Events - Upcoming Events
Listing events for the 14/3/2010:
Religion: Church - What part will they play
- Date:
- Sunday 14 March 2010
- Time:
- 10:00am
- Location:
- St Michael's Uniting Church
Religion: Church - What Part will they play in the Real World?
You have all heard those speeches in which a man or woman is generously praised. The funeral. Retirement. Receiving some award or accolade. There is always someone who could say - yes, but there is another side to him/her. She only got to the top by her tyrannical behaviour. You know him as a wonderful this or that - but we (his family) know his other side.
It's like that with the church. There are plenty of people who point to the good works the Church and the churches have done - are doing.
But many have suffered from its dishonesty and its disgraceful behaviours... its corruption, its instilling guilt and unworthiness into millions; its cause of psychological damage, the generations of mentally troubled people.
More than that - religion, the churches, and its practitioners have kept people in ignorance, have insisted on creeds and beliefs that are contrary to intelligence, education, information or commonsense in a changing culture and a 21st Century.
What realistically is the good of the church and religion in our real world?
Why do people keep coming to church? In fact - world-wide, people are not going to church, do not find the experience interesting, inspiring, comforting or intelligible!
Religious belief is not a growing industry.
Alongside of that reality, I am constantly shocked to find what has happened here in St Michael's over several decades - and what is happening here at this time.
On any Sunday, I find people will travel from Ballarat and Birregurra to be here - I find people here from Wonthaggi to Warragul. We have people from Morwell and Mooroopna - from Hamilton and Hopetown.
But more than that - there are several young people - students and professional people from India, Malaysia and Singapore. Young people from China and Japan.
And them amongst us who come every Sunday, there are those who say - we come because it is simply our church; and there is the larger group who keep coming because at one level at least, they say something more is happening here.
I know some are here because it is reassuring to reaffirm their old beliefs, and there are others here who say those old beliefs are dead, and - if there is not something more believable and intelligent, we will be out of here. And that is the see-saw I sit on every Sunday.
I often wonder why some highly intelligent humanitarian people will have nothing to do with the church, though they are vigorous participants in several other organizations that are very acrimonious or just as divisive as they see the churches have become. Most organizations have two aspects - as Leon Gettler described in his book "Organizations Behaving Badly."
We do know this - healthy organisations encourage people to be open to new ideas, encourage people to grow in themselves and feel proud to belong, encourage people to think inside and outside the circle, to be creative, exploratory and experimental.
When I first became a minister in this city, there was one CEO of a church department who was a marvellous example of what a leader could be. He was an energised man of faith. He helped several of us connect with a pathway that led to many achievements and insights that would not have been possible under a different leadership. Sadly, I have not seen his like since.
But then let us not snarl at the Church because of that. Not many Nelson Mandela's walk the stage in one lifetime. Not many Albert Schweitzers or Albert Einsteins. Not many of this or that - until we look: and there they are.
Harvey Cox retired professor of Theology from Harvard, in his latest book "The Future of Faith wrote -
"Once I realised that Christianity is not a creed, (not something based on a line-up of beliefs) things changed" (p 19) I discovered Faith is not about beliefs, "Faith is a way of life."
In our time we have to liberate the "message of Jesus from the creedal cage in which it has been encased". (p 135)
Then I pulled down the book containing Rosalind Price's words. (She is a publisher of books with Allen and Unwin). Back in 2004 she wrote - expressing that liberating message -
"... I have...no gods. Life itself is the thing, quite magnificent and mysterious enough without (everybody's) gods. It's life that calls for our reverence and at the heart of life is connection." (258 This I believe, ed by John Masden)
"The challenge is to connect - with other people and ways of being, and with the natural world." (257)
"The world suffers from dogmatic faith, which is often misused to exonerate, exclude or oppress. People without doubts are dangerous or tiresome," she wrote.
So in the midst of the promotion of an open-hearted, open-minded New Faith there were people writing letters determined that I should be kicked out of the church.
I felt a twinge of an urge to reply -
"Religion is not about expulsion, stupid! It is about inclusion.
It is not about cutting people off. It is about an intelligent connection.
It is not about a CLOSED shop. It is about ongoing OPEN searching."
Just as it is sometimes easier to become impatient where we hear the speeches of a person's good points we like to say - yes BUT - so the same applies to religion and the church.
The Old Faith has many skeletons in the cupboard.
A New Faith calls for a church and religion that is in keeping with 21st Century intelligence and information, emotional maturity, intellectual honesty and scientific openness and exploration.
