Climate change : security and safety nets

Cambodia? Unbelievable! - from the #AnglicanParishofGosford

A Sabbath thinking piece - #1

One of my favourite internet sites is brain pickings. It is compiled by the wonderful Maria Popova.  The site is full of stuff which reflects its title.  I wanted to include it for the readers of Advocacy as a thinking piece, a reflective interlude. And to introduce you to a site which is part of the treasure trove of good things to be found on the 'net!

Mary Oliver (b. September 10, 1935) is among the most beloved and most prolific poets of the past century — a devoted craftswoman of exquisite poems and a sage of the secrets of the craft itself.

In this recording from a 2001 event held by the Lannan Foundation — the same reading that gave us Oliver on the magic of punctuation — the beloved writer reads the poem that would go on to become one of her most celebrated and lend its title to her 2004 volume Wild Geese: Selected Poems (public library). Oliver’s work speaks so deeply and with such courageous honesty to some of our most profound human perplexities, struggles, and exaltations that it is read everywhere from commencement addresses to yoga classes, endlessly replicated on the social web and borrowed for those formulaic chapter-opening quotations in pop-psychology and self-help books. And yet despite the vast exposure, something singular, something mesmeric and immutably moving happens as Oliver swirls the intricate thought-things of her poem in her own mouth — to say nothing of the impossibly charming George Eliot anecdote with which she prefaces the reading:

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Wild Geese: Selected Poems is a soul-stretching read in its entirety. Complement it with Oliver’s deeply endearing Dog Songs, one of the best books of 2013.

Advocacy for the human rights of indigenous peoples: a new document from the United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples

 From a World Council of Churches Press Release:

New UN document enables churches to do more for indigenous rights

The WCC Indigenous People’s representatives in New York for the UN World Conference on Indigenous PeoplesScattered throughout the recent history of Indigenous Peoples are national treaties, declarations and laws that languish in obscurity or are brushed aside and ignored.

Scattered throughout the recent history of Indigenous Peoples are national treaties, declarations and laws that languish in obscurity or are brushed aside and ignored.

Adding insult to injury, when many national and local churches attempt to speak out about the denial of rights of Indigenous Peoples they are told by governments that the church has no place in politics, effectively being seen but not heard.

Yet a new “outcome document” of the United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples is about to turn that perspective on its head. The world’s governments are now inviting churches and other civil society groups to be seen and heard when it comes to advocating for Indigenous Peoples’ human rights.  [To read further please go here]

WCC minute on Indigenous Peoples

UN Outcome Document from the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The largest ever climate march in history took place around the world. Here's what it looked like here.

It happened almost one week ago. On Sunday last, nearly one million people across the world came together to take part in what is being called "the largest ever climate march in history". Want to see what it looks like to make history? Check out the video.  It's from Get Up!

#BlessedAreTheCrazy - A Synchroblog event. Please join in.

For Advocates of social justice who blog, please consider this synchroblog which is happening NOW!  Details below.  If you wish, you can send your posts to advocacyballarat@gmail.com for publication here.

There is a synchroblog coming up. This is the facebook site which references it >>> http://goo.gl/xMzYBH The details below are copied from the site:

To commemorate the launch of Sarah Griffith Lund‘s new book — Blessed Are The Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family, and Church — and to participate in National Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct. 5-11), we invite you to join in a Synchroblog on mental illness, family, and church.

Break the silence by sharing your personal story of how you’ve been impacted by mental illness in your family and/or in your faith community.

NOTE: We are joining with another synchroblog for this event, so the posting date and instructions are a bit different. This is also coming up quickly!

First, publish your post by midnight on MONDAY, October 6th. Post the links in the comment section here as normal. We at the synchroblog will post all your links over at the Facebook event for the other group.

If you want, you may also use the hashtag ‪#‎BlessedAreTheCrazy‬ when you post your links to your blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Follow the hashtag:https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BlessedAreTheCrazy

Second, we will put up the full link list on Tuesday, October 7th for you to publish at the end on your blog post.

We hope you will participate and break the silence by sharing YOUR story!

