Tag Archives: postaday2011

Oh Yes … a New Year

31 Saturday Dec 2011

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TTT #2... 256365

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I am aroused from my holiday stupour to be reminded that a New Year is waiting in the wings.

One more country – Samoa – will see it first, having just yesterday moved itself to the left side of the International Date Line. So Samoa, used to being lucky last, now jumps to the head of the queue and leads the charge into 2012!

Resolutions – none from me this year. Postaday went well until about September then went the way of all good intentions. I am however, chuffed that I kept it going so long, made some great connections with fellow bloggers, and am more likely to keep blogging at least several times a week.

Philosophy as one year changes to the next? I can’t improve on all the bon mots appearing on my Face Book page today. So many good positive ones to choose from.
So here’s to 2011 and all that it brought to add to our experiences – good, indifferent, and demanding. And here’s to 2012 that stretches off into the unknown…

Advent Reflection: Hope, not optimism

28 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Spirituality, theology, Wembley Downs

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Pollyanna and friends

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Pollyanna gets a bit of stick these days. The name of the main character from Eleanor H Porter’s work of classical children’s fiction has become an epithet for anyone deemed to be unrealistically optimistic. In the novel made even more well known by Walt Disney’s cinema version in 1960, Pollyanna invents “the glad game.” No matter how bad the circumstances, there’s always something to be glad of. Pollyanna receives, as a gift, a pair of crutches instead of the anticipated doll – well, she’s glad she doesn’t need them. Her stern aunt punishes Pollyanna for being late to dinner by banishing her to bread and milk in the kitchen with the maid, and Pollyanna thanks her profusely because she loves bread and milk and can think of no better pastime than chatting with the maid.

I was ten years old when I saw Disney’s movie, and Pollyanna, I think, ingrained in me one of those life commandments – “look for the good in all things” – probably not a bad corrective to my default melancholy disposition.

It strikes me that the season of Advent seems to begin from a melancholic stance. The Isaiah passages emerge from the experience of a people exiled and abandoned, crying out for their loss of culture, connection and place. Their pain reflects the continuous experience of displaced peoples – whether it be the life-threatening journeys of the world’s refugees from hunger and violent conflict, the inheritance of generations of systemic neglect and abuse, or the intervention of sheer bad fortune on hitherto lucky lives. To suggest playing “the glad game” would be inadequate and insensitive. A person who is in dire distress cringes at light-hearted ‘cheer-me-ups’ from the village optimist. At least, allowing oneself to enter the fullness of despair is to engage the honest parlousness of the situation. Sometimes optimism is simply another word for denial.

Isaiah allows us to enter and meditate fully on the archetypal experience of feeling abandoned and adrift. However, he does not leave us there. His whole work is predicated on hope. Hope is different from optimism. It allows full expression and ventilation of that which is wrong; it scrabbles through the rubble to find something that is foundational upon which meaning can be built, and uses this as a means of planning and constructing a way forward.

This is a different process than the one used in Pollyanna’s “glad game.” It is radical surgery of the collective and individual soul. Yesterday my congregation presented the results of some fund raising to Fresh Start, a Perth based drug rehabilitation program pioneered by Dr George O’Neil. Thousands of clients from around the world have successfully found help and hope through the holistic approach of  a program of physical relief, residential accommodation, community support, and spiritual conversation.

I point to Fresh Start as a living sign of hope in our midst. And I am sure Pollyanna would approve!

Stories from the Canning Stock Route

26 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in reconciliation, Wembley Downs

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Roadside sign at the southern end of the Canni...

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So runs the sub-title of a stunning Aboriginal Art exhibition that is now on tour from the National Museum of Australia. Of course, the Canning Stock Route has had its dominant “whitefella” story told many times. We claim it as the toughest, remotest and (at 1850km) longest historic stock route in the world. Around the 1900s, cattlemen in the East Kimberley ranges sought an effective and competitive means of getting their stock to market. A direct route through the desert to Wiluna was deemed to be both possible and desirable. Conveniently spaced water sources were all that were needed, and the desert Aborigines knew where these were. Cruel methods of manipulation and coercion of Aborigines from the various language groups enabled wells to be sunk alongside the soaks and watercourses along the otherwise arid way. The full story (from “whitefella” perspective) can be explored here.

The interactive art exhibition, Ngurra Kuju Walyja: One Country One People,  allows us to hear the story as told by descendants of the Desert people, a diverse range of language groups that retain the custodianship of the pre stock route boundaries, stories, songs and culture that have helped them retain their identity and replicate it in art form. The stories are fascinating as the now disused stock route serves another purpose in binding these communities together while they continue to find  and assert anew their place in 21st century Australia.

