The Uniting Church WA calls on the Western Australian Government to work closely with the LGBTQA+ community and survivors of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts (SOGICE), including people of faith, to introduce legislation to protect people from harmful ‘conversion therapies’.
This practice, which encourages efforts to directly and indirectly attempt to change or supress a person’s sexuality or gender identity, has caused serious, ongoing, and tragic harm to those affected.
The Uniting Church WA calls on the Western Australian Government to commit to ending preventable deaths in custody, noting the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in WA’s justice system, particularly among young people.
The church also calls on the government to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody; embed culturally appropriate mental health support in police lockups, prisons and places of detention; broaden cultural awareness training for police, juvenile justice and prison officers; and work with Aboriginal Elders, community leaders and organisations to co-design an Aboriginal Justice Agreement.
When Rev Sharon Hollis was named President-elect of the Uniting Church in Australia, the world was a different place.
It was pre-COVID-19. Before mandatory check-ins, the ubiquitous hand sanitiser, the mask-wearing emoji and we all got used to WFH.
On 17 July, Sharon was installed as President of the Uniting Church in Australia, the third women to hold the position and the first ordained woman in the role. However, she will do so in a global context no one might have predicted.
Since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Uniting Church WA has responded to more than 100 claims of historical child sexual abuse within our former institutions, and colleges. For some this might be a hard thing to comprehend, but it is important to acknowledge if the church is to live out its faith of caring for the vulnerable and working towards justice.
This September marks Child Safe Week, Sunday 5 to Saturday 11.
Each year, the Social Justice Commission of the Uniting Church WA resources the church for Sustainable September by preparing and distributing worship material for congregations within the WA Synod.
This year, the theme is ‘Earth, Sea and Sky’, which focuses on nourishing and caring for our natural resources. The worship materials, including a full liturgy outline, sermon reflections and PowerPoint slides, cover the four Sundays in September.
Each Sunday concentrates on a different aspect of the theme – soil, waters, skies and humankind’s relationship with the Earth.
Wendy Hendry, Uniting Church WA Social Justice Officer, said, “We are encouraged to know that congregations set aside the month of September to reflect, pray and take action on issues of sustainability and our Christian call to care for creation.
“The statement made at Assembly back in 2006 is as relevant in 2021 as it was back then, and continues to underpin the work we do, including our focus on Sustainable September.”
The statement, For the Sake of the Planet and All its People, said “we renew our commitment to move towards sustainable non-exploitative living, believing that God’s creation — the Earth itself and all the life that it supports — is precious and the Earth’s resources exist for the good of all now as well as future generations.”
Wendy said “We’re thankful for the work Rev Gordon Scantlebury has done in creating so much of the resource material, which are designed to be a user-friendly package for churches with or without a minister in placement.
“Worship leaders can use the material as is or adapt according to their congregation style. We encourage you to get creative with it, connect with relevant examples of sustainability and environmental issues in your community, and facilitate discussion within your congregation.”
Sustainable September 2021 worship resources are available to download at ecochurcheswa.net/worship-resources.
For more information, contact the Social Justice Unit at social.justice@wa.uca.org.au
Mikaela Turner
Nathaniel Taylor is a current Candidate as a Minister of the Word with the Uniting Church WA, who recently attended the Covenanting Intensive, reflecting on the covenantal relationship between the Uniting Church and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress. Nathaniel shares the experience with Revive.
Ashley Macmillan, member of Wembley Downs Uniting Church, is a PhD student at the University of Otago’s National School of Peace and Conflict Studies, in Aotearoa/New Zealand. She shares a reflection on her studies so far.
Recently, I began researching how wars don’t happen, and this subject feels important to share with the Uniting Church because the kinds of things that prevent war are the kinds of things that the Uniting Church supports – often without realising it’s war prevention. Aside from that, when we consider that in a modern war, 90% of victims are civilians many of them children), it becomes clear that following the teachings of Jesus includes preventing war from ever having call to start.
