Gambling Advertisers on Our House

A friend posted a question on Facebook about our réponses to the SOH debacle...
This is my comment:

1. OPERA: As a former opera-singer... Although opera costs a lot to put on, opera is not-for-profit. It depends on philanthropy and generosity. In most countries where it happens it is heavily subsidized by Govt so it can be accessible to everyday people... why? Because great opera lifts the soul. Great art challenges thinking, tells eternal stories, plays between myth, mystery and existentialism. Opera inspires World Cups and brings down governments. Opera is frivolous and fun and offers the dramatic emotional reality of genocides and betrayals. Grand Opera is an investment in creative genius in our community.

2. PLACE: In the SOH, Sydney has a place that reflects and enhances the most beautiful harbour in the world. It is not glitzy. It is not a passing fad. It is architectural landscape of the highest order. It states that on this beautiful place - a place where we also remember hardship, confrontation and dispossession, here is a place where a city can work on its soul. Here is a ‘sacred place’ where communities encounter one another through the mutual respect built by sharing song, dance, literature, drama. It is a place of encounter and engagement... it is where you take the date you want to impress. It is where you take your overseas visitors. It is a place where I take Terry in his wheelchair, to receive soul food.

3. GAMBLING: The Opera House Lottery was not cheap. A ticket was the birthday gift you gave in our family because it was a choice of going to the movies or investing in the future of live theatre. We never bought a ticket expecting to win. We bought them to build our House.
In our extended family, we have seen destruction and death, failed marriage and abuse within the home as a result of gambling addiction. It is evil. This doesn’t mean I dont appreciate sports. It means I hate what the unbridled (pun intended) corrupting influence of what this industry has done.

4. HORSES: One of the most wonderful things Terry and I did was to go to the Sydney Olympic Equestrian events. At the 3-day event we saw horses (and riders) pushed to their limits. They certainly took risks in sport. They were the supreme athletes. Horse-racing misses and distracts from the nobility of horses fulfilling their physical potential - why - because (overall) the industry invests a mere pittance into the wellbeing of the animals. The money changes everything. It is about making profit at the expense of animals and punters. Is about reaching the economic top by trampling others. It is about greed. I dont want to place greed on Our Opera House.

4. CORRUPTION: When T and I went to see the symphony recently, we were also treated to aboriginal artwork on the sails... part of the ongoing exhibition post-vivid. Projections like this creatively use the sails for creative engagement - for us, it was a form of blessing. To remember and acknowledge whose place this is. The projection of gambling advertising reminds us only that power and greed corrupt our community, leading to great suffering.
I work for Parramatta Mission - we deal with homelessness, gambling addiction and substance abuse. We dont ask you to advertise the solutions on the Sails of Our House, but please dont create more problems for us!

Why should we be Seeking Common Ground?

A few years ago I was involved with a bunch of radical disciples who birthed a new community it’s called ‘The Commons’ in Newcastle, NSW. The founders were inspired by Acts 2:42-47.

42The believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. 43A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44All the believers were united and shared everything. 45They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. 46Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. 47They praised God and demonstrated God's goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved. (NRSV)

There are plenty of people I find it difficult to share with. I get uncomfortable when I don’t know customs or food types. I don’t like to have to conform to other people’s dress codes and I struggle with differentiating behaviours towards women and men. Nevertheless, I recognise that the world is bigger than me. I admit that the world is not made in my image and I am not the Centre of the universe.

Last year I had the opportunity to visit Rome, not as a tourist, but as a member of the World Methodist Council Steering Committee. I was able to present a collection of music, poems and art to the Vatican on behalf of Methodist and Wesleyan and Uniting/United peoples around the world. We can and should make a contribution, just as we seek to learn grow others.



I am in awe of the One who was born, lived and died for the sake of people who seem like such strangers to me. Surely, they must be worth getting to know more about! God loved and loves others. They are made in God’s image. As I get to know them, I may be privileged enough to see the revelation of God’s image in their lives. They may be gracious enough to teach me of their experiences of God. Surely we want more of these stories?

Over the last two months, I have had the opportunity to get to know Fred. He helps me with the Soup Kitchen at The Uni where I am a Chaplain. Fred is Jewish and each Thursday he serves at least 30 Muslim students soup. I have had the opportunity to listen to Muslim and Christian scholars exchange understandings about Adam, Eve and Creation. I have been part of a study group with Buddhist Catholic and Pagan members. Together, we have encouraged one another to use ur gifts in service to others.

I do not claim to be the same as ‘others’. I stand firm in my commitment to share the Gospel as I know and experience it, but I am learning to listen and learn in new and fresh ways. I am delighted to discover fresh questions and rich ideas about God and what is sacred. This is the ‘risky’ part of ‘risking the way of Jesus’ to keep discovering that God is beyond the limits of my imagining.

If we are to strive towards the renewal and reconciliation of all things as the promised end, we need to accept that ‘relationships with others’ must be part of that end. We can do it sooner or later, but we are called to be in those relationships that bring all into God’s harmony… God’s Shalom. Eventually, we must be willing to look for the image of God in the faces of those we do not yet know.

Thy Kingdom come. 
Thy will be done.
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Amen

If you would like to learn more about the Uniting Church in Australia’s ‘Seeking Common Ground’ Circle of Interest, go to this link.

Based on Psalm 17

Based on Psalm 17

Hear my honest explanation
No excuses, but truth be told.
Can you find guiltless in me?
For I am still the child you hold…

Go ahead, see right inside me,
Look within my darkened soul—
Here you see I’m what I claim.
I did not invent the role you gave.

I’m not seeking to tread my path
    in the way of this world
I’m trying to find your path,
    Travel along your Word’s Way.
I’m seeking to tread your path
    Setting my steps
In line with yours
    I won’t give up.

