Victorian Council of Churches

As Valentine’s Day approaches, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is sending a message about healthy relationships: “Love Heals, Not Hurts.” The campaign, now in its fifth year, is part of the WCC Thursdays in Black global movement for a world free from rape and violence.

The special Valentine’s message, also shared via social media cards, is an annual tradition that’s part of the WCC’s work toward gender justice.

In a video reflection, WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay noted that the Bible tells us that love is the greatest of all spiritual gifts.

“It is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person, or a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep care for a parent, child, family member, or friend,” he said. “Love values and respects the other person, supports their wellbeing, and demands nothing in return.”

This is the love, Pillay continued, that many share and receive in familial, platonic, and romantic relationships. “In this season of celebrating love, sharing symbols of love is natural and healthy,” he said. “At its best, such sharing strengthens us as individuals, communities and society.”

The WCC, in 1998, declared sexual and gender-based violence a sin, and reiterated condemnation of such acts in 2018. Yet, violence against women and girls, men, and boys continues daily, as tragic statistics show.

Approximately 81,000 women and girls were murdered across the globe in 2020, or one female every 11 minutes. Among them, 46,980 women and girls died as a result of intimate partner violence. 

One in three women face physical, sexual, or some other form of abuse in their lifetime. “We may not realize that this translates to more than one billion women and girls being affected by abuse and other forms of violence, and 736 million girls and women being subject to intimate or non-partner physical or sexual violence,” said Pillay.

Love is not easily provoked and is not evil, concluded Pillay. “Love heals, love restores, love redeems,” he said. “This Valentine’s Day and always, the WCC stands against rape and violence.”

Archbishop Peter Comensoli and a number of Australian Catholic Bishops are part of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Oceania* which gathers every four years for a continental gathering**. They are meeting in Suva, Fiji, 5th-10th February 2023. (Videos from each day are available on the Federation of Catholic Bishops Oceania YouTube channel)

Discussions will primarily focus on care for the oceans, which is an important part of caring for our common home, as set forth by Pope Francis in Laudato si’. Participants will be listening to the cry of the earth and vulnerable peoples with visits to villages that bear the impacts of sea level rise and resource extraction

Another important focus of the Assembly will be finalising the continental (Oceania* region) response to the Synod of Bishops ‘Document for the Continental Stage’. This is a most significant document on synodality – well worth a detailed read.

Since the beginning of his Pontificate, Pope Francis has been highlighting the importance of cultivating synodality in the Catholic Church. In his own words, synodality is the path “which God expects of the Church of the third millennium” because it is “a constitutive element of the Church.”

The fundamental question that guides this consultation of the People of God is the following: A synodal Church, in announcing the Gospel, “journeys together:” How is this “journeying together” happening today in your particular Church? What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our “journeying together”?

Pope Francis called for a Synod on Synodality, to take place from 2021 to 2024. Pope Francis’ call to focus on synodality is a call to restore and deepen the understanding that the People of God journey together in a common mission as followers of the Way, Jesus Christ. It indicates a way of listening to each individual person as a member of the Church to understand more fully how God might be speaking to the whole people of God. Synodality is a reminder that the Holy Spirit works in and through each of us and draws us to work together for our common mission.

In October 2023, the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will meet in Rome under the theme, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission”.

*The Oceania regional grouping comprises the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) – which includes Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna.

** There are 7 Continental Synodal Assemblies happening around the world during the first quarter of 2023.

The latest death toll from Monday’s catastrophic earthquake has passed 11,000+. There are fears that the toll will rise inexorably, with World Health Organization officials estimating up to 20,000 may have died. A WHO senior emergency officer said about 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, are likely to be affected by the quake. More than 8,000 people so far have been pulled from the debris in Turkey, said the Turkish vice-president, Fuat Oktay. About 380,000 people have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, with others huddling in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres, and in trains being used as emergency accommodation It’s bitterly cold in the northern winter. A state of emergency in the region has been declared for 3 months.

Holy One of mercy and peace,

as you walked across the stormy sea so long ago,

walk in the rubble of broken buildings

destroyed by devastating earthquakes in Turkïye and Syria.

Hold tenderly all who mourn today

for loved ones who have died

for those who are waiting for news, and identifications,

for those who are missing to be found.

