Come and go

An English Church has introduced rolling 30 mins time slots from 9 to 12.30 on Sunday and people "come and go".
Those of us who remember continuous cinema recall how starnge it was to come 30 mins before the end of the film and stay until you got to the same point.It's the same sort of structure
Difficult to create any sense of denouement, but does allow maximum flexibility.
We have rather experimented in the same way. And I have mixed feelings. There is a weakness about it all; in accomodating almost everyone maybe we are accomodating no one!
I have bigger concerns about the whole sense of the fact that we now live in the sort of world that is on duty all the time. Growing up in the years when Sunday afternoon was almost dead in the commercial part of the town where we lived, I now live in a city in which the wheelers and dealers (usually the big ones) desperately want to be open 24 hours a day every day.
But is there some widsom in saying ....no that is not what we do and setting boundaries. The experimental service answer says we must adapt...but how far it adapts and how far it drives the adaptation is another issue!
The principal of Sabbath rest says that everyone needs some free time, and we shoudl be able to share that time some what.

It is not straight forward, but sad that in being more flexible we so often end up being more rigid.

Working the forgiveness shop

At one of those workshops yesterday designed to train about reporting rape and child sexual abuse. Always pretty gruelling.
Some off the top of my head observations.
Political correctness and evangelism
There is an orthodoxy here that is being aggressively promulgated. It includes such truths as "rape is not about sex it is about power"; "the perpetrators are always to blame"; "minors are never to blame"."society conspires to overlook these issues"
And, indeed, I accept most of this orthodoxy. Our group was patted on the head several times for giving the right answers. But occasionally I wondered when we were hurtling through volumes of information whether we were paying enough attention to the creeds that were being set before us.
We, for example, skipped over the three case studies in the notes...which was rather a pity since these often tend to draw out of people less doctrinal repsonse.
Sex and Power
The statement (as above) that rape is not about sex but about abuse of power...is one that increasingly gives me the heeby jeebies. It certainly is about the abuse of power, but it is also about sex. Are we overlooking here that there is something about male sexuality that is linked with power and the need to dominate, and instead of denying all the time that this is about sex do we need to be helping men to understand that sex and sexuality needs to be expressed rather differently than has been the accepted norm.
This requires teezing out and I don't fully understand the implications but it is worth thinking through.
Forgiveness and Revenge
It was interesting to us all, but not more so than to our two (more or less) sectarian presenters. That we got enlivened by the issue of forgiveness. This of course is our stock-in-trade and we have indeed thought about it more than most.
It was interesting, I thought, that one presenter (the less 'religious' of the two) saw this as an opportunity for further challenge and discussion while the more overtly "religious" one kept telling us that it was unhelpful to talk to victims about 'forgiveness' and see this as a goal.
Now I am the first to admit that we have a lot more thinking to do in this area, but it seems to me that there is no value in 'revenge' (even legal revenge?) at all and that Christianity will always want to move to forgiveness.
We misunderstand the cost of forgiveness, and in that sense trivialise it. It does not preclude justice and punishment, and indeed must not. But, to my mind this process will always be lacking unless genuine forgiveness is opened up.

Living in Bizarro Land

Have the major political parties not realised that there is a Fringe Festival in Adelaide?And that part of that phenomenon is the advent of dozens of comedians, both local national and international whose particular gift it is to scrutinise (with an intense Scrute) current events and twist them into the hilarious?
My two big girls and I went to see Michael Chamberlin last night, whose theme was "The Ten Commandments", K & I were both impressed about how perceptive he was about the nature of religion...a story for another day...my worry is what these comedians, Anderson, Hills and the like carry back to their national TV shows about their time in SA. Already the butt of jokes in the Eastern States (so what? we might say...but surely we want to avoid it if we can) I can just imagine the next edition of the The Glass House with the acerbic Wil(ful destruction) Anderson saying and "In Adelaide the most pressing political issues are: "Gilding your toilet", "banning Rodeos" and "Holidays for fat families". "
Mr X complaining about the Public Prosecutor installing a private toilet in his office; Democrat Kanck launching her major policy as Banning Rodeo ("Animal welfare activists will love it"), and Liberal Chapman...we will give families incentives, like holidays (to where and how much)if they get their kids to lose weight!
Now I am no genius but surely there are more significant issues.
Is the electorate really so shallow that only bread and circuses will suffice?(There is much evidence to suggest this is true and this is not the politicians' fault).
As I drove up the Hill yesterday and looked at the posters I pondered who I was going to vote for, and my two daughters and I were having the same conversation.
Fortunately, contrary to popular rumour, voting is not compulsory....only turning up and having your name ticked off.
Fortunately, too, my vote will not count since our local member Iain Evans will be returned easily. He is a good member...he is being rather quiet. Good strategy when you consider that when the Liberals lose (as they surely will) Kerin will resign and Iain will become the leader of Her Majesty's loyal Opposition. Then they may just stand a chance in 4 years time. But that remains to be seen.
In those days the pranks of the Kancks will have steadfastly destroyed any possibility of dignified support for the once successful Democrats, so he may govern in his own right too.

