The next Friday Forum, 9 December at the Cathedral, will be on the issue of problem gambling. See the flyer here.
Up to date information on the Friday Forum web page: http://www.stdavidscathedralhobart.org/friday-forum/
Where ethics meets real life: how problem gambling is everyone’s problem and what can and must be done
Andrew Wilkie MHR and
Bishop John Harrower
will speak and answer your questions
1pm-2pm Friday December 9, 2011
St. David’s Cathedral, Hobart
Guest blogger, The Revd Bruce Geeves of Nostalgia Now fame, shares his “Top Ten for Visionaries”:
1. take an interest in people and their vision
2. it must become a shared vision
3. it must be accepted and valued by the church as that gift is used to build up the church
4. we must be accountable
5. we must be encouraged
6. we must take risks for Jesus
7. we must be allowed to fail (but learn)
8. we must work as a team not pigeon hole each other but let each other grow and not be a lone ranger out in the desert
9. we must be praying for evangelistic opportunities
10. acknowledge our complete dependence on God
I am grateful to Bruce for his ‘Top 10’.
As we begin the Season of Advent, What is your Top 10 for this new year of learning of and walking with Jesus?
I am very excited about today’s ordination of Joel and Kristina Kettleton at St David’s Cathedral Hobart.
This will be a great celebration of God’s grace and goodness. PTL! See Media release for details, here.
Could this ordination of a married couple be a ‘first’ for the Anglican Church in Tasmania? Australia? the World?! 🙂
Personal stories are always powerful. One of the issues in the debate about euthanasia is that the dead do not return to tell us whether or not their decision turned out to be a good idea!
There are some people, however, who have stated that had they had the opportunity to commit assisted suicide/ euthanasia they would have done so but how glad they are that there was no euthanasia available because they are alive today!
Here is the story of a quadriplegic man who has changed his view from pro-euthanasia to “No” to euthanasia.
Quadriplegic says no to euthanasia
An old man in a wheel chair made a powerful case on national television again legalizing euthanasia.
It may have come as a surprise to ABC1’s I Q&A host Tony Jones on 19 September. He agreed to allow wheel-chair bound John Moxon to ask the Q&A panel a question on euthanasia, probably expecting an impassioned plea for this option. But instead, Mr Moxon argued against euthanasia. He said: “Legislation currently before the SA parliament will enable a doctor to kill somebody, on the judgment of the doctor alone that the person’s life is not worth living.
“I ask myself, how would I feel if I had a stroke and some doctor said, Oh, well, he’s already a quadriplegic, let’s just kill him because his life wouldn’t be worth living?”
One member of the panel said she wanted to be able to pull the plug when she gets old and incapacitated.
“That’s exactly what I said four years before I broke my neck. When it happened, that wasn’t my view at all!” Mr Moxon said.
Below is an extract from Family Voice’s recent magazine “Voxpoint” November 2011 (http://www.fava.org.au/)
I passed the Buckland church on my way to 140th at Swansea and was delighted to see the sculpture emerging from the tree stump. It’s creative to pick up the theme of Jesus’ baptism from the church’s historic stained glass window.
Recent article from the Anglican Communion News Service:
Church abuse is the chief obstacle to Australians believing in Christianity, according to a national online survey of more than 1000 people conducted by a Christian media group.
The Australian Communities Report said more than three-quarters of respondents, 76%, said church abuse was a “massive” or “significant” negative influence on their attitudes towards Christianity and church.
It said the top 10 “belief blockers” for Christianity were church abuse, hypocrisy, “judging others”, religious wars, suffering, issues around money, that it was “outdated”, Hell and condemnation, homosexuality and exclusivity.
Read the rest of the article here.
The Australian Anglican Church commissioned a major research project to help strengthen its child protection protocols. The full report has been published and is available online. I wrote an article upon its release and the link to the report is at: Continuing our commitment to safe church communities.
The Tasmanian Anglican Church’s response to abuse is found in our
Safe Church Communities Program of training and endorsement to ensure that church workers are supported in their roles and have the skills and knowledge to contribute significantly to the development of safe and healthy church communities.
Sexual abuse is a crime and is never acceptable. It has enormous impact on victims and their family and friends.