The exhibition is not a “black arm-band” approach to history (to coin a phrase introduced by a former prime minister), but a frank and open exercise in ensuring all voices are heard and that all perspectives are seen, thus affording a total picture rather than enabling us to continue to accept a partial telling as the whole. Apart from tragedy and loss, the stories include humour and appreciation stemming from encounters with the kartiya (n0n-Aborigines).

Such exhibitions go a long way to promoting mutual respect. If you get the chance, go and see!

Peace is possible

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in international politics, reconciliation

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The topography of Afghanistan: there are Hindu...

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It’s one of those days of convergence again. I finalised an article for the local community paper – “200 words on what Christmas means to you as a local clergy person.” I rattled something off under the title that headlines this piece. Then I left to share lunch at Parliament House with about twenty folk, organised by Pace e Bene and hosted by Greens MLC, Giz Watson, the purpose being to meet and hear world renowned peace activist, Kathy Kelly and Afghan peace worker, Hakim.

My underlying reflection is on how far from peaceful the process of achieving peace (in its fullest sense) often proves to be. My local article touched briefly on a range of folk in conflicted circumstances who were nevertheless driven by the conviction that “peace is possible.” At lunch, Dr Hakim, outlined a movement amongst young people in Afghanistan who work for peace against tremendous odds, noting that “peace is hard work!” and Kathy Kelly responded to questions in a way that reinforced the costly nature of working for peace.

All things worthwhile have to be worked for, often against overwhelming odds. It is important to persevere, addressing the practical issues, not out of unrealistic optimism, but out of hope that is inspired by a vision of what can be.

 

Reconciliation Journey through Mooro Country

20 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in reconciliation, Wembley Downs

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Northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia f...

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Mooro country is that part of the Noongar country that follows a string of lakes through the western  and northern suburbs of Perth and beyond to the Moore River. This afternoon a group of us met with the Northern Suburbs Reconciliation Group and took a bus tour through some of this wetland area, visiting places of significance under the guidance of a local Elder. In pre-colonial times the area was alive with indigenous commerce. As well as bearing a plentiful supply of food and providing hospitable space for camping, corroboree and storytelling, these were meeting places where inland clans and tribal groups could trade commodities with the coastal people. Some of this function continued way past European settlement, and in spite of decimation experienced under attempts by colonisers to move Aborigines from nomadic to agricultural lifestyles.

To visit familiar landmarks, even a shopping centre carpark, and have pointed out to us the former culture’s significant places, a memorial stone here, a clump of scar bearing trees there, a main road where bitumen covered a thousands of years old walking track,was like twisting a kaleidoscope to see the layers of ancient folklore beneath the veneer of western suburbia.

Mooro country is not well known. It is only recently that its history has begun to be recorded in written form. The stories have been passed on orally – mouth to ear, mouth to ear, amongst the generations of those who are descendants of those who fished, hunted and traded along the waterways in this area. It was humbling and enlightening to hear some of those stories and visit some of those places today

Praising our one talent hero!

12 Saturday Nov 2011

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An etching by Jan Luyken illustrating Matthew ...

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I like the contention that the servant who buried his one talent and got shafted by the boss might just be the hero of the story – not the goody two shoes (x2) who doubled their much more generous offerings. The proposition catches us on the back foot (like a good parable is supposed to do). The centuries old Protestant work ethic favours the traditional view that hard work and prudent application is duly rewarded. The lazy lay-about who did nothing with what he was entrusted got his just desserts – and you will too if you don’t get on with it!

Peel back the accretion of time and historical circumstance, however, and imagine the story as it was before this puritanical setting. Imagine it before Matthew got hold of it, and even Luke (who could be seen to be giving greater weight to the tradition that this post explores). It seems the parable was passed around orally before Luke and Matthew put it in the context of their own communities and set it down in writing. Matthew’s burden appears to be keeping the fledgling second and third generation church alert and disciplined, living out the teachings of Jesus rather than hanging around waiting for an imminent return. Hence “get on with it!”

Luke seems to use the story, with some interesting variations,  to say, “This is the reality of how the world ticks.” It is unjust and unfair and if you are going to buck the system, be ready to meet the consequences. The third servant tosses in the towel and protests “I’m not playing this game any more!” knowing he will lose his position of privilege and be cast out among the tenant farmers who have been suffering the extortion of the landlords and their managers.  He could stand for the disciple who is prepared to travel the way of Jesus, in the world of those who live on the margins of powerlessness, and not of the world of corrupt privilege.

