PeterMaher.org

Philip Adams on Atheism Today

2011-09-14T12:34:00.002+10:00

What is Atheism? Where did it come from? Why is it around in 2011? Philip Adams will explore atheism in contemporary Australia in a conversation at Newtown Spirituality in the Pub. Come along with questions or comments. ABC Presenter of Late Night Live, Adams is a broadcaster, writer and film maker.
Time: 7.30 - 9pm
Venue: Town Hall Hotel – the Townie
All Welcome
Information: Anna Beresford Tel: 8020 7631
email: aclevana@mooball.com
Website: www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au
Admission is free – donation welcome to cover expenses

Spiritualities in a Multifaith Society - CHRISTIANTY

2011-04-17T12:41:00.000+10:00

THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION
We will explore Christianty this time while during the year we look at traditions and spiritualities of various faiths and no faith. It will be a chance to ask what you always wanted to know about these faiths from members of that faith tradition. Please join us and share the faith story.

SPEAKERS:
Dr Stuart Piggin, Director of Centre for the History of Christian Thought and Experience at Macquarie University
Prof Neil Ormerod, Lecturer in Theology, History and the Church at Australian Catholic University.

Date: Tuesday, May 10
Time: 7.30 - 9pm
Venue: Town Hall Hotel – the Townie
Come along for a meal at the Bistro
All Welcome
Information: Anna Beresford Tel: 8020 7631
email: aclevana@mooball.com

OTHER TOPICS FOR 2011:
July 12 TBA
September 13 Buddhism Brain White (President of the Buddhist Council of NSW)
November 8 Atheism Philip Adams (ABC Late Night Live)

Letter to Cardinal Pell on Mass attendance at Newtown

2010-11-30T08:47:00.002+11:00

Recently Cardinal Pell invited me to explain why we have had an increase in Mass attendance at St Joseph’s over the last 10 years so that others could learn from our experience. With the Parish Team’s assistance I sent this letter with our reasons

12 November 2010
Dear Cardinal Pell

Thank you for your letter regarding Sunday Mass attendances at St Joseph’s Newtown.

Firstly I will address your question about the accuracy of the survey numbers. The 2006 numbers seem high. This may be because one strategy at Newtown is that all Baptisms are celebrated during the Sunday Mass. If the survey Masses were Masses with Baptisms that would inflate the numbers above the average. Having said this, it is very obvious that the numbers have increased significantly over the last 10 years. Our average numbers now would be around 150 per weekend. When I came to Newtown the numbers would have been more like 80.

You asked us to share how this increase happened. I engaged the Parish Council on this question and below there are a number of strategies they suggest have helped in this respect.

1. Developing an inclusive sense particularly for women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and gay and lesbian people: this is found in our mission statement which appears on our parish bulletin: We acknowledge the Cadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which St Joseph’s stands. St Joseph’s aims to provide a safe place for all people to pray regardless of age, race, creed, gender, cultural background or sexual orientation.

2. Including all parishioners in the various aspects of parish life. For example, all parishioners are welcome to all parish meetings especially the Parish Council. Opinions, ideas and strategies for parish life and liturgy are taken seriously.

3. Simple but effective and wide-ranging liturgical life. We celebrate Mass simply but with a variety of musical styles. There is regular Rosary, Benediction, Reconciliation and children’s Liturgy of the Word. Music is mostly in a modern style but traditional hymns and even a small amount of Latin is sung. This openness to all types of music is appreciated.

4. Good communication through the parish bulletin which is also available electronically each Friday.

5. The parish is theologically inviting – emphasising God’s love and inclusion. Preaching connects the readings to all aspects of life – religious, spiritual, family, Church, social, political and psychological.

6. Women are included in all the ministries in the parish.

7. Community development is a priority. The “cuppa” after Sunday Mass considered important strategy. Regular parish parties develop good relationships. Parish projects such as community garden, Spirituality in the Pub and a public park developed co-operatively with local council has extended good relationships with the broader community.

8. There is a serious commitment to Social Justice. We include social justice at all levels of parish life. The Parish Council includes updates on Social Justice issues at every meeting.

9. Educational opportunities include regular Advent and Lenten Biblical Programs; Forums and other technologies for raising important issues.

10. The Baptism policy is very welcoming and accepting and the preparation program is flexible and simple. We invite all families who have celebrated baptism over the past 12 years to our Christmas children’s Mass with great success. Some join us more regularly because of this simple invitation by mail or email.

11. A Mass specifically inclusive of same-sex attracted Catholics, their families, friends and supporters every Friday night has significantly increased numbers on weekend Masses. Some people who have come to the Friday Mass are now members of the Parish Council, acolytes, readers, cleaners and willing to help with various parish activities.

12. Welcoming the Indonesian Catholic Community in a pro-active way has helped the parish to be more open to people of various cultural and social backgrounds. Celebrating some liturgies together has helped us be a more welcoming community in general (for example, we always join with the Catholic Indonesian Community for the Good Friday Liturgy).

13. My involvement in other ministries has helped increase numbers although maybe only in a small way. Some parishioners come from my involvement in the university chaplaincy ministry and the Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat Ministry. These may be small in number but they contribute greatly to the parish and help the parish develop as an open, thinking, inclusive, caring and socially aware parish that is attractive for many of our parishioners.

These are just some ideas the people of Newtown have identified to explain the increase in Mass attendance in this small inner city parish over the last 10 years. As one person said we are a “modern church in an old building”. The building is deeply loved from the longest serving parishioners to the last person through the door. Personally, I have followed the principle of leaving it much as it was when I came in structure and accessories, despite some keen suggestions to move the altar. I think it has been a significant strategy in maintaining many traditional Catholics here at Newtown. Apart from regular maintenance, I have carpeted and relit the church to great success and approval.

I hope these ideas assist your efforts to encourage greater participation in our parishes as we bring the great Catholic tradition to a new generation in this Archdiocese.

Thanks for the opportunity to contribute to this discussion.

Yours sincerely

Fr Peter Maher

November Spirituality in the Pub

2010-08-18T14:55:00.002+10:00

Inner City Poverty

Brian Unterrheiner Newtown Mission
Ace Simpson Hare Krisha
Anna Beresford St Vincent de Paul

These speakers will introduce perspectives on poverty. There will be time for conversation about who are “the poor”; how can we understand poverty in this part of the city and how can we help?

Date: Tuesday November 9
Time: 7.30 - 9pm
Venue: Town Hall Hotel (Townie)
326 King Street Newtown
Excellent Bistro Food Available.
All Welcome
Information: Anna Beresford Tel: 8020 7631
email: aclevana@mooball.com
Website: www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au

Submission to the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life

2010-08-18T14:48:00.000+10:00

Newtown Parish Submission to the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life
DRAFT TEXT ONLY 29.8.10

Any suggestions gratefully received by September 5 : newtown@catholic.org or 9557 3197

Bishop D Eugene Hurley
Chairman
Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life
GPO Box 368
CANBERRA ACT 2601

Dear Bishop Hurley

Development of Pastoral Letter on affirming the place of Catholics identifying as same sex attracted in our Church

Newtown Parish in the inner west of Sydney has a long history of providing pastoral care for gay and lesbian Catholics, particularly during the early years of AIDS in Australia when there was a healing service and counseling service provided for people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS.

More recently, over the past 5 years we have been privileged to have been able to provide a Mass with a special ministry to same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends each Friday evening. This ministry has taught us much about the hopes, challenges and faith of this group of our fellow Catholics. We have also discovered the many ways in our Church has discriminated, marginalized and actively excluded these fellow Catholics.

In March this year, we were visited by "protestors" outside the church at the Friday night Mass where we conduct the special ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics their families and friends. The protestors later posted a facebook page which included comments such as "burning down the church"; "killing the fags"; and "excommunicating the parish priest". This highlights the need for pastoral care guidelines in a pastoral letter to the Australian Church.

As outlined in the attached submission, we write to invite the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life to develop a Pastoral Letter affirming the place of Catholics identifying as same sex attracted in our Church. We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Commission’s Executive Secretary and Secretariat for Pastoral Life on the development of this important Pastoral Letter.

The development and release of this Pastoral Letter by the Australian Bishops will greatly assist parishes, Catholic ministries, Church agencies and Catholic organizations and services to provide a welcoming ministry to same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends which affirms their dignity and Catholic identity.

While developed to meet the needs of the church here in Australia, the Pastoral Letter will complement the landmark statements made by our Church in England, Wales and the United States.

Through our pastoral care and ministry in Newtown, Sydney we have witnessed the strong faith, the commitment to the gospel values and a desire to reconnect with their Church of same sex attracted Catholics.

Unfortunately, we have also witnessed the hurt and the damage done to so many same sex attracted Catholics, and to their families and friends through marginalization, discrimination and exclusion in our Church across Australia.

Guided by the Spirit, we feel strongly that the time has come for our Church here in Australia to remove these barriers separating our Catholic sisters and brothers from their Church and their faith, to heal the hurt and discrimination and to affirm their dignity and Catholic identity.

We propose that the Pastoral Letter outlines ways in which the Church, its people and its ministries might reach out to same sex attracted Catholics with two core audiences in mind - same sex attracted Catholics and their families. The attached submission outlines some potential key points that might be covered in the Pastoral Letter for each of these audiences.

The pastoral council of Newtown parish would appreciate a chance to assist the bishops in formulating a pastoral letter. Please include us at every stage of the consultation process as this matter progresses.

We look forward to working with you and with our Australian Church community in developing this Pastoral Letter.

Yours sincerely

Newtown Parish Team

Why the need for a Pastoral Letter?

Bishops, priests, Catholic school principals, teachers and counsellors, university chaplains, Catholic health care service staff and pastoral care and other staff in a wide range of Catholic agencies have all encountered or know of same sex attracted Catholics who have been marginalized, discriminated, rejected and excluded in our Church and the hurt, harm and pain that this causes. Equally, we all know of the hurt, harm and pain that has been suffered by their parents, their brothers and sisters and their friends. It is a tragedy that this has lead to an estrangement of Catholics from their Church and, sadly for so many a lasting separation from the sacraments and participation in the life and ministry of the Church.

We feel strongly that the time has come for our Australian Church to reflect on this discrimination and to now actively reaffirm the dignity and place of same sex attracted Catholics, their families and their friends in our Church. The time has come for our Church in Australia to examine the many ways, both intended and unintended, in which we do not make welcome and seek to put barriers between same sex attracted Catholics, their faith and their participation in the life of our Church.

In developing a Pastoral Letter for our Australian church, the Bishops are complementing the work undertaken in other parts of our worldwide Church. A Pastoral Letter in 2011 will build on the landmark statements by the Bishops of the United States in 1997 with the release of Always Our Children (http://www.usccb.org/laity/always.shtml) and the Bishops of England and Wales in 2006 with their release of Everybody’s Welcome (http://www.everybodyswelcome.org.uk/lesbiangay.html).

We are confident that Catholics across Australia will resonate with what the Bishops in England and Wales heard. Our experience in Newtown, and the experience of our parishes and Catholic communities in Australia confirms that authenticity of the following words:
“As a group that has suffered more than its share of oppression and contempt, the homosexual community has a particular claim on the concern of the church.” CBCEW Catholic Social Welfare Commission, 1979

During Listening 2004 we heard that:
“The continual message from the church is that homosexuality is so, so dreadful. Our gay son just hasn’t stood a chance.”
“My brother is gay; the church has been very intolerant of him.”
At one diocesan family listening day participants listened to the hurt experienced by a family as a result of prevailing attitudes towards homosexuality.
“Mr D discovered some years ago that his son was gay. He tried to talk to a fellow parishioner about his concern, but quickly realised from the extremely hostile, disparaging remarks made that this was not a good idea. The parish priest reacted in a similarly prejudiced way. Mr D’s wife chose to ignore the situation. Mr D feels angry, frustrated and totally rejected by the church. He now knows to follow his wife’s lead and keep quiet. There seems nowhere to turn. In his mind there is little hope for the future.”
And we also heard that:
“If we are to reach out to all, we must dare to hold out our hands. …We must respond to people who are gay or lesbian. They should not feel marginalized.”

We are confident that Catholic communities will welcome a Pastoral Letter from the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life. Importantly, we are also confident that same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends will welcome a Pastoral Letter and the invitation it extends to them to reconnect with their faith and their Church

A Pastoral Letter is consistent with our calling as people of faith

In inviting the Bishops Commission to develop a Pastoral Letter, we submit that, as with the statements of the Bishops of England, Wales and the United States, a Pastoral Letter is entirely consistent with our calling as people of faith .

