As I write this update, Bishop Carol, our spouses and I are part-way through a very exciting journey. Because of the generous support of the Diocese we have been able to join with over 650 other Bishops and 450 other Bishop’s spouses in the 15th Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion. The Conference is one of the four instruments that keeps Anglicans from 160 countries connected with each other. This is the first Conference since 2008 so there has been lots of catching up to do.

It’s certainly been a full program! Yesterday we travelled from Canterbury to London for a garden reception where we heard from activists responding to our climate emergency. We committed to the Communion Forest Initiative (www.communionforest.org) as one way to express our care for God’s creation.

Earlier in the week we gathered for worship in Canterbury Cathedral, heard about the exciting and creative church planting that is happening through the communion (you can find out more at www.plantanglican. org) and were reminded of our call to make our churches safe for all and our communities places where the dignity of each person is recognised and valued.

For all that, the highlight for me has been the opportunity to study the Scriptures with bishops from across the world. Each morning we’ve listened to expositions of the New Testament letter of 1 Peter from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In one of those talks he explained how the letter contains ‘a single calling to the Church, although the application will vary according to context’.

This has been confirmed as we’ve subsequently broken into small groups to further explore the themes of the letter. It’s been illuminating and challenging to hear:

• what alienation feels like in contexts where the church is growing fastest amongst people who are excluded from social power
• what holiness looks like in contexts where corruption and graft is the accepted way of doing business
• how reconciliation takes place in contexts of warfare or conflict between groups such as farmers and graziers.

The overall theme of the conference is ‘God’s Church for God’s World’ and we’ve been challenged to consider the diversity of that world. Far from being a retreat from that world, reading, listening to and learning from Scripture together is an indispensable preparation for engaging it faithfully with the love and truth of Jesus.

Bishop Carol and I look forward to sharing further reflections from our time at Lambeth when our Diocesan Synod gathers in September. Then, as now, I pray we might together live out the calling of 1 Peter 4:8 in our own context – ‘Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.’

Bishop Carol’s informal London tour guide, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, on a Thames ferry ride.

Bishop Carol adds:

I am most grateful to our diocese for the privilege of being able to be part of this wonderful conference.

Like Bishop Mark, I have greatly valued the Bible Studies in 1 Peter. Through the teaching of Archbishop Justin Welby and the multi-national discussions in my study group, I have gained fresh insights on how we can better serve God together in this beautiful yet broken world, and how we can, as a global Anglican Communion, show the love of God and bring about a more just and caring world.

I have also valued hearing the stories from our African and Asian bishops, about their struggles and their joys. I suspect that sometimes we forget just how privileged we are in the West!

One study was on Suffering in Christ in 1 Peter. A statement that moved me to the core was from one of the African bishops when he said, ‘There is no greater pain than leading a divided church’. For many bishops in Africa, the tribal divisions in their countries have meant war. For us in Australia there is no war, but there is a somewhat strained and brittle Communion, divided over issues of theology and practice. This brings its own pain.

A call to unity despite our differences has been a strong thread through all plenary and group sessions. We all hope and pray that as we work towards this, we will be able to shine as Christ’s light in this world.

Do you ever wake up in the morning to find the latest drama you are dealing with entering your mind as you surface? As you drive to work or engage with your favourite activity, do you start mentally turning things over, looking for a solution? Someone commented at a recent meeting I attended, ‘Why isn’t life more fun?’

Malcolm Fraser once said, ‘Life wasn’t meant to be easy’. He got that right. When we think back through Christian history and the struggles of the church, and the ultimate sacrifice of the martyrs, this is only too evident. Our own life experience will no doubt provide the same evidence.

Why isn’t life more fun? It’s because we’re human. We make mistakes. Human nature is to leave God on the fringe rather than have him at the centre of our lives. This is at the heart of sin. This is why Jesus came to redeem us. His death and resurrection dealt with sin and its consequences, but for the redeemed it still takes time for the physical reality to catch up with the spiritual reality.

I often liken our struggle with sin to our struggle with physical illness. God has designed our human bodies to heal if the right conditions are in place. If we cut ourselves and keep the wound clean, it will heal. If we break a limb and set the bone properly, it will heal. It’s this very principle, programmed by God into every living cell, which allows surgeons to make the difference they do in the lives of the suffering.

And so it is with the things that go awry in our personal circumstances and situations; the conflicts we become embroiled in; the relationships that turn sour; even the things that unravel in the world around us. These things too, can heal, given the right conditions.