War prevention doesn’t receive much attention in academia… or anywhere really. There is plenty about what communities do to create peace, however the focus is mostly on communities currently or recently affected by violence. What stands out here, is that when we only look at what communities do in mid or post-violence situations, we miss out on the ability to learn from communities who successfully prevented violence from ever starting.
For example, we hear many stories about violence and war in Africa, but did you ever hear about the war that never occurred in Botswana?
Despite being surrounded by apartheid, economic collapse and warring neighbours, different ethnic and language groups, large refugee inflows, colonisation and starting out its independence as one of the poorest African nations, Botswana didn’t collapse into violence. This story receives little attention, even though it represents an opportunity to learn from and about communities that have successfully avoided war.
Of course it’s much more difficult to tell stories of what hasn’t happened, than stories of what has.
Successful war prevention and the actions that bring it about are essentially invisible whilst the failure to prevent war is highly visible. This phenomenon influences many things including what receives funding, what receives media attention and what is easily measurable for research. Yet, it is not an insurmountable problem, and peace is not the only area that faces it.
Public Health is a concept that seeks to make visible the processes required for both disease prevention and maximising health, allowing us to consider lives saved through anti-smoking campaigns, vaccinations, and drink-driving education. In short, it allows us to study and further our successes.
In my research, I developed the concept of Proactive Peace, which I hope will provide a similar addition to Peace and Conflict Studies that Public Health has for Health Sciences. Proactive Peace refers to the variety of different community projects and process that address conflict risk factors, fostering an environment that diminishes the likelihood of violent responses to conflict sparks.
A conflict spark is an event or crisis which has the potential to directly trigger a violent response. Risk factors indicate a region’s vulnerability to conflict. Basically, a conflict spark is the lightening strike and the risk factors are the dry forest that easily catches ablaze. The approach of Proactive Peace is to address the dry forest, creating a situation where if lightening strikes, it won’t start a fire.
Of course, the presence of risk factors does not guarantee war, but they do make war more likely. In the same way that smoking, not exercising and a poor diet do not guarantee you will become unwell, but they do make it more likely. Public health measures address these health risk factors.
Proactive Peace takes the same approach, seeking to address the risk factors for violent conflict, rather than trying to resolve conflict after it has already started (which, to continue the medical analogy, is equivalent of focussing all your resources on the intensive care unit and the emergency department). Importantly, Proactive Peace is the actions undertaken to address conflict risk factors, be it through development, community organising, lobbying, cultural revival, or activism.
Of course, the exact actions undertaken will vary greatly across time, place and culture. However, as long as actions undertaken are addressing risk factors in that community, it is Proactive Peace – regardless of how similar or different it is to Proactive Peace actions we may be familiar with in our own communities.
For example, if conflict risk factors included: water, food and land scarcity; limited educational opportunities; and high youth unemployment, then Proactive Peace actions could include: planting along a riverbed, so the banks aren’t washed away after heavy rain; lobbying to stop a nearby mine discharging pollutants into the water to ensure it remains drinkable; providing toilets in schools to support girls to attend; and starting an agro-forestry project to provide youth employment and prevent the desertification of land.
I say that the Uniting Church supports actions which prevent war ‘without realising it’, because so many of our actions of development, protest and advocacy address conflict risk factors, both at home and in the world. By making visible this important work that occurs preventing wars Proactive Peace gives the world a way to see (and support) peace, before we see violence.
If anything in this introduction interests you, please get in touch with through my blog at proactive-peace.org
Beananging Kwuurt Institute (BKI), a Uniting Church WA Aboriginal community services organisation in Queens Park, Perth, held a NAIDOC Week storytelling event on Wednesday 7 July. Guests were invited to listen, learn, share, and enjoy kangaroo stew and damper together. This year’s NAIDOC theme is ‘Heal Country!’