It is consistent with the Bishops’ Commission for Pastoral Life of Australia mandate to promote “the life and mission of the Catholic Church in Australia in the following areas …. groups that may be or are perceived to be marginalised in Church life.( 2.11)”
As people of faith, we believe that a Pastoral Letter is consistent with gospel values and the ministry of the Church. While not experts in the study of theology we simply note the following points to support our belief:

• God's love and grace is indiscriminately extended to all people. This is affirmed in both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures (e.g, Lamentations 3:22,23 and Romans 3:15). Furthermore, the Church teaches that "grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom" (Catechism, 2022). No one who desires to share in God's love can be excluded from it.

• Jesus’ practise of inclusion (eg the leper, the woman with the haemorrhage, the woman at the well and Matthew the tax collector) and summarised as “Everyone who comes to me I will never turn away” (John 6/37).

• The Church, as Christ's bride and body, has a responsibility to display and model his embracing love to everyone, regardless of their situation in life (Matthew 9:12,13).

• “As a group that has suffered more than its share of oppression and contempt, the homosexual community has a particular claim on the concern of the church.” (Catholic Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales, Catholic Social Welfare Commission, 1979)

• “Friendship is a gift from God. Friendship is a way of loving. Friendship is necessary for every person. To equate friendship and full sexual involvement with another is to distort the very concept of friendship. Sexual loving presupposes friendship but friendship does not require full sexual involvement. It is a mistake to say or think or presume that if two persons of the same or different sexes enjoy a deep and lasting friendship then they must be sexually involved. (Cardinal Basil Hume, A Note on the Teaching of the Catholic Church Concerning Homosexuality No 8: http://www.everybodyswelcome.org.uk/lesbiangay.html).

• “God loves every person as a unique individual. Sexual identity helps to define the unique persons we are, and one component of our sexual identity is sexual orientation. Thus, our total personhood is more encompassing than sexual orientation. Human beings see the appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart (cf. 1 Sam 16:7). God does not love someone any less simply because he or she is homosexual. God's love is always and everywhere offered to those who are open to receiving it.” (Always our Children, United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference ).

• Respect for the God-given dignity of all persons means the recognition of human rights and responsibilities. The teachings of the Church make it clear that the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence against them. It is not sufficient only to avoid unjust discrimination. Homosexual persons "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2358). They, as is true of every human being, need to be nourished at many different levels simultaneously. This includes friendship, which is a way of loving and is essential to healthy human development. It is one of the richest possible human experiences. Friendship can and does thrive outside of genital sexual involvement. (Always our Children, United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference ).

• "Homosexuals . . . should have an active role in the Christian community" (National Conference of Catholic Bishops,To Live in Christ Jesus: A Pastoral Reflection on the Moral Life, 1976, p. 19). Same-sex attracted Catholics have a right to be welcomed into the community, to hear the word of God, to engage in ministries according to their gifts, to celebrate the Sacraments and to receive pastoral care. (cf Always our Children, United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference ).

Suggested areas of content of the Pastoral Letter

While by no means intended to be an exhaustive list, we respectfully suggest that the Pastoral Letter might cover the following issues, strategies, skills and opportunities to affirm the place of same sex attracted Catholics in our Church and to guide and enhance the pastoral care of same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends.

• A clear statement of affirmation that same sex attracted Catholics are welcomed and invited to live their faith as part of the Church community
• Liturgies, homilies, ministries of the Church and pastoral plans support the Pastoral Letter and demonstrate awareness and appreciation of the gifts that same sex attracted Catholics bring to their faith community
• Recognition of the diversity of backgrounds, cultures and relationships in our Church community and avoidance of stereotyping, judgement and marginalisation
• Eradication of homophobic language, actions and attitudes
• Access to safe and supportive pastoral care for same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends
• Inclusion of same sex attracted Catholics in liturgies and ministries
• Welcoming access to the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Initiation for same sex attracted Catholics and children and their partners
• Recognition of important events in the lives of same sex attracted Catholics, including death and/or serious illness of a partner
• Specialised training and ongoing support for priests, chaplains, parish staff, counselors, youth workers, teachers and other key staff in Catholic agencies and ministries to ensure that they are able to provide safe, supportive and skilled pastoral care to same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends
• Building an effective network of “gay friendly” parishes across Australia to enhance the opportunities for same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends to join in regular Eucharistic celebration of the Mass, participate in parish life and reconnect with their faith
• Maintaining a website resource and listings of agencies, community groups, support groups, counselors and other experts to whom same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends might be referred when they ask for assistance
• Establishing new and/or supporting and promoting existing support groups for same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends
• Development of a resource kit for parishes and ministries and for families with a son or daughter who is same sex attracted or coming out
• Reinforcement of the place of same sex attracted Catholics, their families and friends in our Church through appropriate Prayers of the Faithful, celebrations such as Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Social Justice Sunday and marking of events such as World AIDS Day

2010-06-11T17:43:00.002+10:00

September Spirituality in the Pub

2010-06-11T17:40:00.002+10:00

Tuesday 14 September 2010 Topic: “Valuing Aboriginal Voices” Speakers: Alana Taylor and Ralph Townsend
Alana and Ralph are local Aboriginal people with a story to tell. Sometimes joyful, sometimes sad, always interesting and thought- provoking as we continue to search for ways to bridge the cultural gap. 7.30pm to 9pm at the Town Hall Hotel – the Townie, 326 King St. Newtown - Upstairs (Next to Station Entrance) Info: 9230 7631 or aclevana@mooball.com

Sheik Mansour to be Deported June 27

2010-06-11T17:34:00.002+10:00

A Catholic Voice for Save the Sheikh
At Marrickville Multifaith roundtable today we continued our support for Sheikh Mansour even though it now seems he will be deported. Fr John Pearce of St Brigid's Marrickville has written the following. Please consider helping by writing soon.
Peter

Together with two local Anglican Priests and some members of our three Parishes, on Thursday 5th June I travelled by bus convoy to Canberra for a Rally in support of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei. Mansour is an Imam neighbour of mine and President of our Marrickville Inter-Faith Round Table. He will be deported in 3 weeks unless our Federal Government backs down. He has been given a negative assessment by ASIO after 16 years of peaceful work in the community. He is the only fluent English speaking Imam in Sydney. He preaches in English, thus has a large young multicultural Islamic Community..
Despite approaches to the PM’s office, neither he nor any of his ministers were available to join us on the lawns opposite Parliament. Neither did the Opposition. The local Greens Candidate for Grayndler at least travelled with us and participated.
One of my concerns is this comes 90 years after a Passionist Priest from my Parish of Marrickville was deported for opposing conscription during WWI, as did many of our Bishops and citizens. He was German born, British educated, finished school at Parramatta, yet deemed a threat to the State. After internment at Holsworthy where he acted as Chaplain to other Internees, he was deported and lived the next 7years in USA and England. (They weren’t afraid of him). He died in London in 1928. His name was Fr Charles Jerger CP
The Sheikh asks for natural justice, ie, to know what he is accused of and the right to defend himself in law. He has been told that as a non citizen, he does not have any of those rights. But we know he has human and God given rights.
I pray that we become a country where true justice is given to all people, citizen and non citizen, as they are all God’s children.
His deportation date is June 27. Perhaps you might like to write to the PM or email the Minister for Immigration, Senator Chris Evans on senator.evans@aph.gov.au.
Fr John Pearce, Parish Priest Marrickville

“Gay and Lesbian Voices”

2010-03-10T21:11:00.004+11:00

Spirituality in the Pub – Newtown March 9, 2010
Valuing Local Voices “Gay and Lesbian Voices” by Paul Harris

I’d like to begin tonight by trying to explain my understanding of my spirituality - its through the various influences in my life.

My gender. I can’t escape from being a male!

My family - A big chunk of my spirituality is attributed to that. I’m the eldest of 9 kids. My mum and dad were and still are a great influence in my life. I went to catholic schools, grew up in a very catholic parish. I was involved in the Antioch youth group, played guitar at Mass, I was an altar boy a very long time ago!. I had wonderful religious and spiritual experiences through my association with the Marist Brothers and the Jesuits. My Catholic Experience was pretty safe and relatively positive.

A period of trauma when I was a teenager helped me to grow quite spiritually. This was the birth, illness and death of one of my brothers when he was 5 years old.
And now my relationship with my partner, nurtures my spirituality. My partner is an artist, he is very creative and has a strong connection with nature. As we continue to share and live our lives together, I am growing to appreciate and discover my strong spiritual connection with nature and creation.

Perhaps one of the greatest spiritual moments in my life was also born from trauma. I had run away from home when I was 27 and went to London. After many years of unhappiness, torment and struggle, I realised that I wasn’t sexually attracted to women. I accepted that I was gay. And in that instant, my whole life made sense to me. Everything fell into place. For the first time I understood my earliest thoughts and feelings, like when I was 7, why I had a crush on the boy down the road. Or why I was so shy, in fact, scared of girls when I was a teenager. I just didn’t know what to do. An interest in girls just didn’t come naturally to me.

It was not so much being gay that was spiritual for me back then, it was my discovery, but more importantly, it was the acceptance of who I was as a person that made the difference. And, very significantly, once I had the courage to tell my family, for them to embrace me and love me and not reject me

So, spirituality, I am discovering, is life long. It changes and develops. My understanding is only deepening the more I recognise and nurture it.

So what are my challenges, hopes and dreams as a gay person, which is the theme of this Spirituality in the Pub.

Now without undermining the whole point of this talk, I really don’t think my hopes and dreams are much different from anybody else – gay or straight. So I would like to focus on a couple of points that may be different. These are pretty significant dreams for me.

Since returning from my “running away” period, I have been involved with a gay and lesbian catholic support group called Acceptance. For the past couple of weeks the group has been under attack from fundamentalist Catholics who want to shut down the Catholic Mass to which Acceptance members are welcome. Now these people set up a facebook page full or error, lies and ignorant comments. The main organiser of this page continues to post messages on a fundamentalist website operating out of America.

Despite the anguish and frustration that people like this cause, the experience has helped me to further define my spirituality.

“Hate the sin, love the sinner” … Have you heard that before? It’s a favourite line of these people. What is the “sin” that they are referring to?

SEX! SEX!! SEX !! SEX !! .. that’s ALL you EVER seem to hear about!!

You would think that the doctrine of the church and the catechism revolve solely around genital activity. Well they don’t !

Another question for you. What IS the most important element of one’s relationship?

Again, if I asked those of you who are in or who have been in a long term relationship what is THE most important thing in your relationship, I would bet that sex wouldn’t be number one. OK it may be ranked highly, but then again maybe not.

To me, companionship is pretty high. I just love sitting in the back yard reading the Sunday paper while my partner is working away in the garden. We don’t have to talk, but we have companionship and connection. I love getting into bed and snuggling with each other before falling asleep. So to have my relationship purely defined by genital activity is offensive, misguided and just plain wrong.

When you see a little old lady and little old man walking down the street hand in hand, doesn’t your heart just skip a beat? I wonder how long they have been together? Or I hope I can be like that one day. Now that’s a relationship, that’s love, and the furthest thing from my mind would be genital activity!

So I consider my relationship to be a legitimate, loving and true relationship, just like my parents, or any of my married siblings, the only difference is that we do not have children – that’s why we have nice couches! Even then, two of my married siblings do not have children either.

And you know, I have been praying and talking to God all of my adult life, and He has NEVER in any of our conversations asked me about my sex life!!

So why does it matter?

Now I am definitely not a theologian. But my experience tells me that human sexuality and religion are very complex. There are literally libraries full of books about the topic. Let me read this :
“The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. “ Where is that from? Shakespeare?

No. Its from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Article 2358. (NOT number 1) “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfil God's will in their lives …… They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity”

I wonder if our fundamentalist friends have read that?

There are lots of Catholic and Christian writers who write about the need for our Churches to be more compassionate, to show greater sensitivity and to speak out about unjust discrimination of homosexual people.

In Uganda in late 2009, influenced by US Christian fundamentalists, a Ugandan Minister of Parliament wanted to toughen the laws in that country to introduce the death penalty for certain acts of homosexuality. Did the Catholic and Anglican bishops of Uganda speak up in opposition to this? …… Yes they did .. how could they not? But they don’t want the laws changed. It is still illegal to act on your homosexual orientation in that country.

And this leads me to the heart of one of my hopes and dreams for gay and lesbian people.
The confusion between orientation and action.

To continue with my line of thought. Let’s just accept for the sake of argument that the churches in our western society are not going to change their opposition to homosexual acts.

The dream I have is that they do take a more pro-active and pastoral role in educating their flocks about the distinction between orientation and act. The “hate the sin love the sinner” is far from adequate. Language like “abomination”, “objectively disordered” and “evil” is violent language. It is these words which are used to describe homosexual acts, not the sexual orientation of the person.

The fact of the matter is, many people, and I suspect simply out of ignorance or limited knowledge, have never been educated to see the distinction between the language of orientation (that homosexual people must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity) and the violent language of “abomination”, “objectively disordered” and evil” in reference to actions.

