCESE

“A two-tiered system is not ideal, and we are assured it is a temporary measure, though it may last some months,” he said.

“However, we are glad that everyone has opportunity to attend a service and our churches can be open to all.”

Archbishop Freier said the rules for vaccinated services required that all laity and clergy must be fully vaccinated. However he said vaccinated laity and clergy would be welcome to attend an unvac-cinated service.

He said a church would not be able to offer vaccinated and unvac-cinated services at the same time.

“Separate services can be held at different times and days. We are told that the Service Victoria app will be modified to record the vac-cination status of a person for QR check-in purposes,” Archbishop Freier said.

Archbishop Freier said parish

councils, with their vicar, would need to make decisions on what services to offer and when.

But parishes should resume services from 26 October in regional Victoria and 5 November in Melbourne, he said.

“We request that each parish offers at least one service for vac-cinated people and one for anyone including the unvaccinated or vaccination status unknown,” Archbishop Freier said.

“We do not want to exclude the medically vulnerable who may be reticent to gather with the unvac-cinated. We do not want to exclude the unvaccinated either.”

Archbishop Freier added that unvaccinated clergy, or vaccinated clergy who were medically vulner-able to COVID-19, would not be able to exercise full ministry.

“We ask those clergy to speak with their bishop as soon as possi-ble, and with their vicar if they are not a vicar. Those who are vicars ought to speak also with their

churchwardens,” he said.“We again urge all clergy to be

vaccinated.”Bishop Paul Barker told TMA

that offering separate services for the vaccinated and unvaccinated was what the Diocese expected, although “not ideal”.

“This is as good as we can expect,” he said. “It’s either this or we stay closed.

“Nobody is prevented from com-ing so we’re very pleased about that.

“The medically vulnerable can still come to the vaccinated church service safely.”

Bishop Barker said there was a small number of clergy and laity

within the diocese who did not want to be vaccinated. He urged them to change their mind.

He said unvaccinated clergy presented a special concern, as they could not take a vaccinated service. Communion would be especially problematic, he said. Unvaccinated clergy will also not be able to lead a vaccinated funeral.

Bishop Barker warned that in the future, some hospitals and nursing homes might only allow visits from vaccinated people.

“It’s a great problem. How will some clergy fulfil their ministry if they refuse to be vaccinated?” he said.

“It’s very complicated. It’s going to be very hard for some clergy.”

Bishop Barker said he knew of two clergy in his episcopate who had chosen not to be vaccinated, and he requested all clergy mak-ing that decision to contact their bishop.

He said vaccinated clergy who were medically vulnerable to

COVID-19 infection were also of concern.

“They may not want to take a service to unvaccinated people, understandably, so we’re asking them to tell us as well,” Bishop Barker said.

The four-square-metre per person rule would also make accommodating large congrega-tions difficult, he said.

Bishop Barker said segregating church services between the vacci-nated and unvaccinated could also raise privacy concerns. But he said vaccination would be a problem for society generally, not just the church.

“It is a problem. Is it breaking privacy to ask for people’s vaccina-tion status?” he said.

“Everywhere we go in society is going to require vaccination: cafes and hospitality, airlines, the MCG.”

Bishop Barker said clergy and laity were suffering anxiety and mental strain during the prolonged lockdowns.

Two-tiered system forces churches to separate congregation by vaccination status

“We again urge all clergy to be vaccinated.”

could still hear a continuing roar, like a freight train passing. That went on for about two minutes.

Dr Freemantle pulled herself together, and went down to the church for morning prayer, where she found quite a few older parishioners who were very shaken. A fallen organ pipe was the earthquake’s only mark on the historic building.

Since then the church com-munity has used its pastoral care system developed for the

COVID-19 lockdowns to check in its members.

Dr Freemantle said many people were experiencing a level of anxiety after the earthquake.

But she said the succession of disasters hitting Mansfield had brought out the best in the church community.

“It’s brought up compassion, it’s brought up leadership,” she said.

“ Wh at w e’re d o i n g i n Mansfield is really focusing on keeping our community together.”

Dr Freemant le said the Mansfield church had even increased its attendance during the pandemic, with 50 people attending services on the most recent Sunday, either on Zoom or at two small face-to-face services.

She said the parish’s priest in charge the Venerable Catie Inches-Ogden and a recent locum the Dr Paul Dalziel had been an amazing support, as had the Wangaratta diocese Bishop Clarence Bester.

Among the church’s efforts to

remind the community to have hope has been for the church bells to ring the Angelus at noon every day.

“It’s a lovely community thing, just to remind people that we’re still here … and to remind people that we’re a strong community, and with the grace of God we’ll get through,” Dr Freemantle said.

The Melbourne Anglican understands that all church buildings in the Melbourne diocese escaped the earthquake without major damage.

Many shaken, but disasters bring out best in Mansfield Anglican church

• From – Page 1

• From – Page 1

by Chris Shearer

A former chair of the General Synod Public Affairs Commission will drive a

project to establish a new peace-building centre at the University of Melbourne.

Also a former federal Labor MP, Professor John Langmore AM will chair the initiative, which is the first of its kind in Australia.

The university hopes the Australian Peacebuilding Initiative will allow “Australia to embrace its place in the world”.

“Diplomatic and dialogue-bas ed conf l ic t res olut ion approaches are imperative to address the drivers of conflict and inequity, while promoting sustain-able peace,” the API foundational statement reads.

“Australia needs a non-gov-ernment institution whose central purpose is to prevent or mitigate violent international or intra-national conflict and to promote peacebuilding initiatives.”

The work of the initiative will focus on three key areas: research, engagement and education. Its

aim will be to contribute to peace-building efforts in the Asia-Pacific region and developing disciplinary knowledge for future peace work studies and training.

Professor Langmore, who has also worked for the United Nations and in academia since retiring from federal politics, said it was critical to develop such an initiative in Australia. He said non-govern-ment organisations had greater freedom in how they approached such complex issues, and here in Australia the need was great, as the proportion of Commonwealth expenditure on diplomacy had plunged in the past 25 years.

“It is bizarre that the defence department or intelligence agencies can double or treble their funding allocations, while diplomacy as a proportion of total Commonwealth expenditure is halved. It’s just per-verse,” he said.

“We need to think of foreign policy as having four components: diplomacy, defence, intelligence and aid. We’ve been cutting aid and cutting the proportion spent on diplomacy, and that is counter-productive.

“If you want to make Australia more secure, which is the goal of every government, then the best way is trying to reduce the extent of conflict. That’s the task of diplo-

mats, and some of those diplomats need to focus on peacebuilding.

“It undermines us, because we don’t have enough people out there trying to understand other countries and explaining them to Australia, or [out there] explain-ing to other countries what are the characteristics and strengths of Australia.”

Professor Langmore said there were several threats to peace today that were being subsumed in the minds of Australians by our competition with China, such as ongoing localised wars around the world and an increasing arms race

in the Asia-Pacific region. “If you were l iv ing in

Indonesia, what would do more to impress you? Australia doing more to contribute supplies of the

[COVID-19] vaccine, improve-ments in education, improvements in infrastructure in Indonesia, [or] whether we’ve got more mobile rockets to fire at them if they got out of hand?” Professor Langmore said.

“I think we have got to think with a little more imagination about what makes us secure.”

Professor Langmore said that since the initiative was announced by the vice-chancellor in April he and his colleague Dr Tania Miletic had been involved in several conferences on issues such as the ongoing conflict in Myanmar and the potential impact of climate change on peace, as well as setting the foundations for what he hopes will eventually be a fully-funded Peace Centre.

Seven initial staff – comprising six scholars and peace-making practitioners, plus an administra-tive secretary – will implement the API’s initial program. Professor Langmore says he and Dr Miletic had also been working on building a network of academics around the country who could contribute their experience.

Anglican, former MP seeks to bring imagination to Australian-first peacebuilding initiative

Professor John Langmore.

“I think we have got to think with a little more imagination about what makes us secure.”

Mansfield Anglican Church.



TMA AROUND THE DIOCESE

by Stephen Cauchi

Western Australian pastor Stephen McAlpine has received the 2021 Australian Christian Book of the Year award for his work Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn’t.

The $3000 award presented by SparkLit – formerly the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Australia – was presented in an online ceremony on 2 September.

Publisher The Good Book Company quoted Mr McAlpine as saying that the work explained how we offer the gospel to those around us, who view it as not only wrong but possibly dangerous.

“[Mr McAlpine] encourages Christians not to be ashamed of the gospel as it is more liberating, fulfilling, and joyful than anything the world has to offer,” they said.

“He also offers strategies for coping in this world, with its oppos-ing values, and for reaching out to others wisely with the truth.”

Judges – Wesley Mission chief executive Stu Cameron, Dalkeith Anglican Church women’s ministry coordinator Judith Nichols, and former Bible Society Australia chief executive Greg Clarke – all praised the book.

“McAlpine is fearless, feisty, and fluent,” the judges wrote.

“This book is an overdue reset for Christians that have not realised that they are more like Daniel in Babylon than Solomon in the land of milk and honey.

“No longer just quaint or irrel-evant, Christians in Western society are once again regarded as haters of mankind.”

The judges said that after explaining the ways in which a Christian worldview is unaccepta-ble in contemporary Australia, and the complex situations in which this placed orthodox believers, Mr McAlpine got down to business.

“There is neither reason or time for indulging in despair or victim-

hood. Being the bad guys calls on Christians to admit our failures and embrace life as a creative minority,” they said.

“As a community on the mar-gins, we can welcome the actual victims of contemporary culture as they look for grace and solace from its bruising brutality.”

Mr McAlpine, who attends Providence Church in Perth, told viewers of the online award pres-entation that he was excited to win.

He said Christians in Australia should expect “30 or 40 years of a lot of change”.

“We have to train our next gen-eration of [Christian] young people to cope with a world that’s … more hostile than even we’re experienc-ing,” Mr McAlpine said.

But he said younger Christians expected that more hostile secular environment.

“That was what surprised me, speaking to younger people - uni-versity students who are Christian.

They just assumed, ‘Yes, it’s going to be hard’, whereas people in my generation were a little bit more precious,” Mr McAlpine said.

Christians had to learn to be good listeners to entice nonbeliev-ers into the Church, he said.

“The first thing is listen more. We’ve geared ourselves up in our apologetic to be good speakers and one of the things I don’t think we do as well is listen to what people are actually saying - we launch into a script,” Mr McAlpine said.

While Christians needed to “maintain our distinctiveness”, churches also needed a “porous boundary”, he said.

“You can only do that if you’ve got confidence in the gospel, if the gospel is true and right and good and if Jesus truly is the king of your community,” Mr McAlpine said.

“When you can do that, over time you start to be an attractive option for people who are looking for something more.”

Mr McAlpine said he had non-Christian friends who were “almost envious” of the way Christians in COVID times banded together.

“Other people found that they were very lonely,” he said.

He also said it was important for Christian communities to spend more time together despite the common constraints of busyness.

Before 2021, Sydney-based aca-demics had taken out the Australian Christian Book of the Year Award for three years running.

Centre for Public Christianity research fellow Natasha Moore received the award in 2020 for her work For the Love of God: How the Church is Better and Worse Than You Ever Imagined.

In 2019 Macquarie University History Professor Stuart Piggin (together with American historian and Baptist Robert Linder) received the award for The Fountain of Public Prosperity: Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1740–1914.

Sydney University historian Meredith Lake, took home the award in 2018 for The Bible in Australia.

Victorian Rémy Chadwick won the 2021 Young Australian Christian Writer Award, a $2500 prize, with his work “Creativity and Faith in Postmodern Australia”.

Megan Southon from Victoria won the 2021 Australian Christian Teen Writer Award with her com-position Daisies in Winter.

Bionic ear pioneer Professor Graeme Clark’s autobiography was also among the 10 works nominated for the 2021 Australian Christian Book of the Year award. He talks to TMA journalist Stephen Cauchi on Page 14.

‘Feisty’ work charts path for Christians in modern Babylon

“This book is an overdue reset for Christians.”

by Mark Brolly

The flagship publication of Ethos: the Evangelical Centre for Christianity and

Society, which is led by Melbourne Anglican priest and academic the Reverend Dr Gordon Preece, has won the premier honour of the Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA), the Gutenberg Award.

Zadok Perspectives and Papers, of which Dr Preece has been Commissioning Editor for 20 years, was announced as winner of the Gutenberg at an online event after ARPA’s annual general meet-ing on 4 September.

TMA took out three awards for material published in 2020 under former Editor Ms Emma Halgren – a silver award for Best Review, ‘A call for “real engagement across borders” by faithful Anglicans’ by the Reverend Luke Hopkins, Vicar of St Martin’s Hawksburn; silver for Best Cover for a Newspaper by TMA’s designer Ivan Smith, February 2020’s coverage of the bushfires in Mallacoota; and a bronze award for Best Original Illustration, ‘He is risen’, our April 2020 Easter cover by Indigenous artist and priest the Reverend Robyn Davis.

TMA was honoured with the Gutenberg Award an unprec-edented three times under long-serving Editor Mr Roland Ashby – in 1998, 2006 and 2015 (the latter with Mr Ashby as co-winner). Its predecessor as the newspaper of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, See, won the Gutenberg in 1994 under Mrs Angela Grutzner.

Dr Preece has served at several Anglican churches in Sydney, lec-tured at Ridley College in Parkville and, alongside his work at Ethos, was Senior Minister of St Mark’s Anglican Church, Spotswood in the Anglican Parish of Yarraville until last year. He is Director of the University of Divinity’s Centre for Research in Religion and Social Policy (RASP) and Chair of the Melbourne Anglican Social Responsibilities Committee.

ARPA’s President, Ms Sophia Sinclair, said in her citation for Zadok: “Now a coffee-table type magazine, Zadok Perspectives and Papers had humble beginnings as a newsletter and Study Papers for members and subscribers as part of the Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society.

“Named after Zadok the Priest who anointed the Kings of Israel, Zadok Perspectives and Papers is about the public life of God’s scattered people – on Monday not Sunday – in their personal, pro-fessional, and public lives. These spheres are linked by a theology of engagement with everyday life seasoning secular society.

“ G o r d o n P r e e c e (Commissioning Editor for 20 years and Ethos Director) and Armen Gakavian (Coordinating Editor and Associate Director) lead a range of contributors from all walks of life in producing the quarterly publication.

“Zadok Perspectives and Papers exemplifies religious journalism that is unafraid to engage deeply with current issues preoccupying the public sphere: the COVID 19 pandemic, Religions and Human

Rights, Surveillance Capitalism, and more.

“With the aim of ‘helping Christians disagree amicably in preparation for engaging the plu-ralism of the wider world’ Zadok Perspectives is a prescient publica-tion for our society.

“(Johannes) Gutenberg was a great technological contributor to the Reformation through his print-ing presses, multiplying Luther’s liberating and prolific pen. Today, Zadok Perspectives and Papers continues that tradition, so that the voices of the priesthood of all believers might echo through the everyday and eternity.

“It is therefore my great pleas-ure to award the Gutenberg Award for 2021 to Zadok Perspectives and Papers.”

Zadok also won gold for Best Column.

Eureka Street, a publication of Richmond-based Jesuit Media that

began in 1991 as a magazine and is now wholly online, was named Publication of the Year.

The judges said Eureka Street “has an authenticity of voice, and fidelity to the Gospel”. “Grounded in the social teachings of the Catholic Church, it addresses issues both national and interna-tional, and gives readers access to some of Australia’s best public intellectuals.

“The critical edge to Eureka Street offers a necessary critique (and a corrective) to much of the rubbish we read in so-called main-stream media in Australia.”

In the Best Review category, for which gold was awarded to Eternity News, the judges said: “A good review explores how well the content is enhanced by the medium, and relates it to some relevant issue of its time or its community. The reader also knows whether to seek out the subject of

the review – or avoid it. A very close-run category.”

The judges said in part of Mr Smith’s design in the Best Cover for a Newspaper category: “TMA used an excellent photo with a very apt top left coverline to create a cover that was purely illustrative of the Australian bushfire disasters.” The category was won by NZ Catholic.

And of Ms Davis’ artwork in the Best Original Illustration category: “The art work is outstanding. There is a sense of incorporating many people and the brightness in the art work enforces the presentation of ‘He is Risen’.” The category was won by The Gippsland Anglican.

The Gippsland Anglican, edited by Ms Sally Woollett and into which TMA is inserted in that diocese, won three other awards – silver for Best Regional publica-tion, and bronze awards for Best Faith Reflection and for Best Social Justice Article – and was highly commended in the Best Feature by a Single Author category.

Soul Tread, a print-only faith magazine launched in 2020 and edited by its founder Rachael Lopez, received five awards, including gold for Best Headline.

Ms Lopez, who has been a contributor to TMA, spent a year at Lambeth Palace, London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with her husband the Reverend Jonathan Lopez, in the inaugural Community of St Anselm, an interdenominational and inter-national young adult community.

Mark Brolly is Australian Vice-President of ARPA but is not

involved in judging the awards.

Local priest, TMA win religious press awards



TMAAROUND THE DIOCESE

by Ken Morgan

“Tired.” When I ask a parish priest or lay worker how they’re doing, that’s the word I hear almost universally.

Ministry by Zoom and stream-ing platform, where what’s on offer can be tuned in and turned off with a mouse-click, is a tiring business. It’s especially tiring trying to reach and make disciples of young people who’ve been turned into ‘zoombies’ by their schools’ online learning programs.

A year and a half into the pandemic, instinct would tell us to do just enough to hold the fort, conserve energy, and survive until we hit that magic 80 per cent vac-cination threshold, when we can get back to our familiar rhythms.

But what will eventually emerge post-pandemic is a little hard to predict.

Perhaps COVID-19 will put

paid to the daily commute, or the concept of a central business district, or the phenomenon that is the shopping mall. Or perhaps they will all come roaring back stronger than ever.

The extent to which we will recover our familiar parish rhythms remains to be seen. Perhaps the forced adaptation to electronic forms will bring a more permanent shift to the ways and means of being church. Or perhaps people will flock to in-person gatherings, craving connection.

Whenever society is signifi-cantly disrupted, predictions as to the longer-term impacts abound. As society is a complex web of interacting systems, with millions of elements varyingly affecting others, knowing with certainty the eventual outcome of a major disruption is all but impossible.

But here is what we do know. Two thousand years since its incep-tion, some very big ideas about the church have remained constant:• We are people of God, follow-

ers of Jesus, the community embodying God’s love.