I successfully moved a motion, with long time friend and colleague Bishop David Farrer, that the Anglican Church of Australia apologise for sexual abuse within the Church. The motion was unanimous and we stood and said the motion as a prayer at the General Synod (the parliament of the national Anglican Church). This occasion of prayerful and humble apology remains one of the most emotional moments in my life. We were overwhelmed by the tragedy and sought God’s help and resolve in continuing to confront this evil in our midst.
That this General Synod and we as members of it acknowledge with deep regret and repentance the past failings of the Church and its members. On behalf of the whole Anglican Church in this country we apologise unreservedly to those who have been harmed by sexual abuse perpetrated by people holding positions of power and trust in the Church. We apologise for the shameful way we actively worked against and discouraged those who came to us and reported abuse. We are ashamed to acknowledge that we only took notice when the survivors of abuse became a threat to us. We apologise and ask forgiveness for the Church’s failure at many levels to listen to and acknowledge the plight of those who have been abused, to take adequate steps to assist them, and to prevent abuse from happening or recurring. We commit the Church to listen to survivors of abuse to respond with compassion to all those who have been harmed, both to those who have come forward and to those who may choose to do so in the future, and to deal appropriately, transparently and fairly with those accused of abuse and negligence.
The motion/prayer is found here, Apology for sexual abuse.
In Tasmania we held pastoral services of prayer and reflection, Out of the Depths,
and open to all those who wish to support survivors, lament our brokenness and pray for healing.
More on Safe Church Communities at, Safe Church Communities.
In all of this tragedy of sexual abuse, the Church has failed both Jesus Christ and his people. As we seek to re-establish the way of Christ we must accept that too often we have failed, seek forgiveness, build safe church communities and keep on looking to Jesus, our Redeemer and Source of hope.
May God have mercy on us and strengthen us to fight evil and nurture life in the name of Christ. Amen.
The media on International Women’s Day focused on the proper need to increase the opportunities for women and their representation in senior roles. However, discussion of the depiction of women in the media was largely and sadly absent. I believe this is a major issue in Australian society. Unfortunately it is too often overlooked by the media’s emphasis on clothing, body image, etc.
Peter Garratt, federal Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, has made a helpful contribution on the topic:
SHOULD 13-year-old girls be modelling on the catwalk for international brand products?
No. I think most people would accept that 13 is far too young an age to be working in an adult field, where image is everything.
Modelling age appropriate clothes? Sure. Modelling adult clothes? No way. I was pleased to see that the local modelling industry doesn’t appear to support it either.
Still there is no question that the sexualisation of children is prevalent because some sections of the fashion industry are willing it on. But it should be resisted, and here consumers, media, industry and governments alike have a role to play.
In particular, body image is an issue of huge importance for many young people, especially girls. Nominated by them as their number one concern, negative body image can lead to serious health issues which can affect an individual during the course of their adolescence and into adult life.
Expert advice to the government on the best strategy for dealing with this issue included a recommendation to initiate body image awards to recognise positive steps taken by the media, fashion and advertising industries to represent positive body image.
We want to encourage cultural change and the awards will build on the voluntary industry code of conduct developed by the former National Advisory Group on Body Image which guides the media, advertising and fashion industries in development of body image-friendly practices.
As a parent of three young women, one of whom is a part-time model, I am well aware of the pressures that exist in the industry and the link between the projection of unrealistic images and expectations and poor body image.
As Minister for Youth I’m aware that our goal of providing the opportunity for all young people to lead happy and healthy lives, with sufficient resilience to manage the turbulent journey through the teenage years to adulthood, will be harder to reach if we have a culture that continues to misrepresent images, especially through the use of very young people as role models.
Read more: Is 13 too young to be a model?
Pornography has a significant impact on culture and the impact is then reinforced by the impact of culture on pornography, especially the increasing influence of violent sex and also ‘porn body image’. Pornography is destructive of our humanity and respectful relationships. A recent report notes,
But for all the disturbing findings in the recent research, perhaps the most depressing statistic was that kissing, hugging or laughing was depicted in only 10 per cent of sex scenes. This statistic alone should be enough to make us want to challenge and change the ‘‘porn norm’’ so that it includes positive representations of women, and space for intimacy, trust and respect.