Here is the Synchroblog post for this event:

http://synchroblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/october-synchroblog-announcement-mental-illness-awareness/

Taking notice of the neighbours .... in Taiwan

Our world is highly internationalised to-day.  We need to get to know our neighbours.  For Australia, that is the nations of the Asia-Pacific

~~~~~

House of Bishops leaving Taiwan with ‘hearts and minds expanded’

Seven-day meeting in Taipei shows ‘no diocese is too small or too far away’

By Mary Frances Schjonberg | September 23, 2014 Leave a Comment |

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The House of Bishops and Spouses Choir rehearses prior to Eucharist Sept. 23 on the closing day of the house’s meeting in Taipei. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service – Taipei, Taiwan] Members of the House of Bishops are leaving their meeting here with an expanded view of ministry of the Episcopal and Anglican churches in Asia.

“This meeting has offered abundant opportunities to expand our vision of what is possible as we engage God’s mission,” Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in a written statement released at the conclusion of the Sept. 17-23 meeting, the first gathering of the house in Asia.

“We have built new relationships with our partners in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and with our brother and sisters in Taiwan,” she said. “We’ve discovered new readings of the old, old stories and new theological perspectives rooted in different parts of God’s creation. With hearts and minds expanded, we know ourselves part of a body larger and with deeper bonds than we imagined.”

Jefferts Schori called the hospitality of the host Diocese of Taiwan “full measure, pressed down, and overflowing.”

“May God continue to richly bless this part of The Episcopal Church,” she said.

Diocese of Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe, vice president of the House of Bishops, said in his statement that “all of us who have congregants from Asia have gained a deeper understanding of the context from which our brothers and sisters have come and a greater appreciation for the Christian witness along the Pacific Rim.”

Wolfe also addressed the issue of the reason for traveling to Taiwan. “We traveled a very long way and at no small expense to come to Taiwan to reinforce a principal which is dear to us; that every diocese is an essential member of our family of faith and no diocese is too small or too far away,” he said.

Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Diane Jardine Bruce, assistant secretary of the house, echoed that sentiment saying that “with the growing Asian community in the United States, especially on the West Coast including my home diocese of Los Angeles, having firsthand knowledge and witness of the context and content of ministry and mission, we are able to more directly address our mutual needs.”

And Bishop Todd Ousley of Eastern Michigan, co-chair of the house’s planning committee, evoked Archbishop Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu’s description the day before of how the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (the Anglican Church in Japan) has pledged itself to work for peace and reconciliation, grounded in repentance.

“I leave this meeting reminded that to be an apostle, one who is sent, and to invite others to be people sent to proclaim God’s message of peace and reconciliation, we must not rush headlong into action with programs and events,” Ousley said. “Rather, we must begin with self-examination and spiritual acts of repentance that ground our message and lend it integrity. Only then will our message of peace and reconciliation be received as the Good News that it indeed is.”

The complete texts of the bishops’ four statements are here.

Taiwan Bishop David Jung-Hsin Lai presides at the closing Eucharist Sept. 23 at the House of Bishops’ meeting in Taipei. The Rev. Stephanie Spellers and the Rev. Simon Bautisa Betances, chaplains to the bishops, assisted at Eucharist. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service

Also on the concluding dayDuring a business meeting on Sept. 23, the final day of the seven-day gathering, the bishops asked Jefferts Schori to consult with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby “and seek ways that the communion could be agents of peace” in the rapidly changing situation involving Islamic militancy and its threats to Christians and others. Jefferts Schori said that she would be talking to Welby in a few weeks and would pass along the house’s concern.

Later in the business-meeting portion of the session, Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Provisional Clifton Daniel moved that the House of Bishops “express its thanks to our presiding bishop, for her witness, her life and her ministry as our presiding bishop and wish her Godspeed as her tenure in this position continues.”

“Is there a discussion?” Jefferts Schori asked, to laughter. “This is awkward.”

Vice President Wolfe stepped in to say: “All those in favor, signify by saying …” only to be interrupted by applause as the bishops rose to their feet.

