Carlton Conversations

Carlton conversations @ the Clare Castle Hotel

2010 series — ‘What I believe and why’

Koornang welcomes Coorong

New hospitality house in the south east Suburbs Melbourne is welcoming 10 indigenous friends this weekend. Can you help?

Hannah will be needing more linen (sheets towels etc), plates and pots.

(She could probably do with a beds and side tables etc too)

The house is connected with the Koornang UCA (Murrumbeena) and  Hannah is the host welcoming friends from the Coorong SA.

Also, if you have been thinking about being a resident in this house - this would be a good to time to chat - not such a good time to move in

Contact Hannah Dungan

email: mousey_brown@hotmail.com

and her phone is 0422 628 028

Daring to Join

UNITING NETWORK AUSTRALIA invites you…

“Daring to Join”

Explore Your Faith
Enjoy Workshops
Make friends & have fun
Commit to your partner
Worship
Share meals

Melbourne gathering 11 – 14 June 2010
Centre for Theology & Ministry, 1 Morrison Close, Parkville (limited on-site accommodation available)

Bible Study Leader: Rev. Dr Gwen Ince
Special Guest: Rev. Alistair Macrae, President of the Uniting Church in Australia

Special Event: “Sacred Union Ceremony”
Saturday 12 June @ 4.00pm, Brunswick Uniting Church, 214 Sydney Road (Cnr. Merri St), Brunswick

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=128059333874631

Join us for dinner afterwards in Brunswick @ Alasya Turkish Restaurant

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111714085538483

More info? Register for ‘Daring to Join’ gathering or to commit to your partner during the ‘Sacred Union Ceremony’?

Go to http://www.unitingnetworkaustralia.org.au/

Click on the link above to register

(Please note: internet bookings incur a $3.00 booking fee)
$120.00 early-bird registration (close Wednesday 31 March 2010)
$140.00 waged registration (close Friday 4 June 2010)
$100.00 unwaged registration (close Friday 4 June 2010)

Click on the link above to print, complete & post your registration form.

Billeting can be arranged if required

Limited accommodation is available on-site @ $60 per night, twin share, in single beds. “Maclean House is an affordable accommodation option if you are spending time in Melbourne. It is provided to the Uniting Church community by the Centre for Theologyand Ministry (CTM). Maclean House is located in the picturesque grounds of Ormond College, Parkville. It is conveniently located for those attending activities at the CTM, using the Dalton McCaughey Library or for that quick trip into Melbourne CBD. Trams are close to the front door and Lygon Street is just around the corner - who could resist! Maclean House provides comfortable rooms with linen (including pillows), on-site parking, a light breakfast, shared bathrooms, kitchen and laundry facilities - all at the reasonable price of $60 per night.”

Food allergies & dietary requirements can be catered to.

We are taking registrations for the ‘Sacred Union Ceremony’ on Saturday 12 June - please let us know if you’d like to be involved.

* Please forward registration form with cheque / money order made payable to: “UnitingCare - Cutting Edge” (do not send cash)
UNA “Daring to Join” Conference Registrar
Damien Stevens, C/- PO Box 1697, Shepparton, 3632
or use the link above to pay securely from your bank account or credit card using PayPal.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day was established by the United Nations in 1972 to stimulate worldwide awareness of the environment and encourage political attention and action. It is celebrated annually on 5 June.

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, and the theme for World Environment Day this year, Many species, one planet, one future, reflects this.

Our buddies over at Uniting Justice have produced some resources including action ideas, sermon starter, information, reflections, activities and worship resources

http://www.unitingjustice.org.au/resources/world-environment-day.html

So no excuse for not having a go this year

oh and don’t forget that greenpeace pulled together that cool earth day clip this year too http://morepraxis.org.au/feature-clip-gp-earthday/

Brave New World - The Climate Change Challenge - June 6-12

Thirty of the best minds on the climate change issue, in the one place, at the one time. The Deakins 2010.
More information over here…

Reflection: Lest we Forget

Below is a reflection from Dave about ANZAC day…

We need to celebrate courage and comradeship wherever we find it. Wherever we find it among our soldiers in combat we need to celebrate it loud and clear. But if we choose to celebrate ANZAC day, we need to do it with extreme caution, lest we forget that our celebration of those legends can be used to victimize succeeding generations of soldiers

A well-known Aussie Vietnam Vet who died recently was Bill ‘Kookaburra’ Coolburra. As a 19-year-old indigenous volunteer, Bill was among the first Australian combat troops into Vietnam. He was a part of a group of ’sappers’ (army engineers) known as tunnel rats, who had one of the most dangerous and stressful jobs of the war. His task was to clear the huge underground tunnel networks used by the North Vietnamese.

‘We had to descend into dark tunnels searching for Viet Cong with a torch and a pistol. Bill recalled. Some of the tunnels were so small you had to inch your way along on your belly, hoping the next bend didn’t have a VC waiting for you with a shotgun to blow your face off. The tunnels were dark and had their own smell.  As a result I have been unable to sleep in the dark since.

When Bill reflected on his time in Vietnam he said, ‘I saw some terrible things done to village people and the memories have haunted me ever since.’ It took me a long time to get over the sounds of helicopters flying over my home and even in these later years certain sounds have scared me. ‘I witnessed ‘helicopter interrogation’ (dangling a VC prisoner from a helicopter and threatening to drop them if they did not reveal enemy locations) and ‘I always felt guilty that I could do nothing to stop it happening.’