What are the right conditions? I am talking to the redeemed here. Those who have been saved; those who belong to God. For those who walk with the Lord, he works with us and in us to bring healing to the fractured circumstances of our lives.

God has given us two simple conditions that promote healing. They’re found in the words of Jesus as he summarised the Ten Commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ In our own difficult situations, healing can happen if we provide these conditions. Conflict and pain and fear can heal, just as our physical bodies can.

Broken relationships can heal if both parties are prepared to practice love for God and for one another, with the kindness, compassion, and forgiveness that characterise it. Broken people can heal. Broken workplaces can heal. Broken parishes and ministry units and schools can heal.

Anything of real value is worth grappling with. It may be difficult to persevere and seek wholeness in the face of things that bring us down, but God continues to heal and restore us as we cooperate with his sanctifying work in our lives. If we follow his commandments in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within, his healing can flow into the darkest corners of our experience.

And then life is certainly more fun!

This may sound simplistic, particularly when conflict and difficulty involves another party who doesn’t get it. However there is great wisdom in focusing on what we can change rather than what we can’t. With God’s help, we can change ourselves, and we can leave the other party to God. Whenever we serve God faithfully, inviting him into the parts of our lives we struggle with, it opens the way for his Holy Spirit to bring forth transformation in us.

As with physical healing, we may not experience final victory until we meet Jesus face to face. In the meantime, Jesus calls us to love God and our neighbour, to rejoice in what healing may come, and to trust him with the rest.

God’s people and God’s world are moving inexorably toward that time when all will be made new. However, we can still experience victory and healing in the here and now, by the power of his redeeming spirit as we partner with him in our sanctification.

by Bishop Carol Wagner

In the month of May our diocese faces two events that have the potential to challenge our unity as God’s people in this diocese – and in fact, in the Anglican Communion in Australia.

The first is an election. All elections tend to bring out our differences, creating the possibility of ill feeling and disunity in the unwary church. This election, perhaps more than others, has the potential to divide us, as we emerge from the pandemic and count the financial cost to our nation. There are vastly differing opinions as to which party will best manage our financial resources and bring us back to stability.

The second is General Synod. From the 8th-13th of May, representatives from Anglican Dioceses across Australia will be gathering for this national synod in the Gold Coast. It is a full and somewhat fraught agenda. Among the agenda items are issues on which there are polarised opinions – such as same sex marriage. These opinions are deeply and passionately held, each side believing they are right and ‘the other side’ is wrong.

This General Synod, more than past synods, does not bode well for the unity of the Anglican Church in Australia. There are murmurings of schism and the murmurings are not unfounded. Parts of the Anglican Communion in the USA, Canada and Africa have already gone in this direction, and the potential for a similar divide hangs like a spectre over the Australian church.

We’re not unique in these oh-so-human struggles. The apostle Paul had to deal with them as well in the early church. The church in Crete was a case in point. Culturally, Cretans were a difficult people – turbulent and quarrelsome and impatient with all authority. In particular, they had a problem with false teachers, which was causing significant disunity amongst the believers.

Titus was leading this difficult church in Crete so Paul wrote to him with advice. There is much in Paul’s letter to Titus which would resonate with the Anglican Church at this time.

In the letter, Paul speaks about holiness in the context of a Christian’s civic responsibility, and then moves on to the particular issue of disunity brought about by false teachers that was plaguing the young church.

Talking about the believers’ action towards the government, Paul says in 3:1, ‘Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work’.

Paul’s strategy was for the believers to set an example of good citizenship, so the young church would not be drawn into political agitation. This would be contrary to the way most Cretans approached life, and would set the Christians apart, allowing their ‘light to shine’.

Then in v2, Paul speaks about the believers’ attitude to the government – so often reflected in conversation. Paul exhorted the believers ‘to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone’. They were to reign in any tendency to be slanderous and argumentative over political issues, they were to avoid stirring people up, and to be deliberately courteous and reasonable towards one another – even those they disagreed with.

In an environment where everyone else was arguing about politics, taking sides and being aggressive towards one’s opponents, it would have been a revolutionary concept for these new Christians to realise that Jesus called them to live differently.

This is sound advice for us as we move towards an election which is already looking rather tense.

What about the false teachers? Above all else, these false teachers had the ability to bring out the worst in the believers. They were disagreeing, quarrelling, and dividing over things that didn’t really matter, according to Paul.

Unfortunately, whenever there is conflict over beliefs, it is precisely because people feel their beliefs do matter, that issues become so difficult to deal with.