• We exist to continue the

mission of Jesus in the world.• We serve the unchurched,

announce the gospel of Jesus, form disciples to maturity and develop leaders.

• Prayer, the scriptures, and the sacraments are the distinctives of our life.

Through the centuries, churches that have earnestly and consistently sought to pursue these ideals have flourished.

However, how the church has pursued these ideals has always been an adaptive challenge.

Since New Testament times the church has been at the forefront of not just adapting to the environ-ment, but innovating to shape surrounding culture. Hospitals and universal education are legacies of the church’s mission. In various ages the church has taken leader-ship in the arts, in agriculture and in the eager deployment of new

technologies. Australia’s first feature film was produced by the Salvation Army.

The church’s survival and flour-ishing – through the rise and fall of empires, through seismic shifts in thought and social structure, through multiple determined efforts to stamp out it out – has been in part due to its ability to continually adapt and renew itself, reshaping its forms while retaining its essence.

In these uncertain times, and despite our fatigue, the leadership challenge is to convey hope, empha-sising what will remain constant, and expressing confidence that we the church have a literally glorious heritage of adaptation and flour-ishing through the vicissitudes of history.

Ken Morgan is Head of Parish Mission and Resourcing for the

Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.

Flourishing through trial is our glorious heritage as the church

REPORTING CHILD ABUSE

If a child is in immediate danger at any point CALL 000What is Child Abuse?Abuse and neglect includes but is not limited to:physical abuse, emotional abuse, family violence,sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, grooming, neglect

Who can report neglect and abuse of a child under the age of 18?Children, parents, staff , volunteers, anyone

What sorts of things must be reported?All child safety concerns must be reported:• Disclosure of abuse and harm• Allegations, suspicions or observations• Breaches of the Code of Conduct

All suspicions or reports of child abuse must be reported to the groups below:• Ministry Supervisor• Child Safe Offi cer• Kooyoora Professional Standards

POLICE000

CHILD PROTECTION1300 360 391

KOOYOORA PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS1800 135 246IMPORTANT CONTACT NUMBERS

“The church’s survival ... has been in part due to its ability to continually adapt ...”

by Mark Brolly

Melbourne diocesan officials looked west from a locked-down city

last month at the potential for new Anglican sites for churches, schools and aged care in some of the fastest-growing areas of the metropolis.

A video conference with gov-ernment and private developers was held on 1 September in lieu of a tour of growth areas near Werribee and Melton scheduled for the same day but thwarted by the coronavirus restrictions on movement.

The conference heard that Victoria’s population of 6.7 million in 2020 was projected to grow to 10.67 million in 2056. Melbourne was expected to be a city of 8.44 million that year compared with 5.16 million last year.

Of the three growth areas to the north, west and south-east of the city, the west was growing fastest, the conference was told.

Residential activity, particularly in Melton, had accelerated faster than expected; land sales in the west exceeded 9400 lots annually; and the corridor was forecast to grow by 112,000 persons aged 19 and under between 2021 and 2056.

Archbishop Philip Freier said he was very enthusiastic to explore the potential as the Anglican Church “has a really strong DNA of local presence”.

“I think coming out of this whole COVID experience there is going to be a rediscovered and freshly emphasised value of pres-ence in local community where we have real relationships …,” he said.

Dr Freier said many Anglican schools and agencies had benefited from similar aspirations several generations ago and it was a good chance again to explore where syn-ergies might exist between various parts of the Church.

Bishop Kate Prowd, whose Oodthenong Episcopate incorpo-rates western and northern growth areas, said: “It is so important we have a strong presence in the growth areas of Melbourne, and in my role as Bishop for Church Planting, I found it fascinating to hear about the different models of residential growth in the west and the south west.

“We heard from representa-tives of Development Victoria, Frasers Property Australia, and Stocklands, as well as representa-tives of local government.

“I find it reassuring that developers are not solely seeing

things from the point of view of residential growth, but also the importance of concurrent infra-structure growth.

“Whilst it is immediately obvi-ous that schools play a significant part in this, I am sure there are opportunities for church planting, in partnership with schools and others.”

Development Victoria, the development arm of the State Government, presented on the Riverwalk Werribee project, a 200-hectare, mixed-use master planned community on the site

of the former Western Treatment Plant about three kilometres from Werribee.

Once completed in 2025, Riverwalk is expected to include about 2600 residential lots, a Town Centre, educational facili-ties including an Independent kindergarten to Year 12 school and a potential retirement accommo-dation site.

In the afternoon session, pri-

vate developers and local munici-palities presented on developments near Werribee and Melton.

Frasers Property Australia and Wyndham City Council gave a presentation on the Mambourin development, also near Werribee, and Stockland and the City of Melton presented on the Mt Atkinson development in Truganina, about 25 kilometres west of Melbourne’s CBD.

The General Manager of the Melbourne Anglican Diocesan Corporation, Mr Justin Lachal, said one of the purposes of the event was to let developers know that the diocese was serious about having a presence in developing communities in Melbourne’s west.

To invest in the west, he said you had to believe in Melbourne and to believe in Melbourne post-COVID, to believe that immigra-tion would “spring back” and to believe in the great success of the Anglican tradition to establish schools.

Bishop Prowd concluded the day with the prayer to “God of new beginnings”, for the develop-ment of partnerships in areas of the city in great need, for the broad Anglican presence in growth cor-ridors and for the courage to think imaginatively about the future.

Looking west to plant an Anglican future

Village Park, Riverwalk.

MelbourneCBD

Riverwalk Village Park

WerribeeAltona

Sunshine



AROUND THE DIOCESETMA

“The Anglican Church has been part of my life forever and my involvement with the Melbourne Anglican Foundation has con� rmed to me there is plenty of interest in ensuring that the Christian legacy passed on to us, is passed on afresh to future generations.”Geo� rey CourtBequestor, Patron and Board Member of the Melbourne Anglican Foundation

The Anglican Church in Australia is not a single entity but a gathering of the faithful. There are many ways you can choose to support the Church. A gift in your will to the Melbourne Anglican Foundation is a powerful and valuable way to continue supporting the Anglican mission and ministry for generations to come.

To learn more or to have a con� dential conversation, get in touch by contacting: Felicity Costigan on [email protected] or phone: 0400 016 296.

GIFTSOF FAITH,HOPE ANDLOVE

www.melbourneanglican.org.au/melbourne-anglican-foundation

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by Stephen Cauchi

In a radical departure from its long-established history, the 2021 Melbourne Synod will

be held by video teleconference and Youtube.

Hundreds of people will log on to represent their churches from the comfort of their own homes.

It’s new, it’s different … but when is it? How will it work? And … is it even legal? (And – we hear you ask - can I wear pyjamas?!).

Here we answer some common questions about this 2021 Synod’s format.

How do Synod representatives access the video teleconference?Each Synod representative will need to log onto a dedicated website and access Zoom and a browser on their own device. The web address and password will be emailed directly to Synod representatives.

How will Synod representatives access documents such as the daily agenda and business papers?Representatives can access docu-ments through the parish portal and the dedicated Synod website.

How will online voting work?A special Synod website portal has

been designed to provide functions such as voting, asking questions and raising points of order.

Details and instructions about the Synod website will be provided in the coming weeks. An optional technology briefing of about two hours will also be provided online on Thursday 7 October 2021, at 7pm. Log-on details for the brief-ing will be provided closer to the date.

Will people who are not Synod representatives be able to watch Synod?Yes, Synod will be streamed live on Youtube.

Observers who would ordinar-ily sit in the public gallery will be able to watch Synod on the dioc-esan website, melbourneanglican.org.au

What about Synod representatives who are not familiar or comfortable with Zoom or the internet?People in this position are strongly encouraged to attend the technol-ogy briefing with an IT-competent friend or relative to assist them.

The briefing will be the main opportunity to ask technology-related questions and get support, as there will not be time to do so during the Synod sessions.

Is it legal to hold a Synod online and not in person?Yes, the Diocesan Meetings (Temporary Arrangements) Act

2021 was passed earlier in the year by a special Synod held in person.

What the dates and times Synod will be held this year?

• Wednesday 13 October 2021, 7pm to about 10pm: Opening Synod prayers and Archbishop’s charge, Synod procedural matters, Synod business session.

• Thursday 14 October 2021, 7pm to about 10pm: Synod business session.

• Friday 15 October 2021, 7.00pm to about 10pm: Synod business session.

• Saturday 16 October 2021, 9.30am to 5pm: Synod business session.

Will there be anything special at this year’s Synod?The diversity and vitality of the Anglican diocese will be show-cased this year with a series of parish videos.

The diocese has invited par-ishes and Authorised Anglican Congregations to create two-minute videos showing what makes them special or unique in the Anglican tradition.

These videos will be made available for viewing via the Synod website and will be shown during the Synod program.

Synod … online? Your questions answered

“The diversity and vitality of the Anglican diocese will be showcased ...”

Melbourne Synod13-16 OctoberLive-streamed on Youtube



AROUND THE DIOCESE TMA

Staff changes at Anglican CentreTwo senior staff at 209 Flinders Lane resigned last month.

Angelique Smit resigned as People and Culture Operations Manager for the Melbourne Diocese.

The Head of People and Culture, Grace Lococo, said: “Angelique commenced with the Diocese in March 2019 and played an instru-mental role in establishing the HR function. During this time Angelique has developed a deep knowledge and expertise of diocesan people practices. Angelique’s commitment to

excellence will leave a lasting legacy in the Diocese.“I know that Angelique’s expertise, can-do attitude and commit-

ment to going the extra mile will be very much missed in the People and Culture team and beyond. Her dry South African wit, honesty, knowledge of the Diocese and its people will also be missed!”

Ms Lococo said she was “forever grateful” for the help Ms Smit provided her in taking on her own role.

Arvind Thampy has resigned as Property Lawyer with the diocese.

Chief Operating Officer Matt Wilson said in a message to staff: “Arvind commenced with us in August 2019 and during his time at the diocese Arvind has worked collaboratively and diligently with our parishes and numerous internal and external stakeholders supporting them with valued advice whilst delivering a myriad of pragmatic outcomes to numerous

property leases and licences, etc.” Mr Wilson noted Mr Thampy’s wit and his “aeronautically themed”

Teams and Zoom backgrounds during the COVID pandemic.

New faculty at Ridley CollegeThree new faculty members will soon grace the virtual halls of one of Melbourne’s Anglican theological colleges.

Reverends Kate Beer, Hannah Craven and Mark Simon have been appointed to Ridley College’s faculty.

Ms Beer will take on the role as Associate Dean of the Anglican Institute for two days a week, begin-ning in April 2020, after serving as an Anglican Minister in the diocese of the Northern Territory for the past decade. Most recently she was the diocese’s ministry development officer.

Ms Beer comes to Ridley College with experience in mentoring and pastoral care, as well as bringing cross-cultural skills. She has expe-rience in the teaching and practice of professional supervision.

The Reverend Hannah Craven will take on the role of associate lecturer in Christian thought. Currently a PhD Candidate at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, Ms Craven was previously employed in Anglican churches in Melbourne for 15 years, both before and after her ordination.

Ms Craven is also co-director of Logia, a centre at St Andrews that encourages women to pursue postgraduate studies in theology and related disciplines.

Reverend Doctor Mark Simon has been appointed to the role of lecturer in New Testament and research associate. He is set to begin the role in January 2022, while continuing his position as associate minister at St Alfred’s Anglican Church in Blackburn North.

Dr Simon has taught New Testament on a sessional basis at Ridley, after completing his doctorate at the college. He has also taught at the former Bible College of Victoria, and Aletheia Theological Seminary in Indonesia.

Ridley College principal Brian Rosner said all three new faculty members were graduates of the college.

“Together they bring a wide range of gifts and experiences that will enrich the college community and help us to continue to train men and women well for God’s mission in our complex and changing world,” he said.

“We thank God for these appointments and look forward to each of them commencing next year.”

Reverend Kate Beer.

Reverend Hannah Craven.

Reverend Mark Simon.

Seeking a violence prevention worker to reach more parts of church community

by Chris Shearer

The diocesan Prevention of Violence Against Women program will soon begin the search for a new project officer to help reach more of members of the Melbourne Anglican community whose primary language is not English.

The new role is designed to fill a gap in outreach identified by the University of Melbourne evaluation report on the violence prevention program, released earlier in 2021. It has received three years’ funding from the state Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

Archdeacon for parish part-nerships Nick White said the evaluation report had found the group’s training program hadn’t reached as many Anglican com-munities who spoke languages other than English as they would have liked. Dr White said this potentially was because the program hadn’t been tailored to those communities’ specific needs.

“One of the things that came out of the evaluation of our program was that we needed to better centre the experiences of our culturally and linguistically diverse Anglican communities in the program,” he said.

“We want to stress that we’re not doing this because violence against women or family vio-lence is any more prevalent in any ethno-specific communities than in Anglo-Celtic communi-

ties, but that we have identified that our existing preventative initiatives need to better centre around their experiences and needs.”

Mr White said the role would focus on mentoring “community champions” across the diocese’s multi-ethnicity and ethnicity-specific congrega-tions, with these community champions then leading the work of the violence preven-tion program within their communities.

“We’re looking for someone who’s got demonstrated experience engaging with people from migrant or refugee backgrounds. That’s a key thing,” Mr White said.

The role will be advertised later in October, after the Prevention of Violence Against Women program brings on a replacement for former program manager Robyn Andreo-Boosey, who recently returned to the UK after two years in the role. Robyn Andréo-Boosey.

Archdeacon Nick White.

“We needed to better centre the experiences of our culturally and linguistically diverse Anglican communities in the [PVAW] program.”

The Melbourne Anglican in November and DecemberYour TMA will be available on the second Sundays

of November and December, with full coverage of this month’s online Melbourne Synod in the TMA that comes out on 14 November and our

Christmas issue available on 12 December.

TMA is not published in January and our first issue for 2022 will be available on Sunday 6 February.



TMA ACROSS AUSTRALIA / WIDER WORLD

by Stephen Cauchi

We live in a world that worships achievement, but Justine Toh has

witnessed the downside: a stunted life, poor self-esteem and spiritual harm.

A Centre for Public Christianity senior fellow, Doctor Toh wrote her newly-released book Achievement Addiction partly as a memoir of her own success-orientated life and partly as an observation of the wider world.

“We live in a world obsessed with merit and achievement,” Dr Toh said.

“We’re collectively addicted to achievement … we can’t get enough of it. Our culture worships hard-won success above almost everything.”

But Dr Toh said if we inter-nalised this attitude, it would be hard work to maintain our value as people.

“Achievement addiction may not be fatal … but it’s no way to live,” Dr Toh said.

Dr Toh said she counted herself an expert in achievement addiction. She was “tiger-parented” – that is strongly encouraged to achieve success – from an early age.

For her Chinese-Malaysian migrant parents success meant studying hard and being academi-cally successful.

“For my parents it was really important for my sister and I to go to a selective high school, and they were prepared to spend money for coaching for us, in order to get a good mark in the Higher School Certificate,” Dr Toh said.

Her sister got into a selective high school, but unfortunately, Dr Toh did not.

As a result, Dr Toh said her high schooling passed in a “fog of shame”.

“My adolescent self was franti-cally striving because I believed that

the quality of my work was directly tied to my worth,” she said.

“Even if I topped my class at my public high school, I felt like I would be only halfway in the pack at a selective school.”

Dr Toh said she loved her parents dearly and appreciated the work ethic they gave her. But she said it did sometimes feel that her acceptance in the family was con-tingent on doing well in her studies.

Achievement, Dr Toh said, meant very different things for different people. For some it was a high paid, fulfilling job, others a good house in a good suburb, oth-ers a model family.

“For some people it’s a corner office, for others it’s an Instagram account with a million followers. For some it’s a big salary, for some it’s having the perfect family,” Dr Toh said.

For Dr Toh, it’s high marks, the achievements that would look good on a resume.

But she said, while people’s idea of achievement may differ, the negative result was the same.

Dr Toh described this as “a stunted vision” of what life was truly about.

“All of us are on some kind of

achievement journey, we just do it in different ways,” Dr Toh said.

“Everyone is trying to do this is some way.”

Dr Toh said a key sign of an achievement addict was when “their world falls apart” after losing a job, getting a poor grade, blowing a sports game, or even just receiving critical feedback.

But being “too over the moon” when they achieved something was also a sign, she said.

A key focus of Dr Toh’s book was the spiritual cost of an overem-phasis on achievement.

“For many people, definitely for me, [achievement] is a way of securing your significance in life and knowing that you’re ok,” she said.

“I really wanted to start a con-versation around what we expect

our achievements to do for us spiritually. If we are building up our identity in our achievements, then that is not something you can sustain all through life.”

For example, retired Olympic swimmer Stephanie Rice suffered a breakdown during the Tokyo Olympics while reflecting on her past career.

“She talked about how the adjustment was incredibly difficult and for that reason the Olympics has really mixed emotions for her,” Dr Toh said.

“All of us are like that a bit. What happens if we retire or get sick? Where is your identity then?”

Dr Toh cited the 1998 book The Call by author Os Guinness as a guide to the emphasis that God expected us to put on achievement.

Thinking of your life in terms of calling completely changed the game when it came to achievement, Dr Toh said.

She said achievement was labouring to secure your own meaning in life, your own signifi-cance. It contrasted to the idea of

a calling, which she described as knowing:

“I’ve been given these capacities, and with God’s help, I’m going to grow more fully into the person he is calling me to be.”

Dr Toh said Guinness wrote of how we actually had two callings. One was an initial call in response to God, to be known and loved by him and to know and love him. The second was a call to serve God and the wider community with our gifts.

Dr Toh said this meant the key difference between achievement and calling was that, with a calling someone was working for God, not themselves.

Nor was there an issue of self-esteem involved with a calling, as there might be with achievement, she said. What a person with a calling feels would be humility and peace, completely the opposite of the achievement addict, she said.

“You’re not doing it to make yourself worthy for God. He’s already secured your worth, your infinite worth, because he loves you, regardless of your achieve-ments,” Dr Toh said.

“At the same time, he is calling you to particular kinds of work, and this is a wonderful opportunity for service.”

But Dr Toh said maintaining a calling mindset was tough.

“If I find that my prayer life is constantly consumed by my own agenda, that’s probably an indica-tion that I need to reconsider that,” she said.

She said another way to foster a calling mindset was to maintain a sense of gratitude.

“Try to remember and tabulate the many great things that we can be grateful for,” Dr Toh said.