We look for a religion and a church that does not curtail people's growth, imagination and exploration - we affirm a religion a church that enhances humanity, not destroy it! That continues to search for the undiscovered ways of health and wholeness..
We look for a religion and a church that has real impact on everyone's mind and mood - that as they walk in here, they take a new deep breath! We look for a religion and a church that connects everyone with the train of people who are carriers of beauty - one of the great gifts of life that transcends hostility and narrowness, and acclaims by each person's presence that there is something grand about life.
Many people say: I don't need to go to church to be good. They are quite right. Plenty of people are notably generous in their goodness and they never go to church, temple, synagogue or mosque.
Many people say: I don't need to go to church to pray. They are quite right. Many people have different ways to pray and they can do it in their solitude.
But if you want to experience a religious service you need to pause and say - Is it necessary? Will it help me live with greater vitality and expansiveness?
The social aspect of religion - the gathering together -
Reminds us that we are connecting with something larger than our life.
The gathering together is an experience of people lifting their heart, their mind and their mood, in praise and gratitude for the few years of life that are ours.
The gathering together of religion is a time to be open, to listen, to pause, to wonder.
The gathering together brings a sense of transformation to our ordinary life as we laugh, enjoy someone's company, knowing we have all been in the presence of something totally different from every other club or organization.
The gathering together is a time to hear those words we are no longer alone, we are part of the family of God - and what does that mean?
It means that we are all joined in life Hindu: Jew, Shinto, Buddhist, Muslim, B'Hai and more. And the atheists and agnostics. All of us are pausing to realize there are no closed book answers - even the Bible will always be an open book.
We all stand before the great mystery of suffering - and celebration - all committed to be carriers of beauty, explorers of the energy of Faith, and all of us greatly enlarged and enhanced as we come and go.
We know how easy it is to get blocked by beliefs - but beliefs are not the core of the matter, The core of the matter is for every person to discover the "energy of faith" that helps them to live. That helps them step out of the drift of life and take hold of a passion that keeps that faith renewed.
Religion at its informed best is
1. EXPANSIVENESS
an experience of being OPEN and EXPANDED to new possibilities of what God means and what life can become.
2. ENCOMPASSING ENERGY
an awareness of our vulnerability and our search for positive helpful, strengthening connections with resources beyond ourselves.
3. ENHANCEMENT
a readiness to see each other's presence as a way of lightening each other's anxieties and burdens.
4. EXPLORATION
An exploration of what it means to be fully human - "a journey into the heart of our humanity." (Spong, 156)
It says PULL OVER - Pause and listen to what it's all about and connect with the possibilities.
Dr Macnab's Address
- Date:
- Sunday 14 March 2010
- Time:
- 10:00am
- Location:
- St Michael's Uniting Church
Living in the Real World.
Use a Religion that Enchances Personal Life.
Dr Francis Macnab
Music-
Bruno Siketa- Trumpet
Things That Matter
- Date:
- Sunday 14 March 2010
- Time:
- 11:45am
- Duration:
- 1.5 hours
- Location:
- Waratah Room, 1st Floor, St Michael’s Hall
TTM 2010 - Things That Matter
A new lively, interactive program focused on things that matter to all of us, here and now. We ask the question: What on earth could religion in the 21st century possibly contribute to our contemporary concerns? Views, visions and ideas to challenge our assumptions, disturb our complacency and stimulate creative thinking and constructive action.
WHEN & WHERE: 2nd Sunday of every month after morning service, in the Waratah Room, 1st Floor, St Michael's Hall
SESSION ONE: Sunday 14th March 2010
TOPIC: Imagine - a Sermon on the Moon!!
Because from the moon you can see clearly what we're doing to the planet, but you can't see dogmas, catechisms, or creeds.
(Clark Strand, interreligious spiritual teacher, author and former Zen Buddhist monk)
FACILITATOR: Julie Hall
Commencing after morning service with refreshments and fruits of the Earth
Music On Sunday
- Date:
- Sunday 14 March 2010
- Time:
- 1:00pm
- Location:
- St Michael's Uniting Church
Bruno Siketa (Trumpet)
Some say that the combination of Trumpet and Organ is a sound close to heaven. Bruno Siketa, one of Australia's most sought after trumpeters, has performed for us in the St. Michael's Brass Ensemble this will be his first solo appearance, accompanied by Rhys Boak on the St. Michael's organ.