The following links are to the Revised Common Lectionary commentary pages of Howard Wallace and Bill Loader, and are suggested as preparation for hearing the readings in worship for the Sunday indicated above.
Series I: 1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15) see also By the Well podcast on this text and Psalm 138
Series II: Genesis 3:8-15 (no link) and Psalm 130
These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.
Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.
Pope St John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881-1963) came from humble beginnings, through a diplomatic ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, to become Pope at the age of 77, from 1958-1963. He was canonized in 2014. Far from being the caretaker in that role which others imagined, less than three months from his election, he called the Second Vatican Council together and presided over its first sessions (1962), Pope Paul VI bringing it to a conclusion after three more sessions, in 1965. Unusually, his saint’s day is not the date of his death, but the day the Council began (September 11). The Uniting Church remembers on his ‘heavenly birthday, June 3, and we grant him the title ‘Reformer of the Church’. His own favourite papal title was ‘Servant of the servants of God’. Many called him ‘Good Pope John’. He charmed people with his gentle sense of humour.
The Vatican Council was indeed a reforming council, well beyond expectation. It benefitted from a century of serious scholarship and pastoral thought across Europe and the Catholic world. He invited representatives of other churches as non-voting observers. There was lively debate on the floor of St Peter’s, and in the coffee shops around Rome. His stated intention was to ‘open the windows [of the Church] and let in some fresh air.’ The unimagined result was change in the whole of the western church. Key documents were composed and promulgated, the first being on ecumenism (Unitatis redintegratio), which propelled the Roman church into relationship with others, defining non-Catholics as ‘separated brethren’. From dialogue, we have all learned to state more clearly what we believe, what unites and what still divides us as Christians. The Church’s primary purposes and its structures were redefined in Lumen Gentium, including its evangelical mission in the world. The liturgy was radically challenged, vernacular forms of language replacing Latin, word and sacrament given a new balance, and new rites composed. The centrality of Scripture was emphasized and a new three-year lectionary created. On all of this scholarship and wisdom, other churches have drawn on in their own ongoing reforms.
Pope John was a Christian visionary. His passionate sense of humanity was summed up in his remark, ‘We were all made in God’s image, and thus, we are all Godly alike.’ Many of the gains of the Council must be attributed to the gifts of Pope Paul VI, but it was Good Pope John who summoned his Church, and all of us, to reform and renewal in the humble spirit of Christ.
Robert Gribben
A time of reflection, prayer and music this Saturday 2nd June.
A Taizé prayer will be held at Trinity College, Royal Parade, Parkville at 5:30pm the Saturday of reconciliation week. Dinner to follow in the dining hall nearby.
Looking forward to seeing you there. Any questions can be directed to this email address or you can connect to our Facebook group: Taize in Melbourne, Australia. Thanks!
Make it Messy! Training Day THIS Saturday June 2 Parkville
Make it Messy! will assist those already engaged in Messy Church, churches contemplating beginning a Messy Church and people genuinely curious about the Messy Church phenomenon take the next step in their Messy journey. Join with others from churches across the state for a day of active engagement, stimulating discussions, encouraging stories and helpful electives that will empower your ministry in your local context – whether you are already engaged with Messy Church or not!. Across the day you will have the opportunity to connect with experienced Messy Church leaders and engage with…
Introducing Messy Church
Starting a Messy Church
Extreme Craft for Messy Church
Opening the Bible in Messy Church
Growing discipleship in Messy Church
Exploring what makes Messy Church church
Messy Church beyond the monthly gathering
Activities and games for building Messy community
More information and registration: e-mail ann.byrne@victas.uca.org.au or Make it Messy 2018 (live from May 1); for more on the ‘messy church’ idea: http://messychurchaustralia.com.au/
Please let Craig or Lauren know if you’d be interested in being part of an MtE group attending this workshop
Trinity Sunday
27/5/2018
1 John 4:13-17, 5:3-5
Psalm 29
John 3:1-17
Sermon preached by Rev. Dr Rob Gallacher
“God so loved the world” John 3:16 is such a gift to the preacher that You’ll all be expecting me to wax strong on love, like Bishop Michael Curry at the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan.
