Category: News

I often experience serious grievous reasons to doubt what I am going to say, but let me tell you what I secretly really believe.

My mate, Mike Riddell, says that ‘everything alive is moving, even that which appears to stand still. Call it evolution if you will. Call it creation if you prefer. The engine that drives the universe forward is not natural selection but the dreaming of God. God’s dreams pervade the world as a song haunts your mind; summoning, luring, calling. Where they find resonance, there is movement. God calls the tune; some of us dance. This waltz between God and the world is the source of all that is, and more importantly, what is yet to be.’[i]

Mike, as he does, goes on. He says ‘the word that defines God, which carries through when all the others have stumbled and fallen, is “love”. Love is God’s essence’. Love is who God is and what God does. Mike concedes ‘the word itself is, of course, sloppy. Teenagers are convinced the rush of hormones flooding their bodies is “love”. The mindbenders have used it to sell chocolate and perfume. Love has been trivialised – like Bach played on a kazoo. Never-theless’, he insists ‘genuine love exists. The river of love between two people is at its deepest point an intimation of the heart of God. (And) the heart of God has gone out from itself to envelope the universe. Love is the source of its exi-stence, love the energy streaming through it, love the end to which it moves’. On a roll Mike cries ‘God is the one who dreamed you into being, danced with joy at your birth,(and) tracked you down the backstreets of your life, whisper-ing to you in the night, calling you (back to your self) from the darkness.’ [ii]

Author, James Olthuis, reaffirms the fact that ’love is the basic design plan for the universe. God’s love is the source of all that is. Because God is love, and human beings are made in God’s image, love is who we are. Love is not first and foremost something we do. It is who we are. Love is the essence of being human. To live is to let love well up and stream through us as the pulse of our lives, connecting us to ourselves, our neighbours, the whole family of earth’s creatures, and God, the alpha and omega of love. To love is to be seeking, fostering and sustaining connections with that which is different and other –  without domination, absorption or fusion – in delight, in care, in compassion.’ [iii]

We are like fish, in a Sufi story, who anxiously swim around looking for water – till they realise they are swimming in it. Once we realise that we are immersed in ‘the river of God’s providential love,’ we can learn to ‘float in it’. To ‘float’ we don’t have to do anything but ‘let go’. ‘Floating is putting our full weight on the water trusting that we will always be supported.’ The confidence we need to have in order to let go  – and float in the river of God’s love – comes from let-ting God’s love wash over us’ and ‘from soaking in the assurances of that love’ which come our way every day – ‘not from trying to believe them’. [iv]

In the Abrahamic traditions faith involves ‘deep trust in the watchful love of God for all God’s children. According to the prophet Isaiah, even in the midst of the most terrible circumstances, those whose hearts are centred in God’s faithful care “shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”.’ [v]

David Benner reminds us that ‘while human love can never bear the weight of our need for divine love, it can teach us about divine love. Human love can communicate divine love. Experiences of human love make the idea of God’s love believable. The relative constancy of the love of family and friends makes the absolute faithfulness of divine love at least conceivable.’ However, Benner  repeats, again and again, there is ‘no substitute for learning what love really is by coming back to the source. God’s love is the original that shows up the lim-itations of all copies. Only God’s love is capable of making us into great lovers  [vi]

Wayne Muller says ‘it is not the fact of being loved that is life changing. It is the experience of allowing (ourselves) to be loved’. [vii]This experiential knowing of ourselves, as deeply loved by God, deepens our thoughts with new data about our world, and deepens our feelings with new attitudes to-wards our world. In the light of our knowledge of God’s love we know we can trust God, take risks and embrace the world that we live in courageously.

