Category: Stories & Feature Articles

This wonderful book acknowledges the skill and dedication of some of the lesser known Methodist leaders whose contribution to the faith should be better known today. We benefit from their work. This book provides a message of hope and encouragement.

The twelve biographies, each expertly written, show cumulatively the wide range of Methodist impact on Australian society.

The editor’s note the twelve were engaged as missionaries, preachers, educationalists, administrators, ecumenists and social reformers.An example of this diverse work and the importance of making the most of each opportunity was Alice Mofflin (1878–1961). She is the sole West Australian in the book.

Rev Dr Alison Longworth shows how she was active in creating WA institutions for childcare, healthcare, women’s fellowship, and overseas missions. She was an example of how a female layperson could be a pioneer in many fields.

The news headlines are clear: religion is on the decline in the West as many people leave behind traditional religious practices.

Diana Butler Bass, leading commentator on religion, politics and culture, argues that what appears to be a decline actually signals a major transformation in how people experience God.

The distant God of conventional religion has given way to a more intimate sense of the sacred that is with us in the world. This shift – from a vertical understanding of God, to a God found on the horizons of nature and human community – is at the heart of a spiritual revolution that surrounds us.

The book concludes with the ‘Commons’ where Diana argues religion has abandoned its prophetic and creative vision of humanity’s common life’, in favour of an individual quest to get to heaven. In the process, community became isolated behind walls of buildings where worship experiences corresponded to members’ tastes, preferences and political views. A sad mistake, for at the very centre of every religion there stands some great communal vision of God, the world and humanity.

When Michelle and Yusef chose to embark on life together as a married couple, some things were sure to become a little more complicated thanks to their different faiths and cultural backgrounds.

For Michelle, an Australian-born Christian, and Yusef, a Muslim, one of their first experiences of balancing two different religious traditions was deciding how they would get married. And more specifically, who would conduct the service.

Rev Helen Richmond, a Uniting Church Minister, relays their story in her new book, Blessed and Called to be a Blessing: Muslim-Christian couples sharing a life together.

“Michelle’s parents were struggling with their daughter’s decision to marry someone from a very different culture and religion. Michelle had always wanted to marry in a church and walk down the aisle and this was also important for her parents. For Yusef’s family it was important that a Muslim cleric who was a close family friend could conduct the ceremony.”

They began looking for a church willing to marry them and were delighted to find a minister who not only welcomed them but who was open to the idea of jointly conducting the service with a Muslim cleric.