Category: News

The World Council of Churches Assembly concluded on September 8th 2022, and issued a Draft Unity Statement (First Revision). Definitely worth a read and further consideration. Maybe church leaders and Interchurch Councils/Combined Churches can work their way through the statement and reflect upon it? Maybe shape some content for input for a sermon on World Communion Sunday (October 2)?

Some excerpts…

Para 15…There is a move amongst some to emphasize the experience of ecumenism more than formal agreements and a recognition that as we first walk together on our common pilgrimage of reconciliation and unity, we are then also led to reflect together on questions of faith and truth. The churches’ responses reveal a longing for an ecumenism in which we bring all of ourselves to the journey and to the table, not separating thought from prayer, prayer from action, or action from thought.

Para 18. The work of unity needs to be inspired anew by the love we have seen in Jesus Christ. It needs to begin with the love of the heart, the love that responds to Christ who said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). The love of Christ is the spiritual source of the ecumenical movement. It moves us to walk together, compels us to pray together, and urges us to respond to Christ’s invitation to be of one spirit and one mind. The quality of the relationships between us and our churches will inspire our journey and our common work towards that full visible communion for which Christ prayed (John 17:20-23).

Para 19. It is when we are kind to one another as churches, warmly welcoming of each other, building profound and evident friendship in sincerity and respect, when we are drawn to one another out of compassion, fascination, and longing for one another – across our differences and divisions – that we will find the grace to search for that common faith, the truth together held that will overcome our separation. Unity in apostolic faith, in sacramental life, in ministry, and in the work of sharing in common action together, all need our heads, hands, and feet, the whole of us, to be fully engaged (1 Cor. 12). But the vital search for agreement in faith, the working together in service to the world, the walking the way of discipleship together; all these are stirred by the love of Christ, who moves our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

Para 20. The search for unity that is inspired by love and rooted in deep and mutual relationship may be termed an “ecumenism of the heart.” It is Christlike love that moves us to walk honestly and wholeheartedly beside one another, to try to see the world through the eyes of others and to have compassion for one another, to build the trust that is such a vital part of our ecumenical journey. It is love that will reject any distorted kind of unity that overcomes, overpowers, or coerces the other, and neither will it settle for a weak type of encounter that is merely formal. This love goes beyond every level of restriction and restraint; it is not abstract, sentimental, soft, or romantic, but is embodied and whole, witnessed in the visible and the practical, in the passionate and the truly challenging, able to address the deepest evil and injustice.

Para 22. An ecumenism of the heart springs from an experience of the love of Christ stirring in us the metanoia that purifies our hearts, minds, and wills so that we are able truly to embrace one another. This love can also make us witnesses to love in the world. The churches, the nations, the communities of our world today, and the whole of creation are groaning and crying out in pain, and it is the very love of God working within us that opens our ears and hearts to their cries. We have been walking together on the way towards visible unity, and we have learned, even on our bumpy pilgrimage, that only the love of God can get us moving together to enter faithfully into God’s new future. Churches committed to growing in communion with one another, to true love for one another across even profound differences, will live in ways that are deeply counter-cultural in today’s world.

Para 23. Let us pray that we will never seek to divide or conquer, to exploit or humiliate, to overwhelm by violence or enforce unity; nor to collude any more with the inequalities of the world. Let us not be tempted by politics that is shaped by deepened individualism, dangerous nationalism or increasing militarism; or accept as inevitable the systemic inequalities that divide the world; or suffer without resistance the dominance and dangers of consumerism and of those technologies that alienate us from one another or that damage our God-given humanity. Out of love, we commit ourselves to build a world for the common good, for all humankind. We long for the kind of communion that celebrates and affirms the dignity of all people and honours the whole living earth as the work of God the Creator. Together in Christ, formed in Christ’s image, walking the way of love, and in repentance, we celebrate unity as both gift and virtue, knowing that we are called to bear witness to communion in a world that too often creates and exacerbates division. In a world of separation, inequality and injustice, Christ calls his followers to witness to the unifying power of the love that is a gift of the Spirit. This provokes a strong challenge in the world and sounds a call to an alternative order, one moving towards unity and reconciliation of all humankind and of the whole creation.