God’s love connects us to all of God’s creation and all of God’s creatures. It moves us ‘from the isolation of self-interest to a connection with life that can-not allow any ultimate divisions. It does not allow (us) to limit (our) interest to those within (our) tribe – whether those tribal boundaries are understood in religious, ethnic or national terms’. Instead it involves us in a ‘movement bey-ond the hardened boundaries of the isolated self to the selves-in-relationship that make up community’ leading to ‘a sense of (our) oneness with all’ life.[viii]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, ‘God’s dream is that all of us will realize we are family – we are made for togetherness. In God’s family, there are no outsiders. Black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, Jew and Arab, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Buddhist – all belong’. Now, more than ever, we need to remember that ‘God’s love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion. People are shocked when I say that George Bush and Saddam Hussein are brothers – but God says, “All are my children.” It is shocking. But it is true.’[ix]

And this is what I believe.

[i] Michael Riddell Godzone Lion Oxford 1992 p30

[ii] Michael Riddell Godzone p23-4

[iii] James Olthuis The Beautiful Risk Grand Rapids Zondervan 2001

[iv] David Benner Surrender to Love 61-63,79

[v] Wayne Muller Legacy Of The Heart p27 (Isaiah 40:13)

[vi] David Benner Surrender to Love p84-5

[vii] Wayne Muller Legacy Of The Heart p27

[viii] David Benner Surrender to Love p93-4

[ix]Desmond Tutu Desmond Tutu’s Recipe For Peace www.beliefnet.com 2004

The remains of a stone staircase in Orleigh Park becomes a sacred site every year as the local community gathers to honour Sorry Day in West End, Brisbane.

The old concrete stairway is all that remains of the Cranbrook Aboriginal Girls’ Home.

In the late 19th century the Aboriginal girls home was established at Cranbrook at what is now Orleigh Park on the banks of the Brisbane River. It was closed in 1906 after continuous complaints from inmates and public concerns about the living conditions and the treatment of the girls. Girls that were taken from their families were treated the same as orphans and runaways, and experienced incredibly awful and harsh conditions, and severe discipline.

Even a welcoming shower of rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of regular and new guests to this annual commemoration.

The flags were flown at half mast in memory of the late Aunty Doris Pilkington Garimara, author of Rabbit-Proof Fence, who passed away recently.

St Mary’s in Exile was created when priests Peter Kennedy and Terry Fitzpatrick walked out of the St Mary’s Catholic Church in West End and down the road to the Trades and Labour Council Building with almost the entire St Marys Community.

They set up a community built around the mission statement – St. Mary’s in Exile is a community of diverse people who come together in the light of the Christian mystery to act justly and give priority to the marginalised in our society.

I asked Terry Fitzpatrick how he sees faith intersecting with social responsibility.

“It’s at our very core. Even the literal reading of the Christian narrative is a story about the protection of the poor against the excesses of authority. Christ was murdered because he worked with prostitutes, tax collectors and fishermen and stood with them challenging authorities that would oppress them.”

I asked him about the difference between the Catholic Church of the Inquisition, the crusades, Papal Infallibility and oppression of women, all of which appear to be at odds with this view.

“Emperor Constantine was looking for a religion that would bind the people to his cause, that would reduce the cost of subjugating his people and inspiring his soldiers and Christianity ticked many of the boxes. His advisers cobbled together a grab bag of religion’s greatest hits. The story of the Virgin Birth, Three wise men following a bright star to a divine child, the resurrection, and many other Biblical stories all came from other religions.”

We discussed the fact that the political structure of the church – the pontiff, the election process, came from classical Rome. His view that the official church does not represent or live the core of the Christian message explains why St Mary’s is in exile.

Terry describes how the ancient religious scholars were writing at three levels, the literal, the metaphoric and the spiritual. “We take the literal story, as a literary narrative, a container used to express the metaphoric and spiritual message.”

“We maintain the form of the church because that is where we have come from and what works for majority of the community. The fundamental message though, is the same as that coming from many other faith based and secular groups. The message is ‘Awake, sleeper. Let Christ’s all-embracing universal consciousness prevail.” All is one.

He believes that the message goes well beyond social responsibility and the need to protect the less well off from the ravages of the rich and powerful.