Read more: Why the new porn is hurting women.
I’m not convinced that the Slutwalk in Hobart has accomplished very much for building respect and healthy relationships between men and women. Respect for women is the key issue and the use of the word “slut” is unhelpful as it has to do with the commercialisation of a woman’s body. For most men prostitution does not engender respect! If the aim of the march is to encourage respect for women I am all for it, but please, let’s find a new name.
My summary,
See also, Getting Real: Challenging the sexualisation of girls and Exposing the harm of pornography.
I love people and I love the unexpected fun of simply ‘being with’ people and the wonderful chaos and questions that draw forth conversation and insight. Thank you to all the wonderful people with whom I share ‘parish visits’.
By way of example: following a recent parish visit I was asked by a young fun-loving mum to respond to her child’s question:
“Thank you for your sermon yesterday, it was very encouraging to us all 🙂 The kids were asking me about the story/reasons for having your special stick thingy! (I have no idea what it is called!). Can you please tell me about it so I can tell them – I promised I would ask you for them!”
My reply,
Hi, The “special stick thingy” is called a Pastoral Staff or Shepherd’s Crook or Crozier. Shepherds out in the fields carried a staff or crook use to protect the sheep from harm. Jesus Christ is the Great Shepherd of his people and sometimes Jesus is depicted holding a shepherd’s staff. Bishops are to model their caring ministry on the ministry of Jesus and the Pastoral Staff, also called a Crozier, symbolises that the bishop is to be a shepherd of God’s people, the Christian community, the church. The Pastoral Staff I had on Sunday was made of Tasmanian timbers and was of the style used by shepherds in the Bothwell district – a Tasmanian told me that he recalls his grandfather, a shepherd, using one.
Now that exchange is part of the precious ‘being with’ people in parishes and indeed ‘being with’ people anywhere and everywhere.
Today the church celebrates Christ the King. What a great festival to end the liturgical year and face us into the new year with Advent, preparing for Christmas: ‘Emmanuel, God with us’.
The Gospel reading for Christ the King (Year A) is Matthew 25:31-40 This passage records Jesus identifying himself, using his common self-designation ‘Son of Man’, with his coming in glory accompanied by all the angels to sit on the throne of his glory. An extraordinary claim!
We remember Pilate’s question to Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Pilate followed this up with a sign that he ordered to be placed on the cross on which Jesus was crucified. It read, “jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews … and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.” – John 19:19-20
The Latin version of the notice is “INRI” which stands for “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum” – “Jesus (of) Nazareth, King (of the) Jews”. [Note: Latin doesn’t have a ‘J’ so an ‘I’ is used]
I introduced the sermon using the catchy “Stir-up” from the collect of the day and also the link to Christmas pudding! – all about being ready for our King and our getting on with loving God, God’s world and a reminder to prepare the Christmas pudding! See, Stir-up Sunday.
“Why should we be stirred up?” leads to the text of the passage. See our Diocesan resources for 20 November.
Just a few comments:
*What examples of caring for the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and imprisoned come from my own life and experience of God’s people?
I should also mention that following today’s worship service the Anglican Men’s Society did a BBQ and we were given hospitality by Martin and Susie Dumaresq at the historic Mount Ireh Estate.
A wonderful Feast Day of Christ the King at Christ Church Illawarra. Thank you to the Parish of Longford/Perth.
Men are becoming much more active in challenging attitudes and actions which endorse violence.
This is the good news that David Penberthy reports from a conversation with Dr Flood in anticipation of new research to be released 25 November 2011 on White Ribbon Day-[To the blokes: I just swore! Do you swear too? – against violence! Check it out. 🙂 ]
See David Penberthy’s full article, The high price of male silence on violence against women.
In a symposium, What does it take … to STOP domestic violence? I stated that to be true followers of Christ, we must have a commitment to healing and change.
What can we do?
The church certainly needs to confront domestic violence strongly and positively:
But the church also needs to be involved in more ‘back door’, or ‘preventative’, ways as well. Recognizing the influence on this problem of unemployment and hopelessness; of family break down; of alcoholism; of poor relationship skills, of financial stress, the church also needs to be at work in these areas in preventative ways as well.
See the full address, What does it take … to STOP domestic violence?