Oh comedians, please be merciful to politically naive South Australia!!

Day Off

Is Friday a good day off?

Working on Sundays I have found that by the time I get to Friday, my day off, I feel pretty whacked. Today that is exactly what I feel, as though I have been hit over the head with a cricket bat! I have lawn mowing and various other jobs to do.
So, will my day off exhaust me?
Thursday is a completion day...I need to finish everything or I am caught with mt pants down (as it were) on Sunday, and I often find that Saturday is my busiest day particularly trying to catch up with people who aren't available during the week.
Sunday is hectic in a curious sort of way and I come home from morning church usually pretty drained, even if rather enlivened. Although night church has almost died out, and we say it is because people don't come out any more...my real suspicion is that it doesn't happen because clergy are too tired to deal with it. {When I was a boy Evensong was as popular a service as the morning}.
Monday I habitually feel energised and so fly at my activities in a way I sometimes regret. Tuesday and Wednesday are long days; beginning with driving S to school for choir and orchestra and quite often with night meetings. So we get back to Thursday again.
And I am sitting here on Friday, my day off typing into my weblog!!!
The question is not whether Friday is a good day off...but like the previous entry (here) maybe this could be solved by creating an extra day in the week!!l

Men's problems

The widespread sexual abuse that is prevalent is our society has left no area of life untainted. As a priest I am only too well aware of that. As a former Boy Scout I am only too aware of that. As a former teacher.....well there you go.
What do all these areas of life have in common? They are all supremely dominated by men.

In a vigorous conversation yesterday with three people I know well, one of whom is critically involved in education for safe behaviours...she said when we talking about two people going away for a week's work "Well we will have to make sure the man has his police clearance."
Not one to leave anything (let alone "well") alone...I added "And the woman too."
To which she replied.."Oh of course,but we all know that abuse is essentially a man's problem".
And I cannot demur from that pragmatic analysis.

What ever else we might think about why priests, teachers or scout leaders abuse people, let's not overlook the obvious fact that the majority of perpetrators (as in the recent nusing home case). We are titillated by the few cases of women teachers who seduce their charges, but that I think is because that is something of an oddity and pretty rare. Many (even most) men even get something of a buzz from this idea.

The problem is that we live in a society in which men are like this, and which permits men to be like this. Not just the odd one or two but many, many of us. Even if all men are not perpetrators of specific acts of sexual violence (that is what they are) our society condones and even promotes a type of macho maleness which is consistent with these abusive notions.

When are we going to hear the voices being raised to start, and start now, attitude changing-consciousness raising that promotes zero-tolerance in all walks of life with regard to power abuse by men, and particularly in so far as it manifest itself in sexual violence.

There is not much heart for this. But then, of course, men largely control the political purse strings!!

The cost of speech

The conviction of David Irving for the crime of "holocaust denial" reminds us that our opinions are not without cost.
It is well to note that this is an issue about freedom of speech, but freedom does not mean that one should be allowed to avoid the consequences of our words. Irving's long time protestations ...including that there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz, and that 6 million Jews were not killed....sound uncomfortably like propaganda and deeply offensive trash.
Lest we forget that this is also closer to home than we think...look at the website of the so-called Adelaide Institute which tells us that the sorts of facilities at Auschwitz included

cinema, swimming pool, hospital, library and post office.

