Crossing places

Rope bridge
Image by ahisgett via Flickr

Back from retreat. Reflecting still on the ramifications of chaos theory, entropy of closed systems, and the ‘strange attractor‘ in evolutionary transition. So much sync with the Christian story! Ably led by Margaret Silf.

Here’s something I wrote on “crossing places”

My rope bridge came to mind even before it was mentioned
I hate even thinking about it
yet consider it I must for it has come to the rescue many a time before today.
As a child I played with rope
trying it this way and that
little realising that I was learning its swing, its knots,
and breaking suppleness into the stiffness of newness.
In the headiness of youth I one day swung it wide
and some divine being caught the end and tied it.
I crossed many gorges and rivers, taking companions with me.
Then there was the night someone in panic threatened to bomb my bridge.
“Career” he called it.
I said he could do what he liked with my career,
but only God could remove my rope, my vocation.
Another from unconfronted pain
set white ants loose on the wooden trestles.
Others sought to shore up the timbers
even when I pointed to the rope.
The timbers failed
but my rope was in place
and we all made it to the other side
where new beginnings beckoned.
The rope is always there – in my rucksack
– right now way down underneath the other things.
I have to unpack everything before pulling it out, neatly coiled
ready to be stretched out, tied to something,
and the loose end thrown across to – what?
I have to trust again that some angel on the hidden side will hold it,
and catch me as I practice my clumsy aerial acrobatics.
God I hate heights!
But with the resources of wit and wisdom honed by previous use
I swing like Charlotte on her web
not knowing where the rope is attached
for it disappears into the mist.
I simply trust that the angel is not a demon
that the destination heralds a new beginning
and not a final ending.
 

 

 

Exploring destinations beyond

This image was taken in 1986 by Thierry Noir a...
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Imagine living in West Berlin during the time of the separation of East and West Germany – half a city full of bright lights and high commercial activity walled off to its other half and the surrounding countryside. Bus and train routes come to an abrupt halt at the borders. The destinations displayed on the board are beyond but out of reach. To resident and casual visitor, they are unknown and mysterious.

This is one of the pictures painted by Margaret Silf, who lived in West Berlin for three years during this period. Of course, the image provokes thoughts of the kinds of walls that we erect in our inner worlds that prevent us from reaching destinations beyond. When the Berlin wall came down, how attainable were the places beyond? Did the destruction of physical barriers lower psychological walls? How long does it take for new freedoms to be realised?

What might happen when we actually travel to those destinations beyond?

Blogged in advance because I’m now secluded in retreat under the leadership of Margaret Silf.

 

Retreat to advance…

monastery

Yep, I’m off to cool my heels for a few days at the local monastery.

Contemplative author, Margaret Silf, is leading a retreat around the theme of “transformation.” It seems to sync with some of my daydreaming of late, particularly following discussions on committees and commissions that, confronted with the need for change, are tempted to tinker around the edges – or even change their nomenclature.

Hence committees become “action groups”, convenors become “team leaders” and so it goes… but the same old structures and methods remain.

Organisational behaviour seems to be going through a time of angst that reflects the mood of our times. There is a yearning for change that will unleash life, creativity and compassion – real community – but a fear that that too much is risked if we abandon familiar ways and stances, even though they crumble.

So it does one good to retreat  –  stand on a hill and survey the whole battlefield, identify purposeful objectives – then advance.

 

Celebrating Forest Sunday

Mudumalai Forest Road

Sustainable September is a Western Australian initiative designed to focus the community across a spectrum of social, environmental and economic actions. It coincides nicely with the the Season of Creation on the church calendar, marked particularly by the Uniting Church in Australia, and which began in 2000 and coincided unknowingly with a parallel season called the Time of Creation being developed by the European Christian Environmental Network.

Why all this fuss about the environment? Along with other concerned world citizens, many Christians have been waking to their mandate as stewards or carers of the planet. Regardless of faith stance, aware people know that the human species is well equipped to modify and manage natural environments. Greed and the lust for control have revealed what happens when the task is poorly managed or even dismissed. For Christians, contemplative action leads to a healing of the wounds of creation.

So today is Forests Sunday, followed (in Australia) by Land, Wilderness/Outback, and River Sundays. Other countries will vary the names of the Sundays according to the environmental concerns of their regions.

Today’s reflective focus on forests invites us to dwell on the sheer gift of being able to walk among trees, observe the life that is sustained, and cherish the artifacts that find their source in our forests sufficiently to ensure the sustainability of old growth forest through a concentration of the use of well managed plantation timber. While mindful of the great legislative challenges of deforestation in other countries, there is sufficient challenge in our own to ensure a striving for proper balance.

