Concerns for South Sudan & Northern Iraq being expressed to-morrow at Breakfast at Saint Paul's - and letter writing is on the agenda too.

One of the things planned for Breakfast at Saint Paul's to-morrow is highlighting the humanitarian emergencies in South Sudan and Northern Iraq.  (To find out more please scroll down the sidebar to Labels and look up the following headings: Humanitarian emergency; South Sudan; Iraq).  

We will be distributing this weekend at the Breakfast and as Sunday's services the pew sheet appeal for Northern Iraq authorised by Archbishop Friere, the Primate. This can be downloaded from this blog if you scroll down a little further.

We will be distributing as well as Letter Writing Pack in support of the emergency in South Sudan.  Below the documents in the Letter Writing Pack are provided so that readers can put together their own packs for letter writing.  The draft letter is intended as a guide.  The parliamentarians suggested are a guide too. Readers may choose to add or subtract their own recipients.

Breakfasting at Saint Paul's

To-morrow, Saturday, at St Paul's Bakery Hill in Ballarat

we are breakfasting at 8.30am.

After breakfast we will be watching the movie

Mary Meets Mohammad
Mary Meets Mohammad on Facebook

Mary Meets Mohammad selected for 
JAPANESE PREMIERE AT 9TH UNHCR REFUGEE FILM FESTIVAL - TOKYO. 
Sat 18th October 6pm Instituto Cervantes de Tokyo 
Sun 19th October 1pm Instituto Italiani di Cultura di Tokyo. 
Film in English with Japanese subtitles. In English with Japanese subtitles.  
http://unhcr.refugeefilm.org/2014/title-e/2014/08/2014k.php
 

On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost.....

Ross Gittins asks - Is Australia as egalitarian as we think?  In terms of income and employment, our cities are becoming so polarised that the paths of the well-off and not well-off rarely cross.

http://media.smh.com.au/business/businessday/gittins-is-australia-as-egalitarian-as-we-think-5708231.html

The quote in the title of this post is from

Banjo Paterson's very popular poem: A Bush Christening 

You might also like to read this article by Ross Gittins >>>

Why almost all of us are 'out of touch'

Compassion was in the spotlight at M.A.D.E. last Friday night

Cross posted from Beside The Creek, 

the online presence of Ballarat Interfaith Network.

St Paul's Father Constantine Osuchukwu was a co-organiser of the event.

~~~~~~

 

Picture above:

Sam Afra, Dr Jane Mummery (Watch Dr Mummery here), Sister Veronica Lawson, 

Margaret Lenan Ellis (Public Relations Officer, Ballarat Interfaith Network),

Sister Nivedita Chaitanya, Bishop Garry Weatherill, Father Constantine Osuchukwu,

Dr Sundrum Sivamalia, Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council.

Last Friday night, a successful interfaith public forum was held by the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council and the Ballarat Interfaith Network around the topic of Compassion - an essential ingredient for a better community. The Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka (M.A.D.E.) was the venue for the evening.  Here is a taste of what went on!

Table discussions ---- with food and friendliness.

Question time

Every war, every conflict between human beings has come about 

because of some argument about how things are described.

This craziness is totally unnecesary!

Just beyond the words that push us apart, a table waits. Hospitality. Companionship.

They wait for us to make ourselves comfortable.

What we praise is one!

It makes sense that the praise is also one!

So many jugs are emptied into an infinite basin.

So many religions. So much singing. Just one song!

The differences are merely illusion. Or maybe pride.

Sunlight itself looks slightly different on this wall rather than on that.

It may look quite different on a third. Yes, it’s just one light.

These clothes, these personalities: all borrowed from that same light.

When we praise with a full heart, we return light to Light. ------------- From Rumi

Video by Ian Hall

Remember the Millenium Development Goals

 Humans of New York's photo.

Humans of New York

Beginning tomorrow, I'll be taking a 50 day trip in partnership with the United Nations, supported by the Secretary General's MDG Advocacy Group. I'll be posting portraits and stories from the trip on the blog. We're calling it a 'World Tour,' because the trip will span over 25,000 miles and circumnavigate the globe. But since there are only ten countries on the itinerary, it would be rather foolish to claim that these portraits and stories somehow represent 'the world,' or humanity as a whole. The point of the trip is not to "say" anything about the world. But rather to visit some faraway places, and listen to as many people as possible.

In addition to gathering portraits and stories, the purpose of the tour is to raise awareness for the Millennium Development Goals, which are pictured. The MDG's are eight international development goals that every member state of the UN agreed we should accomplish by the year 2015. Basically: they're stuff that everyone can agree the world needs. (More info can be found here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). So in addition to telling stories of individuals, we hope this trip may in some way help to inspire a global perspective, while bringing awareness to the challenges that we all need to tackle together. Hope you enjoy.

More about the Millenium Development Goals

How to help Christians, Yezidis, and other minorities fleeing Northern Iraq

Picture from The Catholic Sun

If you have been concerned about what you hear of the goings-on in Northern Iraq with regard to Christians and other minorities, here is your opportunity to do something constructive ....

Further reading:

Minorities in Iraq
Who are the Yazidis and why is ISIS hunting them?
GENOCIDE: Christians, religious minorities flee violent persecution in Iraq
No mass said in Mosul for the first time in 1600 years
Mosul

A morning meditation - #1

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,

places to play in and pray in,

where nature may heal and give

strength to body and soul. 