Well, it’s at least worth a thought – yes? The strange outcome is that regardless of whether you run with Matthew’s call to diligence or Luke’s veiled urging to courageous discipleship, the result is the same – a more focused and active disciple. Neat!

CHOGM and Prayer

31 Monday Oct 2011

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Looks like stranded CHOGM delegates no longer have to sing “We still call Australia home” and can now board their Qantas flights to their destinations. The streets of Perth are returning to normal and I could even drive along Riverside Drive following the cathedral service marking the end of CHOGM.

Yesterday’s “Celebration of the Nations” service was a parallel event marking the culmination of an eclectic planning exercise involving a range of Christian traditions across the 54 Commonwealth nations. The diversity found full expression through music, dance and language during a colourful, vibrating evensong. My lasting impression will be the high church procession to the sound of a symphony of drumbeats from Sierra Leone, Ghana, United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea and Cameroon.  Liturgical order and spontaneous rhythm demonstrated a compatibility that few would imagine. This harmony of diversity continued throughout the prayers with excerpts from Handel’s Messiah sung by a Maltese tenor, duet by harp and sitar, and traditional Thillana dance from South India adding to an even greater range of multilingual  input.  It was a delight for us to meet with a family from the Seychelles, the country my church had adopted as a focal interest for the 12 months leading to CHOGM. One of the smallest nations represented (about 150,000 pop.), it was great to observe their participation along with the other 53.

CHOGM is not without controversy. It’s relevance has been questioned as, like the United Nations, it is difficult to reach agreement on significant issues such as environmental and economical management and human rights. Even within the Christian tradition there are varying views and approaches, ranging from prayers inside the church walls for stability and order and protests beyond the walls urging redress for a range off justice matters. Everything has its season, and CHOGM was an occasion for both prayer and protest.

For a culminating event however, I found the cathedral celebration expressing the possibility of harmony through diversity a powerful counterpoint to notions of despair and fragmentation that are frequently abroad.

Such is life?…

28 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Ministry, Personal, pilgrimage, Spirituality

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Often a picture does it best. I’ve seen reams written on “the six (sometimes seven) stages of life” and even run the odd workshop or two myself. I found this silent but eloquent expression on imgur.com.  The caption is a bit of a worry. That’s why I’ve inserted the question mark.

“Such is life!” These are the final words of Ned Kelly, Australia’s much feted anti-hero, just before the trapdoor dropped in Pentridge prison. Such, indeed,  is the fatalistic outlook that has been woven around his story.

P J Harvey and Peggy Lee ask “Is that all there is?” Take your pick! (I like them both for different reasons)


The implication in the lyrics is that we must look beyond this life to satisfactorily answer this question, and one might expect that I would agree, and because of my vocation, point to the Christian affirmation of “something better beyond.”

I prefer, however, to point to the possibility of fulfillment through each of these stages. It is evident to me that this is central to the kingdom talk of Jesus, who continually announces the “reign of God” was upon us (literally “breathing down our necks”). Live out his radical teaching of muscular and proactive compassion and lay these down as the building blocks of a wholesome community.

The “something better beyond” then finds expression through each of those six stages of life’s journey, whatever our contextual challenge, whatever the circumstances.

Marking November how?

27 Thursday Oct 2011

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P writing blue

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November is approaching – the harbinger of low temperatures by climate on the the top half of the planet and air conditioner in the countries “down under” the equator. (Australia’s not the only country “down under”, by the way).

Personally, November is a bit of a bookmark month, being the month of my arrival on this planet, so I tend to mark it in different ways, like celebrating a birthday, remembering to have my annual medical check, reviewing insurances, registrations and other exciting things! When I was younger, the anniversary of my arrival coincided roughly with the Adelaide John Martin’s Christmas Pageant, the harbinger of the magic festive season. So November has always carried an aura of “specialness” about it.

Others will also make hay while the November sun shines. “Movember” will encourage those of us who can to grow moustaches to raise awareness of men’s health issues – particularly prostate and testicular cancer prevention and treatment, and depression. Whilst supportive, I can hardly participate as my whiskers are a permanent feature of my face-scape.

Right now the prospect of November Novel Writing is nagging. I have four days to decide whether I will subject myself to the challenge of writing 1000 words a day for 30 days under the auspices of National Novel Writing Month . I’ve just registered with the site, but not yet sure that I’m committed to it.  There is an idea that I am keen to pursue and that should be some incentive. I think it will be a decision to grasp the nettle and just go with whatever comes off the keyboard. Life AFK (Away From Keyboard) is very insistent, but not dictatorial if I don’t let it be.

So some decisions need to be made in the next 48 hours, so should I go ahead, I will at least have time to plan an approach!