How wonderful to find such a picture with an Australian flavour.

See here.

I count the prophets of the eighth century as among my best mates. It is hard to choose between when it comes to favourites but, if I am forced, I will choose Amos, shepherd turned reluctant prophet. Christine Sine, that Aussie resident in the USA who comes home very often, has written a wonderful justice prayer over at Godspace which is partly based on Amos. The prayer has also been picked up at The Breadblog.

God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry
Please help those of us who are rich to be honest and fair just like you, our God.
May we who have such abundance be honest and fair with all your people, especially the poor.
Let peace and justice rule every mountain and fairness flow as a river that never runs dry.

God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry
May we your people defend the poor, rescue the homeless, and crush everyone who hurts them.
May we be as helpful as rain that refreshes the ground, to those who are treated unjustly.
Let the wholeness and fairness of your kingdom live forever like the sun and the moon.

God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry
Because you our God rescue the homeless and have pity on those who hurt
May we who are rich stand up for the poor and let peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Let God’s kingdom of justice and fairness reach from sea to sea, across all the earth.
God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness

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.

~~~~~~~~

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

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.

Prophets of a future not our own....

Simon Barrow

Simon Barrow has to be one of the busiest - and most talented - people around. He is Co-Director of Ekklesia (who has long been linked from this blog). I am indebted to Simon and his blog, faithinsociety, for referring me to the wonderful thoughts of Oscar Romero expressed below. His thoughts seem so fitting for the sort of work this blog tries to do. The thoughts expressed here are frequently uncomfortable for mainstream people - including mainstream Christians. But seeking justice where there is none is never comfortable. Speaking out for the marginalised is never welcome when people are seeking only to make themselves and their own comfortable.

Long ago, a journalist named Finley Peter Dunne referred to comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Miss Eagle thinks that this is what Christians are - or should be - about. In fact, it should be what thinking people who care about humanity are about. This blog tries - but, as Romero points out, the job is never done. What is being built here is not the work of a master builder. Only the Master Builder can complete it.

Ab. Oscar Romeo, Martyr

A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

A prayer/poem by Archbishop Oscar Romero(martyred, 14 March 1980)

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of

the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete,

which is another way of saying

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,

and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,

an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,

ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

THE CAMPAIGNER'S PRAYER

I spent a good few hours letterboxing to-day. As I plodded along one foot in front of the other, I decided something more was needed, so some words came in rhythm with my steps:

May this house vote for justice at this election

May this house lobby for justice after this election

May this house have a heart for justice.

In Jesus Name

Amen

Miss Eagle is not alone.........

Miss Eagle is not alone in finding praying for rain a dubious pursuit. She is in good company - with Father Bob. Father Bob is a major identity in Melbourne: a humourous man posing and imposing as the old fashioned Catholic parish priest in his parish at the inner city suburb of South Melbourne. You can hear him on the radio, see him on TV, and now he's podcasting from his blog.

Praying for rain: a doubtful pursuit?

The Burrinjuck Dam - Christmas 2006 - getting lower and lower

The following email, dear Reader, was in Miss Eagle's inbox this morning, forwarded by my friend K. Please note: Crossway is Australia's largest Baptist congregation.

This is a message that Stuart Robinson Senior Pastor of Crossway Central shared with the congregation this morning.

Dear Family in Christ,

While at the garage getting my car fixed, I received a call from Pastor Danny [Nahlia] stating that as he and his wife were having a time of prayer this morning, the Lord revealed that it's time for the Nation of Australia to once again come together and pray for rain in response to Prime Minister John Howard's call to pray for rain! (just like Old Testament Biblical days when the King and the Prophet worked together to call the nation and people to prayerfully return to the Lord God of Israel)

In immediate obedience to the voice of God, Ps. Danny and Catch the Fire Ministries are calling on the church and nation of Australia on Wednesday 25th April (Anzac Day) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm to gather together wherever you are to prayerfully seek the Father in heaven for rain! "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

If you live in Melbourne, we encourage you to join with us on Wednesday 25th April at Fitzroy Gardens (next to Captain Cook's Cottage) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm as Catch the Fire Ministries will lead a gathering of repentance and prayer for rain across Australia!

Most amazingly, 1 hour after I received the call from Ps. Danny, he was contacted and interviewed for 30 minutes by the editor of the Age Newspaper who asked him, "Have you thought of responding to the Prime Minister's call for prayer and what are you going to do?" Tomorrow's (Sunday 22nd April)edition of the Age Newspaper will carry an article about calling the church and nation to pray for rain.

Please forward this email and spread the Word to everyone you know across
our nation!

Let's unceasingly seek the Lord in prayer, fasting and repentance for Him to send the early and latter rains across this Great Southland of the Holy Spirit!

Thanking and Blessing You,

Jason Golden
Catch the Fire Ministries
PO Box 7427
Dandenong
VIC 3175 Australia
Tel: 613 9794 8211 Fax: 613 9794 9311
www.catchthefire.com.au

Miss Eagle replied to K. as follows:

K., I don't altogether agree with this praying for rain stuff.

I think what we should be doing is praying for ourselves and the condition we are in. I am pleased to see this scripture quoted - "If my people,who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek myface and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heavenand will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