Why does such garbage still exist? Who is interested in propagating such idiocy and obvious untruth?
To develop the idea oft quoted of Voltaire: I may disagree with what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it....but I would want to add...I also require that you like I should accept the consequences and not hide behind claims of an absolute right

An extra hour

I realised a number of years ago that there was too much to do and too little time to do it. Perhaps my clearest understanding came when I understood that most of us probably have about one unallocated hour each day.
What to do with it? Some of the things I have tried to devote that hour to have been:

• Spend an hour learning, French, German, Italian...even of late Indonesian
  
• Translating the week's OT lesson from the Hebrew
• Translating somthing similar out of Greek
• Praying
• Meditating
• Walking
• Exercising
• Writing poetry
• dealing with correspondence
• keeping my finances in order
• reading
• writing a novel
• learning how to use MSAccess datbase
• designing a webpage
• learning Visual Basic
• gardening
• playing the piano
• drawing
• ....and so on
  

My efforts have largely been short lived though some have had more success than others, and in some cases I have made alternate arrangements
And so it goes on....of course the key would be to add an extra day to the week or maybe just recognise that I need to do nothing for an hour each day. But that's a bit terrifying!!

X Marks the spot!

We are told that other members of the SA Parliament are not happy with controversialist Nick Xenophon's headline grabbing stunts (here). Everyone Liberal, Labor and an unnamed "minor party" seem to be cross with Mr X.
Though they piously suggest that the reason is something like "He is able to get away with the sort of self-promotion that other MPs would be publicly caned for". Is perhaps the real reason that he is successful and they are not.
In the world of politics there is no doubt an 8th deadly sin, coveting media attention (It wcould equally be said that in the world of media there is the obverse dealy sin which is manipulating public opinion).
We have to live with this and Xenophon is good at grabbing the media by the proverbials. For this I am glad...not just because it is amusing...but because we also need to pay attention to some of the minor issues as well as the major ones. At this X is good. There is room for both...indeed need for both.

Jumping the gun

It was vaguely amusing to see most parties yesterday breaching council bylaws (will they be fined as I would be?) by putting up election posters (see here)before the writs were even issued. Perhaps by the time you read this they have been...
Amongst the many political changes (see here for two examples) that could be flagged to create a fairer democratic playing field, this namby pamby right that a sitting government has to time the call of an election to suit its own purposes should be questioned.
Why not agree that terms will be fixed (4 years?) and that elections always happen on the, say, first Saturday of May or what ever.
The great advantage of such a system would be that the voting public would have a clear idea of the time frame a government could set itself, and make a realistic assessment of what it believes a given party can promise. Instead we find that this time of critcal scrutiny of governments towards the end of their elected term is muddied by minor questions like ...will he, won't he call an election? Makes sense to me.

Searching for happiness

In one of those flashes of inspiration, I had a conversation in my late teens with someone about the meaning of life. I realised then that despite popular propaganda that there was more too life than the pursuit of happiness.
That terribly Buddhist idea has recurred to me periodically over the last 30 or so years. Not that there is anything wrong with happiness, but it is perhaps a consequence of taking life seriously rather than the main pursuit in itself.
In Australia at the moment is Martin Seligman who may be (though it remains to be fully proven) the thinking person's "Dr Phil". Who just seems to get worse....but that's another story (why was he wearing Micky Mouse ears on his show yesterday?). Seligman, according to Time magazine, is the chief protagonist of Authentic Happiness. Chief amongst his themes is the need to teach optimism in schools. This is not silly...(not all of us are naturally imbued with the half-full rather than half-empty perspective, I tend to be the latter and my wife the former) children need more than their parents' limited mindsets.
It is interesting to note that the person I had the conversation with (referred to in the first paragraph) has not so much pursued happiness as continued to promote good psychological practice and challenging life experiences (see here)

