Accessing the Good Book

The Ten Commandments, In SVG
Image via Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

Bibledex – Expert videos about every book in the Bible.

A colleague just posted a link to this fascinating site that offers a quick video intro to each book of the bible that is intelligent and non-condescending. Produced by the University of Nottingham, the series succinctly surveys the theme of each book and highlights current scholarly issues. Certainly not in-depth, but what more can one expect from a survey. Great discussion starters for groups of enquirers who don’t want to leave their brains at the door when discussing biblical literature. Poke around the site a bit more for some other fascinating projects.

Asylum seekers go from nothing to zero under cruel policy

Asylum seekers go from nothing to zero under cruel policy.

Some have already dismissed the above referenced article because it is written by a former prime minister whose approach to immigration was more draconian than now. Some folks are tired of me posting and referring to articles on this topic. “Give it a rest,” they say.

My response is “Why?” Particularly when this article is referring to asylum seekers already received. Don’t we see what we have become? Once upon a time we had community goodwill and involvement in locally based  refugee resettlement schemes that cost very little and gave firm footing for recipients to become contributing integrated members of our society.

Now we have officially sanctioned fear, prejudice and cynicism.

When did we become so mean-spirited and callous? Why do we cry over cattle but not our fellow human beings? How will we recover the community values of hospitality, generosity and a fair go for the battler that are all but a distant memory where those fleeing persecution, danger and death are concerned?

I’ll keep posting until there’s a seismic shift on current community and government values.

Combined Pentecost Eucharist

A portion of the Pentecost crowd at St Paul's, City Beach

This morning, four Wembley Downs congregations representing four different traditions gathered together at St Paul’s Anglican Church for a combined Pentecost Eucharist. Everyone wore red, the liturgical colour representing the tongues of flame that symbolise the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the120 gathered in Jerusalem soon after the departure of the resurrected Jesus. The Feast of Pentecost marks the birth of the Church and serves today as a rallying point for the unity of the Church across its diverse traditions. Leaders of all four congregations played roles in celebrating the traditional Anglican Eucharist under the direction of the resident rector. This was not a new event – it was the sixth occasion for  the Anglican Churches of Christ and Uniting Church congregations and first time for the local Baptist church. Overflow facilities were needed to cater for the packed church.

Reviewing “Oranges & Sunshine”

The trouble with reviewing a film like Oranges & Sunshine, where one is familiar with locations and back-story, is that one can be overly critical over small detail and miss the thrust and drama of the narrative. It appeared that scenes purported to be Western Australian were filmed in South Australia. Was that a stobie pole I saw outside a house made of Mt Gambier stone?Also, what looked like the lower Flinders Ranges doesn’t quite replicate Bindoon country.

All that aside, however, it is good that this story is portrayed in a tastefully understated manner. We are spared graphic and gratuitous images of the institutional horrors that took place under the child migration schemes as we hear some selected stories through the eyes and ears of Margaret Humphreys, the Nottingham social worker who stumbled across and exposed the need for justice for the survivors of the scheme. All she sought to do was reunite them with the families that they had been told didn’t exist. She finds herself a lightning rod for criticism and retribution as institutional perpetrators run for cover. The story is as much about Margaret Humphreys as those she seeks to assist. All who are in people-helping vocations know how necessary it is to set boundaries for self-preservation. All who are in people-helping vocations know that there are times when the issues are so compelling that the boundaries break down and there is great personal cost. This reality is transcended through the words of “hard case” Len who counsels a weeping Margaret who is frustrated that she can’t make things right for the thousands of families affected by the scheme – “You feel the pain that we no longer can – that is all we need.”

 

Plagued by mice and climate change deniers – Eureka Street

Plagued by mice and climate change deniers – Eureka Street.

I recall the mouse plague of ’75 in the same area – stretching 100s of kms from Eyre Peninsula across the Nullarbor to Eucla. I was driving with my brother across to Perth to take up my first ministry post. We left Ceduna at dusk. The road was nothing but a seething mass of mice until midnight. At Eucla we threw our sleeping bags down on the ground in an area enclosed by an electric boundary to keep the mice out. An hour later it shorted and mice were swarming over us. Nothing for it but to get up and keep going. One of those surreal experiences. The link to climate change? Best tap on the heading and read the article.

Jousting with the evil printer monsters…

… I thought I had it licked – that small office laser printer we bought for a song a couple of years ago that is so cartridge hungry. It sits alongside the donated but too-obsolete-to-fix multifunction photocopier that occupies half the utility room. We sourced an interstate toner company that, when buying in bulk, kept us within budget. I questioned whether we needed the colour function as the cost of replacing each of the three colour cartridges was more than the initial cost of the printer itself. Bright idea – we masked the colour button to dissuade people from using it. Anyhow, 12 months on, inbuilt chips tell us its time to replace the unused cartridges, and we will not be permitted to use the black function until we do. I am invited to purchase replacement cartridges that would buy me four printers. I search the net and find a “toner replacement kit” for $30. It arrives and it comprises three toner bottles, some sort of soldering iron and seals for burning holes in the waste and unused toner compartments and replacement computer chips. Turns out I’ll need about three spare hours to fiddle with all this stuff. How much is my time worth? So looks like we are looking for a viable printer – monotone only – to suit small volume office work economically.

So where to now on refugee policy?

REFUGEE PROTECTION NEEDS IGNORED IN RUSH TO ‘STOP THE BOATS’
A joint statement by Australian non-government organisations

You get to the place where you feel you can write nothing more about the shameful asylum seeker detention regime – especially when long-standing champions of advocacy plead that even the Nauru strategy is preferable to the latest sleight of hand involving Malaysia.

It seems that we have to move even closer to the edge of ridiculousness for even the most crowd pleasing politicians to wake up to the fact that they are participating in the theatre of the absurd. Thank God for and NGOs and church agencies that are able to keep sounding a constant drumbeat on how human beings should be treated.

 

 

 

The Golden Rule – how ubiquitous!

“Treat others as you want them to treat you!” That’s the burden of this morning’s Christian Religious Education lesson emerging from the controversial (in Victoria) Access curriculum. Although a pithy sound bite from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, similar wisdom is found in sacred texts preceding Matthew 7:12 in Judaism, Buddhism and Confucianism as well as others that came after. There is not one major world belief system that does not replicate this aphorism in one way or another. Even those who profess no religious belief concur with the beneficent centrality and common sense of this call.

Anyhow, our task this morning is to compare the Golden Rule with our day to day rules in school and family to see the degree to which these reflect this ancient wisdom. We will probably discover that most rules have something to do with mutual safety and respect for one another. But I reckon the students will tell me that!

Now if we could only apply it in public life where controversy and debate over climate change, refugees, indigenous reconciliation and other stirry topics hold sway.