Despite writing the book on it, Dr Toh said she was still not com-pletely cured of her achievement addiction. To her it was an ongoing battle.

“In an ultimate sense I’ve been cured of my achievement addiction. I know full-well that my ultimate worth does not lie in the work of my hands. I know that it lies in the gracious gift of God who has loved me in spite of what I have or have not achieved,” she said.

“But in a day-to-day sense I think it’s a constant struggle for me to remember that.”

Achievement Addiction is available in bookstores.

Knowing your infinite worth key to avoiding perils of achievement obsession: Author

Dr Justine Toh. Photo: Wesley Mission, YouTube.

“I know full-well that my ultimate worth does not lie in the work of my hands. I know that it lies in the gracious gift of God ...”

NZ’s ‘Cardboard cathedral’ to stayChristchurch’s “Cardboard cathe-dral” (pictured right), erected after the city’s historic Anglican cathe-dral collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake, is to be a permanent part of the city.

The Transitional Cathedral, built in 2012 and 2013 under emer-gency legislation as a temporary replacement for Christ Church Cathedral in the city’s heart, was allowed to stand for 10 years after the quake under emergency leg-islation, stuff.co.nz reported. The Church Property Trustees applied to the city council to allow the building to remain and this was granted recently.

Designed by award-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who specialises in disaster recov-ery architecture, the cathedral features polyurethane cardboard tubes, reinforced with timber beams. The structure is stabilised by shipping containers and topped

with a polycarbonate roof.The Dean of Christchurch, the

Very Revd Lawrence Kimberley, said of the approval: “It’s an abso-lute relief.

“Suddenly the 10-year deadline started to loom. The last thing we needed was for the authority to lapse and the council to say we couldn’t use the building because it wasn’t consented.

“We need to have security of tenure in order to be able to have a church there.”

Christ Church Cathedral, now deconsecrated after a bitter debate about whether to demolish or restore it, is due to reopen in 2027.

Anglican Communion welcomes 42nd provinceThe Anglican Communion wel-comed its newest province on 24 September – the Igreja Anglicana de Mocambique e Angola (IAMA) – the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola.

IAMA became the 42nd member of the global Anglican Communion of Churches at the conclusion of the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

Currently, the Anglican Church in the two countries consists of Portuguese-speaking dioceses of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The new province will become the third Lusophone Church in the Anglican Communion, joining the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil – the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, which is a province, and the Portugal-based Lusitanian Church, which is an extra-provincial member of the Anglican Communion.

Anglican Communion’s Secretary General to retireThe Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, is to leave at the end of August 2022. Dr Idowu-Fearon, who will be 73 at the time, was appointed to his role in 2015 for a seven-year term.

Dr Idowu-Fearon’s formal notice of resignation was given to the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee last month. He told a press conference that he does not see it as retirement but resignation, as he will continue in Christian ministry.

The Chair of the Anglican Consultative Council, former Archbishop of Hong Kong Paul Kwong, said: “I would like to express my gratitude to Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon for being an out-standing Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. His fruitful ministry is marked by his commit-ment to making himself available always to connect or reconnect people and trying to bring them

together in the Communion.“He has been good to maintain

positive and productive relation-ships and to engender coopera-tion among people with complex, diverse and sensitive relationships and persuasions.”

Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury said: “When he began his tenure as Secretary General, Archbishop Josiah said his prayer was to be a bridge builder – and over the last six years we have seen God answer that prayer.

“I am especially grateful to Josiah for his wisdom and work in the preparations for the Lambeth Conference, and I am glad he will still be in post when that takes place next year. I look forward to continuing in partnership in the Gospel with Josiah over his remain-ing time as Secretary General and in the future beyond that.”

Before his appointment as Secretary General, Dr Idowu-Fearon served the Church of Nigeria as Bishop of Kaduna and Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna.

World Briefs


http://stuff.co.nz


TMAACROSS AUSTRALIA

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Urbanization, social upheaval and economic restructuring, as well as the pandemic and how it affects life are global trends that are changing the world. What does this mean for us as participants in God’s mission?

Pastors, Christian leaders, and those involved in cross-cultural or multi-ethnic mission and ministry, should not miss the opportunity to hear Dr Sam George, an expert in global migration, diaspora missions and world Christianity.

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Leonard Buck LectureGod on the Move, A Theology & Missiology for an Age of MigrationSpeaker: Dr Sam GeorgeFree Webinar 26 October, 7.30pm (AEDT)Secure your spot now: p: 03 9881 7800, or w: mst.edu.au/leonard-buck

Two young Brisbane sis-ters became the first people to sing all 193 national anthems

in one day in UN International Day of Peace events hosted at St John’s Anglican Cathedral in the Queensland capital on 21 September.

Since 2012 the Joy sisters, Augnes, 18, and Teresa, 21, have memorised and researched the world’s anthems and can now sing all 193 acapella, by heart, in more than 100 languages.

Their “Salute the Nations” recital sought to promote world peace and advocate for climate action.

Before starting their world record bid, the sisters said their endeavour was about fostering a common humanity and peace.

“We hope that our project dem-onstrates that the humanity of the world has not been lost and that we are doing our best to restore world peace,” they said.

“When we, as individuals, sing these national anthems … a unique atmosphere of oneness is created that, in turn, creates a com-mon platform conducive to world peace and a heightened sense of humanity.”

The sisters’ feat was observed by five official judges representing three world record organisations, which stipulated that the sisters had to sing continuously, with only

three 10-minute breaks permitted throughout their recital.

They completed their per-formance 45 minutes faster than expected, starting at 9.30am with Afghanistan’s national anthem and finishing at 3.15pm with Zimbabwe’s.

At the end of their feat, the sisters were presented with cer-tificates from The Australian Book of Records, the Universal Record Book and the Universal Records Forum.

Ngugi Elder Uncle Bob Anders on OAM gave an Acknowledgement of Country before the sisters’ anthem recital, speaking from the perspective of a “father, grandfather and

great-grandfather”.“The matter of peace is impor-

tant for me – to involve myself con-tinuously in that process, and it is my responsibility and joy to ensure a peaceful land,” Uncle Bob said.

The Cathedral’s Peace Day pro-ceedings also comprised an evening program, including the 10th annual Brisbane Peace Lecture, which was given by former Defence Force chief Chris Barrie.

In a pre-recorded lecture, the retired admiral, honorary profes-sor at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, addressed the 2021 UN International Day of Peace theme, “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world”.

Professor Barrie particularly focused on how to collectively navigate “the two critical existen-tial threats to life on planet earth”, nuclear war and damage to the climate.

“We cannot solve problems with the current pandemic in each nation or state alone … That is why we must pull together,” he said.

“Similarly in solving problems posed by the two existential threats, the involvement of human beings on the planet is essential since the consequences of those threats will involve everybody.

“For good collaboration to occur we need trust, openness, con-fidence building and the ability to resolve differences through inspired negotiation, rather than damaging adversarial relationships.”

Professor Barrie also empha-sised the vital role of young people. “I believe now we have reached the point actively to pass on to a new generation of leaders the responsi-bilities and accountabilities for the management of their future,” he said.

Anthems record marks peace day in Brisbane

The Joy sisters, Augnes and Teresa, can sing 193 world anthems.

Professor Chris Barrie.

“We need trust, openness ... and the ability to resolve differences.”



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by Stephen Cauchi

Australians of faith have protested the federal government’s stance on

climate change ahead of an inter-national conference by writing hundreds of letters to the Prime Minister.

The campaign – organised by the multi-faith Australian Religious Response to Climate Change – cu lminated on September 10, when the letters were presented “in one large stack” to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office.

ARRCC chair Thea Ormerod said the campaign was designed to change the government’s poli-cies on carbon emissions before the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

Ms Ormerod said the letters called on the Morrison govern-ment to submit higher emissions reduction targets in Glasgow, restart contributions to the United Nations Green Climate Fund, and abandon a “gas-led recovery” in favour of low carbon industries.

“Old-fashioned hand-written letters to politicians are much more likely to get read than emails, so it’s well worth the effort,” Ms Ormerod said.

She added that anyone wish-ing to write a letter should mail

it directly to the Prime Minister’s office in Canberra.

“By writing hundreds of letters [we can] show that people of faith care deeply about this crisis, and that concern about it cannot be dis-missed as something ‘mainstream’ people don’t care about. We very definitely do,” Ms Ormerod said.

Ms Ormerod said Mr Morrison’s continued claims around “meeting and beating our targets” just did not stack up.

Mr Morrison has pledged Australia would cut emissions, based on 2005 levels, by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030.

But Ms Ormerod said this was not sufficient. The cut in emissions should instead be 66 per cent, she said.

“We need our targets to be comparable to those of the US (50 per cent) and preferably the UK (68 per cent),” she said.

She added that 2021 was a “crucial” year for climate change, as the lead-up to the most important

global climate negotiations since those held in Paris – with inter-national pressure on the Prime Minister – and the lead-up to a federal election.

ARRCC will participate in a global “Faiths 4 Climate Justice Day of Action” on 17 to 18 October, which will involve hundreds of

Australian faith communities.“They will be calling on the

Morrison Government to take much stronger climate policies to the negotiations,” Ms Ormerod said.

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference will run from 31 October to 12 November.

Letters to the Prime Minister can be sent addressed to ‘Prime Minister, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, 2600’.

Letters sent to the PM included:

Pastor Rob Buckingham, Bayside Church, MelbourneOur faith teaches us that we

should care for God’s creation. I appeal to the Prime Minister as a man of faith and ask him to care-fully consider his government’s responsibility to ensure the earth’s environment is protected for the generations to come.

The earth’s climate is no longer changing incrementally but it is changing at an accelerating pace. The intensity of climate-fuelled disasters is increasing world-wide, causing extreme human suffering. We Christians cannot walk on the other side, worried about the cost of taking action. The costs of not taking action are being paid by the world’s poor and younger generations.

Australia has a moral respon-sibility to urgently wind back our coal and gas exports and scale up our use of renewables. To do this compassionately, communities currently dependent on coal and gas should receive public support for locally developed plans to diversify their local economies.

Just as individuals are called to live ethical lives, as a nation we should do what is right, not what suits the short-term political or economic advantage of particular groups. Australia should aim for at least two-thirds emissions reduc-tion in the next decade in order to keep global warming to under two degrees celsius.

Co-President of the Muslim Collective, Fahimah BadrulhishamThe world needs to act urgently and swiftly at COP26 but fair-ness suggests that Australia, one of the world’s biggest coal producers, should do much more to pull our weight.

We have both the economic capacity and moral responsibil-ity to drive down our emis-sions. Therefore, Austral ia must restart contributions to the Green Climate Fund to assist our neighbouring coun-tries to adapt to the climate impacts that they are already experiencing.

They have emitted far less greenhouse gases than us, but they are the first to bear the brunt of this crisis. This is a question of basic justice.

The Reverend Meredith Williams, Wentworthville Uniting ChurchPeople in Western Sydney are very vulnerable to heatwaves, especially those living in poverty. More generally, Australians are very vulnerable to droughts, fires and floods and climate change will make these much worse for our children and grandchildren. Our governments are failing in their primary duty to keep peo-ple safe.

Hundreds lobby Morrison for climate action

“Old-fashioned hand-written letters to politicians are much more likely to get read than emails.”



TMAWIDER WORLD

by Chris Shearer

Australia’s faithful have been urged to participate in a global day of action ahead of a major climate summit in Glasgow by a multi-faith network Australian Religious Response to Climate Change.

The global day of action aims to send a message to governments and financial institutions that destroying the planet is against religious people’s beliefs, and that they won’t rest until governments, banks and investors get it right.

ARRCC community organiser Tejopala Rawls said the aim was to have some effect on what interna-tional leaders took to the COP26

summit in November, which he described as even more important than the Paris Accord.

“What we’re trying to show is that people of faith, all faiths, really care about this a lot and are willing to be quite bold in what we’re asking for,” he said.

“There is now so little time left to do something, we don’t have another five years left to wait. If we’re going to get there we really need to ramp up the ambition now.”

ARRCC is encouraging faith communities on Sunday 17 October to hang banners sharing a faith message and call to action at their places of worship.

Mr Rawls said hanging a ban-

ner outside a place of worship was an effective action even in locked-down jurisdictions, although communities should follow the relevant COVID-safe advice.

“The main thing in Melbourne is to put a banner outside your church,” Mr Rawls said.

“That’s very effective if you can do it. If you can’t, at the very least you can get two people to hold either end of a banner … and get a photo standing in front of your church.”

Faith groups can make their own banners based on a guide from ARRCC, or order one to be posted out from the organisation.

If COVID-19 restrictions allowed, the group encouraged

participating communities to hold events at their place of worship, with an emphasis on sounding the alarm in a way that represented their faith tradition, such as ring-ing bells, singing, or sounding the shofar.

Mr Rawls also encouraged par-ticipants to wear items that clearly showed them as people of faith.

For the Monday, ARRCC is asking faith communities to focus on their federal MPs by hold-ing events outside their offices. Suggested actions included hold-ing faith-based prayer or medita-tion vigils, presenting copies of demands, delivering letters to the MP, singing hymns, ringing bells or bearing silent witness.

“Climate change is nothing if not a race against time, so what really needs to happen is bold action this decade,” Mr Rawls said.

“We have a real opportunity as people to say, ‘No, it’s what hap-pens between now and 2030 that counts, not a far off date’. So there’s a real opportunity to grab the microphone and say something.”

Mr Rawls said about 60 faith communities from across Australia had already registered, with more expected.

The day of action is being held across 17 and 18 October.

Mr Rawls directed people interested in participating to arrcc.org.au

Grab your banner, grab your microphone and call for leaders to seek change: Action group

by Ed Thornton

The 9/11 terrorist attacks, carried out 20 years ago last month, were “a sharp

reminder to us of the fragility of the privilege many of us have of living free of the threat of violence”, the Archbishop of Canterbury said.

In a statement released for the anniversary of the terrorist assault on the US on 11 September 2001, Archbishop Justin Welby wrote: “Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, it’s still hard to articulate the sense of shock and horror felt around the world, the devastating loss experi-enced by so many people, and the fear and uncertainty that terrible day brought.

“9/11 was a sharp reminder to us of the fragility of the privilege many of us have of living free of the threat of violence, while many in our world continue to wake to war or the fear of war. As we remember those who will still be

grieving, recall the fear and sense of insecurity of that time, we again put our hope in the hands of our loving Father God, in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.”

Archbishop Welby also reflected on events of the past 18 months – the pandemic, signs of a worsening

climate and the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban – and concluded that “we see more than ever the reality of our common humanity – our universal need to feel safe, for our loved ones to be safe, and to be able to flourish in our families, neigh-bourhoods and workplaces”.

“Wherever we come from, whoever we are, we all have those yearnings. For those of us who are Christians, we can find common cause with others of whatever religion or belief who are work-ing for these shared needs. In the midst of violence and terror, we often see those who are willing to make sacrifices for the wellbeing of others: from the first respond-ers at the Twin Towers, to those working to ensure people’s safety in Afghanistan. May we strive to be those kinds of people in this broken world.”

At Canterbury Cathedral, “Bell Harry” was tolled for 10 minutes at the time at which the first plane

struck the World Trade Centre in New York. Prayers were said in the cathedral at Morning Prayer, a book of remembrance was open in the crypt and a short act of remem-brance was led by Dean Robert Willis.

Several services and events also took place in Trinity, Wall Street, and St Paul’s Chapel, in the same parish in New York, situated directly opposite the site where the World Trade Centre stood.

In the three months after the attacks, more than 3000 rescue and recovery workers passed through the chapel’s gates for rest while working long shifts at Ground Zero.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the US, Bishop Michael Curry, preached during a special Eucharist in Trinity, Wall Street. Referring to Isaiah chapter two, he said: “We observe this sol-emn occasion at a perilous moment in our national life and history. The seeds of self-centeredness and

hatred will inevitably yield a bitter harvest. And yet there is hope to be found. But only if we remember the sacrifice and unity that followed that dark day in 2001, and ‘go to the mountain’ by fiercely recommitting ourselves to a love that gives and does not count the cost.”

In a message published last week by the US Episcopal Church’s Office of Public Affairs, Bishop Curry said: “While 20 years have passed, I also want us to pause and remember the days that followed these tragic events. There was a moment in the aftermath when people came together. We were praying, grieving, and also working together. Because in that moment, however fleeting it was, we knew with immediacy and vulnerability that we need God, and we need each other.

“Memories of that tender co-operation – of love for each other as neighbours – serve as guiding lights for the present.” [Church Times]

Self-sacrifice of 9/11 first responders is still an inspiration, says Archbishop of Canterbury

Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Wales and elected Archbishop of Canterbury the following year, was close by when the terrorists struck New York and the World Trade Centre fell. In this interview, published in the Church Times on 14 September 2001, he told Pat Ashworth what it was like.

Dr Rowan Williams, who had flown to New York on Monday 10 September 2001 for a series of speaking engagements in the Diocese of New York, was prepar-ing for a day’s videotaping session at the Trinity Institute at around 9am the following day. Speaking from New York on 12 September, he described seeing through a win-dow the “nightmare sight” of the two planes crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

After the first impact, he was asked to pray. Then “everyone sat and waited”, Dr Williams said. “Next the lights went out, and there was this extraordinary

subterranean rumble, which we thought might be a bomb in our own building.” Acrid, black smoke filled the corridors as the group donned smoke masks stored in the building, and headed downstairs towards the basement to seek a way out, taking with them a group of very distressed pre-school children from Trinity Church’s childcare centre.

When the party emerged into the street, the Archbishop said, it was full of thick, grey, impenetrable stone-dust and debris, and looked like Beirut after the bombing. The second World Trade Centre tower collapsed as the group was heading towards the ferry, and they had to take refuge in a Portakabin amid more smoke and debris.

Police commandeered buses, and they were driven to the east side of Manhattan. “We got off the buses looking like ghosts,” Dr Williams said. “It was sunny there, and people had no conception of the evacuation.”

Looking back across Fifth Avenue, all that was visible was the pall of black smoke. “People were talking about Pearl Harbor. It felt horribly like being in a disaster movie, with all the film clichés of people crowding into narrow streets in a dreadful thick dust that blotted everything out. Night would have been easier to cope with, but this was an eerie half-light of sulphurous clouds mixed with petrol fumes.”

