Cadbury OZ making the moves to fairtrade

Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk goes global as Canada, Australia and New Zealand take Fairtrade further into mainstream

 25 Aug 2009

 

the uk trip part 1 ? anticipating greenbelt

So I’m in London – no jetlag to speak of, and the weather is perfect… The tour part of this trip starts on Wednesday, when Nicole and I meet up with half the Australian group to travel down to Cheltenham. The rest of the group will be joining us over the next few days, then we’ll be at Greenbelt from Friday, then make our way to Telford on Wednesday, then onto Liverpool and Brighton before coming back to Melbourne. It’s a big trip this year – lots of travel and new places.

I’m very much looking forward to Greenbelt. I’m sure my list of reasons mirrors many others: Royksopp, Duke Special, The Welcome Wagon, Nadia Bolz Weber, Ikon… I’m looking forward to stumbling across talks and music that i didn’t plan to get to, and finding amazing inspiration. i’m looking forward to seeing those people I rarely get to see, who add such wisdom and fun to my world…

I’m speaking on a couple of panels. The first is a panel on worship and curation, which will be on Saturday at 12 in the Winged Ox. Jonny Baker’s moderating the panel, which includes Steve Collins, Lily Lewin and me. The second is a panel on worship and leadership, moderated by Doug Gay. The panel members are Heather Cracknell, Nadia Bolz Weber, Cary Gibson and me [yes, all women...]. It’s on Sunday, 2pm in New Forms. I’m really looking forward to that…

A random thought for today that i don’t want to lose… Taryn and I walked down to the Twickenham Green this morning for breakfast. We were talking about Antony Gormley’s installation at Trafalgar Square… how hundreds of thousands of people must have walked past and seen it, but millions more have talked about it, clicked on the website… and in response, they’ve felt a bit of inspiration and imagination, and are maybe a little more creative, and proud to live in a city where such things are possible. They don’t need to go into the city to see it; just the knowledge that it’s happening somewhere is transformative – it makes us know ourselves and our world differently.

I love greenbelt. I love the idea of it, and the reality of it. Preparing for it makes me think about things that I wouldn’t think about otherwise. It gets my head into a very different space; one that probably wouldn’t be possible without it. I’m so grateful for the chance to be here again – and believe me, i can’t believe how lucky i am…

We’re travelling down south today to meet with Pete Pillinger and then with Brian Draper tomorrow, before coming back to head into the School of Life on Tuesday morning – and then the tour proper begins on wednesday… I’ll post again when there’s a moment…

‘God in brief but tantalizing glimpses’

Scholarships are Go! Last July we offered scholarships to attend the School of Discipleship (July 10-13) in Canberra. Six young adults Laura, Bron, Kelly, Amé, Andrew and James took up the chance and have written short reflections about connecting ‘faith and life’. Here is Andrew’s reflection ….

Connecting to my faith in the hustle and bustle of the big city can be an incredible challenge. Between work, gym, dance classes, bible study and worship, there isn’t much time left in the day to just sit and be with God. Sometimes I feel like us Christian youth are in denial about how much time we actually devote to God, pretending to be well connected to Him through a regular routine of prayer and reflection, and we surely must read the bible nightly.

You can imagine my excitement when I found a group of fellow Christians who I could relate to. Those who see that we are a fellowship of broken souls, who hopelessly follow Christ in the best way we know how. We all struggle through, and find God in brief but tantalizing glimpses when we least expect it. These tiny glimpses spurs us on to try and get to know God more.

So I look back at my experience at the School of Discipleship and appreciate all the conversations and good times I shared with the other delegates. I remember sharing my frustration about how little of the bible I have read recently, I remember not being alone. I remember sharing stories of how I just don’t know what to do with my friend who’s gotten mixed up with drugs, I felt supported. I remember lamenting the plight of displaced and dispossessed peoples in our lands, I felt us standing together.

I drove to the convention, which was held in Canberra. On the return trip I found my mind wandering to how I could follow God better. How could I connect my busy life with God’s work? After all, I’m only 23, what impact could I possibly have on the world? How can I be a witness to God in my everyday life? After the nine hour drive, I still didn’t have any answers, but somehow that didn’t matter. I realized that perhaps my mind wandering was my own way of connecting with God, and that this journey through life is only just beginning.

