Tag: Books, Films, Art, Awards and Recipes

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Review: Promises and Blessings in the Book of Revelation, by Doug Rowston

Mosaic Press, 2014

“Today’s reading is from the Book of Revelation…” you can feel the apprehension… and no wonder. Like the evolution of our language from Oxford Dictionary standard to smart phone condensed, we have lost the understanding of the many codes used in the Bible, particularly those used within the pages of Revelation.

Promises and Blessings is a short (100 pages), easy to read book, which uses pen portraits of the ten martyrs who adorn the west front of Westminster Abbey as intermissions. Their relevance to the main context of the book are as examples of sacrificial, Christlike faith.

Best read alongside the Book of Revelation, its objective is to demystify much of the ancient text which was written in code to protect early Christians from punishment if they were caught reading it. It identifies the secret code as threefold: a number code, a colour code and an animal code.

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Review: Resurrecting Easter: How the West lost and East kept the original Easter Vision

By John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Sexton Crossan, Harper Collins, 2018.

Biblical scholars John Dominic Crossan and the late Marcus Borg conducted pilgrimages over the years to Italy and Turkey, two of which I was fortunate to attend.

We learnt that all the major events in Christ’s life are described in the Gospels but no direct reports of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Instead, many artistic impressions of Jesus’ resurrection were created, some we visited in churches, caves and museums.

The first direct image appears by 400 and is part of the West’s individual resurrection tradition. The second direct image by the year 700 is part of the East’s universal resurrection tradition named the Anastasis, Greek for resurrection.

For 15 years Dominic and Sarah Crossan travelled across Europe and Asia creating a comprehensive photographic archive of this resurrection imagery. How timely when this book with Sarah’s images, the ancient texts which inspired them and Dominic’s scholarly interpretation arrived for Easter.

The cover image of their book is from the 1300s Chora Church in Istanbul, where we gazed at this beautiful Anastasis mosaic high in the half dome of the apse of the risen Christ, enveloped by a star studded mandorla, grasping the wrists of Adam and Eve, the personification of humankind. Christ pulls them from their tombs while standing firmly on the shattered gates of hell with lock and bolts strewn around his feet. Christ is trampling down a well-trussed Hades, guardian and personification of death, who is lying prone beneath his feet.

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Easter art engaging with the life and journey of Jesus

Uniting Church in the City (UCIC), Wesley Perth, one of the oldest and most iconic churches in Perth, is for the ninth time preparing to present the Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition in the lead-up to and over Easter.

Curated by Claire Bushby, the exhibition will feature newly commissioned artworks by fifteen Western Australian contemporary artists. The fifteen artworks correspond to the traditional Easter story and ritual of the ‘Stations of the Cross’. While pertaining to a religious narrative of the final days in the life of Jesus, participating artists each interpret a single ‘station’ through their personal and unique understanding of Easter and the human experiences  and themes that underlie it. The exhibition will bridge between sacred stories and the issues and events that are present in our contemporary world.

The vision of Rev Craig Collas, minister at UCIC, is an open one – he hopes audiences of all spiritual persuasions can enjoy the imagination, imagery and conversation that the unique works of art will offer.

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Review: Property and Progress for a Pilgrim People, by Michael Owen

Morning Star Publishing, 2017

In the Uniting Church ‘the Congregation is the embodiment in one place of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church’, ‘the primary expression of the corporate life of the Church’ and is responsible for ‘providing facilities and resources in support of the work of the Congregation’ [BoU §15(a); UCA Constitution sec. 22; Reg. 3.1.1 (c)(iv)].

In his new book Property and Progress for a Pilgrim People, Michael Owen reflects on recent policies, regulations and decisions relating to property in the Uniting Church.  A congregation’s property is held by a synod property trust for the beneficial use of the congregation.  A congregation is financially and practically responsible for its property. But to whom does a congregation’s property really belong?  The National Property Policy (2011) says it belongs ‘to God’, to the ‘whole people of God’ and to the ‘Uniting Church in Australia’. Owen argues from the Basis of Union and from the Regulations that it belongs to the congregation.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Review-The Men in the Window, by Judith Amey

As she sat in the pews at St Aidan’s Uniting Church in Claremont, Judith Amey’s gaze would often fall on the stained glass window on the eastern wall during Sunday service.

At the base of the window were 16 names inscribed in the stained glass, men who had died in the First World War. It was an honour roll of men from the Claremont district, many of them with families connected to the church.

Amey began to wonder who they were; what was their background, who were their families, when and how had they died in the war?

Amey decided to investigate further. Her research has resulted in a slim, but evocative book, The Men in the Window.

