No 6 – July 2010

Crows Nest Uniting Church

Cnr Shirley Road & Nicholson Street, Crows Nest

From Michael’s desk—Welcoming Refugees

Again, the vexing issue of refugees has raised its head in the Australian political landscape. Again fear, anxiety and concern are being given voice, by both sides of the political spectrum. And, after at least 10 years of debate and, frankly, scare-mongering, we have advanced only a very small way in dealing with it.

The way this issue has been and is still debated and spoken about troubles me. It seems appropriate therefore to offer some reflections, particularly as we will be hosting some refugees at our multicultural lunch on 25 July.

In an excellent article in the News Review section of the Sydney Morning Herald, on Saturday, 3 July, Adele Horin suggested that it was about time that our national leaders offered real leadership on this issue, rather than responding to poll-driven fears. I hope that the Christian community might offer such leadership, too, for in our own faith tradition we have stories, values and insights that help to confront this issue.

Horin makes the somewhat obvious point, frequently obscured in this debate, that the number of people who come under the category of asylum seeker is so small. This is numerically speaking such a minor issue. (This morning on AM, on radio 702, I heard one commentator point out that refugees arriving by boat, comprise about 2% of Australia’s annual immigration intake. The other fact worth bearing in mind is that people who do actually contravene the law, those who overstay their visas, generally arrive by plane, in much greater numbers than those arriving by boat and also come from a European background. These ‘actual illegals’ do not figure in this debate. Why is that?)

But clearly the issue of asylum seekers is such a big issue, politically. This discrepancy is worth thinking about.

Let me offer some reflections from within our Christian tradition: The word ‘alien’ is mentioned nearly 150 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Clearly it was a matter of note. Many of the references are very positive. One instructive example is found in Leviticus 19: 33-34

‘When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’

In this text, the ‘alien’ functions as a reminder of the history of the Hebrew peoples, and of their need for succour and security, in times past. We might apply the same insight to ourselves, historically. Where did we and our forebears come from? Did we and they need a welcome and the offer of hospitality? Yes, they did. Then, it is required of us that we offer the same to those in need, in our day.

Let’s then turn to the story of Jesus and his family, fleeing from Herod’s violence after Jesus’ birth, found in Matthew 2:13-15. (I personally think that this story legendary but it still addresses us.) What would have happened if Egypt had not welcomed Jesus and his family and, more disturbingly, if the officials in Egypt had returned them to Herod’s kingdom because they didn’t have the appropriate paper work?!

As well as core values of welcome, hospitality and compassion, these biblical stories move us to take a very positive stance toward the issue of refugees.

The scope and power of the debate in Australia alluded to earlier, suggests that deep fears and anxieties are being tapped into and engaged. We, as Christians, should name these fears and offer a thoughtful response to them. The first thing we can do is be aware of the facts: people do have a legal right, under the UN convention to which Australia is a signatory, to travel to another country and claim asylum, and to have that claim duly processed. The boat people are therefore not illegal at all. What they are doing is quite legal. The second point, noted above, is that the number of people involved is small. The third point is that offering friendship and conversation, with an open mind, dissolves most of these fears, if people are willing to take the step of welcoming refugees. We know this truth from within our faith tradition and, hopefully, from our own experience. We should be offering it, with trumpet and fanfare, to the wider community.

Further, we should look for the welcome contribution that these people will, in time, offer to our nation and to our communities.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful for the churches in Australia to have a powerful voice in this debate, offering leadership to help calm fears and soothe anxieties, and offering welcome and understanding to those seeking refuge?

Church Council—Jenny Vergison

Multiculturalism

The multicultural group has come up with some great ideas for celebrating the multicultural nature of Crows Nest. In particular, music and games are being planned for the Multicultural lunch on Sunday, 25 July. Look out for interesting interviews with members of the congregation!

Celebrating the Generations

Every week in our church a number of generations all meet in the one place, at the one time. On 10 October, we will hold a special service to celebrate our unique position within the Church. We plan to have lots of involvement from the kids. In the lead up to this service, we will celebrate with a special morning tea. There will be a ‘photo competition’ – so dig out those photos from the ‘olden days’.

ChatRoom Outreach—Sally Yabsley-Bell

Can we help?

The Community Nurses contacted me last week about a family needing some help. The husband is out of work due to a slipped disk and the mother is busy looking after their 5 month old little girl. This has made money very tight.

If you are able to bring in a casserole or something else that you think could help this family, please let Sally know, sally@broomball.com.au or 0402572060.

I was excited that the Community Nurses contacted us about this family. I am sure they will contact us again in the future to assist other families in need. This is a great way for us to reach out to our local community. Keep up the great work!

