This blog offers an Australian perspective on faith, religion and spirituality. It invites you to join the joys and hope, the grief and anguish of a middle aged Aussie Catholic.
The material reflects my interest in global as well as local issues.My perspective is probably more quirky than orthodox.
Beth Doherty is media director for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. the She writes with insight and passion about the graceful act of photography: "The power of the photograph; its content, composition, message can say much more than an article, a radio grab, or even a television show - as evidenced by the adage ‘a picture tells a thousand words.’
In 2004, I went to Cambodia for a four-month volunteer stint with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS).
The question of whether to take a camera with me weighed heavily on my heart, but five weeks in, I realised there were stories that needed telling.
During my time, I worked as an English teacher to Montagnard refugees from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It was a dramatic and difficult refugee situation.
Babies were born in squalid conditions in refugee camps in Phnom Penh and I was able to take the very first photos for the families; families were resettled or sent home; people faced the prospect of never seeing their loved ones again." Read full text here
One of my primary uses of social media is sharing my photography. I cover the lives and issues of vulnerable people. My subjects include Indigenous people, those living with disabilities, Refugees and Asylum Seekers and Forgotten Australians. Beth writes of discovering the rich relationships that happen when a photographer meets another person. Some of the people I photograph survived institutional childhoods and have few if any images of themselves as children. They now cherish the images of their lives as adults. My commitment to photography means that I am able to walk into many situations with vulnerable people and they know my work is about promoting their lives and issues. The high incidence of people tagging themselves in my Facebook albums is also a form of permission and sharing of these precious images. I hope that Beth's blogpost will provoke more discussion about the role of photography both as social conscience and 'sanctifying act'
Authors, activists, theologians, spiritual directors, educators and grandparents. Wes and Sue will be using their professional skills as facilitators and drawing upon their vast experiences living in community and engaging in activism to increase our capacity to understand and explore the competing religions of empire and creation. Advocating the need to integrate the inner and outer, the mystical and prophetic, the private and public journeys, Wes and Sue are leaders in assisting people discover ways to nonviolently challenge the dominance, violence and injustice of empire. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
Padraig O’Tuama - is a poet, musician and peace worker from Belfast. Padraig is currently in Melbourne at the invitation of the Uniting Church who have employed him as their, "Poet in Residence".
He uses poetry to bring people together to explore the difficult things of our faith and find meaningful outcomes. As a gay Christian man he has travelled to places on the spiritual path most of us only ever squint at from a safe distance. In a very gentle, wise, intelligent and fun way he helps us find God in the places we once feared - and all in a wonderful Irish accent.
Padraig will be making a brief visit to Brisbane. There will be two opportunities to hear him.
Cardinal Pell should come and spend a day with me in my work with an NGO supporting people in poverty including those at risk of homelessness before he makes statements claiming wealth distribution is "pretty good" in this country.
Every day I engage with people struggling to survive on pensions who also deal with issues related to mental health and substance abuse. I invite the Cardinal to walk the streets of inner Brisbane with me and try telling these people about rising living standards.
I suggest the Cardinal prepare for his immersion experience by reading the The Poverty in Australia Report 2012 from ACOSS. The report shows that poverty in Australia remains a persistent problem with an estimated 2,265,000 people or 12.8% of all people living below the internationally accepted poverty line used to measure financial hardship in wealthy countries.
As a young boy I was fully inducted into my privileged state in the Catholic Church. I was a altar server which meant I had access to the sacred in ways that my revered grandmother would never know.I was taught the ritual language of Latin and dressed in robes that marked me off from others in the Church.
The elite male caste of clericalism is one that can easily trap a young boy with religious interest,imagination and dreams of adventure. Although I had my share of comic book heroes, some of whom were military monsters, I also read of the martyrs and wonder workers of my faith tradition who ranged from the hard working to the eccentric. Few of these stories were of women whether in comic books or biographies of saints.
I spent a number of years as a young adult within this culture of male clericalism. I learnt much from this experience. My choices meant that I lived in a multicultural religious community of men. This nurtured a new appreciation of cultural diversity that has stayed with me since.It also gave me insights into masculinity that have led me to a new understanding of my sexuality as a gay man.
My passion for social justice led me to an awareness that at the core of my life was a deep injustice both personal and systemic. It was an injustice deeply rooted in the very culture I had taken on board as my source of meaning and fulfillment.
Patriarchy is the elephant in the room of Catholicism and much of Christianity.In my younger days I took it for granted that males had rights and privileges.When I was a young altar boy there was one Sunday in the year when girls took centre stage in the Church.
The annual crowning of Our Lady's statue was a high religious festival in May. It involved flowers, lyrical songs and young girls dressed in white strewing rose petals on the nave of the Church, There was even a "WHS" factor ignored at the time, when one special girl in full white wedding gear had to climb a ladder to place a wreath of flowers on the head of the statue. Many observers would see the day as a bit of Goddess worship Catholic style where women had their 15 minutes of religious fame. But after all the processing and drama of the crowning we went back to hearing a male priest tell of the glory of Mary.
From where I stand, it seems to me that male "protection," paternalism and patriarchal theology are not to be trusted anymore because the actions it spawns in both men and women have limited the full humanity of women everywhere, and on purpose.
Isn't it time for us all to really be converted, to say the real Truth about women from our pulpits, from our preachers, from our patriarchs, until both they and we finally believe it ourselves? Then surely the actions that make it real will follow.