A prayer

Holy God, source and creator of all things, eternal love, we give thanks to you:
Father, who loves us infinitely,
Son who reveals to us unconditional love, Holy Spirit who empowers us with divine love, gather us together in your love,
that we may grow in visible communion
and so witness to unity in the world.
Where your people are broken, may love mend.
When hatred shouts in the world, let love bring peace with justice. As creation groans, may redemption come to all the earth.
Come with your divine love, and enter our hearts.
Move your church, and move the world
to reconciliation and unity. Amen.

4th-10th September 2022

In light of the Royal Commission and National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, it is critical to embed a child safe culture into every single organisation. This involves any organisation that has contact with children or young people, either directly or indirectly. To help children and young people thrive, every member of an organisation needs to understand their role in keeping children safe and preventing child abuse and neglect.

Child Protection Week is the first week in September every year. The 2022 theme is ‘Every child in every community needs a fair go’

An opportunity for congregations to highlight the 11 standards for child protection introduced in 2022. Victoria’s Child Safe Standards are a set of mandatory requirements to protect children and young people from harm and abuse.

National Child Protection Week will continue to embrace the overarching message that ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’. In particular, the priority for children growing up to be safe and supported.

Children and young people thrive when they grow up safe, connected and supported in their family, community and culture.

They have the right to grow up in environments that support them according to their needs, now and into the future.

To grow up safe and well, children and young people to:

• feel loved and safe
• have a positive sense of identity and culture
• have material basics
• be healthy
• be able to learn
• be able to participate.

This year let’s talk about how we create a supportive environment for every child in our congregations, and faith communities.

Related websites
NAPCAN (+ Child Safe OrganisationsTraining)
CCYP 11 Standards
National Safe Church Unit (Uniting Church)
Child First
Victorian Child safe Standards
Catholic Diocese of Sale Child Safety

In the news
Catholic Diocese of Sale

National Child Safety Standards – NCCA
(National Council of Churches in Australia)
This framework of 10 standards for child safety is the first of its kind for churches and faith-based organisations in Australia. It encompasses the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Royal Commission recommendations and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
The NCCA engaged the services of Child Wise – an organisation which has pioneered the use of child safety standards in Australia – to consult with NCCA Safe Church Program members to develop the best resource possible.   
The NCCA Child Safety Framework is a suite of five documents that each builds on the other as outlined below. It is available for purchase by heading to our online shop here or using the shopping cart icon below.

Culture of Safety Unit (Uniting Church – Vic/Tas Synod)
Josh Tuhipa-Turner, Safe Church Coordinator 
Josh is a social worker who has worked in child protection, adult offenders, youth justice and with sex offenders and training.
Josh is responsible for:

• Safe Church Training for implementation of safe church policies.
• Advice about the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
• Implementation and support of the Synod’s Person of Concern policy.
• Advice about implementing Safe Church policies, including the UCA Child Safe Policy and Working with Children/Vulnerable People Check/Registration.

Josh can be contacted Tuesday-Thursday by email or on 03 9116 1438

Candice Coles, Culture of Safety Advisor
Candice is a social worker who has worked in family services, youth mental health, training and policy implementation.
Candice is responsible for:

• Assisting with resourcing and implementation of the Synod’s Child Safe Policy.
• Advice about the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
• Being the contact person for Direct Personal Responses as part of the National Redress Scheme or through other redress processes.
• Providing support and direction for Reportable Conduct issues.

Candice can be contacted Monday – Thursday by email or  0499 408 889

National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021 – 2031 Safe and Supported
The National Framework was developed by the Australian Government, in collaboration with State and Territory Governments, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives and the non-government sector. It provides a framework for how all these groups can come together to make sure that every child inAustralia is safe and supported. The first implementation plans will be released in mid-2022.

10 National Principles for Child Safe Organisations applied in a Uniting Church context.
Those ten principles are:

1. Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.
2. Children and young people are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
3. Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
4. Diversity is respected and equity is promoted.
5. Our people are suitable for work with children and committed to the values of child safety and wellbeing.
6. Child-focused complaints processes
7. Our people are provided with ongoing education and training on child safety
8. Physical and online environments promote safety
9. Policies and procedures document child safety
10. Review and continuous improvement of policy, procedure and practice

The 11 Child Safe Standards (Victoria)

Click on the links below to see the minimum requirements and compliance indicators for each Standard. Every organisation that works with children including churches and congregations needs to document how they will implement each standard.

