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PM's announcement for NT Indigeous Communities

From the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/northern-territory-grog-ban/2007/06/21/1182019254302.html

From the Melbourne Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pm-declares-nt-emergency/2007/06/21/1182019253560.html

Response from ANTar [Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation]:

I am writing to let you know ANTaR's response to the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday, regarding the child abuse crisis in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities: these measures are Draconian and will only add to the suffering of children.

ANTaR believes the Prime Minister was right to describe the widespread abuse of Aboriginal children as a national emergency but wrong in the way his government is seeking to overcome it.

Particularly horrifying is the plan to introduce compulsory health checks for all Aboriginal children to examine for signs of abuse – regardless of whether this is suspected.

Little children are sacred. Compulsory and potentially invasive checks of this kind will add to their trauma.

There is no other group in society that would be subject to these kinds of measures. Can you imagine what would happen if the Government ordered compulsory health checks for Anglo, Chinese, Jewish or Muslim children? There'd be an uproar. Yet the Prime Minister thinks it is appropriate to enforce this on Aboriginal children.

Efforts to stamp out child abuse should target the perpetrators rather than demonise whole communities.

The Government response also seemed to ignore the findings of the 'Little Children are Sacred' report that non-Aboriginal men were also responsible for the abuse of Aboriginal children.

We should tackle the extent of pornography and there may even be a case for banning it, but if this is going to happen it should occur across the board – in mining camps and lounge rooms as well as Aboriginal communities.

While stopping alcohol abuse is essential to overcoming child abuse, prohibition would be unlikely to achieve this. Prohibition hasn't worked anywhere else in the world. Why does the Prime Minister think it will work in the Northern Territory?

There is no doubting the sincerity and commitment of the Prime Minister and Minister Brough in relation to ending child abuse, but their misguided approach would be unlikely to achieve it. The heavy handed control of Aboriginal people helped create the problems of child abuse and violence. More of the same is not going to solve them.

ANTaR has worked extensively to support Aboriginal people who are overcoming violence and child abuse. In 2006 we organized a forum in Parliament House, Canberra bringing Aboriginal leaders who have successfully tackled abuse and violence together with politicians and public servants to discuss strategies to overcome these problems.

ANTaR is currently campaigning to urge the NSW Government to properly fund its response to the abuse of Aboriginal children in that state. Our 'Success Stories in Indigenous Health' booklet
(http://www.antar.org.au/success) released this week also profiles a number of successful programs that are tackling child abuse and its effects.

Regards,
Gary H

Gary Highland
National Director
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR)
Email: gary@antar.org.au
Website: http://www.antar.org.au

the demons we face:

An idea: Lk 8

Have you ever read the reading from Luke about a guy who is demon possessed called Legion? Basically the story tells of this guy in absolute mayhem, Jesus calls the demons out of him and into a swine of pigs who then run and jump off a cliff into the sea… It got me thinking about 2 questions:

1) what are the demons that we and society face today?
Mental health; broken relationships; isolation; the need to ‘be right’; our egos; learnt & nurtured behaviours that we all know we have but are so difficult to rid ourselves of??? I’m sure we could all name more! I wonder what they look like more specifically to you.

2) what would you want to cast off the cliff?
What For me, at my worst I seem to need to justify myself, and rely on my ego – for some reason I need to get my point across, I feel I need to be right… I have some good ideas at why I’m like this and what I need to regularly do to try to limit it. So for me, today I’m wanting to throw my need for justification and my ego off that cliff – for they are my demons!

a prayer

God,

You gave us orchestras.

You gave us music notes and harmony.

You gave us fluffy blankets on windy nights. You gave us herbal tea to warm us up when it’s pouring down rain outside.

You gave us water. Pools of water. Rivers, lakes, oceans of water. Cool, smooth, wild, life-giving water.

You gave us the sun. And lemon, lime and bitters to sip whilst basking in it. And feet to singe on the sun-burnt sand.

You gave us giggling afternoons with ice cream and hopscotch.

