TEAR Australia is calling for applications for the position of National Director, based in Melbourne.
TEAR Australia is a Christian development, relief and advocacy organisation responding to global poverty and injustice. Their motivation comes from their conviction that God loves all people, and desires a just and compassionate world in which all people have adequate resources and the opportunity to live meaningful and dignified lives.
With the retirement of Steve Bradbury, their long-serving National Director, TEAR Australia is seeking a suitably qualified person to lead TEAR Australia. The Director is supported by a dedicated, professional team of four direct reports and 50 staff. The role involves strategic and operational leadership of the organisation, and representation of TEAR Australia in the public sphere - including relationships with Australian churches and with international development partners and alliances.
TEAR Australia is looking for someone that has a passion for justice, success in leadership and management, and is familiar with key aid and community development issues. The new director will need to be comfortable in cross-cultural contexts, understand the Australian church environment and be able to articulate the biblical foundations of TEAR Australia’s mission.
Enquiries are welcome to TEAR Australia’s lead consultant, Judy Wong-See at Credence International, Level 14, 309 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000 on (02) 9994 8044 or email judy.ws at credenceintl.com
Applications close Monday 16th June 2008.
Blackstar Coffee, Brisbane’s first 100% certified fairtrade coffee company, is opening its doors to the public on Monday the 19th of May. Having been roasting for several months from its (until now) hidden location, behind the Moreton Bay figs at Davies Park, Blackstar Coffee is ready to launch its espresso bar.
BLACKSTAR has developed an almost ‘cult-like’ following down at the West End Greenflea markets selling its range of organic coffee beans and boutique iced cold pressed coffee. It’s with excitement that Blackstar now opens its roastery doors to the public where it can finally offer espresso beverages as well as its full range of single origin coffees.
Blackstar was started by Marty Richards and Evonne Andrews, a married couple who have invested heavily in social enterprise in the West End suburb. Marty and Evonne, in partnership with Ali Baba and Mailka Karimi, began roasting fair trade beans in the Souths Logan Magpies rugby league club rooms at Davies Park, West End. They expanded with a coffee cart in the Brisbane City Council Green Square complex in Fortitude Valley.
Blackstar was inspired by and continues to be supported by Matthew Lamason, one of New Zealand’s most experienced fairtrade roasting personalities, director of Peoples Coffee, a Wellington based Fairtrade roastery.
“It’s great to see boutique coffee taking root in Brisbane. The quality of a good cup of coffee is enhanced further through fairer trade initiatives like that of Fairtrade. Blackstar plays an important role as a local leader in the area of speciality roasted fairtrade coffee here in Brisbane”, says Lamason.
Customers can expect to taste a consistently high standard of speciality espresso drinks, cold pressed coffees as well as a full range of single origin coffees, and blended brews. Nestled in amongst a working, coffee roasting environment, coffee fiends can grab their favorite espresso while chatting to the roaster about the best range of coffee to suit their home brewing needs.
While excellent coffee is at the front of everything at Blackstar, the business has the interesting and unique aspect of being a social enterprise. It has been a participant in the Brisbane Social Enterprise Hub, a joint initiative of BCC, PriceWaterHouseCoopers, and Social Ventures Australia (SVA).
The Espresso bar is open 6 days from 6am to midday, and is situated across the road from 115 Jane st, just off Montague road, West End.
Over the weekend I joined up with a freeze flash mob raising awareness of the sex trafficking trade and calling for an end to the practice.
The protest was organised by Adrian Greenwood from the More Praxis network, an expression of the Uniting Church in Australia, Victoria/Tasmania Synod. Many of the participants were attending the Forge Grassroots Festival. The idea was for a group to freeze on cue for five minutes, while pedestrians walked past, stopped and stared, or took brochures. It’s designed to be a non violent, viral kind of exercise that invites others to engage in their own way.
Interestingly enough the photograph here shows a freeze flash mob outside The Body Shop. Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, was a strong advocate for the introduction of a new European convention against the trafficking of human beings.
This YouTube clip was prepared by Darren Wright, who while freezing in Bourke St had his camera on rapid photography mode.