Let us rejoice

39 years ago today our family left Tilbury Docks on P&O's SS Orsova to emigrate to Australia. I certainly had no conception of what I would be doing or what life would be like in 2006.
I do not regret in any way the step my family took, though it should be noted that these journeys to the Antipodes were not without cost. I well remember about a decade ago, my mother in her late 70s (no doubt feeling the loss of her peers) saying plaintively to me....Do you think we made a mistake coming to Australia? ......I don't know quite what she would have done if I had said "Yes!". The conversation that followed seemed to suggest that she was preparing to pack up her bags and 'go home'.
Until that point I had never fully appreciated how much I regarded myself as an Australian.
My three children (two of whom have emigrated to Victoria for the weekend) are 4th generation Australians on the other side. Their great-great grandfather Daniel arrived at Port Adelaide with his parents and 3 other young siblings in the 1860s. They promptly pushed a cart from the Port to McLaren Vale (about 40 kms I suppose) and settled there for a while before moving to the Wimmera. That family (like all families over time) is now vast and far flung. It is the nature of our country.
In a week when there has been a lot of rubbish talked about what Australia might become (see Dana Vaile's greatest hits) I am really grateful that I am part of a multi-complex society, bound together not by where we came from, but by what we are striving to become. Is that too pie!!

Quintessential Adelaide

As Adelaide prepares once again to showcase itself to the world I ponder the question what picture typifies quintessential Adelaide. Here are some suggestions. The Festival Centre complex now looks so good (particularly at night)and it expresses something of the aspirations of at least a sector of the community.

The Glenelg vista. Now, in my opinion, ruined by high rise development says something about the selling out of the popular interests to commerce, as well as show casing our fabulous gulf beaches

The Rundle Mall Balls or the Pigs or anyone of a number of modernistic sculptures appeal to me.

And of course as an Anglican if one were to pick a church in the city of Churches it would have to be our own Cathedral. Like my second daughter it never takes a bad photo

What do you think?

reserving editorial privilege

In general I won't remove comments on my blog. But I think that a certain abuse can occur if in making a comment the writer goes longer than the original blog.
As I can't edit other people's comments I will use my editorial discretion to remove those that are too long, offensive...or just silly.
My suggestion? If you want to pontificate at length start your own blog

The dangers of anti-semitism

It is very difficult to write objective criticism of the state of Israel. Immediately you are declared to be anti-semitic....and to that prejudicial accusation there is no adequate defence. You are always made to feel as though you are closing the gates of Auschwitz. What then are you to do if you want to critique the brutal treatment of Palestinians?
The Church of England has been so bold as to divest itself of pecuniary interests in Caterpillar...the firm that provides the bulldozers that wreak havoc in the Palestinian territories. Former Primate Lord Carey has vented his spleen against the decision (see here ). Never one to bow out gracefully he is happy to side with the Israelis who are now doing everything to cause trouble for Anglicans (most Palestinian Anglicans are Arabs) . Read the curious letters in The Jerusalem Post which suggest everything from "return the Crown Jewels' (Britsh Israelitism gone mad I think) to "evict all the priests"..
I have been one who was very pro-Jewish and was indeed a founder member of the South Australian Council of Christian and Jews. I stopped being a member because I could not stomach the haranguing from our key Jewish leader who seemed oblivious to the offence he was causing by his ardent Zionist stance. The more mild-mannered Jews were never prepared to challenge this Zionism, and this is of course how extremism propagates itself.
A likeable enough chap in many ways, there was however never an understanding that Christians might appreciate something about the Hebrew Scriptures. I sat in one meeting as this arrogant man lectured a Lutheran Pastor known to be not only a top Australian scholar but a top world scholar in Old Testament. My colleague quietly acquiesced to this awful arrogance.
It manifested itself in many ways, it was never imagined that we understood anything about Judaism; an error which continues to be made. Eventually I tired of this, I felt that far from improving communication it was providing a venue for propaganda.
This continues ot this day.
Lord Carey's objection to the C of E's stance was that non Zionist Israelis were lumped together with these awful Zionists. He has a point. But in the end the Palestinians are in a much weaker position than the American-supported Jews. If more moderate Jews will not speak up against Zionism, then Christians should.
I am not anti-semitic. I am anti-Zionist. To some the two are contiguous but that is a propaganda ploy by those whose agenda is pretty clear.