But I am going to direct your attention to the next verse:
“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17
“Not to condemn… but to save” We can find plenty of things in this world to condemn – the behaviour of the banks, the treatment of asylum seekers, the slaughter of Palestinians, domestic violence, – the list goes on. It’s not that God approves of such things, but God’s nature is not to condemn but to save. These tragedies we condemn are a rejection of God’s saving way and produce their own dire reward. God sent the Son to offer us an alternative.
There are three points to be drawn from this.
Now I want to see how these three points are expressed in the icon of the Trinity.
(Place circle around the 3 figures in the icon)
The outer line of the three figures form a perfect circle – eternal for a circle has no end, and also inclusive of all that goes on within it. The hand of the Holy Spirit indicates the rectangle in the table. This is the four corners of the earth, the world. See how small it is in relation to the life of God. Whatever catastrophes we create we cannot shake the being of God. As the profligate actions of the prodigal son do not change the nature of the father. Somehow, in ways we cannot fully grasp, God holds together all the dualism – light and darkness, life and death, spirit and flesh, good and evil – and is constantly offering to all saving grace, eternal love.
The life of God is community within oneness, as each submits to the other with an inclination of the head. Each is equal in power, as all carry the same sceptre, and all are the same size indicating they are equally important. When one is present all are present.
(Place the marked-out chalice over the inner lines of the Father and the Spirit)
Now look at this. The inside lines of the Father and the Spirit make a chalice, and Christ himself is in that chalice. Superimposed over the table and chalice is the larger picture, real presence of Christ. Uniting Church people would do well to contemplate the real presence of Christ in the sacrament more deeply. Receiving the elements means participating in the one whom God sent to save the world. It’s not some airy-fairy spirituality, nor is just imaginary symbolism, it is being the body of Christ in the world, solid, physical, substantial, actual. Sacrament and incarnation are inextricably linked in the story of salvation.
See how the icon expresses this abiding
(place cut out on the lines of the footstools)
The lines of the footstools are in inverse perspective. The lines meet outside the picture. They activate the space in front of the picture and the space beyond it. (i) It’s as though, you, the viewer, are looking out through a window into an ever-expanding but unseen reality which is God. There is much to contemplate prayerfully in this, but that’s for another day. (ii) When you look at the icon in this way it draws you in. The lines are like arms, drawing you in. Notice that there is a space at the table, a place for you. It is sometimes called The Hospitality Icon, taking its origin from the three angels that visited Abraham under the oaks at Mamre. If Abraham had not invited the strangers to stay salvation history would be altogether different. So too the triune God invites you in, to be part of the life of God, to take your place in the life of the divine community that is unshakeable and eternal and exists for the sake of the world. That’s what is real. The outside world, the old world, is only a shadow of what can be. But it can be saved, through him
I hope that by picking out the artistic devices that I have not turned the icon into a diagram. The whole is to be contemplated all at once. It is a living entity, opening for you the life and saving power of Father, Son and Spirit. There is a lot more that can be seen in this icon. This is only the way I see it in relation to today’s text. But I hope it is enough for today, to confirm you in your faith.
The following links are to the Revised Common Lectionary commentary pages of Howard Wallace and Bill Loader, and are suggested as preparation for hearing the readings in worship for the Sunday indicated above.
Series I: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20) and Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Series II: Romans 12:9-16b (no link) and Luke 1:39-57
Make it Messy! Training Day Saturday June 2 Parkville
Make it Messy! will assist those already engaged in Messy Church, churches contemplating beginning a Messy Church and people genuinely curious about the Messy Church phenomenon take the next step in their Messy journey. Join with others from churches across the state for a day of active engagement, stimulating discussions, encouraging stories and helpful electives that will empower your ministry in your local context – whether you are already engaged with Messy Church or not!. Across the day you will have the opportunity to connect with experienced Messy Church leaders and engage with…
Introducing Messy Church
Starting a Messy Church
Extreme Craft for Messy Church
Opening the Bible in Messy Church
Growing discipleship in Messy Church
Exploring what makes Messy Church church
Messy Church beyond the monthly gathering
Activities and games for building Messy community
More information and registration: e-mail ann.byrne@victas.uca.org.au or Make it Messy 2018 (live from May 1); for more on the ‘messy church’ idea: http://messychurchaustralia.com.au/
Please let Craig or Lauren know if you’d be interested in being part of an MtE group attending this workshop
Dear friends
Please find attached a brochure from the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce that you can use to take action advocating against the removal of basic financial supports for up to 12,000 people over the next year. The issue is rather urgent in that the first cohort of people to be removed from financial supports (possibly up to 3,000) will be in June. They anticipate 12,000 being removed from these supports over the next year. Any removal of financial supports will result in destitution and homelessness for many of these people and we are also entering winter which is a particularly difficult time for homelessness. We are aware that faith based agencies are likely to be the ones who will have to do their best to fill this gap.
