Social Analysis and Faith

Spent a really inspiring morning at a Peter Henriot Workshop – Bringing Justice Alive From A Christian Perspective. Introduced us to a "must see" web: The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in Zambia. Some of the really useful documents available on the site address the issue of HIV AIDS. Fr Henriot, has lived for nearly 20 years in Zambia - one of the poorest countries in the world. He argues that to respond effectively to social issues, Christians and people of good will need to move from a model of charity to a model of justice at the core of their living and acting. The ‘pastoral cycle’ has been developed by base-level Christian communities across the developing world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has been used as a tool for evangelization in the liberation theology mode. Also participated intheBrisbane Social Forum which I have been supporting since it's beginnings five years ago. Back here on the home front, a group of Christian leaders has issued a radical ‘confession’ looking at what it means to follow Jesus Christ in today’s world of deception, division and violence. They argue that the Gospel is a message of both personal and social transformation, and their document’s signatories include people from the Anabaptist, Anglican, Catholic, Weslyan and Baptist traditions This is the sort of material that needs to be published in Church newspapers like the Catholic Leader and the Catholic Weekly. However, I won't be holding my breath waiting for their editors to bite this bullet.

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