It is this language however, and the misuse of it which causes families to reject their gay and lesbian sons and daughters, their brothers and sisters. It is this language which is driving young people to drugs and suicide because it perpetuates the social stigma that there is something wrong with being gay or lesbian. It is this language that promotes discrimination and is not sensitive leading many people into despair. This also has a flow on effect into the wider community. Especially the less educated or isolated, and in particular, young people.

So one of my hopes and dreams is for our churches to do a lot more in promoting a different style of language. To take out the violence and to focus on being more pastoral, to emphasise the message from the catechism of respect, compassion, and sensitivity.

And it is happening. If you dig around a bit, you can find some wonderful and insightful statements from church leaders around the world. The unfortunate thing is, you have to look for it.

The late Cardinal of London, Basil Hume wrote this:
The word 'love' must never be thought of as being synonymous with the word 'sex'. …. In
whatever context it arises, and always respecting the appropriate manner of its expression, love between two persons, whether of the same sex or of a different sex, is to be treasured and respected. … To love another is in fact to reach out to God… . To be loved is to receive a sign, or a share, of God's unconditional love.
The Church recognises the dignity of all people and does not define or label them in terms of their sexual orientation.
The pastor and counsellor must see all people, irrespective of their sexuality, as children of God and destined for eternal life.
The teaching of the Catholic Church concerning Homosexuality, The Dignity of the Human Person. Cardinal Basil Hume (1997).

What a beautiful, pastoral statement …

The US Catholic Bishops (1997) produced a document called “Always Our Children” directed primarily at parents and church ministers and is a wonderful pastoral document based on love and understanding not on violent and judgemental language. It advocates that parents continue to love their children and offers practical and pastoral direction.
“We address our message also to the wider church community, and especially to priests and other pastoral ministers, asking that our words be translated into attitudes and actions that follow the way of love, as Christ has taught”.

That was in the 90’s - but what about now ?

The UK and Wales Bishops have various pastoral statements on their website. One called “Celebrating Family – making Everybody Feel Welcome” is very affirming and positive.

Challenges for the Parish
Being welcomed and participating in their local faith community is the foundation of spiritual support that the Church offers to baptised persons with a homosexual inclination and their families. Parishes can take a number of steps to ensure that individuals and families feel welcome:
Be aware of how marginalised some families feel when facing these challenges within the Church.
Try not to assume everyone is heterosexual; reflect this in language and conversation. When speaking publicly, use the words "homosexual," "gay," and "lesbian" in honest and accurate ways. Avoid stereotyping and condemning. Do not presume that all homosexual persons are sexually active.
Remember that homophobic jokes and asides can be cruel and hurtful; a careless word can mean another experience of rejection and pain.
Enable the parish to be informed about Church teachings and Catholic writing on the subject. Keep copies of documents in the parish library.
Check the local school policies on bullying and equality – children sometimes use the word ‘gay’ as a term of abuse.

Unfortunately I far as I could research, the Australian Catholic Bishops do not have any statement on the Pastoral Care of Gay and Lesbian Catholics. But there is always a hope that that will come.

So these documents and statements exist. These are a far cry from the fundamentalists who only want to talk about sex and condemn all homosexuals to burn in hell. But why are they so hard to find? Why are they not available in every church?

The final thing I want to share is something that we do in our parish at St Joseph’s here in Newtown. Its what greets parishioners and visitors to my Church. On the top of the bulletin is this statement: “The parish of St Joseph’s offers a safe place for all people to pray regardless of age, race, creed, gender, cultural background or sexual orientation”. To my knowledge this is the only parish in Sydney, maybe even the country, that makes such a welcoming statement.

This may seem insignificant to some, however, to a homosexual person who feels banished and neglected by their church, this statement is extremely significant.

It is a small step that EVERY church could take to repair the damage done by violent language, insensitive pastors, and people who really do not follow the compassion of Christ.

This is my dream. Thank you.

Paul Harris is an educator and for the past 13 years he has been a co-ordinator of Acceptance Sydney, a group for gay and lesbian people committed to living their faith in the Catholic Church.

Newtown Spirituality in the Pub

2010-02-18T21:21:00.005+11:00

Valuing Gay and Lesbian Voices
Julie McCrossin and Paul Harris
Julie McCrossin talks to people for a living. After 20 years as a broadcaster, she is now a freelance journalist and facilitator. She shares stories with wisdom and humour. Paul Harris is an educator and for the past 13 years he has been a co-ordinator of Acceptance Sydney, a group for gay and lesbian people committed to living their faith in the Catholic Church.
Julie and Paul will share their story and their perspective on the challenges, hopes and dreams of gay and lesbian people today. Both speakers have thoughtful feelings and values around the place of alternative voices in society and how they might be better valued.
Date: Tuesday March 9, 2010
Time: 7.30 - 9pm
Venue: Town Hall Hotel 326 King Street Newtown
Next to Newtown Station
All Welcome
Information: Anna Beresford Tel: 8020 7631
email: aclevana@mooball.com
Website: www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au
Admission is free – donation welcome to cover expenses

Spirituality and Learning - Peter's book

2009-12-27T21:06:00.004+11:00

I have been privileged to join a group of great adult educators authoring a book just published called Spiritulaity, Mythopoesis & Learning. It is an academic book in the field of adult transformative education edited by Peter Willis et al from the University of South Australia. It is about how people make and remake meaning through imaginative ways of using personal narrative. It explores how this area of education theory intersects with spiritulaity. The book has a number of chapters where authors explore their use of these processes in practice. My chapter explores how personal story and imaginative narrative tools are used with a gospel spirituality of detachment and healing to transform grief and loss after an abortion. This is explored in the context of the Rachel's Vineyard Healing Retreat.
Copies of the book will be available soon from Post Pressed http://www.postpressed.com.au/

Just a small taste of my chapter:
"The retreat uses storytelling and Christian symbols to empower those caught in the trap of grief and guilt. When I was first introduced to the Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat in 2000, I was intrigued by the enthusiasm of the participants and the clarity of their healing. As a retreat facilitator, I was struck by the transformative power of storytelling in the retreat process. I remember hearing participants recall on the Saturday the horror of the abortion event, what led to the abortion and its effects, with predictable expressions of hopelessness, pain, low self-esteem, and inability to find healing, forgiveness and love. Through the retreat process there was almost equal certainty that their stories of fear and loss would be transformed into stories that held out hope for change, recognition of the reality of what had happened and a chance for healing from the debilitating grief and loss that had been a constant part of their lives, bearing scars of varying degrees. I became interested in what brought about that change. The storytelling process has the power to help participants see the story again from a new perspective; recognise who is suffering and in need of healing; and rewrite the story in a way that is more truthful and helpful. They now hear themselves describing the event and its effects with greater compassion for themselves and others in their story.

Many events occur in our lives that disorient us. It might be falling in love, a car accident, taking an overseas holiday or losing a loved one. These events can have a transforming effect in our lives or leave us overwhelmed and unable to function, even if only temporarily. In transformative learning theory, these events can be referred to as the ‘disorienting dilemma’ (Mezirow 1991). The disorienting dilemma can be used to help someone grow or it can be a missed opportunity for growth. Many participants on Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats report that they found the abortion experience to be a time of diminishment rather than growth. Those working in this ministry have been privileged to facilitate processes that can turn that around and allow the disorienting dilemma to become a moment of growth.

The learning/healing approach used in the Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats is one of mutual nurturing and storytelling. This learning takes place through a series of processes that identify a more connected way of imagining and understanding the story, its veracity, its actors and its aftermath in the participant’s life. This is achieved through mutual respect for the participants’ personal stories and practices, enabling their story to intersect with some key Christian rituals and symbolic practices. These include reading stories from the gospel with a meditation and ritual that help bring the story into the participants’ lives and various imaginative prayer practices including guided meditation, music and song.

We also use the Catholic sacraments of anointing of the sick, reconciliation and Eucharist. Anointing of the sick emphasises healing from grief and loss. The sacrament of reconciliation focuses on healing guilt, not just around the abortion itself, but around the ongoing poor self-image that seems so common among participants. This sacrament invites participants to embrace a God who still loves them no matter what and we then invite them to re-imagine themselves as good, loving and lovable, which we consider a key element in the meaning of this sacrament. It also symbolises a re-connection with the church, which for some is extremely important as they feel alienated from their faith. The Eucharist is also a sign of re-establishing ties with the community from which they feel alienated. In the Catholic symbolic story world, receiving communion is the ultimate sign of acceptance, something they feel they have lost through their past actions." (p230-231)

Newtown Spirituality in the Pub 2010

2009-12-27T21:00:00.001+11:00

Valuing Local Voices
In 2010 we will explore themes that reflect the hopes aspirations and challenges of local voices. Speakers will start conversations about our passions and dreams. Please join us in the great new venue in Newtown and share your story.
March 9 Gay and Lesbian - Julie McCrossin and tba
May 11 Education – Bernard Cheng and tba
July 13 Health and Pain Management – Dr Stephen Gibson (RPA) & David Lehmann-Monck (RPA)
September 14 – Aboriginal Issues – Graeme Mundine (NCCA) and tba
November 9 - Inner City Poverty – speakers from Hare Krishna, St Vincent de Paul and Newtown Mission
Time: Tuesday’s 7.30 - 9pm
New Venue: Town Hall Hotel – the Townie, 326 King St. Newtown - Upstairs (Next to Station Entrance) Bistro: Platform 8
All Welcome
Information: Anna Beresford Tel: 8020 7631
email: aclevana@mooball.com
Website: www.catalyst-for-renewal.com.au
Admission is free – donation welcome to cover expenses
Sponsored by Newtown SIP Committee and Catalyst for Renewal
With assistance of the Town Hall Hotel www.thetownie.com.au

Re-membering Beauty – a Reflection on Priesthood

2009-11-26T11:54:00.004+11:00

Re-membering Beauty – a Reflection on Priesthood in the Year of the Priest
Peter Maher

“A priest is not special kind of man; a person is a special kind of priest” noted Tom Bass, the Sydney sculptor, as he reflected on his journey through Christianity some years ago. (Sunday Arts, ABC TV. 19.11.2006)

In the year of the priest this comment reminds me that the primary understanding of priesthood in the Catholic Church begins with that shared by all the baptised. Tom Bass confronts the binaries of doctrinal and theological language that would have us fight over who is the greatest (Mk9/35). Bass encourages us to talk of a deep spirituality born of the imagination, poetry and art as we try to make sense of the mystery of the church and the relationships, ministries, power and status of its members.

I want to explore the notion and place of priesthood as expressed in Lumen Gentium (LG) (Nos 9 - 10), the Second Vatican Council document on the Church. How can we honour the complexity of the two notions of priesthood using a poetic lens? I want to honour the theological notions while situating them in contemporary experience and its consequent questions. I will approach this with a skepticism worthy of our faith and by honouring the mystical nature of the reality these concepts aim to convey. Let’s walk gently and without undue certainty on this sacred ground. My hope is that by exploring this terrain poetically we might address the questions with openness and wonder freeing us to see new ways of understanding the reality of the relationships between the People of God, the priesthood of all believers and the ordained priesthood. Then drawing from my experience, I want to review present trends, signs of hope, some implications and new possibilities.

I want to reflect on ordained priesthood as a way of collaboration for creating a better world rather than a competition for status or a cause for reinstating ordained priesthood as superior or of greater importance.

What is at the heart of the notions of a “common priesthood” and the “ordained priesthood”? The church document notes: “Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ordained or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ” (LG 10). This fails to address the problem faced by those who use and abuse the power of the ordained priesthood over the common priesthood. My approach is to begin with the fears and hopes of the People of God as seen in LG 9: “At all times and in every race God has given welcome to whom so ever fears God and does what is right. God, however, does not make people holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased God to bring all together as one people, a people which acknowledges God in truth and serves God in holiness… …calling together a people made up of Jew and gentile, making them one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit. This was to be the new People of God”.

Despair and Beauty
Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, The Leaden Echo & The Golden Echo, offers a poetic exploration of our common fear and our common hope. He begins by asking us to reflect on the beauty-less landscape with which we are so familiar: “How to keep - is there any any, is there none such, nowhere known some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, lace, latch or catch or key to keep Back beauty, keep it, beauty, beauty, beauty, ... from vanishing away?” and how this has brought us into the pit of despair: “O there’s none; no no no there’s none: Be beginning to despair, to despair, Despair, despair, despair, despair”. (Hopkins, Gerard Manly, Poems and Prose of Gerard Manly Hopkins, WH Gardner editor, Penguin classics 1953, p52-4)

But there is in our memories a hunger for the beauty only just beyond our reach. Hopkins believes we are capable of recalling this beauty not just as backward memory but as a co-creative project with “the one”: “Spare! There ís one, yes I have one (Hush there!)” This “one” is the key to the undoing of the haze of despair so that we might in some way re-member beauty: “Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty’s self and beauty’s giver ….. When the thing we freely forfeit is kept with fonder a care, Fonder a care kept than we could have kept it, kept”. Hopkins invites us to dare to look beyond our broken dreams in a courageous journey to find an answer: “Where kept? Do but tell us where kept, where. - Yonder. - What high as that! We follow, now we follow. - Yonder, yes yonder, yonder, Yonder”.