Their conversation covers, among other things: the “argument” within Scripture between advocates of the “religion of Empire” and the “religion of Creation,” the ethic of love (rather than nonviolence in the New Testament) and the anarchic impulses within Scripture.
Sister Megan said she regretted only having waited 70 years to take action.
A jury deliberated for two and a half hours before handing down its verdict. The three members of Transform Now Plowshares face up to 20 years in prison following their conviction for sabotaging the plant, which was first constructed during the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear bomb.
Sister Megan Rice has given witness to the ministry of spiritual mothers in a prophetic and faith filed action. She stands strong in the Christian tradition of civil disobedience and the martyr's refusal to cooperate with the death machines of war and destruction.
Spiritual motherhood is a witness to the civilisation of life against the civilisation of death.
Spiritual motherhood is a witness to the service of the feminine, disarming the power of patriarchy.
Spiritual motherhood builds community among the vulnerable and the dispossessed.
Spiritual motherhood nurtures elders of vision committed to the Gospel of peace and reconciliation rather than apologists of doctrinal semantics.
Spiritual motherhood is a gift and grace to a Church broken by the culture of abuse of power and children.
So go well Sister Megan with your companions. In the tradition of St Peter, I say you rock!!
Vatican City, 8 May 2013 (VIS) - From 9 to 13 May, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, will come to Rome to meet with His Holiness Pope Francis. As Reuters notes this will create the never before moment of three Popes in the walls of the Vatican. The average Catholic and their neighbours are probably still recovering from the shock of discovering that Rome isn't the only Church that calls its leader Pope.
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt has about ten million faithful. This large membership makes the Coptic Church one of the most important elements in the ecclesial landscape of the Middle East where, in recent times, Christian communities are having to deal with very difficult situations.
Pope Tawadros’ predecessor, Pope Shenouda III, met with Pope Paul VI in the Vatican 40 years ago in May of 1973. On that occasion, the Pope and the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch signed an important Christological Declaration in common and initiated bilateral ecumenical dialogue between the two Churches.
The joint communique issued by Paul Vl and the head of the Coptic Church in 1973 said:
"In accordance with our apostolic traditions transmitted to our Churches and preserved therein, and in conformity with the early three ecumenical councils, we confess one faith in the One Triune God, the divinity of the Only Begotten Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Word, of God, the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance, who for us was incarnate, assuming for Himself a real body with a rational soul, and who shared with us our humanity, but without sin. We confess that our Lord and God and Savior and King of us all, Jesus Christ, is perfect God with respect to His Divinity, perfect man with respect of His humanity. In Him His divinity is united with His humanity in a real and perfect union without mingling, without confusion, without alteration, without division, without separation. His divinity did not separate from His humanity for an instant, not for the twinkling of an eye. He who is God eternal and invisible, became visible in the flesh, and took upon Himself the form of a servant. In Him are preserved all the properties of the divinity and all the properties of the humanity, together in a real, perfect, indivisible and inseparable union.
We venerate the Virgin Mary, Mother of the True Light, and we confess that she is ever Virgin, the God-bearer, she intercedes for us, and, as the Theotokos, excels in her dignity all angelic hosts."
Since the election of Pope Tawadros II as the new Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, there has been a growing rapprochement between the Christian communities in Egypt. This has led to the establishment of a council of Christian Churches in Egypt.
Pope Tawadros, as well as having an audience and a shared prayer with the Holy Father on Friday, 10 May, will be received at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and other dicasteries of the Roman Curia. He will visit the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and will meet with the faithful of the Coptic community resident in Rome.
Vatican News carries he full text of Pope Francis' address to Pope Tawadros and his delegation:
The 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be celebrated from 20-27 May and this year’s theme is “We will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ (Corinthians 15:51-58)”
Prayer cards ($10 for 25) can be obtained by contacting Queensland Churches Together on 07 3369 6792, admin@qct.org.au or message on Facebook about Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. An invoice will be included with your order. Printed posters will not be available this year, but you can print your own if you wish by downloading the FREE flyer. The flyer includes a section at the bottom where you can promote your church’s service.
On Sunday, May 20th, 100 people from across the Christian Churches in Townsville gathered to mark the opening of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, click hereto read Walk of Witness, Townsville.
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Each year in many countries one week is set aside by a wide range of churches to pray specifically for the unity of the churches. The idea was born in 1908 - which means that 2008 was the centenary of the global initiative of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.Click here for some history and background concerning this initiative.
FOR CHRIST’S SAKE - FIND YOUR VOICE AND GIVE YOUR SUPPORT By signing this petition you are assisting every Catholic group calling for change. You are helping to create something very special: - the voice of the faithful. You will be helping to create a church for the future, free of sexual abuse, full of participation and inclusiveness–, a Church where loving God, through Jesus Christ makes us proud and full of the Holy Spirit. This is the voice we want the Vatican to hear. . So if you are Catholic and believe that it’s time for the Church to listen to its people; if you’re a Catholic who wants to stamp out sexual abuse from ever occurring again please sign this petition.
For some readers the image and promotion of this petition may be confronting. But so is sexual abuse and its tragic history in the Church.For Christ Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church…for good is the most recent book from the retired auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, Geoffrey Robinson.
I signed his petition in solidarity with victims of abuse. I signed this petition in solidarity with my sisters and brothers of the Church who believe the Church can be a sign and sacrament of the reign of God. I signed this petition in solidarity with people of good will who believe religion can be a force for unity and peace in our fragile world.
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