Brisbane churches involved in the Micah Challenge will be telling their stories at a lunch-time gathering on Thursday November 9, 12 - 1.30 pm at New Hope Church Offices/Cafe, 35 Railway Terrace, Milton.
This is a chance to connect with stories of challenge and transformation as congregations have asked the hard questions and embraced issues of justice and the poor through the eyes of Micah 6:8., (Do justice, love kindness, walk in humbleness with God).
To register for the lunch meeting contact Laura McCrresh at World Vision (07 3387 2712) or by email laura.mccreesh at worldvision.com.au
Also worth checking out is Take The Challenge, a Micah Challenge intiative designed to get Christians to get active against the slavery and apartheid of our time: poverty.
On Friday afternoon I was part of a panel responding to Dean Hoge’s lecture on young adults in the Catholic Church.
Dean’s a Presbyterian who’s been lecturing in sociology of religion at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC for thirty years. He was part of the team that published the 1994 book, “Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers”. On Friday Dean was presenting research on Catholic young adults in the United States, to an audience consisting mostly of Catholic educators and youth ministry staff from Brisbane.
There were some eye openers for me. The top two values in a 1997 survey of Catholics 20 to 39 years old, relating to Catholic distinctiveness, were belief that God is present in the sacraments (no surprise), and a charitable efforts toward helping the poor (interesting). Fourth on the list was devotion to Mary the Mother of God. Emerging values identified in teenagers and young adults included a commitment to short-term projects and a strong will to protect the environment.
Dean took us through a national sample of American Catholics held in 2003, looking at issues of individual conscience and Catholic teaching, ethics relating to homosexual acts, abortion, pre-marital sex and birth control. It was clear that there was a strong delineation between Pre-Vatican II Catholics (63 years and older) and post-Vatican II Catholics (40-62 years of age). Young adults (18-39) were quite similar to the latter. Clearly a lot of the difference was related to generational change, particularly in the emergence of the Baby Boom generation.
Dean talked about the challenge faced by liberal denominations like the PCUSA and Uniting Church in Australia when it comes to identity. As denominations we highly value individual capacity for discernment, education and decision making. We are loathe to tell young adults what to do and believe. Some young adults stay around for that very reason. However many drift off because they perceive to be vagueness in doctrine and distinctiveness. The Uniting Church in Australia does not have much connection with the narratives told by the Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists in earlier years. We focus so much on being accessible and inclusive to Christians of all varieties that we’re in danger of being a generic brand, standing for nothing much.
My response included a reference to brand loyalty among emerging generations. People like Kevin Roberts at Saatchi and Saatchi prefer to talk about love than loyalty, thus the phrase “Love Marks”. We see that at work in the emotional connection many young Australian Christians have with Hillsong. I referred to Pope John Paul II and his inclusion in the Love Marks web site, between Pop Secret (pop corn) and Porsche. We have the challenge of nurturing passion that goes beyond consumerism, modelling this capacity for love in our own lives. I pointed out that organisations like Greenpeace found a following in the Baby Boom generation when a group of people now in their late sixties committed themselves to sharing their vision with students and workers ten years younger than themselves.
Dean Hoge is pictured below (left) with my fellow panel members Selina Harris (Sunnybank Catholic Parish) and Paul Mergard, (right) photographer and Salvation Army church planter in West End, Brisbane.
On Friday afternoon I was part of a panel responding to Dean Hoge’s lecture on young adults in the Catholic Church.
Dean’s a Presbyterian who’s been lecturing in sociology of religion at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC for thirty years. He was part of the team that published the 1994 book, “Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers”. On Friday Dean was presenting research on Catholic young adults in the United States, to an audience consisting mostly of Catholic educators and youth ministry staff from Brisbane.
Dean Hoge is pictured below (left) with my fellow panel members Selina Harris (Sunnybank Catholic Parish) and Paul Mergard, (right) photographer and Salvation Army church planter in West End, Brisbane.
A member of my worship team at Ashmore Uniting has been introducing us to the worship music of Robin Mark and “Revival in Belfast”.
The album, “Revival in Belfast”, recorded by Robin and team at Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast, was launched in 1999 by Integrity Music, taking Robin Mark from a significant Belfast songwriter/worship leader to an international influence. It was followed up by a sequel, Come Heal This Land, recorded at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. Worship Integrity returned to the Christian Fellowship Church formula with Revival in Belfast II.
