Wondering Pilgrim

Gaza

The conflict between Israel and Hamas and the terrible suffering in the overcrowded territory of Gaza is very much on our minds. As Trish and the Nazareth Work Party continue their voluntary maintenance work at Nazareth Hospital, we are aware of the terrible conditions with which the hospitals of Gaza are contending just a few hours’ drive further south.

Media blackouts in Gaza make it difficult to comprehend the enormity of what is taking place there, but a respected colleague has drawn my attention to a letter regarding the Anglican Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, addressed to its American supporters.

Dear Missioners,

I was able to speak to Suhalia Tarazi , Director of the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza this morning.
I took notes and I am sharing with you as best I can her situation in Gaza.

” The situation is terrible. The injured are in their homes and unable to get to the hospital and the International Red Cross can’t reach them. Gaza is now divided into three areas. 20% of the staff including 2 doctors are now unable to get to the hospital. Unfortunately a bomb went off in Jerusalem Square, right outside the hospital , only 30 meters away and it blew a hole in the hospital wall.
One of the aid’s husbands was unable to reach his children. Later he discover that 1 child died and other members are all injured because a bomb destroyed a neighboring building.
The 19 year old son of one of the surgeons volunteered to work in the government ambulance. He was killed when his ambulance was hit by a missile. Three ambulances have been hit by Israeli missiles , five have died.
There is no electricity and no water. Fortunately the International Red Cross has provided Ahli Hospital with some food.
It is terrible and not safe to walk on the street.
After the invasion , Ahli Hospital on Sunday received 17 cases. Twelve were admitted to the hospital and 2 to government hospitals.
Today Monday morning 5 cases were received with 4 admitted for surgery. One doctor has slept in the hospital for the last 4 nights. Our staff is now working 2 -12 hour shifts, two shifts no days off. Streets are covered with blood. – bloody time.
Staff members have taken people in their homes, with 20-30 people for refuge. The ambulance driver has 80 living in his home.
We all have received leaflets and telephone calls ” you have to leave your home, we will attack it” Where to go for the 700,000 people in Gaza City?”

I feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to speak to Suhalia and I have promised her that I will tell her story and the story of the innocents. Thank you for all you are doing to circulate these messages. Please feel free to forward them the family and friends.

I offer her hope and encouragement and our commitment to help, with prayers and financial support. Remember tax deductible gifts may be sent to the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, PO Box 240, Orange, CA 92859, or on line at www.americanfriends-jerusalem.org

I will continue to keep you up to date on this catastrophe happening in Gaza. If I can be of help please don’t hesitate to call or email me.

Peace, Love and Joy ,

Charles

The Rev. Charles Cloughen, Jr.
President Emeritus, American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem

Many people I speak to about this situation feel so utterly helpless. There is so much darkness and so few candles. Yet light the candles we must. For Trish, it is wielding a paintbrush in the name of peace. Others of us, far removed and remote, yet stirred deeply within, must find ways to light candles as well.

Christian fantasy – legitimate endeavour?

This is not actually another book review – but a reflection provoked by Beckwood Brae, the first of a series by new Australia author, David H. Webb (High Way, 2008). David and I had contact through mutual interests on LibraryThing (you can see my and others’ reviews there) and I learned that his passion is to assist young people’s development toward emotional and spiritual maturity through the inspiriation and guidance of the Christian fantasy genre. With Tolkien, Lewis and the counselling philosophy of Larry Crabb in the background, but not dominating, David does a credible job of using this, his first book , to capture the imagination and weave connecting pathways between his powerful narrative style and the growing story of the young reader.

Some in my various circles have questioned the value of fiction used in this way, particularly as it has been translated in some instances to the big screen. Is it not some sort of escape from reality? And what value imagination when the cinema now does so much imagining for us? Well, we are discussing a book, not a film, and in my experience, whether by book or film, it is good narrative and story-telling that leads to deeper connections, insight and ultimate growth. Eugene Peterson speaks of one of the most important tasks of the church in its pastoral and missionary endeavour – practicing the art of story-making. This goes beyond mere story-telling. It is connecting the unique story of any individual to a story that has collective meaning. In these post modern times such collective stories or meta-narratives have to work hard to even suggest they have credibility – particularly the Christian story. Ironically, in many places, the warfare is being waged on propositional battle-fronts, where it is alleged that the very idea of God needs to be proved. But the pastoral art of story-making cuts deeper. There are personal and collective captivities and an Exodus and a promised land somewhere – even an exile, and the language of metaphor, fable, and fantasy are legitimate vehicles for releasing any and all of these stages of pilgrimage for further exploration.

I hope that David Webb and others like him continue to develop this genre.

Some books I’ve been reading…

Here’s two I’ve managed to complete in the Christmas New Year lull…

The other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson (Chatto & Windus, London, 2006)

The tragic outcomes of sibling rivalry span two generations in a remote Canadian farming community – not too remote to be unaffected by unfolding world events such as the Great Depression and the Second World War however. A well written page-turner.

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill (Fourth Estate 2007)

Another Canadian author tells a story of an 18th century journey from slavery to freedom from a first person perspective. From initial capture in the unmapped interior of Africa, through a horrendous sea journey to captivity in South Carolina, escape to New York, promise of freedom first in Nova Scotia and then Sierra Leone, the female protagonist finally ends up in London as a totem for the abolitionist cause. A well-researched gripping read, given that some estimates of the trade in human traffic are at its most prolific today.

