Chapter 23: Travel and Ministry

As a Church ministry trainee, cantor, chorister and conference speaker I've clocked up my fair share of travel hours and expenses. Reducing my travel and accommodation costs, and my travel hours, to a minimum, means I can devote more funds to local Church work and causes. But at the same time, taking part in retreats and conferences plays a part in coordinating and focusing our ministries regionally and globally. The maxim "think global, act local" holds true in Church ministry as long as we don't indulge in the kind of hubris (pride) that puts us out of touch with local grass roots issues. Integrating regional and international Church consultations and debates with local ministry and worship, seems to be one of the most important skills for effective Church ministry today. Trainee ministers would benefit from advice on how best to balance these tasks in their particular situation, and reducing travel costs to a minimum is an important part of this.

Chapter 22 . . . Films that promote Christian values

This month, while recovering from surgery (successfully), I saw two films that promoted Christian values in subtle, powerful ways. Food for thought about how decisions we make either in groups, or as individuals, may have permanent and often serious effects on other people.

The film "Silent Wedding" begins with a cynical young man driving through a Balkan post-war zone with a film crew. He is a news journalist, seeking interviews. The car stops, and a group of old Romanian women, clad in black, emerge from the ruins of a village. A woman tries to answer the journalist's  questions haltingly, as he thrusts a microphone in her face, and the cameramen, intent on getting the light and film angle right, chatter in the background. The story flashes back to the past, to the women's rustic Romanian country village full of bonhomie, mischievous youngsters, wise elders, hardworking women, and irresponsible drunkards, all loveable characters despite their imperfections. The villagers are preparing to celebrate a wedding. In the middle of the post-wedding celebrations, local Russian officials arrive and announce that Stalin is dead. An official mourning period has been declared, and the wedding festivities must cease immediately.  The villagers obediently pack up the party under the watchful eye of the officials. But since Stalin was their colonial oppressor, the villagers gather after nightfall to avoid arrest, and resume the party in silence. At first everything goes well, with the villagers playing silent games, giggling, passing whispers, and feasting. But then the bride, sad that there is no music for the first dance with her husband, breaks down in tears. In sympathy, the villagers spontaneously rebel, courageously resuming their noisy celebrations. Russian troops arrive, shoot the bridegroom and the harmless, happy village idiot, massacre the men, and burn the village, leaving the women to mourn in the ruins. The film flashes back to the interview, showing a birthmark on the neck of the former bride, who is now an old woman, and panning out to the journalists, who are reduced to silence. This film sends strong messages about the precious value of simple but imperfect human communities, and the senseless inhumanity of the violent military massacre. The disconnection between the situation of the privileged, careless journalists, and the dispossessed, innocent, elderly women victims, highlights the injustice of the situation.

The USA film "King of Kong" is also about human competition, overcoming unjust dominance, quiet persistence, and families, but in a totally different arena. It is about two men who are Donkey Kong gamers, and is based on actual events. Both men are intent on achieving a world record score in Donkey Kong. One is a career gamer, a wealthy Donkey Kong champion who holds the world record, who profits from products associated with his gaming success. The other is a quiet, likeable, unassuming family man and school teacher, who plays Donkey Kong in his garage, and dreams of beating the champ. His wife deplores his gaming addiction, and considers him a failure. The quiet gamer sends a tape of his highest scoring game to the Donkey Kong officials. Egged on by the champ, the officials doubt his score. They send spies to look over his gaming machine, talking his grandma into allowing them in while he and his wife are out. Confident of his ability, the quiet player challenges the champ's score publicly, and travels interstate to play publicly at the main Donkey Kong venue. The Donkey Kong champ's fans crowd around and try to distract him as he plays, but are won over by his skill. His prowess impresses the judges, and he beats the champ's record score, but the champ refuses to meet him or play in public. The champ submits a taped game with a higher score than the quiet gamer. The judges notice faults in the tape, but the champ is declared the winner, although he didn't play publicly. The quiet player is devastated and returns home with his family. His wife and children are on his side by now, and encourage him. The judge writes to him, praises his achievement, and urges him to continue his record attempts. He persists, finally sets an unbreakable record, gains the respect of his wife, children and the Donkey Kong community, and gets into the Guinness Book of Records. The film shows the value of quiet, honest, confident persistence against insurmountable odds, and also shows how unattractive, corrupting, self-deceptive and hurtful, greedy ambition for dominance over another, can become.

