Tag: Books, Films, Art, Awards and Recipes

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Stories & Feature Articles

Aussie Divinity Candy

Christmas is just around the corner! This Australian version of an American treat makes for great, sugary homemade gifts, or addition to the Christmas spread.

The ‘Divinity’ candy is believed to have originated in the south of the United States of America as early as 1915, when corn syrup started to become widely used as a substitute for sugar.

It’s unclear where the name came from, but a popular theory is that when first tasted it was declared to be ‘devine’. We invite you to make up this sweet treat and experience the sugar rush for yourselves! 

Ingredients (makes 16):

1 large egg white

1 1/2 cups castor sugar

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup glucose syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

1/2 cup glace cherries, roughly chopped

rice paper sheets (optional)

Method

Place egg white in bowl and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare mini cupcake tray with mini patty pans, or line the bottom of a loaf pan with rice paper, cutting to fit.

In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and glucose syrup; bring to the boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Cook, without stirring, over medium heat until a candy thermometer reads 146°C.  Just before the temperature is reached, beat egg whites on medium speed until stiff peaks form.

Slowly add hot sugar mixture in a thin stream over egg white, beating constantly and scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Add vanilla. Beat until mixture holds its shape, about 5-6 minutes. (Do not overmix or mixture will get stiff and crumbly.) Immediately fold in macadamias and cherries.

Quickly drop heaped teaspoons onto prepared patty pans. Let stand at room temperature until dry to the touch. Store between baking paper in an airtight container at room temperature. If using rice paper, pour into prepared pan. Press firmly into the base. 

Top with the remaining rice paper sheet. Set aside in a cool, dry place for 4 hours to set. Turn candy onto a chopping board and cut into 3cm squares to serve.

Alternative:

Use chopped Turkish Delight and pistachios instead of cherries and macadamia nuts.

We want to share your recipe! If you have a recipe you’d like to share, send it in to  revive@wa.uca.org.au.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Maid

Maid, 2021, created by Molly Smith Metzer, streaming now on Netflix.

Netflix’s ten-part series Maid is an uncomfortable watch, portraying what feels like a hopeless cycle of poverty and family abuse. While set in America with its very different welfare systems to Australia, the underlying themes of hardship certainly ring true here too.

Adapted from the 2019 memoir of Stephanie Land, the series casts real-life mother and daughter, Andie MacDowell and Margaret Qualley, in what comes across as an honest portrayal of the relentless hard work living in poverty can be.

What struck me about this show was the way it tackled issues around emotional abuse – abuse that doesn’t leave any physical scars. Alex becomes a single mum with a two-year-old daughter after fleeing her abusive boyfriend in the middle of the night. When offered a space at a domestic violence shelter, she is genuinely surprised that her experience is classed as abusive because her boyfriend, Sean, never physically attacked her.

The series explores why women return to abusive partners, without judgement, but with a sensitivity that teaches the viewer compassion and understanding of a highly complex situation.

On top of dealing with an unreliable mother who suffers undiagnosed bipolar disorder, her ex, unstable living conditions, and the laborious work of cleaning rich people’s houses for minimum wage, Alex is met with red tape in the welfare system at every turn.

As soon as she makes some progress in one area, she is knocked back in another. We can literally see her bank balance decline on screen as she makes a purchase or pays a bill, and feel her confusion of legal language as the fate of her daughter’s care rests in the hands of a lawyer and judge who’s fast-talking make for even faster decision-making.

The series does also portray hope, while sparing the viewer of a traditional ‘happily ever after’.

Alex meets some amazing women through a domestic violence shelter she lives in with her daughter who give this story something to hold onto.

While trying not to give too much of the ending away, she also makes friends with a wealthy client after supporting her through her own struggles. Highlighting the all-true concept of ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’, Alex’s hope for a brighter future only begins when her wealthy client offers to help  with legal support.

Maid is beautiful, hard, viewing, which led me to the verge of tears too many times to count.

Heather Dowling

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Education & Training

Be part of the kindness revolution: Summer Spirit 2022

Summer Spirit 2022 keynote speaker, Hugh MAckay AO.

