BatBubble
April 30, 2006
Age
Act 4 Asylum Seekers - YES AGAIN!
April 24, 2006
The UnitingJustice website has been updated to include a new fact sheet on the Government’s recent plan to extend the Pacific Solution, and a revised fact sheet on the campaign to end Refugee Warehousing. The Government plans to deport refugees who arrive in Australia without a valid visa, denying them resettlement under Australian law.
These materials, along with our earlier Call to Action around this issue can be accessed via the following link:
fhttp://assembly.uca.org.au/unitingjustice/reconcilinghumanity/asylumrefugees/index.htm#info
They can also be found by following the links on our homepage at
http://nat.uca.org.au/unitingjustice
Thanks,
UnitingJustice Australia
Asylum Review
In response to negative Indonesian reaction to the granting of protection visas to 42 of the 43 West Papuan asylum-seekers who reached the Australian mainland by boat in January, the Prime Minister has proposed changes to Australia’s laws regarding asylum seekers.
In summary the changes mean that:
• Any asylum seeker who arrives on any part of Australia by boat will be taken to Pacific Island detention (Nauru, PNG or Christmas Island) for processing.
• These asylum seekers will not have access to the Australian refugee determination process.
• Australian naval patrols will be increased to intercept boats of asylum-seekers (possibly cooperating with Indonesia to do this).
Please use the information below to urgently contact the media and politicians to raise concerns about these policies. Full contact details for newspapers, talkback radio and Senators and MPs is available at www.tear.org.au/advocacy/refugees/westpapua.php
A list of Senators and Cabinet contact details here.pdf and here
Legislation enacting these changes is likely to be put before Parliament in the Budget sitting week (9 - 11 May) so it is crucial that you contact your MP and State Senators before then. Ask MPs and Senators to:
• Seek a meeting with the Prime Minister and Immigration Minister and express their concerns about the legislation.
• Ask the Prime Minister not to bring forward legislation that will breach our international obligations, reverse the hard-won reforms of 2005 and change Australian law at the behest of Indonesia.
Ben & Age
Social Action Workshops - 29 April, 13 May
April 24, 2006
ADVOCACY IN ACTION
RMIT Community Advocacy Unit 2006 Workshop Series
Saturday 29 April, 10am
RMIT City Campus, Swanston Street, Melbourne
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY 1: PLANNING FOR ACTION
SATURDAY 29 APRIL, 10.00AM - 5.00PM
This practical workshop will explore the foundations of an advocacy or social action campaign. Participants will begin to develop a strategic campaign plan on an issue of their choice. Facilitated workshop sessions will include:
- setting campaign goals and objectives
- identifying target audiences
- developing key campaign messages
- developing a networking and alliance building strategy
- planning campaign actions
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY 2: COMMUNICATION AND ORGANISATION
SATURDAY 13 MAY, 10.00AM - 5.00PM
Building directly upon work commenced in Campaign Strategy 1: Planning for Action?, participants will further develop their campaign plans in the areas of communication and organisation. Facilitated workshop sessions will include:
- developing a campaign communication campaign: print media, web, radio
- developing a campaign organisational plan: leadership skills, group dynamics, peer training, facilitation skills, conflict resolution
COST: Fully waged $100 for two workshops / Concession $40 for two workshops
REGISTRATION: Registration closes Monday 24 April. Places are strictly
limited, so please register early!
ENQUIRIES: For further information or to register, please contact: 03 9925
2910; email advocacy@rmit.edu.au or visit http://advocacy.tce.rmit.edu.au
Costly Freedom - 26 Wed
April 24, 2006
Costly Freedom: An Ignatian Reading of the Gospel of Mark
A Lecture by Brendan Byrne SJ
Wednesday 26 April, 7.30pm
The Oratory, Newman College, 887 Swanston Street, Parkville
Presented by the Jesuit Theological College and Newman College; an event in the Jesuit Jubilee Lecture Series 2006
Brendan Byrne is Professor of New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, at the United Faculty of Theology. A recent member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, he has published and taught extensively on the Gospels for academic and general audiences alike.
