Taking a reading tablet…

I’ve regarded myself as having kept reasonable pace with the techno revolution, but a Luddite corner of my soul has been resisting getting a tablet upon which I can read my e-books. I’ve been in love with books ever since I could read and I have walls lined with crammed bookshelves all the way to the ceiling. There is nothing like the feel of a good book, it looks inviting, it smells delicious, and the tactile adventure of turning its pages has no equal. Necessity has lately had me adding e-books to the catalogue.

This week no less than three colleagues have announced to me their conversion to tablets. And – horror of horrors – I am tugged in their direction! The appealing advantages include the increasing instantaneous availability of e-books, friendliness to the book budget, and the reduced pressure on the environment. Portability of a whole library of books at a reduced weight when travelling is also a strong selling point.

What of those of us who cling to the aesthetics of a tangible artifact? Well there are tablets that replicate the look and feel of turning a page – all that’s needed is a pheromone atomiser that releases the aroma of old paper at the push of a button.

So- to take a tablet or not? The jury is deliberating.

We did Ash Wednesday last night…

About forty of us gathered at the neighbouring church across the valley. We prayed and reflected to a stirring rendition of Psalm 51 by Evelyn Tubb (can’t find the track on the web anywhere!) and watched as our celebrant, Neville Watson, burned gum leaves to form the ashes with which we would be daubed. Gum leaves representing the political and social realities of the Australian community of which we are a part and which needs redemption.
There was a box of tissues. Take a tissue, Neville said, and wipe the ashes from your forehead if you intend them to be a show of pious ostentation, or if you fear that you will be called to account for your witness. Neither ostentation nor timidity are worthy of the road of discipleship. But if you would humbly walk the road and carry the challenge of learning from the Christ, leave the tissues in the box.

As the cover on the service sheet said:

The burning that generates the ashes
reflects misdirected passion
and the searing apathy
which renders hope barren
and suppresses change

To take the sign of the cross
is to allow oneself
to be stretched out wide
in solidarity with the Christ
and to believe that life can begin again

Firing up church and community connections

Pardon the weak headline – but there seems to be a thing about shop fires and church communities in our family affairs. Shopping centres and churches in town planning seem to have symbiotic connections. There are practical benefits like negotiated shared parking, one stop benefits for shopping and participation in church programs and the ambience that builds community as shoppers, business owners and church leaders relate to each other on a day to day basis. Then a crisis hits! The shopping centre burns down and the church is left to respond to a community that mourns the loss of a familiar “neighbourhood.”
It’s over two years since it happened to us and the story is told earlier on this blog (see also the stories that follow). Now it’s happened to the church where my nephew, Mark Riessen, leads ministry. The church has vacated its offices making them available as a shop front for the use of several service providers whose premises were badly smoke damaged. It’s a good news story hitting the front page of their local paper (go to March 9th edition).
Fires are devastating and one wonders what good can come from them. The trauma experienced by those concerned are answered, however, by acts of generosity and goodwill that might otherwise remain hidden. It is not the job of the church to provide these, but to recognise, stimulate, coax and encourage – maybe with a bit of modelling. The community at large discovers what is precious and what makes it a community.

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Today is well marked, but it is yesterday’s contribution from Native Wisdom for White Minds that seems apt. I quote it in full:

The assumptions that were made about the roles of Aboriginal women by these men were based on gross misconceptions. Women were regarded as having little authority in Aboriginal society. Such observations were made by the white men imposing their own cultural values on Aboriginal society.
– Maggie Kavanagh

When tribal people observe Western culture, they often state that the women and their work seem to have no value and that this bias is projected onto them as well.

In Western culture, women seem to believe that to be of value, they need to be of value in the same way men are.

What have we to learn from a culture where all work is valued and people are valued as they do it?

We have a lot to learn about what would happen if women were women and men were men and each did the work they were called to do.

It occurs to me the last sentence could be open to misunderstanding, particularly when taken out of context. It is the argument that has often been used by a patriarchal system to oppress women and keep them in subjugative roles. Shift the focus to “the work they are called to do” and there is the potential  for a vast shift in perspective, depending on whether one sees vocation as fixed or imaginatively creative. I celebrate the women (and men – but, today, particularly the women) who have broken barriers to imaginatively and creatively answer their calling.


A CRE teacher reflects…

I begin this year’s round of Christian Religious Education (CRE) classes at the local primary school tomorrow – this is in response to the national statutory permission for churches to negotiate access to Education Department schools for the purpose of “religious instruction” for 30 minutes per class per week.