Andrew Wheatland

(If you are interested the next round of scholarships email Age = age@morepraxis.org.au)

UCA writes to UN about Northern Territory Intervention

Thought this press release could use some air time 

Territory Intervention highlighted for UN Rapporteur

Thursday, 20 August 2009 11:59

The Uniting Church in Australia has taken its vehement opposition to the Northern Territory Emergency Response to the United Nations. The Uniting Church has written to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People, currently visiting Australia, to draw his attention to the concerns being expressed by Indigenous members of the Uniting Church. The letter, co-signed by Uniting Church President, Rev. Alistair Macrae, and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress Chair, Rev. Ken Sumner, outlined for the Special Rapporteur, Prof. James Anaya, what the Church believes is Australia’s most pressing human rights concern. In particular, the letter highlighted: discriminatory implementation of policies under a suspended Racial Discrimination Act; inadequate consultation with Indigenous peoples affected by the Emergency Response; and policies that contravene human rights principles.   Rev. Macrae said the UN Special Rapporteur’s visit was timely, given resolutions that were passed at the Uniting Church’s recent Triennial Assembly. “At the 12th Triennial Assembly the Church adopted a statement that highlighted several matters of concern regarding the relationships between Australian governments and Indigenous people,” Rev. Macrae said. “It particularly called on the Federal Government to rectify the lack of negotiation with Indigenous communities about the Northern Territory Emergency Response. “We have since written to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs and requested that the Government urgently facilitate a ‘negotiation forum’ in the Northern Territory to address a number of serious issues relating to the implementation of the Intervention. “We do commend the Government for extending the invitation to the Special Rapporteur to see first-hand the Intervention at work. This visit by the UN Special Rapporteur provided us with the opportunity to take our concerns to an audience beyond Australia. “We do not believe the Emergency Response meets the criteria laid out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights for an emergency situation, the basis for the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act. We do not believe that the policies are being implemented in a way that demonstrates genuine long-term partnership and engagement with the communities affected. It is, therefore, vitally important that the United Nations is able to look at the situation independently.” The Uniting Church has been further encouraged by being granted a meeting with Minister Macklin’s office to discuss these issues. Rev. Macrae and Rev. Sumner are available for comment.

the greater strangeness

I want to put this here so i don’t forget it, even though it might not make much sense yet.

One of the intentions for those of us working in the new Culture and Context Unit is that our unit meetings will be biased more towards developing a learning community, rather than spending time catching up and listing events / diary dates. As part of our scope is to help develop the conversation within the uniting church that explores how we can be transformative presence in a post-christian world [and that phrase is proof of the need for new language...], we’ll be creating reference points by exploring a collection of articles and books. It falls to me to sort through which articles and books will help us start that process. I love my job.

While reading an article by Simon Barrows yesterday i came across this quote:

The world’s darkness is beyond human explication. What gives us hope is the strangeness of evil encountered by the greater strangeness (mystery) of grace, gift.

For some reason I really love the language of strangeness. There is nothing that makes sense in this.

One of the things i think we want to explore further next year is about being an alternative presence in systems that hold incredible power – the church is one of those; hospitals, prisons, schools are others. These are many of the places that the work of our unit is focussed. I think we need to do some work on understanding how people can be ‘present’ in a system without buying into the power dynamic within it, so that their presence is not defined by the power dynamic [either for or against], but instead is a different kind of transformative presence. When we watch people who work out of that different dimension, the words gift and grace come instantly to mind…

And today marked the day I recovered a tiny moment to get back to thinking about alt worship… it’s been literally weeks since i had the space to focus on that, and it does feel a little like coming home. The following is the draft of a prayer for an advent candle ritual that we’re developing for communities / congregations, which will highlight the prophetic vision of a transformed world, where prisoners are set free, and communities are made whole:

We are so easily mesmerised by the flicker of the flame
and dazzled by the brightness of the lights
that shine in your name

Yet your light comes not to overwhelm
but to illuminate the world around us,
so that we will see the deep cracks and stains
that mark the foundations and walls of our community.

Dare we pray for the faith of advent?
to pray for your coming
even though we know
that we will never look at the world
with the same eyes
again.

New Car!

We said farewell to Jason’s commodore and picked up our new car today - Mazda 6, 2008 ex demo model.

Very nice :)

Feature Clip - Raise the Alarm

The Living End Raise The Alarm - lyrics

Whoa, whoa…

I may not believe in God,
It doesn’t mean I’m a lesser person.
I still have a heart,
And I know what it feels like to be broken.