This poem expresses the dark despair we might feel as we gaze upon the world of war, desperation, disadvantage, discrimination, poverty, environmental disarray and endless dispossession and vulnerability. Hopkins calls us to be immersed in the futility and helplessness of the decay of beauty, yet to compel us to find energy to act. But there is one, ‘a golden echo’, still hiding in the dark sun. He calls us to sense that echo of a glorious reality bathed in sunlight and deep-blue sky. Hopkins strains to enkindle in us the energy to recall beauty by literally breathing it back into existence in a kind of emergency resuscitation. We can re-member a world of beauty if we try. There is enough breath to clear the air and make a blue sky appear once more. It is the quality of care that gives back beauty when breathed in concert with ‘the one’. Somewhere within the human heart and the universe hunger there is a memory so sacred that it can restore life into a broken despairing world.

Maybe some of the difficulty of the theological terrain of priesthood in Lumen Gentium could be overcome if we begin with Gerard Manly Hopkins’ poem. Then we might read Lumen Gentium as a call to work together as a people of the Spirit, purchased by beauty for the purposes of resuscitating beauty by breathing life into the despair on the faces of a broken people. Read in this way the collaboration would include all, not just Jews and gentiles, but Muslims, Buddhists and environmentalists, those protesting war’s futility and pain, those working to bring people out of the slavery of refugee, war and poverty camps, those seeking equality and human rights for Indigenous people, the disabled, the elderly, the sick, gays and lesbians, the unemployed, the disadvantaged and the exploited.

Then in some kind of symbiosis, the priesthood of all believers would work with its co-relative, the ordained priesthood, to enact the renewal of the heart of the world. Only together can these two realities, the second a subset of the first, be a force for engaging Hopkins' ‘the one’, ‘the key’
who partners God’s people in the sacred art of calling humanity back from the brink of despair by gently pointing to the beauty glimpsed by yonder shore. Surely we can together make beauty visible enough, just enough to rekindle a hope, even if still darkly. Any notion of priesthood as power, control or self-claimed authority would break the fragile membrane of a recalled trust, clouding its very beauty and the hope of vulnerable people.

Unmasking the Beauty
The mystical union of Christ and the People of God enables a partnership between humanity and ‘the one’ to continue the task of unmasking the beauty within and without, the divine presence in all things. Only together and as equals can the People of God work towards their calling. Together as one humanity we share Hopkins’ pit of despair. While often frustratingly out of reach, there is only one deep common cause and aching that joins us all. We might therefore seek to enact together a priestly re-membering of beauty.

Let’s have no argument about who is the greatest, who gets called by names of principalities and powers, or more truly, long-dead empires. If our deep Christian tradition is to be honoured we must all be servants and willing to lay down our lives for care and nurture of one another and the earth. Until we are strong enough to lay down titles and honour systems that divide, let’s at least accept that the division of ‘priesthoods’ these create are surely counter to the spirit of unity and service in the gospel. The distinctions within our notions of priesthood must never set us apart and thus cause scandal and cloud the call to beauty, equality, justice and love.

My experience as an ordained priest is littered with examples of honour systems that divide, leaving the People of God in grief and confusion at being cut off from sharing equally in our sacred call to unmask beauty. Poor decisions, negligence, laziness or just having a bad day are human but if this is combined with a deeply ingrained and unhealthy culture of deference to ‘Father’s decision’ members of the ordained priesthood in our present system may deeply fracture the path to beauty.

I recognise that it is not solely the fault of the overworked or stressed ordained priest when we all inhabit an unhealthy culture of ordained priesthood. However, there is a growing awareness and indeed a clarion call from the people of the common priesthood for ordained priests to become aware and take responsibility, indeed co-responsibility, for the sacred trust we all share. It is no longer acceptable for ordained priests to fail to update educationally or ensure appropriate self-care, spiritual direction, consultation and pastoral supervision. These have been seen as essential helps for decades in the helping professions.

All other helping professions require a certain standard of on-going education and self-care. Ordained ministers who lag behind in this betray their partners in the common healing purpose. Human foibles can be forgiven, but not making use of the readily available and proven methods of learning from experience, professional supervision and opportunities to grow holistically must now be considered culpable negligence.

I have had the privilege of many sacred partnerings that express in some ways the common journey of hope. I am deeply aware that in my early months as an ordained priest, sensing the loneliness, the ill-preparedness and dysfunctionality of parish life, I found the parishioners I befriended and with whom I shared personal and professional goals indispensable to a healthy ministry. Together we achieved such things as an ecumenical letterdrop to all homes in the parish; a parish prayer group; a successful partnership in managing the Catholic Youth Organisation, a weekly parish bulletin and a small youth choir, These were real partnerships in gathering the whole People of God in our common sacred co-responsibility.

Another enduring partnership has been in youth ministry . I have enjoyed working with many teachers in the Catholic and State systems. The most enlightening times were when we worked together to create meaningful rituals appropriate to the ages of the children with whom we were working. I also worked for 2 years with the Marist Brothers Retreat Team assisting 15 to 18 year old students to articulate their journey in search of a hope-filled future. It was not just the partnership with the teachers, but also the students that enabled me to reflect on and engage with the reality of our common fear and pain and notice how together we could address their meaning in the search for wonder.

This experience was repeated in a marvellous way at the University of Technology, Sydney where I was chaplain for 14 years. As part of a multifaith team I found the dialogue with ‘every race’ (LG 9) including many creeds a chance to experience the greater call that unites us all in the way of larger service. Partnerships with administration, staff, students and other chaplains proved to be an unmasking of beauty for all involved. It was also a privilege to work cross-culturally with students and chaplains through the International Movement of Catholic Students and the National and Global Chaplains’ Organisations. These stretched my imagination, co-operation and education in the mentoring and journeying-with enquiring and justice-focused minds, hungering hearts and activist bodies.

Rachel’s Vineyard Healing Retreats ease the burden for men and women suffering trauma and pain after an abortion experience. I was encouraged into this ministry by a marvellous woman, Julie Kelly, who has enabled this ministry to spread throughout Australia. It is another example where collaboration has brought tremendous healing and hope to many. The common priesthood of all believers in a dialogue with the ordained ministry is able to reassure these broken people that there is still beauty in our fragile world and they are called to be a part of it.

As I reflected on positive partnerings, I noticed the ministry of parish priest conspicuously missing. This is partly because I have been very privileged to minister in so many diverse and authentic ways other than as parish priest. However it also reflects the danger in the parish/hierarchical system which leaves parish priests more like managers and building/maintenance consultants than engaged in a co-operative ministry of healing and hope. When those in traditional parish leadership are saddled with the vestige of hierarchy and submission these can subvert the co-operative and collaborative sharing in the common priestly mission.

Parishes can be a very unsatisfactory way to live the “People of God” dream poetically and with imagination. Where the system denies equal voice to all who participate in parish ministry, this leaves the parish priest the last resort for every problem and question and when decisions are taken, he routinely becomes the final arbiter. If conflict occurs he may become the fulcrum of complaints and stands in a no man’s land either at the mercy of the people or the bishop. A system that lays all responsibility, and thus power, at the feet of the parish priest can become a recipe for failure as it easily breeds distrust and disunity.

However I don’t believe parish ministry is irredeemable. We should reform the system along collaborative lines including more sustainable, equitable and shared power structures. The inclusion of all, irrespective of gender, race or sexual orientation, in all ministries including ordained ministry is essential. While awaiting these developments, there are ways I have experienced a deep and wonderful co-operation in parish ministry.

In my current appointment at Newtown there is a wonderful growth of compassionate ways to be in ministry together. Women minister communion to the sick regularly and compassionately. There is a series of events that foster a more socially just world and a shared ministry offering educational opportunities. There is a regular support group for gay and lesbian Catholics, their families and friends. A community garden is a shared project between parishioners and local residents. These are just a few examples.

Local parish ministry is by no means discounted as a locus for co-operative ministry but it is hampered by an overly hierarchical system that leaves many priests overly tired, bureaucratically exhausted, emotionally wrought, spiritually dry or organisationally suffocated. And for all the bishop’s words of thanks and support, the priest is only too aware that the next phone call could be the bishop or his office with another form to fill in, some charge to answer or other ‘matter of state’, rather than a real support that acts as a pointer to beauty.

Possibilities and Dreams
How might we move forward in these times when imagination and creativity seem swamped by an unhealthy demand for an orthodoxy of enthusiasm which is no orthodoxy at all? How might priestly ministry in its wide meaning negotiate the fragile patterns of relationship in creation? How can we together become facilitators, leaders, co-operators and signs counter-cultural to war, greed, power and destruction maintained by the principalities of the world? How might we better reflect and live the gospel values as an invitation to the world that another way is possible, rather than regurgitate its words packaged in empty lofty worn-out church speak, pietism and dry doctrine?

I find the pre-conscious, intuitive insight and skepticism of youth inspire me and invite me to seek another paradigm in which to engage with the sacred trust of all believers. It is a courage and lightness of being that calls us to be beacons of hope in a despairing world and to seek ways that empower the voiceless and lost to recall and re-member the “beauty-in-the-ghost, deliver it, early now, long before death Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty’s self and beauty’s giver. (Hopkins, The Golden Echo)

What some see as signs of fear in our church, I see as signs of hope. The refusal to submit to uninspiring and un-poetic liturgy, especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is really a hopeful resistance to a monochrome and deadly view of ritual. The utilitarian approach to church attendance reminds us to take a collaborative approach to ritual that reflects the real issues of people’s lives and the need to imaginatively create ritual space in which people can integrate their questions into their lives. The passion for justice and fairness without reference to stifling Catholic guilt is a hopeful sign where people consider the oppressions and hurtful relationships in the world and take time to address, analyze and consider action.

The refusal to enter priesthood and religious life, especially by the young, when the church refuses to question its understanding of equality, authority, sexuality and gender remains an open challenge to the deeper and broadest nature of priesthood. These questions confront the notion and exercise of authority and hierarchical power that is alien to our world and, many would argue, the gospel. Many are scandalised by these gaping wounds and either completely reject the institutionalised Church, move aside or silently wait in the pews for a more enlightened time when their ‘common priesthood’ is more respected. Meanwhile they maintain their baptismal right to the Sacraments which they hold deeply sacred. I find amongst those who have abandoned the institutional Church because it is too manipulative for their spiritual health, the celebration of the Sacraments are often deeply missed. This is clear when working openly in public institutions as was my experience in university ministry.

Many people across all age groups, cultural backgrounds and sexualities are reassessing their relationship with the institutional Church, but the most healthy hopeful sign is among the youth who do this without regard to destructive Catholic guilt and its authoritarian culture.

Sin, Power and Authority
Some Church leaders like to talk about a ‘return to an appreciation of sin’ as an answer to the disaffected. By this they mean that priestly authority and status might be restored where ‘the sense of sin’ requires ordained priestly forgiveness. They believe that maybe a healthy round of Catholic guilt might kick start a return to traditional church. However I believe that re-membering beauty is precisely in rediscovering a way of seeing sin as the dysfunction of beauty and love. This may be done by pointing, now and then, to the signs of hope enacted by the common human struggle for justice and love rather than a disembodied doctrine that is so disconnected to the reality of people’s lives that they either rile against it or ignore it. It is the manner of communication, the superior tone and the language used that leaves church-speak languishing, rather than the underlying curiosity around the values they seek to address.

Today Catholics tend to refuse to be scolded back into the shopping list of sin and generally ignore any form of the Sacrament of Reconciliation that requires such thinking. Catholic thinking today is more like the reflection of Rodrigues, the Portuguese priest detained under the Japanese persecution of the Christians in the 1590’s in Endo’s novel. “Sin, he reflected, is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind. And then for the first time a real prayer rose up in his heart.” (Endo, Shusaku, Silence, translated by William Johnston, Taplinga Publishing New Jersey 1969, p86)

In these times of brutal war crimes of mass murder of women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan by both sides, suicide bombing and “collateral damage”, it is not surprising that ordinary Catholics are far more in tune with Endo’s chilling definition of sin than the pietistic antiseptic form in the return to Confession. Jesus reference to forgiving a brother seventy seven times (Mat. 18/22) seems more in tune with a notion of sin that is about being unaware, than a list of minor transgressions. The seventy seven times is more likely to reflect a lack of awareness of the ways we could invest in restoring beauty. It turns our attention to the strategies of denial and distraction that keep us from owning up to the signs in our physical world and our bodies that are calling us to act justly and compassionately rather than with the apathy of sinful silence. Examples include a refusal to notice our role in wars, global warming, poverty or injustice. It is either beyond our small vision, too painful to include, too time consuming to consider or excluded from our spiritual search.