Abolish the Upper House

Inevitably at State Election time the red herring is dropped across the issues....abolish the Legisaltive Council... I am generally in favour of this move. Even though in other articles I have argued that the House of Review is important (see here). My point in that discussion is really that there should be an independent voice, which has often been the Greens, the Democrats, the No Pokies MP, or the Independent.
This voice holding government to account has been principally heard in the Upper Houses of our Parliaments but does not necessarily need to be so. If an independent voice can be heard in a single chamber Parliament then that would suffice. I want the two major parties to do more than just Whip the numbers into shape, I want them to justify their case and to work with those who represent minorities and who may hold the balance. If they don't do that then whole sectors of our population are, in reality, disenfranchised.

I actually think that an Upper House in the South Australian State Parliament is complete overkill, and expensive. If we compare it, say, with English regional or County Council government whcih are often much larger than any of the Australian State Governments they survive on only one elected tier.
But I value the voice of the independent. I like the way that the Democrats held the Federal and State governments to account. I think South Australias No Pokies MLC, Nick Xenophon, has been extraordinarily good value.
While I would happily abolish the Upper House, I would only do so on the proviso that independents can compete on a level playing field with the bully boy Liberal and Labor parties. For example proportional representation like perhaps the Hare Clark system (see what happens in the ACT) Thus if Labor get 45% of the votes and Liberal 45% we still have 10% of the seats going to some group other than them.
More often than note this is what the community wants.
Though one party may get more than 50% party preferred they seldomly get an absolute majority. This means that for most governments on the raw vote more than half the electorate don't want them to be the government!!!
There is something about requiring such minority governments to struggle with independents to get their legislation through as a fairer way of dealing with the whole electorate.
Labor and Liberal hate this.....but we the voting public should demand proper and accurate representation.

Olympic flare

I had never fully appreciated until I watched the opening of the Winter Olympics from Torino (Turin) just how excellent Italian style and design were. I guess I had suppose it was mainly hype...an Italian propaganda which the world had acquiesced too. But the touches in the ceremony, and the sheer breathtaking power of the symbolism, and the carefulness of the artistry all added together to show us that here we were witnessing "class". Even, I thought, the torch design (above) displayed an elegance which is just soooooo Italian.


And Sophia Loren is just the right person to be carefully leading the famous women carrying the flag.
There was a carefulness about the composition of the shots for TV which was largely absent from the vibrant chaos that seemed to permeate the Sydney Olympics. AAAh what a world we live in.

Affirmation

I belong to a group called Affirming Catholicism. It is not a Roman Catholic organisation but rather an Anglican (Episcopalian/Church of England) body. Even though we are a reformed church we have always had a strong sense of our catholic identity and we treasure that.
In these days of significant disagreement in the Anglican Church, Affirming Catholicism lines up on the side of openness and inclusiveness. We want to affirm what is good about Christianity, and encourage a spirit of universality (which is what catholicism means), this has particular expression in the fact that we affirm the place of women in ordained ministry. We believe that the church is not just a clergy dominated group, but want to affirm the mutual ministry, care and support of lay people and clergy together working for the advancement of God's kingdom.
In the traditional Anglican way we affirm that theology is a rigorous and exciting pursuit and we want to embrace its breadth rather than its narrowness. Likewise we understand a key focus for all Catholic Christians is exciting and engaging worship, a rigorous and disciplined prayer life and a deep commitment to the Bible....all of this to make us "universal" or catholic in our openness to the Spirit of Jesus.
We are having our AGM at St Oswald's Parkside at 5 p.m. tonight. Come and be with us for Evensong, High Tea and Meeting....we welcome you!!

Saturdays

Saturdays are curious. I often have more to do on Saturday than other days; even though the mood of the day is more laid back.
This mood makes one approach it rather differently. The rigid time frame doesn't seem to be so rigid, already I have got up a little later. But this is a plus and a minus...with more to do, perhaps I should be more organised.
Radio is remarkable on Saturday (see last week). Already I have heard the astute Geraldine Doogue muse with another about the impending changes to the delivery of world oil, and changing social pressures and political forces in the UK. I suppose she prerecorded it and is actually lying in bed! Any way, I'm prattling and had better go and get on with it...I'll try and write something more intelligible later on when I feel less assailed!

