Oscar Romero, the great El Salvadorean archbishop and martyr, observed that the task of the Church in every generation is to make of that country’s history a history of salvation.  This has always struck me strongly and I’ve been pondering it in relation to ANZAC Day and St George’s Day (the English national day) this week.  As a saint, Oscar Romero’s feast day also falls appropriately between those two dates and challenges us to relate our national histories to that of Israel as described in the Bible.  What can we learn?...

Jim Thompson. our lovable bishop who ordained me deacon in London's East End, used to say that not a week went by without him wondering why he was still in the Church, and yet not a day or two without experiencing something of the amazing gifts which come with being a priest. I thought of this when I was reminded this week of the 25th anniversary of the passing of the ordination of women measure in the Church of England's General Synod.  Writing in the Church of England Newsletter this week, Emma Percy, Chair of WATCH (Women and the Church) in the UK, commented pertinently about the joys then, and the achievements and frustrations since.  As she reflects:

It is now 25 years later, almost half of my life, and the young people I work with have never known a Church of England without women priests... (now) part of culture appearing in TV, adverts, novels; both fictional and real examples. Yet, tensions over the role of women still continue in the church... The debates around women bishops meant that the church’s continuing uncertainty about really welcoming women into all orders of ministry was played out for the wider world to see. Sadly, this means that many younger people think the church is out of step with gender equality.

25 years on I rejoice that the church has benefited, and continues to benefit, from the priestly ministry of so many women. I rejoice in the ministry I have been able to have. I hope that we can continue to encourage women to serve in this way and that the Church of England will find ways to truly celebrate the momentous decision made 25 years ago.

Those are memories and reflections with which I concur.  It is a mixed bag.  Indeed, as my first grandchild comes to be baptised (in Christ Church Gosford) tomorrow, and in the wake of the Australian postal vote on marriage equality, it leaves me pondering: what will be the shape of the Church in another 25 years?...

When you think of the country you love, how do you sing, dance, tell its story?  Does it, for example, look anything like this painting (pic to the left)?  In a recent article - how do we get out of this mess - George Monbiot rightly identified the underlying narratives of our lives as major determinants of history, politics and healthy societies.  This is at the core of so many of our contemporary conflicts and tensions.  For it is by the stories we live, the songs we sing, the moves we make, that we shape our world and are shaped.  Monbiot correctly observes that this is why some will act in ways which are actually self-destructive and even resist change which is in their best interest.  This helps us better to understand challenges like the Brexit vote, the political success of Donald Trump, and the obstinate blinkers of some farmers and rural people to the realities of climate change.  Outlining both the power, and the weaknesses, of two major political-economic stories (the Keynesian and 'free market'/monetarist paradigms) within which the 'developed' world has lived for the last few decades, he pleads for a new story: a story grounded in the environment, the affirmation of human community, and the creation of volunteer networks, mutual help, and advocacy. So how do we create this story?  My sense (shared I'm sure by George Monbiot) is that it needs a holistic approach, which weaves together the creative insights and capabilities of our current age with existing wisdom from wherever it can be found, not least from Indigenous peoples and the best of our religious-spiritual traditions...

Trans Spirit Flourishing is the name of a new website I have produced, which seeks to shed light on transgender life & spiritual understanding and to help develop support and encouragement for trans people in our varied journeys. For spirituality is essential to human beings but we have often used it ignorantly. 

The unnecessary and deeply hurtful Australian postal survey on marriage equality has sadly demonstrated how many Christians are still not aware of the devastating damage which has been done and which continues to be inflicted on LGBTI+ people by ideas and practices which we desperately need to leave behind.   As a result the deep spiritual life and insights of so many LGBTI+ people is often neglected.  For transgender and gender nonconforming people this is a particular tragedy as our journeys are so much bound up with exploring and expressing our deepest identities.  Things are changing however, even if some of us will no doubt continue to bear the pain of the struggle.  Trans spiritual flourishing for some sections of religious faiths may never happen, but who knows - God is amazing in surprises!  However trans spirit flourishing can begin, or develop further, right and here and now, for everyone .

