Praying for Melbourne 2008

Archbishop Philip's Prayer for Melbourne

God of community, we give you thanks
for this beautiful and vibrant city:
for its diversity of people and cultural life,
for its industry and commerce,
for its hospitals and agencies of care,and
for its places of learning, recreation and worship.

God of compassion,we pray
for all who live and work in this city and
for those who visit here:
open our hearts to welcome the stranger,
shelter the homeless,befriend the lonely,care for the needy, and
offer hope to those in despair,
for these are your people.

God of community, Giver of life, of love and hope,
hear our prayers for the welfare of this city.
Amen

Translation: God of compassion - you are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You are at home, at school, at work with all generations. Thank you. Lord help me to care for others. For they are your people, Amen.

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We are a large and dynamic faith community in one of the world's most multicultural cities. We are diverse and vibrant and our parishes and other ministries cater to a wide variety of expressions within the Anglican tradition of the Christian faith. We trust that you will find resources, support and inspiration on our website to help you with your faith journey.

Dr Philip Freier, Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne

ARCHBISHOP PHILIP FREIER'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

The Archbishop and Childhood Depression

Please sign the Archbishop's Petition.

It is just over twelve months since Philip Freier was installed as Archbishop of Melbourne. Miss Eagle is unable to comment on whether Ab Philip is a good administrator of the affairs of the Archdiocese. She is also unable to comment on what sort of guidance, counsel and spiritual leadership the Archbishop provides to the clergy and laity. However, there is no gainsaying the public leadership provided by the Archbishop in 2007. It has been constant and remarkable.

He began with his Prayer4Melbourne quest. This twelve month program has seen the Archbishop out and about in all sorts of places and settings meeting all sorts of people. This has promoted awareness of Melbourne not only for the Archbishop, a newcomer to Melbourne, but within the Anglican constituency itself. The quest has also given the Archbishop and the Anglican community an enlarged profile in Melbourne.

In tandem with the quest, has been Conversations with the Archbishop. The conversations, which are held at BMW Edge in Federation Square, have received great attention and interest. The quality of the speakers has been excellent. The Archbishop has handled his role well.

[A small contingent from St Thom's at Upper Gully will be fronting up to this Wednesday's conversation with Hugh McKay. This is no mean feat because none of us are young and we will be catching the 6.32am train. This will get us there a few minutes late, Archbishop, but we'll be there with our Christmas bells on!]

One exercise of communal and Christian leadership was the Archbishop's address in reply to Patrick Dodson's speech in Brunswick in October. It was a tour de force.

One of the Archbishop's conversations focussed on childhood depression when, on November 14, he held a public conversation under the title Our crisis of childhood depression. Ab Philip was joined by the Director of Women's Forum Australia, Melinda Tankard Reist, and Professor Alasdair Vance, the Head of Academic Child Psychiatry, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. The Archbishop has called for a national inquiry into the state of childhood in Australia. He has renewed his call to-day in The Age.

Archbishop Philip has highlighted Mission Australia's 2007 Survey of Australia's Young People. Read of its major findings here.

Philip Freier: Aboriginal voices of prophecy

People - Christians among them - frequently get the concept of the prophetic voice all wrong. In the Biblical tradition, there is a future context within the prophetic call and voice. Closer examination of the prophetic voice clearly shows that it has a quality of forth-telling, not merely fore-telling.

Philip Freier makes this plain. He also makes it plain that politicians who pander to certain sectors of the body politic are merely re-inforcers of the status quo. They are not people who can move in a prophetic way

• to provide leadership;
• to bring justice to those treated unjustly; and
• to bring clarity to our journey into the future.
  

Leadership and critique on the Howard Shock and Awe Intervention

Many people, black and white and blog, have drawn attention to shortcomings in the Northern Territory State of Emergency otherwise known as Howard's Shock and Awe Campaign.

The Labor Opposition under Kevin Rudd has provided no leadership on the issue. While attention is drawn to this, a lot of us go along with it in the hope that as he leads the opinion polls so it will be on election day and we have Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. The only problem with this is - what if he doesn't win; what if he turns out to be nothing like the Prime Minister that we want and the nation needs.

At last, a leader has spoken up. Not caustically, as this blog has the freedom and inclination to do. An old lady can do little else but snipe from the sidelines. But a knowledgable, experienced and forthright Archbishop? Well, he might actually have an opportunity to discuss something with a Prime Minister sometime, somewhere. He needs to have channels of communication to be kept open. He does not have the same freedom as Miss Eagle - even if this was his inclination - to sound off.

So the Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freier, makes his point moderately while bringing into focus THE major issues - community consultation, communication and respect.

Last night, Rudd and Howard presented their respective viewpoints on a national internet presentation hosted by the Australian Christian Lobby. Tens of thousands of Christians gathered at over 700 [or 850, depending on which report is read] venues across Australia to watch a live webcast featuring speeches from John Howard and Kevin Rudd. [Please note, dear Reader, the numbers. The megachurches love the numbers and the income they provide. So do politicians. Twin species?]

