When it all comes together

Church reviews, Celtic models of ministry and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians bring about another of those synchronous moments of which I am quite fond! The Revised Common Lectionary has us travelling through Ephesians right now – a marvelous treatise of a vision of universal community that embraces all – for all are from God and, under Christ, are part and parcel of God’s now-revealed purpose for all creation. Something we have termed the fifth gospel – the gospel of “Wow!” Now how do we live out its ramifications in community – that’s the rub.

Doherty asserts three crises currently facing the church and Western Society generally – the crisis of individualism, a crisis of faith, and a crisis of lifestyle. He seeks the answer in the kind of community spirituality suggested by the Celtic missionary era. Getting pretty close to the kind of society feted in Ephesians, it seems.

Celtic models of ministry

A few years ago I stumbled across something called the Celtic approach to Christianity. As I investigated further, it was apparent that I was at a fork in the road in how I approached my ministry. I realised that I was often focused on ecclesiastical organisational minutiae when my heart was really set on the nitty gritty of divine-human engagement. The stories from Celtic times (whether mythic or real) fired my imagination and helped me embrace my task in a more feisty, imaginative and bold manner. Yes, the organisational details still require attention, but the end is clearer and more distinctive. I was reminded of all this when my copy of A Celtic Model of Ministry by Jerry C Doherty (Liturgical Press, 2003) arrived today. A glance through its pages looks like something now familiar and something new. I look forward to reading it.

Offshore Processing of Refugees

The controversial Bill that will see all arriving asylum seekers being processed offshore, out of sight and out of mind, beyond scrutiny and legal protection, will be re-presented to Parliament this week by the Prime Minister. Opposing MPs of his party have now been lobbied and pressured to support his line and it is unsure what the final vote will now look like. Some half dozen Senators have yet to decide, and the success of the Bill depends on their support. This morning I have done what I can by writing to these Senators and urging them to oppose the Bill. One excellent site that monitors the process of this and other justice/mercy issues in this country is www.safecom.org.au I commend it and its practical call to action for those who are so called.

Analysis Paralysis

Wednesday already! I have just launched a harangue for this week’s church newsletter about the necessary evils of statistics and surveys. We are beginning a Church Life Review by filling out National Church Life Survey forms as a congregation together during the service. (This will be good practice for Census night on Tuesday). Then we will have our AGM where, no doubt, we will be focused on more reviews and stats. Then I jump in the car and head to a retreat in the hills where a review with another organisation will be taking place through the afternoon and evening!

These days a review seems to be around every corner! When do we just hop in the bi-plane, leave the tarmac and go barn-storming! How to avoid the clutches of analysis paralysis.

But in my more reflective moments I can see the purpose of such reviews. It is simply because some risky ventures have been taking place that regular re-assessment is necessary. Like walking through a desert and needing to pause frequently to take a GPS reading to ensure we are still heading in the direction we earlier discerned. Such analysis is not paralysis – its purpose is to make sure we get to where we said we want to get!

In which case I am happy to embrace what begins this Sunday!

This Blog is One Year Old!!

This experiment is now up for its annual performance review.

1. The blog has provoked mild interest amongst acquaintances and some unknown “anonymi”
2. It’s been one place for me to think out loud in a public arena
3. I pulled one post when it became too politically sensitive
4. It has generated a little over 10 hits a week on average. More frequent posts are necessary to maintain interest.
5. I need to learn how to insert some of the widgets and cross links into the sidebars.
6. Realistically, the time needed to maintain the blog needs to be measured against my other priorities.