I may not believe in Jesus,
But I believe in sacrifice.
Life doesn’t always stand a reason,
And no one ever gets a chance to live it twice.

But I’d rather risk my fate,
Than to lose my faith,
In the lovin’, the hatin’,
The constant debatin’,
The chaos, the calm.
Raise the alarm.

The living that die,
The constant deny,
The chaos, the calm.
Raise the alarm.

Whoa, whoa…
Raise the alarm.

I may not believe in regrets,
But I believe in salvation.
Some things I’d rather forget.
We choose what we see,
And we see what we choose to believe.

In the name of the father,
The son, and the holy ghost.
I’m not concerned with religion,
After all it’s what’s inside that matters most.

But I’d rather risk my fate,
Than to lose my faith,
In the lovin’, the hatin’,
The constant debatin’,
The chaos, the calm.
Raise the alarm.

The living that die,
The constant deny,
The chaos, the calm.
Raise the alarm.

Whoa, whoa…
Raise the alarm.
Whoa, whoa…
Raise the alarm.

But I’d rather risk my fate,
Than to lose my faith,
Yeah, I’d rather risk my fate,
Than to lose my faith,
In the lovin’, the hatin’,
The constant debatin’,
The chaos, the calm.
Raise the alarm.

The living that die,
The constant deny
The chaos, the calm,
Raise the alarm

Whoa, whoa…
Raise the alarm
Whoa, whoa…
Raise the alarm.
(Yeah!)
Raise the alarm.

ASU - Action - Meat in the Sandwich

Sacked Geelong Council workers are the meat in the sandwich

29 July 2009

By ASU-Victorian Authorities & Services Branch

Australian Services Union Victorian Branch Assistant Secretary Igor Grattan has announced that the Union will do whatever it takes to get unfairly sacked members Mick Van Beek and Peter Anderson their jobs back at the City of Greater Geelong’s Drysdale depot.

Van Beek and Anderson were unjustly sacked after the pair filled in two pot holes hazardous to elderly patrons of the Leopold Sportsman Club last November during their lunch break, receiving two free steak sandwiches at management’s insistence a week later.

>> Click here to send an email to the Council showing your support for the workers.

Grattan is shocked the Council went to such lengths over two workers simply being Good Samaritans.

Continue here

the looming memory of god

Sarah sent me this Judy Horacek cartoon in response to the last post. [Judy is a Melbourne cartoonist / illustrator, her work is simply amazing...]

I’m impatiently awaiting the delivery of Robert Wright’s new book, The Evolution of God. I loved this article he wrote for the NY Times:

If salvation is indeed about feeling that you’re on the right side of the law, then you don’t need God — or even, as in my case, the looming memory of God — to seek it. You can be an atheist and feel that there’s such a thing as right and wrong, and that you’ll try to align your life with this moral axis. In fact, I think you can make a sheerly intellectual, non-faith-based case that there is some such transcendent source of meaning, and even something you could call a moral order “out there.” I even think it’s fair to suspect that there’s a purpose unfolding on this planet, leaving aside the much tougher question of what’s behind the purpose.

But, for my money, there’s nothing quite like the idea that what’s behind that purpose is something that can approve or disapprove of you. It keeps you on your toes, and it keeps your life mattering, even when it’s only a feeling, and no longer a belief.

“the looming memory of God… even when it’s only a feeling, and no longer a belief.”

Perfect.

Holy Hardwear - Good stuff Koorong! - Come on WORD join in!!!

Good News! Koorong open the door to dialogue

From the justholyhardwear.org.au mob…

Good news:
Koorong has agreed to meet with the Justice and International Mission Unit and discuss how to move forward constructively on ensuring ethical standards are maintained in the production of goods sold at Koorong.

This follows the National Council of Churches in Australia (as well as Victorian Heads of Churches) endorsing a fair trade in Christian goods.

There is still no word from Word bookstores.

Background info and more

To take action go here (Word)

Action Message from Age “In fact if you have a holyhardwear card or an action flyer with you could you please visit your local Word bookstore (everywhere in Oz) with it this Monday (or at least this week) and ask them to join in by contacting the campaign. This could be a great week for work justice. Slave labour for Christian product is  sin.”

James 5:4 “Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”