Movie Review: Frost/Nixon

frost-nixon1 I was in my early twenties during the Nixon years, and being half a world away, was only vaguely aware of the implications of the Watergate scandal. Thirty years later, having viewed Frost/Nixon, I recognise having gained a certain amount of understanding through hindsight. The film takes some dramatic license as it describes some behind the scenes setting up of the series of interviews by David Frost with Richard Nixon. Essentially the interviews are presented from the historical records, yet the screenplay is not just documentary. Both David Frost and the ex-president are portayed as having high stakes in the inteviews, both in it for their own reasons, and thus the film becomes a fascinating character study, revealing the paranoia of Nixon and the ambition of Frost. Frost got his coup, the broken admission of Nixon of the crimes of Watergate. This was not a bad thing for Nixon, however. His confessions allowed the beginning of healing in varying measures for himself and the American people. The wounds and scar tissue remain however. If there was ever an era of innocence on the political scene under any regime anywhere, the Watergate affair blew it clean out of the water for some time to come.

Trish travels to Nazareth in the name of peace

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Trish supervising in our church kitchen

News from the Middle East is not all that good right now as Hamas and Israel hammer at each other again. But we’re in the business of celebrating small candles that light the way in the darkness.

Nazareth Hospital is one such candle – a Christian place of healing where both Jew and Arab are treated equally no matter what ideology or faith stance.

On Christmas Day we commissioned Trish Bevan for her return stint at the Nazareth Hospital and two other Galilee projects for some maintenance work. This feisty septuagenarian wields more than a paint brush. She is passionate about the cause of building peace amongst Jews, Muslims and Christians. Without fear and with sustained high energy, she immerses herself in the work parties that travel from Australia to to Nazareth under the guidance of Paul and Merrill Kitchen. Follow the unfolding news on the current project blog here.

The colossal carbon trading rip-off

Been quietly seething about the damp squib of a carbon trading scheme offered by our PM this week – 5% reduction by 2020 is a flea-kick. Then there’s a transparently deceptive attempt to get us all to put our shoulder behind the wheel to reduce it further. Scott Vawser spells it out here.
*sigh* – just when we thought we were turning the corner.

Christmas breaks in…

christmas-party-2008_2008-12-07_0019_edited-1 … see what I mean? There’s kind of a Mexican stand-off between Advent and Christmas observance. We had our annual community Christmas party last night – barbecue followed by games and carol-singing.

I used the epilogue to tell a story about “the angel in a gum tree”, sneaking in a flog for the Christmas Bowl Appeal.

Maybe Advent and Christmas weren’t in conflict; maybe they kissed!

It all comes together in the end!

‘Tis the Season to be Fasting…

christ-bowl … fa lalala la, lala la la!
I usually feel like King Canute at this time of the year – raising my arms, seeking to hold back the relentless tide of Christmas festivities washing tsunami like over the beaches of Advent – the “little Lent” – the season of preparation, reflection and fasting. My church folk, Christmas decorations in hand, have regarded me quizzically when I go into one of my “It’s not Christmas yet” rants, shrugging their shoulders as if thinking “How odd – another one of his eccentricities!” as they set about decorating halls and singing carols. And me – I’m thick into the round of “end-of-year” parties (I refuse to call them Christmas parties ‘cos it’s not Christmas yet!) and – just to demonstrate my inconsistency – shamelessly promote The Christmas Bowl – a seasonal fund raiser for the aid arm of the National Council of Churches.

So this year I’ll mellow out a little. Some battles you throw in order to win bigger ones.

“Australia” the Movie – Kitsch or Epic?

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No doubt about it – this reviewer has mixed reactions to Australia, the movie. The characters and plot devices are exaggerated caricatures of all that has been classic in cinematography and depictions of this land. At one level it comes across as a kind of “Gone with the Wind Down Under” – and in the meantime throw in some subtle allusions to Crocodile Dundee, Wuthering Heights, The Sundowners, Pearl Harbour – not to mention direct lashings of The Wizard of Oz as a major plot device. So blatant and over the top is this approach that it taps into the nostalgia of my childhood experiences at the Woodville Saturday afternoon flicks with Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy.

At the same time and not entirely escaping these means, a deeper story runs. It is narrated (in pidgin English, if you don’t mind) from the perspective of an 11 year old aboriginal boy, and there is a deep and respectful consciousness within the screenplay of the not so long ago discredited assimilation policy and its cruel legacy of the Stolen Generations. Also, the playing out of the melodramatic “hero- heroine-villian” theme has an uncanny resemblance to the current real-life dramas of the Western economic crisis.

The message is simple – if you’re going to live life fully – you must have a story and live into its completion. Sounds like a paraphrase of something that Jesus said. This time it is the medium of cinematic cliche, nostalgia and the international perception of this land Down Under that attempts to deliver it.

Because the movie both entertains and at the same time “slips the message under the door”, it may well succeed.

Economic Rationalism – A Radical Reading of the Parable of the Talents

See Matthew 25:14-30. Never liked this one much – probably because as a self-perceived “one talent” person I have always seen the third guy as hardly done by. But what if we read the story differently from the traditional morality tale, “protestant work ethic” approach? What if we heard this story through the ears of the original hearers, the anawim, the “poor of the land”? They weren’t out to make profits – they just wanted to survive. The huge amounts of money involved were beyond their perception – even the one talent of silver would seem like a million dollars to them. Their subsistence system was conceptually out of sync with the harsh profiteering of the owner and his two minions. The third servant bucks the system – refuses to play the game and is cast out. Sounds suspiciously like the one who came not to lord it over us but to serve! Could go on, but let’s just leave it as a teaser. See here for an article pursuing this line (it’s on page 12). I have long ago come to the conclusion that this is the true intention of Jesus’ parables – to tease hearers into kingdom awareness rather than provide moral maxims.