~~~~ John Muir

 

Picture from here

We simplify our lives.

We live gladly with less. 

We let go the illusion that we can possess.

We create instead.

We let go the illusion of mobility.

We travel in stillness.

We travel at home.

By candlelight and in stillness.

In the presence of flowers,

We make our pilgrimage.

We simplify our lives.

~~~~Leunig

Picture from here

On the death of James Foley, Journalist: on sitting in the extradordinary sadness that we might not diminish our own humanity

Look out below - Ballarat and the gold rush

One of the joys of living in Ballarat

is that the history of the goldrush era of the 1850s

is at your fingertips.

There is an active historical society.

There is Sovereign Hill and the Gold Museum.

The list is quite extensive.

Here to give a musical flavour to the ethos of Ballarat 

is a song from that pillar of Australia's folk-singing establishment

Warren Fahey.

The Anglican Parish of Gosford and the rising star of Father Rod Bowers

Father Rod Bowers is a bit of a stand-out within the Anglican Church in Australia.  His fame has grown on social media with his use of the noticeboard at the Anglican Church of Gosford. Father Rod posts pithy sayings on the church noticeboad, photographs them and everyone sees them on Facebook.  Most - but not all - relate to current affairs.  With some of these, Father Rod points out the contrast with the teachings of Jesus.  However, as you can see from the picture above of the current (as this post is written) header on the parish Facebook site, Father Rod has become quite blunt indeed on his assessment of this nation's matters of governance. 

Picture above is from here

Here is the latest noticeboard offering from Father Rod ...

 

(for those who haven't heard what Australia's Prime Minister

has been saying this week - this is a reference to the PM's

talk of TEAM AUSTRALIA)

South Sudan Humanitarian Snapshot as at 15 August 2014

Is it possible? A Peaceable Economy by Edward Dommen

From the World Council of Churches:

A Peaceable Economy

A

Edward Dommen

Visions & Voices series

Specs: 172 pp.; 5 x 7”; paper; perfect; 4-colour cover
Topic/Shelving: Religion / Economics
ISBN: 978-2-8254-1639-6
Price: CHF 7.00; £5.00; €5.00; $7.00; Spring 2014

Order: ww.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.com, www.ISBS.com, www.gazellebookservices.co.uk and at local bookstores and online booksellers.

Rethinking the foundational elements in economics-

Edward Dommen has taken up the challenge and breaks fresh ground. His shrewd critique of conventional economics is supported by a penetrating use of biblical and Reformation teachings, and he convincingly shows that another world can be made - is - possible." --Gilbert Rist, author of The Delusions of Economics

The same dynamic drives all kinds of economy and wars: it is cumulative causation, along the lines of "Those who have will receive more and they will have more than enough; but as for those who don't have, even the little they have will be taken away from them." Violence is rooted in the workings of both economies and war. The purpose of war is to compel others to do our will, and it is the outcome of many kinds of economic activity. War and economies are intimately related. The key to an alternative vision is the injunction, "Love your neighbour as yourself.. However, while sermons are easy, there is no conclusive evidence that humanity has made moral progress over time. The struggle for a peaceable economy must be ceaseless, repeated again and again to counterbalance the inertia of cumulative causation. As William the Silent said, "One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere."

Edward Dommen is a specialist in economic ethics, a longtime economist for the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and a Quaker. He lives in Geneva.

Click here to download the table of contents, introduction and chapter 1 (pdf)

Compassion as an essential ingredient for a better community: @ M.A.D.E., 6pm Friday 22 August.

From Margarent Lenan Ellis, 

Public Relations Officer - Ballarat Interfaith Network ~~~

Ballarat Interfaith Network (BIN) is delighted to partner with the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council (BRMC) in hosting an Interfaith Forum calling for Compassion as an Essential Ingredientfor a Better Community.