Faith in Footsteps, Footsteps in Faith, the Jesuit Jubilee Lecture Series 2006, celebrates the 450th and 500th anniversaries of three founding companions of the Society of Jesus: Ignatius of Loyola (d. 1556), and Francis Xavier and Pierre Favre (b. 1506).
The lectures, by members of the professorial staff from Jesuit Theological College and Newman College, are designed to offer thought-provoking exploration on moving courageously today in the steps of our forebears in faith.
Entry is free but donations are welcome
Romero - Truth & Dare
April 20, 2006
"If you kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people."
"A bishop will die, but the Church of God which is the people will never perish."
"Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, ‘Thou shalt not kill’. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. … In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression."
"No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God – for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God."
"Aspire not to have more, but to be more."
"You say that you are Christian. If you are really Christian, please stop sending military aid to the military here, because they use it only to kill my people." (Letter to US President Jimmy Carter)
Losing Their Religion
April 19, 2006
"There are two great hungers in our world today, one for spiritual integrity and the other for social justice. And the connection between the two is the one the world is waiting for," he says.
"The churches ask for the edges of people’s lives, and that’s what they get, the edges. A whole generation of young people are looking for an agenda worthy of their energy and gifts, something big enough to give their lives to."
What changes history, Wallis believes, are social reform movements, especially in the United States, and the best ones have spiritual foundations: slavery, suffrage, child labour, civil rights. All were built and driven by faith and religious values.
"There’s a new social movement growing around the world committed to overcoming extreme poverty. The poverty we just accept will no longer be tolerable." Wallis is convinced that the values debate, including religious values, will shape politics for years to come. "We need a new moral discourse in public life. It’s something we all need, and are all needed for," he says. Most people practise the "politics of complaint" about how things are, but the world is hungry for a vision that says we can change things.
—–
For Wallis hope, even more than faith, is the key. The biggest choice of our time, he believes, is not between religion and secularism but between hope and cynicism. "Cynics are realists, they see the world as it is, and are against the bad stuff.
But they get discouraged and believe the bad stuff can’t change. Cynicism becomes a buffer against commitment."
Hope, in contrast, is not a state of mind or a feeling, but a decision you make. "And it’s a decision that animates social change. Desmond Tutu used to say, ‘We are a people who are prisoners of hope’."
Read the entire article on Jim’s recent Australian visit at: Losing their religion
Darren
Carpenter needed for Papua New Guinea- Urgent
April 19, 2006
Carpenter required for Salamo, Papuan Islands Region, PNG. A carpenter is required for volunteer work in Salamo from September 06 to June 07 (10months) to assist with building projects in the region. This position is under the auspices of the AUSAID program in partnership with the Uniting Church in Australia and the United Church in PNG.
If the person is under 30 years of age, expenses will be covered including international travel, living allowance, medical costs prior to placement, accommodation allowance, settling in costs, medical and travel insurance etc as part of the Australian Youth Ambassadors Program. If the person is over 30 years of age, international travel and living allowance will be provided.
The applicant would be expected to have cultural sensitivity and awareness, as well as professional skills in carpentry.
The deadline for applications is no later than Monday April 21st, 2006.
Further information can be obtained through Dennis Williams, 08 8552 7676,
dapmwill@bigpond.net.au, 0413 006 307.
Age
ichat Bubble
April 17, 2006
Paul, Rus & Mike "working"
Age
Update and New Action 4 Asylum Seekers
April 13, 2006
Dear Friends,
This morning, the Government announced changes to asylum seeker policy which will see future asylum seekers who land in Australia denied access to the onshore asylum program. Rather, they will be taken offshore and processed without access to Australia’s review processes. These changes were announced after recent pressure from the Indonesian Government over the successful asylum claims of 42 West Papuan refugees.
The President of the Uniting Church, Rev. Dr Dean Drayton, made a media release this afternoon condemning these plans.
UnitingJustice has also produced an updated Call to Action on the issue. Both of these documents can be accessed from the front page of the UnitingJustice website, http://nat.uca.org.au/unitingjustice. Please forward the updated call to action to your networks and friends.