That many Catholics reject the shopping list notion of sin and the mechanistic forms of Confession and embrace the larger notion explored here might be viewed as a positive call to change and indeed to restore the social forms of the Sacrament. Then this important priestly task would become a collaborative effort to speak bravely to ourselves and our world in a Sacrament of healing and mercy. At the moment it can sometimes more resemble the brutality that is ‘quite oblivious of the wounds … left behind’ (Endo).

Here again we can be mired in a tangle of power relations of the who and when of forgiveness. We might turn our attention to pointing directly to the source of shadowy despair while recognising that lack of awareness of the brutality is at the heart of sin. All are called to share equally in the process, method, ministry, responsibility and sheer joy of being shepherds of liberation. This task is for all to share because it is too much for only a small elite, no matter how much power is unfairly thrust upon them.

This brings us to what continues to bedevil the chance of true collaborative ministry. In the Catholic church’s hierarchical model that is born of the Roman Imperial system and has forgotten its gospel roots we still see power and control enacted by “ordained” edict. Parishioners to this day are told to obey the priest because the Church says so. Even when the priest is ‘right’ this is blatant spiritual abuse. Generally, such manipulative attempts are ignored. Although where a culture of fear and power still exist some parishioners are still unable to act authentically with horrible consequences. If we must retain this language, is there a way to redeem its meaning? How do we stop the toxic mix of obedience and authority being little more than “kings lording it over those beneath them and those who have authority being given names of honour”? (Lk 22/25) We must discover the way of authority and obedience where the chief is like the servant (Lk 22/26) not by sophistry where the reality of domination does not change, but by an honesty that is transparent and promotes genuine collaboration at every level of church life.

Pope Gregory the Great, the patron saint of musicians, singers, students and teachers and prolific writer and liturgical reformer of the sixth century was the Barack Obama of his time. He was known as Gregory the Dialogist for his commitment to dialogue. In his Homilies on Ezechiel he noted: “In Holy Church everybody supports the other and is supported by the other” (Hez II, 1.5(1311). 76,938d – 939c); while in his Commentary on the Book of Job he noted: “Since the Church is founded on a solid platform of humility, she can point out the right path. But to do that she does not use her authority, but rather persuades with reasons, as if to say: tell me whether I am wrong. As if she openly says: do not let authority be the basis of your belief in my words, but let your own reason tell you whether my words are true. Even when she says that human reason must not enquire into what cannot be understood, she uses rational arguments. But when heretics argue, they often become embroiled in fights”. (Mor. 8:2,3 (242), 75, 803cd)

It seems he understood that the practice of authority must be civil and reasoned discourse where the one with power listens and gives reasons for their choices of words that enact their decisions. This is done as a way of mutual support for all and by all. He could have added for future generations that this awareness needs to be multiplied by the extent to which one holds power, an imbalance felt deeply by many, especially women, in the church structures we experience today.

The christian priesthood system continues to need reform in every age. Here I have tried to point towards some places we might begin a conversation about how to be more true to our tradition. I have explored themes using a poetic reading of texts that they might offer a way forward more consistent with the gospel. In this year of the priest may ordained ministry become more married to the hopes and struggles of the people so that we move closer to the collaboration dreamed of by some at Vatican II over 40 years ago and that which Jesus hoped for over 2,000 years ago.

Peter's Farewell speech at UTS

2009-09-29T20:14:00.003+10:00

Peter Maher, Catholic chaplain at UTS 1995 - 2009

Friends - thank you for being here today - I am most grateful to you and the university for honouring me this way

I would like to begin by recognising the Cadigal and Kuring-gai peoples - the traditional owners of the land on which the university stands.

In July 1995, I was appointed Catholic chaplain at UTS in the new Visiting Chaplaincy established by the university. Margaret Edmonds was the Director of Student Services. She had seen the value of a multifaith approach to university chaplaincy during her time at Sydney University working with Robyn Johnson who was Catholic chaplain there at the time. Margaret had a vision of a team that served the university following the best practice of Australian and overseas universities. This involved a partnership between the churches and faiths, and the university. This arrangement included a formal agreement whereby the university invited church and faith bodies to nominate chaplains who were appointed by the Vice-Chancellor to assist the university in making available to all staff and students pastoral and personal support.

UTS began a modest but professional Visiting Chaplaincy under the direction of the then Head, University Counselling Service, Chris Hepperlin. Adapting the excellent guidelines of the University of Newcastle, the UTS Visiting Chaplaincy soon took shape as the UTS Multifaith Chaplaincy Service which was located on level 19 of Building one. I was privileged to work with Chris and the other chaplains until the UTS guidelines were produced. I became the first Chaplains' Representative of the UTS Multifaith Chaplaincy and I remained in that position till concluding my time at UTS in February this year.

The multifaith chaplains began to contribute to the university community through regular forums and events that opened up spaces for thoughtful reflection on issues and values that may assist staff and students in their lives and work. We began to work with Student Services to address current issues or respond to critical events on campus so that holistic care was available to students and staff. As all the UTS chaplains are part-time, these have been modest but important contributions to the university community.

I will remember with greatest pride the times I have been able to be present with students and staff who appreciated a listening ear and a few words of encouragement without reference to sectarian interests. This is the day to day work of chaplains in a secular institution. Those chats, formal and informal, offer an independent caring face within the university. I also remember the times I was able to support students seeking a voice on social and ethical issues such as freedom from discrimination on the grounds of ethnic, racial, cultural or religious background or on the basis of gender, disability or sexual orientation. I am proud to have been associated with student campaigns opposing war and discrimination, and also campaigning for better student conditions. I am particularly proud of the close association I have had with Student Services, the Equity and Diversity Unit, the UTS Union and the UTS Students' Association.
On October 14, 2004 the new Multifaith Centre opened on Level 3 of the Tower providing much improved facilities for chaplains and those using the Multifaith spaces. There was special attention paid to the requirements for Muslim students. This centre provides adequately for the spiritual and pastoral needs of students and staff.

I would like to recall some moments that have been special to me over my years at UTS. I was privileged to be on committee of the Equity and Diversity Unit called the Cultural Diversity Network which contributed greatly to the recognition and celebration of difference at UTS. When the Queer space provided by the Students' Association was found to be marked with graffiti that seemed to come from Christians, I was proud to be a signatory on a letter written by Mike Paget, the Anglican chaplain, that noted how unchristian that activity was. This letter was posted on the wall of the queer space. Other notable contributions of the Chaplaincy have been the response to the Bali bombings and the pastoral and ritual assistance after a suicide on campus.

As the Catholic chaplain I was privileged to work with the International Movement of Catholic Students, Australia and its affiliate bodies in the Asia Pacific and internationally. On campus, the UTS Catholic Student Movement actively engaged with the Asia Pacific region. The UTS Catholic Asian Student Association has also been a part of my work here at UTS. May I mention some student leaders including Niko Winata, Rachel Galea, Minh Nguyen, Aaron Tang, Robert Day and Michael Ormerod who have been especially influential in facilitating my ministry with the UTS Catholic Student Movement and the UTS Catholic Asian Student Society over the last 13 years. These networks combined with the Tertiary Campus Ministers Association of Australia, the national professional body for Multifaith chaplains, and its international links, have been the backbone of my professional training and support. I am still the Vice-President of the Tertiary Campus Ministers Association of Australia.
I am particularly proud of the Catholic Mass that has been celebrated each week, except in January, throughout my time at UTS and was begun by staff over 30 years ago. This could not have been done effectively without the support of many staff, students and priests but Susanna Gorman, Joe McMahon, Fr Patrick Sharpe and Michael Ormerod have been particularly important in providing this ministry to the Catholic community at UTS.

At a personal level, there has been an enormous growth in my appreciation and understanding of how the church might enter into dialogue with secular institutions to work toward civil society. Chaplaincy in a secular institution is a partnership that creates space for people to grow and explore their potential through the prism of their faith and/or spirituality. This aspect of education for life has been embraced by the university. As UTS Catholic chaplain and UTS Chaplains' Representative I have learned much through practice, and reflection on practice. This has been helped by my fellow chaplains here at UTS, and in other universities around the world where I have fostered professional networks. The students are also great teachers. Much of what I have learned about living the gospel, applying gospel values to students' lives, engaging with the civilising forces of the world and working at the margins of society and church has been discovered in partnership with students' concerns, and their methods of reflection and direct action. Pastoral supervision, consultation and professional appraisal, along with spiritual direction, have been constant companions in the process of learning effective ministry in chaplaincy and maintaining professionalism.

Being at UTS has also offered me opportunities for formal learning. I have been privileged to experience the best of UTS formal education graduating with a Masters in Adult Education in 2001. Through teachers skilled in experiential, community and work-based learning such as Mike Newman, Sue Knights, Alex Nelson, Griff Foley and Jane Sampson, I engaged in the kind of learning that has informed my chaplaincy work, my ministry as a priest and my life. There have been numerous opportunities for formal and informal learning over these 14 years. However the Masters Degree in Adult Education and being honoured with a Human Rights Award last year, the Ally Award Celebrating and Supporting Sexual and Gender Diversity, will stand forever as two concrete symbols of everything that UTS has meant to me for my life and work. Together they represent how theory and practice work together to offer hope and support to the people with whom I shared stories, fears and dreams as chaplain at UTS.

But of course none of this would have been possible without the vision and commitment of the University itself. Today every university has a chaplaincy service. I have worked with chaplains from Australia, Asia and many parts of the world. I have been privileged to host two national conferences of the Tertiary Campus Ministers Association of Australia and I have attended three International Conferences while being a committee member for the International Conference in Brisbane in 2004. I say this only to add credibility to my claim that the commitment of the UTS Executive to the UTS Multifaith Chaplaincy and Centre is the envy of many chaplains I have spoken to from around the world. UTS does not have the biggest space, the largest number of chaplains or the most expansive program but it does have a practical commitment to best practice, practical and personal support for chaplains, and it provides adequate resources for the chaplains and their programs and student and staff needs.
As Chaplains' Representative I have been the beneficiary of this commitment and I have gained much from the UTS professional approach. The people I most wish to thank in this respect are Chris Hepperlin and Brett Smout and their staff at Student Services. The most important thing they offer is a professional commitment to the partnership ideal. There have been very few chaplains' meetings in my 14 years of the chaplaincy at UTS without Chris or Brett present to assist us. This is the envy of chaplaincies everywhere. But that would not happen without the commitment of the UTS Executive. Over these 14 years we have had the support of Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors. The present Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Ross Milbourne and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Teaching, Learning & Equity), Professor Shirley Alexander are active supporters of the Multifaith Centre. I know past members of the executive have been very influential in the development of the Centre. I won't mention them all, but I must thank two great supporters of the UTS chaplaincy, and of me personally, and that is the previous Chancellor, Sir Gerard Brennan and the recently retired Registrar, Dr Jeff FitzGerald.

May I thank my colleagues of all faiths and denominations who have assisted as multifaith chaplains here at UTS. It has been a very rewarding experience to be a co-worker and facilitator of the group. Only one chaplain remains from the original group - John Hirt, the Uniting Church chaplain. Other serving Christian chaplains I have been privileged to work with include Colin Scott, recently resigned; Stephen Tanuwijaya; Mike Paget and Rhombus Ning. It has been a great privilege to work with Buddhist chaplains, Brian White and Venerable Mahinda; Jewish chaplain, Shmuel Markovits and recent Bahai chaplains Sue Thomas, Nazrin Adel and Leo Newport. There have been Muslim chaplains at UTS although there is no Muslim serving on the Multifaith team at the moment.

There are so many others I wish to thank for their support during my time at UTS. They are too numerous to mention by name but they include members of the UTS Administration, Equity and Diversity Unit, UTS Union, The Students' Association, Security, Room bookings, Faculty members, UTS Library, Research and Innovation Office, Human Resources and the UTS Gallery.
Finally I wish to thank my family. In different ways they have been associated with UTS over these years. My niece, Lisa is a graduate of UTS in my time here; Chris, my brother, has mentored UTS accountancy students at AMP and others have attended various events here. They are a great support in my life and work and I am so pleased some family members are here today to celebrate 14 wonderful years at UTS.