Before the business meeting, the house met town hall-style during which individual bishops updated their colleagues on ongoing issues in their lives and dioceses. Among the comments made were:

• Introducing himself as “the bishop of Ferguson,” Diocese of Missouri Bishop Wayne Smith told the house that the Aug. 9 racially charged fatal shooting of Michael Brown and the community upheaval in its aftermath had deep roots.
  “St. Louis city and county are a mess but we have been a long time getting to this place,” he said, explaining that when French Creole settlers came to what is now St. Louis 250 years ago they brought with them about 30 slaves.
  From that beginning, he said, “the dominant culture has been trying to rob African-Americans of their personhood and the dominant culture has prevailed, the dominant culture has won.”
  Smith reminded that Dred Scott, whom the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1857 was neither free nor a citizen, is buried three miles from Ferguson.
  “The means of robbing people of African descent, of their citizenship still exist and it is practiced very well in St. Louis city and county,” Smith said. “It’s called the criminal justice system now.”
  While there is a very high bar for that system to arrest and convict a white man such as himself of a felony offense, Smith said that bar is set very low for African-Americans in the St. Louis area. “And once that happens, you are no one,” Smith said. “The oppression continues.”
  He told the bishops that comments about Brown’s character, positive or negative, are not useful.
  “What’s important for people who look like me,” said Smith, “is to encounter the rage of the community in that aftermath and to be quiet. We have a great deal to learn from that rage – not the violence, but the rage. The rage is there; there’s a reason for that rage, 250 years’ worth.”
  Smith said he is proud of Episcopalians both lay and clergy in the diocese and beyond who respond to this “wound to our corporate life.”
• Diocese of Newark Bishop Mark Beckwith reported that he has spoken often to Liberian Archbishop Jonathan Hart about the Ebola epidemic that is devastating his country.
  “The economy that was on a very slender thread to begin with has cratered because of this,” Beckwith said, noting that all schools are closed, including the diocese’s Cuttington University which has Liberia’s largest nursing school. A number of Cuttington graduates have died during the outbreak, he said. [ENS story here.]
  “The churches are open and they are offering worship with safety precautions they have not experienced before,” Beckwith said.
  During the country’s 20-year civil war people knew who the enemy was, Hart had told Beckwith. With Ebola, “the enemy” is not so obvious, Beckwith said, and “people are accusing folks in villages and towns of being carriers of the disease so social unrest is rampant.”
  The epidemic is “beyond what any individual diocese can do” in terms of material aid, Beckwith said.
  “The problem is so massive and our prayers are really what he is asking for most,” Beckwith concluded.
• Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin told the house that his country is still trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake.
  “Some efforts have been made but not enough to give the Haitian people a real hope,” he said. “Political fighting, lack of infrastructure of all kinds, problems of education, health care, communications, electricity, unemployment, et cetera.”
  “However, the Haitian people always believe in a better future and it is what gives them joy even though they are suffering,” he said.
  In terms of the diocese, “we have always said that the earthquake has not destroyed the church but our buildings. Our community of faith is there, love and determination are there,” Duracin said, adding that all the diocesan churches and institutions are operating “even though the challenges are still there.”
  With the help of the wider Episcopal Church, the diocese has built new churches and rebuilt others since the quake, especially outside of Port-au-Prince.
  Fundraising for the cathedral rebuilding effort is moving forward but more money is needed, the said.
• In response to a question from Rochester Bishop Prince Singh about budgeting for the next Lambeth Conference and speculation about when and if the gathering will be held, Jefferts Schori told the bishops that the conference will probably not happen in 2018, which would have fit the conference’s traditional 10-year cycle. No planning or fundraising has taken place for a 2018 meeting, she said.
  Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby “has been very clear that he is not going to call a Lambeth [Conference] until he is reasonably certain that the vast majority of bishops would attend. It needs to be preceded by a primates meeting at which a vast majority of primates are present,” she said. “As he continues his visits around the communion to those primates it’s unlikely that he will call such a meeting at all until at least a year from now or probably 18 months from now. Therefore I think we are looking at 2019, more likely 2020, before a Lambeth Conference.”