“At our core is a stillness, a deep connectedness. This is true at a spiritual and a scientific level.”

He quotes Thomas Berry, patron saint of the Deep Ecologists. “My small self is my large self.”

Terry sees our task in this century to move beyond a dualistic, mechanistic view of the world where we alienate resources for consumption to a holistic, integrated view that revitalises and replenishes the whole.

Nature Reserve and the impact of the Galilee Basin coal mines, through to guerilla gardening. members of the congregation regularly talk about seed sharing and living simply to reduce their footprint.

Social responsibility goes much further than simply caring for fellow humans.

“The task of the individual is to recognise that it is all divine”

Given that police are going to crack down hard on any protesters who do not register as Issue Motivated Groups and sit meekly on the side-lines with police approved signs, a number of groups have emerged to support the notion of an alternative summit. The idea was floated at Jaegera Hall in January and developed further in the lead up to planning for the March in March. There is now a People’s Summit and a People’s March proposed.

The global group Alternative G20 is backing the summit billed as being held on 14th and 15th November 2014. The opportunity to explore fresh ideas and to think outside the political box, it’s also a time for some fun with live music and comedy events. The group was just establishing it’s Brisbane website as Westender went to press.

The Brisbane Community Action Network (BCAN) is holding a barbecue and ideas jam to discuss approaches at 3:00pm on Sunday June 1st in Orleigh Park West End. Most of you will read this issue after that event but Westender will report the outcomes online.

BCAN aims to develop and advancing community generated answers to world economic, social and environmental problems. Visioning another World : The G20 Peoples Summit will be a three-day festival of symposiums, idea-sharing, art, creative activities, education and action. It will take place in Brisbane over 12-14 November 2014, before the G20 Leaders Summit.

Click here for Westender’s extensive online coverage of this issue.

It gets dark early in Australia now and the nights are pretty cool, so you’re going to need a blanket, a pillow or two, your binoculars and perhaps a warm coffee while you stargaze. On a clear night depending on your age and your eyesight, you can see anywhere up to about 1,500 to 2, 000 stars. Introduce city lights and pollution, and you see less and less. Remember stars rise about 4 minutes earlier every night, that’s about 2 hours a month, and like the Sun and planets, they move from east to west during the night.

You can enjoy winter nights comfortably for hours on end if you dress properly and heed a few cold weather tips that everyone should know. You can do fine by piling on layers of ordinary clothes that are already around the house. What matters is how you wear them. Many thin layers are often better than a single thick one as the idea is to trap air pockets – ask any bird!

June nights offer the chance to see a planetary parade with all six planets known to the ancients in the sky waiting for you. It all starts early evening with the most difficult to find, Mercury, sitting low in the west. Look directly above and a little to the left of the point where the Sun set about 40 minutes earlier. For Mercury, you may need binoculars. Sweep this area of the sky looking for a star-like object. Good luck!

Second in the procession is the king of the planets, the gas giant Jupiter. You can’t miss it because it’s the brightest ‘star’ in the north-western sky. In a telescope Jupiter is a bright cream coloured ball with faint red or brown bands. Small telescopes will show Jupiter’s four brightest moons.

The third planet to find is Mars. Turn right from Jupiter, facing east, and you’ll see orange Mars. In fact it looks like a red star, about halfway up from the horizon. In a decent telescope, its small polar cap becomes visible.

Just after sunset our fourth planet, Saturn, is rising in the southeast. Saturn is a masterpiece in almost any telescope. The rings are easily visible as are a handful of its 62 brightest moons.  By the way, Saturn is the lightest of all the planets. If you had an ocean big enough, Saturn would actually float on water! Oh, and one word of warning, viewing Saturn for the first time through a telescope could get you hooked on astronomy! It did me.

Our fifth planet won’t be up for several hours. Venus can be found low and to the east in the morning twilight around 5.30 am. It outshines any other star or planet in the sky. How about the sixth major planet visible in May? Look below your feet. It’s the Earth.

