This month, Heather Dowling shares some online resources and ideas for Easter.
Category: Stories & Feature Articles
We know that Jesus was a storyteller, but was Jesus funny? Is there humour in the Bible?
Rev John Bell, international theologian, musician and social justice advocate, thinks so, and will be in the country soon to tell us why. He’ll be setting off on an Australian and New Zealand tour in May. Despite the challenging time difference from WA, John shared some of his passions for the church, from his home base of Glasgow, Scotland.
John has been a member of the Iona Community for 50 years. On top of that he’s worked for the community as a resource worker in the areas of worship, spirituality and social justice. He’s also a published author, a regular radio broadcaster and a songwriter of many hymns – some of which we regularly use in worship here in the Uniting Church WA.
In Western Australia, we’re blessed to have some of the purest honey in the world. Our hardworking honey bees are free from a number of diseases that affect bees globally, including Varroosis, caused by the sucking mite, Varroa. This is one of the reasons why our state is on lockdown from fresh produce and other items coming in through the borders.
We’ve had a pretty good run over many years when it comes to WA honey, but that doesn’t mean we should become complacent about our bee population. A number of factors are creating huge concerns for our bees, which could have catastrophic consequences – far beyond diminishing our honey supply.
As we approach the second ever United Nations World Bee Day on Monday 20 May, Revive explores the complex world of bees in WA.
In our feature article this edition, Revive explores the importance of bees in WA. Keeping with that theme, Heather Dowling shares some handy tips for keeping our bee friends happy and healthy in our home gardens.
Plant a native garden
Attract bees to your yard with a native garden that flowers all year round. Not only will your garden look amazing, it’ll save water too.
Many native plants will flower over a few different seasons, or even all year. Try Bottlebrush, flowering Gum Trees, Woolly Bush, Wattle, Hibiscus or Lilies. Make sure you prepare the soil to your plants’ needs by clearing weeds and, if possible, installing trickle irrigation, so you don’t over or under water.
If you’re close to Perth, visit Kings Park’s Backyard Botanical Garden. It’s full of native plants that are easy to grow at home. Kings Park also run monthly Dig it With Coffee workshops, where you can chat with a horticulturalist about your native garden. If Kings Park is too far for you to visit, check out the Friends of Kings Park website for a wealth of gardening information, including a great searchable native plant database in their Plant Sales section. Visit friendsofkingspark.com.au.
Build a bee hotel
Native bees love a good Bee Hotel! With native bushland being cleared more and more, our lodger bees may find it difficult to find places to nest.
Lodger bees love to nest in existing holes and there are lots of different species that you can help to find a home. For the curious minds, Bee Hotels are a great way to learn more about native bees and observe their behaviour – being careful to leave them to their own business.
Build a Bee Hotel by creating dry tunnels in wood or clay structures. This can be as simple as drilling some holes into a dry log, or as involved as building a fancy piece of art! Lengths of bamboo work well as tunnels, but avoid using chemically treated timber. Find out more about Bee Hotels and how to make one that will suit your garden at aussiebee.com.au/bee-hotel-aussie-bee-guide.html
Give them a drink
Like all of us, bees need water. Leave a few small bowls of water around the garden that bees can access throughout the day, and remember to check them every now and then to make sure they’re clean and that they haven’t evaporated or tipped over.
Avoid chemical pesticides
Chemical pesticide or insecticide not only kills bugs and insects you might want to keep off your plants, it’ll kill our lovable bee friends too! It’s also been linked to Colony Collapse Disorder, where worker bees are so stressed they will abandon a colony and leave their queen and her young behind. Colony Collapse Disorder is currently not affecting Australian bees, and nor would we want it to.
While bee-friendly pesticides are being developed, it’s best to steer clear from chemicals in the garden, especially around the home. If pesticides must be used, don’t spray near water supplies, or directly onto flowering plants. Also, spray late in the evening after bees have finished their work for the day. This will give the chemicals a bit of time to dry up before the bees come back in the morning.
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Kids grow with KCO
This year’s theme for Uniting Generations’ annual Kids’ Camp Out (KCO) was ‘Grow’. Held from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 March at Advent Park in Maida Vale, campers, junior leaders and camp leaders came together for a weekend of fun, food, sharing and growth. Together they explored the theme, including looking back at photos from previous camps – which many of the kids had been part of.
In a devastating blow for the Busselton and Nannup communities, most of the premises of the Match Factory was destroyed by fire on Saturday 16 March. Match Factory is an op-shop and low cost food centre run by Busselton Uniting Church, but it is so much more than that to the many people involved.
Match Factory also provide emergency hampers of food, bedding and clothing to people in need, as well as an important network for both clients and volunteers.
In October last year, we travelled to England for a holiday. This visit was primarily to visit our daughter Alison and family, but as usual when we visit England we caught up with various members of both of our families and some friends, as we both grew up there. Upon reflection, this visit was a mixture of both good and sad experiences.
On the way to England we met with Floss’ cousin and her husband in Amsterdam. Both couples celebrated Golden Weddings in 2018 and we had our own special time of celebration together. They travelled to Holland in their car and so we had a new experience of travelling overnight on a ferry – the nearest we have had to a cruise! We docked in Newcastle-upon- Tyne which is where our daughter, Alison, lives.
For Floss, the trip up the north east coast was special, being the part of England where she was born and lived for her first 42 years. Watching familiar landmarks from the sea was an exciting experience and brought some tears.
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A story that unites
I’m not a great one for formulas and creeds when it comes to shaping my Christian faith. Rather, give me a good story, a character, or a song. You know, the concrete stuff of lives lived; that’s where I feel most at home.
Take for instance the eternal Lord God, who may well exist as ‘one being in three persons, the Blessed Trinity’ that our various creeds declare. Who am I after all to argue with centuries of learned debate?
But such a doctrinal formula is almost meaningless to me. What does speak to me though are stories and images: Lady Wisdom calling to me from her door; the creative Spirit hovering over a restless sea; Saul being confronted by a voice and blinding light along the road; the image of a loving father running down another road to embrace me; the jilted lover in Hosea; a potter forming me like clay from Jeremiah; the stern face of the judge separating the sheep from the goats; the playfulness of a child from Proverbs; a pillar of fire and cloud guiding the people; the water of life springing from the rock… Here is God for me, in these and a myriad of other images, parables and songs.
“I remember being taught that if you did something wrong, you should admit it and try to make it right again,” says Rev Neil Wilkinson. “But will politicians follow this rule?”
Neil is referring to the unfair treatment of Uniting Church Ministers whose retirement incomes were slashed by Scott Morrison as Minister for Social Services in the Abbott government in 2015. The move was touted as reining in “public service fat-cats” who enjoyed generous superannuation as well as some aged pension. The policy change affected the way in which ‘defined benefit’ superannuation pensions were assessed for Centrelink purposes.
Living can be a full time preoccupation these days.
Alex is anxious about the kids’ lunches, torn school uniform and the rash on the cat. Teenage Roy is torn between sporting practice, hanging out with mates and updating his new My e-Health Record. Jace is juggling part-time jobs with uni studies and keeping up with friends.
Elena and Jorge are busy juggling work rosters (one FIFO), paying off the mortgage, keeping up with a parent in hospital and finishing off a gardening project. Laurie is battling telecommunication hiccups between his new NBN connection and an ageing computer that keeps hanging – whilst trying to juggle medical appointments and an aching body.