You gave us incredible minds to notice all these things.

To marvel. To wonder. To watch. To listen. To hope.

You gave us soccer balls to kick around in the dirt on a steaming hot day.

You gave us peanut butter cookies and cuddles from timid cats.

You gave us ringlets to remind us things don’t have to be tamed to be beautiful.

You gave us bright yellow raincoats and slippers and multi-coloured beanies.

You gave us good movies on stormy days with foot massages to put us to sleep.

You gave us our voice.

You gave us our melodies, our songs of rapture.

You gave us bonds with friends; moments when we feel indescribably connected to one another.

You gave us solitaire and tetris for when we need to procrastinate.

You gave us friends with legs who can kick our bums when we need it most.

You gave us love.

So, Lord, we wanna say 'Grazias'. 'Merci beaucoup'. 'Danke schon'. Cheers.

We wanna say thank you. We love you.

Amen.

Megan Graham June 07

'living' young adults conference. june 8-11th

'Living' is a conference especially for young adults [18-30yrs] over the June Long Weekend. There is a specific focus on living out faith and spirituality, so the themes of social justice and worship will have a significant place throughout the weekend.

The speaker is Mark Pierson, director of Urban Seed based in Melbourne. Mark is co-author of The Prodigal Project, which explores alternative worship, and has had extensive experience in playing, curating, & creating worship experiences in urban settings.

Cost $180 - but don't let cost deter you, there a ways & means!

Speak to Dave or contact Nicole or Jo at the youth unit to register youth@nsw.uca.org.au

Lent & Lent Event

Thinking through Lent and the connection between spiritual discipline & providing charity

Lent is the period of 40 days leading up to Easter day (Sunday). It does not include Sundays as Sunday is traditionally seen as the day of resurrection, new life and hope. The number 40 is significant as it is the time Jesus is said to have been in the wilderness prior to beginning his public life of teaching and healing & service.

Lent is an invitation to become more intentional in our contemplations about faith and life. It’s a time when we can ask spiritual questions of ourselves (or often have them asked of us). This normally translates into questions and revelations about everyday life – how we spend our time and money; what we hope for and anticipate; what we say and who we say it to; how we act and react. Most faith and spiritual traditions have times of increased discipline and focus. For the Christian tradition there are two major times, which come as preparation to the two most significant festivals of the church – Christmas and Easter. Lent is the season of preparation for Easter.

Many people speak of Lent as a journey. In many respects the 40 days will be a bit of an unknown, and bring potential learning and insights. Lent is also about discipline. Many of us might have negative connotations of the idea of discipline. We may remember an authority figure demeaning us, or think of a child that’s in need of pulling into line. But the word discipline comes from disciple, meaning someone that is willing to learn. Many artists, musicians and sports people speak continuously of discipline (they even speak of learning a particular discipline) – that is learning their craft. Through absolute commitment and focus in learning the skills they desire, they invariably - by the very nature of the process – grow in maturity and knowledge. That in many respects is the journey, a journey of wisdom and learning.

In spiritual terms Henri Nouwen writes that “Discipline is the creation of boundaries that keep time and space open for God – a time and place where God’s gracious presence can be acknowledged and responded to.”[1] It’s a time that we can be open to new insights, ideas and perceptions about ourselves and the world in which we live. In this I believe we come to experience and know God.

Excess: finally, in the simplifying of our lives which often happens during Lent, we discover that perhaps we have stuff we don’t need like we thought we did. Lent Event builds on this premise, an invites people who find they have excess cash from their Lenten journey or discipline to channel that money into developing communities in need. You may choose to participate in Lent or Lent Event for a number of reasons. It may be as a humanitarian response to those communities in need, and therefore you’re willing to forgo something to raise some cash. Or you may come from the other end of the scale where Lent is purely a spiritual exercise in which a by-product happens to free finances to assist someone else. And of course there are many places in the middle – and all of these are legitimate, as they help us engage with the world around us, by thinking through what we have, and what we need.