Interestingly, in this passage, Paul did not concentrate on the rightness or wrongness of the beliefs in question, although he writes often in other places about the importance of holding fast to the truth of the Gospel. His focus in this instance was on the disunity that came about as a result of the conflict.

He says, ‘After a first and second admonition, have nothing more to do with anyone who causes divisions, since you know that such a person is perverted and sinful, being self-condemned’.

Disunity in the church has the power to subvert the message of the Gospel more than any other issue. We know so well Jesus’ words on the subject: ‘By this shall everyone know that you are my disciples – that you have love for one another.’

In John 17:22-23, we read Jesus’ prayer that his followers would be one, as he and his Father were one, and the reason was so that ‘the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me’.

• Please pray for the Anglican Church as we approach the election, that we as God’s people will be courteous in listening to one another’s opinions and beliefs, without allowing ill feeling or division to emerge.
• And please pray particularly for members of General Synod as they discuss agenda items which will trigger deeply held beliefs and feelings. Pray for a willingness to listen and really hear each other; pray for a deep respect for the unity of the Church and pray for a revelation of the importance to Jesus of the unity of his church and the power of the church’s witness as we live together in love.

The Anglican Communion has the capacity to be loving and accepting of a wide range of Christian beliefs and practice. May we not allow ourselves to be derailed by our need to be right, but to hold fast to Christ’s plea for unity in his Church.

Psalm 133:1

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!

We have all been following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. How could we not? It has been plastered across our media screens since Russia began amassing its forces at the Ukraine border and we have been kept graphically informed ever since.

A few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, I saw footage of a Ukrainian couple who rushed into emergency with their 18-month-old child bundled in a bloody blanket. The child had been injured by shrapnel in the shelling. Although the hospital did everything they could, that little life was lost. The keening of the grieving mother is still etched deeply in my mind.

A nation has been violently subjugated, its freedom stolen. So many innocent lives have been lost; so many homes; so many of the nation’s treasured buildings. There is no food, no water, and no power for heating in the thick of a Slavic winter. Now Russia is even preventing Ukrainians from fleeing – unless of course they flee to Russia. The rest of the world is incensed. Sanctions have been imposed, but nations have stopped short of antagonising Russia to the point where she might deploy her nuclear weapons.

I find myself thinking grimly, ‘He who dares, wins’. It’s not right, to win at such incredible cost. So many of us are feeling angry, aggrieved and completely helpless.

Yet as God’s people, we are not helpless. In Psalm 106, the psalmist recalls the Israelites rebelling while Moses was on Mt Sinai with God. They made a golden calf and worshipped it and God was angry.

v23 Therefore he (God) said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him,
to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

The Israelites did it again, and worshipped Baal. Again, God was angry, and a plague broke out among the people. But then we read,

v30 Then Phinehas stood up and interceded,
and the plague was stopped.

My point is not that Ukraine has angered God, and that he has sent the Russians to punish them – my point is about the power of intercessory prayer. In the case of Russia and Ukraine, the power of prayer from people willing to ‘stand in the breach’ between the oppressor and the oppressed; people willing to intercede for the nation of Ukraine. My point is that prayer moves the hand of God.

A great story of intercessory prayer is in Acts 12. Peter had been imprisoned and the new church was gathered in prayer for him. An angel miraculously set Peter free.

v12 … he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognised Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’

Jesus encourages us to pray and believe – and we will receive what we pray for (Mat 11:24); Paul tells us to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess 5:17). Stories of miraculous answers to prayer abound in Christian literature and in our own lives. We know God responds to the impassioned, persistent prayers of his people. (Luke 18:7) Although there is no formula which will enable us to manipulate God to do what we want, we can always be confident that if we pray, God will hear us.

We don’t have to watch the unfolding tragedy in Europe and feel there is nothing we can do. There IS something we can do and it’s more powerful than any threat of nuclear war. We can pray, and trust that our loving, compassionate, and almighty God hears us.

Watchman Nee, author of The Normal Christian Life, once said, ‘Our prayers lay the track down which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.’

A prayer from the service of Compline – slightly adapted – moved me this evening.

Come, O Spirit of God, and make this world your dwelling place and home.
May its darkness be dispelled by your light,
and its troubles calmed by your peace;
may all evil be redeemed by your love,
all pain transformed through the suffering of Christ,
and all dying glorified by his risen life. Amen

Let us stand in the breach for Ukraine – and pray!