Be among those who care for the wounded –

rescue workers, medical teams and emergency workers.

Sustain those who wait in emergency shelters.

We pray especially for Syrian refugees already in dire need

and now facing this new catastrophe.

We pray for families and relatives now living in Australia

as they deal with the shock of this tragedy.

May resources might make their way quickly to where they are most needed,

and for targeted aid to reach those who can best use it.

May compassion stir generosity in the nations of the world.

We ask your spirit to guide our words and thoughts.

Stir compassion and imagination, as we seek our best loving response.

Enlarge our hearts, so we can respond with you. Amen.

(adapted from prayers by Maren Tirabassi and Rev Dr Amelia Koh-Butler)

Compassion

For those trapped in tragedy,
We pray.

For those caught in disaster,
We pray.

For those full of desperation
We pray.

For those swallowed in a well of sadness,
We pray.

For those lost in loss,
We pray.

For those crying for hope,
We pray.

For those whose world is hurt,
We pray.

For those whose future is uncertain,
We pray.

For those in need of help,
We pray.

For those who can help,
We pray.

God help where help is needed,
We pray.

Amen.
(Source: Jon Humphries, Uniting Church in Australia)

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2023 (May 21st-28th, 2023)

Churches in the Northern Hemisphere traditionally celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is usually celebrated around Pentecost.

This year the date is May 21st to 28th, using the theme ‘Do good; seek justice’ (Isaiah 1.17).

The resource has been adapted for the Australian context, and will be available in February 2023. Start planning for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in May. Even better, collaborate with churches in your region to plan a service together.

The resource for 2023 has been prepared by a team in Minnesota, USA. Rev. Dr Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-chief executive officer of the Minnesota Council of Churches, helped convene the team of authors.

What were the biggest challenges the authors faced in drafting this year’s materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity?

Dr DeYoung: The work of composing the materials was very personal for the team of authors. They all had direct experience with racism, intense feelings of grief and outrage at the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and subsequent involvement in the protests that resulted. Engaging scriptural texts to call for racial justice and unity required revisiting the very personal nature of the work. Another challenge was selecting language that would convey a Minneapolis or United States perspective of racism in a way that could be understood by a global audience. A third challenge was how to speak to an institutional church that contains both those in power and those who feel powerless. Calling for Christian unity requires a balance of both a prophetic and pastoral approach that acknowledges complicity and offers healing.

For people that would term some of your resources “political” rather than “spiritual,” what would you say to them?

Dr DeYoung: Issues of racial and social justice cannot easily be divided between political or spiritual. The Hebrew prophets often spoke truth about injustices to the political leaders of their time. Jesus preached a gospel that was good news and liberation to those oppressed. The spiritual is political; and the political needs the spiritual.

What is your personal hope for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity?

Dr DeYoung: I hope that this resource created by a team of Minnesota Christian leaders will motivate Christians around the world to address the injustices in their context that divide society and the church. This begins with dialogue that creates a biblically-informed shared understanding and is followed by a commitment to the long haul.

Can you tell us a little about how the team was selected?

Dr DeYoung: Given that George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in 2020, the World Council of Churches reached out to the Minnesota Council of Churches to form a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity writing team that represented racial justice activist voices here. We organized a team of six Black, two Indigenous, and one Latine Christian leaders in Minnesota. All equally contributed in the writing and editing.

A free training event is being offered at Brunswick Uniting Church, in collaboration with Merri-bek Council, aimed at NDIS service providers who assisting people who may be eligible to access, or are accessing the NDIS, under the psychosocial disability stream.

Interested people can register for this free event here.

‘Applying for NDIS support and understanding the system can be very confusing and difficult to navigate’ said Ellisa Scott, Project Coordinator at IMHA. ‘This training aims to increase the skills of NDIS service workers, to be able to train others at their organisation to help people experiencing mental health issues to self-advocate for what they need’, she said.

‘Peer support workers from mental health services and carers were involved in every stage of the development to ensure the training provided real-world solutions for people, at any stage of the process of engaging with the NDIS’ she said.

The package builds on a 2019 co-designed workbook ‘Self-Advocacy for the NDIS (Mental Health)’, developed in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); Designated mental health services; VMIAC and Tandem. It covers everything from applying for the NDIS, to plans, appeals and reviews. Originally in-person trainings using the workbook were planned.