Miss Eagle made no attempt to get involved in this internet hook-up. The mind-set of the ACL is not Miss Eagle's except that we both claim the name of Christian. In no media coverage that I have heard to-day, and there is nothing on the ACL website as at 10.25am to-day, which would indicate that the welfare of Aboriginal people got a guernsey in this For Christians Only debate. Clearly, Howard thought the people at the For Christians Only debate gave highest priority to pornography. Who can say he's wrong?

[Miss E is anti-pornography too. I am anti-pornography not only for all the usual reasons but because a family member is a victim of the pornography addiction of a spouse. My take on pornography is much more sophisticated than any arguments that I have heard from the ACL constituency. I also contest the high priority given to pornography in that constituency in contrast to matters such as poverty and employment. ]

Miss Eagle, at the time of writing, has been unable to find transcipts of the Howard and Rudd speeches.

Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freire: on the front foot.

The 10am news on the ABC here in Melbourne has just reported that Archbishop Philip Freire, Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, has questioned why the Federal Government has linked its intervention in Aboriginal communities to the resumption of land. One assumes this was part of the Archbishop's address last night at the University of Wollongong when he delivered the Inaugural Richard Johnson College Lecture. The Lecture was titled Public Policy and Indigenous Affairs – 40 Years on.

The Archbishop certainly displayed a magnificent, nay Providential, sense of timing. Mal Brough is reported to-day as being most dismissive of the Catholic Bishops. Apparently the Catholic Bishops don't have close and sufficient knowledge. Don't know what Brough's religious allegiance is, if any, but it is clear that he knows nothing of the Catholic bishops and how they know exactly what is going on. Brough wouldn't want to be so dismissive of Freier whose credentials include a stint as Bishop of the Northern Territory immediately prior coming to Melbourne just at the end of last year. Now, what credentials does Brough think he has....? These are his credentials on the parliamenary website. Mmmm....!

Archbishop and Anglicans : Policy and Prayer

We keep hearing that our economy is booming, and we saw clear evidence of that in the federal Budget. But the sad reality is that inequality is increasing. Housing affordability is at a record low, rents are rising rapidly, and homelessness is increasing.

Words of warning from Philip Freier, Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne. Read more of what he has to say here.

Philip Freier is taking the Christian voice to the frontline of the public policy debate in Melbourne.

New to Melbourne, the Archbishop has established a prayer quest, Prayer4Melbourne. This gets Archbishop Philip out and about into all sorts of places in the city and the suburbs to talk to all sorts of people. Read about this stuff on the Archbishop's blog.

Then there are his Conversations. Held in the centre of Melbourne at BMW Edge at Federation Square, there have been two so far. The first one focussed on stem cell research under the title Send in the Clones; the second one was Is a 'fair go' a 'no go' in Australia today?

Sign of the times

Photo: Craig Abraham/The Age

"JUSTICE FOR DAVID HICKS"

has become a cause for Melbourne's Anglicans. Not only is the demand made in an eight-metre banner hanging from St Paul's Cathedral, but new Archbishop Philip Freier has written to Prime Minister John Howard on Hicks' behalf.

God loves a fair go

More than 800 people attended a prayer service in support of David Hicks at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral yesterday. Miss Eagle is disappointed that she could not attend because illness intervened. The news of such a large attendance is heartening. Many, many more came to pray than turned up at the Coburg dinner the week before - but then the church service was free.

The time is drawing nigh, Miss Eagle thinks, when a multi-faith prayer service should be considered.

Miss Eagle applauds Archbishop Philip Freier's emphasis that God loves justice. The Howard Government talks loud and long about Australian values even to the point of attempting to mandate Australian values for newcomers. Central to the ethos of Australians is the fair go: what God would call justice.

This is why so many Australians have begun to focus on David Hicks and his unchristian, unjust, and uncivilised treatment at the hands of the government of the United States of America.

An increasing number of Australians believe that - whatever David Hicks may or may not have done - he is not getting a fair go. Australians - at least in this instance and in spite of inhabiting one of the most secular societies on the face of Planet Earth - believe in The Golden Rule. They want to treat another as they themselves wish to be treated. They want a fair go for themselves. They want their government to act in their best interests if they are in trouble overseas and are at the mercy of a foreign government.

Australians want for David Hicks what they want for themselves: a fair go.

A shepherd for Melbourne sheep!

Lord, you give the great commission:

'heal the sick and preach the word'.

Lest the church neglect its mission,

and the gospel go unheard.

Jeffery Rowthorn

Yesterday, Saturday 16 December 2006, Dr Philip Leslie Freier was installed and recognised as the tenth Archbishop of Melbourne in the Metropolitical and Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, Melbourne.

The emphasis of the liturgy was on the role of the shepherd, on justice, and on the Archbishop's background in Northern Australia.

To receive a file of photographs of the Installation, please email Miss Eagle (see the link on the side bar below the Ausflag symbol!).

Come, O justice, come O Peace:

come and shape our hearts anew;

come and make oppression cease:

bring us all to life in you

Marty Haugen