I cry out to you, knowing you must answer.
    So—answer!
    Hear me!
    Listen!

Share the Truth
in ways we can understand
Offer Grace
in ways we can receive
Call us to you,
 from the bullying of this pressured violent world
Call us home…
 To you

Watch over me
Shelter me under your wing
Keep me safe
From the enemies closing in

Their hearts are hard
 and their angry voices shout
They chase me hard,
  Trying to bring me down,
They will rip into me and tear me apart
Hold them… break them…
Free me from them
Keep them away, these narrow minded judges

I’d like to see how they like it
    Starving, malnourished, from their greedy attitudes
The waste they’ve sown
    Baked into tasteless bread,
Shared amongst their children

And what about me?
I want to look into your face.
When I come home,
I want to see you, to stand in your presence
    and live in your heaven here on earth.

(C) 2018, A.Koh-Butler

Korean Reconciliation Song - World Methodist Council

Video

Pneumatology - Towards an Ecumenical Dialogue

Ecumenical Pneumatology - lecture notes

Voices in the silence

We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.” 

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” 

― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

“I raise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard...we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”
― Malala Yousafzai

________

Shhhhhh

[Silence]

Hmmmm

[Silence]

Shhhhhh

[Silence]

Hmmmm

[Silence]

Ahhhh - ohhh - ahhh -ayeee [vocalise solo]

From the bowels of the earth

Seeds of life fill my being

I sense the fire 

driving breath throughout my soul

From the caverns underground

Vibrant streams flood my seeing

I behold the colours 

Swirling round my core  

From the death of fallen fruit

Shoots of green break through terrain

I feel tingling in the cells
Flowing through my veins

[instrumentals, featuring moments of silence, and finishing in silence...]

I raise my voice - out of the void
I raise my voice - out of emptiness
I sing this song - out of the space around me
I sing these words - when no-one wants to hear

I will not be silenced!
I will not withdraw!
I will sing with my every breath -
I will form the words for all -

These are the names of forgotten
The names of those whose harmonies -
are needed to bring peace -
and missing from our tables -
are hidden from the pictures
that we paint of common life.

I will not be silenced!
I will not withdraw!
I will sing with my every breath -
I will form the words for all -

C.2018,  A.Koh-Butler

Glowing at night - at the Treehouse Hotel

‘Twas the eve of Palm Sunday.
My friends and I had been in meetings for two and a bit days. We had another day to go.
We were tired and the day had held many serious and deep conversations. We had prayed and worshipped. We had held each other’s stories. We had shared our heart for the nation and the faithful.
We looked for an hour to relax over a quiet drink.

We walked down the hill to the pub. We were in a city area and the pub was reasonably upmarket. Of course, five ministers/pastors walking into a bar sounds like the beginning of a particularly complex joke, but... we did it anyway!

I had been chatting with one of our number and the others had gone straight in to claim a table.
My friend held the door for me and followed in, passing me as the bouncer stopped me for a word.

“You can’t drink that in here”
“I’m sorry - what?”
“It’s policy that you cant have that here”
“I beg your pardon?”
“If it’s going to be a problem you can leave.”
“What problem, I dont understand?”
“You can’t drink that here.”
“Oh - my water bottle?”
“Well - it’s a flask - it could be anything -  and you cant have it here.”
“It’s my water bottle.”
“Is it a problem for you?”
“No, but”
“You can get water at the bar”
“”Yes - but I carry PH water - it’s alkaline”
“If you have a problem, you can leave”

And (to my friends)
“If any of you have a problem, you can leave”

One of my friends starts to get up...
“No” I say “No problem - it’s just a water bottle - if you dont want to test it, I’ll put it in my bag.”

We sit and order a drink and some food.
A great conversation ensues, but not before each of the friends catch my eye to make sure I am ok.
“Nothing we havn’t all dealt with before” I say.

And there it is. I know that each of my ministry friends has had dealings with bouncers. They have each been turned away or picked on or singled out. Does this happen to everyone? Or only those who are Aborighinal or Tongan or their yellow (Chinese) friends?

This was what I will remember of the last Assembly Standing Committee of the 2015-2018 Triennium.

We were not wearing collars, nor high heels and sequins. We were simply a small group of casually dressed quiet people - obviously not partying, simply some friends, seeking a place to enjoy each other’s company. We were bringing in business.

I wondered if the bouncer thought we were undesirables. Then I began to wonder if the ‘white’ bouncer was responding to us being people of colour. It shamed me to even consider the question. Some might suggest I was reading too much into it. I don’t go to bars very often - I would have no idea what a policy about a water bottle involved. It reminded me of some particularly surly welcomers at some worship services!

Lol... It reminded me of a ‘welcomer’ who recently passed away. He had a heart of gold and worked incredibly hard for the church I was once at. But - any congregation is probably going to face some challenges if the ‘welcomer’ is on the spectrum and struggles to relate to anyone who doesn’t fit their idea of who should be let in. May he Rest In Peace and may he find good welcome at the gates of Heaven!

I feel for the bouncer - he missed out on the blessing of my friends. They spent their money and were gold-class clients. No trouble. Just good people.
 
We have a long way to go as a nation. Now, more than ever, the country needs a multicultural church... not one that pretends racism doesn’t exist, but one that acknowledges that only by walking together can we create a different kind of community foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven.

I cannot begin to explain the respect I feel for my friends. They are heros and heroines in my eyes. They bear the slander and shame of racism with the Passion of Christ. They laugh and joke and share a drink at the end of long complex days, knowing it is easier to walk away. They offer companionship on a pilgrimage of faith. They sing loud and dance (when others do not). I love my faith friends.