Tag Archives: refugees

Radical Palm Sunday

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Personal, refugees, Spirituality, theology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

#OutOfLimbo #Justice4RefugeesThis Sunday’s Palm Sunday Walk for Refugees from Perth’s St George’s Cathedral will repeat a tradition that has grown over recent years. Palm Sunday events commemorate the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding the colt of a donkey – the ultimate symbol of peace. It was a high festival time in Jerusalem with pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean. Jesus’ peaceful entry was in stark contrast to the arrival on the other side of the city of Governor Pilate and his military cohort to reinforce crowd control. Mark 11:1-11 is one telling of the story

Palm Sunday commemorations highlight ways of peace and reconciliation in contrast to dominating powers of coercion and control. It will be a crazy mix, just as the Jerusalem crowds were. There will be contemplative Christians, singing Christians, shouting socialists, bemused bystanders, and those simply seeking to stand alongside destitute men, women and children who have been demonised and incarcerated indefinitely by our authorities for daring to claim asylum in unapproved circumstances.

Together we will be claiming the radical hope that love and justice will prevail. There have been enough Good Fridays. Let Easter Sunday prevail!

Can good arise from a mess?

20 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Personal, refugees, Spirituality, theology

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, ,

Refugee_camp

from Wikimedia Commons

I have spent a lot of time with people trying to find their way through chaos. Some situations are just so daunting you wonder if anyone can see a way through to the next step, let alone an exit to clearer space where the air is fresh and the whisper of freedom can be heard.  And this is on a one to one scale. What if its a whole community that is so enmeshed in the thorns and brambles of an impossibly bleak scenario?

Today’s text from Isaiah enters Jerusalem’s destruction in 587 B.C. As in yesterday’s text, memory is the antidote to despair. As the community is carted off into exile in a strange land with an alien culture, leaving behind all that is familiar and all that constructs their identity, they are called to a deep and intimate recollection of the author of the faith that is at their core. Profound disappointment and desolation have an antidote, and it’s only as far away as our collective memory of the Creator’s preference for we who are the created.

As we through our callousness ignore and forget those around the world who are seeking asylum and safety, let us see amongst them their capacity to recall the core of their faith, simply by remembering. And let us do the same.

Advent Voices – the subversive Magnificat

13 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by in Spirituality

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

What a strong, evocative, celebratory song is Mary’s Magnificat!
And it is highly political, even seditious. If an agent of either Caesar or Herod the Great had been eavesdropping on Mary as she visited her cousin Elizabeth, neither of these women would have survived to tell the story.

Mary’s song, however, has become a trans-seasonal reminder, not of how “truth speaks to power,”  but of how truth is claimed and celebrated in the face of the kind of tyrannical force that suppresses and smothers abundant shared life. And so the “proud are scattered in the thoughts of their heads” and the “powerful are brought down from their thrones.”  The “lowly are lifted” and “the hungry are filled with good things.”

This is why this week’s prayer meetings in electoral offices by Christian leaders have been quietly respectful, peaceful and poised. There is no need to strive for truth to be spoken, it only needs to be present.

And the powers and principalities of the land can’t stand it!

Holy Week Action

15 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Personal, refugees, Spirituality

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

330px-El_Greco_016The story of Holy Week sometimes begins with Jesus “cleansing the Temple” – turning over money trading tables and driving out sacrificial animals being sold under extortion. An arresting offence, no doubt, and certainly would have been a factor in his eventual capture and trial a few days later.

In Perth we see Holy Week begin with the arrest of 11 protesters following a deliberate and similarly prophetic action. The best account of what happened and why is found in their own words. Read it at: Why we held a sit-in over child detention ahead of Easter.

What is evident in their story and the varied community reactions is a refusal to allow focus to be diverted from the initial purpose of drawing attention to the 1000 plus children of asylum seekers held in detention. Following the best non-violent practices of Dr Martin Luther King, they hope to turn the tide of public opinion towards abhorrence of this cruel practice, eventually leading to a humane bipartisan approach for a regional response to all men, women and children who flee danger.

But this is only the beginning of Holy Week. The Easter story tells of passion, trial, pain, crucifixion, deposition, desolation and finally new beginnings through resurrection.

