Tonight at Our National UCA Assembly

It's been another long day here at the UNSW campus as we thrash out some issues in the life of our church and work in groups around issues of: identity; agency reports; being multi-cultural; and now tonight we are hearing the significant presentation about putting a "preamble" at the start our constitution which will recognise aboriginal and islander peoples as the first peoples of this land!! It's an amazing prophetic and gutsy thing which I hope when we come to decide, does get passed!!
Amongst other things this is a symbol too of how we're moving on from some other divisive issues and still talking about and acting out important things.

The preamble takes seriously the Bonhoeffer notion of the question from Jesus of "who do you say that I am?" being tied up with the "where?" question. That location is significant.

Check out this and other Assembly developments here.

In the end the speakers took extra time so when questions and comments were called there were only a few. One question [greeted agressively as an attack] sidelined other feedback and just as I was about to stand up and say "this is a brilliant thing and I hope we can just pass it when the time comes!" The Prez needed to call 'time' and just hear from one or two who were still standing.

We were again priviledged to be a told a story from our northern synod brother about the aboriginal sense of 'good' and 'evil' and their awareness of 'God' always which underpins the ability to make statements in our proposed preamble about the history of belief and spirituality amongst aboriginal people right back to the earliest times!!

This move could lead the country in what I came to believe in the 1980s was the thing holding us back from great nationhood/community in much more subtle but just as pervasive ways as South Africa's apartheid.

No scan of life expectancy, health or literacy statistics for aboriginal and non aboriginal Australians could lead you to any other conclusion.

Anyhow, we discuss this in working group Saturday and will seek consensus Sunday!!