If weeks had a theme…

A Wild Cherry (Prunus avium) in flower.
Image via Wikipedia

… this one would be “breaking through.”

  • a vestige of human decency broke through when the High Court decided against the legitimacy of Australia’s “people trading” deal with Malaysia.
  • the annual Uniting Church School of Ministry considered scholarly data that pointed to where spiritual growth was “breaking through” globally in unexpected quarters and were confronted with the notion that denominational structures would need to make way or disappear. Get ready for a “third world” face to Christianity that will replace the “first world” visage. (My poor and inexact summary of three excellent presentations by Professor Robert Gribben, United Faculty of Theology, University of Melbourne.)
  • the launch of Dayspring’s tenth anniversary celebrations where keynote speaker, author Margaret Silf, reflected on “breaking through” as a necessary condition for transformation. You can break an egg destructively or creatively. For the hatching chick it is one of life’s first creative moments. For many in the church, restrictive structures and rigid, unreflected upon dogma can be a shell that needs to be broken for the creative life of the Spirit to do its work.
  • Then, of course, Thursday was the first day of Spring (southern hemisphere), the season of new life breaking through everywhere.
The theme needs to be celebrated with a change of blog dressing, hence the WordPress theme “Spring Loaded”
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Enjoying a fallow day…

Outside cleanup jobs beckon through the window, but the sight of rain and the sound of wind indicate that it would be much wiser to keep my feet up inside doing nothing in particular. Besides, it’s been a productive week. Time to be lazy and rest on some laurels. Not even going to read a book!

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High Court Chaplaincy Challenge Diversions

 

 

 

 

While on the matters of things High Court, it is interesting to see how the current challenge to the federal funding for the National School Chaplaincy Program is playing out: States play cat and mouse in High Court chaplaincy challenge – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Community debate surrounding the challenge has wandered down many byways.
Who would have thought that the focus would similarly shift in the High Court?
One could read the initial challenge of the Executive funding initiative without parliamentary legislature as merely a vehicle to challenge a view that chaplaincy is “establishing a religion” and therefore not constitutional. Enter the six states as plaintiffs, and they have made the vehicle the cause. Their arguments have nothing to do with chaplaincy, but with the power of the Commonwealth to wield influence over precious state rights through funding.

What a can of worms! I guess such is what keeps the legal fraternity out of mischief.

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High Court quashes Malaysia deal

Parties to the Convention Relating to the Stat...
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… but I fear it’s not time to break out the champagne yet.

My feeling right now is one of relief at expectations vindicated. The Malaysia deal was immoral even before it was illegal. Today’s High Court decision that effectively prevents the government from proceeding with the Malaysia refugee swapping deal presents at least one occasion where Australian law reveals, or at least, syncs with, a moral underpinning.

I have another feeling of trepidation. What next? Today’s decision could not have been unexpected by Immigration. What irons do they have in the fire for Plan B and Plan C that may yet erode the basic human rights for asylum seekers to have their claims heard in a country that has endorsed the UN Refugee Convention?

Or will the unimaginable occur  – that our political parties will clear the decks and engage some creative, compassionate and sustainable collaboration in working out a way forward in dealing with the issues that have led to a world refugee surge? Stranger things have happened!

(Map shows signatories to the UN Refugee Convention in green)

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Riding the winds of change

wind power
Image by twicepix via Flickr

 

 

Just as one of the biggest mining corporations canes our state government for not entertaining the possibility of nuclear power (vested interests?), we see this announcement: Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear | MNN – Mother Nature Network.

Renewable energy becomes more viable and more accessible as each day passes.

That’s all!

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Fooling around with themes…

Screenshot of the blogging system WordPress.
Image via Wikipedia

It must be a sign of the Monday blah’s. A busy weekend capped off with a burst hot water system leaves one in  the “spaced out” zone and difficult to focus on anything. Preparation work sits on my desk thumbing its nose at me. I just stare at it uncomprehendingly.

Only one thing for it – experiment with WordPress‘s blogging themes. So far we’ve had bananas, grunge, cogs, and exotic Javanese designs. For now I’ve settled for something rather minimalist – suits my mood right now. So regular readers, just bear with me, it will settle down soon and you won’t have to dread being hit between the eyes with some bizarre combination of colours and images when you click Wondering Pilgrim.