In March this year, I wrote about a Sri Lankan refugee family, devastated following the denial by the Tribunal of their appeal to stay in Australia. They had been here for ten years, working, studying, paying taxes, and praying that they would find a safe haven here in our peaceful and bountiful land.

Let me tell you a bit more about them. There’s Maria, aged 17, finishing year 11 in her Canberra school. Not only is she doing well academically, Maria is a formidable cricket player. She has received a scholarship which provides professional coaching. Maria would really love to be able to play for Australia.

Then there’s Lawrence, aged 19. Lawrence is in his first year of nursing at Canberra Institute of Technology. Lawrence will be qualified to work in 18 months once he has his Diploma in Nursing. He then wants to work to put himself through further training to become a Registered Nurse.

Selva, the dad, was a fisherman in Sri Lanka and is skilled in many areas. Selva, with a friend, runs a gardening and mowing business in Canberra. Juliat, the mum, works as a cleaner in aged care. The family also grieves the loss of their two-year-old son, nicknamed ‘little bird’, who died of congenital heart disease before they made their fateful trip in 2011.

The family’s hopes rose in early April this year, when they found a lawyer who would represent them in a challenge to the denial of their appeal. The challenge centred on evidence presented at the Tribunal that was discounted. They received a bridging visa and waited anxiously for their case to be heard.

The case came up on the 20th of October. After a week’s consideration by the judge, they received the verdict. Application dismissed. The case was lost. Another plunge into grief and despair, not only for the family, but for those who love and support them.

So now what?

There is one more avenue of appeal – the Federal Court. However, the advice of the lawyer is that it would be costly, with even less chance of success. With each appeal, he says, the chances of winning become less. I asked for an estimate of the costs – filing, representation, and the cost to lose. All up, it could be anything from $25,000- $50,000, depending on whether there is a barrister involved, and the costs from the other side.

Depressing, isn’t it? But what do you do? At the very least, if we could raise the funds, it would buy some more time – time to perhaps lobby the government, or to find another way forward. Time to have them with us for a little longer. Time perhaps, for Lawrence to finish his Diploma in Nursing. Time for Maria to finish school.

What is the price of love? If we had a loved one with terminal cancer, who wanted to fight their disease, would we deny them treatment because of the expense? Because it was unlikely to succeed? I doubt it. For those we love, we are sacrificial. We will do whatever it takes to preserve their life, and to keep them with us.

Isn’t that what Jesus said? Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friend. Jesus paid the ultimate price, giving his life for us, so that as we trust in him, we may be with him eternally.

As I brought my despair to the Lord in prayer, I felt his gentle reminder that I had more to give – so this I will do. My prayer is that others might too, so that this family has another chance to find peace and a place to call home in Australia.

Please pray with me that this may be so.

https://gofund.me/6985da47

The kitchen clock showed 2.00 pm – time to go. I grabbed my keys, slung my bag over my shoulder and headed for the car. It was a half hour drive along dirt roads to the high school in the next town. The Scripture class I taught was last period.

Being a narrow bush road, there was rarely any traffic, which made the occasional driver overconfident. As I entered a blind bend, I met a car coming the other way travelling right in the centre of the road! Slamming on the brakes in the dirt never ends well, so I swerved into the loose gravel on the side of the bend. That didn’t end well either. I missed the oncoming vehicle, but spun into a graceful 180 degree slide, ending up wedged in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. The other driver didn’t even stop!

I was shaken but unhurt. When my heart had slowed down, I tried to get out. Both the driver and front passenger doors were jammed shut by scrubby trees so I crawled over into the back seat and scrambled out of a rear door.

As there was no mobile coverage and it could be some time before another vehicle passed, I set off shakily along the road to the nearest farmhouse. The lady of the house was most concerned and offered to call an ambulance. I declined and I just asked if I could call the school and the NRMA. She did insist on making me a cup of tea.

The NRMA tow truck was operated by the local service station, which was only ten kilometres back. Even so, it was two hours before he arrived. I then watched sadly, as my poor mashed car was towed into the fading light. Jay had returned from work by that time so I had a ride home.

Why am I relating this saga? It is not to complain about the other driver, nor the long wait for a tow truck. Neither is it to extol the virtues of a kindly farmer’s wife. It is to express my incredulity at the efficiency of the bush telegraph.

My children caught the 7.30 am school bus the next morning as usual. When they arrived home that day, they were full of amazement. ‘Mum, EVERYONE on the bus this morning asked if you were OK after the accident!’

