Just another quote that is very relevant for today, from Olara Otunnu, the U.N. special representative on children and armed conflict, in 2004.
…the view is still that the suffering and victimization of children in situations of conflict is tragic, it is sad, it is unfortunate, but terrible things happen in war. We've got to shift from that level of awareness to one of outright repudiation in which we'll say, 'War might be likely and bad and terrible, but we simply can't accept that these things are done to our children in situations of conflict. We are not yet there.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Past treasure 3
This is a speech from a few years ago, in my homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand. Since then Section 59 of the Crimes Act has been amended so that the statutory defence of correction is no longer available to parents accused of child assault. The speech complements my Bloggers Unite post below. NOTE that the statistic about child abuse deaths in Sweden is from an independent researcher and is significantly lower than the child maltreatment deaths recorded in Swedish national statistics.
A World Fit for Children
Each and every child on our planet deserves to enjoy the same rights - from birth and on into adulthood - no matter where they are born, who their parents are, what abilities or limitations they live with. They have the first call on our resources. They each have the right to a family and an identity, to love and care, to safe warm homes and places to play, to protection from harm, to education for life in a peaceful world, to health and health care.
Above all it is their voices that should guide decision making in our world.
Data and statistics are things I deal with every day, and there is a certain detachment from reality and individuals when using concepts like mortality rates and intentional assault. It can be overwhelming to constantly think of the individual griefs and pains and losses that the numbers represent. But some things go straight to the heart. A routine report on causes of death shows that WAR is one of the major causes of death for CHILDREN in our world. Not for soldiers, not for Presidents or Prime Ministers or bankers or bureaucrats. But for CHILDREN it is up there in the top 20 causes of death in both high and middle-low income countries.
I couldn't and cannot detach from that.
The movie Kandahar is backed by scientific enquiry that confirms that children and women are at increased risk of serious injury from instruments of war. And confirms the absolute evil that cluster bombs are manufactured to be ATTRACTIVE to children.
I agree with Brian McLaren's analysis that these problems are underpinned by a malfunctioning security system, that invests in destruction and not in life. I need to participate in a deep shift so that everything WILL change. This new YouTube video of Brian's is just brilliant for Bloggers Unite day. Let us all be atheists to forces that kill so many of our precious children, let us not detach from any one of the ten million who die unnecessarily each year, let us unite to persuade investment in things that matter and not things that destroy.
My baby steps involve checking the origin of products like coffee and chocolate, investing in sustainable aid and development approaches, working to persuade my local congregation to work in partnership projects and not to ship masses of 'stuff' to 'the poor' in charity-based initiatives and proselytising operations.
And above all to listen to our children. Their wisdom can guide us to create a world that is fit for them. "We want a world fit for children, because a world fit for us is a world fit for everyone." (Do read this whole link if you have time. It is wisdom we need to hear).
Past treasure 2
A prayer for Palm Sunday. The imagery is from personal experience - the week before we stood in our backyard and watched three blue butterflies reach the top of the Camphor Laurel tree - must be 20 metres at least tall. The Sunday before I was swimming at Terrigal. And the child image is based on a specific little boy whose face absolutely lights up when his Dad comes into his line of sight. The confession is inspired by Brian McLaren and the assurance of forgiveness is based on The Message version of John's gospel chapter 3 verse 16. This scripture is also alluded to in the prayer:
God of special days and every day
We praise you
We are so blessed to live in the world that you have created
A world that fills us with wonder
When we see butterflies making it to the top of the tallest tree
Tiny fish swimming beside us in the sparkling blue water
The brilliant smile when Dad comes into the child’s line of sight
These remind us that your love and loyalty last forever
You amaze us
Your beloved child Jesus is like you in every way
Yet was born among us and lived on this earth
Showing us what it means to be obedient to you
To challenge and put right what is wrong
Sent to live among us
So that we would know what life really is
That’s how much you love us
Amazing!
Your spirit fills our lives
The life in our every breath
Moving like the wind around and beyond
Filling our hearts with joy
Our minds with music
Our hands with creativity
Helping us to realise your amazing goodness to us
Yet like the crowd in
We can so easily reject and betray you
Taking from your creation more than earth can bear
Accepting and living within the current world order
Failing to recognise the immense value
of each and every person in our communities
Everything must change, God
We want to be part of that change
We are sorry for the ways we harm your earth
We want to commit to your kingdom
Help us to run to catch up with the mysterious moves of your spirit
To change direction to find where you are leading
To be true followers of Jesus
Who you have made the cornerstone of new life
and raised to the highest place of honour
Our Lord and our God
Amen.