I’ve enjoyed the traditional Irish flavour - the pipes and whistles. The staple of the Integrity Music album, however, is more generic, taking familiar phrases from the Psalms and setting them to guitar-driven folk/rock music.
Robin’s most well-known song, “Days of Elijah”, was recorded on his second album of the same name. He gives some of the background to the song’s origins on his web site, and in an interview with Christianity.ca. My first reaction to the song in 2001 was coloured by my cynicism towards focus on ‘last days’ teaching on the imminent return of Christ. However, reading through Robin’s approach I’m more inclined to connect with the lyrics. The challenge is to use this kind of song in a way that encourages reflection on his themes of personal and corporate redemption. The difficulty for most worshippers in Western settings, though, is that we’re not really living in days of great trial, famine, darkness and sword.
Here’s the first verse and chorus…
These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord:
And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’
Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it’s the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes.
Earlier this week I had the privilege of chairing a lecture by visiting Muslim scholar and imam, Abduljalil Sajid. He was speaking at an Initiatives of Change gathering hosted by Elanora Uniting Church.
Imam Sajid’s topic for the evening was “Being a Muslim in the West”. The local audience, mostly Christian, were interested to explore ways in which the Gold Coast could grow as a multi-faith multi-cultural multi-ethnic community.
The Gold Coast community was reeling from coverage of an ‘honour killing’ in which a Muslim man killed his wife when he disccovered his daughter planned to convert to Christianity. Local media had suggested that this murder had been an expression of Muslim culture. Fortunately Imam Hussein, the local Muslim leader, had been featured in the Gold Coast Bulletin explaining that this case was more about personal fear and pride. Imam Sajid over dinner and during his lecture distinguished between local customs and culture and the mandate set out in the Qur’an.
Imam Sajid gave us a summary of the origins of Islam, helping us understand the phases of Muhammad’s life and teaching. We heard about Imam growing up in Pakistan, learning to study the Qur’an, learning English, Bengali, and moving to the United Kingdom for PhD studies.
The story that stays with me is the impact of hospitality on Imam Sajid’s life and work. Staying in a London hostel Imam was forming a poor impression of life in the UK. Coming from a large gregarious family he was used to lively conversation. But in his first year in London he only encountered people intent on maintaining privacy, whether that be in the hostel, on public transport or in lectures. It wasn’t until he responded to an invitation for a Christmas home stay that he discovered a family that lived out values of dialogue, service and hospitality. The family turned out to be that of a Christian minister.
It was in his interaction with this family that Imam discovered in himself a passion for living a life of passionate faith, more than the loyal submission he’d been living up to that point. From that point he set up Islamic societies and became involved in interfaith projects that helped form a warmer environment for migrants.
The story wouldn’t have sat well with those who’d like the story to end with conversion to Christianity. But it’s a lot more desirable than inter-faith interactions that end in hostility, misunderstanding and resentment.
I came away from the gathering encouraged to keep on taking initiative in building relationships with people in my own community, despite my own fears of rejection or feelings of discomfort.
Pictured here are Lesley Bryant (local organiser), Glennis Johnston (Uniting Church minister in Elanora), Daphne McDonald (Gold Coast City Councillor), Imam Abduljalil Sajid and myself.
Dr Ameer Ali said yesterday that he tells his friends overseas that he lives in a Muslim country - Australia. The Muslim leader who has just finished his term as head of John Howard’s Muslim Advisory board, said to the National Civil Society Dialogue in Canberra that he sees Australians practicing the values that his religion preaches, compassion, charity and respect for the rule of law, even if they are not confessed Muslims.
On ABC talkback radio in Brisbane this morning, Ali told Madonna King that he saw in Australia a common belief and worship of the one God, creator of all. He suggested that it’s time to move beyond the phrase “Judaeo-Christian values” to “Abrahamic values”.
Good on him, I say. Ameer Ali is challenging the Anglo-Saxon blindness so prevalent in Australia. The name “God” is derived from “Gott”, a German name from the region where the Angles and Saxons lived before many of them moved into Britain. The word “Allah”, is a Semitic name for the creator of the universe that was used by Christians in the Middle East long before Muhammad was born.
The French worship Dieu. The Italians worship Dio. The Greeks worship Theos. The Jews worship YHWH. Arabs worship Allah. Different names. Same God.
Bill Cosby tells the story of Noah, a carpenter with an African American accent, who is given a mission to save the world.
Noah, Right!