Walking round at 6.30 the fol-lowing morning, he says he expe-rienced a range of emotions, but mostly “a mounting sense of ‘This is what it is like to live in Jerusalem or Baghdad every day’. I’m obvi-ously very glad to be alive, but I also feel deeply uncomfortable, and my mind shies away from the slaughter.”

Anger in America was growing, Dr Williams said. “The trouble is that there will soon be demands for retaliation against someone – any-one – long before we know who was responsible.”

The Archbishop had had break-fast with the Presiding Bishop of Episcopal Church, Bishop Frank Griswold, whose statement after the attacks was firmly against revenge. “We found ourselves very much of one mind,” Dr Williams said. “What must be discouraged is pressure to relieve the tension by being seen to be doing something.”

Of the jubilation at the news in some Palestinian quarters, he said: “They don’t know what it’s like here: to them, it’s distant, not humanly real. And they’ve been fed a story.”

Some of the headlines talking of war and apocalypse had seemed “a bit extravagant”, the Archbishop said. “This was a reminder that security systems are far from fail-safe, and can be breached by a small but very dedicated and intelligent group.” He would get on the plane home, he said, with a little more trepidation than usual.

“I think what I’m grateful for is the sight of a number of people fac-ing possible death with a measure of calm and generosity, including people looking after the children. They were collected and practical, and they put their own fear on hold.

“And secondly, I’m grateful for the sense of having been permitted to see a little of what it is like to live under bombardment and fear every day of one’s life.” [Church Times]

‘Horribly like being in a disaster movie’: Rowan Williams on 9/11

Archbishop Rowan Williams.

Archbishop Justin Welby.



TMA VIEWPOINTS

Ari stot l e fa mou sly described three modes of persuasion. Logos refers to

the argument itself, an appeal to reason, ethos refers to the character of the speaker, and pathos to an appeal to the hearer’s emotion. Success in persuasion depends not only on a sound argument, but on gaining trust and arousing emotions in the audience that makes them more receptive to the argument. For Aristotle, while all three modes are important, pathos is subordinate to ethos and ethos subordinate to logos. The argument itself is the essential and most effec-tive mode of persuasion.

When we turn to bioethical discussion of the legitimate means by which health practitioners may influence their patients’ decision-making, the emphasis is almost exclusively on logos. Principles of Biomedical Ethics defines persua-sion as “influence where a person comes to believe in something through the merit of reasons another person advances”.

Even such purely rational persuasion by doctors is regarded by some as an illegitimate infringe-ment of patient autonomy. On this view, doctors should not attempt to influence their patients’ decisions in any way, but simply present the medical facts and allow the patient to choose. But it is open to question whether medical “facts” can be communicated without influencing how the “facts” are perceived. Doctors communicate their value judgements about potential treatments, consciously or unconsciously, through non-verbal cues such as tone of voice and body language. In addition, the “framing effect” means patients make choices based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations, such as the chances of survival versus the risk of mortality.

Further, the model of doctors as value-neutral “fact providers” is implausible because medicine is a moral practice with inherent values. Doctors place great value on good health. I believe it is both permissible and necessary for them to engage in rational argument to persuade patients to make medical decisions that the doctor believes are in the patients’ best interests.

Some patient choices are regarded as bad by doctors, such as smoking, failure to have regular cancer screening or refusal to vaccinate children without a medical exemption. The biases that underline some of these choices include being influenced unduly by recent, rare and vivid events, being influenced more by short term concerns than long term goals, preferring inaction to avoid harm even if this may lead to greater harm, being unduly influenced by unrelated events, and continuing with a plan of action even when it becomes clear that it is not benefi-

cial, because one is invested in that decision.

All of these factors may be observed in the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy.

When we turn to discussion of how public health communication may influence behaviour, the litera-ture suggests that only persuasion

that appeals to reason is valid. This is distinguished from coercion (use of a threat) and manipulation, that attempts to bypass reason. But it is possible to appeal to emotion without intending to coerce or manipulate. Thus, the door is left open for pathos.

It is difficult to see how com-munication of medical facts or arguments can avoid also appealing to pathos. Fear and anxiety are often induced, whether intended or not, when serious risks of illness and death are raised.

The decision to be vaccinated against COVID-19 involves both a medical and a moral judgement. Since vaccination rates affect the whole of the Australian community, indeed the global community, it is not simply a question of “What is best medically for me?” but “What ought I to do?”.

Are moral judgements made solely or primarily on the basis of logos? Moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues rather that they are largely intuitive, with reason involved only after the fact to justify them. We are not as rational as we think we are. People seldom change their minds as a result of rational persuasion, but through appeals to their intuitions and instinct.

How does this play out in the phenomenon of COVID vaccine hesitancy?Appeal to logos seemed to be the basis of the federal government’s first vaccination campaign, which featured medical experts calmly outlining the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination. The message was that the vaccine is safe, effective and free. The campaign also appealed to ethos, using medical doctors and clinical experts.

The campaign was launched in late January 2021. A poll in mid-May showed that vaccine resistance and hesitancy was high: 15 per cent

of Australians said they were not at all likely to be vaccinated and a further 14 per cent that they were not very likely to be. A major factor in this was undoubtedly the emer-gence of the very rare risk of blood clotting with the AstraZeneca vac-cine. Another was complacency. At that stage there was little commu-nity transmission of COVID-19. Yet there was also considerable criti-cism of the vaccination campaign as ineffective, boring and banal. One advertising executive said, “There’s plenty of evidence recently that rational campaigns can only do so much … emotions win and emotions drive behaviour.”

It is clear that fear is a major driver of both COVID-19 vaccina-tion and vaccine hesitancy. Fear of COVID-19 outbreaks such as those seen in NSW and Victoria drives vaccinations up. Fear of side effects drives vaccination rates down, as when the complication of a clotting disorder with the AstraZeneca vac-cine was publicised. More recently, fear of prolonged lockdowns has driven vaccinations up, most notably in NSW. Alternatively, this could be framed in terms of a positive effect of pathos: the hope of enjoying greater freedoms.

But other media experts sug-

gest the campaign should appeal to ethos: Who do Australians look up to and listen to? They argue it’s not enough to get the science right, the message matters and so does the messenger. And they say this is a matter of building and restoring trust.

Trust is the key element in per-suasion using ethos. Lack of trust in health care systems, in pharma-ceutical companies and in govern-ment, is a major factor in vaccine hesitancy and resistance globally. Conspiracy theories abound both in relation to the virus and the vac-cines. Trust depends on a number of social, political, historical and religious factors, that differ in dif-ferent communities.

In the United States, before COVID-19 vaccinations began, it was predicted that Black Americans would have lower vaccination rates because of historic mistrust in the government, the health system and the medical profession, a legacy of

the Tuskagee Syphilis experiment and the case of Henrietta Lacks. However a recent study showed that black Americans are more likely to trust information if it comes from a black doctor, someone who looks and speaks like them. As only five per cent of US doctors are black, it was recognised that other trusted leaders in black communities were also required to reinforce the pro-vaccination message.

In England, four months after COVID-19 vaccination began, 93 per cent of white people over 50 had been vaccinated but only 64 per cent of black people in the same age group. There may be many explana-tions for this, including inequitable access, but trust – or lack of it has been identified as the major factor.

What about Indigenous Australians? There is concern about vaccine hesitancy in this highly vul-nerable group. In relation to other vaccines, they are known to have a higher uptake than non-Indigenous Australians, but a study in January 2021 showed an increase in unwill-ingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Aboriginal health services have learned from the experience of the Indigenous peoples of the US that the vaccine roll out must be com-

munity led. These peoples have the highest rate of vaccine acceptance of all Americans.

High levels of vaccine hesitancy are also observed among the elderly in European migrant communities in Australia, who rely on news services in their home country, that are often negative about vaccines, especially Astra Zeneca.

A 2020 study in Ireland and the United Kingdom led by psycho-logical researcher Jamie Murphy showed that the vaccine resistant or hesitant group was generally: more self-interested, more distrusting of experts and authority figures such as scientists, health care profession-als and the state, and more likely to hold strong religious beliefs, and conspiratorial and paranoid beliefs. The authors suggested that these people would be more receptive to pro-vaccination messages from non-traditional authority figures, whom they might trust. They noted studies that had documented the effectiveness of involving religious leaders in improving acceptance of other vaccines.

When the vaccines were in development, there was consider-able discussion among evangelicals about the moral acceptability of receiving a vaccine that had been developed using foetal cell lines from an historical abortion, such as the Astra Zeneca, or tested on such lines, such as the Pfizer. However, the Gospel Coalition, a Christian online platform that is very con-servative on the issue of abortion, published several articles arguing that using these vaccines does not imply complicity in abortion, and that while not ideal, their use was justified by the moral imperative to prevent disease and death and to protect the vulnerable. And many other evangelical writers appealed to love of neighbour as a reason to be vaccinated.

Nevertheless, the group least likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19, in the US in a February 2021 study was white evangelicals. Disappointingly, only 48 per cent of white evangelicals said they would consider the community health effects “a lot” when decid-ing to be vaccinated, compared with 60 to 70 per cent of Black Protestants, Catholics and unaffili-ated Americans.

So is ethos less persuasive for white US evangelicals than for other groups? They do not seem to have heeded the message of their leaders to be vaccinated out of love for neighbour. But I think rather that they are divided in terms of which leaders and influencers they trust.

In March this year, evangelical radio host Eric Metaxas tweeted “Don’t get the vaccine… Pass it on”. Some pastors have been accused of spreading conspiracy theories, including that the coronavirus is not real and that the vaccine is the mark of the beast. Among white evangeli-cals, vaccination resistance is largely shaped by political and cultural rather than religious beliefs. While some say that getting vaccinated demonstrates a lack of faith and giving in to fear, more significant

How to persuade the vaccine hesitant among usIt will take more than just the facts to persuade our vaccine hesitant family and friends to book their jab. Trust is also vital. And if in doubt, genuinely listening to their fears will always go a long way, writes medical ethicist Denise Cooper-Clarke.

“Since vaccination rates affect the whole of ... the global community, it is not simply a question of ‘What is best medically for me?’ but ‘What ought I to do?’”

• Continued – Page 16



TMAGROWING IN FAITH

by Stephen Cauchi

He’s most famous for inventing the bionic ear, but Professor Graeme Clark

is also Christian, he’s been an Anglican (twice) and just had his book I Want to Fix Ears shortlisted for the Australian Christian Book of 2021 award.

Professor Clark, 86, told TMA he was prompted to write the book because the scientific association the Royal Society of London – of which he is a fellow – required its fellows to write a memoir.

“I just thought the time had arrived,” he said.

“There’s been a great need to understand in science the human element, not just what happened in the laboratory or in the operating theatre, but what goes on – what’s the drama?”

“People think science is very objective, and cool, and dispas-sionate but it’s not. It’s a human enterprise.”

Professor Clark devoted a chap-ter of the work to faith.

A member of Pentecostal Doncaster City Church, Professor Clark has also been an Anglican, a Methodist and a Presbyterian – standing opposed to denomina-tional divisions.

Professor Clark said he had also in part written his life story so that Christians didn’t feel they had to be apologetic about their faith.

“[It was so] that they can go to university or elsewhere and still be a strong Christian and still study science,” he said.

Professor Clark said he had written technical books before – “science books for an educated audience”, but the aim of I Want to Fix Ears was to talk about his life’s “prayerful journey”.

It mixes autobiography with the story of the development of the world’s first bionic ear, an implant that helps a person with hearing loss hear.

“I had to be honest as to what has driven me. I thought that it was important to put those words down,” Professor Clark said.

“I have tried always to relate my mental approach to science to my faith journey as well. I couldn’t have compartmental thinking such as, ‘This is Sunday [or a] church journey, this is a science journey, [and] ne’er the twain shall meet’.”

Professor Clark said he wrote about the science of bionic ears as simply as he could in I Want to Fix Ears, without talking down the subject. He said he tried to make concepts simple enough that an intelligent layperson or a young high school student could follow them.

Professor Clark’s Christian journey began as a child, when he attended the Methodist church in the NSW town of Camden. But it was a slow start to what became a lifetime of strong faith.

“I learned very little except for the catechism and the minister never talked about the Bible

much. As a kid I was pretty bored,” Professor Clark said.

At secondary level, Professor Clark attended Sydney Boys High, then won a scholarship to board at Scots College, a Presbyterian school.

Christianity at that point of his life was not very influential.

“We had a person who taught the scripture in a most uninterest-ing way and got us to read and memorise verses in the Bible,” Professor Clark said.

As a boarder, he went to St Stephen’s church in Sydney. The students sat up in the loft hearing a “fairly boring” minister.

“We spent quite a lot of time writing notes – some of them not for public viewing – in the hymn books, which were always locked away so no one could read them,” Professor Clark said.

“As young boys we were most interested in the Song of Solomon.”

While his approach to faith might at this point sound flip-pant, Professor Clark said that as a teenager he did have an underlying belief that there was a God.

He was helped along his faith journey by a “very fine” new scrip-ture teacher who was much more relevant, and spoke to the boys.

“This teacher stressed how wonderful it was to see the birth of his young baby grandchild. He could see in that the hand of, and the wonder of, God in the crea-tion,” Professor Clark said.

“He actually could see some-thing beyond just a mechanical-type universe.”

The teacher also advised students planning to attend the University of Sydney to join the Student Christian Movement there. That is what Professor Clark did, shunning the Evangelical Union in the process.

“Evangelical Union were strictly Bible-orientated,” he said.

“SCM was very free thinking.”He said that at the SCM the stu-

dents had “no real Biblical basis for our discussions” but nevertheless, it was a “very prayerful” time.

At university Professor Clark trained to be a surgeon.

“I became like most surgeons: self-confident,” he said.

“You have to be fairly confident when you’ve got people’s lives in your hands. I then went and trained overseas to get my surgical qualification.”

Returning to Austra l ia , Professor Clark became very good at taking out inflamed appendixes at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

At this stage he had no strong affiliation with a church. But while working as a ship’s surgeon, his attitude to faith underwent a change.

So used to removing the appen-dixes of other people, Professor Clark realised that he himself had the symptoms and signs of acute appendicitis.

He was faced with the prospect of operating on himself.

“I might have had to have taken my appendix out onboard ship with no one to assist me, which was a pretty terrifying experience when you think about it,” he said.

“For the first time in my life, I came to realise I could not depend on my own ability.”

Fortunately Professor Clark was not forced into this line of action. The ship made it to Egypt, where he went to a Catholic hospital.

“I went and prayed and asked for a nun to pray for me and we went to the chapel. Then things seemed to move, shall we say miraculously, and opened up in a very unexpected way,” Professor Clark said.

“I was ultimately able to get back to England.”

There, Professor Clark began associating with other Christian doctors, who he described as “much more Biblically orientated.”

“I grew in my faith. I came back as ship’s surgeon. I gradually came to realise that the Bible too was, properly interpreted, a source of revelation of God,” he said.

It was the early 1960s – when Professor Clark was in his late 20s – that he had his appendicitis episode. After his spell overseas, he

returned to Sydney to complete a PhD in brain neurophysiology.

In 1970, he was appointed chair of the Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat) Department at the University of Melbourne.

It was here that the bionic ear journey began in earnest.

As difficult as Professor Clark’s appendicitis experience was, it prepared him for something far more challenging.

“The most stressful time in my life was from 1970 through to the mid-1980s, [during] the develop-ment of the cochlear implant or bionic ear,” he said.

“That has been a really, really tough journey needing a lot of prayer … looking back I see God’s hand.

“There were many times when there was a crisis or difficulty – raising funds or having criticisms – when I had to pray, and saw answers to my prayers, not always in the way I wanted.

“My [faith] journey was a learning one.”

Professor Clark said that he was opposed to two things in faith: creationism and denominations.

“I must say quite definitely I am not, and never have been, a creationist,” he said.

“I am not [a supporter of ] ‘intelligent design’. The question of evolution raises its head many times in this debate. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t understand evolution, even scientists don’t understand it properly.”

But opposing creationism did not necessarily mean conflict with the Bible, Professor Clark said.

“I’ve been very inspired by sci-entists and theologians who have explained how aspects of the Bible are poetic, and some are historical, and some are revelation of God’s dealing, and I think that is very satisfying,” he said.

Professor Clark said that for him “truth is truth”.

“Spiritual truth and scientific materialistic truth should be, for me anyway, interrelated,” he said.

“Some people like Richard Dawkins … say they’re not and they can never be [interrelated], and you can never have any spir-itual understanding because that’s not evident in our universe. I don’t hold these views.

“There are many colleagues, many scientific people, very distin-guished, who are good, believing Christians.”

Professor Clark said that for him there were two main issues in life and faith.

One, was the question of whether there was a God, and whether that God was a personal God – which he emphasised he believed in through Jesus Christ.

The second was why there was so much tragedy and suffering.

Professor Clark’s first dalliance with Anglicanism came when he was living in Sydney in the 1960s after his stint overseas.

He and his wife attended a church in the suburb Cremorne, where they liked the minister, and were confirmed into the Anglican Church.

After moving to Melbourne, Professor Clark and his wife decided to attend a Methodist church in Eltham, in part because they had attended a Methodist church for some time in Sydney.

Then they decided to go to an Anglican church in the same sub-urb, later moving to a Presbyterian church, then a Pentecostal church in Doncaster, where they have stayed.

While Pentecostalism was “anathema” to some Presbyterians, Professor Clark said it was not an issue for him, as he did not consider denominations to be important.

“I don’t think Christian faith can be narrowed down to dogmas,” he said.

But Professor Clark said he did not share some key Pentecostal beliefs, such as the necessity of speaking in tongues or the ten-dency to interpret the Bible from a creationist perspective.

However, Professor Clark said these issues were not worth argu-ing over.

“One should not be critical of one’s Christian brothers and sisters,” he said.

Professor Clark said he was thrilled to learn his book was one of 10 shortlisted for the Australian Christian Book of 2021 award.

“I was very surprised. I feel honoured. It is a tribute,” Professor Clark said.

Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You

Shouldn’t by Stephen McAlpine received the award from SparkLit in

September.

I Want to Fix Ears is available at bookstores.

As a lone ship’s surgeon, acute appendicitis taught bionic ear pioneer to rely on God not self

“There are many colleagues, many scientific people, very distinguished, who are good, believing Christians.”