The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce is encouraging people of faith to respond to this issue because this is a breach of human rights to cause people to be destitute who are lawfully going through a refugee protection process.
Further resources on this issue can be found at:
Thank you in advance for your action on this issue,
| Mark Zirnsak
Senior Social Justice Advocate |
You are warmly invited to a public lecture on the relationship between Western Philosophy and Indian Thought by Professor Françoise Dastur (Emeritus, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis) at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne campus.
Wednesday 30 May, 2018
5.30 – 7.00pm
ACU Melbourne Campus,
115 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy
Room 404.G.09 (Mercy Lecture Theatre)
About the lecture
Until recently, the matter of the relation between Western philosophy and Eastern traditions of thought had been largely neglected by European philosophers, especially in France. It is the depth of the ignorance of Indian philosophy in Europe that was highlighted by the French philosopher and journalist, Roger Pol-Droit, in his 1989 book The Oblivion of India: A Philosophical Amnesia.
India has been a place of prodigious development in mathematics, astronomy, philology and philosophy since ancient times. However, it was only at the end of the 18th century that Europe began to discover the importance of Indian literature and philosophy, beginning in Germany where writers and philosophers chose to look in the direction of the Orient. In this talk, Professor Dastur will explore the many points of convergence between Western philosophy and Indian thought, suggesting that these need much further analysis and development.
About the speaker
Professor Françoise Dastur taught philosophy in the University of Paris I from 1969–1995, in the University of Paris XII from 1995–1999, and in the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis from 1999–2003. She taught also as a visiting professor in the universities of Mannheim, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Warwick, Essex, De Paul (Chicago), Boston College, and North Western University (Evanston).
Professor Dastur was, as honorary Professor of Philosophy, attached to the Husserl Archives of Paris (ENS Ulm), a research unit affiliated to the French National Center for Research (CNRS) until June 2017. She was a founding member and the President of the École Française de Daseinsanalyse, of which she is now honorary President. She has published many articles in French, English and German, and is the author of several books in French, five of which have been translated into English.
Inquiries: richard.colledge@acu.edu.au
For further information, and to register to attend: http://irci.acu.edu.au/events/western-philosophy-and-indian-thought/
Campus Map: http://www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/campuses/melbourne/map
Pentecost
20/5/2018
1 John 4:1-12
Psalm 104
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
In a sentence:
The Spirit of God binds us together for love
We live in an age of the resurgence of ‘spirit, a certain sense for ‘spirituality’ which has developed in the last generation or two as a way of expressing how many people feel they experience themselves and the world: as ‘spiritual’ persons.
This is, in part, a reaction against drier, rationalist accounts of the world, ourselves and God which have dominated Western society (at least) over the last century or two. But there is more than this in general spirit-think. At heart, ‘spirit’ conveys freedom. Spirit resists capture, crosses boundaries, shakes foundations. This is the opposite of what cultural constructs like institutions do, whether the institution be a social organisation, a language, a religion or a just set of mores. ‘I’m not religious but I am interested in spirituality’ is a statement which sums up the contrast. Institutions – religion among them – fix in place; spirit breaks free. And we live in a freedom-seeking age.
But there is a very deep problem here. Jesus did not say – but might well have said – Where two or three gather in my name, there you have an institution (cf. Matt 18.20). Institutions – tangible and intangible – spring from community, from the need of otherwise separate individuals to negotiate a way of being together. The weight of an institution is the weight of life together. Sometimes we can lighten that load, but we will always do that by shifting the burden to another institution if it is ‘we’ and not ‘I’ which does this.
The problem here is that if we invoke spirit or spirituality to set us free from all this, spirit comes to stand over against a fundamental characteristic of our life together – that we always, and must, construct modes of relating to each other. Against this, certain understandings of the spiritual allow me to shut my eyes so that you disappear and there is only me and God (or whatever it is I see when my eyes are closed).