My hope is that this resource can add, and point, to sources of light and encouragement - both, and above all, for those struggling with gender identity themselves, and for allies and those genuinely seeking understanding.

We are living through challenging times, with many demanding issues of ecology, reconciliation, peacemaking, poverty, and care for refugees and other vulnerable people.  Gender diversity has so often been a battlefield.  May we make of it a source of grace for the larger journey of healing and wholeness for all.

Asked for a prayer, poem or other contribution to greeting Penny at her commissioning service, I could do no better than turn to John O'Donohue's wonderful book of blessings To Bless the Space Between Us.  It was a blessing for the space that is the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, and not only for Penny, and I, but also for those who have long found their spiritual home elsewhere.  Especially at this time, as we come this week to the pain and promise of the fateful date of 26 January, it is also a blessing for all human beings and their ancestors who have come to Australia.  It is a reminder of the 'big history' and mystery beyond us all. 
May it be a blessing to all:

Before a human voice was ever heard here,
This place has known the respect of stone,
The friendship of the wind, always returning
With news of elsewhere, whispered in seed and
pollen,
The thin symphonies of birdsong softening the silence,
The litanies of rain rearranging the air,
Cascades of sunlight opening and closing days,
And the glow of the moon gazing through
darkness.
May all that elemental enrichment
Bless the foundation and standing of your home.

Before you came here, this place has nown
The wonder of children's eyes,
The hope of mornings in troubled hearts,
The tranquillity of twilight easing the night,
The drama of dreams under sleeping eyelids,
The generous disturbance of birth,
The anxieties of old age unclenching into grace
And the final elegance of calmly embraced death.
May the life of your new home enter
Into this inheritance of spirit.

May the rain fall kindly,
May daylight illuminate your hearts,
May the darkness never burden,
May those who dwell here in the unseen
Watch over your coming and going.
May your lives of love and promise
Refine and deepen the spirit of this land.

(also posted on the Milton Anglican blog)

The theme for this year's Reconciliation Week has been particularly fruitful for those of us who are practising Christians.  It has provided another positive link between our faith and the journey of healing and justice in our land.  For each element of the threefold heading has meaning for both the Christian pathway and that of Australia's many peoples. Indeed it was a delight to preside at baptisms this week in this dual context.  For 'Our History' calls us to reflect, and act, upon, the question 'where do we come from?'  Neither an individual, nor a nation, can go far without acknowledging and being in proper touch with the bedrock of our lives, whether our historical memory or spiritual 'dreaming' and relationship to God.  'Our Story' similarly calls us to reflect, and act, upon, the question 'what do we belong to?'.  This is vital for both individuals and communities.  In the Christian case, this involves participation in the 'Jesus Christ', or biblical 'God' Story: in a sense, our Christian 'Dreaming'.  Meanwhile, 'Our Future' calls us to reflect, and act, upon the question 'where are we going?'  This is vital for purpose and meaning, new life and the realisation of our individual and shared gifts and potential.  For Christians, this involves living further into the promise of shalom which God has for us and all his/her children.  May all we have thus shared this week strengthen our ancient foundations, our walking together, and life in the Spirit of renewal.

In our increasingly multi-faith and multi-cultural society, one challenge is how we find both meaningful and inclusive ways to celebrate, commemorate, lament and strengthen bonds of peace and harmony.  On the one hand, erasing spiritual expression in the name of secular unity impoverishes and leaves us short of the depth and connections which community ritual can bring.  On the other, it is not enough today simply to settle regularly for one expression of faith leadership, however well tried, nor just to include several such expressions (at the risk of length, tedium, and exclusion of other 'minority' voices).  In Toowoomba, we have employed various approaches in recent years for important community gatherings and recognition of disaster and tragedy.  Depending on circumstances, through the Toowoomba Goodwill Committee, we have both used traditional means and venues and multi-faith representation, and have also begun to create new pathways.