Bionic ear pioneer Graeme Clark was required to write a memoir as a fellow of the Royal Society of London, but he also felt the time was right. Picture: supplied



TMA HEROES OF THE FAITH

As we greet another locked-down day, we might imagine ourselves to be look-

ing up at Napier Waller’s wonderful New Guinea Martyrs stained glass window in St Peter’s Eastern Hill, Melbourne. We look on, as we quietly seek to make sense of our lives, and especially of suffering, of sacrifice, and of witnessing to truth. And we detect welcome signs of new life, of spring.

Twelve Australian, Papua New Guinean and British Christians who were working in a variety of ways for the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea – energetic, engaged, mostly young – were killed for their faith because they chose to stay with their flocks as the Japanese forces invaded the country rapidly in 1942.

In recent t imes, seven Melanesian Brothers are also com-ing to be considered as martyrs after their deaths.

In 2003 during civil war and government collapse in Solomon Islands, six young members of that indigenous Anglican order went to find and rescue their brother Nathaniel on the island of Guadalcanal’s Weather Coast, in the face of accounts that he had been tortured and killed by the cruel rebel leader Harold Keke. They all suffered the same fate.

While living in Papua New Guinea I accompanied John Okubo, then primate of the Japanese Anglican Church, who had been jailed and tortured by his own government because of his outspoken opposition to the war, on his poignant visit to Buna Beach in Oro province. It was the first by a Japanese Christian since the war.

There, Japanese troops had beheaded numerous people includ-ing missionaries and their children. Bishop Okubo fell on his knees and wept in that then lonely and silent spot, and never stopped express-ing sorrow and asking forgiveness while he was in the country.

The martyrs’ story that reso-nates most with me personally is that of Vivian Redlich, a young English missionary priest who had just become engaged to May Hayman, a missionary nurse born in Adelaide. Nicknamed Merry, May was described as “sprite-like, with very bright eyes.”

Vivian scribbled a note to his dad addressed from “somewhere in the Papuan jungle”, in which he said: “I’m trying to stick whatever happens. If I don’t come out of it just rest content that I’ve tried to do my job faithfully.”

Remarkably, somehow the let-ter – unlike its author – survived, and the original can today be read in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. Vivian’s story inspired my boss and friend, Archbishop David Hand,

to go out from England to replace him, in 1946.

Across London, another of the martyrs, the 21-year-old teacher Lucien Tapiedi, from the Oro vil-lage of Taupota, is memorialised in one of the statues of 20th century martyrs above the western entrance to Westminster Abbey.

Why do these people and their stories still resonate with us, 79 years later, along with those of far more ancient martyrs?

A martyr is primarily a witness, as the word’s Greek origin relates.

It is a woman or man who tells the truth, who speaks or acts out of what they see, hear and know. This can be confronting, for those who believe otherwise, whose own truth is at variance, or who do not believe in any truth.

In chapter 12 of John’s gospel, Jesus meets with a group of Greeks, and swiftly greets them with star-tling assertions: The Son of Man is about to enter his glory, kernel of wheat must be buried to produce new life, love this life and you will lose it, serve Jesus by following him.

“My soul is deeply troubled”, Jesus confessed to them, but “Father bring glory to your name”. A voice like thunder responded, as had happened earlier at his baptism and transfiguration.

“When I’m lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself,” Jesus said.

Jesus begins this astonishing litany by insisting: “I tell you the truth”.

Jesus is indeed a witness. He is indeed a martyr. Yet a couple of verses on from today’s passage, we learn that despite all the miraculous

signs Jesus had done, most people in the sometimes-large circle who swirled around him, still did not truly believe in him.

In John’s extraordinary chapter six we can see Jesus’s increasing frustration, and increasing sense of loneliness, as he grapples with crowds who just don’t get it. It’s hinged off the core question: “How

on earth can Jesus be the bread of life?”

Most of those fed by those two fish and five barley loaves who set out pursuing Jesus, desert him. Jesus certainly didn’t court popularity, or what we would call success. Three years of unrelent-ing, unsurpassed ministry and miracle-working, and just 12 mostly ill-educated followers to show for it.

Are you also going to leave?” Jesus asks the twelve at the even-tual end of John’s tough, seemingly interminable, chapter six. “Lord, to whom would we go?” responds Peter, rather plaintively. And so the little team set off again on their travels around Galilee.

We too are in a testing time, to some even an apocalyptic time, a time, of course, of global pan-demic. Danger stalks suburban streets, as 79 years ago it did in a more graphic manner the Papuan jungle. Our wider world, and our communities near to home, seem divided as never before. Our enemies today include untruth, rumours, self-satisfaction, pride, hard-heartedness, and fearfulness. Our own faith may seem small. But we can surely assert rhetorically

with Peter, “to whom else would we go?”.

This is a season for us to grasp Jesus’ core request – follow him. We can work to do this by review-ing our own personal faith stories during our quiet locked-down days, and preparing to share them with others when the time is right. And we can do this by witnessing to Jesus, to the truth.

Jesus is of course talking about himself as that kernel or seed which must be planted in soil to sprout into new, plentiful life. We are not all asked like the New Guinea Martyrs to die as witnesses to the truth that Jesus is the bread of life. But we are all asked to follow him. We must be where he is, which is where all martyrs were and are.

They do not seek death or suf-fering. They seek to follow him, to be his servants. In the Papua New Guinean case, this meant staying with God’s people, where death found them.

Papua New Guinea’s plight is very different today of course, but it is still worrying and threatening to many of the nine million popula-tion. The number of COVID-19 cases has quadrupled in five months. The take up of vaccination is very low, chiefly because so many believe in social media conspiracy theories that many donated vaccines are set to expire before they can be used. Testing figures are also low. The true situation, especially in rural areas, is undocumented and unknowable.

Prime Minister James Marape, who has vowed to make PNG “the richest black Christian nation,” said recently that “it is by God’s grace that we have been spared” the worst effects of COVID-19, after earlier comparing its impact there with “many established countries”.

But this understanding of God’s grace might be placed in a con-text of broader need, also, in the context of severe economic stress, poor delivery of government ser-vices, and widespread corruption.

Australia’s closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea is of course an achingly beautiful land, teeming with ancient cultures and with bright people. We should ponder how we too can stay, can stick – to use Vivian’s word – with them. We can do this through purposeful daily prayer, through making the most of any personal contacts we have with Papua New Guineans, through urg-ing our governments, our charities and other organisations, our church, to work out ways to stand with the nation, as did those 12 martyrs. This 12 includes the only Australian martyrs whom we commemorate in our church’s calendar.

Their desire was Jesus’ desire: the glorification of God. This was “the very reason I came,” Jesus said.

We can’t dictate how that will manifest itself as we follow him however. We tend to want things from Jesus, rather than to want Jesus himself. But here it is, here’s the journey laid out. It involves, inevitably, a form of death through loss, including loss of self. It involves death of self-centred dreams, of materialist aspirations, of power agendas, maybe even of some relationships.

This is not an easy path. Jesus himself was deeply troubled, his soul was torn. Martyrdom, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said, is “the ultimate witness to the truth of Christ in a way that is meaningless if God does not exist.” And what cannot be seen in the winter of death is revealed when the sun shines in the spring, the Archbishop says, and the grains of wheat burst upwards.

How would the New Guinea martyrs have rejoiced if they were here today, to witness how Japan has changed. That very nation that took their lives has become one of the greatest donors to the United Nations and to all international development agencies, and a champion of world peace. These recent Olympic Games, organised in Tokyo in the most challenging of circumstances with great numbers of volunteers cheerfully persisting in their tasks despite the emptiness of the stadiums, provided a hugely uplifting glimpse of how the world might be, in their camaraderie, friendliness and spirit. Forms of redemption can come even to nations, and to cultures.

I tell you the truth, Jesus says. And we, with our amens, all become witnesses to that truth.

I will draw everyone to myself, Jesus says. And following him, witnessing to him in a world full of falsity, sticking with him, we too seek to draw everyone to Jesus.

We can be strengthened in our work of witnessing, and in reach-ing beyond our present isolation, by adapting for ourselves Paul’s uplifting answer to his own ques-tion in his letter to the Romans: “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?”.

Neither cruel invaders, nor roaming pathogens, nor death nor life, neither our fears for today nor worries about tomorrow, no power in the sky above or in the earth below, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rowan Callick is an award-winning journalist who has worked in Papua

New Guinea, Hong Kong and Beijing. An active Anglican, he has served

the Church in several capacities, including as an examining chaplain for

the diocese of Melbourne. This is an edited version of a sermon he was to deliver on New Guinea Martyrs Day,

2 September, at St Peter’s Eastern Hill. Due to the COVID lockdown it was read

out by the vicar at a Mass on the day.

All called to witness, even at the cost of deathWhy do martyrs’ stories still resonate decades, even centuries after their death? A martyr is a witness to the truth, reflecting Jesus’ witness to the truth. We may not face death in the jungles of Papua New Guinea like some martyrs, but we do face danger. Even as our own faith seems small, we likewise are called to witness to the truth writes Rowan Callick.

The Revd Vivian Redlich: Martyred in Papua New Guinea during WWII.

“If I don’t come out of it just rest content that I’ve tried to do my job faithfully.”



TMAIN FOCUS / WIDER WORLD

by Roland Ashby

Western democracies are under serious threat because of the deep

divisions and distrust which have been growing over several decades, renowned Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor said in a recent talk, ‘Listening to people we don’t like’, to the World Community for Christian Meditation.

A Catholic and a meditator, the Emeritus Professor is best known for his book A Secular Age, in which he analyses the rise and character of secularism.

The emergence of “populist sav-iours” like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro was the result, he said, of deepening inequality, which had been produced by economic neo-liberalism growing in the West since the 1970s.

From that time, Professor Taylor said, “a lot of the equalisa-tion of income that occurred dur-ing the war, and right after, begins to slide away and inequality in income and inequality of wealth increased.”

Professor Taylor added that the neo-liberal assumption that “the market would sort things out” had proved to be an illusion, and that many felt “their standard of living, their whole situation, had radically declined and that nobody really cared.”

At the same time the idea of meritocracy became common, he said. This was the idea that if

people are doing well, it’s because they have talent, work hard, and deserve it, but if they aren’t doing well, it’s because they aren’t trying hard enough.

Professor Taylor said this was also accompanied in America by an increase in discrimination by men towards women, and white people towards black people, based on a belief in a hierarchy of men over women, and white over black.

“[This] is because [those discriminating] ... need, in order to have a sense of self-respect, a kind of external comparison [with someone they believe to be] infe-rior,” he said.

Both the media and social media had contributed to divi-sion, Professor Taylor said. Social media in particular was creating an “atomised society” in which the user’s views could be either manipulated or reinforced, he said.

“Just contact this person or that person, and if they all say the same thing it makes you feel better and that becomes your truth,” he said.

The result of all this was that we now have “very deeply divided political societies” in which people formed political identities that were distrusting of those who hold differing views, to the point that they saw those people as “betray-ing what is essential to our world”, Professor Taylor warned.

He said that religious faith had an important role to play in helping overcome the divisions.

In America, Professor Taylor

said civil rights campaigners Martin Luther King Jr and John Lewis had shown the way.

“John Lewis had a wonderful expression: ‘lay down the burden of hate’. [He was saying the burden of hate] is keeping you from the truth about yourself and about us ... You’re burdened by this. This is not an advantage for you, this is not making you better ... this is crush-ing you,” he said.

Professor Taylor said that “lay down the burden of hate” had sprung from the insight that Lewis and King had, that their persecutors were suffering too. He said each had to find a way of communicating that was not sim-ply dismissive, but which had an element of reaching into the inner ethical self of the other person, into deep ethical intuitions that could be awoken in the other people.

The aim, Professor Taylor said, was “mutual liberation”, through recognition that the burden of hate was denying people all the advantages of enrichment from, and collaboration with, those with different experiences.

The willingness to listen deeply to others of different views was critical to this process, he said. Moreover, he said, “We can’t really talk effectively until we’ve listened”. Professor Taylor praised in par-ticular American sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild for her deep lis-tening, over five years, to the stories and views of Tea Party supporters in Louisiana, which resulted in

her book Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.

“She got to know them, and wrote this brilliant book in which you get a really great insight,” Professor Taylor said.

Good listening, he said, was about not imposing your agenda, something that meditation taught.

Asked if he believed that secular western society had lost a sense of the spiritual dimension, Professor Taylor said: “The sense that there’s something bigger beyond us which we have to get closer to, which we want to get closer to, because we’ll become more loving, more open, more creative ... is absolutely ineradicable from human life ... you can’t take it out of the human soul.”

He concluded with a reference to the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant, that: “We have a moral obligation to hope, because the only possibility of realising a moral life is if you have this kind of hope that it can be done.”

Professor Taylor spoke via zoom as part of a monthly series of talks

organised by the Bonnevaux Centre for Peace, the international home of

the World Community for Christian Meditation in France. For more

information about the Bonnevaux Speaker Series see: wccm.org/

events/speaker-series/

Roland Ashby is a former editor of The Melbourne Anglican. See his

blog at thelivingwater.com.au

Deep listening critical to health of democracy

Professor Charles Taylor.

factors are mistrust of government and an anti-science attitude that began with debates about evolu-tion. Political differences are also important: the majority of white evangelicals are Republican, and Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to say they would be or have already been vaccinated against COVID-19.

An Australian survey in February 2021 also showed that vaccine hesitancy was higher in those who identified with the political right than those identify-ing with the centre and those on the left. Immunisation researcher Professor Julie Leask suggested that leaders and influencers from the political right needed to demonstrate publicly a strong commitment to vaccination. This might counter any antivaccination messages from other prominent rightwing politicians.

Among Australian Christians, vaccine resistance or hesitancy seems to be linked, as in the US, more to political and cultural than theological factors. And trusted Christian leaders may influence this significantly.

R at ional arguments for COVID-19 vaccination based on evidence are not universally per-suasive. People are also persuaded to be vaccinated or not by fear. And trust or mistrust in the per-

son or group presenting the facts and the arguments determines to a great extent whether those facts are believed and the arguments are persuasive.

Those responsible for the vac-cine rollout should pay attention to the credibility of the mes-sengers they use in the various groups of Australians they wish to attempt to persuade to be vaccinated.

At a personal level when talk-ing to friends or family who are hesitant about COVID-19 vac-cination, being slow to speak and quick to listen, genuinely trying to understand people’s fears, dem-onstrating warmth, empathy, and the Christian virtues of patience, gentleness and humility, will likely be much more persuasive than simply restating medical facts and arguments. It will be certainly more persuasive than name call-ing or ridicule.

Dr Denise Cooper-Clarke is a medi-cal ethicist, voluntary researcher

with Ethos Centre for Christianity and Society and a member of the Social

Responsibilities Committee.

This article, a shortened version of a paper given at the recent

Evangelical Women in Academia Conference at Ridley College, will

also shortly be published in the October edition of Equip magazine,

published by Ethos.

Listening to fears can help make the case for trusting COVID-19 jab• From – Page 13

by Chris Shearer

The leaders of the Anglican Communion, Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Christians have come together for the first time to issue a joint warn-ing on climate change ahead of the COP26 Glasgow climate confer-ence, which begins on 1 November.

In a statement dated 1 S eptember, Pope Francis , Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said the consequences of climate change were already being felt and that protecting creation was a matter of survival.

“Today, we are paying the price. The extreme weather and natural

disasters of recent months reveal afresh to us with great force and at great human cost that climate change is not only a future chal-lenge, but an immediate and urgent matter of survival,” their joint dec-laration read.

“Tomorrow could be worse. Today’s children and teenagers will face catastrophic consequences unless we take responsibility now, as ‘fellow workers with God’ (Genesis 2:4–7), to sustain our world.”

The statement said they were praying for the leaders meeting in Glasgow who would “decide the future of our planet and its people”, and that the world must not waste this moment.

“We must decide what kind of world we want to leave to future

generations,” the statement read. “God mandates: ‘Choose life, so

that you and your children might live’ (Deuteronomy 30:19). We must choose to live differently; we must choose life.

“Accordingly, as leaders of our Churches, we call on everyone, whatever their belief or worldview, to endeavour to listen to the cry of the earth and of people who are poor, examining their behaviour and pledging meaningful sacrifices for the sake of the earth which God has given us.”

Pope Francis, who will attend COP26 for a day, will host about three dozen religious leaders from around the world at the Vatican on 4 October in preparation for the conference.

Canterbury, Pope, Patriarch in joint plea on protecting creation

“The burden of hate was denying people all the advantages of enrichment from, and collaboration with, those with different experiences”

Archbishop Justin Welby. Pope Francis. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.



TMA SCIENCE/FAITH

Is human ageing really part of God’s good creation? In Part 1 of “Getting old: What shall

Christians think?” we read of a troubling lack of consistency among great Christian thinkers. Some see the ageing process as being due to sin’s entrance into this world; others claim a thoroughly positive outlook on ageing that sees it as a blessing from God put into creation.

In this second part, I suggest that ageing indeed is a part of God’s good creation. Let’s look at the science first. What has helped the understanding of ageing enormously in the last 30 years is the science of molecular biology. Understanding what molecular biology is all about is a bit like understanding what goes on in a high-tech factory at Toyota or Ford or Holden. There are assem-bly lines, carefully controlled processes, specialised equipment, intricate mechanisms that make, cut, join, and mould things, and it’s all coordinated by the head office. That’s similar to what goes on in a cell. Molecular biology can find out what those cell processes and mechanisms are, what controls there are, what’s made or unmade at the cell’s assembly lines. Where’s the head office? We may think of our genes as the staff in the head office, tasked with coordinating the many mechanisms of the cell. But, as we know, the human body is far more complicated than one cell; it’s made of groups of cells, organs and systems, all of which are coordinated and work together beautifully like a mega-factory.

So where does ageing belong in this picture? One of the strongest theories of ageing, backed up by thousands of publications, is to do with tel-omeres – the ends of human chro-mosomes. As we live and grow and our cells divide, the ends of chro-mosomes become steadily shorter until the cell receives signals within itself to shut itself down. Once this happens, the cell may die or simply stop working. Either way, over time more and more cells reach this stage, then groups of cells start to decline, and organs decline, until the whole human body winds down, in a sense. This is ageing.

Does this sound like a kind of “mistake”? A kind of “fault”? After all, why should the chromosome ends get shorter? Yes, it does sound like a fault. Until we appreciate an amazing discovery – the location where the commands for chromo-some shortening originate. They come from the head office of our cells – the cells’ genes. In other words, it’s a part of our genetic code, part of who we are as human beings. Of his own body, King David praises God in saying: “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb … Your

workmanship is marvellous!” (Ps 139:13, 14 [NLT]).