Some ideas to reflect on and begin to take it further:

# Lent Event: http://unitingspiritually.blogspot.com/2007/01/lent-event.html & http://lentevent.com

# Movie: 40 days & 40 nights

A comedy with Josh Hartnett & Shannyn Sossamon – a story of a Matt Sullivan, the brother of a Catholic Priest giving up sex for Lent. Rated MA, contains sexual references.

# Living on $2 a day http://www.msainfo.org/newsletter/issue.asp?id=114#517. The story of a family who cuts their food budget to $2 a day per person. This story demonstrates that giving to others [whether it is an individual, a cause, a program or charity] from the excess accumulated by simplifying our living is a natural progression. This is important in reflecting on why we may contribute funds to Lent Event.

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[1] Lent and Easter Wisdom from Henri Nouwen, compiled by Judy Bauer, Ligouri Press, Ligouri Missouri 2005, p4.

Clubs & Societies O Week & Week 1 Festival

Clubs and Societies festival days will be held in O-Week on the 21st & 22nd Feb and in Week 1 on the 28th Feb & 1st March

this is a day where you can check out all the community action UOW has to offer.

UnitingSpiritually will have a stall and activities on both weeks, and would love for you to drop by and say hello, or stick around for an hour or two!

O-Week
Wed 21st Feb - Pancake Day see here for more about US & pancakeday.
Thurs 22nd Feb - LentEvent Launch see here for more about US & lentevent

Week 1
Wed 28th Feb - UnitingSpiritually stall & lentevent table

Pancake Day 2007

Pancake Day is the biggest fundraising event for UnitingCare. As one of Australia's largest community service providers UnitingCare serves many people in need throughout Australia each year.

Pancake Day is a fun and easy way to raise funds to support UnitingCare's work with the homeless, abused and vulnerable children and adults, the frail aged, families in crisis and those with disabilities.

On Pancake Day, held annually on Shrove Tuesday, thousands of individuals, school, community, church and business groups nation-wide cook and sell pancakes to raise funds for UnitingCare's work with Australians in need.

Pancake Day @ the University of Wollongong

Wednesday 21st Feb 2007
10am-3pm

SO GET INVOLVED!
come flip some pancakes, raise valuable funds and
get UnitingSpiritually seen on campus!




pancakeday 2006

Lent Event - give up & give life

WHAT?
Lent Event is a project designed to get people thinking about what they have and what others may not! In a 40 day period before Easter (LENT) you are encouraged to give up something that you would normally spend money on & instead give that money to one of 5 projects. The projects: Papua New Guinea (clean drinking water); South India (Hill Tribe development); West Timor (Micro-credit schemes); Zimbabwe (Water Harvesting); & Zambia (orphaned & vulnerable children support). Each project assists in the ongoing development of local communities.

SO HOW & WHEN?
This event is not just about JUSTICE and EQUALITY for developing communities, but it’s also a SPIRITUAL journey. Each time we stop and consider what we may give up to assist another we reflect on our lives; what’s important; what we may take for granted; & whether we actually have the ability to go without! But perhaps most importantly it dares to teach us how to empathise with other human beings in very different places & situations to us.

Currently there is a group of young-adults connected with UOW who are committed to giving something (or things) up! Some of us are even going to get together & have a very simple dinner once a week to share the experience over the 6 ½ weeks (yes, 40 days not including Sundays!) There are also some studies & reflections based on the bible during the period that help to reflect on what all this can mean.

Lent Event kicks off on Wednesday 21^st Feb (or when you start) & runs all the way up to Easter Sat 7^th April.

WHAT NOW?
Ready to join us? Simply grab a participants kit & get thinking about what YOU could give up!

chocolate? car? beer? phone? coke? electricity? cigarettes? tv?

The choice is simple & it’s yours!

UnitingSpiritually is a christian faith community connected with UOW.
More info? Contact Uniting Church Chaplain, Dave Williamson davew[at]uow.edu.au

US at NCYC

sarah, dave & meagan showing off community tutu's colours at NCYC in Jan