In the 1930s, the site where BKI now stands was set up as Sister Kate’s Children’s Cottage Home, an institution for Indigenous children taken from their families, who are now known as the Stolen Generations.
Auntie Helen Skiadas, Board Member of Beananging Kwuurt Institute, spoke saying they are hoping to bring healing to people with a past connection to the site.
“We hope that as we slowly restore some of the land, it will heal some of the dark past,” she said. “We haven’t stopped dreaming of change here at BKI – and renewal – and we hope for happier times of joy and gladness for all our people.”
After a Welcome to Country by Kevin Fitzgerald, Board Member at BKI, and the raising of the Aboriginal flag by Tramaine Dukes, RAAF Indigenous Liaison Officer Flt Lt, Jo Abrahams shared some of the history of Beananging Kwuurt Institute and her personal connection to the place. Jo is a Ngarluma woman with ties to Roebourne. She has worked with the WA Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, and has spent the last ten years reconnecting with her past.
Jo’s grandmother and great uncle were taken as children from their parents in the Pilbara region to be raised at the Sister Kate’s site. She said that Sister Kate’s intentions for the mission were well meaning, but with AO Neville’s government policy at the time, this is not how things played out.
“Children were selectively chosen for this place based on the colour of their skin,” Jo said. “Almost white children were actively targeted and slated for removal. These children were thought to have the best chance for assimilation into the dominating European culture.
“Generations of Aboriginal families in this state existed on a knife’s edge. The colour of a child’s skin making them a target of removal. Neville’s obsession with skin colour resulted in insulting, painful and ludicrous practices. Especially given that siblings of the same mum and dad could be graded differently by his designation, not actually by their bloodlines.
“Under his policies of assimilation, Aboriginality was something to be escaped, denied, watered down and eventually bred out. It sowed seeds of shame and guilt, self loathing and lostness.”
This policy of removal stayed in place until 1964, with amendments.
“What do we do now in WA with the hangover from previous generations? What have we inherited that needs to be disinherited?” Jo asked.
“One thing Neville didn’t factor on, is me and many others like me who are so proud of their Aboriginality. And that Aboriginality has got nothing to do with colour, and all to do with bloodline. We’re proud of our bloodline and where we’ve come from and the people who’ve come before us.
“There are still Aboriginal people who believe the lies that were told in this place – that they don’t matter. Be patient and understand there is a deep brokenness that’s hanging over from places like this.
“We don’t need more police officers in this space, we need more grief counselors to help us to deal with our brokenness, and support to give us spaces where we can come together and heal with each other.
“It’s a shared experience and understanding that brings space for healing.”
Susy Thomas, Moderator of the Uniting Church WA, blessed the gathering, before guests enjoyed a lunch of kangaroo stew and damper.
“May God bless you and guide you, and help us to walk alongside with you,” she said.
A Dreaming Session for BKI will be held on Wednesday 21 July, 10.00am to 4.00pm. Guests are invited to come along and share their dreams for what they would like to see happen at Beananging Kwuurt Institute, 188 Treasure Rd Queens Park, into the future.
Heather Dowling
Most Australians don’t realise that we put kids in prison. In a public opinion poll by the Australia Institute, 73% of Australians had no idea that children as young as ten are currently locked up in our prison system.
It’s not surprising, since most people imagine kids at that age to be, well… kids.
But the facts tell us that for some, this is not the case. The Commissioner for Children and Young People in WA reports that in 2018-2019, 143 children in WA spent time in unsentenced detention. This unsentenced detention can range from an average of 25 days for non-Indigenous children and 46 days for Indigenous children – keeping in mind that 78% of kids in detention are Indigenous.
Yuko Tonai-Moore often brings fresh air to Uniting Church WA gatherings. She’s bright, kind and gentle, and passionate about her journey with God.
Growing up in Japan, Yuko came to Perth, Australia, with her family as a teenager. She didn’t grow up Christian, but her childhood was influenced by Buddhism, Shintoism, and Christianity.