  Whenever the next Lambeth Conference occurs “it will have a rather different format,” she predicted. For intstance, it is likely that spouses will not attend “simply because of scale issues and regional contextual issues. Bishops’ spouses fill very different roles in different parts of the communion and the feedback from the last one was that it did not serve the spouses particularly well,” Jefferts Schori explained.

On Sept. 24, a number of bishops head to Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines or Korea to continue learning about the mission and ministry of the Anglican Church in those contexts.

The meeting is taking place at the Grand Hotel in Taipei. Some bishops are blogging from the meeting about their visit to Taiwan, including

• Newark Bishop Mark Beckwith
• Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Diane Jardine Bruce
• Nevada Bishop Dan Edwards
• Western Massachusetts Bishop Douglas Fisher
• North Dakota Assisting Bishop Carol Gallagher
• Lexington Bishop Doug Hahn
• Rhode Island Bishop Nicholas Knisely
• Bishop Suffragan for Armed Services & Federal Ministries Jay Magness
• Olympia Bishop Greg Rickel
• Delaware Bishop Wayne Wright

Others are tweeting during the meeting using #HOBFall14. Those tweets can be read here.

– The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.

Health Advocacy Organisations call on Australian Government & Parliament to show leadership...

Health groups call for leadership in healthcare funding   Tuesday September 23, 2014As a new AIHW report showing declining health spending is released, a wide range of health advocacy organisations have joined together today to call on the Government and Parliament to show leadership in relation to health funding, and ensure that decisions take into account the health of everyone in the community, particularly the most vulnerable. A wide range of health advocacy organisations have joined together today to call on the Government and Parliament to show leadership in relation to health funding, and ensure that decisions take into account the health of everyone in the community, particularly the most vulnerable. "Good health is a fundamental building block to the well-being of individuals, communities and the economy. There is a need for considered and evidence based approaches to healthcare funding and services," CEO of ACOSS, Dr Cassandra Goldie said today while launching the statement. "Community organisations with a deep interest in health are growing increasingly alarmed about the significant changes that are being proposed in the area of health, without significant community discussion about the implications, particularly on those who are most vulnerable and most likely to be impacted by changes such as the proposed GP co-payment. "Organisations who have signed up to today's statement remain opposed to any form of GP co-payment, even one with exemptions as this does not go far enough to ensure that those who most need healthcare are not faced with cost barriers. "Any changes in healthcare funding needs to protect those who are most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Current proposals on the table do not adequately address the impacts on groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, those with chronic illness, and older members of our community. We also know that those who are poorer are more likely to be sick. So, it is those who are least likely to be able to afford it who are going to be most impacted by measures such as new or increased co-payments. "In addition to proposals such as the GP co-payment, and increases to the co-payment for PBS medicines, there are other adverse changes being made through the budget, such as the reduction of funding to health promotion and preventative health. It's hard to see how this will help improve people's health and take off pressure in the health system. "There is strong evidence that supports investing in preventive health as the most long-term, cost effective and ethical approach to maintaining and improving Australia's universal health care system. Investing in a healthy Australia takes strong leadership and a vision for a better future for all people and communities in Australia. "The groups who have come together today stand ready to work with Government to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health system. We call on the Government and the Parliament to focus on evidence, and not be tempted to introduce short term fixes to expenditure which will only cost more in the long term," Dr Goldie concluded. A copy of the Joint Community Statement on Health and signatories can be found here Sign on Organisations Media Contacts: Australian Association of Social Workers - 0400 613 516 Australian Council of Social Service - 0419 626 155 Australian Federation of Aids Organisations - 0421 040 538 Australian Men's Health Forum - 0437 571 130 Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation - 0411 254 390 Catholic Social Services Australia - 0400 576 917 Consumers Health Forum of Australia - 0414 358 091 MS Australia - 0427959972 National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations - 02-6246 9347 Public Health Association of Australia - 0417 249 731

