[ hold :: this space ]

Through the NCCA: more information here.

It would particularly cruel if the current refusals of aid by the Burmese military stopped us giving. They would have won, if we let that happen.

the cyclone in burma is catastrophic, terrifying
yet - confession - i hardly seem moved at all

and i can’t decide if it’s because i have no words to say,
if i’m in denial,
if i just don’t have the energy to be moved

or if it’s indelicate to look face on
at those who have spent lifetimes
in search of dignity and wholeness
and who have been stripped of it again.

so if i were to go to church on sunday
[which i won’t]
and if i were to pray
[which, sadly, i don’t]

it would be to find the passion to care…
to move beyond the figures that my mind
can’t comprehend
[22 000… 50 000… 100 000…]

and to recognise
that each one of those people
is someone
the world
couldn’t do
without.

and then, in the writing of that, comes this…

how can i honour those who died
who have no-one left alive
to grieve them
miss them
remember them…

A large amount of money was set aside for more prison beds in last night’s state budget… still more money for the court system, but I can’t find mention of any for alternative forms of criminal justice.

We have just over 96% occupancy in Victoria’s prisons at the moment. In the ten years between 1997 - 2007, the prison population in Victoria increased by 1750 to 4183 people [41.8% increase]. You’d think we must have had an explosion of crime in the state, but actually the rate of crime per head of population has decreased 23.5% since 2001.

The greatest increase in imprisonment is for those convicted of assault or motor traffic offenses.

[source: Statistical Profile of the Victorian Prison System, Department of Justice]

The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the state and even of convicted criminals against the state, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry of all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerating processes and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if only you can find it in the heart of every person – these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it.

Winston Churchill

does anyone from Toronto read this? if so, can you pop along to the harbourfront sacred space exhibition and let me know what it’s like?

We were talking this morning in a breakfast meeting about alternative communities - why the ongoing regular community stuff doesn’t seem to fit too easily into what we’re doing in this project… and why what we’re doing fits awkwardly into the church… this is where the conversation went… [it’s a thought in progress, bear that in mind!]

Most conversations about new forms of church or christian community are about rethinking the table at which the disciples sit. True confession… this project doesn’t emerge from any interest in that table, or even really in the disciples. i think the really interesting stuff of the gospels is the other stories - the tables Jesus went to where the disciples weren’t invited, or where they were so absent no-one thought to mention their presence - the afternoons at Mary and Martha’s, the nameless person’s house where Jesus met the syro-phonoecian woman, dinner at Levi’s house, dinner with Peter’s mother, the ‘water into wine’ wedding table… i think they’re the fun tables.

Interestingly, there’s not a lot of evidence in the gospels that the people around those tables wanted a seat at the disciples’ table - the main event, as such. Which makes it interesting, then, that most conversation about inclusion [and about new forms of Christian community] involves making sure there’s space for everyone at the disciples’ table - the presupposition being that there is only the one table around which everyone should sit. It gives those around the table an enormous amount of power. Perhaps that’s a myth perpetuated by them – because we have been taught to look at things from the disciples’ perspective we think there’s only one table - but the disciples were never as good as Jesus at recognising the other tables.

Perhaps another way of understanding inclusion and generosity is recognising that Jesus doesn’t sit at just one table, and that the disciples don’t host the other tables, or get to decide what happens there. Often they don’t even get invited. Those other tables are out of their control… and will mostly exist out of their line of vision.

If that’s the case, the ultimate act of inclusion for Christian communities is to encourage the possibility there might be other tables [fun tables, with good food - just as good as the church’s table] where God might just turn up, because the story of God is not about inclusion into the Church’s table, but inclusion into a story of life. Because as we know, you don’t have to be a disciple for god to seek you out, and just because you’re a disciple doesn’t mean you get the very best of who God is, and turning into a disciple isn’t the anticipated, or even desired, outcome of every encounter with the story of life…

Which is why we don’t believe that every act of worship, every sacred space should emanate from, or be directed back towards the church’s table. And why we have to look much broader than the disciples for our models of community.

All that, over fruit toast.

[update: i still can’t leave comments on the site! but keep chatting amongst yourselves… i’m reading them all… and i need to think more about it - especially Adam’s question about what the other spaces look like. Perhaps for me the question is who I am in the other spaces, because i’m not sure they can be spaces of our making… Or maybe they can be, but I’m really interested in sitting at the tables where we aren’t the hosts.]

It’s busy at the moment. I got into the office this morning while it was still dark, and i’ve been watching the sun come up over the buildings outside my window - Melbourne glows in autumn. The other afternoon we had a fierce storm - thunder, lightning, hail… I could see everyone in the office block over on the next street  lined up against their windows watching it. It was a shared moment of awe: the city needs more of them.

Anyway… as I said, it’s busy. Here are a few of the reasons why there won’t be much action on the blog over the next few weeks.

Don’t tell Grace who’s processing the registrations, but I’m willing to extend the deadline to register for the Communal Justice Workshop on Saturday. A few people have asked if we’ll be filming sessions - we will be, but due to privacy issues [respecting those who are telling stories - particularly ex-prisoners and victims of crime] we won’t be able to make them widely available.