To the notion of spirit as escape from one another, John says No, although we have to strain to hear it. There has been a painful split in his community around what we might consider a ‘mere’ doctrinal point – whether or not Jesus was the incarnation of the divine Son of God. But for John the distinction between doctrine and ethics doesn’t hold; that the incarnation deniers have in fact separated themselves is as much their failure as the denial. To confess the wrong thing and to do the wrong thing are the same.
In our reading this morning, John implies that the deniers have invoked an inadequate sense of ‘spirit’ and this has led to the division of the community, the rejection of the ‘institution’ (we might say) by which they first gathered.
If we were to try to reconstruct the theology against which John writes, it might go something like this: God is spirit, and we are spirit. Our physical embodiment is secondary to our spiritual being, so that what happens to or between our bodies does not, finally, matter (perhaps this is why they could say, ‘we have no sin’ [cf. 1.8]). The death of Jesus is itself a denial of embodiment, a liberation from body, a denial that physical things matter; only the spirit of the risen Son is important. The spirit of the Son is free, as we can be free.
On this understanding, John’s insistence on love makes little sense. Love requires bodies, and not only the case in the instance of sexual expression. Bodies are the means of creating personal histories, which are what give us our identities. And these interactions create ‘institutions,’ rules of engagement, ways of being together, bindings between persons; a community is a ‘body’ (consider ‘the body of Christ’ – a body of bodies). Such things are all intimately associated with what we are in and as our embodiment. Wafting spirits neither bind nor are bound (cf. John 3.8). Bodies, on the other hand, do these things all the time.
And so John declares what is otherwise almost incomprehensible in connection to spirit:
4.2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
The real human body of Jesus the Son ‘in the flesh’ matters because our bodies matter, and our bodies matter because the body of Jesus the Son matters.
What John says, then, is that how we are – that we are embodied persons in space and time, springing from each other and into each other – is of the utmost importance for faith.
The ties that bind us to each other – how we interpret our embodiment – will sometimes be too tight, will strangle. This is the meaning of the prophets’ rage against the barrenness of Israel’s religion, even though it is also God’s religion. It is also the meaning of John’s own command to love, to overcome stale expressions of community, too harsh regulation, or not enough regulation, in order that more joyful life together might be embodied.
But while the ties which bind are sometimes too tight, there is no unbound life before God or before each other. The Spirit of God is the Spirit which points to God’s own binding of himself in the life and death of Jesus. Jesus does not give up his body on the cross; he refuses to disconnect from those who disconnect him, who unbind themselves from him. If God is really only there when I shut my eyes and can no longer see you – when I count you as dead – then I’m dealing with the wrong god.
John does not say then, that the Spirit will make us confess the correct creed. He says that the Spirit will make us human, and that it does this by binding us together in love. It is to this that the doctrine about Jesus as the incarnate Son points. As God has been to us, even to the point of death, so we are to be to each other.
Spirituality should indeed set us free, but not from each other. The Spirit which points to Jesus sets us free from all which might separate us from our fullest humanity or, to put it differently, the Spirit sets us for each other.
Where the Spirit of Christ is, there is freedom – to love.
Let us then heed John’s call: love one another as God has loved us.
In the name of the one who is lover, beloved, and love. Amen.
In confessional response:
We offer thanks and praise, O God,
because you have created and sustained us
and all things.
And yet we confess that,
in thought, word and deed,
we have not loved you with our whole heart
nor our neighbours as ourselves.
Forgive us when we seek in you
a hiding place from the world
in which you’ve placed us for our benefit,
with its abundant gifts
and light burdens.
Forgive us the love we withhold
the much needed kind word put off
the unnecessarily angry word set free.
Forgive us our attachment to those things –
theories, habits, institutions,
which take more life from us or from others
than they give.
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your
binding and liberating Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The following links are to the Revised Common Lectionary commentary pages of Howard Wallace and Bill Loader, and are suggested as preparation for hearing the readings in worship for the Sunday indicated above.
Dear friends
Please find attached a brochure from the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce that you can use to take action advocating against the removal of basic financial supports for up to 12,000 people over the next year. The issue is rather urgent in that the first cohort of people to be removed from financial supports (possibly up to 3,000) will be in June. They anticipate 12,000 being removed from these supports over the next year. Any removal of financial supports will result in destitution and homelessness for many of these people and we are also entering winter which is a particularly difficult time for homelessness. We are aware that faith based agencies are likely to be the ones who will have to do their best to fill this gap.