The experience for a student is quite different from my day, when any untrained but enthusiastic volunteer could enter the classroom and give forth. I remember the dutiful but boring clergyman with the collar that came in and droned on from some book for half an hour. I also remember the delightful motherly woman who told great stories and knew how to engage and encourage us. We knew we mattered to her, collectively and individually.

To teach CRE today, one has to be trained to standards acceptable to the Education Department and observe a curriculum that is negotiated between the churches’ representative service provider and the school authorities. In Western Australia, the CRE curriculum works hand in hand with the values component of the school syllabus.

I experience more adrenalin stepping into a classroom than behind a pulpit. A classroom is a microcosm of the diversity and multiculturalism of our society and one can make no assumptions  about family background and experience. I do not have the luxury of assuming common motives and values where “religious education” is concerned yet there is the responsibility to assist each student along a learning pathway.  The 30 minute lesson strategy is to open up  for exploration a common experience – for example “What is it like to receive generosity? What is it like to offer generosity? What are situations where it might or might not apply?” We would then look at the contribution of the Christian tradition from Bible and people’s lives for further understanding. A period of ideas for application and reflection brings the session to a close. At such times I sometimes feel I receive more wisdom from the kids than what I impart.

The value of CRE is always under scrutiny by church and school alike. The school I serve is very supportive and considers CRE a valuable contributor to its ethos and educational philosophy. It is easy to rest on laurels in such a situation. At the age of 61, perhaps I should stop feeling nervous before entering a classroom – but if I did, I suspect that would be the time to quit teaching.

Up the Mountain Down

Glimpses of what is revealed when the curtain is pulled back and “uncreated light” blasts us with awareness of more than our finite minds can comprehend contrasts with the daily grind and the drudge of dealing with the continuous crap of mundane living. Up the mountain down!

Peter, James and John weren’t up there long (Matthew 17:1-7) but what they saw perhaps equipped them better, if not perfectly for the journey with Jesus to Jerusalem for what would become the ultimate test for them all.

What epiphanies and transfigurations act as starting blocks for our own journeys?

The Adjustment Bureau: a film review

Our view of life influences how we approach seemingly random events – not that we take all that much notice – unless it’s a coincidental series of related happenings or a significant interlude on life’s journey, like a shadow on an x-ray, an unexpected relocation or even a romantic encounter. Are these things predetermined according to some underlying plan? Are they purely the result of chance upon which we, to the extent we desire order, attempt to force some grid of meaning? Is it some of both? To what extent can interference in “the Plan” be tolerated? After all there would be no advances in human knowledge if we totally and passively capitulated to the series of events that make up our lives.

The Adjustment Bureau seeks to use a nice Hollywood romantic story to explore some of these questions. It is a rather convoluted attempt to arrive at an “answer in a box”, but, for me, this failed – not that my expectations were high. After all the followers of Augustine and Pelagius, Calvin and Arminius, empirical determinism and quantum physics still haven’t satisfactorily  resolved the degree to which our views of fate and free will orientate us to our life choices.

Still, after the vein of Inception and The Matrix, it has the potential to expose many to fresh engagement with the big questions of who we are and why we are here. Otherwise – it’s just another story.

Red Letter Christians » Love Wins: Rob Bell and the New Calvinists

A controversial book of the moment before it is even released is “Love Wins: a book about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived” by Rob Bell. Apparently it is creating a storm amongst the leading lights of the “emergent ” part of the Christian spectrum, with some condemning what they imagine the author says and others saying, “Hang on, who reviews a book on the basis of a publishers PR blurb anyway – and, should his views be more inclusive than you would like them to be, why the vehemence?”

Jumping into the fray is our old mate Jarrod McKenna, who is becoming a well known media commentator, and who reviews not so much the book, but the storm. I have seen his article pop up several times this week, most recently at Red Letter Christians » Love Wins: Rob Bell and the New Calvinists.

Nothing like a good controversy to get a book noticed. Must get a copy.

Churches across Australia assist the world’s newest nation

Act For Peace is the action arm of the National Council of Churches in Australia. The annual Christmas Bowl Appeal raises large sums of money for its programs. This report shows how churches across the land contribute not only prayer, but muscle, towards peace building endeavours that carry the hallmarks of sustainability and justice, particularly in Southern Sudan.

Churches across Australia throw their support behind the Christmas Bowl.

Native Wisdom For White Minds

I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts more.
– Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht (chief Joseph)
Nez Percé

American Indian

Today’s offering from a neat little book of days called Native Wisdom for White Minds: daily reflections inspired by the Native Peoples of the world. (Ballantine, 1995) by Anne Wilson Schaef.

Flicking through, it impresses me how universally applicable the axioms are – and the deep wisdom they express.