Our national emblem

What do you think of when someone mentions the Southern Cross? Yep, that constellation of stars best seen from Australia. From Eureka to Ned Kelly, from Gallipoli and the minefields of Victoria, the Southern Cross on our flag has been the symbol for a rebellious and proud Australian spirit. It’s the smallest of the 88 modern constellations but probably the best known.  This constellation of five stars can be seen only from the southern hemisphere and is a reminder of Australia’s geography.

It’s always visible in our night sky. Stars of the Southern Cross appear on the flags of Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Samoa. The Southern Cross was written into the lyrics of Advance Australia Fair in 1901 – “Beneath our radiant Southern Cross.” The 1974 Australian America’s Cup Challenger also named ‘Southern Cross.’

Grab your telescope and look around the left side star of the cross. Below it you’ll find a beautiful star cluster called the Jewel Box, so named because it looks like millions of pieces of ground glass. They’re really colourful supergiant stars, reds and blues intermingled with yellows and whites. “Brilliant” is the word usually used to describe The Jewel Box.  It’s considered one of the most beautiful sights in the night sky.

Running rings around the moon

Hey, what’s that ring around the Moon? Have you ever seen it approaching winter, a huge circle completely surrounding the Moon? Well, it isn’t really around the Moon, it just looks that way. It’s formed when ice crystals in our atmosphere reflect the Moon’s light, bending it into a circle and making that ring effect we always marvel over.

This is usually a good sign it’s going to rain, and I bet it will, within a day or two in fact. By the way, old timers say if you count the number of stars inside the ring that’s how many days of rain you’ll get! See if I’m wrong next time you spot one.

Spot the space station

Here’s a good tip for those wanting to know when the Space Station is passing over your town. Sign up to NASA’s ‘Spot The Station’ program and receive free email or text message notices hours before the station flies overhead. I use it all the time. It’s completely free and safe to do, and you’ll be right there to catch one of the best sights in the night sky. To sign up for ‘Spot the Station,’ visit: spotthestation.nasa.gov.

Get David’s free astronomy newsletter and a free 323 page e-book called ‘The Complete Idiots Guide To Astronomy.

 

The ultimate stair climb challenge, Stadium Stomp GABBA presented by health.com.au, will be held for the first time at the GABBA on Sunday 22 June, 2014.

Stadium Stomp GABBA presents a unique fitness challenge. It is not a competition or a race, but a personal test of stamina and concentration.

Taking stair climbing and endurance events to a whole new level, Stadium Stomp GABBA provides entrants with the one-off opportunity to take on the 5,000 plus steps on seating Levels 2 and 4 of the GABBA and raise money for a nominated charity at the same time.

We encourage all our participants to fundraise for a charity of their choice or our preferred charity is the Mater Foundation. Fundraising is not mandatory but a great way to make every step count.

Participants climb up, down and around the stairs within the GABBA’s stadium bays, traversing literally thousands of stairs along the way before running a full lap of the ground to finish.

Participants will see the GABBA in a whole new light and be amongst the first to stair climb this Brisbane icon. Queensland has never seen anything like this!

How it works

Stadium Stomp GABBA is open to all levels of fitness. There will be rest stops along the way, drink stations scattered throughout the course and music to keep participants pumped and going.

The course will comprise two laps of Level 4 and one lap of Level 2 before running a full lap of the oval to finish.

It’s approximately 5,000 steps and will take anywhere from 40 minutes to 90 minutes to complete depending on fitness levels.

Staggered start times from 7am to 12 noon will ensure the stairs won’t become too congested.

Who can enter?

Anyone 14 years and older can enter Stadium Stomp GABBA as individuals or in teams. You can form your own team or join a team that has already entered and is looking for more members.

There are training tips and four and six-week exercise programs at www.stadiumstomp.com.au to make sure entrants are prepared for the stair climb challenge that awaits.

There will also be a designated spectators’ viewing area so friends and family can watch the action at no charge.