These are the words we can trust – God didn't go to all the trouble of sending Jesus into the world merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. And so we can have full and meaningful lives, living as God’s forgiven people.
Past treasure 1
A prayer for Epiphany, reflecting on the decision of the 'wise men' to return to their own country by another road, and the wisdom of a four year old - whose immediate response on hearing the gospel of Matthew chapter 2 read aloud was "Mummy - I want Jesus to be the king and not Herod to be the king." The ideas of King and Empire were explored in the teaching on this Sunday (by the brilliant preacher to whom I am married) and a lot of the words in this prayer are taken directly from the gospel for the day. The context of this prayer was St Stephens Sydney, which is located on the same street as Sydney hospital and the State Parliament.
God of other roads
Of worshippers and star-followers
Of seekers and travellers
Of all who journey
In all time and in every place
At this time and in this place
We want Jesus to be the King and not Herod to be the King
We pray for ourselves
The people in this place this morning
As we retrace familiar steps
Or find everything so different
On this first Sunday of a new year
May our hearts be attuned to your heart
Our spirits given life by your Spirit
So that we know deep within us
What it means for Jesus to be the King
How our lives change when we pay him homage
We pray for all making the return journey to work tomorrow
for bankers and bureaucrats and politicians
nurses and strategists and retail therapists
and the baristas who brew coffee to perfection
Keep us all expectant
With eyes wide open
And minds alert to the possibility
of new perspectives and ways of doing things
So that decisions are guided and informed
By the child in the
And our allegiance is not diverted
By those who seem to be in control
That in this great city of
Jesus and not Herod is the King
We pray for those who take us into other worlds
Stretching imagination and taking us beyond ourselves
Through art and literature
Film and performance
For the presenters and participants in the
Challenging us to examine the way we are
And to consider the forces
That compete for the allegiance
of our collective soul and mind to Jesus as King
God who we know in Christ Jesus
Who we meet in the gospel today
In a house with his mother Mary
We pray for our human family
And especially today
For those journeying away from their homelands
To welcome newborn babies or celebrate marriages
To farewell loved ones and settle estates
For migrants seeking a better future
And refugees carrying unspeakable memories
As they escape cruel tyrannical powers
Who like Herod will stop at nothing
To try and stop Jesus being King
We pray for those especially on our hearts and minds this morning
…
God of other roads
Of worshippers and star-followers
In all time and in every place
At this time and in this place
We pray that you will bring to completion
Our hope for Jesus to be King
In our lives
And the lives of those we love
In the life of our city
Our country
And our world
As we pray in the words Jesus taught us
Monday, May 12, 2008
I love Coles
You really have to be an Aussie to understand this title, but Coles is one of the major supermarket chains and their generic brand is 'I Love Coles'. And bless their cotton socks - they have just started marketing potatoes as 'mashing potatoes' and 'roasting potatoes'. After years of lumpy mashed potatoes and mushy roast ones - tonight I served up an enormous pot of the very best soft creamy mashed potatoes ever!!! Once I even got a potato book out of the library and carried around a list of types of potato and their uses but I lost the list and it all got a bit complicated. So thank you Coles - I do love you!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Interesting juxtapositions
Mothers' Day and Pentecost coincide this year. According to my friend Jenny this last happened in 1913 and will not happen again until the year 2228. It also happened in 1818 and will happen again in 2285 (when Easter was/will be even a day earlier than this year). So what a momentous occasion!!?? (one thing you will find about me is that I do love these kind of trivial facts and they will appear on my blog from time to time).
This super-early Easter season has brought other 'co-incidences' that are particularly relevant down-under. Ash Wednesday fell on Waitangi Day - the day when the people of Aotearoa New Zealand remember Te Tiriti or the Treaty signed between Maori and Queen Victoria in 1840. And less than a week later the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, made a formal apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of this country for actions of the government that tore families apart and deeply wounded communities. The sorry speech was watched by millions nationwide, many workplaces made provision for employees to watch the broadcast, and this Kiwi living in Australia found it extremely moving to see the generous acceptance of the initiative by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders and especially by those most affected by past government intervention.