But an hour of prayer at Capt Cook's cottage won't do it.We have to reflect openly on what we have done and have a national discussion about this.We have wrecked this continent in just over two hundred years. We have turned large tracts of land to salt, we have polluted the rivers, and the oceans. We have denuded the land and now there is a word heard in this country which I had never heard before - desertification. There is a company in Queensland, Cubby Station, that no one does anything about - perhaps they don't have the power but I also wonder if they don't have the will - which has diverted water for itself. This water used to flow into the Murray-Darling Basin. Now it doesn't. Australia is losing animal species to extinction faster than anywhere else on earth. So that's what we are doing to the land, the trees, the water, and the animals. And this prime minister says pray!

Then lets look at what we have done in the last few years to people. We have concentration camps on Australian soil. We have deported our own citizens away from their country and locked up our own in these concentration camps. We are turning away to other countries humanity in need - in spite of the bible's injunction on how to treat sojourners....because, as Yahweh reminds us, you were once sojourners. Jesus, Mary and Joseph fleeing from a murderous Herod would not make it into this country! Australia has supported a prime minister who does this. A prime minister who writes letters of support for Danny Nahlia and whose support Danny Nahlia welcomes. And this prime minister says pray!

Let's take a look at our society - we pay sportsmen small fortunes, idolise them and tolerate their abuse of human beings, their rape of women, and their drug habits. Our country rushes to wars they have no business to be in and oversees large scale bribery in the sale of wheat. And this prime minister says pray!

Every day of my life I look out my windows at the Dandenong Ranges National Park - a very beautiful God-blessed part of the world. Last week, in a part of the Ranges I look at often, two young women took their lives in what is believed to be a suicide pact. Suicide and depression in Australia is a major issue. In fact, it appears to be a significant barometer of ourselves.

John Howard came to power saying he wanted to make Australians feel comfortable. Look around. Some are comfortable and a lot of those who are comfortable are self-interested, self-seeking, greedy and ambitious. The needs of the poor are neglected. Ordinary people have their public schools de-funded to provide funds for schools who are so wealthy one would not think they needed more money. Our public facilities like hospitals are falling to pieces. Our national infrastructure - around which we build our economic well being - is in dire need of investment. No one seems to be able to figure out how to run a university system without hanging hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt around the necks of the young. Housing for rental and purchase is becoming out of reach. And the prime minister says pray!

The prime minister could do something about the significant problems listed above. And, if he had tried to do all this, and we had tried to get all this done and reformed ourselves, and then we had failed, I think we could then reflect and pray. But to throw prayers God-ward and yet not acknowledge our sins....I think that is blasphemy.

Let me know what you think, K.

Blessings and bliss

World Day of Prayer 2007

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER 2007

TO-NIGHT AT A CHURCH

NEAR YOU

Spider's web lace made by women in Paraguay

The World Day of Prayer Committee in Paraguay

This year's World Day of Prayer has been prepared by the women of Paraguay. Miss Eagle is pleased to see that the Australian committee has drawn attention to an historic link between Australia and Paraguay in the form of the utopian socialist communities established by William Lane. To those of us involved in the labour movement, this is of significant historic importance. The movement to establish the communities involved two of Australia's greatest poets, Henry Lawson and Mary Gilmore. Miss Eagle knew, some years ago now, a daughter of John Lane, William's brother. John is famous for riding around western New South Wales on a bicycle with the tyres stuffed with straw to seek support for the settlements in Paraguay. His daughter was born at Cosme.

Back to to-day, there is a chance once again to link with Paraguay: this time in prayer.
Paraguay is a country with a young population, full of enthusiasm and zest for life. However it is one of the poorest countries in the world and struggles with poverty, unemployment, lack of education and health services, the need of land for rural people and indigenous communities and a globalisation that has increased the levels of violence and placed cultural traditions at risk. Please keep the people of Paraguay in your prayers during 2007.

This year's theme is United Under God's Tent.

Australian Research Institute for Desert Spirituality - ARIDS

From Ian Robinson:

May 17-20 VOICE IN THE DESERT .

A national retreat on desert spirituality is to be held actually on the edge of the Australian desert 70km east of Southern Cross, Western Australia.

The official launch of the Australian Research Institute for Desert Spirituality (ARIDS) will be held in the Koora Retreat Centre, hosted by Rev Anna Killigrew and Rev Peter Harrison. Costs are still being finalised, but they will be modest! They include good food, campfire, desert plains, salmon gums, toilets, showers are beds.


We will keep silence. Trisha Watts is our keynote prayer leader. Out of our times of silence will come the sounds of a ‘still small voice’ that she will help us to share and to welcome. Many of you know Trish’s outstanding music and gracious workshop leadership, and you others are in for a treat.


There will also be time for words. Papers on some aspect of Desert Spirituality are hereby called for, and if necessary will be selected by the working group composed of Rev Dr Anna Killigrew, Rev Ian Robinson, and Rev Tracy Spencer. Only a smallish number of papers will be offered.


Access to Koora is via Perth or Kalgoorlie by air, train car or bus. Contact Ian Robinson, at idtr@westnet.com.au, and Ian will help you find share transport.

Picture: Rabbit Proof Fence 25nm to the East of Southern Cross

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.

An adventure on the journey of life.

Miss Eagle's good friend, Jim Phillips of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, was diagnosed yesterday with bowel cancer. Miss Eagle asks for prayers for Jim - particularly as his work, business, and family life have to be sorted out to enable him to seek treatment interstate.

In the Territory there is a saying: Get a pain, catch a plane. So next Thursday Jim is on a plane to Brisbane.

Tennant Creek (pop. 4,000) and Alice Springs (pop. 25,000 and five hours away) is not the place to deal with something as serious as this. Jim's dearly beloved, Sylvia, keeps the admin part of the business going. An excellent supervisor keeps the real work going. We need prayer so that Sylvia can be relieved of her admin duties - which are vital to the sustainability of the business - to be with Jim in Brisbane.

Jim and Sylvia walk and work closely with God day by day in every way.

Please be with them as they journey with Him on this adventure too.