Victorian Council of Churches

(originally posted on WCC website, 10th October 2024)

Yom Kippur (‘Day of Atonement’) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. This year it will be from sundown on October 11^th until sundown on the next day. The Jewish community spend 25 hours without food or drink, engaged in prayer and reflection.

Alongside the related holiday of Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year), Yom Kipppur is one of the two components of the High Holy Days of Judaism.

In an article in the Washington Post entitled ‘The thin joy of the new year, the horror of the one just concluded’, Ruth Marcus writes that ‘all the apples dipped in all the honey in the world cannot erase the bitterness of the year just concluded or offer reassurance of a year to come that will be any less painful or precarious.

She quotes from the prophet Jeremiah, in a passage used in the liturgy for Rosh Hashanah, ‘a cry is heard in Ramah – wailing, bitter weeping – Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, who are gone’.

(So much wailing – for Jewish people, for Palestinian people, for our global community)

She writes:

‘We weep, we must weep, for all the children. Because it is also true: No fast can be easy when so many Gazan children are dead and maimed. Their fates are something I will mourn, and for which I will atone in synagogue this week, because our sins are collective as well as individual”

On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jewish people listen to the piercing sound of the shofar, the ram’s horn. It is usually understood as a wake-up call, to jolt us out of complacency and ponder our deeds.

‘This year for the first time in my life, this teaching doesn’t work’, said Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt. ‘We’re already awake. We’re on edge, and we’re shaken to our cores. This year, the shofar sounds more like wailing to me – a ritual that captures the utter sorrow and pain and unimaginable loss of this year. The shofar is a representation of the wordless anguish that hovers over us and in us. Anguish that we cannot turn away from. Anguish that we cannot close from our ears or our hearts. But it is also our teacher… What if this year the shofar is a call to us from thousands of years ago asking us to find another way forward, to end the sacrificing of our children and to cling to life?’

An excerpt from the article by Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post, 8^th October 2024

The original sculpture of The Knotted Gun also known as “Non-Violence” was created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (1934-2016), a friend of John Lennon’s family. He created it after Lennon’s tragic death as he wanted to honour the singer’s vision of a peaceful world.

In 1988, a bronze version of the sculpture was unveiled in front of the United Nations’ headquarters (donated by the Government of Luxembourg)

Replicas have been placed in more than 30 strategic locations around the world including Beirut (Lebanon).

This week Beirut has suffered ‘unprecedented’ bombardment” with a series of gigantic blasts that reduced six buildings to rubble.

Military activity in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan and other places around the world use more than guns but the ‘knotted gun’ remains a powerful call to de-escalate violence and the weapons of war which jeapardize international peace and security and sustainable development. And new and emerging weapon technologies including autonomous weapons and drones pose a challenge to global security as do nuclear weapons as has been threatened more than once in the Russian-Ukraine war.

How many resources are wasted on military spending, which sadly continues to increase! I sincerely hope that the international community understands that disarmament is first and foremost a moral duty. Let us keep this clearly in our minds. This requires courage from all members of the great family of nation, to move from an equilibrium of fear to an equilibrium of trust.
(Pope Francis, St Peter’s Square, 3 March 2024)

There are many from Lebanon who now call Australia home, who watch from the safe shores of Australia and look with dismay, concern and shock at what is happening in Lebanon to innocent civilians.

Prayer (adapted from here)
O God, you hate nothing that you have made and tenderly call your creation into reconciliation with you, that we all may have life in abundance.

Forgive us for the times when we have ignored your call to follow in the way of the reconciling Christ. Turn our hearts to make us more attentive to the needs of those who suffer as a result of war, oppression, displacement and poverty.

We pray particularly for the civilians in Lebanon who suffer the consequences of military bombardment, and who now face a catastrophic crisis.

Sustain them in the power of your Holy Spirit and inspire them to hold onto a vision for peace, and your promise that “Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest”. (Isaiah 29:17)

Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer. Amen.

Prayer (adapted from here)
God of refuge,
hear our prayer
as we hold the people of Beirut
in our hearts at this time.
Fill us with compassion
and move us to reach out in love.
In your mercy,
bring comfort to those who mourn,
healing to those who are injured,
shelter to those who are homeless
sustenance to those who hunger.
Lead us in your ways
so that together we may bring
the light of new hope
wherever there is destruction and despair.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Many of us have been deeply impacted by the suicide of a friend, a loved one, a colleague.There is no single cause of suicide, and no simple solution to prevent it. World Suicide Prevention Day aims to raise awareness and reduce stigma, and confirms the message that suicides are preventable.

“Millions of Victorians have trouble from time to time with their mental health. Just because your mental health is your own, that doesn’t mean you have to manage it by yourself”.
(Uniting Vic/Tas)

The triennial theme for World Suicide Prevention Day for 2024-2026 is “Changing the Narrative on Suicide” with the call to action “Start the Conversation“. This theme aims to raise awareness about the importance of reducing stigma and encouraging open conversations to prevent suicides. Changing the narrative on suicide is about transforming how we perceive this complex issue and shifting from a culture of silence and stigma to one of openness, understanding, and support.

The call to action encourages everyone to start the conversation on suicide and suicide prevention. Every conversation, no matter how small, contributes to a supportive and understanding society. By initiating these vital conversations, we can break down barriers, raise awareness, and create better cultures of support.

This theme also emphasizes the need to prioritize suicide prevention and mental health in policy making, calling for government action. Changing the narrative requires advocating for policies that prioritize mental health, increase access to care, and provide support for those in need.

