Conversation

News, Synod Speeches, Reflections and Articles

Inclusion for Change: How dare you meet without us!

Choosing not to include those who are seeking to change the demons of inequality, exclusion, abuse, oppression, tyranny and power, means no change will occur. Such change will always require all parties to be involved and everyone to cede changes for which everyone can become invested and it must be worked through together with a shared vision. Otherwise, we will go on repeating what we’ve always done, with violence, and will get what we’ve always got, with violence, momentary peace that never lasts.

Human Dignity for Those Released from Prison

Those movies where you see a prisoner walk out the gate and look around and see no one to greet them are sometimes true. Stories are even told of full-timers being deposited at the front gate of the prison and being given directions to walk to the nearest train station, as no transport is provided.

Grief as a Response to History

Many of us have been taught that grief and sadness are something to repress, deny or avoid…the experience of grief is different than the fixing, explaining, or controlling mode. It is the experience of feeling the tragedy of things, the sadness of things.

Religious Freedoms: Faith Invites, Not Excludes

It is estimated that more than 70,000 students in non-government schools are LGBTIQA+, and there is a convincing body of evidence that discriminatory policies and practices in schools impact the well-being of these students. A survey of over one thousand LGBTIQA+ students in Australia found that those who attended religious schools were more likely to feel shunned, unaccepted, unsupported, and punished compared to students attending government schools. These feelings have long-term impacts on a young person’s mental health and sense of self-worth.

Beautiful ideas, not ideology

People who understand themselves to be transexual, asexual, non-binary, bisexual, gay or lesbian are not making an ideological statement but seeking simply to express who they understand themselves to be. They have not made a choice driven by an ideological principle. They are simply honoring the fact that they are part of the beautiful crying forth of the ideas of God…

On the Way: Power and God

How do we talk about God when that word conjures a big other, looking down from a throne in the sky directing the traffic on earth? The language instead of a God who offers power “with” rather than power “over”, draws us into sacred relationship with one another and all creation.

To Tend, To Transform, To Treasure: Sustainability and the Communion Forest

I have received and planted two trees: one has been planted in the garden at St Anne’s, Highfields, and one in the clergy house garden at Highfields. My plan is to treat them like Pokémon and “collect them all!”

However, that’s not really the intent. To use a local example, Highfields an area of high growth, and that means trees coming down for development at rate that seems unsustainable and damaging to our local wildlife, particularly koalas and native birds.

So, this motion calls us to be givers as well as receivers. In supporting this motion, we hope that all parishes, schools and agencies will find ways that we can use our collective strength to make a real difference towards conservation, re-foresting and re-wilding.

Negative media reporting and young people

“We are witnessing a disturbing attempt to scapegoat, stigmatise and socially exclude young people through negative reporting. This messaging in the media is damaging. It does not reflect the truth of young people in our society and in many cases seems to deliberately present a false message not supported by the data. This is particularly the case regarding youth offending.”