This public forum, to be held at M.A.D.E. on Friday 22 August at 6pm, presents the opportunity to hear speakers from diverse faith backgrounds offer spiritual insight into the healing and enabling power of compassion – within ourselves, our families, communities and nations of the world.

By juxtaposing Ghandi’s quote on the forum flier: Be the Change you want See in the World with a topic calling for increased compassion as a way of implementing positive change, this interfaith forum invites all attending to both hear and contribute to deeply purposeful discussion. 

Following introduction of the topic by the guest speakers, everyone will have the opportunity to respond to and discuss the topic with others in the audience.

Such discussions can be stimulating, revelatory and even challenging – catalysts for change within ourselves, and our own fields of influence.

We hope you take the time to join BRMC and BIN in participating in this Interfaith Forum at M.A.D.E.  (102 Stawell St Sth, Ballarat) at 6pm on Friday 22 August.

St Paul's has a direct connection to this event.  Our Parish Priest, Father Constantine, is a member of both BRMC and BIN and one of the main organisers of this event.

Do we, too, walk on by?

“We got a lot of weird stares from everyone and you felt helpless while you were sitting there thinking ‘why isn’t anyone helping me? Why isn’t anyone asking about it?’ ” year 11 student Sarah Azzi said. “And it’s really symbolic of what’s happening to refugees because they sit in the detention centres, everyone knows they are there, but no one really does anything about.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/catholic-school-kids-protest-against-asylum-seeker-policies-20140815-104iq1.html#ixzz3Ah2dnwTS

Suffering in South Sudan - in knee-deep, sewage-contaminated floodwater

There are currently almost 100,000 internally displaced persons sheltering in UN camps, which have been affected by severe flooding. On Friday, Médecins Sans Frontières told Reuters that conditions in the camp in Bentiu, where refugees are living in knee-deep, sewage-contaminated floodwater, were "an affront to human dignity".

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams has just returned from a visit to Christian Aid's projects in South Sudan. In a report broadcast on Radio 4's Sunday programme last week, he said: "The international community needs to keep up the pressure - intensely - towards reconciliation in the country. We have warring factions who seem to have very little concern for the suffering of the ordinary people of this country."

Read more >>> http://goo.gl/3bYcj8

The mixed messages of youth employment and unemployment in 2014 Australia

 Picture above is from here

Darwin is one place where there is a drastic labour shortage, as local workers flock to the new $34bn Ichthys gas project, and as my colleague Helen Davidson reported this week it is also an eligible location under a new government incentive scheme which offers unemployed Australians up to $9,000 to move for work.

Not many have taken up the offer yet, and we probably won’t get the chance to see whether the new hardline welfare policies make a difference to that because the government has just designated Darwin as a special migration area where employers can fill jobs in 19 occupations with foreign workers.

...The above is an extract from a Lenore Taylor article. Read it in its entirety here.

Further reading:

• 457 Visa
• NT's Ichthys project: move to relax 457 visas 'an attack on young unemployed' ----Greens and unions condemn concessions on visa requirements amid labour shortage created by giant gas project 
•  Australian Government - Working in Australia
• Department of Immigration and Border Protection - Designated Areas of Australia  
• Darwin to have a 'designated area migration agreement' to combat skills drain to LNG projects
• Dept of Immigration and Border Protection Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia

The picture below is from here

 

A letter from Lisa: the realities of sending refugees & asylum seekers to Cambodia

The following letter from Lisa Collyer to Scott Morrison - Australia's Minister for Immigration - was published by Julian Burnside on Twitter on Saturday 16 August 2014.  You can download from this posts or read it online at this post.

Cambodian deal to resettle immigrants imminent