Chapter 21: Anglican Social Responsibility and Royal Commission Funding

Socially responsible Churches cannot turn their back on grave injustices without betraying their fundamental Christian beliefs, and all Churches hasten to agree that a preferential option for the poor, disadvantaged, injured and needy exists. Australian Church activity is not limited to dispensing charity and spiritual care: Christians fill significant roles in public and legal forums, claiming to uphold Christian values, and they are judged by God, their Christian colleagues and the public on how well they do this. Fortunately, the Anglican Church in Sydney has a Social Responsibility Unit, managed by Ann Cunningham, to which all Anglicans in Sydney can make submissions and suggestions. For both parishioners and clergy, Anglican Social Responsibility covers a broad palette, and every Anglican is obliged to engage in some positive way in social justice leadership, advocacy and commentary. For instance, out of compassion for the poor, the Mother's Union supplies trained Anglican court volunteers to support poverty-stricken women and children. Mr. Hockey's Federal "austerity" Budget that we are presently coming to grips with, which appears to be driven by massive unconcern for disadvantaged Australians, struggling students, the unemployed, and asylum seekers, presents us with an opportunity to state our Christian obligations, intentions and principles firmly and unequivocally, as we have done on asylum seeker issues.

When Australian society is faced with massive systemic injustices at home, as it appears to be today, all Churches are obliged to respond swiftly and without complicity with oppression. To their credit, Anglican leaders have always done this in the past, and Australian Church members are generally not reluctant to march in street protests to make their views known. But it helps to do a little research into the issues involved before Churches act, for knowledge, and the ability to state a case well, confers power and authority. The current issue involves the Churches in a particular way, and their response will either draw many to rejoin Church congregations, or drive compassionate Christians away in disgust. I refer to the scandalous withdrawal of funds from the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse (RCCSA). Should the Australian Churches support blocking funds to this Commission, all Christians will be deemed guiltily complicit with covering up massive institutional child sexual abuse within Churches. At a time when even the Catholic Pope Francis has insisted on zero tolerance of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, and is bringing three formerly powerful senior clergy to justice, it is clear that the Australian Church must insist that Attorney-General George Brandis restores diverted funds to the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sex Abuse.

As I commented on Facebook today (after yesterday's announcement that previously allocated funds had been precipitately transferred from the Royal Commission to investigate Institutional Child Abuse, to the Royal Commission investigating the unhappy effects of the Commonwealth Insulation Scheme) the allocation of public funds to royal commissions has never been a competitive tender process. No Royal Commission should have to beg or bid for a percentage of government funding, in the same way that commercial corporations do. Royal Commissions are neither corporations, nor courts: they occupy the middle ground as independent investigative bodies, rendered independent by adequate and generous public funding to enable them to carry out a mandated task. The funds of Royal Commissions are allocated by the people's mandate and call, by right of law, by the social contract between people and government to maintain the public good, and as a consequence of their legal appointment to perform a particular task under particular terms. The warrant of the RCCSA is particularly strong and urgent, and all Australian Churches have committed themselves to assist the RCSSA investigations in a spirit of truth and reconciliation. The Australian Churches' commitment to protect vulnerable children from harm and expose deceitful criminals who injured children while pretending to be Christian, should be honoured and supported.

If the current Australian government has no intention of maintaining the public good by allocating adequate public funds to enable all Royal Commissions to carry out their urgent and mandated tasks, and blocks government funds in order to impede the work of commissioners, it should be held to account for failure of supply and consequent serious public injury.