I will greatly miss UTS students, staff and the learning community but I hope I will still participate in this great learning and teaching community as an alumnus and through many UTS colleagues and friends. Thank you all.
Peter Maher

16.4.09

See UTS website for picture
http://datasearch2.uts.edu.au/ssu/news/details.cfm?ItemId=14906

Ted Kennedy Priest of Redfern Book Launch

2009-07-12T19:04:00.001+10:00

They came to praise Father Ted Kennedy yesterday, the revered parish priest of Redfern.
And praise him, they did.
The occasion was the launch of Father Ed Campion’s book, Ted Kennedy Priest of Redfern.
It opened with a Mass concelebrated by Bishop David Cremin and priests who knew or who had worked with Father Kennedy, including Jesuit human rights advocate, Father Frank Brennan.
After mass, speakers lined up to tell their stories about the man who had been Redfern PP for more than 30 years and had given his life to the Aborigines.
Close friend and collaborator Danny Gilbert, who launched the book, said it was not just an account of “Ted’s providential life” but also a book about the Catholic Church in Australia.
“And it is a book about the attitudes and tone of the Archdiocese of Sydney – certainly as Ted saw it,” Gilbert said.
“Ted’s essential humanity is deeply present throughout the book - his greatest strength according to Ed Campion.
“His weaknesses are there too. But they don’t count for much in the sum of the man.”
As a young priest, Ted’s homilies started to ignite spark plugs all over Catholic Sydney.
“People were hungry to hear the gospel preached in a way that made sense to them,” he said
He talked about the importance of following one’s conscience, at a time when people were anxious about the Vietnam War and birth control.
Gilbert said: “People were hungry for a new church, a less judgmental church, a church more in sympathy with the complexities of modernity and what it is to be a human being.
“The zeitgeist was alive with the hope of a church which might become unshackled from the constraints of petty rules, a church more open to the influences of an educated and sophisticated laity, a church that would embrace literature and the arts.”
He said Ted Kennedy inspired and gave hope to so many.
In 1971 Ted Kennedy and two other priests, John Butcher and Fergus Breslan, moved into St Vincent’s presbytery in Redfern to try something new.
Gilbert said: “It was in this place, where we are now, that Ted began his long and deeply spiritual life with Aboriginal people. They were the poorest of the poor and to Ted they were embodiments of Christ himself.
“How often did we hear Ted say with respect to the poor and the fringe dwellers, ‘They have the lens through which we can see God?’

Ted Kennedy Priest of Redfern by Edmund Campion, David Lovell Publishing, Melbourne

- Barry Morris

Book launch 12 July 2009 – Ted Kennedy Priest of Redfern by Danny Gilbert

2009-07-12T19:00:00.000+10:00

I am honoured and pleased to launch Father Ed Campion’s book about Ted Kennedy.
As I thought about this task, I realised how impossible it was to just talk about the book. I simply had no choice but to add bits here and there about my own life with Ted. That means I will talk longer than Ed Campion would like and no doubt some of you. So I apologise in advance and ask for your forbearance.
First I must say that this is a terrific book, intelligent, engaging and multi layered.
It is not, and does not pretend to be, a conventional biography.
The book is about Ted Kennedy, the man and the priest.
Ted didn’t begin his priestly life with a strategic plan. So Ed Campion rolls out before us, to use Marnie’s words, “Ted’s providential life”.
It is also a book about the Catholic Church in Australia. And it is a book about the attitudes and tone of the Archdiocese of Sydney – certainly as Ted saw it.
It touches on the many people who influenced Ted and the many hundreds of people who were so profoundly touched by him. Ted’s essential humanity is deeply present throughout the book - his greatest strength according to Ed Campion.
His weaknesses are there too. But they don’t count for much in the sum of the man.
The many influences on Ted are laid before the reader. Firstly, there were his Catholic parents and their rejection of all that was “churchy”. Ed Campion writes of Ted’s mother, Peg, and “the cold eye through which she looked at priestly failings”.
That eye framed so much of Ted’s own thinking and what he came to call that most egregious of sins - the sin of “clericalism”.
Many others who influenced Ted are also mentioned. To name but a few - Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Jesuit Pedro Arupe, the American Dorothy Day, the Australian Jesuit Jerry Golden, Tony Coady, Roger Pryke and not to leave out of course Cardinal Pell himself – his influence being somewhat distinguishable from the others!
Then there are the numerous poets, including James McAuley, Judith Wright and especially John Shaw Neilsen and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
The book also acknowledges the influence of his bishop and priest friends and many others, too numerous to mention here, including Peter Kearney, with us today, whose songs we’ve sung again this morning.
Tom Bass is also there. This is the altar Tom made for Ted. I should mention that Tom is currently working on a significant sculpture representing the force and partnership that was Ted and Mum Shirl.
Ted was ordained as a young man in July 1953. Ed Campion completely captures the mood and the times:
“Then, on 18 July 1953, he went to St Mary’s Cathedral and was ordained a priest. The choir sang over him, ‘thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’, and friends and family knelt for his blessing. There followed a week of festivities ….. Masses and Benedictions of the Most Blessed Sacrament in parish churches and schools and convents.”
How things have changed.
What you read about Ted as a young priest will surprise. He always wore a black suit, black hat and spoke of a sinful Sydney. He was even censorious about colleagues who did not observe the liturgy.
Little did he imagine the liturgical rigmarole that he would subsequently unleash here, at St Vincent’s Redfern.
And he did not drink.
Kings Cross changes many people and apparently it changed Ted. When he went to St Cannice’s in 1957 he had his first drink. Like all naughty Catholic boys, we are told he said to a friend, “Don’t tell Mum I drink”.
Ted remembered himself in those days as “an overgrown altar boy”, a description he came to apply to many bishops and priests, mostly of course, bishops – present company excluded of course.
Prior to his appointment to Redfern and with the exception of a stint at Sydney University, Ted served as curate in a number of parishes. He didn’t like parish life. He hated it. According to Ed Campion, and we can all hear Ted saying it, he thought parishioners dull, with “damp spark plugs”.
Of course Ted never blamed the laity. He blamed a dull and unimaginative church.
As a young priest, Ted’s homilies were starting to ignite spark plugs all over Catholic Sydney. “People were hungry to hear the gospel preached in a way that made sense to them.”
He talked about the importance of following one’s conscience, at a time when people were anxious about the Vietnam war and birth control. As Ed Campion says, “Week after week, people remembered, and talked about, what Ted had said in his Sunday sermon. The effects could be long lasting” – as indeed they have been.
People were hungry for a new church, a less judgmental church, a church more in sympathy with the complexities of modernity and what it is to be a human being.
The zeitgeist was alive with the hope of a church which might become unshackled from the constraints of petty rules, a church more open to the influences of an educated and sophisticated laity, a church that would embrace literature and the arts.
For Ted and his priest friends, it seemed to herald the opportunity for a different kind of priestly life.
Ted inspired and gave hope to so many. He must have been in his element.
Indeed, Ted as an inspirational figure is a theme throughout the book. I remember an old priest friend of Ted’s, Les Cashen, referring to Ted as that rare breed of Catholic priest, a prophet.
Ted even seems to have been something of a leader and organiser of retreats for priests. This was an astonishing revelation to me. By the time I met Ted in the early 1980s he simply loathed retreats. He loathed the whole concept of “leadership” even more.
One very surprising piece of information was that Ted, with his friend Val Noone, planned a national convention of priests leading to the formation of the National Council of Priests. Who would have thought it? Just as he was capable of forging a signature, he would, if alive today, be capable of denying he had anything to do with the National Council of Priests, let alone its formation.
Ed Campion goes so far to assert, I think with his tongue close to but not entirely in his cheek, an initiating role for Ted in Vatican II. Ted held so much hope for Vatican II.
As to the forged signature, you can read about that in the book.
Ed Campion reminds us of the many people who talk of the impact of Ted on them as young men and women. Some of those people are here today.
He refers to a retreat Ted gave to Queensland seminarians in 1970. A seminarian summed up its impact on him as follows: “In a way that had never come through to me in church circles before, he spoke of the poor, the disadvantaged, the down and out, as his brothers. Previously we had assisted them, looked down at them and forgotten them.”
It seems that what changed Ted most was his appointment as University Chaplain at Sydney University in 1960. Kings Cross had loosened him up and Ted was ready for the University. His appointment was arranged by his friend Roger Pryke, who was buried only last Tuesday. Ted frequently acknowledged his friendship and indebtedness to Roger Pryke.
Ted loved the university life. He loved the opportunity to be intellectually curious and he loved the students. One of them was Rod Coady. Rod is quoted:
“Ted’s guidance was gentle and had depth and for many, these groups provided the foundation of a renewed and deepened faith. He had infinite patience with troubled students and the compassion and wisdom he displayed in helping to solve problems ensured there was a steady stream of students at his door. Perhaps more than anything else though, what I remember is his generosity: there seemed to be literally nothing, if it were in his power, that he would not do to help someone in need.”
And so it was all of his life.
After being effectively removed from the university by Cardinal Gilroy, (Ted had no time for Gilroy), Ted and his friends continued to think about a different kind of priestly life. They made continued requests to Cardinal Gilroy for at least 5 of them to be appointed as a team ministry to serve in a parish as a community rather than a hierarchy. Gilroy refused. Archbishop Freeman was more sympathetic and appointed three priests to Redfern.
Redfern was not their first choice, none of them knew anything about Aboriginal people, and three was not really enough. But in 1971 Ted Kennedy, John Butcher and Fergus Breslan moved into St Vincent’s presbytery in Redfern to try something new.
As you would expect, a good deal of this book is devoted to Ted’s life at Redfern. It was in this place, where we are now, that Ted began his long and deeply spiritual life with Aboriginal people. They were the poorest of the poor and to Ted they were embodiments of Christ himself.
Ted loved these people, he respected them and he gave them welcome. All he did and all he offered, was absolutely unconditional. He expected nothing in return. It must have been the most powerful revelation to Aboriginal people to meet someone in authority who did not judge them.
Ted always used the word “insist”. He was a very insistent man. Ed Campion himself insists that to understand Ted you must understand Ted’s insistence on the absolute and unconditional demand of the gospel that Christians give priority to the poor.
Let me quote this passage: “Ted did not discover the poor in books, he was living among them. Yet when he opened the book of the Bible, they were there too. What the Bible said to him about the poor (and children) was that they were sacramental people because they were powerless: they showed us the need for faith in God, not faith in ourselves.”
How often did we hear Ted say with respect to the poor and the fringe dwellers, “They have the lens through which we can see God”?
The book does not give a lot of detail about Ted’s life at Redfern but we get a strong sense of how hard it was. “Aborigines were flooding into the city from up and down the eastern states and beyond, trying to find their families and seeking new lives.” Between 50 and 100 people were regularly coming and going, living in and around the presbytery. And all those people were fed every day. Imagine the chaos and the sheer discomfort.
All the while, Ted was hurt and angry that the Sydney Archdiocese failed to support him and failed to extend the friendship of the church to Aboriginal people.
There is no getting away from it. Ted regarded the Archdiocese of Sydney as a menacing presence in the life of the church.
Ed Campion is not so polemical, but he does note with sharpness Ted’s “index of disappointment with the bishops”.
And as we know, it was not a brief index.
There are several references in the book to Ted’s ‘Twenty-five years at Redfern’ speech. Ed Campion is on the mark when he says that one section of that speech
“gets close to [Ted’s] appeal as a human being”.
In that speech, Ted singled out four groups who had been excluded from the public life of the church, and I quote:
 “First of the four groups were the poor, especially of course Kooris.
 Then there were women, starting with those ‘consecrated coolies, religious sisters’.
 Next, homosexual men and women, who had been treated as if their baptism was, to quote Ted, ‘like an inoculation that didn’t take’.
 Finally, there were all the clerical and religious drop-outs, at the mention of whom his words took on a vigour and grace that is reminiscent of (Cardinal) Newman’s sentences.”
Ted then names many of these men and women whom he felt the Archdiocese had failed in Christian love to nurture and support. He finishes with these words:
“I want to say, to all you brave and wonderful drop-outs, so beloved to me, a simple word of admiration and thanks”.
Throughout his life at Redfern, Ted was both assisted and challenged by many big-hearted people, and their part in the story of Redfern is also told.
Special mention is made of some of the many women in Ted’s life. First among them was Shirley Smith, or Mum Shirl as she was better known. Much is said about Shirley and the relationship between the two. Ted described her as the greatest theologian he had ever met. (She was practically illiterate.)
While this is not in the book, I remember Shirley standing alongside Ted (it was hard to tell who was preacher) and declaiming about the world’s most important men. In Shirley’s order of importance they were: Jesus Christ, St Martin de Porres and Father Ted Kennedy – she always referred to Ted as Father. She would say, pointing at Ted, “You see this man here, his name is Father Ted Kennedy (as if we didn’t know). Next to Jesus Christ and St Martin de Porres, he is the greatest man who ever walked this (h)earth.”
Other women receive honourable mentions as well: Sister Ignatius Jenkins of the Sisters of Charity, Maureen Flood of the Blessed Sacrament Sisters and Nora McManus of the Little Sisters of Jesus. All no longer with us.
Not everyone found favour with Ted. There is a delicious piece in the book about his run-in with Mother Theresa. To Ted’s mind, she was seeking to impose her order on Aboriginal people, when what was required was to be invited. He told her, face to face, that until she was invited, she was not welcome in Redfern.
She quickly took the hint.
Ted would be worthy of a book if all he had done was to help Aboriginal people; if all he had done was to play a key role in the establishment of the Aboriginal Medical Service on the old convent site next door and in the creation of The Block.
Yet there was another very significant dimension to the man. He was a wonderfully challenging and energising preacher. Ed Campion would know this better than most. He says of Ted: “He had an Irish ability to strike off phrases that lived. Thus where others who had raged all their lives at the damage done to them in the seminary, he was able to impale the system on one sharp sentence: ‘It was designed to keep us all in short pants’.
Ed Campion goes on: “Speaking of the pettifogging moral teaching of those days, that tortured good folk with scruples and filled the parish confessionals on Saturday afternoons, [Ted] summarised its leading idea as ‘Annoy yourself, for Christ’s sake’”.
There are many of us here today who had the extraordinary privilege of hearing Ted preach. His sermons were peppered with quotes from discomforting theologians, philosophers, writers and poets.
The centrepiece of his teachings was the Kingdom of God here on earth. He would often cite St Ireneus “The glory of God is man fully alive”. He viewed the Gospels in their proper historical context. The trial and crucifixion of Jesus was a murder story. The Roman empire and the Jewish religious hierarchy were in cahoots. They both used their power to trample on the human spirits of the poor.
Ted saw Christ not so much as redeemer, as liberator.
Ted felt that the church had over the centuries soft-pedalled on the gospels. Christ’s words had been reduced to something that was comfortably domesticated. But to Ted’s way of thinking the gospels were radical, raw and uncompromising.
Ted blamed Rome and the church hierarchy for this dumbing down.
Over the years, some people have suggested that Ted failed to approach the Eucharist with the requisite awe and respect. I have to say that is a lie. The contrary was the case.
Whenever Ted presided over the Eucharist it was a most holy and venerable occasion. Ted said the Eucharistic prayers as if it might have been for the first time. Frank Brennan has already referred to some of the words which so often fell from Ted’s lips as he stood behind this altar.
Ed Campion sets the record straight:
“At Redfern the liturgy could be chaotic, which is not to say it was inauthentic. At mass, a crying Aborigine might stumble to the altar, seeking comfort from Ted, who would stop what he was doing, and console the afflicted person before resuming the liturgy; or a girl on roller skates might glide into the church and up to the head of the line for Holy Communion receive Communion and glide off again. Yet Ted seemed to keep a remarkable interiority to his worship as several witnesses attest.”
That is a lovely reflection - Ted’s “remarkable interiority of worship”. The author has nailed it well.
Rather than these being hanging offences, Ed Campion sees them as “evidence of a faithful priest”.
Ted’s masses were extraordinarily beautiful.
Ed Campion is careful not to lionise Ted.
Ted could be very angry, intemperate and highly judgemental. Not only with the Archbishop of the day – that was a given - but also with people he was close to. Some of his views were thinly-based and to my mind sometimes disproportionate. But even then, they were not easily dismissed, and in any event Ted didn’t care. He freely acknowledged this aspect of his character. As we know, he asked his friends not to save him from his “uncircumspect self”.
There is much in the book about his long standing run-ins with the Archdiocese whose consistent rejection of him and his requests inflamed him and wore him down. Particularly of course his request that the old presbytery be gifted to Aboriginal people. A request still denied.
Ed Campion reminds us that like Dorothy Day before him, Ted Kennedy did not think himself saintly, although Ted thought Dorothy Day was.
Ted could recognise his wrong doings. The book contains the most beautiful description of an occasion shortly prior to his death when Ted asked someone for her forgiveness over a wrong-doing of his many years before. It is one of the many high points of this book.
Further evidence of his appeal as a human being.
Ed deals at some length with Ted’s book “Who is Worthy” and of course with that most memorable event in the life of Ted Kennedy – his funeral.
Before I finish there is a personal story about Ted which I must tell. Ted died in May 2005. He was barely conscious for the last 6 months of his life. I saw him regularly during this period and on one occasion I had just been to a Leonard Cohen tribute concert. It was Sydney Festival time. Ted had not acknowledged my presence for the first 10 minutes of my visit except to squeeze my hand. I had no idea that Ted even knew who Leonard Cohen was, but, searching for conversation, I told Ted that Cohen’s song Bird on a Wire so reminded me of him. He replied in a voice that was barely audible, “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir”, and together we finished the next line - “I have tried in my way to be free”.
That said it all for me. Ted had tried in his unique, difficult, wonderful way to be free. This book is testament to that.
You will understand why I have said at the outset that this is a marvellous book. It very cleverly weaves together the various threads of Ted’s life. Ed Campion’s language is as subtle as it is rich. Like Ted, he has ‘an Irish ability to strike off phrases that live’.
I asked Ed why he wrote this book. He said he wrote it for everyone who loved Ted.
The respect and admiration he had for Ted and the warmth of his friendship and regard, jumps out of almost every page. He wants Ted to be properly remembered for the good bloke and priest that he was.
There are those in the church today who would rather forget that Ted Kennedy ever existed. Ed Campion has put an end to the possibility of that.
To Ed I want to say on behalf of everyone here and everyone who admired or loved Ted, we owe you a great debt. It can’t have been an easy book to pull together. Ted was always untidy and hard to collect. He remains so in death. I am sure it would have been very difficult to know where to draw the finishing line.
You have honoured us all and you have added yet another page to your invaluable canon on the life and times of the Catholic Church in Australia. To my mind, this is an extraordinarily significant page about a splendid and holy man. Perhaps, more accurately, a splendidly unholy man.
I am so pleased you dedicate the book to Marnie. She mourns his loss and she mourns a church that steadfastly refuses to hear her beloved brother. It will renew her faith and her vitality.
So thank you Ed.
And thank you all for listening.
It is my very great pleasure to launch Ted Kennedy Priest of Redfern and to now ask Ed to say a few words.