Family games afternoon

Sunday, 1 August, 1pm in the Church Hall.

Bring a board game and a plate of food to share. Let’s have fun relaxing and getting to know each other better.

Kids Club and Youth group

This is a very exciting time in our church. We have been running Chatroom for over 3 years now—can you believe it?

To keep in contact with these families, we are starting up a Kids’ Club. This will be held after school one day a week starting in Term 4. We are also starting a Youth Group for years 5 and 6. We hope this will help our young community grow and support the local kids as they grow up.

I plan to run the Priority One Program for the youth group. This is a Uniting Church program designed to support kids from primary to high school. If you have some time free to help out, or some ideas CALL ME please! Thanks.

Sally@broomball.com.au or 0402572060

Kids Alive—Deb Lee

As you can see from the new heading, we now have a new name! After a number of suggestions from the children and then some thought, this is the name they decided on.

The children have written a prayer this term which truly was a group effort. We had lots of discussion and this was a great result! We now use this as our prayer each week.  

The children enjoyed making small photo frames for the folks from "Cooee". We spent a bit of time this term talking about older and younger people, their differences and similarities and what we might learn from this.  They made books telling the Easter story and had great fun with Janet and Roland wrapping presents for the church for Pentecost Sunday (and of course, unwrapping them!).

We have looked at various Bible stories in all sorts of different ways as well as broader topics, such as sharing and honesty.  The children continue to be more interactive during the sessions and at times are almost running it themselves!   (Time to put my feet up!)

The "generations group" will be thinking about some ways in which the children can perhaps be more involved in the morning service as they are in the breakfast service.  Watch this space!

Kids out the back—Lin Gourlay

The children had their annual disco on 20 June and had, as usual, an absolute ball! Parents are involved in the morning program in the 2-day group. Activities have included craft experiences and cooking with the children. One parent celebrated Canada Day on l July making pancakes with the children. The 3-day children enjoyed a visit by CSIRO in May. 3-day parents also come to spend a morning at preschool.

Cleaning up our Church

On Saturday July 10, a number of members gave the church buildings a clean-up. We worked hard polishing all the woodwork, gardening, cleaning paths of mould, cleaning very high spots of cobwebs etc. The group ranged from Alison Sandow to Tom Lee (Sam and Tom polished pews). We stopped for a delicious morning tea and jokes mid-morning. Thanks to all workers! It’s worth coming next time for the cake!

Multicultural Focus Group Interview

The main mission of the Multicultural focus group is to allow each member of the congregation to understand each other more deeply, learning about members’ lives outside of church, their interests, their different backgrounds and where they were from. Too often we know other congregation members through their roster duties only.

Interview with Roger Collins-Woolcock

Roger Collins-Woolcock kindly agreed to publication of his interview. Roger is married to Mandy and they have three children, Joseph, 12, Hannah, 10 and Ebony, 7.

Life before Crow’s Nest Uniting Church

1. Q. Explain your history/background before Crows Nest. Our family came to Crows Nest at the start of 2008 after living at North Avoca for 8 years. From 1994-2000, Mandy and I lived in Hervey Bay and we grew up in Brisbane.

2. Q. What brought you to the Crows Nest area? Our travels to Hervey Bay, North Avoca and now Greenwich have all been driven by my work. I’m a civil engineer. As I had to be in Sydney often, we decided to move to Sydney.

3. Q. How did you feel about moving away from your previous area? We miss the beach, coastal lifestyle and many friends we made during our time on the Coast. Moving was quite difficult, particularly when we lived in a shoebox in Riverview as we built our Greenwich house.

4. Q. How hard was it to settle into a new home? Our kids all settled in to school easily. Starting all over again was tough. Mandy found it the most difficult. That said, three kids tend to suck you into the vortex of meeting people which is good.

5. What was the turning point in feeling settled? After 2-1/2 years we’re feeling settled, helped by seeing things change three times – the seasons, the kids’ end of year concerts, the school functions, etc. Mandy returned to work a year ago. This was tough at first, but has helped our settled feelings. Our house has also helped because we have had many visitors.

6. What made you come to Crows Nest UC? Our Terrigal UC minister (Ken Day) became a good friend of ours. He recommended we come to Crows Nest as he knew we would connect with Michael’s thoughtful theology.

Upbringing

1. How would you say your cultural upbringing differs from that of others? I was born in Melbourne where they invented the game they play in heaven. The fact that most heathens in Sydney can’t understand the game is a significant cultural difference.

2. What differences did you have in your Christian upbringing? I was brought up in a Christian household which I thought was normal. I did play 27 years of football and there weren’t many practising Christians in the game then or now. Making my faith real and believable has always been important.

