Click here for Info & application form for JCMA conference 3-6 July 2011

Email JCMA for further details: registrations@jcma.org.au

Snoeks Desmond with fellow adult educator Jean Evans

Early on Saturday morning, 17 October 2009, a group of CAN members was joined by several adult literacy teachers in the Ruth Sugden Tower room, first for a delicious breakfast and then to listen to Snoeks Desmond from Durban, South Africa.

Snoeks is an early childhood development and family literacy expert who spoke about her work with the Family Literacy Program.  Snoeks established the program in the province of Kwa Zulu Natal in 2000, but she now travels into other African countries advising governments and other agencies who want to set up their own family literacy programs.

Kwa Zulu Natal is where Alan Paton’s novel ‘Cry the Beloved Country’ is set.  It is now the province most affected by HIV Aids and Snoeks talked about how important literacy is in educating about such issues as HIV Aids and health and sanitation.

Leah, Niko & Mac at the breakfast

Snoeks’ presentation provided a moving account of the work of the family literacy program, and a small glimpse into life in this part of South Africa.

The Family Literacy Program is an NGO (non-government organisation) which has won several significant educational awards.  This was Snoeks’ first visit to Australia and she was supported by the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council.

Devastation in the far northern reaches of Tonga (photo: ABC News)

Many members of the Church of All Nations have close personal connections and knowledge of the places and people affected.  How many Australians do you suppose have been to the remote Tongan island of Niuatoputapu?  Well Damian, a member of our congregation, visited in 2001 and he says:

“It’s a small island with a large, flat expanse around a small mountain.  Two of the 3 villages have been wiped out by the tsunami, leaving 1,000 out of the total population of 1,600 homeless.

“It’s one of the most remote islands in the world.  It’s the kind of place that gets its groceries delivered once every 3 months.  There’s only one plane in Tonga that can land on the island and it can only take a dozen or so passengers.  All these factors make the relief and rebuilding of this remote community very difficult.”

We know well how extreme weather events like typhoons are increasing with global warming.  It’s not widely appreciated how climate change is also increasing tectonic movements that cause earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.

Our Synod Moderator, Isabel Thomas Dobson, urges us to support the Disaster Appeal and to pray.  She offers this prayer:

Living and Loving God,

We pray for your people and your creation battered by natural disasters in the Philippines, Samoa, Indonesia and nearby countries.

Sumatra, where more than 1,000 people are thought to have died in Wednesday's earthquake (photo: Oxfam Australia)

Give strength to those involved in rescue and relief efforts,
comfort to those who mourn,
help and healing to the injured and homeless
and a spirit of generosity to your church.

In the midst of heartache, confusion and desolation
may your Holy Spirit bring courage and peace.
In the name of Christ we pray.

Amen

Donations to the International Disaster Appeal will be sent to our partner churches in the affected areas.  To donate, you can ring the toll-free number 1800 998 122 or donate online.

Alternately, the National Council of Churches has a specific appeal, as does Oxfam Australia.

You are warmly invited to attend a UnitingWorld forum and worship event in Ringwood this month:

Thursday 25 June
7:30pm

Ringwood Uniting Church
30 Station St, Ringwood

Speakers will include the Director and Associate Directors of UnitingWorld, Kerry Enright, Rob Floyd and John Barr.

Prof. Joe Camilleri, a member of the ideas forum on 21 June

Pax Christi is hosting and ideas forum exploring how Christians and Muslims can work together for peace with justice.  Among the distinguished speakers is our own Wes Campbell.

Click here for further details of this event to be held in Elsternwick on Sunday 21 June.

Watch a 5-minute promo for the film here, with the full-length DVD available for loan from the church. Read more about the project and consider ways of getting involved.

Sunday 21 September
1:30-4:30pm (with vegetarian feast to follow)

Aboriginal Advancement League
2 Watt St, Thornbury

This event is hosted by the Aboriginal Advancement League in Thornbury, the oldest, continuously operating, Aboriginal-run community organisation in Australia. The event has been planned by COMMON (centre of Melbourne multifaith and others network) in consultation with faith community representatives, Aboriginal organisations and traditional Wurundjeri owners.

RSVP jessieeks@hotmail.com or 0411300655

4:30 Meeting
6pm Worship/Reflection
6:30 Shared meal (Bring food to share)

The speaker will be Carole Shaw, Senior Overseas Project Manager at the International Women’s Development Agency. Carole has first-hand experience with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which addresses the impact of war on women, and women’s contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. She’ll discuss Resolution 1325, how and where it’s being implemented, and what we can do in Australia/Pax Christi.

Date: Sunday 15 June, 4:30pm

Venue: Kildara Centre, rear 39 Stanhope St. (East), Malvern

“We say killing is disorder. Life and gentleness and community and unselfishness is the only order we recognize. For the sake of that order, we risk our liberty, our good name. The time is past when good people can remain silent, when obedience can segregate people from public risk, when the poor can die without defense.”

“We ask our fellow Christians to consider in their hearts a question that has tortured us, night and day, since the war began:

“How many must die before our voices are heard, how many must be tortured, dislocated, starved, maddened? How long must the world’s resources be raped in the service of legalized murder? When, at what point, will you say no to this war?”

As contemporary as it may sound, this prophetic clarion was penned forty years ago by US ‘radical priest’ Daniel Berrigan as he, his brother Philip and a small group of other “illustrious Catholic resisters” prepared for an act of nonviolent resistance to the war on Viet Nam. They became known as the Catonsville Nine.

The war on Iraq has reinvigorated Christian nonviolent resistance, in the tradition of Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King Jnr. Its moral premise understands obedience to an unjust power as complicity in injustice. Christians pacifists are further inspired by the Hebrew prophecy that nations ‘shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and . . . study war no more’.

Let us add our ‘Amen’ in prayer and action.