Noah is working in his workshop when he’s launched into a conversation with God. Noah’s not used to receiving instructions from God but finally enters into the spirit of the exercise by providing God with advice on limiting the rain to forty days and forty nights and letting the sewers back up.
Noah and the Neighbor
Noah interacts with the neighbour who’s not impressed with having an ark in the driveway. “How long can you tread water?” is the only clue Noah’s giving out.
Noah: Me and You Lord
Noah’s had it up to his neck with animal troubles, including elephant birth. And so he’s not impressed when God asks him to exchange a male hippopotomus for a female.
Bill’s performance of the Noah routine on Paar’s Tonight Show in 1962 is available as a short video clip at EVTV1, and on the DVD, The Jack Paar Collection.
Bill’s classic audio recording of the Noah routine was recorded on his debut album, “Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow Right!”, recorded live in 1963 at the Bitter End Club in Greenwich Village, New York.
Since 1998 there’s been talk of a feature film built on Bill Cosby’s Noah routine. Cosby is meant to be writing and starring in the movie. But I haven’t seen any sign of it yet.
Download Bill Cosby’s audio Noah routine from iTunes:
Check out Doug Jaques, an artist based in Austin, Texas. Doug’s site features a number of his Austin murals, water colours and drawings. The painting that drew me to his site was his rendition of Peter’s vision of the unclean animals, found in Acts 10 and Acts 11.
Jim Wallis has gathered a group of fellow writers to start “God’s Politics”. Starting on September 15, the partnership between Sojourners and Beliefnet aims to provide fresh conversation about faith, politics and soceity. Writers include Brian McLaren, Amy SUllivan, Noel Castellanos, Robert Franklin, Diana Butler Bass, Obery Hendricks, Sister Helen Prejean, Ron Sider, Tony Campolo, Christine Sine.
This is a blog with a difference. One of Jim’s first posts was a dialogue with Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition in the United States. Wallis succintly outlines his concerns about the narrowness of the Religious Right’s agenda. Reed responds by suggesting that Wallis is fighting a ’straw man’. Wallis responds in turn with a more detailed analysis of the issues facing the Religious Right, asking for an alternative to the liberal/conservative polarisation found in American politics. And so the conversation goes…
There’s a link to a YouTube video of Jim Wallis on CBS Evening News.
I had lunch with Paul Teusner on Thursday. Paul’s a Uniting Church deacon working with Uniting Care Cutting Edge in Shepparton with a focus on youth and resilience. What we talked about is Paul’s PhD research on religion in cypberspace, with a particular emphasis on the Australian experience. His conceptual framework includes some theories on how the “Emerging Church” movement around the world is linked with conversation nurtured by bloggers.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
Brisbane churches involved in the Micah Challenge will be telling their stories at a lunch-time gathering on Thursday November 9, 12 - 1.30 pm at New Hope Church Offices/Cafe, 35 Railway Terrace, Milton.
Dean’s a Presbyterian who’s been lecturing in sociology of religion at the 
Dean took us through a national sample of American Catholics held in 2003, looking at issues of individual conscience and Catholic teaching, ethics relating to homosexual acts, abortion, pre-marital sex and birth control. It was clear that there was a strong delineation between Pre-Vatican II Catholics (63 years and older) and post-Vatican II Catholics (40-62 years of age). Young adults (18-39) were quite similar to the latter. Clearly a lot of the difference was related to generational change, particularly in the emergence of the Baby Boom generation.
The album, “Revival in Belfast”, recorded by Robin and team at Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast, was launched in 1999 by Integrity Music, taking Robin Mark from a significant Belfast songwriter/worship leader to an international influence. It was followed up by a sequel, Come Heal This Land, recorded at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. Worship Integrity returned to the Christian Fellowship Church formula with Revival in Belfast II.
Earlier this week I had the privilege of chairing a lecture by visiting Muslim scholar and imam, 
Dr Ameer Ali said yesterday that he tells his friends overseas that he lives in a Muslim country - Australia. The Muslim leader who has just finished his term as head of John Howard’s Muslim Advisory board, said to the National Civil Society Dialogue in Canberra that he sees Australians practicing the values that his religion preaches, compassion, charity and respect for the rule of law, even if they are not confessed Muslims.
Noah is working in his workshop when he’s launched into a conversation with God. Noah’s not used to receiving instructions from God but finally enters into the spirit of the exercise by providing God with advice on limiting the rain to forty days and forty nights and letting the sewers back up.