What is in the training?

In response to our changed environment due to COVID-19, the online training package includes two eLearning modules that participants can undertake in their own time, which focus on knowledge development. These will be followed by two interactive webinars that target skill development, co-facilitated with a peer support worker. Attendees at the training will also be given exclusive access to the Self-Advocacy for the NDIS trainer online hub, where they can share learnings with other participants of the training.

A pilot of the training was recently conducted. ‘This training was thought-provoking. Although I’m not new to advocacy, it gave me food for thought as I go forward in my role of supporting NDIS participants, and how I can support them, to best support themselves’, said one attendee.

“Our Aboriginal culture has taught us to be still and to wait. We do not try to hurry things up. We let them follow their natural course – like the seasons. We watch the moon in each of its phases. We wait for the rain to fill our rivers and water the thirsty earth…

When twilight comes, we prepare for the night. At dawn we rise with the sun.

We watch the bush foods and wait for them to ripen before we gather them. We wait for our young people as they grow, stage by stage, through their initiation ceremonies. When a relation dies, we wait a long time with the sorrow. We own our grief and allow it to heal slowly.

We wait for the right time for our ceremonies and our meetings. The right people must be present. Everything must be done in the proper way. Careful preparations must be made. We don’t mind waiting, because we want things to be done with care. Sometimes many hours will be spent on painting the body before an important ceremony.

We don’t like to hurry. There is nothing more important than what we are attending to. There is nothing more urgent that we must hurry away for.

We wait on God, too. His time is the right time. We wait for him to make his word clear to us. We don’t worry. We know that in time and in the spirit of dadirri (that deep listening and quiet stillness) his way will be clear.

We are River people. We cannot hurry the river. We have to move with its current and understand its ways.

We hope that the people of Australia will wait. Not so much waiting for us – to catch up – but waiting with us, as we find our pace in this world…Our culture is different. We are asking our fellow Australians to take time to know us; to be still and to listen to us…”

________________

A beautiful reflection by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, Aboriginal activist, educator, artist and 2021 Senior Australian of the Year.

This excerpt is from a longer reflection by Miriam-Rose on dadirri, a spiritual practice of the Ngan’gikurunggurr and Ngen’giwumirri languages of the Aboriginal peoples of the Daly River region, focused on inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness.

Read the full version: https://www.miriamrosefoundation.org.au/dadirri/.

Reproduced with permission from Miriam Rose Foundation

22 January 2023 (Sunday before Australia Day)

Introduction by Rev Sharon Hollis, President Uniting Church in Australia, and Rev Mark Kickett, Interim National Chair Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress

Since 2019 the Uniting Church has marked a Day of Mourning to reflect on the dispossession of Australia’s First Peoples and the ongoing injustices faced by First Nations people in this land. For those of us who are Second Peoples from many lands, we lament that we were and remain complicit.

This observance arises from a request from the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) which was endorsed by the 15th Assembly in 2018. The declaration of the Sunday before Australia/Survival/Invasion Day as a Day of Mourning is an expression of the Uniting Church’s commitment to justice and truth-telling which is required of us by the Covenant we have made and reaffirmed with UAICC.

Again in 2023, we invite you on or around Sunday 22 January to hold worship services that reflect on the effects of invasion and colonisation on First Peoples. These resources are provided to help you in your marking of the Day of Mourning.

In marking a day of mourning, we hear the promise of Jesus that the truth will set us free. The Day of Mourning invites us to listen to the truth of the effects of colonisation and racism on First Peoples and to hope that in confronting this truth we will discover ways to create communities of justice and healing.

In marking the Day of Mourning, we live into our covenant relationship to stand together with, and listen to, the wisdom of First Nations people in their struggle for justice. We affirm the sovereignty of First Peoples and honour their culture and their connection to country.

We reaffirm our understanding that First Peoples encountered the Creator God long before colonisation. We confess and seek forgiveness for the dispossession and violence against First Peoples. We lament our part, and we recommit to justice and truth-telling.
We encourage you to use this opportunity to make a connection with UAICC or First Peoples in your local community. You might also like to take this opportunity to begin a conversation about how you will continue to live out the covenant as a faith community and explore the Assembly’s Living The Covenant Locally resource as a way to begin or continue this journey.

