Monthly Forum

Forum - Thursday 7th Sept
Sue McKinnon from TEAR Australia
Bd 67.203 - 12:30-1:30pm
Bring your lunch...

Sue will share some of the work TEAR does in responding to poverty around the world.
Her session will be both interactive & informative... with room for questions and exploring issues further. Sue was responsible for putting together the Slum simulation game during International Week at UOW.

For more info on TEAR go to http://tear.org.au
Also check out the real life slum tear is creating at the black stump festival this Oct long weekend. http://www.slumsurvivor.org/ You can even apply to live in it!

good - evil

Where’s evil come from, or for that matter, where’s good come from?

Is it inherent within us – is someone ‘more evil’ than someone else? Are there people that are ‘more good’?
Is one particular person predisposed to do either more good or evil than another? Would those traits therefore come from outside of us, either as an external force which we seek to control or maintain, or a genetic predisposition we seek to understand?

OR do we all have the same, or similar capacities? That is do we all have the potential to do good, and to do evil; to be a saint and a dictator?

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart. – Alexander Solzhenitsyn. p. 139

Mark accounts Jesus as saying: “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

If we take seriously the thoughts of both Solzhenitsyn & Jesus then we may come up with the following:

- the propensity to good or evil is bound up with our identity as humans.

- evil (or good) is not something to vilify, nor glorify, abstractly.

- the reality of living a human existence is that we participate in doing good, and we participate in doing evil, both consciously and subconsciously.

- growing and developing an understanding of how it is our humanity (our propensity for great good and evil) is called to maturity in Christ – that is growing to a deeper level of awareness of ourself through virtues like grace, forgiveness, mercy, hope, acceptance, love and peace.

- through our humanity we remain bound and connected to the suffering of this world, and whilst another suffers, we suffer too.

intervarsity event

Friday September 1st: 7:30 – 9:30pm
Yearning for Spiritual Nourishment: An Eremos Intervarsity Forum
Chester Street Uniting Church, crn Oxford and Chester streets, Epping (approx 4 mins walk from Epping Station)

Four dynamic young speakers share their vision for wholeness at a forum which explores the connections between life, faith, justice and spirituality.
Facilitated by tertiary campus students and leaders for the Uniting Church:

Stephanie Gesling (Macquarie University and Co-ordinator of 'Space for God' Chester Street UC), Lauren Fee (UNSW, Sydney University, UTS and recent participant in the World Council of Churches 2006 in Brazil) and Bronwyn Lee (UNSW student and Vice President of the Anglican Movement for the Ordination of Women).

Speakers include our very own Meagan Palmer!!!!

Delicious Supper Provided.
Cost $15 non-members/$10 Eremos members. Students or under 25 by donation.

Please register by Friday 25th August.
Register by email: eromos[at]accsoft.com.au or phone: (02) 9876 5176

PRAYER FOR A WOLRD IN NEED OF PEACE

Thursday - 3rd August

A time of Prayer and Contemplation for a world in need of Peace…

Come and ‘hope for peace’ for our world, especially the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.

12:30-1:30pm 67:203 (McKinnon Building)

Come and join in a time of prayer for peace in our world and relationships..

We will particularly reflect on places of conflict in the world like Israel and Lebanon. We will also break bread together.