Many of our churches have specialist services for people living with mental health issues, as well as community agencies such as:

Lifeline – 13 11 14
Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636
MensLine – 1300 789 978

Data on the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare website states there are 3000+ deaths by suicide each year. The Victorian Government developed a suicide prevention framework (2016-2025) which committed to halving the suicide rate over that timeframe. It will be interesting to review the data to see if this framework has achieved its goals.

On the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day, the Royal Commission into Defence & Veteran Suicide Defence delivered its Final Report. We know there is a huge toll on mental health for many in the Australian Defence Force. The ADF has religious chaplains from many denominations and religious traditions.

An ADF spokesperson said the force accepted that “a person’s religious and spiritual belief system is a significant factor in their overall wellbeing. Defence aims to provide the best care it can for its people and chaplains play a pivotal role in providing this support to ADF members”.

Prayer
God of the valleys
God of the shadows
God of the pit of despair
We claim your Holy Presence everywhere.
When we see hope dimly,
You are there.
When we see life fading,
You are there.
When we see life end,
You are there.
We pray this day for all who experience suffering because of suicide.
For the person who is thinking about suicide,
For the person who is recovering from suicide engagement,
For all who fear suicide will touch them,
For all who have known the pain caused by suicide,
Grant us peace.
We pray for the arms of hope to enfold all of us, like a soft blanket wrapped around us, holding our pain, holding our loneliness, holding our inexpressible sorrow.
Hold onto us, God of love, even when we want to let go.
Hold onto us.
Amen.
(Rev Dr Sarah Griffith Lund)

Eric Liddell won gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics. On 15 July 2024, almost 100 years to the day after winning his 400 metre gold medal in Paris, Liddell was awarded a posthumous degree of Doctor honoris causa in recognition of his contribution to sport and humanity. His was a life of inspiration to draw upon. The backstory of the man featured in Chariots of Fire offers a vision of there being a higher duty than one’s own personal success and national glory

ASPIRING TO MORE THAN GOLD AT THE PARIS OLYMPICS
(by Tim Costello, senior fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity)

It is 100 years ago that the Flying Scotsman, Eric Liddell, born in China to missionary parents, won gold in the 400m sprint at the 1924 Paris Olympics. That was obviously well before my time, but the nostalgia stems from the lasting impact on me of the brilliant 1981 film Chariots of Fire that recounted Liddell’s story.
The backstory of this man provides a curious challenge for a secular age that prizes success and competition and winning above all else.

Liddell was a student at Edinburgh University and the fastest sprinter in the UK and went to Paris as Britain’s great hope for gold in the 100m. But he discovered as the British Olympic team left for Paris that the 100m heats were to be held on a Sunday. As a committed Christian he believed that one of the Ten Commandments about honouring the Sabbath meant no competitive sport on Sunday and he provoked a team crisis by refusing to run. How could he let himself and his country down over such a pedantic rule? Surely his first duty was to his nation.
This sort of religion sounds ridiculous to most ears and incomprehensibly heavy on duty to God. But I grew up in a family and church that believed there should be no Sunday sport and I still remember feeling great guilt when for the first time in the late 80s I sneaked off on a Sunday to watch my Essendon Bombers play at the MCG. I strongly identified with Eric’s dilemma.

When Chariots of Fire came out, I was surprised and buoyed by its lionising of Liddell’s sense of duty to God above all else. I saw the film when visiting Oxford in 1981 and remember the whole cinema erupting into booing. That was because Eric’s competitor Harold Abrahams scorned his Scottish counterpart for not being from the finest university in the country (Cambridge).

Otherwise, the cinema crowd was reverently silent, moved and engrossed by Eric’s sense of duty. The audience didn’t miss the irony of the Prince of Wales being brought in to convince Eric to put country before God and to stop being ridiculous and run. This was the same Prince of Wales who, as King Edward 8th, later abdicated and in the eyes of many of his subjects failed his duty to them and the nation.

The plot had a remarkable twist. Eric stayed true to his perceived duty and pulled out of the heats. But then at the last moment his Olympic team entered him in the 400m, not his event nor one for which he had trained. He claimed gold in a world record time of 47.6 seconds. He had fulfilled the duty he felt to a higher calling, willing to sacrifice his specialist event with all his training, but remarkably managed to win anyway. His fierce sprinting British competitor Abrahams ran and did win the 100m for Britain. The team were triumphant.

It’s a true story and a feelgood story that offers a vision of there being a higher duty than one’s own personal success and national glory. It was a strange idea to valorize in a 1981 film and would be even stranger in today’s age of self-promotion, nationalism and narcissism.

My nostalgia is in large part related to those values of having a sense of duty.

I think of Eric Liddell who went to China after Olympic glory to teach and serve the poor. My wife’s Aunt by marriage was from Scotland and knew Eric Liddell both in Scotland and as a fellow missionary in China. She lived to 100 and often talked to me about how Eric was such a selfless, giving man. He died in 1945 at the age of 43 in a Japanese concentration camp in China where he and so many expatriates were imprisoned. And he kept on doing his duty. He organised competitive sport (even on a Sunday) as recreation for the inmates. When he was asked why he did that he answered that he was doing his duty because God knew these vulnerable kids in the camp needed it and Sunday was their only day free from work. He showed he was not a legalist.

On 15 July this year Edinburgh University awarded Eric Liddell a posthumous doctorate received by his daughter, who must have been a very good age herself. It cited that “Liddell’s story remains a beacon of inspiration, reminding us of the enduring power of faith, courage and commitment to others.” His was a life of inspiration. I will draw upon that inspiration again as I enter the Olympic spirit watching our great national champions this year in Paris.