There is much more to the story of how ageing happens. Does the brain have a role in ageing and in determining lifespan? Here, scientists are searching for answers beyond the events in a cell; they want to find out whether, and how, the body as a whole system might cause ageing. The focus has been on the brain’s hypothalamus – a truly remarkable control centre for life and health. Among its many roles, it controls reproduction and sexual

development in males and females, our use of energy, and regulates body temperature and our wake-sleep cycle. It is truly a master regulator, one that deserves a healthy degree of awe and wonder.

But much more recently, sci-entists have uncovered a new role for the hypothalamus. As well as all its roles in life and health, it actually programs the end of our reproductive years and regulates the ageing process. As the authors of this work write: “Ageing is a life event that is programmed by the hypothalamus.”

This scientific work challenges how we think about ageing: we so often think of ageing as the antithesis of life and health and growth; yet, the very centre for so many life, health and growth

events – the hypothalamus – is also a control centre for ageing. Life, health, growth – and ageing – seem to be built together into our bodies. This surprising idea is only strengthened when we realise that the indivisibility of life and age-ing occurs not only at this higher level of an organ, but even within each cell: there are molecules and pathways and special parts in cells which are required for both life and ageing; without them we wouldn’t have a human body.

All of this challenges us to change our minds about ageing. It challenges us to move away from seeing ageing as a fault, as a penalty for our transgressions, as even a disease, or as something to be cor-rected. If human ageing is of God’s original creation, then ageing is of

God and it must be “good” in the biblical sense.

And it may change our attitudes too. If we are young, have we felt an aversion against the aged? If we are getting old, are we anxious or afraid of it? Understanding the creational quality of ageing will help us form a new perspective, one that reaches out to God in faith and hope to accept ageing into our lives.

But our search for whether ageing is creationally good needs to go further. So far, we have only addressed the science of ageing. How about the book we hold so dearly, our Bibles? What does the word of God say? Abraham and Sarah’s childlessness (Gen 17), Isaac’s failing eyesight (Gen 27:1), Eli’s frailty (1 Sam 4), King David’s chills (1 Kgs 1), and Zechariah and Elizabeth’s advanced age that sealed their childlessness (Luke 1) are all transparent examples of ageing’s limitations and losses. So our Bibles are frank about ageing’s decline. Importantly, however, the decline of ageing does not diminish the aged person at all; quite the oppo-site: Israel is commanded to “revere the elderly”, a command paired with another command that gives it unique gravity: “You shall fear your God.” Even if we deliberately ignore the aged, pretending we hadn’t noticed them, the God who is to be feared has seen it. The limi-tations of ageing invoke a special relationship of grace and oversight from God. The Bible confronts us

with the expectation that human care of those with limitations will reflect the carer’s devotion to God Himself (Lev 19:14,32; Deut 27:18).

Yet, our Bibles go further than admit ageing’s decline. Ageing actually adds to life and living: ageing builds humility by making us aware of our finitude (Isaac; Gen 27) and our sin (Jn 7:53 to 8:11), it is not considered a hindrance to a faithful and blameless life (God’s call to the elderly Abraham; Gen 17), nor to a life in God’s service (Anna; Luke 2). The aged receive a calling to pass on righteousness and wisdom to the young (Prov 16:31 to 17:7; Ps 71:18; Tit 2:2, 3); and they are a true part of community, as much as the young (Prov 20:29; Jer 31:1-14; Joel 2:28).

But does the Bible give any clues about whether ageing is really of God’s good creation? Yes – more than clues. From the Psalms and the prophets some remarkable insights are found. Psalm 148 recounts Genesis 1’s creation account and uniquely calls on all in the whole created universe to sing praises of God – not for their redemption but for their creation. The stars, planets and angels – the heavenly choir – are answered by the earthly choir: ocean creatures, mountains, trees, storms and animals, and “young men and maidens, old men and children” (verse 12). These are all creation categories, including the “old men.” This makes ageing a divinely recognised part of cre-ated life. And, from the prophets, images of Paradise and end-time salvation include images of the old, even frail, human being (Is 65:17-25; Zech 8:4). God‘s salvation does not “delete” ageing and the aged

as if these are defective categories; rather, God’s salvation places the aged in blessed, peaceful and safe community.

From the Bible, then, we find a positive, life-affirming picture of ageing. Ageing is a creation cat-egory that builds character, service and faith.

We may still wonder, however, how to truly accept ageing’s decline into our Christian understanding of life. Where is the “goodness” in everyday life for the very aged, the frail? Here, the communion of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit has valuable lessons. In reflecting the Trinity, human beings only fulfil their true humanity as community, and this means dependence and interdependence. Both the aged and the community reciprocate in giving and receiving. A small true story from this author may help here:

On Christmas day some years ago my father and mother

invited a very old spinster over for lunch. I was a young man at the time, and Dad asked if I could go with him to pick her up. I remember her now – in her 90s, thin, frail, hunched, walking slowly and awkwardly with a stick. Her tiny face was like a shrivelled prune – all long creases. She was blind. As we arrived home, she needed our side-by-side support to walk the long driveway, up the three steps to the back porch, along and up two more steps to be finally in the house. As she got there, she said “Oh! What a blessing!” without the slightest cynicism. We guided her to a lounge chair and there she sat down. I remember her face as she chatted and smiled. There was a happiness and peace that radiated the grace of God. Her name was Aunt Marion, and she was my sister-in-Christ.

Aunt Marion received our care. What did we receive as we cared for Aunt Marion? It is indeed more blessed to give than to receive. And we were blessed. In her frailty and loss Aunt Marion was weak, but her presence was strong and made an unforgettable impact on my life. I remember admir-ing her in her weakness. I felt a wonderment at seeing her joy in the midst of frailty. I was humbled by the combination of weakness and grace; this made me see the grumblings and cheap pursuits of my young life as needing change. This combination of weakness and grace adds power to a human life; they are integrated together as God’s plan for human life on earth.

Space has not permitted how two substantial challenges to the suggestion that ageing is creation-ally good may be addressed; one being the concept that humanity’s Fall brought ageing, the other being natural death as the conse-quence of the Fall.

We have endeavoured to show from science, from the Bible and from a more pastoral perspective how ageing could be creationally “good”. To allow our own ageing and the ageing of those around us to be part of God’s good plan for creation will serve to build a strong foundation for embracing life and giving glory to God in our older years.

David Hooker is Publications Director for ISCAST–Christians in Science and Technology. David is

trained in science and theology and recently completed doctoral studies

synthesising science and theology on the topic of human ageing.

Getting old: What shall Christians think of it?How can ageing, even frailty, be part of God’s good creation? David Hooker explores the scientific, biblical and pastoral perspectives for this in the final instalment of his series on the theology of ageing.

“If human ageing is of God’s original creation, then ageing is of God and it must be ‘good’ in the biblical sense.”

“God’s salvation places the aged in blessed, peaceful and safe community.”



PLEASE REPORT ABUSE CALL 1800 135 246

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We are deeply distressed that there have been occasions when abuse and misconduct have occurred in our communities. Kooyoora Ltd is independent of the Diocese and receives and manages complaints about abuse and misconduct by members of the clergy and church workers.

The Diocese of Melbourne is committed to doing all that is possible to ensure that abuse does not occur. All complaints of abuse are taken very seriously and we do all we can to lessen harm. We offer respect, pastoral care and ongoing long-term support to anyone who makes a complaint.

You can contact Kooyoora Ltd by calling 1800 135 246For further information: www.kooyoora.org.au

TMATHEOLOGY

The Reverend Doctor Jill Firth is Lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament at Ridley

College. Her PhD is in Old Testament and she holds an MA in spiritual direction.

by Jill Firth

The recent withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan left scenes of turmoil and

human misery etched deeply on the consciousness of people around the world, raising emo-tive discussion of the ethics and impact of the departure. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles’ backstory of sexual abuse left a bitter taste as we admired her choice to with-draw from some competitions, citing mental health concerns. In a recent conversation on Q&A, Australian of the Year Grace Tame shared the ongoing impact of her sexual abuse as a teenager, saying: “As well as being a survivor of pae-dophilia, because I had no frame of reference after that, I got into violent relationship after violent relationship.”

These stories exemplify the impact not only of stress and danger, but of shame, regret, grief, guilt, and loss of meaning, which follow betrayal of a person’s sense of “what’s right”.

The term “moral injury” was coined by psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, who was confronted by the distress of war veterans, which was not fully ameliorated by treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Classically defined by psycholo-gist Brett Litz, moral injury can arise from “perpetrating, failing to prevent, bearing witness to, or learning about acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.” American journalist David Wood calls moral injury the “signature wound” of veterans of wars such as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Moral injury is an unseen wound that can occur whenever people carry shame or guilt for being involved in, or witnessing, situations which violate their moral code, including failing to prevent atrocities to the self or others.

“Think of a soldier in Iraq who accidentally killed a civil-ian, or blamed himself for not noticing an improvised explosive

device at the side of a road that exploded and killed comrades in a vehicle behind,” Dean Yates, an Australian correspondent for Reuters explained, “Or a medic in Afghanistan who blamed herself for not doing enough to save a wounded buddy.”

Unseen wounds are not limited to wartime situations.

Kurdish refugee Behrouz Boochani writes movingly in No Friend but the Mountains of “Daddy’s Moustache”, symbolising the strength of a father back in Iran, but now the moustache of a daddy who is a refugee on Manus Island. The second father is power-less to protect his young daughters within the refugee prison system, feeling guilt and shame at his choices which have brought them so much risk and suffering.

In Prostitution Narratives, ‘Charlotte,’ age 27, tells a story of childhood moral injury that led her to work in pornographic webcamming and prostitution, before she was able to leave the sex industry.

“From the age of four through seven I was the victim of com-mercial sexual exploitation [by] ... a family friend ... He also told me everything that was happening was my fault, because I had ‘been so bad’,” Charlotte said.

In Trauma Trails, Ben, an Indigenous man participating in an alcoholic recovery programme, tells his story.

“I was sexually abused ... between the ages of three and six ... I felt so angry, so hurt that some-body else could do this to me, so shamed of myself for taking part, I just felt really deeply hurt about it,” he said.

Other sources of shame or grief could include playground or work-place bullying, domestic violence, being pressured to act illegally in business, or betrayal of friends or colleagues.

The Bible and moral injuryThe interaction of Biblical stud-ies with trauma theory has led to fruitful reflection and pastoral application in recent years.

In The Bible and Moral Injury

Brad Kelle suggests a “two-way conversation”. He says reflection on narratives of morally injured characters in the Bible invites us to gain more sensitivity to mental suffering, and the use of biblical resources for repair such as lament, restitution and compensation, for-giveness, and rituals of cleansing and restoration. Kelle also consid-ers the impact of reading about

or witnessing violence, and the questions that can be raised about the goodness of God.

In I Bring the Voices of My People, Chanequa Walker-Barnes examines moral injury to commu-nities with a legacy of Indigenous history and slavery. Work in moral injury could be valuable in reshap-ing relationships with Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, with careful and deep listening, and a consideration of lament

and restorative justice. For some, intergenerational trauma could be a factor.

My own interest in the Bible and moral injury arose from my writing and teaching on the book of Jeremiah, which is rich in stories of moral complexity and ambigu-ity, tight corners and pressured situations. These give it resonance with warfare, social dislocation and other situations with limited options, which are so relevant to moral injury.

In a time of high stakes crisis due to the rising power of Babylon, God’s people were governed by a variety of arrogant, incompe-tent, or unreliable leaders. King Jehoiakim was unjust and arrogant (22:13–17). King Zedekiah was vacillating and fearful, unwilling to trust God even if it could save his people from conquest and his wives from weaponised rape (39:14–28). Governor Gedaliah was upright but showed poor character judgment (40:7–15). Commander Johanan was an ally who changed into a dangerous adversary (40–43). Meanwhile, false prophets led people astray (27–29).

We can fruitfully reflect on and discuss the choices and feel-ings of ordinary people in such Biblical stories: What would it be like to live in Jeremiah’s time? What pressures were they under? What options did they have? What values drove their choices? What feelings did they experience?

The Book of Jeremiah also offers resources for healing includ-ing lament (9:17–21), God’s tears (9:1), forgiveness, and the hope of a new beginning (31:31–34).

Studies in moral injury offer insights and resources for survivors who suffer shame, grief or guilt, for those who have intentionally or unintentionally brought harm to others, and for those who have wit-nessed traumatic events, even from a distance. The Bible offers narra-tives which show the familiarity of moral injury and mental anguish to God and the biblical writers, and offers resources for lament, restoration, and rebuilding.

Moral maze of Babylon a guide for our time

“Moral injury is an unseen wound that can occur whenever people carry shame or guilt for being involved in, or witnessing, situations which violate their moral code.”



You are invited to the: 2021 WALTER SILVESTER MEMORIAL LECTURE

Online on Tuesday 26 October 2021 at a time to be con� rmed.For further details, please contact Anne Dowling on (03) 9304 2926, by SMS (text) on 0429 869 457

or Mark Brolly on 0419 329 119. Or email: [email protected]

Speakers: Jason Kelly, a proud Mutthi Mutthi/Wamba Wamba man, father and grandfather, Jason attended the National Dialogue at Uluru as an elected Victorian Community member.

Sponsored by: FREE PUBLIC LECTURE“Truth, Treaty and

Transformation”

Frank Brennan SJ AO, Jesuit priest and Rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne, a Distinguished Fellow of the PM Glynn Institute at Australian Catholic University, an Adjunct Professor at the � omas More Law School at ACU and research professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture.

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At this crucial time when the world’s top scientists say we must act

urgently to prevent widespread climate disaster, I was concerned to read that the article ‘What the IPCC report means for Australia’ (TMA, September 2021) did not advocate this.

This is worrying as Christians are called to care for God’s crea-tion. Yet this article could influence readers to allow our government to miss this vital opportunity to act effectively now.

The article indicates that Australia is too small to make a difference. In fact, Australia can make a difference, as we are the world’s second-largest thermal coal exporter (used for electric-ity generation), according to Geoscience Australia ga.gov.au/digital-publication/aecr2021/coal#summary-section

The TMA article says that a handful of countries’ emissions will decide whether the world will have a safe climate future. It says that as the US, China, India and Russia together emit 55 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, they will decide whether our children and grandchildren will have a safe climate future.

Does that mean that the rest of the world, which produces 45 per cent, doesn’t need to lessen our emissions? That does not make sense. In fact, according to the Climate Tracker climateaction-tracker.org/countries/india/, if all the world acted as India does, we would limit warming to two degrees. This is not enough, but is on the way to achieving a live-able climate. At the UN Climate

Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow this month, all countries – not just the handful mentioned in the TMA article – will be pres-sured to act effectively.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is calling on the whole world to act, and to commit to do this at the Glasgow conference from 31 October to 12 November. If we all do so, followed by appropriate action, the world has a chance to achieve a safe cli-mate. Also if Australia acts effec-tively, this could help influence other countries to do likewise.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said follow-ing this report that the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions are choking our planet and placing billions of people in

danger. Global heating is affect-ing every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible. We must act deci-sively now to avert a climate catastrophe (news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1097362).

The TMA article also says that nuclear energy will have to be part of the energy mix as we move from fossil fuels. Nuclear energy has problems with safety – radioactive waste storage and the danger of nuclear war. Nuclear plants are slow and expensive to

build. There is also the problem of finding stable places to store the emissions for hundreds of thousands of years.

For instance, the Climate Council says “Nuclear power stations leave a long-term and

prohibitively expensive legacy of site remediation, fuel repro-cessing and radioactive waste storage”. On average, nuclear power stations take a decade to build (climatecouncil.org.au/nuclear-power-stations-are-not-appropriate-for-australia-and-

probably-never-will-be/).Then there are concerns of

disasters such as the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear acci-dents. Influenced by Fukushima, Germany is closing its nuclear p l ant s , a c c ord i ng to t he International Atomic Energy Agency.

A 2020 study by the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator conf irms that wind, solar and storage are cheaper than coal, gas and nuclear costs.

The TMA article also errone-ously says that solar and wind power are not reliable sources as they are intermittent. However, this can be resolved with fast-response technologies such as batteries, pumped hydro and solar thermal, which can be turned on and off, or ramped up and down to balance electricity supply, the Climate Council says.

Furthermore, the article doesn’t say that there would be more jobs in renewable energy than in the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel workers could be helped to transition to such healthy jobs.

The article doesn’t acknowl-edge that adapting quickly could make Australia prosperous, as explained by renowned econo-mist Ross Garnaut in his book Superpower.

Secretary-General Guterres said in response to the IPCC report that the solutions were clear. “Inclusive and green economies, prosperity, cleaner air and better health are possible for all, if we respond to this crisis with solidarity and courage.”

The TMA article says that speaking of a climate emergency is a “politically correct view”. That contradicts the August UN IPCC report, which said that it was “a code red for humanity”. “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable.”

Christians are called to be stewards of God’s creation. Science clarifies how we can do this. We can influence our political leaders by telling them that our vote will be influenced by their emergency action to try and ensure a safe climate future. You can write to Prime Minister Scott Morrison at pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

Marguerite Marshall is a Uniting Church member and a Melbourne

writer, who was trained by Al Gore as a climate reality project leader.

Now is crucial time to care for God’s creation Christians are called to be stewards of creation and science can help clarify this, writes Marguerite Marshall in response to an article in September’s The Melbourne Anglican on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report on climate change.

“Wind, solar and storage are cheaper than coal, gas and nuclear costs.”