Summer Spirit, a continuing education and discipleship event of the Uniting Church WA, will be held on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 February 2022. This year’s event will explore values, as the Uniting Church WA goes through it’s own process of considering its values for its next strategic plan. 

Included in the line-up of speakers is Hugh Mackay AO, Australian psychologist, social researcher and author of 22 books, including The Kindness Revolution. Hugh will be sharing insights from this new book, as well as from his book, The Inner Self: the joy of discovering who we really are and will encourage guests to think about the kinds of values that Australian society aspires.

Hugh believes that through kindness, we can create a better world.

“I would define kindness as anything we do to show another person that we take them seriously – and that can be anything from a friendly smile or wave to an offer of a meal, a helping hand in a crisis or, most particularly, our commitment to being attentive and empathic listeners,” he said.

“In The Kindness Revolution, I’m suggesting that whenever we face a crisis – like the pandemic, or fires, floods, wars, etc – we always rise to the occasion and act in ways that are true to the best of our human nature.

“We are kind to friends and strangers alike. We look out for the most vulnerable people in our communities. We rediscover the importance of neighbourliness. We make sacrifices for the common good.

“The question is: why don’t we go on acting like that, even when the crisis has passed?

“The answer is that our innate capacity for kindness, because we belong to a social species that needs social harmony to survive, can easily be overlooked in favour of more selfish, Hugh believes that churches have a lot to offer when it comes to kindness. He said the best way for Christians to be part of the kindness revolution, is to read the Sermon on the Mount, and then put it into practice.

“If Christianity’s role is not to foster kindness and compassion, then it’s hard to see what its social purpose is,” he said.

“When churches let dogma and doctrine – or even ‘religious identity’ – get in the way of serving others and responding to the needs of a wounded society, their true mission is lost.

“By influence and example, Christians can help bring about the transformation into a culture built on kindness and compassion. What if Australia became known as ‘the loving country’ rather than simply ‘the lucky country’!  

“Kindness is the purest form of human love, because it involves no emotion or affection. We can be kind to people we don’t like, couldn’t ever agree with, and don’t even know – this is how we make sense of Jesus’ injunction to ‘love your enemies’.

“As Samuel Johnson wrote: Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.” 

Summer Spirit will also feature two afternoon workshops with staff of the Uniting Church WA: Rev Hannes Halgren, Associate General Secretary (Strategy); Rev Dr Christine Sorensen, Presbytery Minister (Formation and Discipleship); Rev Rob Douglas, Presbytery Minister (Mission); and Dr Elaine Ledgerwood, Presbytery Minister (VET).

These sessions will work through the values of the Uniting Church WA, as a Christian community of hope, justice, creativity, compassion, integrity, accountability and compassion.

Guests can also join a discussion exploring how they can live out their values in their own contexts.

Summer Spirit will be held on Friday night 18 to Saturday 19 February at All Saints Floreat Uniting Church. All Uniting Church members, leaders, ministers and friends are invited to join.

Registration is $120 per person, or $100 early bird before 31 December 2021. Register five people and get the sixth free!

For more information or to register, visit eventbrite.com.au/e/summer-spirit-2022-tickets-200697380267 or email PA.Education@wa.uca.org.au

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Stories & Feature Articles

Green Rider

Green Rider, By Kristen Britain, DAW Books, 1998

If you are looking for a stocking filler for Christmas or just to fill in some relaxing time over the break, then this captivating heroic fantasy adventure is for you.

Green Rider, the first book in the Green Rider series, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Following the success of this book another five were added to the series – First Rider’s Call, The High King’s Tomb, Blackveil, Mirror Sight, Firebrand and a novella, The Dream Gatherer. On 14 September 2021, a seventh book called Winterlight  was released.

The Green Rider series is suitable for both young adult and adult readers, falling into the categories of supernatural/classic fantasy. The underlying message of the series is that running away from a problem does not solve it and choosing to do ‘nothing’ at times is also an action.

The book begins with our protagonist, Karigan G’ladheon, a merchant’s daughter, who has fled from school following a duel in where she bested a wealthy aristocrat, an incident that will likely lead to her expulsion. As she makes her way through the deep forest, a galloping horse pounds up to her, its rider impaled by two black-shafted arrows.