Standard 1 

Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 1

Standard 2

Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 2

Standard 3

Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 3

Standard 4

Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 4

Standard 5

Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 5

Standard 6

People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 6

Standard 7

Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 7

Standard 8

Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 8

Standard 9

Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 9

Standard 10

Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 10

Standard 11

Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people.

Click here for details about Child Safe Standard 11

A new pilot program (CRISP) – backed by the Federal Government – is looking at how community support groups can help refugees.

ABC TV news item

The Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP) will allow groups of everyday Australians to get involved in welcoming refugees into their local community from ‘day one’ of their Australian journey. The program will support 1,500 refugees over four years.

The CRISP is inspired by the successful community refugee sponsorship program operating in Canada since the late 1970s, which has enabled more than 325,000 refugees to build a new life in Canada, in addition to those resettled under the government-funded resettlement program. Similar programs are now being implemented in many countries around the world, including the UK, US, NZ and Ireland.

CRISP is based on community support, where a group of five or more adult volunteers (known as a ‘Community Supporter Group’ or ‘CSG’) will provide 12 months of practical hands-on support to a refugee household from their date of arrival in Australia. CSGs can be based in a community anywhere in Australia, provided they can demonstrate capacity to provide appropriate support to a refugee household within that community.

Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) will approve, train and support CSGs and connect them with a refugee household referred into CRISP.

Refugee participants in this program will be those referred to Australia for resettlement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees having been identified as in urgent need of resettlement. They could come from a wide variety of countries and may have been waiting for the opportunity to resettle in a safe new country for a long time.

‘It takes a village to support a family’. Imagine if the churches harnessed ‘people power’ to provide practical support to new refugees, after so many years of advocating for change in refugee policies.

Might this be something a local congregation could support, or local churches in an area working together?

(Here’s a story from NSW about Gosford Anglican church sponsoring a refugee family settling on the New South Wales Central Coast)

More information about CRISP here.

Save the date!

In the lead up to World Mental Health Day (October 10), Mental Health Week (9th-17th October), and Mental Health Month (October 1st – 31st), and the news of Victoria’s new Mental Health and Wellbeing Act passed in August, a significant day conference is being planned, specifically aimed at actions for churches in response to people with disabilities and mental health issues.

Welcoming and Inclusive: Actions for Churches in response to people with disabilities and mental health issues – a joint conference between the Victorian Council of Churches and the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania

When: Saturday 8 October 2022, 9:15 am – 5 pm

Where: Centre for Theology and Ministry, 29 College Crescent, Parkville or Online

Cost: $40 for Metropolitan participants/ $25 concession and non-Metropolitan participants/ $10 online participants. Catering provided.

Registration on Humanitix

Both Federal and Victorian Governments have been part of significant reforms in relation to mental health and disability. Most significant has been the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. However, despite these reforms, too many people with disabilities and mental health needs still face abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination. These issues have been highlighted by numerous Parliamentary inquiries and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

Theological response to people with disabilities and mental health issues have also shifted, becoming more aware of the impact of our theology and language on Christian perspectives and responses to disability. Many churches have also made efforts to be welcoming and inclusive. At the same time, people with disabilities and mental health issues still struggle to find churches that make them feel welcome and fully included.

The conference will provide opportunities to explore the ways in which churches can be part of advocacy for further reforms by governments. Together we will also explore how congregations can be more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities and mental health issues.

Key Speakers

Rev Dr Andy Calder, Disability Inclusion Advocate 
Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania (see link here)

Andy has previously held roles as chaplain at Prahran Mission, and senior chaplain at Epworth HealthCare, Richmond.
Prior to ordination in 1995 as a Uniting Church Deacon, Andy worked in a range of community and government contexts in program delivery, policy development and advocacy with people with disabilities.
Andy is committed to ensuring people with disabilities are full and equal participants in all activities of the Synod. 
Andy is also Director of the John Paver Centre, a Clinical Pastoral Education provider.   