One of the most moving explorative community rituals was at Acland on Australia Day 2015 - see further here - but we have also developed a number of 'community affirmations' for special occasions, including Harmony Day - see here for a well-established example.  Last Sunday was another wonderful step forward.  Together with Toowoomba Regional Council, it was a delight, as chair of the Toowoomba Goodwill Committee, to work with the Nepalese Association of Toowoomba on a commemorative event to mark the Nepal earthquake last year.  Using the lovely new Civic Square space at the new Toowoomba Library, we shared stories, music, video clips from Nepal, and a moving candlelight vigil - first lighting and circling the area with candles and then placing them by the water. It was a powerful expression of lament and commitment to renewal and of the binding of our different lives and backgrounds together to celebrate, support and heal our shared city and world.

My own contribution to the event is below - a new community affirmation for such occasions I hope we can develop further with other elements in the future:

TOOWOOMBA STANDING TOGETHER
Community Affirmation in the face of disaster and emergency
 
We meet today to affirm and support each other.
We acknowledge the first peoples of this land and their continued gifts among us.
We welcome all who join us in our shared journey of peace and harmony.
May we always celebrate our diversity as central to our common life and fruitfulness.
We stand with one another – Toowoomba Together

We meet today to share and honour our pain and sadness.
We hold with tenderness all that is hurting among us and in our broken world.
We offer up our sorrow, heartache and compassion.
May our tears and grief be transformed into healing and renewal.
We stand with one another – Toowoomba Together

We meet today to strengthen hope and solidarity.
We pledge ourselves to rebuild with love and courage.
We seek to do all we can to rejuvenate what has been destroyed.
May our hearts and hands always reach out to those in need, wherever they may be.
We stand with one another – Toowoomba Together:
many outlooks, many cultures – one community.

'When someone starts talking about principles, watch your back!'  This was one of many 'bon mots' I learned from Geoff Garner, my delightful supervising vicar when I was a curate in the East End of London.  Partly what he was saying was that when human beings become agitated, for or against a controversial proposal, humanity  and genuine love go out the window.  So called 'principles' and 'values' become used as weapons: at best providing insulation from genuine engagement, or, often, simply being used to harm others.  Geoff himself knew well to his cost how this worked.  As a founding member of LGCM (originally the Gay Christian Movement), as an inter-faith adviser to the Bishop of London, and in the open and humane way he ministered with others, he was frequently a target of others' internal difficulties and defensiveness.  For Geoff, and for me, this is far from how Jesus lived, taught and acted.

Last weekend I spoke at the Toowoomba Marriage Equality event, sharing my own, positive, perspectives on what is too often an area of Christian 'principled' resistance and denial (click here for my address on that occasion).  At the meeting, I was once more struck by the qualities of love, joy, and kindness so many LGBTI+ people have for one another and others.  Since then, I have once more been overwhelmed by the generosity and warmth of fellow marriage equality supporters with whom I have corresponded.  This, I believe, reflects the immense wellspring of love within the LGBTI+ community which still longs for full release.  It is a powerful contrast with the spirit of some Christian circles which persist in turning their backs on this wonderful source of renewal for us all.

Most certainly, there is also Christian discomfort about marriage equality which is neither bigoted nor defensively armed with principles.  One of my close Anglican colleagues for example is wary of marriage equality legislation because they feel some advocates are themselves equipped with principles (such as exaggerated 'rights' discourses) which they can wield like aggressive weapons.  Perhaps, but I saw none of this last weekend in the keynote addresses of Marriage Equality leaders such as Shelley Argent and Rodney Croome.  Instead they spoke with humour and humility about those things which touch all our lives: love and family, pain and joy, being valued, recognition and relationships.  These are not abstract principles but the realities of life which bind us together.

One Christian leader who has upbraided me since last weekend accuses me, among other things, of being infected by humanism.  It is one accusation - unlike many others - which, with qualifications, I am happy to own.  For a healthy Christian humanism is surely an antidote to picking up the weapons of principle.  Like my mentor Geoff Garner, I see in Jesus the embodiment of the humane as well as the the holy, someone who stood not on principle but in the power of love: in that sense being both fully human as well as fully revealing of the mystery of divine love which transcends all our human differences (male and female, Jew and Gentile, and all the rest - including queer and straight).   