Danny Gilbert
12 July 2009

Summary Report: Catholics for Ministry,

2009-06-23T10:46:00.008+10:00

Thanks for your comments people - you might find this fuller summary report helpful in answering your questions and responding to your comments. To find out more go to http://www.catholicsforministry.com.au/
Peter

June 13, 2009 Melbourne.
Marilyn Hatton 18 June 2009

Aims of the Day

• To talk about this kairos moment and get a 'feel' for how people understand the crisis and discern what opportunities it presents.

• To find out what is already happening out there.

• To reflect in practical terms about how we might take the Australian Church forward and discern how we might find a common cause to galvanise people’s support and cooperation.

• To discern how we will communicate this to the bishops and the leadership of the church

• To identify relevant strategies – WHAT/HOW/WHEN /WHO?

Session 1.
Focused on identifying the most important challenges and key opportunities.

There was a lot of cross over in terms of categorising the issues arising in this session, so grouping of issues under the following headings with minimal editing for clarity was fairly pragmatic. These categories set the direction for the day. Leadership/Structure ranked as the dominant challenge comments included:

Leadership/Structure:
Challenges
Making hierarchy honest and decision-making transparent
How to pass on the faith
Determining what is the faith
No [effective and inclusive] decision-making process/forum or structure
Discern call to ministry and on-going formation for all ministers
Current model of the priesthood is limited and unhealthy for priests and people
Womb  Tomb: growth in faith
Women and Men`One in Christ Jesus` Report  Action?
Limited/no access of people to local Bishop
Failure of language: young do not read it
Moribund Liturgy`Take and eat', kids don't want to sit
Lack of clergy and the age of clergy
Free up bishops -- to live/focus on Gospels not by Roman directives
Eliminate widespread abuse by church people -- sexual and other
Excessive workload on clergy
Disconnect between God and (Institutional) Church
Addicted to power, centralization authoritarianism
Who/ what is church?
Eliminate clericalism
Influx of overseas clergy – Ecclesial groups/movements
Discrimination – non-acceptance -- not welcome---ban on women in leadership
Exclusion by the system
The Institution owns the Property -- not the people
Indifference to the church -- to church issues
Elitism -- small communities not valued
The church is too exclusive, too stratified, need new models
Gospels not institution
What is the Australian church?
Change must come from the inside
Opportunties
Modern media enables us to determine what people believe and to have a voice
People should see themselves as "co-responsible" and not collaborators
Revised Christology
Simply do it
Desire to live the gospel
Participation in governance
Regeneration

Grassroots/Gospel Message:
Jesus was on (about) small movements Elitism -- small communities not valued
One of our barriers -- lack of structures
Growth of small communities -- Where people know one another
Desire to live the gospel
Small group interaction / "Eucharistic" small groups
What is a rising from the ashes -- not necessarily Catholicism?
Focus on local community -- Broader church not so relevant
Begin to listen particularly to 'unchurched'
Gospels not institution
Small groups – Plenty of Fires
Gospel Action
Small groups independent not linked

Communications and Technology:
No place for younger people
Allowing ourselves to be free to offer 'God'...
Communicating to young people the value of belonging intelligently to the church
Clarify mission of church
Our language of faith is too literal
Failure of language: young do not read it
Our God is too small-release God from the little box

Church in Exile/Discrimination/Hurt/Support
Acceptance Mass
Limited understanding of inclusivity,e.g. Ministry to gays and lesbians
Redress for those treated unjustly by the church;
Dealing with the denial and injustice ;
Attitudes to gay people;
Inadequate sex education

Counteracting Fundamentalism/support
Small conservative groups have undue influence
Growing conservatism, emphasis on external symbols/rituals
Undue deference to conservative groups for example Opus Dei
Fear of institutional attention

All work sheets were posted on the walls at this stage so people could view the commonalities, links, complimentary ideas and methods suggested across groups and to further resource ideas for their specific challenge.

******

Session 2.
Focused on exploring more specific information about the issues identified in Session 1.

Participants were asked to identify what is already happening and the signs of hope
Collective power of small groups
Individual churches taking initiatives
Gospel -- values and living it
Schools are good models
What arises from "ashes "
-- great qualified Catholic workforce waiting to be given voice
The person JESUS is still "cool"
Use of technology -- online publications
"fires of hope" -- faith for future
Catholics Speak Out
Conservative group shows that there are other "fires" out there.
Non-political quest of religion
Opposition of German bishops -- sign of hope and acceptance of Vatican II
Our children are choosing Catholic education for reasons different from earlier generations
Benedict -- in May -- increased participation statement?

Participants then moved into the group of their choice to brainstorm the barriers to specific issues and `doable ways` to remove these.

******

Session 3.
The Way Forward

People went back to their chosen groups after lunch to develop practical ideas and strategies about how to convert their challenge into an opportunity, specifically what, how, when and who. All work sheets were displayed and reporters spoke to their specific issues.