Emma Kealy, Shadow Minister for Mental Health

Like many young people, Emma left the country to further her education, and attained a Degree in Biomedical Science at the University of South Australia. 
Emma has lived and worked in Hamilton, Melbourne and the Northern Territory, before making the decision to return to Edenhope to raise her family in a country environment.
Emma has worked at senior levels in the health sector including Western District Health Service in Hamilton and as Chief Executive of the Edenhope and District Memorial Hospital.
Emma is involved in many community activities, including having served on the Edenhope College Council, delivery of an Anglicare program to support and connect young Mums in Edenhope, Relay for Life and helping out at the Lake Charlegrark Country Music Festival.
She became the Member for Lowan in November 2014. 

Program
9 am Gathering & Registration – Tea and coffee will be provided on arrival
9:15 am Introduction – Acknowledgement of Country and opening reflection
9:30 am Keynote address – Theological reflection on disability and mental health – Rev Dr Andy Calder
10:30 am Morning Tea
11 am Keynote Address – Ms Emma Kealy, Shadow Minister for Mental Health
11:30 am Panel Session – What reforms are needed from governments to ensure people with disabilities and mental health issues can lead flourishing lives? 
12:30 pm Lunch
1:15 pm Panel session – What role should the Christian community be playing to welcome and include people with disabilities and mental health issues? 
2:15 pm Workshops 
3:15 pm Afternoon tea
3:45 pm Reflection – Discussion on where to next and what participants will do as a result of the conference
4:45 pm Closing Worship
5 pm Finish – After conference drinks and nibbles

Workshop Options
Please list your top three workshop options when registering online. Workshops will be run based on the number of participants, and will not run if not enough participants register interest. Each workshop will aim to look for a specific way forward in each area. 
*You will be prompted to enter your top three workshop preferences when you register. Please note your preferences before registering as once you are in the ticket purchase section, you will be unable to see the workshop options.

The workshop options are:

1. Designing a protective systems that works for people with disabilities and mental health issues

2. What would it take to provide a society where people with disabilities and mental health issues can flourish?

3. Rethinking our theology on disability and mental health

4. How can congregations be more inclusive and welcoming of people with disabilities and mental health issues? – Including examples of congregations that have created welcoming environments

5. Down to Ten Days Campaign – addressing housing needs for people with disabilities – Dr Di Winkler, CEO, The Summer Foundation

6. Responding to mental health issues in the criminal justice system

A 24-page reflection booklet on the Assembly theme, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity”, notes this is the first time “love” has been part of an assembly theme and calls for an “ecumenism of the heart” in a broken world.

“Many people among the churches are urging that our seeking of unity must be not only intellectual, institutional, and formal, but also based on relationship, in common prayer, and, above all, in mutual affection and love,” the text asserts (p. 19).

God’s foremost attitude to the world is love which “more than ideas and ideals, gathers, inspires, and creates unity”. As the language of our faith, love “can actively and prophetically engage the world as we see and experience it today in a way that will make a difference for a shared tomorrow” (p. 20).

“Those who are in Christ, . . . are called to do so in this world, . . . living as a sign and a foretaste of the kingdom to come and making visible the love that fills our hearts with joy, even on the bleakest days” (p. 4).

Churches are called to be a sign of this sacrificial love of Christ. “This witness does not come from human effort alone . . . but is made possible by the love of Christ working in us” (p. 16).

Further, churches are not only witnesses to the world but, as part of the world God has made, “Already, within the church itself, the world is being gathered into unity” (p. 17).

Affirming the need for a “renewed ecumenical movement for the sake of the world”, the text says that churches “are called by the risen Christ to be ‘sent’ into the very public and open spaces of the world, to reframe our corporate sense of what matters, to make idols fall, and to be part of welcoming the kingdom of God in which the poor are blessed and captives set free” (p. 23).

Differing understandings about the nature and mission of the church have been either an overarching or an underlying theme in many ecumenical dialogues over the years, and during the 1970s, the concept of koinonia (communion) has emerged as central to the quest for a common understanding of the church and its visible unity. The term has proved helpful ecumenically, offering a biblical basis for the churches’ search for unity and for their common engagement in service and mission. Dialogue about the reign of God has also affirmed the notion of koinonia as descriptive of the right relationships God wills for the whole of creation. Bringing the two themes together, there is an emerging consensus about the relationship between the church and the reign of God in which the church, precisely as koinonia, is affirmed as a sign, instrument, and foretaste, as a “kind of sacrament” of God’s eschatological reign.