As the President of the Uniting Church and the Interim National Chair of UAICC, we pray that our Church and our nation will continue on this journey of confession, truth-telling and seeking of justice and healing.

As we move into 2023 with the probability of a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, we ask that all members of the Uniting Church inform themselves about the Uluru Statement and its vision of Voice, Treaty, Truth. We ask that you conduct conversations about the Voice with respect, and with the impact of whatever you say on First Peoples always at the forefront of your mind. We pray that this year in our nation might be moment of reckoning when we face the truth of our past and present in ways that promote healing and justice.

Grace and peace,

Rev Sharon Hollis / President Uniting Church in Australia
Rev Mark Kickett / Interim National Chair Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress

(It’s weeks away from Palm Sunday, but posting this information early as an encouragement to promote the event in your congregation and community, and organise a banner if possible for your group).

Date/time: 2pm, Sunday 2nd April
Venue: State Library, corner Swanston and La Trobe Streets, Melbourne.

Congregations, groups, schools and individuals are encouraged to consider joining in with this event, to call for justice for refugees.

For those participating, consider organising a banner with a simple statement and the congregation’s name, or group’s name, and organise people to walk with the banner. Alternatively, you may prefer a simple statement on the banner (like the one above) and reach out to inter-faith people in your community to join you on the Palm Sunday March for Refugees.

For many years, Christians have been part of the Palm Sunday March for Refugees to support the call for justice for refugees. Churches have done a tremendous amount to offer practical support and advocate for refugees over the years, and many churches have made statements calling for a compassionate response to refugees and asylum seekers including:

Shelter from the storm: a Uniting Church in Australia statement on asylum seeker and refugee policy

The 2023 Palm Sunday March for Refugees will call for Justice for Refugees: Permanent visas for all, Fair Processes and Income support for people who are seeking recognition as refugees.

Thousands of refugees and people seeking asylum are still in limbo waiting for certainty about their future:

• Thousands of refugees have been waiting for up to 10 years for permanent protection – they have been on temporary TPVs and SHEV visas, bridging visas, or in community detention,  
• Under the so-called ‘Fast Track System’ thousands have waited years to have their claims for refugee status determined, and many have been unfairly denied.  The process is neither fast or fair.  These people need a fair review.  
• People on bridging visas have no income safety net.  Because of their short term visas they find it difficult to find permanent work. Some have no work rights at all. They have no family reunion or travel rights.   
• People who do not have permanent visas are unable to undertake tertiary study, even if they have done all of their schooling here in Australia. Young children cannot access early childhood education and people with disabilities are being denied NDIS funding. 
• Nearly 200 people are still held in shocking conditions on Nauru and in PNG. All those who have been evacuated from Nauru or PNG to Australia are denied any pathway to permanent protection in Australia. 
• There are still people seeking protection who remain in immigration detention
• Thousands of refugees are stranded in Indonesia because they have been blocked from seeking protection in Australia
• Thousands of refugees, including Afghan refugees are desperately waiting for Australia to lift its humanitarian intake to at least 30,000 per year. 

More information about the Palm Sunday March for Refugees Contact: Marie Hapke, info@refugeeadvocacynetwork.org.au, 0409252673.

A Hindu temple in Mill Park, BAPS Swaminarayan Hindu Temple was vandalised on the night of 11 Jan 23. The Victorian police have launched an investigation. Attacks on places of religious worship is a concern for the wider community.

The VCC President and Deputy President have issued a statement.

We have become aware of the vandalism on the evening of 11th January that defaced the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple in Mill Park. We deplore that a peaceful place of religious worship has been targeted in this way. We are especially concerned about the anti-Indian racial graffiti, and the provocative words that threaten the Hindu community.

We affirm our strong belief that communities of any faith tradition should be able to worship in freedom and in safety.

In this fractured world, where suspicion and division can too easily undermine peace and harmony in our community, we absolutely condemn the vandalism, and particularly the threatening nature of the comments that targets and vilifies Indian people and the Hindu community. There is no place in our vibrant multicultural, multifaith and pluralistic society for such behaviour. The majority of Australians believe that respecting religious diversity is fundamental to ensuring a strong social fabric in our democratic society.

The Victorian Council of Churches has a clear anti-racism commitment, and is concerned about any actions that have the potential to exacerbate racial, religious and societal tensions.