The art of Chatterboxing: taking a human from isolated silence to interconnection

In these days, when we hear a lot about depression and suicide, we are often advised to ask those in our circle of family and friends "Are you OK?"  One of the basic things in our lives is to treat others as humans just like us.  To be interested in others.  To take time to be with others.

Over on Facebook, a group has been set up called Chatterboxing.   Many of us do more than ask another "Are you OK?"  We actually find ourselves in situations where we have interesting conversations with complete strangers - hence the title of Chatterboxing meaning, in this instance, to chatter to others.

Chatterboxing is a site where one can record and celebrate the art of chatterboxing with complete strangers.  It might be on a rail journey, a bus ride, sitting at a bus stop, riding in a taxi, or at a coffee shop.

Chatterboxing is a period of connection with another human being - with someone we don't have a clue about yet some magic moment happens when we are engaged with the other quite unexpectedly.  These moments are precious.  And - who knows - it may be the only conversation that person has with another human all day.

Sometimes we never see that person again.  The joyous interlude becomes a hallowed memory.  But, sometimes, one thing leads to another - a cup of coffee, a romance, marriage, friendship, relationship.
It might be that these magic conversational moments are a vital part of building community. It might be that in this conversation we demonstrate to each other that we are human and part of something larger than ourselves.  Chatterboxing takes a human being from isolated silence to a period of interconnection with another.

National Child Protection Week 2014

National Child Protection Week 2014 – Play Your Part (7-13 Sept)

Posted: Thursday 4th September 2014 08:45 pm

National Child Protection Week runs from 7-13 September 2014.

For over 20 years NAPCAN has been running an annual National Child Protection Week campaign developing multimedia, visual and text resources to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of primary prevention to reduce child abuse and neglect in Australia.

The PLAY YOUR PART campaign builds on the strengths of previous years and has evolved to provide support to communities to act on the core message, “protecting children is everyone’s business”.

“The Anglican Church is committed to ensuring that
all children in any of its institutions and
all those who come into contact with the Church will be protected.”

This commitment was made in 2008 at the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Perth when an apology was made to the people whose experiences as children in institutional and out-of-home care provided by the Anglican Church had caused them hurt, distress, and harm.

During National Child Protection Week, it is an opportunity to reflect on what we are currently doing to protect and care for children and young people, how we can better support families, and what we can do to promote health and wellbeing amongst children and young people.

Background screening using police clearances, Working with Children Checks and reference checks has been a useful first step in ensuring that people are screened in to appropriate roles in the Church. But this is only one aspect of what is needed for us to truly play our part.

Since 2004, the Diocese has provided child protection training to its clergy and lay leaders. In the last few years, over 2500 Anglicans across the Diocese have attended ChurchSafe workshops. In conjunction with our code of conduct ‘Faithfulness in Service’ and our safety manual ‘Protecting People, Protecting Property’, ChurchSafe helps lay leaders and other responsible adults in our worshipping communities to know and recognise appropriate boundaries, behaviours and practices.

However, in the context of National Child Protection Week, if our worshipping communities are to be truly life-giving in relation to children and young people, we need to move beyond simply creating a ‘Safe Place’ in the sense of ‘child protection’ or ‘risk management’.

We should:

• provide spaces that are welcoming and comfortable, and
• find ways for meaningful engagement and interaction, where children and young people can be heard.

We also need to be ‘family-friendly’ by recognising the needs and challenges of families in our midst.

If we can do all these things, then we will play our part in making Western Australia a safer place for children and young people.

Hamish Milne
Director, Diocesan Services
Director, Education
Diocesan Registrar

Click on the image below for information about how Religious Communities can play their part to protect and care for children and young people.

Ring your Senators now: stop the Australian Government reintroducing Terrible Protection Visas

When you have read this - 

pop over to the Amnesty site for more information.

Separation from family has been shown to cause increased mental health problems for TPV holders © EPA/OLIVER WEIKEN

Act now: Stop the reintroduction of TPVs