I’m speaking at the Progressive Christian Network gathering in St Davids UC, Canterbury on May 18.

The Urban Ministry Forum seems like it is shaping up nicely. It’s here in Melbourne, from May 29 to June 1. Jonny Baker will speaking at that - he arrives in just a few weeks.

There are a small number of spaces left for the alt worship nosh… I’m so looking forward to this. Registration forms can be downloaded here:  altworshipnosh.pdf.

The first half of this year has been a relentless flow of events… all good, but at almost all of them i’ve been talking about alt worship to interested onlookers, rather than working with people who live and breathe it. Most of the events are with church groups [conferences, workshops, etc.], and i have to remember a whole different language in those contexts. It’s like i’m searching in my memory for my rusty schoolgirl french [and i never was so good at that - all i have left is ‘je voudrais un espresso, s’il vous plait’, on which i’ve survived whole weeks in Paris].

I think humans are hardwired to create - something dulls in me when i don’t have the space to do that…  it’s been a good few months, but i’m a little tarnished. The second half of the year is shaping up quite differently, and already it feels like it will be much more like home…

Everything Nina Katchadourian does makes me think differently about the world. I’ve linked to sorted books before. I loved this today.

Missing her already: Pamela Bone, columnist for the Age, died last Saturday. She was the person I most want to be like when I grow up - courageous, passionate, honest, prophetic, and a beautiful writer. They’ve reprinted one of her columns in today’s paper.

… and a late addition that may not yet make sense: I love this line from Rothko’s entry on Wikipedia, “I am not an abstract painter. I am not interested in the relationship between form and color. The only thing I care about is the expression of man’s basic emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, destiny.” I wonder if that’s why so much of our worship seems like a vapid watercolour when it’s laid against the reality of life. we forget we’re working with the paint of tragedy, ecstasy and destiny…

From the Victorian Parliamentary Hansard

It is fair to say that there is a widespread perception in the community that the sentences delivered by our courts are too lenient, that they do not reflect community views as to the gravity of the offences concerned and that they are failing to exercise an adequate deterrent effect or to take offenders out of circulation, thereby removing their capacity to cause further harm. I think there has been justifiable community concern that lenient sentences, whether through the court system or through what happens after sentences have been handed down, have resulted in offenders being released back into the community and then going on to reoffend when they may well not have done so had they continued to be kept behind bars. That is certainly a very strong concern coming from the community about the judicial system.

- Robert Clark, MP. Victorian Shadow Attorney General.

[This made me stamp around the office for a good 10 minutes.]

I’m writing to Mr Clark to ask the following: What makes this fair to say? Where is your evidence for any of this? [and we need something a little more substantial than a Herald Sun poll]. If it turns out that the community perception is as you describe, is your role to give voice to that perception, or to change it? Is the community necessarily versed in the nuances and subtleties of punishment and rehabilitation, in order to be able to make informed and helpful judgements? Perhaps we’re wrong and the judges are right. Perhaps they know a little more than we do already. Have you done any research at all into causes of recidivism? They don’t seem to be reflected in your statement…

It would all be so much less bothersome if the legal system worked in the same way that Clark’s speeches are crafted: “There’s a widespread perception in the community that Smith’s a murderer, so of course he’s guilty.” Imagine all that time we could save if we didn’t have to bother finding out the truth.

i read statements like this and i feel like our task is a little like trying to destroy Mt Everest, and we only have plastic spoons at our disposal.

Not to worry, though, i have a drawer full of them.

i’m meant to be writing deeply meaningful and moving words about pentecost for the flurry of worship moments i’m responsible for in the next few weeks. unfortunately, i can’t move beyond cynicism. perhaps i need a day of detoxing from prison statistics.

who would willingly pray for you to come, spirit?

if you could keep it to a minimum, perhaps:
those little flames are fine -
the fires that warm our hands,
the beautiful flames of a flickering candle
that cast just enough light on the dark places
for us to see our path through,
but not enough for us to see our surroundings.
but to pray for the flames that destroy the walls we have carefully built
in our churches and our lives,
that will change the landscape of the world
as we know it -
i don’t think so.

if you could keep the flames to a minimum
so we could put them out in time for morning tea
that would be helpful.
and if you could warn us about that great wind,
in time for us to take shelter inside
that would make this all much easier.

thanks.

There’s an excellent opinion piece in the Herald Sun today about the prison system and communal justice. It’s written by Father Joe Caddy, Catholic prison chaplain in Melbourne.

[that’s a first from me! ‘excellent opinion piece in the Herald Sun’!]

I’ve been reading prison statistics this morning over breakfast, in preparation for the communal justice workshop we’re running on May 10th. Over 85% of the prison population didn’t finish secondary school. It reminds me of some research I read earlier in the year which said that in many US states, projections about the number of prison beds required in 10 years are calculated using the current rates of illiteracy in 11 year olds.

I was reading the Transition from Custody to Community report last night, which describes the issues surrounding re-entry to the community in Victoria. It highlighted the problem that most information about transition programs is communicated via written resources. A large number of prisoners can’t read them.

The whole system is fundamentally flawed.