Date: 2009-05-18 21:50:34
Yesterday I was privileged to witness something miraculous. I almost overlooked it. As I was leaving for work I saw a tiny flash of colour in the Native Mulberry tree. It was a newly hatched butterfly, hanging next to the shell of its chrysalis. A Jezebel Nymph, for those who like me have a soft spot for these vulnerable creatures with their complex, constantly threatened life cycles. I had been watching this colony of creatures for weeks, from a bunch of prickly grubs to the pupal stage (which only a fraction reached), then seeing the parasites (also part of nature) kill them one by one. In the end just two were left. I am not even sure if the other one is still there. What a gift to see this one emerge.
Try as I might, I could not ignore the analogy to much of our work. What a waste, we could say, all that hard work for so little, when our ecumenical efforts do not produce the visible, outward signs of unity we might hope for. But is that so? Without wanting to seem sentimental, I think we could point to the delicate signs of fruition evident in many places: the regular joint advertisement of church services in the local paper, the service to celebrate 25 years of working together, quite apart from global developments such as the Joint Declaration on Justification or the coming centenary of the Edinburgh Mission Conference (read about all these below). These are the signs that more is happening behind the scenes, and these are the living guarantees of continuity and growth.
Maybe our attempts to forge reconciliation in this country could be seen the same way – couldn’t we ask how far we have really come in the past twenty years? Or since the Apology last year? Yet the planned events for Sorry Day in SE Queensland show that reconciliation is still alive, not only as a vision but in tangible forms of sharing and learning.
These are the visions we will bring together in our ecumenical service on 26 May. Please join us to celebrate and nurture these delicate, colourful signs of ongoing life.
Glenine Hamlyn
Join in events on National Sorry Day, 26 May. We bring you information about events planned around Brisbane, Redlands and Ipswich.
By QCT Monday, 18 May 2009
Again we highlight the ecumenical service being held on Tuesday, 26 May at 5:30pm.
Graeme Mundine, Director of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Council (NATSIEC), will be giving the address, and we will be led in some singing by Rev. Rodney Minniecon of the Zillmere Uniting Church (Congress).
"Witnessing to Christ today" will be the theme of a global commemoration of an important centenary in 2010: that of the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910, which gave vital impetus to the movement for Christian unity.
Download a three-session study guide for small groups dealing with the Joint Declaration on Justification signed in 1999 by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church, later also signed by the Methodist Church.
On the 500th birthday of Johannes Calvin, the father of Reformed Christian traditions, two global Reformed bodies plan to merge.
By QCT Monday, 18 May 2009
Churches in north-east Brisbane have been working together for 25 years! They are celebrating with a service and supper, reaffirming their common baptism, on Sunday, 31st May. Download a flyer!
Describing the wall erected by Israel as a "stark reminder of the stalemate that relations between Israelis and Palestinians seem to have reached," Pope Benedict XVI recognized the right of Palestinians to a sovereign homeland.
Repentance and reconciliation are sorely needed at global and individual levels. This is the message of the presidents of the World Council of Churches for Pentecost (31st May), 2009.
By QCT Monday, 18 May 2009
Most people are unaware that Australia is the only Western democracy without a Human Rights Act or Bill of Rights. Hear the issues at a public forum in Brisbane – and make a submission – just a few weeks left to do so!