9 September 2014, 09:25AM

The Australian Government is negotiating with senators to bring back Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs), which would seriously undermine the human rights of refugees.

We urgently need your help to prevent this from happening.

How you can help

All you need to do to help is pick up your phone and urge the Senators from your State or Territory to oppose the reintroduction of TPVs.

Senators are accountable to the people they represent – that’s you! It’s their job to champion their community’s concerns and they listen to how their decisions are received before voting on a bill. So by contacting your senator you can influence the political process in Australia.

It is really easy, just follow our simple instructions.

HANDY RESOURCES

Brief: Asylum seeker key upcoming issues

Guide to effective advocacy

1) Call the electorate office of a senator in your state. You'll find their contact details on this list on the Parliament of Australia website.
2) State your name, where you’re from, and ask to leave a message.
3) Give the context for why you are calling.
4) Clearly state your message for the Senator.
5) Thank them for passing on the message and hang up.
6) Share this page with your friends and family on Facebook.

Need help? Contact us at activism@amnesty.org.au and we’ll take you through the process.

Mourning for those in another place - an ancient Christian tradition may not survive in modern Iraq

Picture above from here

We have heard the news reports.

What we can we see in the face of such horror.

What do we do to help in time of such massive need.

Let us seek together ways to be of some help

to or fellow Christians.

Anglican Overseas Aid
Go to the post linked here
for more detail on how to contribute.
Forms with details of how to contribute
are at the back of St Paul's 
under the Advocacy notice board

Aid to the Church in Need

Further reading:
Chaldean Catholic Church
Chaldean Christians 
Welcome to Chaldean Catholic Church 
As Iraqi Christians in U.S. watch ISIS advance,
they see 'Slow-Motion Genocide'. 

 

2014 Victorian Interfaith Network Conference - Sunday 23 November: Domestic Violence is on the Agenda

Cross posted from Beside The Creek, the blog the Ballarat Interfaith Network.

2014 Victorian Interfaith Network Conference - Sunday, November 23rd

The Faith Communities Council of Victoria, in association with Monash Interfaith Gathering and City of Monash, would like to invite you to the 2014 Victorian Interfaith Networks Conference on Sunday, November 23rd 2014.

The Victorian Interfaith Networks Conference (VINC) is a grass-roots conference which aims to help build the capacity and sustainability of existing multifaith/interfaith networks, bring people up-to-date with current multifaith/interfaith matters and provide networking opportunities

Mulgrave Community Centre

The 2014 VINC will be held at Mulgrave Community Centre - 355 Wellington Road, Mulgrave Victoria (Melway 80 D1).

The City of Monash is one of the most culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse communities in Victoria with at least 45% of Monash residents born overseas, 69% with at least one parent born overseas, 48% speaking a language other than English at home and over 30 religions represented in the Monash Municipality.

Monash Interfaith Gathering and City of Monash look forward to hosting this annual multifaith event and creating an opportunity for dialogue, sharing of good practice examples, networking and relationship building.

Schedule:

• 12:00pm-1:25pm Registration and Lunch (lunch closes 1:15pm)
• 1:30pm-2:15pm Honoured guests and keynote speech on Domestic Violence: Why Faith Communities need to be involved
• 2:20pm-3:15pm Workshops and Plenary sessions
• 3:20pm-3:45pm Afternoon Tea
• 3:50pm-4:45pm Workshops and Plenary sessions
• 4:50pm-5:00pm Closing ceremony

Workshops & Plenary Sessions:

1. Finding & writing grants for interfaith networks
2. Ideas on what programs to run in your interfaith network
3. Domestic Violence – why faith communities must be involved
4. The role of interfaith networks in a growing multifaith Victoria

Enrolment for workshops and planery sessions can be made on the day of event. Each attendee can enrol in up to two sessions. Please arrive early to ensure you enrol in your preferred sessions. For more information on each session click here.

Registration:To register for this free event please go to vinc.eventbrite.com.au - click on the green Register button, fill out your name and email address, and let us know of any special dietary requirements. Please note, places are limited so register early.

Further information:For more information on the 2014 Victorian Interfaith Networks Conference please contact:

• Mohamed Mohideen, Monash Interfaith Gathering - Mobile: 0425 739 364   Email:monashinterfaith@gmail.com   OR
• Sandy Kouroupidis, Faith Communities Council of Victoria - Mobile: 0413 347 055  OR Email:officer@faithvictoria.org.au

This event is proudly supported by the Victorian Multicultural Commission, Faith Communities Council of Victoria, City of Monash and Monash Interfaith Gathering