The actions of the vandals do not speak for the goodwill of people in the wider community. We hope justice will be served on those responsible for the vandalism, whose actions are in violation of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.

The well-being of our communities is strengthened by our care for one other. We support His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha temple in Mill Hill, in his call for peace, unity and harmony. We also extend the hand of friendship to the Hindu Council of Australia (Vic) and the Hindu community.

Dr Graeme Blackman
President, Victorian Council of Churches

Fr Dr Jacob Joseph
Deputy President, Victorian Council of Churches

Epiphany means ‘revealing’. In the Christian tradition, Epiphany refers to a realization that Christ is the Son of God. Western churches generally celebrate the Visit of the Magi as the revelation of the Incarnation of the infant Christ, and commemorate the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6.

God of Light, Star of Love,
we fix the eyes of our hearts on you.
Lead us; guide us
to where shall see Christ,
and kneel.

The theme of the Epiphany season is that Jesus is the light of the world. The season begins with the light of a star and ends on transfiguration Sunday with Jesus shining with divine light on a mountain top.

The light of Christ’s love illumines our path and guides our way. We look at life in the light of God’s love, and that changes how we see the world. And the light of that love shines in us, so that our own lives become lights for others: streetlamps that offer guidance and safety, lighthouses that warn of danger, a new dawn that signals hope and beauty. Even when the scriptures aren’t literally talking about light, they describe how God’s love changes the world like light changes the darkness.

We also hear a lot this year about justice. God calls us to live in harmony with God’s spirit of compassion, which brings justice in the world like light in the darkness. Today’s world of political turmoil can feel pretty dark: things are worrisome, uncertain, unseen, and hard to discern. The world is full of shadowy figures who with selfish motives seem to avoid the light of truth, but haunt the poorly lit places. God’s mercy and justice shine light into such a world.

Steve Garners-Holmes, Unfolding Light

Several years ago, the Church of England decided that the three Wise Men might not have been men at all and there might not have been three of them. It is commonly assumed that there were three ‘givers’ for the three gifts for Jesus (gold, frankincense and myrrh) but original scripture did not say whether there were three visitors, or more, or less. (The gifts are an allusion to Isaiah 60.6: “They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of God.” Matthew, foreshadowing the cross, adds myrrh.).

The idea that the visitors were kings didn’t appear until the fifth century. The word the writer of Matthew’s gospel uses suggests the visitors were foreigners, people outside the Jewish faith – probably Zoroastrian priests, or astrologers, or magicians, or ancient shamans from the courts of ancient Persia. They were sorcerers, high-ranking officials, but not kings.

Scripture is also silent on whether they were men or women. Christine Schenk has written a wonderful article, An Epiphany with Wise Women?  She quotes a renowned authority on the Gospel of Matthew, Dominican Fr. Benedict Thomas Viviano, who believes it entirely possible that women could have been among the Magi portrayed in the Matthean birth narrative. Viviano is professor emeritus at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He also wrote the commentary on Matthew in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.Well worth a read.

You may have read the humorous take on the Wise Men asks, What would have happened if it had been three Wise Women?

• they would have asked directions,
• arrived on time,
• helped deliver the baby,
• cleaned the stable,
• made a casserole,
• and brought practical gifts,
• and, there would be peace on earth.

The visitors in the Gospel account should be referred to as ‘magi’ because the Bible is “silent” on identifying them by gender or status or profession

A prayer for Epiphany
We trust in God, Creator of all that is, whose light guides us and whose grace extends to all people of the world.
We follow Jesus, the Christ of God, Light of the world, who is the ruler of our hearts, before whom we bow in adoration and reverence, to whom we offer the gifts of our hands and hearts. Jesus loved people and healed them, and taught the way of true wisdom. Though many would make him king, he was not a ruler of a nation but the Prince of Peace. Earthly kings were threatened by him, and crucified him, but he was raised from the dead, sovereign even over life itself.
We live by the Holy Spirit, whose light is a star that guides us, whose grace gives us gifts to offer the world, whose companionship makes us one with peoples of all nations, tribes and traditions. In the power of that Spirit we devote ourselves to love and justice, for the sake of Christ, the sovereign of our hearts.
(Source: Steve Garnaas-Holmes)