Sorry - the beginning of wheat-green hope

There we were in Federation Square, Melbourne...
an estimated 8000 of us...
under the flags unfurled of the indigenous nations
of Australia.
We were there to hear our government say sorry.
Andrew Jackomos of the Yorta Yorta initiated proceedings.
An old friend of Miss Eagles, Rob Hulls - Acting Premier of Victoria - spoke formally.
The crowd was attentive.
There were the activists calling for compensation.
There were high school students...
in uniform...
taking time out.
There were the kids...
...and the buttons...
...and the t-shirts
...speaking what was in our hearts.
There were tears and cheers...
laughter and applause.
Then the disbelief, the pain of the Leader of the Opposition's speech.
They turned their backs in anger, disgust, and sorrow.
Miss Eagle stood beneath the loudspeakers at the back.
A well-dressed good looking twenty-something man spoke to her.
"Do you mind if I unplug the speakers?" he said politely.
"Feel free." Miss Eagle said cheerily.

She had turned her back on Howard -
at the Opera House, Corroboree 2000,
all those years ago.
Turned her back against his lies,
his hate, his meanness.
Brendan Nelson didn't seem worth the effort.
He has no power against the vision birthed yesterday.
His looking-backwards words
told us nothing, took us nowhere
except into the pain and sadness
of a certain sort of whitefella.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


And then back to Upper Gully.
Quiet, whitefella country.
The blackfellas left long ago -
one way or another.
But here a simple beginning was made.
A simple prayer service
at St Thom's.
And for whom did we pray?
In the spirit of wheat-green hope,
I think it was for us.

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?

Via Crucis at BMW Edge

Miss Eagle is searching for words to describe what she experienced last night at BMW Edge at Federation Square. Via Crucis: Stations of the Cross, a choral work by Brenton Broadstock, was presented and performed by Australian Contemporary Chorale.

This was not a static event. Stations used not only voice - but minimal costume, movement, lighting, image, percussion and textile to bring to life and give contemporary meaning to an ancient reflection on events surrounding Jesus as he went to his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Miss Eagle was so impressed, so caught up in the reverie and mystique portrayed, that it was only with great difficulty that her hands came together to join in the applause at the conclusion.

Originally, in ancient days, the Stations were performed in Rome to recall sad events that happened in another place. To bring this to remembrance, Broadstock's friend, Rome-based British artist Justin Bradshaw, produced a scene for each of the fourteen stations which were displayed for viewing as one entered the seating area. These paintings are reprinted in the program.

As one waited for the performance to begin, images were presented above the performance pit to remind us of those who stood up and spoke out to see wrongs righted. The images included Koiki Mabo, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Mother Teresa.

Two women need to take credit for the overall production. First is Hildy Essex who is the founder of the Australian Contemporary Chorale (previously known as the Melbourne Composition Choir) and its conductor. The Chorale's aim is to become the premier choir performing original Australian composition. The second is Jeannie Marsh. Jeannie's influence took this performance from chorale rendition into dramatic performance. The voices of Sam Qualtrough (tenor soloist) and Jane Hendry (soprano soloist) were a delight and brought richness and colour to the performance.

At the conclusion of the evening, Jon Cleary, the Australian religious broadcasters and commentator, launched the Chorale's CD, Stations.

And back to BMW Edge. From the seating, the audience looks across the Performance Pit, through the majesty of steel and glass, to the Yarra shimmering darkly under the city lights. Miss Eagle knows of only one better venue. It too sits beside water shimmering darkly at night under city lights - but at Bennelong Point.