Leadership/Structure:
Acceptance of the authoritarian approach by the people of the church.
Lack of communication to the Bishops Conference
Legalism -- huge legal structure of the church
Lack of recognition by church leadership of offerings/skills/ideas
Criteria for leadership
Refusal to debate some issues for example married priests/women priests
No acceptance of signs of the times
Political pressure from above
 to our bishops
 to our priests
 Isolation of parishes
Pastoral decisions taken in isolation from parish level by bishops [compare with Education etc.]
Positives
Leadership at the parish level
• Pastoral Associates
• Other Parish roles ["People of God" Leadership]
Enlightened Leadership [e.g. in Toowoomba]
Growing desire for dialogue and change
Using good theological understanding to inform dialogue [e.g. John Collins]
Gifts and skills of people and agencies within the church
Values each person
Respects/recognizes all people in the church
Utilizes all the skills and knowledge
Responsibility for what is preached and taught
Working as a team 'people of God'
Open to signs of the times

To Achieve: 3 very specific strategies relating to a new way of being Church/Catholic

What How Who When
Identify and support Bishops open to post Vatican II church
Implemented formal dialogue in each diocese
Develop theological knowledge Using local knowledge
Dialogue on key issues:
married priesthood
women priests
criteria for selection of leadership
YET TO BE COMPLETED

Challenges: Leadership
Dissatisfaction with the institution of bishops
-- Moribund liturgy
-- Limited access to bishops/unaccountable
Recognition of priests' difficulties
-- but also some attitudes -- clericalism
-- limited model of old
Unchurched/Exile
-- youth
-- passing of the faith
IIl treatment
-- redress of the hurt
-- abuse
-- marginalizing sexual minorities
Communication
-- not listen to
-- excluded from communication
-- ignoring grassroots research
Strength of conservative groups/influence
-- counteracting fundamentalism
Laws off Australian church identity of
Opportunities
Grassroots movements
-- small groups  Gospel
-- schools -- orthopraxy v orthodoxy
-- local community
Possibility for generation – Seen at grassroots
youth -- have further reshaped what they have been through – they have expectations to be actively participating
Vatican II – strengths

Communications and Technology Personal dialogue that is respectful and reciprocal. No structures that enable people to be heard: Synod -- can/does work in Anglican Church, Ecclesiastical language is jargon -- incomprehensible [Encyclical on Hope -- good theology – bad communication. Laity not even seen as persons. Language even a problem in schools -- quoting the Catechism.
Church should be seen as positive not negative -- style of communication is patronizing = "I know what's right for you".
Failure to realize church exists in pluralist society. Status = meaningless. Abuse crisis means church's coming from behind 8 ball.
Diocese too big for adequate communication = more bishops, more parish priests therefore married clergy -- women priests, smaller communities.
Failure of overseas priests [and some locals] in communication -- incomprehensible
Many hierarchs don't recognize Australian pluralism therefore cannot enter into normal communication
Church should communicate in -- love and professionalism.
Get-up

Exiled Catholics/Discrimination/Hurt/Support
Irrelevant information
Hypocrisy of Church
Imposition of 'Holy Roman Empire'
Attitude of church on sexuality
• e.g. Humana Vitae -- irrelevant to many and ignored [that's how we exist]
• Lost teaching on love
• Church moralises/does not forgive
Sex education in schools vetoed
Sexual abuse worldwide
• isolation of Church
• Church Hierarchy not transparent
Schools still relevant
Jesus still "cool"
Music: Liturgy
• Relevance and importance.
• Empowering.
• Challenge the ultraconservatives.
Exiled: cynical view -- pessimistic about pious attitude
Catholic Church in own world:
• lacks understanding
• not very intelligent
Pope
• Catholic academic
• unable to be open to new ideas
Group: (Present Model Not Working?)
The present model is not working. The Hierarchy is not a Democratic model. However the spirit of God continues to work in us.
How can we support the disillusioned Cath/community?

Challenges
How can we support disillusioned Cath/community?
 Write to support community in exile e.g. Sth Brisbane
 Individually we can achieve some things by hanging in there eg. keep ‘conversation ‘ with PP
 To publicize ‘relevant models’ of church e.g. investigative writing (mainstream media)
Positive Stories about community/Catholic life
Priests 50+ are not conservative!
Priest ‘in the middle’ – spies can shut down parishes therefore priests need our support
Priests are very isolated -- especially without partners
How do we find balance with the ultra conservatives
Our voices need to be heard
Petition needs to be revisited by the bishops
Anglican model discussed

Grassroots/Gospel message
Spirit Fires
Dreaming: All is sacred.
Beyond church boundaries -- community activities
Orientation away from institution -- "Search for the sacred”
Acknowledging what's happening around the village communities and participating in them. Little control.
That we be "Gospel" based. People recognized for belonging
Encourage in life -- sense of the sacred in the ordinary
Dream "our" facilities
Small groups to be valued for what. they ‘are’..
Radical inclusivity -- everyone welcome
Small groups somehow networked and supported
Nourished and Mission. We need to take baptism seriously.
*Start connecting -- media/networking/Web
Honoring death!! Small groups to be encouraged. Stay local
Church of the third age -- linking/education:
Festival of small groups-- Internet directory of small groups
Moral support for our ‘fires’ -- Use "Catholica"
Communication!!! Local papers ---- Parish bulletin -- Libraries
Bishops will come to us to ask advice! Hard work willing to do!

Counteracting Fundamentalism/support
Their numbers are actually very small. Endeavours -- such as the petition which point out how small the support base of fundamentalists/insecure actually are.
Misguided loyalty -- a barrier
Financial challenge/barrier
Insecure/conservative groups have an easy "selling tool" for raising money -- also can tap into a long culture of foundations etc. Those who want to move church to the Jesus message and forward to the spirit of Vatican II need to establish foundations/encourage requests for these endeavours.
Positive initiatives:
Follow-up to the petition [what issue -- must be carefully chosen]
Direct confrontation almost useless -- subtle counter responses.
Letter of solidarity from the group to St. Mary's/John Battersby/Australian bishops re lack of a process to resolve situation like St Mary's.
Solidarity with priests -- provide them with moral support

******

Final Plenary
The group decided to remain in the large group to discuss how to identify one single issue that Catholics for Ministry, CfM could use to galvanize the laity to work on `a new way to be church `and prioritise their actions. In this session some criteria for identifying issues were discussed:

1. Where is there an immediate impetus affecting the laity that CfM could respond to?
2. What is immediately `doable`?

Issues identified:

Married priests, there are a shortage of priests, there are also a large number of married priests, the church has already accepted Anglican married priests and the Vatican has declared a year of the priest.

Grass roots/Gospel based, Take baptism seriously. Go to where Jesus would go. Start connecting small groups -- media/networking/Web. Perhaps a festival of small groups as part of the Summit……. Where do we serve?

Moribund liturgy, the revised liturgy is about to be introduced into parishes and many priests and laity will have difficulty with it. This provides an impetus for change and there is much work already done on appropriate liturgy that could be accessed.

A Summit for the Australian Catholic Community
-- to formulate a new pastoral plan [with ecumenical input]
-- as an exercise in communication
-- with our preparation
• What: set it up;
• When: as soon as possible;
• How: get groups together
• Who: yet to be identified
Addressing the issues of Catholics in exile and the effects of fundamentalism are an ongoing justice and support issues that CfM can consistently advocate and respond to in media.
A distinction was also made between issues and methods:

1. CfM was on a winner with the petition so it is a method that needs to be used again to build our email network of vocal laity who can be immediately mobilize to support issues that contribute to a new way of being church.
2. Catholics Speak Out. Web based modeled on the Get-up and Twitter approach and possibly to raise money for particular events.
• canvass views put on website
• mobilize opinion
 What: Web;
 When: Now
 How: groups get together
 Who: Yet to be arranged
Money, cut-off money supply to the things we disagree with.
Developing a Practical Agenda for Catholics for Ministry
All groups were limited by time and did not finalize their specific strategies, identifying the need for further research and development.

However, the work they have undertaken provides an excellent basis and rich tapestry for CfM to move forward to lead `a new way to be church`and to develop a workplan for the next three years.

Marilyn Hatton
18 June 2009

Catholics for Ministry

2009-06-14T11:26:00.003+10:00

Inevitably the list of challenges facing the Australian Catholic Church – a church in crisis – would be long.
Almost 50 Catholic laity, priests and religious from around the nation, aware of the need for change, gathered in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern at the weekend. They were there to consider the challenges and to recommend practical steps to overcome them.
The catalyst for the meeting was a petition to the Australian bishops in 2007 calling for the ordination of married men and opening up discussion on the ordination of women.
Petition organizers, Catholics for Ministry, were overwhelmed by the response. Almost 17,000 people signed including 15,000 parishioners after weekend Mass and 170 priests.
The petition was largely ignored.
Catholics for Ministry, led by Paul Collins and Frank Purcell, decided on a follow-up meeting to plan the next steps.
Collins and Purcell said they believed the church faced a kairos, a moment of both crisis and opportunity.
Another image of the church was provided by the phoenix, a mythical bird which burns fiercely and arises anew from the ashes
Collins called for a practical agenda for action, tapping into the experience, knowledge and wisdom of those present.
The challenges loomed large.
The liturgy was moribund, the church too exclusive and addicted to power, there was a lack of credibility, the clergy faced an excessive workload, there was no effective decision-making or public accountability, a growing conservatism placed emphasis on external rituals and symbols.
It was also felt that there was no structure to enable the people to be heard, ecclesiastical language was obtuse, parishes were seen as franchises, dioceses were too big placing stress on priests and bishops.
The church was perceived at large to be irrelevant and an unwieldy institution, the current model of priesthood was limited and unhealthy for priest and people and the Australian Church was dominated by Rome.
The scandal of sexual abuse, the problems facing the parishes of South Brisbane and Redfern in Sydney were also discussed.
But it was not all negative. There was enormous sympathy for the work pressures placed on the diminishing number of priests struggling with their burden.
After the Federal Government, the church was the biggest employer in the country with an infrastructure second to none. Its managers in education, health and other agencies were dedicated and efficient with thousands of these dedicated people quietly doing their jobs.
It was time for the church to listen, particularly to the “unchurched” or exiled Catholics, those who felt excluded because of divorce or for their sexual orientation.
There were opportunities to empower the laity and the Pope’s comments on “perestroika” in the church were welcomed.
The gathering brainstormed the subjects of leadership, grass-roots movements, communication and technology, youth and the church in exile and conservative groups and fundamentalism.
One suggestion was for a national church summit to draw up a new national pastoral plan.
Some suggested that this gathering be a festival of small groups that are springing up nationwide.
Another proposal was for a web page similar to that organised by Get Up to canvas views and put pressure on church leaders when necessary.
After vigorous debate, the meeting called for a summary of issues raised in discussion and to be given the chance to prioritize those issues.
It was a significant day in the life of the Australian church, but as Collins summed up: “There’s still a lot of work to do.”
Delegates were enthusiastic about the energy and goodwill of the meeting. Perhaps the phoenix is about to burn and rise again.
Report by delegate Barry Morris of Sydney.

Graduate Movement ACMICA

2009-06-12T13:19:00.004+10:00

Peter is National Chaplain for the Catholic Graduate Movement called The Australian Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs - ACMICA: www.acmica.org
ACMCIA is affiliated with ICMICA The Intenational Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs which, with the International Movement of Catholic Students forms the Cardijn inspired body called Pax Romana.
At the moment ACMICA is inactive but maybe one day we can get it going again.

PALMS Australia

2009-06-12T13:05:00.004+10:00

Peter is chaplain to PALMS Australia which does great work in training and supporting volunteers abroad and in remote communities in Australia.
You can see what they do at http://www.palms.org.au/

Pastoral Supervision

2009-06-11T11:07:00.012+10:00

"The unexamined life is not worth living." (Socrates)

Supervision is a way of reflection, identification, awareness and naming the workplace reality with its challenges and achievements. The supervisory relationship uses storytelling, analysis, interrogation of events and creativity to engage with workplace events in ways that shed light on their practice and meaning. While concerned with the workplace, there might also be occasion for personal issues to be shared as is appropriate and to the extent they affect the workplace.

Peter works in pastoral supervision with people working in christian ministry, chaplaincy, church, community or non-government organisations.

Peter is a Consultant/Supervisor with Transforming Practices Inc.(www.transformingpractices.com.au) and is accredited with ASCCANZ (Association for Supervision, Coaching and Consulting in Australia and New Zealand). Peter also has a Bachelor of Theology (CIS) and a Masters in Adult Education (UTS).

Peter is trained and experienced in group supervision for those seeking this type of peer group supervision from the same or various workplaces.

Peter also works as a facilitator and/or consultant with community groups, workplace groups or organisations seeking clarity in goals, strategies, assisting workplace team work and efficiency in workplace structures.

If you wish to enquire about pastoral supervision, facilitation or consultation with Peter email: pmaher(at)catholic.org
Skype: petermaher09

Reflective Consultation for Priests

2009-06-10T18:40:00.009+10:00

"The unexamined life is not worth living." (Socrates)

A confidential and non-judgemental approach to reflecting on ministry experience leading to greater confidence,insight and growth.

What is Reflective Consultation for Pastoral Ministry?
Reflective Consultation is a way of learning from experience. With the assistance of a trained consultant/supervisor and a safe environment, people can focus on their ministry and explore ways to develop more effective approaches.

Through a variety of skills, knowledge and personal attributes priests undertake a wide variety of pastoral goals. These can bring great joy and a sense of achievement or they may leave a priest unsure, confused or exhausted. Reflective Consultation can be a key factor in self-care.

Reflective Consultation is an opportunity for noticing personal and collective responses to pastoral practice, bringing to the fore cultural and sociological issues that affect ministry. It also gives a person the opportunity to reflect biblically and theologically on pastoral practice.

Peter is a diocesan priest ordained for Sydney diocese in 1976. He has over 30 years experience in parish work. He has also worked in university and hospital chaplaincy and youth work.
Peter is a Consultant/Supervisor with Transforming Practices Inc. www.transformingpractices.com.au and is accredited with ASCCANZ (Association for Supervision, Coaching and Consulting in Australia and New Zealand) and Peter has a Bachelor of Theology (CIS) and a Masters in Adult Education (UTS).
Contact details: 109 Lennox St. Newtown NSW 2042
Email: pmaher(at)catholic.org
Skype: petermaher09