The Anglican Diocese of Ballarat-Bishop's Blog

Is this the Church? | 03/05/2010

The Archdeacon sent me a challenging quotation from one of my favourite theologians, Jurgen Moltmann. It goes: I am free and feel myself to be free, when I'm recognised and accepted by others and when I, for my part, recognise and accept others. I become truly free when I open my life for others and share it with them, and when others open their lives and share their lives with me. Then the other person is no longer a limitation on my freedom but the completion of it.

Windows to God | 27/04/2010

Christians (and Christian communities) are to be windows to God. People look at the Christians and the way they live together and act together, the way they love and behave and see something of the ways of God. The Church is a window to the holy, a community called to reveal God present and acting in the world of their own time. That is how he measured his own ministry and what enabled him to do what he did. More than likely he would have asked himself: how did Jesus act when they were beating him and nailing him to the cross? If that is how Jesus acted, that is how Paul had to act and it is how we are called to act. Like the psalmist, like Paul, like Thomas a Kempis. A single message and timely reminder and a sober warning.

Proclaiming the Good News by more than Word. | 25/04/2010

This message we have to proclaim to the world truly is gold, it is Good News. But we have to proclaim it not just in words, that is the easy way. We also have to proclaim it the hard way, the sacrificial way, by engaging in the healing, restoring and forgiving of others. This is always where our proclamation falls down and it is one of the key reasons we cannot convince the world that we have something to offer them. What they desperately need we are all too often unwilling to provide.

Reflections throughout Lent 2010 | 25/02/2010

Praying the office this morning I enjoyed the words of psalm 32. That psalm begins with a statement about the greatness of God: By his word the heavens were made, by the breath of his mouth all the stars. He collects the waves of the ocean; he stores up the depths of the sea. Here we have a God who is clearly all powerful. If he can create the magnificence of the heavens with just the word of his mouth and bring the stars into creation by a simple breath, then what would happen if he turned his full attention to a problem? Remembering that the ocean depths were powerful forces to be feared, they were the place of monsters and the enemies of God, we are shown here a God who is able to collect those roaring and rolling waves in his hands and stack them away for safekeeping in some kind of storeroom.

Goodbye Mr B! | 23/02/2010

Eighteen months ago we were asked by the department of Child and Family Services if we would be prepared to take on a tiny baby. As registered foster parents we are used to these kinds of requests and without hesitation we said 'yes'. Our lives were changed, as were the lives of many other people around the diocese as this little bundle of joy smiled his way into our little family as well as integrating himself into our much larger church family.

A little more about the Bushfires & the Spiritual Life. | 08/02/2010

Over the weekend I was asked how it is possible to endure, a question that is a pertinent over the coming weekend as we reflect on the horrors of last year's devastating fires. I well remember our tanker stopping for lunch in the midst of the burnt hills and gathering with others around the sad remains of a family home. There were children's trikes, swings and a patio table and chairs, stark and sad reminders of the joys of the family who once lived there. It was a deeply spiritual moment for me as the smoking and smouldering countryside offered little in the way of hope and life. It seemed that the created order had been overwhelmed and overturned by the ferocity and evil of the fire. We sat around on the ground, covered with ash and dirt, silently reflecting and wondering. It was a profoundly depressing moment. Indeed my entire stay in those burnt hills was disturbing and provoking and it is only now, twelve months later that I can allow myself to think about what it meant for my own life and spirituality.

Following on from our day of prayer for Reconciliation | 28/10/2009

Following on from our day of prayer for Reconciliation, I found the message of Thomas (3:28) on Keeping the Peace timely and helpful. The Lord warns the brothers: You don't bear up well, do you, my dear friend, when someone trashes you in public; that's to say, when someone sets the torch to your ears? There is a reason for this; in fact, two reasons. First, you think more of yourself than you should. Second, you should think less of yourself than the slanderers think of you. If you’re already treading the downward-inward path, you will not pay much attention to whatever slanders come flying in your direction. The advice offered by Thomas is that when we find life becoming difficult the way forward is to first of all turn inwards – to the Lord. He says that if this becomes the way we act then we won’t be knocked off (our) course by some outrageous judgment about (our) person or (our) conduct. In picking up a common theme of the prophets and the gentle reminders of Jesus, Thomas tells us that we should not be looking for peace to come from the mouths of others. Our peace should not come from whether or not people say good things about us or bad things about us; from whether or not they do good things to us or do bad things to us. Our peace comes from God and if that is the way we live, then the words and actions of others will not disturb that peace....pleasantries, unpleasantries, it really does not matter. Either way, the true Devout will enjoy great peace.