Followers of the Way know that all these may be encountered before purpose is realised.

What drives Palm Sunday Peace Parades?

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Personal, refugees, Spirituality

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

downloadOn Sunday, many thousands will march for peace. In Perth, leaving from St George’s Cathedral at 1 pm, those gathered will join others around the country in marching for justice for refugees.

Inspiration for Palm Sunday Marches has a long tradition of drawing on the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the eve of his Passion. Like a king of ancient times, he rides through the city gates, not as a conquering despot, but as a focus for the kind of peace the Bible calls shalom – complete integrity for all of creation expressed in whole relationships, especially in terms of justice and righteousness. Today’s text, Matthew 21:1-11, gives one rendition.

Marcus Borg draws attention to two triumphal entries into Jerusalem that day. One by Roman governor Pontius Pilate, representing the power and military might of empire to keep order and maintain the status quo – the other by Jesus, ushering the dawn of a new era heralding justice and peace. What these two triumphal entries represent is the continuing tension between the push to maintain the comfort of order and equilibrium, no matter how unjust, and the pull towards transformation towards comprehensive healing, integrity and wholeness.

Jesus’triumphal entry into Jerusalem thus becomes a powerful focus and icon for many who will march this Sunday.

New asylum seeker campaign ‘distasteful’ and ’embarrassing’

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in international politics, local politics, refugees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

New asylum seeker campaign ‘distasteful’ and ’embarrassing’.

Just when you think the Australian Government can do no worse in its cruel and dispiriting treatment of maritime asylum seekers, it pulls another rabbit out of the hat.

This so-called low key cartoon strip campaign does little more than throw down a challenge to those desperate to flee to safety. Rather than threaten with blockades that grumble “no way” all sides of our parliament should be seeking ways to enable a safe way for people to seek asylum in this whole region.

This will demand imagination, leadership – and, most importantly, will – for many years of political and media propaganda have manipulated the public’s mindset to fearful and selfish preoccupation.

 

 

Three New Year Symbols

01 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in Personal

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Nativity Wesley Uniting Church Perth

Tree of Life

Scarcely had the New Year started to roll across the world’s last continent  than we on the first one were returning from a New Year’s Day service at Wesley Uniting, Perth. This is where we usually go when I have a Sunday off… it’s only a 15 minute drive, far enough away to feel we’ve gone somewhere different, we aren’t known well, and the service is contemplative and thoughtful while informally down to earth. It has a tradition of fine music and sponsors the visual arts (as seen by the two sculptures illustrated). It happened to be a communion service with a baptism. What better way to begin a new year?

Getting there was a struggle. I thought we’d try the Convention Centre car park – reasonably close with easy access and egress to the freeway. (My usual park was cut off by construction work). Parked the car, but the lifts were not working and the stairs were well hidden – nothing for it but to strive towards the light, emerging in an area that was verboten. A horrified security guard observed us floundering around for an exit and kindly obliged by finding a key to open a gate for us. (I hope I’m not being too obtuse with all this New Year symbolism). After the church service and its injection of New Year hope and optimism – we confidently strode back to the Convention Centre (tightly locked up) and began a new search for an entrance to the car park. We explored the full length of the complex, eventually collaring another security guard. He had no idea how to reach the car park and suggested we keep looking! Well at least we had let someone know that our intentions in skulking around that great big barn were honourable. Eventually we did find an opening under a stairwell and ducked in and found the car. Easy access and egress from the freeway! Beyond that, forget it!

So here’s three evocative symbols for the New Year.

The Tree of Life sculpture – presented as part of the Project 54 “Prayer for the Nations” programme coinciding with CHOGM 2012 in Perth. The Tree of Life has been a most enriching symbol in many cultures, finding a visionary culmination in Christian tradition that is described in Revelation 22 where the leaves of the tree “bear the healing of the nations”.

The Nativity sculpture depicting the refugee journey from darkness to hope.  Each white box bears a layered contemporary photograph that was revealed Advent calendar style one at a time until Christmas. Associations with Incarnation and the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt put some bite and relevance into the task of keeping our central story in focus.

And then the car park! Effort, exploration and application is needed to bring all these about.