Agreeing with the senator

Far be it from me to ever agree with Senator Vanstone...I'll tell you a good joke about her sometime.
But she seemed at her eloquent best in the Senate yesterday in the debate about the abortion pill RU486. She is regarded as a fine orator by many who know.
I am quoting from memory but she said:
"Can they (presumably moral theologians) not find , just as they have done for war in defining a "just war", justification for such a thing as a just abortion?" She has a point, I may not agree with it but she makes a valid poinbt.
Heffernan, he of the outspoken loud mouth and bully-boy tactics, and I quote from memory again, shocked me (presumably speaking against) by predicting the advent of a euthanasia pill and saying something like...next time it won't be babies(sic) it will be people!
Abbott, the Minister said (here), the Senate vote was a no-confidence vote from the Senate in Ministers. I suggest it is a no-confidence in him on this particular issue. If he wants to take it more personally than that then he is not quite the total political animal he like people to think he is. And I am glad for that!!

Gillard suggested on Lateline that Abbott should get over himself...in something of a purple passage I suggest.

"Tony Abbott, really is getting into some very unusual territory here. I mean, he's almost like a sort of, you know, ageing rock 'n' roll star walking around saying, "That's enough of me talking about me, why don't YOU talk about me for a while?" Abbott actually doesn't realise this whole thing isn't about him, it's actually about a health policy decision and about serious policy and what people think is in the best interest of the nation and Australia's women. So, it's only going to be viewed as rebuff to Tony Abbott if he continues to conduct himself on the basis that he's not the Health Minister looking after responsible health policy but a strong protagonist in this debate and, clearly, one who's ringing around trying to influence colleagues. "

On top of this, I don't like the way that Abbott's Catholicism is regarded as something of a slur, which should be put to one side as being of no importance. This is, I suppose, the failure of non-Christians to understand that Christianity is actually about "where the rubber hits the road". And the failure of Christians to display that in their lives.

Great...and important stuff in the processes of democracy.

An Annual Moan

I will do this only once (this year). Although the sky is lightning now (6.50) having already walked for 45 mins from 5.30, I returned in the same dark that I left. Where is the dawn? Gazumped by daylight saving and the thought that we have another six weeks of it is depressing.

Pictures of the prophet

I have tried to stay away from the Pictures of the Prophet debacle, even though there is much for commentator to address.
What I feel as a simple person is that we should tread carefully on people's dreams. I know that the press should confront people's arrogance and injustice. I know that religious people should stand up for their beliefs. But in the end if we are to work for peace we should try to not provoke each other.

Deep and Wide

In a former incarnation I was a child in the Elim Pentecostal Church. I had no idea what a Pentecostal Church was, and my parents certainly didn't know (or they wouldn't have let me and my sister go). We went because they sang and we loved to sing.
One such song was Deep and Wide

Deep and Wide, Deep and Wide
There's a fountain flowing
deep and wide
Deep and Wide, Deep and Wide
There's a fountain flowing
deep and wide

We also would sing:

Plunge right in, cleanse your sin
in the fountain flowing deep and wide...and so on

In these days of anniversary I am doing a lot of thinking about past religious experiences and that was certainly one of them. I wonder what would have happened if I had found out what Pentecostal was, and would I have gravitated towards it. Some how I think not. While I still like to sing, what attracts me to God these days is not (just) religious experience it is also reflection on truth.
While the simple sentiment of the chorus is fun, it avoids the real depth and breadth of how God has dealt with me and continues to do so. Sometimes with rejoicing and light hearted singing. Other times with pain and anxiety. I have been able to respond on occasion and be brave on others. I have gone into places where I had never imagined I could go. Sometimes I have plunged right in, other times I could not even put my toe in the water.

I found someone else's words (see here) which better attest to the mystery of deep and wide...some of the words are:

I was the woman with the voices in her head.

I didn’t know my own was missing.

But there was something about the way you softly said

My name, that all my demons stopped to listen.

Oh deep and wide, so deep and wide where no one could find me,

Deep and wide, oh deep and wide were the places I’d hide.