The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce is encouraging people of faith to respond to this issue because this is a breach of human rights to cause people to be destitute who are lawfully going through a refugee protection process.
Further resources on this issue can be found at:
Thank you in advance for your action on this issue,
| Mark Zirnsak
Senior Social Justice Advocate |
You are warmly invited to a public lecture on the relationship between Western Philosophy and Indian Thought by Professor Françoise Dastur (Emeritus, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis) at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne campus.
Wednesday 30 May, 2018
5.30 – 7.00pm
ACU Melbourne Campus,
115 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy
Room 404.G.09 (Mercy Lecture Theatre)
About the lecture
Until recently, the matter of the relation between Western philosophy and Eastern traditions of thought had been largely neglected by European philosophers, especially in France. It is the depth of the ignorance of Indian philosophy in Europe that was highlighted by the French philosopher and journalist, Roger Pol-Droit, in his 1989 book The Oblivion of India: A Philosophical Amnesia.
India has been a place of prodigious development in mathematics, astronomy, philology and philosophy since ancient times. However, it was only at the end of the 18th century that Europe began to discover the importance of Indian literature and philosophy, beginning in Germany where writers and philosophers chose to look in the direction of the Orient. In this talk, Professor Dastur will explore the many points of convergence between Western philosophy and Indian thought, suggesting that these need much further analysis and development.
About the speaker
Professor Françoise Dastur taught philosophy in the University of Paris I from 1969–1995, in the University of Paris XII from 1995–1999, and in the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis from 1999–2003. She taught also as a visiting professor in the universities of Mannheim, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Warwick, Essex, De Paul (Chicago), Boston College, and North Western University (Evanston).
Professor Dastur was, as honorary Professor of Philosophy, attached to the Husserl Archives of Paris (ENS Ulm), a research unit affiliated to the French National Center for Research (CNRS) until June 2017. She was a founding member and the President of the École Française de Daseinsanalyse, of which she is now honorary President. She has published many articles in French, English and German, and is the author of several books in French, five of which have been translated into English.
Inquiries: richard.colledge@acu.edu.au
For further information, and to register to attend: http://irci.acu.edu.au/events/western-philosophy-and-indian-thought/
Campus Map: http://www.acu.edu.au/about_acu/campuses/melbourne/map
Friends of Vellore Victoria invite you to a Recital of Choral and Organ Music in QUEEN’S COLLEGE CHAPEL on Sunday, May 20th 2018 at 3 pm, 1–17 College Crescent, Parkville.
David Agg will perform organ works by Pachelbel, Bach, Vierne & Stanley. The Queen’s Chapel Choir will sing 19th century English choral works. The FOVV will also launch their annual appeal for 2018, followed by afternoon tea in Eakins Hall.
Further information from David Runia 0419 419 766 or Viviane Harangazo 0429 933 780.
Make it Messy! Training Day Saturday June 2 Parkville
Make it Messy! will assist those already engaged in Messy Church, churches contemplating beginning a Messy Church and people genuinely curious about the Messy Church phenomenon take the next step in their Messy journey. Join with others from churches across the state for a day of active engagement, stimulating discussions, encouraging stories and helpful electives that will empower your ministry in your local context – whether you are already engaged with Messy Church or not!. Across the day you will have the opportunity to connect with experienced Messy Church leaders and engage with…
Introducing Messy Church
Starting a Messy Church
Extreme Craft for Messy Church
Opening the Bible in Messy Church
Growing discipleship in Messy Church
Exploring what makes Messy Church church
Messy Church beyond the monthly gathering
Activities and games for building Messy community
More information and registration: e-mail ann.byrne@victas.uca.org.au or Make it Messy 2018 (live from May 1); for more on the ‘messy church’ idea: http://messychurchaustralia.com.au/
Please let Craig know if you’d be interested in being part of an MtE group attending this workshop
The following links are to the Revised Common Lectionary commentary pages of Howard Wallace and Bill Loader, and are suggested as preparation for hearing the readings in worship for the Sunday indicated above.
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (alt) see also By the Well podcast on this text
Acts 2:1-21 see also By the Well podcast on this text