Of particular interest is the third phase of the international Reformed/Roman Catholic dialogue on The Church as Community of Common Witness to the Kingdom of God, which makes use of case studies from Canada, South Africa, and Northern Ireland to explore how the two churches’ actions on behalf of social justice reflect their understandings of the church’s role in relation to the reign of God and what that has to say about the specific ecclesiology of each (nos. 68-123).

Reflecting on the case studies, the dialogue report states: “There is no disagreement between us regarding the basic affirmation that the church is and should be a community of common witness to the kingdom of God.”

Further, “Our common understanding of the kingdom enables us to read together many of the signs of the times” (no. 157).

In the final chapter of their report, members of this dialogue group affirmed the dialogue itself as a form of common witness as well as a challenge to renewal in both churches. They assert, “In a fundamental sense, our dialogue itself is already an act of common witness, a reconciling experience that calls for further reconciliation of memories as obedience leads us to unity in faith and action, to a common witness in which the signs of the Kingdom are shared with the poor” (no. 198).

With its participants coming together from all over the world, this WCC Assembly, too, will provide opportunities for dialogue calling the churches to ever greater fidelity in their common witness to the kingdom of God. 

Download the booklet (PDF) reflecting on the WCc theme.

(from an online article by Sr Dr Donna Geernaert SC)

Theme: Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will hold its 11th General Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, beginning on Wednesday August 31 to September 8, 2022.

Usually held every eight years, this Assembly comes after a year’s delay because of the COVID pandemic which has taken many lives and highlighted the profound inequalities that exist in contemporary society.

Bringing together more than 4000 participants from all over the world, a WCC Assembly is a special event in the lives of its 350 member churches, ecumenical partners, and other churches.

With a membership including most of the world’s Orthodox churches, scores of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, and Reformed churches as well as many charismatic, independent, united, and uniting churches, a WCC Assembly is the most diverse Christian gathering of its size in the world.  It is a unique opportunity for the churches to deepen their commitment to visible unity and common witness.

As the highest governing body of the WCC, the General Assembly is the only time when the entire fellowship of member churches comes together in one place for prayer and deliberation. It has the mandate to review programs, issue public statements, and determine the overall policies of the WCC. It also elects the Council’s eight presidents and its 150 member Central Committee to oversee the WCC’s work until its next assembly. Each of the WCC member churches selects its own delegates to the Assembly, with allowance made in the allocation of delegates for balancing of confessional, cultural, and regional representation. In addition to delegates and advisors from member churches, there will also be a number of delegated representatives form associated organizations and from non-member churches like the Catholic Church and Pentecostal churches with whom the WCC is in dialogue. Considerable effort is made to bring together as wide as possible a group of participants, and in recent years extensive programs have been organized for visitors.

Worship and Bible study give the Assembly its spiritual and theological grounding. Small group sessions invite the building of friendships and community across multiple boundaries, and some enjoy the experience of the Assembly as a kind of Christian festival.

The relationship between the Catholic Church and the WCC is monitored by a Joint Working Group (JWG). Established in 1965 to support ongoing dialogue and collaboration, the JWG has an advisory role to its parent bodies, namely the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the Assembly of the WCC to which it regularly presents an account of its activities. In this context, the Catholic Church through the PCPCU appoints 12 Catholic theologians as members of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission, and 18 members of the JWG. About 12 experts are invited regularly to different programs of the WCC, and two full-time Catholic staff members are seconded to the WCC office in Geneva. During its second five-year mandate, the JWG studied the possibility of Catholic membership in the WCC. Over the course of this study, the JWG became increasingly aware of disparity between the two bodies, particularly in terms of relative size and differing organizational structures, which would present challenges for both. In 1972, the focus of the JWG shifted from the membership issue to improved collaboration. 