So deep and wide, oh deep and wide was the dark I let blind me.

So I failed to see, you’d been looking for me deep and wide

and again

I was the woman drawing water at the well

You were the one who came to test me.

And ‘cause you knew that I was thirstier than hell,

You were the first one who could best me.

Oh deep and wide, oh deep and wide was the river beneath me

But it was deep and wide, so deep and wide, yet my well had run dry.

So deep and wide, oh deep and wide, a thirst that would not release me,

And I couldn’t believe you’d bring that water to me

From somewhere deep and wide.

It's a theme worth pursuing

Same old, same old

With Parliament(s) getting back into swing I could not bear to listen to Kim Beazley tonight. Asked to comment on anything he can twist it and turn it so that no comment is made and the Government is blamed. I tire too of the Government blaming everything on Labor's economic mismanagement when they were in power....that surely is wearing a bit thin.
Likewise on the State scene, I could not bear to listen to Ron Kerin tonight. Asked to comment on anything he can twist it and turn it.... oh sorry have I already said that.
One of my recurrent themes is that I want leadership not political opportunism. This reactive garbage that we get these days has nothing to say about Vision and Ideal, it is about a game ....which is expensive and boring.
Recent research shows that the Labor Party may only have 1000 active members. And is so in the grip of ambitious apparatchiks that they have lost touch with anything vaguely representing grass roots. The ambition of those who want cushy political jobs has the Caucuses by the throat, and will keep Labor out of power for ever.
The Liberals are not far behind.
The time is ripe for a Hitler to walk through the middle of all this and grab out attention. I wish I could stay awaake long enough to do it!!!! And then we could set off and invade Tasmania. Rumour has it that such an Anschluss is longed for by many of our Tasmanian patriots any way.
Even Fraser looks charismatic as we gaze back into the halcyon days of leadership!!

Brokeback

Far be it from me to agree with anything Peter Goers writes, but I commend his review of Brokeback Mountain to you in The Sunday Mail ( not available online but on page 34). Quite a good piece of writing. His point? That this is a story of frustrated love not of homosexuality.
I would agree, and obviously the viewing public has discerned this too. The audience when I saw it on Friday afternoon was like any Friday arvo group. No screaming queens or closet gays ( in so far as you can tell) rather a predominance of women and older mixed couples. An audience more like Love Story than like a gay flick. I don't imagine that's what the audience for Capote will look like!
What do I think of it? It is beautifully shot. Like his other movie I love, Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" is simply beautiful. Brokeback is too. The scenery of the high Wyoming Mountains makes you want be there. Nothing like it in Oz so far as I can tell.
Set that against the bleakness of Annie Proulx's story,(not quite as bleak as The Shipping News) poverty, unemployment and loveless relationships and there is a remarkable counterpoint set up.
It is sad on many fronts. Tender on others. And raises, but does not attempt to answer I think, a whole range of difficult questions about relationships. Principally what do you do when you settle for a substitute rather than the real thing.
It's worth going to see.
I don't think Ledger is really Oscar material in this film, though his painful shyness is palpable. I loved his 10 things I hate about you but that little amusement is trivial beside the import of Brokeback

Do yourself a favour

If you like listening to quality radio then Saturday is a delight. Andrew Ford (at left) presents the ABC's program The Music Show at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m. His knowledge, urbanity and wit cannot fail to entrance. On top of this there is a constant stream of visitors and personalities in the musicl field...and even if you are not terribly musical it's good listening.
His particular gift is to address almost every style of music in a non-judgmental way. I appreciate his sense of the fact that "popular" and "classical"music are complementary rather than in competition. I resonate with this and do not want to jettison Cat Empire or Oklahoma, simply because I love Rachmaninoff(he saved my life...another story) and Beethoven.
Just before The Music Show Alan...Saunders that is, presents the fascinating show at 9 a.m. The Comfort Zone, and then at 1.30 The Philosopher's Zone, truly versatile.
Of course on the other side there is great gardening from 8-10, a Vet...and so it goes on.
We are truly blessed.