Yesterday I came across a Chinese demonstration outside the State Library in Swanston Street, Melbourne, calling on Australians to support the Olympics in Beijing. The message was that the Western media has distorted the events surrounding Tibet. After all, the banners told us, Tibet was, is and always will be part of China.
It appears as though a large proportion of the Chinese people (Han) believe that Tibet always has been part of China. Clearly the history books don’t offer much insight into the complexity that is Tibet, let alone China as a whole. Tibet was ruled by local kings from the seventh to eleventh century AD. Tibet was invaded, like much of China, by Mongol rulers in 1240 AD. In the early 18th century AD Tibet came under the sovereignty of the Qing dynasty, with the Dalai Lamas taking a leadership role recognised by the Chinese.
In 1903 the British Empire, competing for supremacy with the growing Russian empire, invaded Tibet. Thousands of Tibetans were massacred by the British troops. The British and Russians signed treaties with China, recognising that Tibet was under Chinese sovereignty.
After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 Tibet asserted a new independence from Chinese rule. It wasn’t until 1950 when troops of the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet that the region once again came under the Chinese banner. The Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, signed in Beijing in 1951 by representatives of Tibet and China, established a framework in which would allow the Tibetan people the right of exercising national regional autonomy under the unified leadership of the Central People’s Government. The Dalai Lama was allowed his place in the leadership of Tibet, until a rebellion in 1959.
Simple campaigns with simple slogans do distort and diminish the portrayal of truth. Closer examination of the stories behind the stories reveals that more people are implicated in the flattening of history than we realise.
I spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons of the Forge Grassroots Festival based at the UCA Hub in Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Cheryl Lawrie (of [hold :: this space]) (right below), Sam Charlesworth (middle) and Blythe Toll (left below) worked with a team to transform a corporate car park into Holy Ground : : Holy City. I was there to talk with interested people about alternatives to standard models of worship - a conversation deeply enhanced by the environment in which we met.
The burning bush/sacred ground experience of Moses was juxtaposed with the glimpses of God’s redeeming, transforming, hope-giving presence in the cities. iPods hanging from the ceiling showed video clips of the Tianenmen Square protester, the monks protests in Burma, and the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Around the walls and ceilings were projected films and photographs of pedestrian traffic in Melbourne. This was an invitation to explore the small clues to life, including the nature of concrete, cigarette butts and shoes.
In the middle was a space surrounded by security tape, with the words “Do Not Enter”, alongside phrases connecting the sacred ground experience of Moses with our experience.
Out on the wall outside was a chalk outline of the cityscape, with the words “New Earth”, and the invitation to dream of a future life for the city.
Colin Scott, an ordained Baptist Minister in Sydney, is developing a network of Christian ministers to apologise to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community for the way they have been treated by the Christian churches in Australia. Representatives of 100Revs joined in the Mardi Gras march in Sydney over the weekend.
Regardless of any position on Biblical teaching or policy on leadership, we need to acknowledge the impact of exclusion on people who don’t fit the ‘normal’ framework expected by congregations and their leaders. I’ve found some inspiration in the work done by the United Church of Christ in the United States (to which Barack Obama belongs), in their Still Speaking and Rejected by Religion campaigns.
The Apology
As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Indeed the church has often been profoundly unloving toward the GLBT community. For these things we apologise, whatever the distinctive of our Christian position on human sexuality – to which we remain committed. We are deeply sorry and ask for the forgiveness of the GLBT community. We long that the church would be a place of welcome for all people and commit ourselves to pursuing this goal.
We ARE a group of Christian ministers who voluntarily and individually bring this apology.
We ARE NOT official representatives of our churches or denominations.
We ARE recognising the lack of hospitality, care and welcome that the churches have offered the gay and lesbian community.
We ARE NOT making a statement on the biblical position on gay and lesbian relationships.
Colin is a chaplain at University of Sydney, and director of HOPESTREET, a ministry of the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT working amongst the most marginalised groups in the inner city of Sydney, including sex workers, the homeless, public housing tenants, Aboriginal people, problem gamblers and the unemployed.