Recommendation:

1. Set a timeframe to acquire some html skills in order to build up the sidebars
2. Aim to update at least twice a week – say Wednesdays and Sundays.
3. Review after 6 months

Jindabyne the movie

Take a short story from the USA and convert it to Aussie cinema and something like Jindabyne appears. Raymond Carver’s So Much Water So Close To Home underwent some changes to become Ray Lawrence’s dramatic depiction of a community’s response to the thoughtless and apathetic actions of four fishing mates who discover a corpse in the isolated Snowy Mountain region. The men continue their fishing adventure and do not report their find until they return three days later.  What seemed a pragmatic solution at the time is now, in the cold light of day, shown up as an act of high grade callousness.
It puts strains on family relationships and turns the men into small town pariahs. The fact that the victim is a young aboriginal woman brings racial tension to the surface. For me, Jindabyne is something of a social commentary on a variety of levels. Apathy is a kind of default position that many of us revert to in daily life. It is a condition that dogs even our best re-creative moments, dulling our thinking. Or was it the surreal, beautiful yet ominous, natural environment of the high country that anaesthetized the senses? I have spent time in the high country myself, and experiences of foreboding are frequently palpable there. The strain on intimate relationships resulting from ethically questionable decisions that have come under public scrutiny is a study in itself. Mixed in is the conflict between passive aggressive resentment and the drive to inappropriate expressions of vicarious guilt assuagement. Throw in the element of racial insensitivity with its hint to the audience that the matter of aboriginal reconciliation will not go away, and we have powerful cinema that will leave you touched by sadness, despair and anger. Yet there are signs of hope also, a reaching out, the courage to make apologies knowing they may not be accepted, but making them anyway because they are necessary for healing to begin. There are tender moments here, flickers of light that deserve to be noticed in the darkness of it all. Some will find the film slow moving, I found it contemplative.

LibraryThing

What to do when you’re taking one week’s overdue leave and you can’t really go anywhere that doesn’t seem forced. With one week – you just get there, begin to unwind, then it’s time to come back.

Just a week of no commitments (relatively speaking) is a vacation in itself. I decided to catalogue my library – doesn’t sound much like a holiday, does it? I have been wanting to do this for years, however, and LibraryThing (see www.librarything.com) makes it so easy.

Just go to the site, enter the ISBN (or author and title – even part title) and, if it’s on Amazon or in one of 45 online library catalogues, it does the rest for you – even showing a picture of the front cover – great for us visual types. If none of these have the title you’re trying to enter, you can add it manually. You have the option of inserting your own reference tags and linking and dialoguing with other users. Write and compare reviews. See the stats of your own library.

I’ve catalogued almost 1000 books with about half as many to go. Would have done more except that I kept on stopping to browse books I’d forgotten I had. I invite you to step into my library at www.librarything.com/catalog/djryle

Well, well, well!

The challenge to the church was to raise $4000 to sink a well in the remote drought stricken hinterlands of Zimbabwe. Individuals and groups set about to devise their fund-raising schemes. Our resident artist devised a working model that would show week by week how far the bore had sunk towards the water table far beneath the surface. A week or two into the project, our treasurer phoned me,
“We have a problem – $4,200 has come in already.”
“Well, let’s go for a second well!”
“Agreed!”
So now we are going full bore to reach the target a second time.
Who knows? We may even end up saying,
“Well, well, well! Wot ‘ave we ‘ere? Three of ‘em!” Posted by Picasa

Eucalyptus



It’s the name of a book by Murray Bail that I’m reading at the moment. It’s also what the stand of tuarts around the church are saying after this morning’s loppings – “You clipped us!” (Sorry, can’t help it!). Tuarts are a very hardy species of eucalyptus, peculiar to this part of Australia. Bail’s book is the story of a widower who acquired a rural property and planted at least one of every known species of eucalyptus. He raised his daughter there, and, when of age, she attracted many suitors. By Dad’s decree, only the suitor who correctly named each species of tree (at least 700) on the property would win her hand.
Sounds like an ocker version of Rumpelstiltskin. I wouldn’t normally read books like this, but for the book club here. Should make for some interesting discussion. I’ve also learned it’s due to hit the silver screen before long, with Crowe and Kidman taking the starring roles. Funny how focus on something as ordinary and ubiquitous as a gum tree can change the way you perceive it! Posted by Picasa