Media release can be downloaded from here Other material relating to the conference can be read on line and/or downloaded from the inclusions below:

Stories from the community #1 - The collection of a Refugee & Asylum Seeker Archive

Ian Hall is a member of the Christian community at Saint Paul's.  Ian does a lot of stuff on the internet but there is one important contribution he makes and that is his Facebook site, Parliaments of Australia --- Our future.

One of the main feature of this site is that it is intended as an archive of material relating to refugees.  It is a place that people concerned about Australia's public policy and its implementation relating to refugees can access information - information that can initiate letter writing campaigns, action, advocacy.

Please take a look at the links above.
Do you have material appropriate to the Parliaments of Australia --- Our future site?  Ian will be happy to receive material at the following: ihall2057@yahoo.com

It is hoped that this can be the first post in an on-going series of what the individuals who comprise the Christian community at Saint Paul's, Bakery Hill do in terms of carrying out in daily life the two commandments of Jesus - Love God: Love your neighbour.

Plastic waste as a currency reducing poverty: learn about social enterprise with a triple bottom line business model

An interesting Facebook site here.  If you want a more in-depth understanding, please go to the website.  You can learn about this social enterprise with a triple bottom line business model.

The richest 1% ---- you are likely to be one of them

Do you make $34,000 or more each year? If so, you're the world's richest 1% of people.
— Facts on Internet (@_InternetFacts_) September 2, 2014

Think twice about what you do with stuff!!!

Think twice before you trash it! Amazing before and after photo of a shoreline clean up in Sabah, Malaysia. #recycle pic.twitter.com/6urYLlsgqe
— Plastic Bank (@PlasticBank) September 2, 2014

Books: For Love of Animals - Christian ethics, consistent action

For Love of Animals is an honest and thoughtful look at our responsibility as Christians with respect to animals. Many Christians misunderstand both history and their own tradition in thinking about animals. They are joined by prominent secular thinkers who blame Christianity for the Western world's failure to seriously consider the moral status of animals.

This book explains how traditional Christian ideas and principles—like nonviolence, concern for the vulnerable, respect for life, stewardship of God's creation, and rejection of consumerism—require us to treat animals morally. Though this point of view is often thought of as liberal, the book cites several conservatives who are also concerned about animals. Camosy's Christian argument transcends secular politics.

The book's starting point for a Christian position on animals—from the creation story in Genesis to Jesus' eating habits in the Gospels—rests in Scripture. It then moves to explore the views of the Church Fathers, the teachings of the Catholic Church, and current discussions in both Catholic and Protestant theology. Ultimately, however, the book is concerned not with abstract ideas, but with how we should live our everyday lives. Should Christians eat meat? Is cooperation with factory farming evil? What sort of medical research on animals is justified? Camosy also asks difficult questions about hunting and pet ownership.

This is an ideal resource for those who are interested in thinking about animals from the perspective of Christian ethics and the consistent ethic of life. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter and suggestions for further reading round out the usefulness of this important work.

Other reviews of this book:

Christian Vegetarianism? A Reflection and Review of "For Love of Animals" by Charles Camosy

By the books: Charlie Camosy's For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action

Readers' comments at goodreads

 

The human purpose and the Martyrs of Papua New Guinea - let us remember.

We are here to heal not harm.

We are here to love, not hate.

We are here to create, not destroy.

Anthony Douglas Williams

The words above are particularly apt to-day.  To-day in the Anglican communion, especially in Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Martyrs of New Guinea are remembered.  It is likely that many will never have heard of these people - but they are remembered.  Their story lives on. 

Their names are:

The Revd Henry Matthews

The Revd Henry Holland

The Revd Vivian Frederick Barnes Redlich

The Revd John Frederick Barge

Sister Margery Brenchley

Sister May Hayman.

Miss Lilla Lashmar

Miss Mavis Parkinson

Mr John Duffill

Lucien Tapiedi

Leslie Gariardi 

For more details and photographs of those named above

please go to the blog Australian Christian Martyrs

The Diocese of Ballarat has as its patrons

Our Lady of Walshingham and the Martyrs of Papua New Guina. 

The Anglican Parish of Ararat, not far from Ballarat,

has a strong connection to the Martyrs

through its connection with the Rev Henry Matthews.

At the Ararat site, Advocates will find prayers 

relating to each of the Martyrs.