Reconciliation Day | 26/10/2009

Reconciliation Day: On Saturday last we travelled to Ararat at the invitation of the deacons to have a day of quiet and reflection on the theme of reconciliation and healing. Responding to the cries of people across the Diocese, they exercised their diaconal vocations in gathering us together in the name of Jesus. This was not to be a day of politics, or discussion or an evaluation of rights and wrongs. It was a time when we, the Body of Christ in this part of the Kingdom, responding to a divine calling, came together for quiet prayer, meditation, confession and healing. In other words, we did what the Lord wants us to do and even commanded us to do.

The Kingdom of God | 10/10/2009

Jesus taught the kingdom and as we read through the Gospels it is clear that what Jesus had in mind was not some political/sociological/geographical reality but the power of God himself at work in creation. It was a kingdom that could only be understood and perceived through faith. While the kingdoms of the nations of the world can be experienced through their power and influence and are usually marked by human self serving and self interest, the Kingdom of God is marked by love, sacrifice and a death of the self. The Kingdom proclaimed and inaugurated by Jesus was a Kingdom beyond all human expectation, human actions and human history. The Kingdom of God was about our human existence being completed and fulfilled and once more caught up in the very life of God himself. The Kingdom of God is something God himself is doing in his creation.

Ministry | 05/10/2009

A key part of our renewed understanding of the nature of the Church is to remind ourselves, over and over again that baptism brings a person into ministry within the Body of Christ. Gone are the days when believers could come along to church on Sunday to be a part of an audience. One cannot be a passive believer for baptism brings with it an expectation of ministry according to the divine gifts bestowed on the ones baptised. Thomas O’Meara beautifully describes the Church as being clusters of people with a world to serve. This picks up the two key ingredients: the Church is a community and it is a community with a call to serve the broader world. Any understanding of our identity as Catholics will need to be built on these two realities: we are called through baptism to form a community (and communities) of faith and we are to be reaching out to meet the needs of the world in which we find ourselves living.

Back to Church Sunday & Religion and Faith | 14/09/2009

We celebrated Back to Church Sunday over the weekend and so far some of the stories that have come out are encouraging. What was really reassuring was to see how many of our faith communities participated in what has become a Communion wide initiative. Of course, with all of these there was a mixed reception but the exciting thing is the willingness to reach out and do something about growing our faith communities. The more we try these initiatives the more we attune ourselves to the movement of God and when God is given half a chance, things happen.

Holy Week 2009 - Truth | 08/04/2009

Thomas a Kempis begins his Holy Week reflection today with a rather hefty knock: Nowadays, when I begin to speak, people feel their deafness coming on. They'd rather hear the world than the Word of God; they'd rather tickle the fancies of the flesh than tackle the fancy of God. I remind myself that this is addressed to what the world would consider 'holy men'. They are members of a monastery and have dedicated themselves to carrying out the Word of God. Yet, there, within those silent walls, they have monks preferring to listen to the world than to the Word of God.

Bishops & Country and City Inequality | 04/04/2008

What a world we live in. In Melbourne, millions can be put aside from tax payers money to fund a car race that satisfies the yearnings of a miniscule number of people. Millions can be put aside for all kinds of studies, trips overseas, perks to keep MPs happy and an amazing range of nonsense. Do we see a problem here? ... If there are city-country inequalities they are being fostered and deepened by a parochial and city bound state government.

Foster Care, Women in the Episcopate and the Rural Urban Divide | 04/10/2007

At the moment Bennita and I have in our care, a beautiful four week old baby boy. He came to us as his foster parents last week and will be with us for the next three weeks while family services work on his future. He follows on from two beautiful twin girls (six months old) who graced our family for a few weeks while their foster parents went away for a break. Someone asked the other day how we manage to take in these babies and do all of the other things that we do. I do not know really but we are aware of just how blessed we are to be able to share in the lives of these little ones of God. They come to us troubled and we have no other responsibility but to love them to bits. They come to us, grace our lives and allow us to love them. They then go off with our prayers and hopefully to take a little of the love that we could share with them into the next stage of their lives. We do not notice the work side of it, just rejoice in what we receive from these little one. We thank God each day for these joyful lights that he shares with us to brighten up our lives.