Cambodia's PM Hun Sen confirms controversial agreement to resettle refugees from Australia

Cambodia asylum deal to go ahead despite intense opposition

Khartoum, the film: a Hollywood epic that conveys, in an abbreviated way, the history behind the current conflict in South Sudan.

Further to the previous post, this afternoon GEM is showing the 1966 film Khartoum.  This is a Hollywood movie of its time about events that took place in the British colony of Sudan about 130 years ago.  

Readers will understand that this version of events must not be relied on for historical accuracy ... but at least it is a shorthand way of catching up on what may not be taught at school in history classes anymore ... but it was taught to Australian school students until a few decades ago.  

A reading of the story outline will show that, as occurs many times in human 'civilisation', everything old is new again.

War and War Crimes, Famine, Human Rights violations in South Sudan

 This maps comes from the site

All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide

and Other Crimes Against Humanity

The United Nations says the deepening humanitarian emergency in South Sudan is the "worst in the world" and warns 50,000 children could die this year unless the aid effort is scaled up. But it’s largely a forgotten crisis, overshadowed by strife in other parts of the world including Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. Aid agencies say they've found it difficult to raise money to fund operations in South Sudan, despite a growing threat of famine.

Caitlin Brady, an aid worker with Save the Children in South Sudan, said about 4 million people in the country are "very, very” hungry – more than 2 million of them children.

"It’s a very dire situation," she said. "Responding to hunger is probably the number one priority. The aid community has stepped up to try and respond but we need to do more."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/south-sudan-pushed-to-the-brink-by-war-and-hunger-20140808-101rfm.html#ixzz3AJZM9qB9

Other sites of interest on this topic:
South Sudan - Wikipedia
Human Rights in South Sudan - Wikipedia 
UNICEF - South Sudan
The complexities of declaring famine in South Sudan 
Human Rights Watch - South Sudan 
UN urges investigation into human rights violations in South Sudan 
Human Rights Watch on Facebook

Please note: this article may seem glib - but it's not really.  What is happening in the former British colony of Sudan is complex.  This analogy of cowboys and cattle helps those of us who can't figure it out to come to a better understanding of the complexity of the situation.

Can a bit of a giggle help us to change our wilful ways on climate change?

I have to admit that I love the wit and humour of the quirky bunch of Anglicans at Ship of Fools.  Please drop by and have a squizz.  Although I must say that I do miss the fictional doings of the Diocese of Foulness even though it has been gone for donkeys' years.

Paul Kerensa has developed a stand-up show on climate change. He has interesting things to say:

Since engaging with Operation Noah, I'm starting to realise a casual brush-past of the issues isn't enough.

We need to change our ways, the church's ways and the government's ways.

I'm reading a lot on the climate change issue. Admittedly a lot of it is on paper which in turn has come from more rainforests, but it's a start.

In short, we need to turn our heads around - individually and collectively - to get to the right solutions to make an equitable and liveable world.

Please - take offence at the real things: war, poverty, greed, injustice, inequity

Stop being offended by Facebook posts - 

by a piece of art - by people displaying affection - 

by what someone said to you.

Be offended by war, poverty, greed, injustice.

Keep it real.

Women to pay much more than men for their degrees?

Picture of Jane Caro from here.
 
Here is why. Women graduates already earn an average of $1m less than their male peers across their lifetime. And that’s for a bog-standard BA! They earn less for all sorts of reasons, including taking time out to have children, cutting back to part-time work when their kids are small, and the persistent 17% pay gap between male and female full-time workers. Oh, and that’s at the bottom end of the earning scale. There is evidence that shows the higher up the earnings ladder you go (and graduates as a whole earn an average of $1m more in their life than non-graduates), the larger the wage gap between male and female earners.  Read the whole article here.