Being together

The WCC describes itself as a fellowship of churches who confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour. Usually seen as a translation of the Greek koinonia, the word fellowship in this description recognizes that the unity in Christ of all who believe in him already exists before any decision to come together. It is a given reality which the WCC member churches are pledged to making visible; they are committed to being together and to staying together. Succinctly stated at the 1991 Canberra Assembly, the unity of the Church is both a gift and a calling. May this assembly with its focus on an ecumenism of the heart be for the churches and the world at large a Gospel witness to the Christian meaning of love and the kind of unity for which Jesus prayed.

(edited from an online article by Sr Dr Donna Geernaert, SC)

The ‘Season of Creation’ theme for 2022 is ‘Listen to the voice of creation‘. ‘Season of Creation’ is the annual Christian celebration of prayer and action for our common home.

This year, more so even than in previous years, the Season of Creation needs to focus on to listening to earth, to the groaning of creation, to the voice of creation. The floods and fires and droughts and earthquakes around the world speak volumes about the environmental crisis.

[There are excellent resources available on the Season of Creation website for congregational worship. The Season of Creation begins on September 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation established by Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989, when he proclaimed September 1 as the Orthodox Day of Prayer for Creation. It ends on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology. Congregations can focus on 4 Sundays in September and possibly also the first Sunday in October].

(lyrics here)

In July, Pope Francis defined the Season of Creation as “an opportunity to cultivate our ‘ecological conversion’”, recalling this concept encouraged by St. John Paul II as a response to the ‘ecological catastrophe’ announced by St. Paul VI as early as 1970. In his message for this year’s Season of Creation, he asked “in the name of God” that large extractive corporations “stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, stop polluting rivers and seas, stop poisoning people and food.”
(Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudatory Si’ can be found here).

In a recent Sojourners article two questions are posed:
* Can songs about nature contribute to climate activism?
* How can hymns and worship songs respond to the climate crisis?

Debra Rienstra, an English professor at Calvin University and author of Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, said hymns and other worship music may play a role in shaping and deepening our feelings toward God’s natural world.

Rienstra hosts a podcast that explores places of renewal spiritually, biologically, and otherwise. She told Sojourners that spiritual formation includes orthodoxy (right thinking), orthopraxy (right doing), but also orthopathy (right feeling). “Getting people to care about creation might be part of orthopathy“, she said. “Can we shape that pathos toward a renewed love for creation? I hope that answer is yes.”

Maybe the 2022 Season of Creation needs a focus on orthopathy, on a renewed love for creation and therefore the imperative to care for creation.

Richard Lindroth, a forest ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and teacher on Christian environmental ethics, wrote that inaction in Christian churches is a result of “long-term estrangement from the natural world.”

Debra Rienstra said there is a “disconnection of place,” which she sees as foundational in colonialism. “The Bible is about Indigenous peoples basically. So, what we need to receive from Indigenous people is connection to place“.

Ron Rienstra, a worship pastor, and co-author with Debra Rienstra of the book, Worship Words, said music as a commodity has tended toward wide appeal, choosing metaphors, but not making them particular to place. “When we sing or speak or argue theologically in abstract ways that are trying to articulate truths for all time, we’re removing ourselves from the time and place that we are. We’re clearly in a particular time that calls for us to sing, preach, and pray about what’s going on in the world in regard to climate change.”

Richard Lindroth notes, “We instinctively care for the things we love, and we love the things to which we are intimately connected. Creation connection is a fundamental and necessary antecedent to creation care.”

While Christian environmental ethicists in the past focused on “stewardship” or “creation care” – a theology of right thinking – it hasn’t motivated the church to do much. Ron thinks that is because “the whole conversation takes place under the umbrella of duty or obligation. That’s a very short-term motivator for most people. Connecting to and loving creation is the key to unlock people to actually do things“.

August Focus:

Abolish the ‘Fast Track’ Assessment Process for refugees

Introduced in 2013 by the Coalition to assess protection claims more quickly, ‘Fast Track Processing’ was implemented by changes to the Migration Act 1958. (Maritime Powers Amendment: Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload Act 2014).

‘Fast track’ replaced the Refugee Review Tribunal, an independent merits review system, with a new body, called the Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA) that no longer heard directly from people claiming asylum, but was generally restricted to information from the Department of Immigration.