I had arrived home after 5.00 pm the previous evening. The word was out by 7.30 am next morning. Telstra must have done well that night!

by Bishop Carol Wagner

I have a friend who speaks often of ‘the vagaries of life’, which, he says, beset us all. This is so true.

This week has been a bit like that for me. Last night, as I was writing this article, I received a phone call to say that a lovely young friend, someone I baptised, confirmed and married, was expecting the imminent arrival of their first child. As soon as this couple knew they were pregnant, they had asked me to baptise their baby when the time came. It was an experience of much joy.

During this same week there has also been much sorrow. I received a phone call a few days ago from a colleague who told me that a dear saint in one of our parishes had just lost his battle with illness and had gone to be with the Lord. I knew the person well and was saddened. He was a loved leader and an integral part of his church community. His family, friends and church will grieve for him.

Such is the breadth of our human experience. We can know the heights of joy and the depths of sorrow, as well as everything in between, in one lifetime. Sometimes, it seems, in one breath.

I have long been convinced that there is no separation between our physical, mental and spiritual lives. In that sense, we are trinitarian beings – body, soul and spirit – and like the divine trinity, these parts of our identity are both distinct and unified. I have often observed a strong correlation between what is going on in our mind and body and how we are travelling in our spiritual experience.

There can be a real connection between things like traumatic events, or poor physical or mental health and our spiritual well-being. Many of us have had more than our share of trauma of late, when we think of the fires, floods and viruses that are part of our present world. Add to this the prevalence of mental health issues and physical ailments that are common among us and it is not surprising when a person finds they are feeling spiritually low. We experience the ‘vagaries of life’ in every part of our being.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of sharing a time of retreat with a group of wonderful, faithful women from one of our parishes. The group had requested a particular theme – how to ‘drink from the source’. These women, like so many of us, were feeling a little worn and weary from the constant demands of life. They sought a time of rest and refreshment for their souls.

In John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’

We reflected on how we could drink deeply from this living water and how we could maintain its flow within us; how we could find refreshment from this spring in our difficult times.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that if she’d known the gift of God and who she was speaking to, she could ask for this living water. In John 7, where Jesus again invites the thirsty to come to him and drink, John adds that Jesus ‘said this about the Spirit, who believers were to receive’.

To drink deeply from the living water is to recognise the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit in those who believe. The spring is already within us as believers. We can drink of this stream through communing with the God within us. However, this can be difficult if we are not in a good place spiritually. How can we drink of this living water, if we no longer recognise our need of it? How can it gush from within us when we feel it is but a trickle?

One of the things that can keep us grounded in times of mental or physical struggle, is routine. Things like brushing our teeth, showering, eating – all have the ability to help us keep going when the going is tough. If we apply this principle to times of spiritual struggle, it is reasonable to suggest that ‘spiritual’ routines might have the same helpful effect.

The early church fathers spoke of an experience called ‘The Dark Night of The Soul’. This was their name for a time of deep spiritual depression, a descent into spiritual blackness; a time whereGod seemed distant and where confidence in him was lost. The early church fathers also spoke of the value of the ‘rule of life’ which was a name for the devotional practices that formed the rhythm of their daily lives.

The early church fathers and mothers knew and experienced life as we all do; a life full of joy and sorrow, agony and ecstasy, elation and depression. They also knew the value of their particular ‘rule of life’, and how it could ground them in their heights and depths.

A little ‘rule’ or routine could help us also. We may decide to run and pray, or walk and pray; we may commune with God through our art; we may find refreshment in Christian company; we may read, write or listen to podcasts; we may ruminate, contemplate or meditate.

May I suggest that if we establish devotional practices as routines or habits, they will be valuable in seeing us through our own spiritual lows. The fitness exponents talk of a 21/90 rule. That means it takes 21 days to establish a habit, and 90 days for it to become a lifestyle change. Health practitioners are a little more conservative, and say that it can take between 18 and 254 days to establish a habit, but say that generally takes at least 66.

If we can develop sound devotional practices as habits in our lives, we will be daily drinking from this stream of living water. It will keep us thirsty as we will long for more, and we will see it gushing from within us to splash others.

In the crisp, sparkling autumn weather of last Sunday morning, Assistant Bishop the Right Reverend Carol Wagner, resplendent in the traditional cope and mitre, officially re-dedicated historic items of the fabric of St John’s Church, Boorowa.

The recently-restored lych gate and two stained-glass windows of the northern aspect of the church were the chief focus of Bishop Carol’s re-dedication.

