Community Events Aplenty

   This weekend I've been conscious of an array of community events and thinking [not too deeply] about the place of Christian faith communities and their participants. These are 'first reflections' as I have lost to do this week and will take more time on this soon!! Today it's like my 'bedroom clean up instead of studying' kind of blog post...
   On Saturday I participated for the second time in TEDxSydney at the Opera House. A recent Facebook post about 'Relay for Life' and yesterday's first Newcastle 5km Swisse 'Colour Run' is all over FB and the news today!! I saw two young adults proudly still wearing their colour dusted clothes and faces at Charlestown Square at lunch time, including a never trendy headband!!
   I chose TEDx again this year as part of my 'Continuing Education' for 2013 and will write a more considered and basically longer winded paper in response as so many speakers had great things to say and pointed to lots of causes, ethos, tasks to challenge us as listeners.
   What I'm struck by in all these things [and many more in the Weekend and Monday papers] and the already occurring and still unlimited possibilities of Uniting Church communities and individual young adults and adults to be creatively, passionately and holistically engaged in the world.
- TEDx is about a day of + or - 15min talks [with some props or visuals] from world class people in their field of interest, passion or skill, telling their story and 'sharing ideas.' It's sprinkled with musical acts, purpose made movie clips and this year all the food was provided in a partnership with 'Grow it Local' and included people who brought boxes of stuff from their backyards, honey from bees who spent the week in Sydney's Botanical Gardens and the Chefs at ARIA who received all the produce in the last 2 days and made stuff from it... a crowd sourced meal. My favourite line of the whole day [and there were many] was from Marita Cheng [2012 Young Aussie of the Year] who runs Robogals workshops teaching robotics to high school girls and encouraging them to choose 'engineering' at Uni... who said "we need all our schools to teach kids to be makers, otherwise we will just become consumers"!!
It was a profound day where even Benny Wenda from West Papua, fighting for freedom from Indonesia, took the stage at the end of a talk about that very struggle... it was an amazing moment!!
- 'Relay for Life' is an overnight event where teams run laps sponsored to raise funds for Cancer Charities and Research. The time includes a run by survivors and carers, a lantern ceremony for those we know and the run in community to do something about it. I am taking up the suggestion that we could be more involved and seeking to mobilise others to join in for 2013 in November here in Newcastle
- The 'Colour Run' drew over 10,000 participants in support of the 'Celebrate Life' Foundation or the local 'Make a Wish' Australia and the 5km run in Broadmeadow is inspired by the Hindu Holi Festival and finds runners powered with coloured dust that catches their white running clothes and purpose provided white t-shirts... to create energy, vibe, community and purpose... promoting health and happiness

Where are we folks?
And when we do participate do we have the tools to ask how we understand God in this space?
What can we learn and who can we encourage to participate, to share life and to bring that story into our space for God, our reflection and our future action to make the world a different place?

OK, back to my spray painting tasks...