With his dying breath, he tells her that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary elite messengers in the king’s service and makes Karigan swear to deliver their message he’s carrying. Giving her his green coat, with its golden winged horse brooch, the symbol of his office, and whispers on his dying breath, “Beware the shadow man…”. This promise given changes Karigan’s life forever.

Pursued by unknown assassins and following a path only her horse seems to know, Karigan unwittingly finds herself in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand. Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

In a world with kings, elves, and monstrous creatures emerging from a breach in the wall, this book manages to step outside of the typical cliche fantasy without losing its heritage. All in all, it is a great read.

Andrea Garvey

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Stories & Feature Articles

Review: Growing Up Uniting

Edited by William W Emilsen and Elizabeth A Watson, MediaCom Education Inc, 2021

If you were asked, ‘What are the distinctive characteristics of the Uniting Church?’ How would you respond?

Twenty young people aged from late teens to mid-40s from around Australia were invited to talk about their experiences growing up in the Uniting Church. These are their stories.

They represent the first two generations who were born into and grew up in the Uniting Church. As a guide, they were provided with some non-obligatory suggestions relating to their experience of church, such as the distinctive characteristics of the Uniting Church, its future, factors that have kept them in the Uniting Church and those that would tempt them to walk away from it. The writers incorporated these in quite different ways. Their stories are a joy to read.

Their experiences have been varied, positive and negative, but throughout their stories are many common markers.

Multiculturalism in the Uniting Church, its covenanting with First Nations people and the courage of the church to speak out publicly on contemporary social and political issues were acknowledged. Detailed comments on mentoring of young people stands out as most important, but declining levels of commitment and support for young people’s ministry is seen as a concern.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Review: Eyes in the Sky

Surveillance for Survival, by Henry Houghton and Richard Smith, Green Hill Publishing, 2021

Henry Houghton, past Director of Mapping and Surveys and Surveyor General of Western Australia, and Richard Smith, Earth Systems Scientist, coauthored this copiously illustrated history of satellite imaging and interpretation particularly focussed on Western Australia.

They tell of the early days and development of the science and technology, which is in itself fascinating to science professionals and laypersons alike. ‘Make do’ solutions and interaction between world agencies to make this new 1960’s technology accessible to the public led to expertise in interpreting sometimes obscure data for the benefit of planners, agriculturists, mineral exploration and the general public, spinning off the back of early weather surveillance satellites. This history is recounted in a way to interest both the  professional and general reader.

Perhaps the most compelling narrative running through the book is the way economic considerations override the invaluable, but maybe not as easy to quantify in return for dollar, long-term ecological implications of the Earth observations from space. This led to the Leeuwin Centre for Earth Sensing Technologies and other scientifically valuable consortia being closed even with very successful contributions to the science, after relatively short existence (less than 25 years for Leeuwin Centre), and the government of the day having no compunction in deconstructing the satellite imaging centre attached to Department of Land Information.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Editorial: September 2021

This July and August, my teenage son and I – along with millions of other people online – spent a lot of time watching the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. My son himself competes in summer athletics, so we were pretty eager to see who would take out the 100m sprint in the first games since Usain Bolt’s retirement.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Review: When we Pray

The future of common prayer, Edited by Stephen Burns, and Robert Gribben, Coventry Press, 2020

The keyword in the title of this book is ‘we’. What is going on when we gather together and pray in unison?

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News & Announcements

Review: Reflections on Faith

Inspired by COVID and Inspired by Seniors By Phil Ridden, Edwest Publishing, 2020

I recently read two of the volumes from Dr Phil Ridden’s ‘Reflections on Faith’ series: Inspired by Covid and Inspired by Seniors. Phil is a retired Head Teacher and now works as a consultant and writer, based in Joondalup, Perth WA.

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News & Announcements

Mandorla Art Award explores ‘Metamorphosis’

The Committee for the Mandorla Centre for Inner Peace is delighted to announce the much anticipated theme and venue for the 2022 Mandorla Art Award, Australia’s most significant thematic Christian art prize, held in Perth every two years.

The Award has attracted some of the country’s finest artists since its 1985 inception, including John Coburn (winner
1996); Brian McKay (winner 1986, 2002); and Julie Dowling (winner 2000) who was named the most collectible artist in
Australia shortly after her win.

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