Brian McLaren’s new book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Change and Revolution of Hope, is coming out in October. He’s provided a few samples from the book on YouTube.
The first video comes from the introduction. Be aware that the last 50 seconds of the video allow you time to reflect on what you’ve just heard…
A reading from chapter 24, reflecting on materialistic culture and the pressure to keep up with the latest.
An explanation of the title of the new book…
Brian talks about some of the examples of deep shift he’s been looking for…
From Brian McLaren’s Deep Shift site, he explains the background to the book and the speaking tour he’s doing around its publication…
We Are In Deep Shift.
A time of transition, rethinking, re-imagining, and re-envisioning. A time for asking new questions
and seeking answers that are both new and old, fresh and seasoned, surprising and familiar.
What does it mean, in today’s world, to be a follower of God in the way of Jesus?
What does it mean to be a faith community engaged in the holistic, integral mission of God in our world today?
How do we, as individuals and faith communities, respond faithfully to the crises facing our world?
What is our duty to God, ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our enemies, and our planet in light of Jesus’ radical message of the kingdom of God?
How can we engage in personal formation and theological reformulation for global transformation?
Anarchist and Christian traditions have often shared a commitment to non-domination, creative cooperation and the equality of all people. Not often has either movement been associated with the other - but anarchist principles can easily identified throughout the Bible story and Church history. Last year a group of people from the ANZAC countries met in New Zealand to explore Christian Anarchism in our context and this year they’re meeting again - and it’s an open meeting! The annual conference of the South Pacific Christian Anarchists (SPCA) will be held in Brisbane, 22-24 June, 2007.
Sessions (subject to some facilitators not being in jail) are likely to include:
Indigenous expressions of anarchy and faith in Aotearoa: Graham Cameron, Urban Vision, NZ
Why anarchists can’t be missionaries: Manu Caddie, Pacific Centre for Participatory Democracy, NZ
Peacemaking at Pine Gap: Jim Dowling and Donna Mulhearn, Christians Against ALL Terrorism, Pine Gap
Christianarchy - Being the Change you want to see in the world: Dave Andrews, Waiters Union, Brisbane
Power With, Power From Within, and Power Over: Jason Macleod, Non-violence activist and trainer, Brisbane
Ray Gingerich is coming to Australia next month. He will be speaking on peacemaking in a world with opposing views of power, in West End, Brisbane, on Friday April 13. This is a chance to meet, listen to and converse with Ray.
Details
7.30 pm at 69 Thomas Street West End. Suggested Donation: $10 at the door
Email bookings to Dave at dave (at) tear.org.au or call Dave on 07 38441043
Earlier in the day Ray will be speaking at a breakfast launch for Micah Challenge in Brisbane. Contact Laura McCreesh at World Vision Brisbane to register for the breakfast. Ray will also be visiting Melbourne and Sydney in April.
Forge Mission Training Network held its second national Australian summit this last weekend.
I flew in to Melbourne from Brisbane on Friday night, so only got into The Factory (Mitcham Baptist) in time to hear Sons of Korah performing. I missed Alan Hirsch introducing the conference and Mike Frost’s keynote address on dirt and soil. Alan and Deb are off to the western coast of the United States for a few years, sponsored by CRM to resource the missional church scene there.
More on Mike’s book, Exiles, and Alan’s book, The Forgotten Ways, in later posts…
Brian McLaren provided an inspiring and gracious challenge to the churches of the 21st Century, helping us recognise the key narratives found in humanity, such as domination, victim, shame, economic bargaining and withdrawal. Each of these approaches, Brian explained, can be found in the setting in which Jesus operated. So what does the alternative look like? Brian gave us the beautiful story of an outdoor jazz concert in Sydney in which a young boy is joined by others as they celebrate life in music.
I was able to attend sessions led by Wolfgang Simson (hyperbolic metaphoric storyteller enthusiastic about small and effective missional communities), and Geoff Westlake (community developer in WA focusing on the concept of ‘ecclesia’ as community development council).