It seemed so appropriate in the season of Lent, when Christians intentionally focus on Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, that the two nations I identify with marked significant milestones in nationhood and in relationship with indigenous people. Colonisation causes such ongoing pain - and as part of the Anglo tradition I sometimes find it hard to know how to be part of the change that is necessary. I can rejoice though in these miniscule steps to repentance - turning around and challenging the often entrenched presumption of privilege. And I am engaged in developing a professional education activity which may help myself and colleagues to hone our skills in critiquing policy from an indigenous perspective.
And circling back to the start - Mothers' Day and Pentecost. The blog from Sally (on her journey) on exclusivism and Mothering Sunday has helped me enter this 'once-in-a-lifetime' liturgical/social coincidence with eyes open to see things differently. And there have been glimpses of that wonderful Spirit of Godde at work in my world. First at Mothers' Day Mass at my daughter's school. The music was excellent and the students' prayers and reflections demonstrated an inclusive valuing of women in their lives, mothers, and aunties, teachers, grandmothers and sisters and friends. Then in our Uniting Church this morning the liturgist prayed for all who struggle with parenthood, for those for whom this day is painful, and for families missing a loved mother or grandmother.
For me this is the first year without a mother to telephone and it has been a day of juxtapositions. Delighting in the attention from my three wonderful children - all living at home at the moment - and in breakfast out with my husband early in the day. Yet missing my own Mum who died on March 17. Then phoning my sister who is enjoying her first Mothers' Day as a grandmother, and hearing what a special day my niece is having with her precious seven-week-old son. Walking along the Parramatta foreshore gave an opportunity to somehow hold all these experiences and feelings and thoughts together and to treasure them deep within my heart.
Indeed - a day and a season of juxtapositions.
This super-early Easter season has brought other 'co-incidences' that are particularly relevant down-under. Ash Wednesday fell on Waitangi Day - the day when the people of Aotearoa New Zealand remember Te Tiriti or the Treaty signed between Maori and Queen Victoria in 1840. And less than a week later the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, made a formal apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of this country for actions of the government that tore families apart and deeply wounded communities. The sorry speech was watched by millions nationwide, many workplaces made provision for employees to watch the broadcast, and this Kiwi living in Australia found it extremely moving to see the generous acceptance of the initiative by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders and especially by those most affected by past government intervention.
It seemed so appropriate in the season of Lent, when Christians intentionally focus on Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, that the two nations I identify with marked significant milestones in nationhood and in relationship with indigenous people. Colonisation causes such ongoing pain - and as part of the Anglo tradition I sometimes find it hard to know how to be part of the change that is necessary. I can rejoice though in these miniscule steps to repentance - turning around and challenging the often entrenched presumption of privilege. And I am engaged in developing a professional education activity which may help myself and colleagues to hone our skills in critiquing policy from an indigenous perspective.
And circling back to the start - Mothers' Day and Pentecost. The blog from Sally (on her journey) on exclusivism and Mothering Sunday has helped me enter this 'once-in-a-lifetime' liturgical/social coincidence with eyes open to see things differently. And there have been glimpses of that wonderful Spirit of Godde at work in my world. First at Mothers' Day Mass at my daughter's school. The music was excellent and the students' prayers and reflections demonstrated an inclusive valuing of women in their lives, mothers, and aunties, teachers, grandmothers and sisters and friends. Then in our Uniting Church this morning the liturgist prayed for all who struggle with parenthood, for those for whom this day is painful, and for families missing a loved mother or grandmother.
For me this is the first year without a mother to telephone and it has been a day of juxtapositions. Delighting in the attention from my three wonderful children - all living at home at the moment - and in breakfast out with my husband early in the day. Yet missing my own Mum who died on March 17. Then phoning my sister who is enjoying her first Mothers' Day as a grandmother, and hearing what a special day my niece is having with her precious seven-week-old son. Walking along the Parramatta foreshore gave an opportunity to somehow hold all these experiences and feelings and thoughts together and to treasure them deep within my heart.
Indeed - a day and a season of juxtapositions.
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