Surprise

Lisa's Latest

Lisa has written about the wonderful experiences of joining a group from Mulga Bore in their first visit to Melbourne.

First time seeing the ocean - running towards it with joyful excitement then stopping at its edge unsure of its dangers and perils. Showing the kids how to roll your jeans up and go paddling, racing the tide and laughing when the tide beats you. Someone picking up a shell and asking me 'Lisa, what's this?'

Well worth the read.

A Day to Remembering What?

Just what are we remembering on this first ANZAC Day without a living Australian combatant from WWI?

I can't remember the dead without the horror in which they died.
I can't understand a single battle nor a war without considering the context of war.

And so I remember ....
...the horror of war.
...the fragility of humanity.
...the need to find new ways of living.

Locked Behind Doors

I couldn't move on from the first sentence of today's lectionary reading;

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19

Rarely am I afraid. Rarely do I allow myself to fear. I prefer the security and strengths of facades perhaps rather than the fragility and weakness of truth.

Perhaps in the narrative I am the powerful. I am searching from house to house for the weak, for those who threaten the foundations upon which my strength is derived, for those who huddle in fear and truth.

And yet Christ appears and reassures the fearful and fragile. He is present with those who dare to understand the truth and all its implications. Perhaps this is where I should be.

In the Catholic University of San Salvador the Jesuit Community has established a chapel. When one enters it is full of the vivid colour and shape of Salvadoran artists. It is full of life and celebration. But as one leaves the chapel one sees for the first time the stations of the cross that hang on the back wall of the chapel. They are the remarkable and horrifying images of torture that the people of El Salvador have experienced drawn by Roberto Huezo. In hanging the images, Jon Sobrino reminds us, that we can enjoy the fellowship of Christian community during worship as long as we leave recognising the world in which we live.

Perhaps in these places, behind locked doors and in the scars of our world and our own lives, Christ's words of peace can still be heard. If only we were there to hear them.

Stations of the Cross in The University's Chapel

New Bloggers Worth Reading

Two new bloggers are bound to cause ripples throughout the cyber world.

Lisa Hall is a primary teacher in a small Northern Territory community of Mulga Bore. In her new blog she explores the remarkable responses to a recent trip by a group of Indigenous kids to Melbourne and the Commonwealth Games. A laugh and eye opener and certainly worth book marking.

The Crawfords are planning a trip to the USA and have some very creative ways to raise money. Of particular interest is the Photographic Challenge although my inspirations were cut short with the conditions of the challenge '...Nothing illegal, immoral or resulting in likely deportation'.