Julia Baird, in a recent article, reflects, in a typically incisive and balanced manner, on the challenges of discerning what is 'free' speech and what is 'hate' speech in the marriage equality debate.  My sense is that part of the answer is in returning with prayerful discernment to the Christian injunction about 'speaking the truth in love' (Ephesians 4.15).  Too often this can mean Christian justification for simply being mean, aggressive, demeaning, or worse.  When I hear or read the words 'I just want to say this to you in Christian love', I am also instinctively tempted to duck for cover, just like Geoff Garner.  It is hardly that I do not care about truth and truth-speaking.  Part of my problem is that parts of the Church do not really want to explore truth and sometimes actively seek to silence the truths of others.  No, the heart of the matter is what we mean by love.  Is it truly an openness to genuine truth-seeking and the fresh insights of the Holy Spirit, or is it only a cover for ego and group fear and defensiveness?   Whatever our views on marriage equality - and, sadly, the debate is likely to go on in the Church as a whole for ages after it is settled in Australia in law - when we come to 'speaking the truth in love', perhaps we need to spend more time on that last word love.  It is too easy to leap to principle without love.  For those of us who share in pastoral care, the ability to share a prophetic word is also important.  Yet we need to be kind and compassionate in how, as well as what we say.  For me, much maligned 'political correctness' often seems really to amount to no more than being polite and respectful to others - precisely the opposite of the Pharisaism, wielding principles like weapons, which Jesus so abhorred and transcended.  We are not all agreed, not will we be, with or without a plebiscite.  Most Christians however, for and against, genuinely seek to honour God and our conscience.  So let us seek the truth indeed, but let us be gentle with it.

Forget the UPF anti-Muslim banner stunt at the MCG.  Australians are generally much more civilised than most in dealing with religious and cultural diversity.  This afternoon in Toowoomba was a case in point.  Our Toowoomba Garden City Mosque is in serious need of re-building, following the fire almost a year ago.  What to do?  Why not, said our local Muslim community, ask the neighbours round for a cup of tea to talk it through? - and not with the slick presentation and glossy leaflet plans some groups might effect. So it was that, as chair of the Toowoomba Goodwill Committee, I also joined a goodly gathering of people from the immediate vicinity of the mosque for a meet and greet and disperse any heat.  After all, I am an ethnically English Australian, and what is more English than a cup of tea (especially when you can be the vicar popping round)?

This kind of holy humdrum action is typical of community life in Toowoomba and further afield.  Sadly, such widespread generous connections rarely get the attention the hotheads do.  It is certainly very much representative of Muslim-wider community relationships in our city here.  In one sense, it is simply just another step in the journey.  Yet every stage matters, not least when there may be concerns about new local construction and the footprint it may provide.  In this case, the plan is to remove the old de-mountable and extend the mosque (previously an old church building), widen the roof space but retaining the existing height limits, add three metres to the front to provide space for genuinely appropriate toliets and washing facilities, and put in a mezzanine level to enable women's space. 

It was a delight to see and be part of the warm and genial conversations (even over parking), and to hear of the generosity of other locals, like one of our (other than Muslim) city lawyers who has provided legal advice towards the rebuilding for free.  All of us enjoyed our time together and look forward to the next steps which will bring fresh community as well as physical environment pride to us all.

The other evening I had the pleasure of being part of this year's inter-denominational service of commissioning of Religious Instruction (RI) teachers for Toowoomba.  It was a typically up-beat and prayerful occasion, with fine inputs from local school principals and Stephen Urmston, the new Anglican Children & Family worker at St Barts Toowoomba.  I was moved again by the genuine care and loving commitment of those involved in offering RI to children in our local state schools and do believe that, in some ways, they enhance both the spiritual and wider relational life of the children and adults they share and meet with.  However...