The lych gate commemorates local men who lost their lives in WWI; one of the windows was established in the memory of Charles Ludovia and Celia Anne Hume, and the other to John Ovens. All had been regular worshippers at St John’s Church.

Representatives of many local families were present to witness the ceremonies, and attend Holy Communion at which Bishop Carol presided.

Worshippers at St John’s Church on Sunday pass by one of the recently restored windows on their way to receive communion. Both stained glass windows on the northern aspect of the church have now been restored.

Prior to the ceremonies the Chairman of St John’s Parish Council, Roland Walsh, welcomed Bishop Carol and the many visitors. Roland acknowledged the support the church had received during the restoration project, particularly from the Community War Memorials Fund of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Enterprise Foundation of the Bendigo Bank, and a number of generous private donors.

In her sermon, Bishop Carol spoke of the ‘birthday of the church’, Pentecost, which was an occasion in which a small, grieving Christian community was to receive the power by which they were able to achieve great things with God’s assistance.

She said the beginning of the church was made possible by people with whom and through whom God could work to achieve his purpose.

‘We are commanded to go on being filled with the spirit, and to walk day by day with God,’ Bishop Carol said.

Today the church was continuing to work towards greater unity, and to resolve various issues which had the capacity to divide Christendom.

Bishop Carol congratulated the Anglican Church community in Boorowa for their faithfulness and for the energy and determination with which they had approached the task of restoration of historic and valued assets.

Following the re-dedication and Holy Communion services, the gathering enjoyed socialising over morning tea in the Parish Hall.

by Derrick Mason

This week, I sat with a Sri Lankan refugee family as they processed devastating news. Their appeal to remain in Australia after ten years on a temporary visa has been denied. They face deportation to a country where they will once again live in fear. Mum was weeping and dad silent and deeply depressed.

Their now teenage children, excelling in their Australian schools, no longer speak their original language and are filled with apprehension at the prospect of returning to a country where the family is not safe.

This family arrived in Australia in 2010, following the dad’s capture and ongoing torture. He finally managed to escape, after which the family fled, taking the action they did as they saw no other alternative. On arrival in Australia, they were granted refugee status and a temporary visa. The long and involved journey of interviews, assessments and paperwork was almost complete when their refugee status and visas were rescinded.

The family was able to lodge an appeal. The regional parish that had ‘adopted’ them called for donations, and raised more than $10,000 to provide support for the family and pay for their legal costs. Following more than a five-year wait, the final determination was received last week.

Application denied.

It’s hard to describe this family’s grief and hopelessness.

As I relayed this story to a colleague, I was told of another young lad who had fled to Australia twice as a child on his own, once when he was eleven and again when he was thirteen. He too had appealed against the cancellation of his temporary visa. Despite the fact he had worked hard in school, and was six months into a full scholarship to study at university, his appeal has been denied and he, too, is to be deported.

I understand the need to protect our borders. Really, I do. But when political agendas preclude any option to exercise compassion and acknowledge special circumstances, I begin to despair.

What have we become?

I’d love it if we could sing the second stanza of our national anthem and actually mean it.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Please, please, pray for my refugee family and others like them.

Our media this week has been full of detail about the explosion in Beirut. An estimated 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, unsafely stored at a warehouse, has been blamed for the explosion. 137 people have been reported dead, more than 5000 injured, hundreds missing, and over 300,000 rendered homeless. (CNN World News, August 6th)

People are fascinated by explosions. They are fascinated by natural disasters. They are fascinated in general, by disaster and carnage in any shape or form. It makes for good ratings and high media sales.

The other side of that coin is that the relentlessness of continual disasters, both man-made and natural, can be debilitating and depressing. People can lose hope. Through this pandemic, we have been alerted to the need to watch out for the possible declining mental health of those around us. Many are struggling.

As Christians, we know that disasters – both man-made and natural – are part of the earthly landscape until Jesus returns. Our call as the people of God is to be light in a dark world; to show love, mercy and compassion to the suffering; to proclaim a message of hope in the bleakness.

There is a sense in which Christians are like midwives (or is it midpersons?). In the same way as a midwife supports a woman as she suffers through the pain of labour, and struggles towards bringing a new life to birth, as she facilitates the baby’s entry into the world, so our task is to come alongside those who are suffering through the pain of a broken world, as it struggles towards the birth of a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1).

As we share the love of God and the Good News of his kingdom, so we help facilitate the journey towards a new creation – both personally and cosmically.

Let us not lose hope in the face of disaster, but hold fast to the hope which is ours in Christ Jesus.

‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.’ (Hebrews 10:23 NIV)