Typical of the 16 men was Lieutenant Gordon Gemmell, whose Irish family moved from Melbourne to Perth in 1900. Gemmell trained as a teacher at Claremont Teacher’s College and was among the first intake of students at the University of WA. Gemmell saw action at Yypres in 1917, and in 1918 was leading a charge of his men in the final assault against the Germans when he was killed by machine
gun fire.

Coincidentally, Gemmell’s 15-year-old great great niece in Queensland, Meg Gemmell, won the 2015 Premier’s Anzac Prize for high school students for her essay on her relative, which won her a trip to Gallipoli.

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Thinking the Faith, Living the Faith: An introduction to Christian Theology, by Chris Walker

A ministry colleague and friend tells me that only theologians are interested in theology, and many of the introductory books are heavy in both weight and terminology. By contrast, this very readable book is relatively short, conversational and reliable. Perhaps just as significantly, it makes clear the relationship between theology as thinking about faith, and theology as living out that faith in everyday ways.

As an experienced disciple, minister, teacher and leader, Chris Walker is well placed to write this introduction to theology from the context and perspective of the Uniting Church.

The book enables conversations by providing questions for personal reflection and group discussion. Instead of seeing such questions as a test, view them as an invitation into the conversation with Chris, and with the Christian faith. Chris writes with confident hope in the good news that Jesus Christ still offers – afresh in each context and time – to a desperate, broken and hurting world. Living out this good news is the task of every disciple, and of faithful communities together, and this introduction to theology helps us navigate the challenges of the contemporary world in thoughtful ways.

Rohan Pryor

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Divine Directions: 7 Divine Directions: 7 decisions that will change your life, by Craig Groeschel, Zondervan Publishing

I was invited last year to join a group to preview the new book Divine Directions, by Craig Groeschel. Craig is the founder and Senior Pastor of Life Church, one of the largest churches in the USA and which produced the YouVersion Bible App which has been downloaded over 200 million times.

Craig points out that each decision we make, including some small and trivial choices, can change the complete direction of our life. Using biblical stories and great illustrations, he outlines seven principles for guiding our lives.

He begins with guidelines on how to stop those things which hinder and moves on to show how to start a new habit to redirect
our path.

He helps us understand where we should stay committed to a place or direction, and when we should go forward, even if it seems easier to stay. The book also includes criteria to build confidence in making the right choice, and principles for trusting God with the decisions we make.
This book is available now and is well worth a read.
David de Kock

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Review: The Church Guide to Making Decisions Together

By Terence Corkin and Julie Kuhn Wallace, Abingdon Press, 2017

In an Easter article, former Uniting Church President Jill Tabart ruefully observed, “The consensus model is not being used to its best effect across the entire church.”

I agree with her.

What a pity not to use, dare I say to waste, the primary means of discernment that groups of people have available to them. Discernment is a community process of listening to each other and the Spirit, whereas the traditional western rules of meetings are there to facilitate arguments.

In a world which is now more divided, and decisions more difficult, our former General Secretary of the Assembly, Terence Corkin, was so convinced we needed to revisit consensus decision making processes that he, with an American Methodist Julia Wallace, has written this helpful how-to book, The Church Guide for Making Decisions Together. The book is a timely opportunity for leaders to re-visit the importance of the way we make decisions.

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Closing chorus for printed version of Together in Song

There will be no new printings or editions of Together in Song (Australian Hymn Book II), the hymn book most widely used in the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA).

Publisher HarperCollins has told The Australian Hymn Book company, the ecumenical body that produces the hymnal, that it will not renew licence agreements with copyright holders when they  expire in 2018.

“Parishes, schools and other institutions contemplating introducing the hymn book, or those who require additional copies of congregational or full music editions would be well advised to place  new orders soon because the book will no longer be available once the copyright agreements have terminated,” the Australian Hymn Book company said.

Australian Hymn Book company director Philip Nicholls, said HarperCollins would have decided that it was not worth their while to renew the 12,000 copyright arrangements. He said when Together in Song (TIS) was first published in 1999 it would have been expected that the 20-year deal on licences would be renewed when the time came.

“No one foresaw so much of a move online. People worship in a different way now,” Philip said.

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Art on display at Beldon-Iluka

On the afternoon of Saturday 24 June, members of Beldon-Iluka Uniting Church shared art from their homes, brushes, chisels and needles with the wider Beldon community, as part of our 40th anniversary of the Uniting Church in Australia celebrations.

The local Beldon Primary School was excited to join in the celebrations too and their young artists put on a brilliant display of art work.

We were amazed with the talent in our area. Quilt makers, china painters, modern artists, wood workers, machine and hand embroiderers all submitted art for the display. People brought in favourite purchased art works too, some reminiscent of countries they had spent time in.

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