3. How do these differences make you feel when dealing with others around you? Every group has its own language and rules, the church is no different. I have always tried to talk in a language that people can understand, particularly when it comes to things of the church. It can be an intimidating place if you’ve never been in one before (or been around people who have spent a lot of time in them).

Interests/Family/Work

1. Members of your close family? I’m one of five. Mum and Dad live in Brisbane and I am very close to both. They are mentors to me and have had a very strong influence on the person I am.

2. Describe your employment? I’m an engineer by qualification and also have an MBA following my interest in management. I work for a large company providing design services in the area of physical infrastructure (bridges, roads, treatment plants etc). The company also provides services to the Aid sector for organizations such as AusAid, World Bank, US Aid – those services look to improve the skills of the local governments in the country of origin in areas such as AIDs awareness, people smuggling, overseeing the construction of infrastructure such as schools etc.

3. Describe life outside the Church. In winter I coach Joey’s footy team and we go to the Swans home games during the season. I like nothing better than reading the newspaper from cover to cover whilst enjoying a coffee. I like to mix up my exercise with some running, riding or swimming. I love wrestling with the kids and spending time finding out about their day. I’m learning to cook after dodging it for the past 44 years.

4. How does coming to Church help you in life outside? Church helps me to get balance and to understand and appreciate that, as Richard Rohr would say, “life isn’t about you”. I need a refresher every week because I still don’t think I get it, understand what it really means or live it……which of course is the challenge.

Leaving Home – I’m off!

I must leave the political and ethical compromises that have corrupted the faith of my Jesus.

I must leave the stifling theology, the patriarchal structures.

I must leave the enduring prejudices based on our God-given humanity, the colour of my skin, my gender, how my sexual orientation is practised.

I must leave the mentality that encourages anyone to think that our doctrines are unchangeable.

I must leave the belief of those who insist that our sacred texts are without error.

I must leave the God of miracle and magic.

I must leave the promises of certainty, the illusion of possessing the true faith.

I must leave behind the claims of being the recipient of an unchallengeable revelation.

I must leave the neurotic religious desire to know that I am right and to play at being God.

I must leave the claim that every other pathway to God is second-rate, that fellow Hindu searches, in India, Buddhists in China and Tibet, Muslims in the Middle East and the Jews of Israel are inadequate.

I must leave the pathway that tells me that other directions will get me lost.

I must leave the certain claim that my Jesus is the only way to God for everyone.

I must leave the ultimate act of human folly that says it is.

I must leave the Church, my home.

I must leave behind my familiar creeds and faith-symbols.

I can no longer stay in an unliveable place.

I must move to a place where I can once again sing the Lord’s song.

I must move to where my faith-tradition can be revived and live on.

I must move to a place where children don’t tell me what I believe is unbelievable, but tell me they can believe what I believe.

I must move to a place where they are not playing at moving the deck chairs on the decks of an ecclesiastical Titanic.

BUT – I can never leave the God experience.

I can never walk away from the doorway into the divine that I believe I have found in the one I call the Christ and acknowledge as “my Lord”.

I must move to dangerous and religiously threatening places.

I must move to where there is no theism, but still God.

I’m off! But to where, God only knows.

David Keighley, an English Anglican Priest

( acknowledgement to the June 2010 Parish News, East Harptree, England)

Aiko Goto’s Concert

A note from Emi Kubota

It’s time for my good friend Aiko Goto to give her annual recital. This will be held at the Independent Theatre, Miller Street, North Sydney on 1st August, 4:00pm.

Aiko has been a member of Australian Chamber Orchestra for 12 years. This year she has invited her music colleagues of ACO and the Japanese traditional instrument, Koto player, Satsuki Odamura, and her group.

The program features music from Bach to Dohnayi and Japanese composers.  If you have a time, please join this wonderful music concert with your partner and friends.
Tickets are: General $40, Concessions $30, Student & Child $20.
If you would like tickets, please let me know on 0411 584 001. I can arrange tickets with no booking fee.

Useful information

Church website: http://cnuca.royroyes.net

Church office: Administrator: Joyce Lum — ph: 9439 6033

email: crnestuc@bigpond.net.au

Joyce’s office hours: Tues & Fri, 9.30– 2.00

Minister: Rev Michael Barnes — ph: 9439 5851

email: mbarnes1@primusonline.com.au

Family Outreach Worker: Sally Yabsley Bell, ph: mob 0402 572 060 email: sally@broomball.com.au

Cnr. Shirley Rd & Nicholson St

Crows Nest

Children: 3-5 yrs

Days: Mon-Fri

Operates within school term

Hrs: 9.00am to 3.00pm

Enrolments: 9439 2247