Despite its claims of rapid assessment, review and removal, many people are still waiting for a decision on their claims. ‘Fast track’ is not fast! As of December 2021, 31,122 people were classified as being in the Legacy Caseload. Most of these people have been subject to ‘Fast Track’.

Everyone who arrived by boat and sought asylum between August 2012 and January 2014, and also refugees who are reapplying for Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEVs), are subject to Fast Track Assessment and Removal Processes.

You might consider writing a letter/email as part of a campaign to abolish the ‘Fast Track Assessment Process.

All resources for letter writing here.

Other helpful resources

Kaldor Centre on Fast Track determination

Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) fast tracking statistics

The Guardian – fast track assessment fundamentally unfair to refugees

Refugee Research online: Trauma, mental health and the fast track assessment caseload

Today is 6 months since the invasion of Ukraine.

It is also Independence Day in Ukraine, in commemoration of the Declaration of Independence of 1991. But public celebrations in Ukraine are banned.

Since the invasion began in February, Russia has occupied 13% more of the country. Ukraine’s economy has been strangulated. Invading soldiers have taken Europe’s largest nuclear plant hostage. Houses, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed. Damage is calculated to be hundreds of billions of dollars. Food production has been disrupted as there’s evidence landmines have been placed to contaminate agricultural areas, and Ukrainian grain harvests have been stolen and even set on fire.

The political history between Ukraine and Russia is complex.

The human cost is tragic.

Tens of thousands have been killed. Invading soldiers have committed unspeakable war crimes and thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly relocated to Russia. One-third of Ukrainians have left their homes, sparking the largest refugee crisis since World War II. More than nine million people – around a quarter of the country’s population – have had to seek refuge abroad. Some 7 million people have been displaced internally* within Ukraine and some 13 million people are estimated to be stranded in affected areas or unable to leave due to heightened security risks, destruction of bridges and roads, as well as lack of resources or information on where to find safety and accommodation. (*Internally Displaced People – IDP)

Gendered impacts of the war are another concern. As most of those fleeing Ukraine are women and children, there are numerous further issues affecting them, including: a fear of sexual violence, worry for husbands and sons left behind, lack of access to sexual and reproductive health, vulnerability to trafficking, and loss of livelihoods.

Since February 2022, Australia has granted more than 8,500 visas to Ukrainians. According to The Australian newspaper, around 4,100 of these people have accepted the offer and are now in the country. Under the visa program, displaced Ukrainians can work, study, and access Medicare. The special visa program ended on 31 July. Displaced Ukrainians who missed the deadline will be able to reside in Australia on tourist visas, with no ability to work or access to Medicare.

Practical, pastoral and prayerful support is needed in response to this unfolding tragedy, including for Ukrainian refugees in Australia.

A prayer for peace
God of all peoples and nations,
Who created all things alive and breathing,
United and whole,
Show us the way of peace that is Your overwhelming presence.
We hold before you the peoples of Ukraine and Russia,
Every child and every adult.
We long for the time
When weapons of war are beaten into ploughshares
When nations no longer lift up sword against nation.
We cry out to you for peace;
Protect those who only desire and deserve to live
in security and safety
Comfort those who fear for their lives
and the lives of their loved ones
Be with those who are bereaved.
Change the hearts of those set on violence and aggression
And fill leaders with the wisdom that leads to peace.
Kindle again in us a love of our neighbour,
And a passion for justice to prevail
and a renewed recognition that we all play a part in peace.
Creator of all hear our prayer
And bring us peace. Make us whole. Amen
(Source: Christian Aid)

World Premiere of new film, ‘Mariupol. Unlost Hope’
27th August, 6.30-7.30pm
Venue: Ukrainian Community Centre, Essendon
3-11 Russell St, Essendon
This world premiere of the film will be in Essendon and will also be shown in many cities around the world. This is the story of five citizens, who lived in Mariupol for the first month of the war. They will tell what they saw, how they felt, and how they made decisions during the war. The film is shown with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the “Malvy” branch of the Ukrainian Women’s Association in Victoria.

References
The Conversation
Association of Ukrainians in Victoria
Ukrainians in Melbourne – Help and Support (Facebook group)
Conflict at the Crossroads