Kind regards,
UnitingJustice Australia
Some of Deans comments
“This decision shows the Government’s commitment to human rights will now run, at best, a poor second to foreign policy considerations.
“Asylum seekers do not risk their lives and flee their homes for no reason. They flee because they are being persecuted and fearful of such human rights abuses as torture, unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping or death. Many flee because they have already experienced atrocities or have seen family members disappear or be killed.”
Rev. Drayton said the Uniting Church was appalled at reports the Government may allow foreign countries to provide advice to Australian officials processing asylum claims because it is counter to the spirit of fair and independent assessment processes laid down by the United Nations Convention on Refugees.
“We are appalled that the Government is willing to take advice from other governments rather than exercise its own moral leadership.
“What country anywhere in the world would openly admit human rights or other abuses against its citizens if asked to provide advice or a report to Australian Government officials?”
Rev. Drayton said the Uniting Church was also concerned at the apparent targeting of particular asylum seekers and moves to deny them the right to seek protection in Australia under Australian law.
“Moves to process asylum seekers in offshore centres severely reduces accountability and limits access for NGOs and churches, who currently provide valuable advocacy and welfare services to asylum seekers. It will also limit the appeals process available to asylum seekers whose initial claims are rejected. "
Age - Well it is Easter! - what better time to marginalise a refuge and side with the empire :(
The Resurrection and NonViolence
April 13, 2006
Some of the great thoughts by Ray Gingerich as found in the Anabaptist newsletter On the Road #30
In Jesus’ resurrection, nonviolent power counters the politics of empire.
For the early church, the resurrection account is the theological narrative that substantiates the political viability of nonviolence. The resurrection affords us a glimpse of the nonviolent power of God and the universe that is ordinarily obscured by the pervasive myth of redemptive violence. We need a theology that views Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation as epiphany, as proleptic manifestation of the power of the universe. Resurrection for the first Christian believers was the defeat of violence through exposing its illusory and deceptive character.
The church and its leadership must reclaim the power of nonviolence in order to represent the Jesus way in our present empire.
That God’s power is nonviolence may feel wildly out of sync with our everyday reality. Yet we should be psychologically and spiritually attuned to this alternative worldview, if our perceptions have been transformed by our Anabaptist heritage. Mennonites and other pacifist communities should be prepared culturally and politically to embrace this reality, to be the harbingers of nonviolence in a world dominated by the fear of violence.
The resurrection, although theoretically indispensable to salvation, has not served as theological bedrock for the practice of nonviolence. In much Mennonite theology, salvation and ethics, being and doing, have been presented as sequential—not as warp and woof of a single fabric. Our traditional theologies contain explicit or implicit dualisms regarding violence: the violence of a God of justice versus the nonviolence of Jesus the Son of God, the endtimes violence that initiates the kingdom of God versus the nonviolence of the kingdom, the violence of the state ordained by God versus the nonviolence of those called to follow the way of Jesus, the covert violence required to carry out the job to which God has called me versus the nonviolence of my life in family and fellowship, the necessary violence of the atoning death of Jesus versus the nonviolence of the atoned one. Each of these dualistic theologies constitutes a denial of the resurrection of Jesus.They not only leave room for violence but draw violence into the arena of God’s work.
We may respond by saying that the world will not accept resurrection leadership. But we need to start by asking, Will the church? Will the Mennonite Church embrace resurrection nonviolence? How would our church be transformed if the Jesus event, climaxing in the vindication of nonviolence, constituted the power in our day-to-day vocations? With what new authority would we speak, if as leaders and as a people we embodied this power? How would the theology in our seminaries change if “power is nonviolence” became selfevident to us? How would leadership structures be altered if we lived as Jesus did and anticipated the real possibility of dying as Jesus did? Can the church trust its future to the God of nonviolent power?
I pray for the day when the church will reject evil by saying “No” to violence—both political and theological. I long for a day when we as a people among the nations will perceive that power is, and always has been, nonviolent. I look for a day when the church, living in the power of the resurrection, will be characterized by the nonviolent politics of God, as the resurrected Jesus promised those who stood in the shadow of the cross (Matt. 28:19-20).
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