Electricity metering for low income households? No way, VCOSS tells Victorian Govt

Prepayment meters not the answer for Victorians

The Victorian Government should not introduce prepaid electricity metering for low income households as such a scheme would leave people without access to this vital essential service, warns the Victorian Council of Social Service.

“Prepayment meters were banned in Victoria in 2004 for good reason: they significantly increase the risk and incidence of loss of electricity supply and offer no offsetting advantages to energy consumers,” said Emma King, CEO of VCOSS.

“VCOSS objects to a system whereby households are required to pre-pay for energy in order to have it supplied, and in which the energy supply is disconnected when it has not been prepaid for.”

“Prepayment metering is an inappropriate means of addressing the very real hardship situations faced by many Victorians. The mass rollout of prepayment should not be pursued.”

“Proponents of prepayment metering often say that it helps households manage their expenditure, avoid bill shock, and avoid running up debt. However the Victorian Customer Protection Framework offers a range of regulations and support systems to do exactly this. What prepayment doesn’t solve is the problem of households not having a reliable, sufficient supply of energy to meet their needs.”

“Victorian energy retailers have a poor track record when it comes to wrongfully disconnecting people’s energy supplies despite having a legal obligation to ensure people in hardship are not inappropriately cut off.”

“Any moves to prepayment metering would hide the true extent of hardship and remove retailers’ obligation to provide access to what is a life-giving essential service.”

“A new VCOSS report on prepayment metering finds the devices fail on three key measures of accountability and success. The report found prepaid meters:

• do not solve the problem that they purport to solve
• offer nothing to vulnerable consumers that cannot be delivered by other means
• cannot deliver the full complement of elements of the customer protection framework.”

“Prepayment metering will leave people worse off, at increased risk of significant hardship and is an idea that should be rejected by the Victorian Government.”

For more information, or to arrange an interview with Emma King
contact John Kelly – M: 0418 127 153

Follow the conversation at www.twitter.com/vcoss

VCOSS
Level 8, 128 Exhibition Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
T: 03 9235 1000 F: 03 9654 5749 W: http://www.vcoss.org.au E: vcoss@vcoss.org.au

Robert Kennedy and the "Ripple of Hope" speech

Each time a person stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others,
they send forth a tiny ripple of hope ...
These ripples build a current
Which can sweep down the mightiest walls
of oppression and resistance.
~~~ Robert F Kennedy

To learn more of where this quote comes from,
please go here. 
To read RFK's "Ripple of Hope" speech in its entirety,
please go here
To find out more about March Australia,
please go here
March Australia is also on Facebook & Twitter.
The links to those sites can be found through the site above.

“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

Morning everyone. 

This post serves to advise that the historic Ballarat parish of Saint Paul's Anglican Church at Bakery Hill is in the midst of establishing a voice for social and environmental justice under the title of Advocacy @ St Pauls. 

It would be so nice if you could help us to establish ourselves in the world of social media - by emailing our future posts to your networks as appropriate; friending us; liking us; re-posting and re-tweeting from our blog.

And if you think there is something we should be investigating and talking about, please let us know that too. We would like to hear from other Anglican parishes who have a similar group in their parish. If you wish to email us please write to: advocacyballarat@gmail.com

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Advocacy-at-St-Pauls/1511054672464178

Blog
Advocacy
http://advocacyatstpauls.blogspot.com.au/

Twitter
https://twitter.com/StPaulsVoice