85 years

At yesterday morning's Eucharist thanks to the presence of fellow parishioners Martin Bleby and Peter Roper we amassed 85 years of diaconateMartin 35, Peter 24 and myself 26. It doesn't mean much, on one level, though anything that notes staying power in today's church is worthy of note.
There is more that could be added in this parish, Peter W over 30, Kym over 15 and John over 50!! And Pam who as over 30 years as a deaconess (ordained by Bishop Bruce Rosier using the ordinal). That is also to beg the question about the active diaconate that is exercised by faithful lay folk.
It all seems some what worthy of note.

On being polite

Many have observed certain delicious ironies in regard to the need to learn again how to be polite. From the mouths of our politicians is one such and seems a bit rich. While the behaviour in Parliament is not to be taken as the be all and end all of such, it nevertheless gives the lie to the fact that these people are really to be taken seriously when they are advocating "politeness".
I do have some sympathy with the sentiment.
Politeness is an indication of the attention to detail which intimates the sort of regard in which people are held per se. So it is some what interesting to hear one commentator describing Parliamentary behaviour as essentially "humiliation". I would agree.
All of them are only interested in making the others look stupid, and themselves and their own look good. Good debating is one thing but humiliation is another.

Another comment was to do with that oft misused word: "chivalry". By this is often meant the sort of deference to women that was typical in, say, the 50s. Well, to that I can only say...you can't have it both ways. You can't have equality and deference to your fair sex.
Again I have some sympathy a friend who had 2 daughters said to me (who has 3), I am always interested by the way you open the car doors for your wife and your girls. My explanation was that I reckon that if I treat them well then they will at least expect any young man to treat them as well as their Dad does. And I simply cannot stop myself walking on the outside when promenading...better I get splashed by the Hansom cab than they do!!

Reflecting on such things a prominent educator notes that the promulgation of edicts on behaviour does little to effect the same. That pompous sentence might mean....Reports from Canberra don't actually change behaviour!! We need to see our leaders actually practising "good manners" as a way of life, and not simply pontificating on the subject. This extends, for me, to ensuring that visitors to our shores, no matter how illegal they may be perceived to be should be treated with dignity and not shunted off to the farthest possible dark corner...but that's another issue.

Good poem

RS Thomas (the poet) writes

It's a long way off, but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed: mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back: and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It's a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission ,
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf

R S Thomas ‘The Kingdom’

A bit of a puzzle

Following on from my occasional musing about what it means to be a priest in the church today (after over 25 years of having been so). There are many things I find myself doing that I didn't foresee. One of them is shepherding a shrinking flock that is over-resourced with buildings etc. and under-resourced in the money and energy departments.
I do not find it hard to tell people what good people most church people are. They are delightful and loyal communities, sometimes a little hard to get into...but great places to be if you can get into them.
That paragraph has a lot that could/should be critiqued or challenged but is essentially true.
What I never imagined I would be doing in 2006 was managing decline. I have had very little training to do that, and so you have to learn on the job...which I am happy to do except it is unremitting and hard work.
In 1980 I vainly imagined that most of these areas where individual sections of the Church were declining xould be ultimately fixed if you applied a bit of energy and imagination. I realise it is not quite that straight-forward. This I think is a change in the dynamics of church community. It simply is not possible to keep flogging the horse and expecting it to get up. Should we be flogging our horses any way?
I made the comment at an ecumenical meetiong recently that "We (the Anglican Church) are not agressively evangelical" ---that's not true of all sections of our church---but as a style of 'being church' it more or less describes us. I would say more than that. I would say "We don't want to be "agressive" either". I still delight in talking to people about Jesus and how he might change their lives, but I am not interested in getting people to sign on the dotted line, or even to get them to come to church.
I realised in my first week of ordination that while I was interested in introducing people to Jesus, that this is not the same thing as church-going, and in fact the latter pales into insignificance beside being in relationship with Jesus. Church going is not unimportant, but it is not, in the end, the purpose of the exercise. We don't always get this. Though I think, by and large, that we non-aggressives have understood this.
Why then, if this way, (which I would see as being the way of freedom and giving people the room to decide rather than to bludgeon them), well if it is the way of integrity...why does it seem to have brought us to this point of serious decline.
I am hopeful...but it is puzzling