“Inclusive and green economies, prosperity, cleaner air and better health are possible for all, if we respond to this crisis with solidarity and courage.”


https://www.ga.gov.au/digital-publication/aecr2021/coal#summary-section



https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india/

https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india/

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1097362

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1097362

https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/nuclear-power-stations-are-not-appropriate-for-australia-and-probably-never-will-be/




https://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

https://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm


OVER TO YOU

Prayer Diary (Can also be downloaded from https://www.melbourneanglican.org.au/spiritual-resources/)

OCTOBER 2021Sun 3: The Church in Wales (Primacy Vacant); Mission Agencies of the Anglican Church of Australia; Diocesan Property Committee; Holy Trinity Anglican Church Hastings (Timothy Anderson); Christ Church Brunswick – Pastoral Service (Bp Genieve Blackwell); Oakleigh Anglican Parish of Holy Trinity and Emmanuel Church, (Pastoral Visit, Bp Paul Barker)Mon 4: Religious Orders serving within the Anglican Church of Australia; Diocesan Provincial Council; St Martin’s Hawksburn (Luke Hopkins) Tue 5: Locums and all retired clergy; Christ Church Hawthorn (Andrew Dircks) Chapter Meeting (Abp Philip Freier) Wed 6: The Anglican Church of Australia (Primate Abp Geoffrey Smith, General Secretary Anne Hywood, the General Synod & the Standing Commit tee); Caulfield Grammar School (Ashleigh Martin, Principal; Ryan Holt, Amanda Lyons and Kate Jacob, Chaplains); St Columb’s Hawthorn (Incumbency Vacant; Bp Stephen Hale (Locum), Kirsty Brown); Thu 7: The Diocese of Adelaide (Abp Geoff Smith, Asst Bps Denise Ferguson, Timothy Harris, Christopher McLeod; Clergy & People); Police Force Chaplains (Drew Mellor & other Chaplains) and members of the Police Force; St John’s Healesville w. St Paul’s Yarra Glen (Matt Smith); Fri 8: The Diocese of Armidale (Bp Rod Chiswell, Clergy & People); Archdeaconry of Geelong (Jill McCoy); St John’s Highton (Will Orpwood, Christopher Lynch); Sat 9: The Diocese of Ballarat (Bp Garry Weatherill, Clergy & People); Christ Church Grammar School (Neil Andary, Principal; Emily Fraser, Chaplain); Church of the Epiphany Hoppers Crossing (Glenn Buijs, Hei Ler Kyi Shwe, Patricia Hunt, Joel Snibson); Sun 10: The Church of the Province of West Africa (Primate, Abp Jonathan Hart); The Diocese of Bathurst (Bp Mark Calder, Clergy & People); Diocesan Risk Management and Insurance (Matthew Wilson, Manager); St Paul’s Inverleigh w. St John’s, Bannockburn and Church of the Epiphany, Meredith (Tim Smith); St Alban’s Coburg West – Pastoral Service (Bp Genieve Blackwell) Mon 11: The Diocese of Bendigo (Bp Matt Brain, Clergy & People); Melbourne

Anglican Diocesan Schools’ Commission (Richard St John, Chair, Rick Tudor, Deputy Chair); St George’s Ivanhoe East (John Sanderson); Tue 12: The Diocese of Brisbane (Abp Phillip Aspinall, Regional Bps Jeremy Greaves, Cameron Venables, John Roundhill, Clergy & People); Anglican Criminal Justice Ministry Chaplaincy (Rob Ferguson, Senior Chaplain & Chaplains); St James’ Ivanhoe (Stephen May, Jessica Cheung, Stephen Faragher); Wed 13: The Diocese of Bunbury (Bp Ian Coutts, Clergy & People); Firbank Grammar School (Jenny W ill iams, Principal; Christine Croft, chaplain); The Anglican Parish of Jika Jika (Michael Hopkins); Synod (Abp Philip Freier) Thu 14: The Diocese of Canberra & Goulburn (Bp Mark Shor t , Asst Bps Stephen Pickard, Carol Wagner, Clergy & People); Ecumenical Affairs Committee; Holy Trinity Kew (Robert Newton, Rick Cheung, Lesley Dixon); Synod (Abp Philip Freier) Fri 15: Ministry to the Defence Force (Bishop Grant Dibden, Chaplains & Members of the Defence Forces) ; Archdeaconry of Kew (Greg Allinson); Parish of St Hilary’s Kew w. St Silas’ North Balwyn and St Augustine’s Mont Albert North (Adam Certrangolo, Richard Bruce, Natalie Rosner, Wendy Wade, Yi Cheng Shih, Stephen Zhang, Elizabeth Webster); Synod (Abp Philip Freier) Sat 16: The Diocese of Gippsland (Bp Richard Treloar, Clergy & People); Geelong Grammar School (Rebecca Cody, Principal; Gordon Lingard, Howard Parkinson, Chaplains); St James’ and St Peter’s Kilsyth-Montrose (Janice O’Gorman); Synod (Abp Philip Freier) Sun 17: The Church in the Province of the West Indies (Primate, Abp Howard Gregory); The Diocese of Grafton (Bp Murray Har vey, Clergy & People) ; Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) (Adam Cetrangolo, Chair); All Saints’ Kooyong (Kuncoro Rusman, Lachlan Thompson); Christ Church Essendon – Pastoral Service (Bp Genieve Blackwell); Holy Trinity Doncaster – Pastoral Service (Bp Genieve Blackwell) Mon 18: Ministry with the Aboriginal people of Australia (Bp Chris McLeod, National Aboriginal Bishop, Aboriginal Clergy & People); Evangelism in the

Diocese; St Thomas’ Langwarrin w. St Peter’s Pearcedale (James Connor); Tue 19: Ministry with the Torres Strait Islander people of Australia (Torres Strait Islander Clergy & People); Chaplain to Anglican Centre staff (Clemence Taplin); Holy Trinity Lara w. Christ Church, Little River (Roxanne Addley); Wed 20: The Diocese of Melbourne (Abp Philip Freier, Asst Bps Paul Barker, Bradly Billings, Genieve Blackwell, Kate Prowd, Clergy & People); Hume Anglican Grammar School (Bill Sweeney, Principal; Peter Waterhouse, Chaplain); St John the Baptist Lilydale (Matthew Connolly); Chairs of Anglican Schools meeting (Abp Philip Freier) Thu 21: The Diocese of Newcastle (Bp Peter Stuart, Asst Bps Charlie Murry, Sonia Rouls ton, Clergy & People) ; Examining Chaplains (Gail Pinchbeck, Lindsay Urwin, Turi Hollis, Noelene Horton AM, Chris Appleby, Peter Martin, Jan Joustra, Dawn Treloar, Victor Yu, Robert Vun, Jane Freemantle, Yvonne Poon, Heather Schnagl, Michael Flynn); Anglican Parish of Chelsea (Sue Bluett); Fri 22: The Diocese of North Queensland (Bp Keith Joseph, Clergy & People); Archdeaconry of La Trobe (Gavin Ward); St George’s Malvern (Gregory Seach, Brenda Williams); Sat 23: The Diocese of Nor th West Australia (Bp Gary Nelson, Clergy & People); Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School (Deborah Pr ies t , Pr incipal , Jenny Sonneman, Chaplain) ; S t John the Evangelist Malvern East (Alex Ross); Sun 24: The Extra Provincial Churches of the Anglican Communion (Abp Justin Welby, Abp of Canterbury); The Diocese of Perth (Abp Kay Goldsworthy, Asst Bps Jeremy James, Kate Wilmot, Clergy & People); Girls’ Friendly Society (Alison Benfield, Chair); Holy Trinity Melbourne East (Grant Edgcumbe); Church of the New Guinea Martyrs, Croydon South – pasto-ral visit (Abp Philip Freier); St Hilary’s Kew – Confirmation Service (Bp Genieve Blackwell); Mon 25: The Diocese of Riverina (Bp Donald Kirk , Clergy & People); Lay Minis tr y ; S t James’ Old Cathedral Melbourne West (Matthew Williams, Jessica Naylor-Tatterson, Michael Raiter); Tue 26: The Diocese of Rockhampton (Bishop Peter Grice, Clergy & People);

St Luke’s Melbourne South (Jon Cox, Michele Moorhouse); Wed 27: The Diocese of Sydney (Abp Kanishka Raf fel, Regional Bps Chris Edwards, Michael Stead, Peter Hayward, Peter Lin, Malcolm Richards, Gary Koo, Clergy & People); Ivanhoe Grammar School (Gerard Foley, Principal, John Sanderson, Chaplain); St Mary’s Melbourne North (Jan Joustra, Mark Lindsay, Dorothy Lee); Thu 28: The Diocese of Tasmania (Bp Richard Condie, Missioner Bp Chris Jones, Clergy & People); Relationship Matters (Janet Jukes, CEO); St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne (Andreas Loewe, Dean; Heather Patacca, Precentor; Robert Vun, Jane Window, Fan Zhang, Christopher Carolane); Fri 29: The Diocese of The Murray (Bp Keith Dalby, Clergy & People); Archdeaconry of Maroondah (Bruce Bickerdike); St Peter’s Eastern Hill Melbourne (Incumbency Vacant, Chester Lord); Sat 30: The Diocese of The Northern Territory (Bp Greg Anderson, Clergy & People); Janet Clarke Hall (Damian Powell, Principal); Christ Church Melton (Neil Taylor, Ruth Li); Sun 31: The Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria (Abp Mouneer Hanna Anis); The Diocese of Wangaratta (Bp Clarence Bester, Clergy & People); Melbourne Anglican Foundation; St Augustine’s Mentone (Ben Soderlund); St Stephen’s Richmond – Confirmation Service (Bp Genieve Blackwell)

NOVEMBER 2021: Mon 1: The Diocese of Willochra (Bp John Stead, Clergy & People); St Matthias’ Mernda (Craig Ogden, Sandy Solomon); Tues 2: Anglicare Australia (Bp Chris Jones, Chair ; Kasy Chambers, Exec Director); Merri Creek Anglican (Pete Carolane, Robert Miller, Beck Miller, James Hale); Wed 3: Theological Colleges, Church Schools & Church Kindergartens; All Saints’ Mitcham (Penny Charters); Thu 4: Mission Agencies of the Anglican Church of Australia; St George’s Monbulk (Simon Elliott); Fri 5: Religious Orders serving within the Anglican Church of Australia; St Thomas’ Moonee Ponds (Vanessa Bennett); Sat 6: Locums and all retired clergy; St

Nicholas’ Mordialloc (Ron Johnson); Sun 7: The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (Abp Don Tamihere, Aotearoa; Abp Philip Richardson, New Zealand; Abp Fereimi Cama, Polynesia); The Anglican Church of Australia (Primate Abp Geoffrey Smith, General Secretary Anne Hywood, the General Synod & the Standing Committee); Converge International (Jenny George, CEO, and Chaplains); St Augustine’s Moreland (Angela Cook, Christopher Swann); Mon 8: The Diocese of Adelaide (Abp Geoff Smith, Asst Bps Denise Ferguson, Timothy Harris, Christopher McLeod; Clergy & People); Archdeaconry of Stonnington (Howard Langmead); St Peter’s Mornington w. St Martin’s, Mount Martha (Helen Phillips, John Phillips, Liz Rankin); Tue 9: The Diocese of Armidale (Bp Rod Chiswell, Clergy & People); University of Divinity (Peter Sherlock, Vice-Chancellor); Parish of Mount Dandenong, St Michael’s, Kalorama w. St Matthew’s Olinda (Andrew Smith); Wed 10: The Diocese of Ballarat (Bp Garry Weatherill, Clergy & People); Mothers’ Union Australia, Diocese of Melbourne (Elaine Longford, President); Church of St James the Less, Mount Eliza (Jennie Savage); Thu 11: The Diocese of Bathurst (Bp Mark Calder, Clergy & People); Royal School of Church Music (Roslyn Carolane, Chair); St Philip’s Mount Waverley (Ruth Newmarch); Fri 12: The Diocese of Bendigo (Bp Matt Brain, Clergy & People); Spiritual Health Victoria Council (Cheryl Holmes, CEO); St Stephen’s and St Mary’s Mount Waverley (Dianne Sharrock); Sat 13: The Diocese of Brisbane (Abp Phillip Aspinall, Regional Bps Jeremy Greaves, Cameron Venables, John Roundhill, Clergy & People); Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School (Dr Toni Meath, Principal; Kirsty Ross, Chaplain); St Luke’s Mulgrave (Bruce Ollington) Sun 14: The Anglican Church of Australia (Primate, Abp Geoff Smith); The Diocese of Bunbury (Bp Ian Coutts, Clergy & People); Social Responsibilities Committee (Gordon Preece, Chair); Mullum Mullum Ringwood (Maria Brand-Starkey).

Setting aside teaching that is contrary to God’s WordWhen I was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church, I declared that I would be ready to oppose and set aside teaching that is contrary to God’s Word. We ordinands had just been warned by the Archbishop that we will be called to account before Jesus Christ if it should come about that the Church, or any of its members, is hurt or hindered as a result of our negligence, and that judgment would follow.

The affirmation that same-sex sexual activity is good and godly is contrary to God’s word as clearly taught from Genesis to the New Testament. When some Anglicans ask God to bless activity that He has already called sin, they are just like those in Isaiah 5, “who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness”.

God’s revelation regarding sexual activity is that the only relationship in which He blesses it is in monogamous heterosexual marriage. He calls any sexual activity outside of this relation-ship sin, whether heterosexual or homosexual.

The Gafcon movement was formed to save our Anglican

Church from causing it or any of its members to be hurt or hindered by teaching them what is contrary to God’s Word. Those who call same-sex sexual activity good and holy are indeed the ones who are threatening our Anglican Church with schism.

This is the time to reform our Church, as our fathers in the faith did in the Reformation, and to deliver it from unbiblical theology and practice.

Hugh PrenticeMont Albert North

Short on answers about bringing faith back into popular cultureBishop Ian Palmer’s enthusiastic endorsement of Greg Sheridan’s new book (The Melbourne Anglican , September 2021) does not include any specific and convincing answer to the question raised by Sheridan: “How can Christians bring back Christianity into popular culture?” This matter is not unrelated to the sad spectacle of the Gafcon controversy.

Although of a universalist rather than an evangelical out-

look, I have attended an evan-gelically orientated Anglican church for 40 years because I see great value in being a member of a local parish, even though social dynamics over centuries have greatly affected the nature and possibilities of parish wor-ship and activities. I also value many positives within the evan-gelical outlook.

The sincerity of Gafcon advo-cates is obvious; but they make the error of taking their strong conviction about the nature of Christianity for fact. There is an intrusion of hubris here. However, their insistence on maintaining “the faith received from our fathers” proves an important antidote against a regrettably widespread ten-dency to politicise Christianity in a leftist direction that is too this-worldly and obsequious to financially powerful elites.

The Christian sacred tradi-tion is too profound and myste-rious to be able to be summed up in any creeds or theological theses. Anglicans general ly should recognise that demand-ing 100 per cent agreement on any matters pertaining to their tradition and that of Christianity as a whole is a mistake; but, as

much as possible, unity should not be jeopardised because we need strength in opposing the widespread trends towards atheism, totalitarianism and the intolerance of religious fanatics in our own and other traditions.

R e s t r e n g t h e n i n g o f Christianity (and a refilling of the pews) needs a revision-ing that can “think outside the square” and make use of insights from powerful critics of “ortho-doxy”, rather than retreating into clap-happy irrelevance.

Nigel JacksonBelgrave

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Diocesan Manager Expressions of Interest – Volunteer Diocesan Managers

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The volunteer Diocesan Manager will contribute to the effective functioning of Parishes requiring additional Diocesan management. The role will facilitate the continuation of operations and will play a key role in enabling Parishes to rebuild during a period of Diocesan Management.

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CHAPLAINThe Springfield Anglican College, Brisbane

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Behold, I bring you good tidings! (Luke 2:10)

The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists

in beholding God.” So said St Irenaeus in the 2nd century.

While the first part of the quotation – “The glory of God is a human being fully alive” – is often quoted, the second part, which makes clear that being alive is conditional upon beholding God, is often ignored. Perhaps because it is not understood.

“The word Behold is arguably the most important word in the Bible,” argues theologian Maggie Ross, who laments that while it occurs more than 1300 times in the King James Bible, it has disap-peared in most modern transla-tions. “And with it have vanished the contemplative threads that are woven into the original languages.”

It’s important, she says, because it “recognises that something out-side ordinary experience is hap-pening”. It describes an experience or encounter that is outside the mind’s “conceptual and linguistic framework and therefore its ability to describe”.

Moreover, “Behold is a word that alerts us to pause, however briefly, to be vigilant, because something new, something star-tling, is about to be revealed”.

It describes a process in which the mind is “temporarily brought to silence”, a death that leads to “the arrival of a new perspective”, a resurrection. “If we live in behold-ing we continually live in a new creation,” she writes.

Franciscan priest Richard Rohr says that someone who is truly beholding “is silenced with the utter gratuity of a thing”. “We let it give us a leap of joy in the heart and in the eye.”

“Once we decide to behold, we are available for awe and wonder, to be present to what is, without

the filter of our preferences or the false ledger of judging things as important or not important. A much broader, much deeper and

much wider field of perception opens up, becoming an alternative way of knowing and enjoying. The soul sees soul everywhere else too:

‘deep calls unto deep’, as the psalm-ist says (42:7). Centre knows centre, and this is called ‘love’.

“Beholding happens when we stop trying to ‘hold’ and allow ourselves to ‘be held’ by the other. We are completely enchanted by something outside and beyond ourselves. Maybe we should speak of ‘behelding’ because, in that moment, we are being held more than really holding, explaining, or understanding anything by ourselves. We feel ourselves being addressed more than addressing something else ... it becomes an epiphany and the walls of your world begin to expand.”

St Irenaeus believed that con-templation of nature is “the initial step for all of us to come to knowl-edge of God”. So I invite you, when you next take a walk or work in the garden, to pause and behold some-thing that takes your eye. It may be a flower, a tree, the sky, a bird. Continue looking at it until, as it were, you are seeing it for the first time. What do you notice that you haven’t noticed before? Be totally present to it, beyond any label or concept, and let all thoughts of past and future fall away.

Allow time for wonder and enchantment to rise, for “joy to leap in heart and eye”, and be filled with gratitude for its “utter gratuity”.

Roland Ashby is a former editor of The Melbourne Anglican. This article

was first published in his blog thelivingwater.com.au

‘Beholding’ – the moment when ‘deep calls unto deep’ and when joy leaps in the heart St Irenaeus, a leading Christian theologian and bishop in the second century, said contemplation of nature was the initial step to coming to a knowledge of God. Roland Ashby invites readers to behold the beauty around us as a pathway to being open to the divine.

“

“Allow time for wonder and enchantment to rise ...”

Theologians Maggie Ross and Franciscan priest Richard Rohr are among those to call for us to be silent and behold what is outside our ordinary experience.

The National Church Life Survey is due to be held in churches from November in the hope that many churches now under COVID-19 restrictions will be able to meet again.

The survey – which can be completed via paper surveys, online or both – is marking its 30th anniversary.

It is the biggest and longest-running survey of its type in the world and is conducted every five years.