The Drought, Women in the Episcopate & General Synod | 30/09/2007

I was in the Wimmera on the weekend and talking to farmers and community members there, it is clear that the drought is far from over. It continues to grind away at the lives of most families and we are still to feel its full impact. It must be really nice to live in Melbourne and know that there is water to spare on gardens and lawns - even though there are clearly going to be problems over the summer. City people are insulated from the drought and its impact, except when they feel the bite on the cost of food. But in the rural communities, it hits families and individuals at all kinds of levels.

The drought, the Parochial Government Act and Christopher Hitchens new book | 23/05/2007 | Number of Comments (1)

The Weekend Australian ran the first part of a book by Christopher Hitchens (Father Son and wholly bogus ...) and a bigger load of drivel would be harder to find. Cashing in on the current anti-god writings, Hitchens has produced a book that is full of bar room ramblings that is little more than schoolboy bullying as he seeks to belittle those men and women who are courageous enough to believe. An example, in case you think I am exaggerating: The four gospel?s authors ? none of whom published anything ultimately decades after the crucifixion ? cannot agree on anything of importance. Makes you wonder whether or not he has even read the Gospels, let alone understood them. The problem with the Gospels is that they are faith writings and Hitchens cannot get beyond what he would see as historical difficulties with some of the facts. For example, he worries that there are four accounts of the crucifixion and all four are a little bit different. Why wouldn?t they be? Each writer is trying to make a theological point and is using an historical event as the starting point. They never set out to write history as Hitches speaks of it but to give us the meaning of history which is to be understood in terms of Jesus Christ.

Anglicans and 'anglicans' & 'D.A.G.s' | 14/12/2006

I was in Warracknabeal during the week meeting with a group of Anglicans made up the deanery drought group. Each deanery has a group of men and women who come together to seek ways of assisting the wider Church reach out in love and support to those whose lives are impacted by the drought The people in the Warracknabeal group are themselves struggling to find a way forward through the drought, yet here they are sitting down trying to work out how to help others.

Drought and the Church & The Church and the Church... | 28/11/2006

I was in Horsham today for a couple of meetings and was made aware of the difficult situation we face as a diocese. One of our parishes normally receives an income of around $8,000 from the sale of grain. That $8,000 did not come in last year and it is not coming in this year due to the drought?s impact on the harvest. Imagine what it does to a parish taking that kind of money out of a budget. Yet the people are keen to battle on and are determined to ensure that ministry continues, despite the hurdles they face. That is the kind of commitment that inspires and it is an invitation to all believers to match the levels of faith that support it.

Anglican Liturgy & The Wimmera Challenge | 21/11/2006

I was at a meeting yesterday working on what we might call a 2020 vision for the diocese ? where do we think we need to be and what do we think we might need to look like if we are to be effectively proclaiming the Gospel in 2020. One of the challenges we faced was what we can call the Wimmera region, that vast farming areas to far the west and north west of the diocese. It is an area that has undergone enormous social and economic changes over the last twenty years and with the drought and changes to markets and economies those changes are going to continue to have a major impact on communities in the coming decade. As a Church, how do we face those realities?

Thomas and Renewal | 16/11/2006

I will be at the Wimmera deanery chapter meeting today (a chapter meeting is a meeting of the clergy in an area) and we will be taking up a couple of important issues. The first will be the impact of the drought on our churches and what we can do (the rest of the diocese) to offer support and pastoral care for those who are struggling with its consequences. The second will be to look at the diocesan pastoral plan that came out of synod. It is the great struggling point at the moment. We have a plan but we hesitate to take it and use it. I do not think that it is because of any real antagonism. It is more that the changes that it implies are far greater than we are perhaps inclined to risk taking. We are not used to calling people to discipleship. We are ore used to running our parishes and we set about that with great diligence and pride. Our parishes are places of great action and incredible amounts of dedication and commitment. But we have a long way to go before we can call them communities of disciples.