‘I saw many other things that have made life a living hell since returning home.’ Bill said. ‘I have seen many of my old friends destroyed by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and many who lost their families as a result of the stress on them.

We tend to assume that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is due to fear of death and injury. But research by psychiatrist-paratrooper Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, shows that PTSD is due more to ‘the guilt of killing than the’fear of being killed ‘ and’the more men we turn into killers the more Psychiatric Casualties (PCs) we create.

Keep reading here

EurekaStreet - Atheists

Hi guys, yesterday I found myself pondering the bus ads for the atheist convention here in Melbourne “celebrate reason!” they say and heaps of radio interviews about why they are right and smart. ?I don’t know if it was their intention to mimic the violent “we have the truth and want to impose it on others” feel of the fruitcake of our faith or the?bully’s approach to self esteem ie?”lets gain our identity by bagging others” . ?But they did. ?Anyhoo this morning I found this more considered and useful reflection than mine in Eureka Street. Enjoy.

Hype undermines atheists’ mission

TIM ROBERTS MARCH 12, 2010

While the so-called ‘New Atheists’ have recently found their voices, the 2010 Global Atheist Convention, ‘Rise of Atheism’, taking place in Melbourne this weekend, suggests that this movement may be in danger of believing its own hype. Judging by the program, the convention aims to increase atheism’s flock by pouring scorn on those whom it should be courting. If that’s the case, the message won’t reach beyond the fans.Some of the speakers at the convention take a pragmatic approach (’reason with opponents’) while others take an idealistic approach (’alienate opponents’). The former approach, while substantially more difficult than the latter, is potentially far more productive.

But it’s unclear whether the convention’s overall aim is to reduce the intensity of religious belief or to crush religion altogether. Though Richard Dawkins and others may earnestly hope for the latter, attempting this will only pick off religious doubters while steeling firmer believers against compromise.

Failing to include debating panels with religious moderates is a missed opportunity. Excluding the religious, of course, probably seemed like an obvious move: after all, one wouldn’t invite creationists to speak at a biology convention for balance’s sake. But inviting representatives from major religions would have prevented the conference from becoming a mere exercise in polemic.

keep reading here

Surrender 2010

Hi Guys,

Have you registered for surrender conference yet? Well get onto it. Good speakers and workshops are the norm, including this year has Dave Andrews “plan be” stuff ?and workshops run by the usual suspects?of the radical discipleship, social justice and peace ?mobs. ?Oh and tear are running slum survivor plus the youth night is a fun celebration. So cya there.

What is it?

SURRENDER is a message (and a conference!) that invites and encourages Jesus followers on a journey from believer to disciple. It?s an invitation to follow Jesus among the poor, to influence the broader climate of church opinion and sow seeds for the future of incarnational mission. SURRENDER does this by focussing primarily on inspiring young adults to engage directly with God through the bible, people facing oppression and fellow disciples on the road.

http://surrender.org.au/

The Poor will always be…

Tony Abbott, the poor and Jesus

ANDREW HAMILTON FEBRUARY 19, 2010 Eurekastreet

It is a commonplace to associate Tony Abbott’s politics with his Catholic faith. He certainly refers easily to the Catholic tradition in his speeches. This is helpful because it provides one gate to reflection on his policies.Last week at a meeting of Catholic Social Services he was asked whether he would commit himself to Kevin Rudd’s pledge to halve homelessness in Australia by 2020. He declined.

He expressed the desire to improve the present situation, but said many people chose to be homeless. He also expressed scepticism about the value of large gestures of commitment by politicians to heal social problems, contrasting it with the remark of Jesus, ‘The poor you have with you always’. He set this within a Catholic tradition of realistic social commitment to do what is possible, but not to expect to make the world perfect.

As casual remarks, Abbott’s comments were commonplace. But together they suggested that he does not see homelessness as a major priority. His remarks also provided the skeleton of a Christian justification for that position. So it may be helpful to look in a little more detail at the argument embodied in Jesus’ statement that we always have the poor with us. The phrase has often been used in Christian conversation to diffuse the claim that the poor make on us. But in context it is much richer in meaning.

The phrase, ‘The poor you have with you always’ occurs in a story told in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and John. The story occurs late in the Gospels when the hostility towards Jesus is moving to his arrest and death. A woman comes up to Jesus, breaks open a jar of expensive perfumed oil and pours it over his head. This leads to criticism of the extravagance of the gesture ? the jar should have been sold and the money given to the poor. The criticism is variously attributed to bystanders, to Jesus’ disciples and to Judas who, it is noted, was a thief. The critics, plainly, are not the heroes of the story.

Continue reading over at Eureka Street

Lent Bible Studies

Hi Guys

Peter Mallen has put together a Series of Bible studies to help you and your small groups prepare for Easter. The six?Bible?studies?take?up?some?core?themes?of?discipleship.?They?are?based?on?various?readings?from

the?book?of?Acts,?which?forms?a?companion?text?to?this?year?s?lectionary?readings?from?the?Gospel?of?Luke.

Acts?records?some?of?the?exciting?adventures?of?the?early?Christians?but?also?provides?many?insights?into?the

joys?and?challenges?of?the?Christian?life.

• Week?1?? People?of?the?Way
• Week?2?? Daring?to?be?different
• Week?3?? Knowing?the?story
• Week?4??? Living?the?story
• Week?5?? Co?operating?with?God
• Week?6?? Walking?the?way?of?the?cross

Download here

PS. Tell me what you think and how they are working with your group(s).

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