Dr Ruth Powell, Director of NCLS Research, said: “The shape of religion in Australia is constantly evolving and over the decades has changed dramatically. It’s incredibly

important that we continue to ask questions to keep pace with these changes for the sake of informed contemporary mission and ministry.”

In 2016, the most recent NCLS revealed that while church attenders had an ageing profile, there was untapped potential among the younger

generations. Between a quarter and a third of Gen X, Y and Z claimed they would like to be more involved. Newcomers to church life were most likely to be young adults.

The 2021 NCLS will further explore changes amongst church attenders with regard to ages, experiences, backgrounds

and attitudes. “We began this mission

study in 1991 to support churches,” Dr Powell said. “It is humbling now to be the custodians of the largest church life survey in the world, and provide help to other churches internationally to run similar projects.”

Nationwide church life survey set to explore attendance changes


http://www.thelivingwater.com.au


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Blessed: Meditations on a Life of Small Wonders, by Ann Rennie (Laneway Press).

reviewed by Emma Halgren

Reading Ann Rennie’s Blessed felt like sitting down for a long conversation over endless pots of tea with a warm, wise, well read and kind friend.

Rennie’s deep Christian faith and her keen eye for the beautiful, quirky and fascinating, permeate every essay in this collection. It is made up of pieces written over more than a decade – some previously published – and new pieces written in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic.It is full of gems. These are

meditations on faith, art, poetry, family, travel, books, music, par-enting, friendship, words, and the pleasures of the everyday. There are thoughtful reflections on growing older, and they speak of a woman who is comfortable in her skin and self-aware. She writes: “The fast lane has become too challenging for me. I am not ready for the slow lane. I just want my own lane.”

Rennie’s faith – she is a lifelong Catholic – comes across as a source of deep joy, solace and continuing inspiration. She writes with great warmth and gratitude of having been brought up in the Christian

faith, and of the many blessings of a life of faith and a loving Christian community.

Rennie also captures the awe and mystery of faith, as in an essay where she describes joining the procession during a pilgrimage to Lourdes as such:

As I walked, I started to weep. My tears mixed with the gentle evening drizzle and I was moved by this crush of hopeful humanity. I realised that I was participating in something beautiful, something beyond words.Rennie’s passion for her work

as a teacher of religious education and English comes through too. I

loved the sentence where Rennie writes: “If we want the next gen-eration to be literate, we need to model what it is to be a reader and a writer.”

This is a book for our times, both in the sense that it gives precious reminders of some of the things that await us when COVID-related restrictions lift, but also because it celebrates some of the simple joys that COVID-19 can’t steal. As Rennie puts it in one essay:

A small wonder is the poem that exactly matches your mood. It is a twenty-two degree day in early autumn as the trees dress in garnet and

gold and the world appears rich with invitation. It is the call from an old friend, the jacaranda waterfall in the back garden, a new version of an old song, the feeling of joy in simply being alive and capable and knowing that you are important to those who love you.As I read, I found myself paus-

ing constantly to underline phrases that resonated with me. Eventually, I made myself put down my pencil and just enjoy a rich, soul-stirring and life-affirming journey.

Emma Halgren is a former editor of The Melbourne Anglican.

Gems abound in meditations fitting for our difficult times

The Labyrinth, by Amanda Lohrey (Text Publishing).

reviewed by Ian Palmer

Ta s m a n i a n w r i t e r Amanda Lohrey’s 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award-

winning novel The Labyrinth cap-tures complicated emotions that shape actions, create relationships and open the possibility of change.

I’ve explored my spiritual jour-ney by walking labyrinths, and even had a small part in building one, so when I saw Lohrey’s novel I was intrigued.

I was not disappointed. Her profound ability to describe the Australian character stands along-side David Malouf or Tim Winton.

Lohrey’s work is layered and deep, read it carefully. In tight, thoughtful and evocative prose, she leads the reader through the threats, isolation and disconnect-edness of life. We listen for hope.

It’s a novel for our time when life is precarious, fragmented, painful and unrewarding for thou-sands of lonely Australians. People want hope.

Protagonist Erica Marsden has been stripped bare. We meet her lonely, middle-aged and wander-ing the grounds of Melton Park, a tourist attraction.

Formerly it was a lunatic asylum, where she lived as a child. Her father was the resident psychotherapist, her mother ran away. Ultimately, her father was killed by an inmate.

Erica and her brother Axel have grown distant. Her son, Daniel, is bitter towards his mother. Daniel’s

father has left, and so have other lovers.

Erica is alone. She leaves the city and buys a fibro shack, sheltered in sand-dunes, next to a lagoon, close to the untameable sea and an easy drive to where Daniel is incarcer-ated for unintentional homicide.

She visits him in prison where everything is steel and concrete. He is mostly silent and the reader, like Erica, feels threatened by the dark coldness of his rage. We fear for her safety and for his.

Erica’s father had a maxim, “The cure for many ills is to make some-thing.” So Erica conceives the idea of building a labyrinth. She reflects, “The maze is a challenge to the brain … the labyrinth to the heart”.

The etymology of “labrys” is the ancient Greek word for axe, but the shape is a womb. In the labyrinth these opposites of masculine and feminine, brutality and nurture, are reconciled. Erica’s labyrinth grasps at hope.

She cannot build it alone. She needs the skills of Jurko, a “holy fool”, stone mason and illegal migrant. Ray a miserly misogynist, uninvited attaches himself to the project. Erica

helps Lexie, a teenager with dreams. Jesse, Lexie’s six-year-old brother, carries stones. These and other unsettled characters hang-in from day to day, searching for hope.

For Erica, and others who wander through this novel, religion is no help. The only gospel story Erica remembers is of an enraged Messiah cursing a fig tree. The take-home message is, “It’s a mistake ever to try to second-guess the Lord.” God is capricious and unreliable. Organised religion holds no hope in Erica’s world, but neither does the charade of new age platitudes.

Yet, Erica’s labyrinth symbolises a spiritual journey. “The castle is for big egos, but your labyrinth is for God,” says Jurko surprisingly. Here, religion cuts people off from hope.

By sheer tenacity, fighting self-pity, and watching out for others, Erica, broken by life, inches towards a distant hope, that could easily be washed away, like her labyrinth by the sea.

Paradoxically, she becomes a gateway of hope to others. In utter contempt Daniel mocks his mother and spits on the photo of her laby-rinth. Later though, we wonder

at the possibility of redemption, as “Daniel stands … like a cleric about to deliver a homily. ‘Kiss me, Ma’.” Erica comes alongside people, listens, offers a welcome.

Clocks, “the arithmetic of time”, abound in this novel. Jurko predicts that Erica will find God. If she does, it is through the labyrinth where she will step into “a world unbound by time”. In Scripture we read that God has “set eternity in the human heart,” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Erica reflects, “Kairos … meaning … timeless-ness … a potential of responding to a sudden opening in the fabric of time.” For a brief moment the labyrinth makes this possible.

This is the kingdom “from above” that Jesus opens up. It belongs to the poor, the meek, the grieving, peacemakers, the abused, the merciful, those who hunger and thirst for hope. His reign of love advances not by organisations and power but through the laby-rinthine ways of mercy, kindness and humility.

Bishop Ian Palmer retired as Bishop of Bathurst in 2019 and now lives in Geelong.

Labyrinth opens onto kingdom for poor, grieving



TMA

by Clare Boyd-Macrae

Lockdown five, morphing almost seamlessly into lock-down six, has discombobulated me more than all the previous ones put together. I know I’m not alone in this. During the first lockdown or two, long as they were, we were on fire to beat this damn thing, all in this together, not yet wearied of the effort. Our hopes of getting our lives back before too long were high.

Now we are all exhausted, and grieving for things we may never recover: big meals around the table, family gatherings, holding our grandchildren, travel. Couples get a trial run at retirement: together constantly, not much news to share at the end of each working day.

As with other challenging times in life, I wonder what I can learn here, how I can use it to grow spiritually. And the thing with lockdown is, it

pares our existence down to the essentials.

I don’t wish to overstate this. I am not in Haiti, I am not in Kabul, my life remains comfort-able; there is always food in the pantry, I have a job, a home and a partner I enjoy immensely. But the usual life distractions have all but disappeared. We can’t go to movies, galleries or museums. We can’t go anywhere on holiday. We can’t go out for a meal, a drink, or even a coffee. Most frustrating of all for our household, we can’t have people around to dinner. As a result, we are thrown back on our own

resources in a way that is rare in the affluent world.

We can no longer do those activities – such as church and community commitments – that make us feel we are leading meaningful lives, that we are worthwhile people. We are thrown back upon grace: the assurance that God’s love is not dependent on what we do.

And there is so much extra time with no daily commute, no socialising, no travel. So, could I use this time as a kind of retreat? Could I simply sit and see what is revealed, if I ask the Creator God, God of

imagination and beauty and new life, to help me to focus on what really matters? Could I set aside more daily time for prayer and meditation? In a time when getting about and helping isn’t an option, could I hold others in my prayers more intentionally? Could I simply sit more often, taking in the changing light in the sky from my apartment balcony? Could I dwell on the extravagant beauty of spring, even in my inner suburb, to take time to really behold the wattle, smell the jasmine, touch the tiny, pale green leaves budding?

It’s hard to escape the all-pervasive gloom and ennui of this time. I long to trust that in this hard time, as in all times, God can use the situation we are in to draw us closer to himself, to fill us with his boundless resources of love.

Clare Boyd-Macrae’s blog is at clareboyd-macrae.com

Draw close to God of grace as lockdowns wear on

a word for all seasons

Spirit Words

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

The measure of love is to love without measuring.

St Augustine

TMA DIARY

by Barney Zwartz

The other day my tempo-rarily bed-ridden wife asked me to do a load of washing,

including a small basket of hers in the laundry. I tipped it in but, as I later hung it out, I wondered why she would want to wash four swimming costumes, two bathing caps and a set of goggles during lockdown. Apparently it was a case of typical male blindness – well, typical of this male anyway – and had I looked a fraction further, I’d have seen the right basket.

My excuse that love is blind did not prevent her gleefully recounting my idiocy to friends and relatives on the phone. I was reminded of an ancient joke: What do you call a man who has lost 90 per cent of his brain? A widower.

Luckily that is not my estate: the missing 90 per cent is merely a short walk to the bedroom away. And also fortunately, love is not always blind because rela-tions between the sexes (if I can still use that word) have been the source of some delightfully acerbic exchanges.

Take Oscar Wilde, who pointed out that bachelors have con-sciences, married men have wives. He opined – rather unkindly, given that his wife Constance seems to have been a remarkable woman – “Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.” The rejoinder from the distaff side might be that of Nancy Astor: “I married beneath me. All women do.”

I have always relished the faux pas committed by King George IV, whose marriage to Queen Caroline was deeply unhappy. He was told of Napoleon’s death by a courtier who said: ‘‘Sire, your greatest enemy is dead.” The King replied: ‘‘By God, is she?”

American author James Thurber had a rather original view

of a mid-20th Century debate about whether a woman’s place was in the home: “A woman’s place is in the wrong.” He was trumped, however, by an anonymous cou-plet: “Women have many faults, men have only two: everything they say and everything they do.” My powerful intellect leads me to suspect that was penned by a woman.

One of the lockdown internet memes I appreciated last year noted that women who are slightly overweight tend to live longer than men who mention it. But a far older meme is an alleged female propensity for loquacity. The Restoration poet John Dryden, England’s first poet laureate, clearly felt this keenly, for he inscribed this epitaph: “Here lies my wife,

here let her lie!/Now she’s at rest, and so am I.”

Another English tombstone reads: “Beneath this stone, a lump of clay/Lies Arabella Young/Who on the 21st of May/Began to hold her tongue.”

Comedian Jimmy Durante once confided that his wife had a slight impediment in her speech. “Every now and then she stops to breathe.” And in similar vein (I’m not sure who said it but it’s not an unfamiliar experience): “I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.” Another American comedian, Milton Berle, showed a fine grasp of the feminine psyche with his advice that a good wife always forgives her husband when she’s wrong.

Several writers have reflected on the axiom “Marry in haste, repent at leisure”. Rodney Dangerfield commented that he and his wife were happy for 20 years – then they met. Actor Patrick Murray claimed he had bad luck with both his wives. “The first one left me, and the second one didn’t.”

Then there’s the unfortu-nate error of Joshua Brooke, a Manchester vicar in 19th Century. He used to line up a dozen or more couples and marry them at one time. In his old age he mar-ried a wrong couple. The couple, however, took an instant fancy to each other. They rejected offers of nullification by special decree, the passionate pleas of their intended spouses, and various threats

from their families, and fled to Blackpool.

If my anecdotes seem to favour one sex more than the other, I remind you of the bias of the author. But women do have their male advocates. It was P.G. Wodehouse who wrote: “Chumps always make the best husbands. When you marry, Sally, grab a chump. Tap his head first, and if it rings solid, don’t hesitate. All the unhappy marriages come from husbands having brains. What good are brains to a man? They only unsettle him.”

And Jilly Cooper noted that “the male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness and kindness, can be trained to do most things”.

Comedian Henny Youngman, asked the secret of his long mar-riage, replied: “We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.”

The last word today is sage advice from the greatest phi-losopher, Socrates, husband of the famously argumentative Xanthippe: “By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”

A basket case, insights from the Home Front

Barney Zwartz is media adviser to Archbishop Philip Freier and a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity. His idle thoughts appear every second month.

Dave Walker, www.cartoonchurch.com



TMAIN REVIEW

by Wendy Knowlton

Sara Colangelo’s Worth explores the legal and emo-tional minefield that emerged

after 9/11. Well-meaning but prag-matic lawyer, Kenneth Feinberg (Michael Keaton) sees the world through the lens of statistical anal-ysis and due process. So when, in the tragedy’s aftermath, the Bush government fears that lawsuits will bankrupt the airline industry and endanger the economy, he volun-teers for a task no one else wants. As Special Master of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, he must persuade at least 80% of vic-tims’ families to waive their right to litigation and accept a formula-determined payment for the lives lost. Ultimately, Feinberg believes, this will benefit everyone.

From one perspective, the film’s path is predictable. Feinberg (upon whose book Worth is based) must journey from clinical assess-ment to a realisation that lives are unique and can’t be slotted into pre-determined boxes. But the more thought-provoking focus is the impossibility of satisfying everyone and everything. The competing agendas of airline heavy-weights, political number crunchers, grieving relatives and

those trying to create “fair” solu-tions for all, clash. There is no way to really “fix” things. So whilst the race to reach that 80% before the deadline is highlighted, such an achievement is a muted triumph at best. Many questions remain unresolved, as they must, because there are no perfect answers.

As the planes hit, Feinberg sits

on a train, insulated by headphones and classical music, initially oblivi-ous to the horror other passengers see unfolding. This disconnect is starkly obvious when Feinberg chairs a meeting with the families he hopes to enlist. His tone-deaf promises of “fast money... tax free” result in outrage. Widower Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci) secures the

calm required for Feinberg to con-tinue, but later reveals himself as the instigator of the “Fix the Fund” initiative, challenging the assump-tion that any formula can fairly differentiate between the worth of a window cleaner and a CEO. It is only by getting Wolf and his supporters on board that Feinberg has any hope of reaching his goal.

Keaton’s performance is under-stated but involving, and he is ably supported by Tucci’s more emo-tional Wolf. Other standouts are Laura Benanti as a grieving widow and Amy Ryan as the law firm’s human face, Camille Biros. People look for someone to blame – God, the airlines, the government, extremists, lawyers. Their anger and pain seek an outlet, and whilst monetary compensation is needed for many to survive, there is some-thing offensive about calculations that seem to reflect how society values a person. What the bereaved want is what they can’t have – a life back, a body found, a rationale for the unthinkable. What they can have is someone who listens rather than tells them what to do. In this way the stories of the victims are told and remembered.

Feinberg initially said, “Fair is not the goal here. It’s finish ... and move on.” But this wasn’t a situa-tion that could be neatly wrapped up. In the end it’s not the seven bil-lion dollars paid out that resonates, but the walls of missing posters and the stories the family members tell of final phone calls – just as painful now as twenty years ago.

Worth is currently available on Netflix

Worth explores the ways to value human life

by Tim Kroenert

Filmmaker Spike Lee’s NYC Epicenters 9/11–2021½ is a monumental work. Streaming in Australia on Binge, this four-part, eight-hour HBO documen-tary takes in 20 years of recent United States history. These two fraught and eventful decades are bookended by the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre, when New York City was the centre of Western conflict with al-Qaeda, and by the arrival of COVID-19, when it was the American centre of the world-halting pandemic.

In between there was the War on Terror, there were two terms from America’s first black president, there was the arrival of Donald Trump, and the rise of neo-fascist and white nationalist groups stoked by his administration’s hateful rhetoric. Police violence

against black citizens fomented #BlackLivesMatter, which played no small part in Trump’s eventual electoral demise. The insurrection at the Capitol in Washington DC in January 2021 was a frightening capper to the ordeal of the preced-ing four years.

All are placed here in dialogue with America’s history, including the oppression of its indigenous peoples, slavery and segregation, being a destination country for migrants and refugees, expansion-ist policies, and civil rights strug-gles. Lee assembles an expansive group of talking heads to parse both the present and historical dimensions, including actors, activists, experts, health workers and politicians. Many are people of colour, as Lee emphasises the staggering implications of events on black, brown and Asian Americans.

It’s a sprawling and stirring series, but also deeply personal. Black himself, and a Brooklyn native, Lee is parochial to a fault

about his city’s place in the broad tapestry of US and world events. He can’t resist grilling interview-ees about their National Basketball

Association and Major League Baseball allegiances, playfully chastising them if they differ from his own. He’s also not shy about referring to Trump as “President Agent Orange”, a moniker coined by Brooklyn-born rapper Busta Rhymes during a 2017 appearance at the Grammy Awards.

Perhaps the parochialism is not misplaced. New York City looms to mythic proportions in Western cultural imagination. Episode three of Epicenters, in which survivors and first responders narrate the events of September 11, is vivid and gut-wrenching viewing. It’s also a reminder of how much the attack and its aftermath set the tone for and shaped the global narrative that has unfolded since. Lee’s epic summation of that narrative is both particular and universal, subversive and definitive.

Stirring epic tells tale of New York City’s monumental decades

Spike Lee. Photo: Source: HBO Max/Youtube

Kenneth Feinberg (Michael Keaton) and Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci) argue about the impossibility of reducing the worth of human life to a formula.




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