I enjoyed the session on theological issues for the ‘emerging church’ led by Stephen Said and Randy Edwards.
Stephen Said provided a challenging analysis of the theological strengths and flaws found in the renewal of missional church in Australia. Key themes (strengths) coming through are the connection of Missio Dei (the other-focused nature of God) with the local context, bridging the secular and sacred, recovery of kingdom ecclesiology, and the reminder that mission is integral to Christian community. Holes identified by Steven were in some ways about the same themes. We can too easily separate missional and incarnational. With our ‘can-do’ focus on method we’re still missing out on the Spirit’s role in mission. The Holy Spirit’s work was rediscovered by many churches during the charismatic renewal days but for many there’s not much awareness of the Holy Spirit working outside the worship service. We’re still separating evangelism from social justice. In Australia we tend to have a suspicion of philosophy. We’re too easily caught up in the prevailing consumerist metanarrative of our time - addiction to the collection of experiences.
Another helpful observation in the theology elective, made by Randy Edwards I think, was that we have been over-valuing leadership. It’s almost as if everyone must be in a leadership position of some sort. “You’re not fulfilling your potential unless you’re influencing someone else.”
Here’s another quote from Randy Edwards that stuck with me…. “Protestants don’t know how to give. They only know how to invest”. This was in response to the observation that experimental groups are jettisoned when it appears as though they are not producing high numbers of church members. Permission to achieve is not the same as permission to try and fail.
I attended an all-too-brief interactive panel focusing on consumerism and faith. We could have spent the whole weekend unpacking this subject. Unfortunately we had less than an hour. I was reminded by Dave Andrews (earthy radical discipleship sage) that bold claims to be bucking the trend are revealed as posturing when we compare our incomes and lifestyles with those living in the seventy percent of the world’s population.
Darryl Gardiner, fellow Kiwi bald guy from Wellington, lightened up the atmosphere with his humorous but gritty introduction of the “Dirty Christ”, the one who was born in an earthy stable. Darryl’s carrying on the tradition of Barry Crump, NZ author, with his exploration of “bastards I have met”.
Saturday evening finished with the delightful comedic and insightful poetry of Cameron Semmens, the author of 26 Tales from the Testaments - alliterated Bible passages in every letter of the alphabet.
I must admit I spent most of Sunday in conversation with various people, missing many of the sessions and workshops. I did get to Brian McLaren’s reflections on what we can learn from Emerging Church movement in the United States. This wasn’t one of those “it’s all happening in America” workshops. It was helpful to hear about what other people are learning through trial and error, bitter criticism and collaboration across denominations.
It’s always interesting to hear the the Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian and United Church of Christ described as the ‘liberal’ denominations. I heard one of the presenters at Forge introduce himself as the pastor of an “Evangelical Uniting” church. Clearly for some it is really important to be known and regarded as “Evangelical”. It helps people know what you believe, I guess. The problem is that people who see things differently just become “liberal”. I think we need to upskill in our capacity to relate to Christians who come from different places.
I must say it was refreshing to be part of, and on the edge of, a movement that is morphing. Social justice, concern for the environment, and an honest re-exploration of the Christian gospel, were all included in an agenda in which there was room for ranters, story tellers, poets, evangelists, coffee-makers, conversationalists, multi-media artists and musicians. Forge, like the rest of the Australian church, continues to struggle with the gender balance of its speakers and facilitators. Speaking of facilitators, we could have done with less content and more time to process in small groups.
As with the first Forge Dangerous Stories summit, we didn’t start each session with a time of ‘praise and worship’. I wasn’t sorry about that, though I do enjoy the occasional bit of God-focused “Christian karaoke”. I’d like to see the re-emergence of corporate singing in this kind of environment, modelling some of the broad missional themes being explored by Forge. Another time, another place…
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
Ray Gingerich is coming to Australia next month. He will be speaking on peacemaking in a world with opposing views of power, in West End, Brisbane, on Friday April 13. This is a chance to meet, listen to and converse with Ray.
I flew in to Melbourne from Brisbane on Friday night, so only got into The Factory (
