Contemporary Nativity Scenes 2022

   For some years I've wanted to post some images as a collection of Nativity scenes reminding us this story is all about context! The 700 year wait, the middle east tensions, this invention for the story championed by St Francis of Assisi - because as we all know:

No stable, no donkey, how many visitors from the East?, no Innkeeper, how many under 2s were slaughtered, what Census...? It goes on reminding us this literary myth where Matthew is at pains to parallel the story of Moses...

   Anyhow, there's much more to say and I'm not pulling the story down... on the contrary I'm hoping we can hear it for all it's worth! The story of God one of us, here now! God who says everyone is counted, even young girls, the poor, people from a small place, the strugglers and all of us! More to follow!

"O Little Town of Bethlehem"

Things are not what they were in Bethlehem! With Middle Eastern conflict and Israel fuelling discontent, constructing a massive wall and checkpoints, settlements and more...

Peace activists and networks have a way of cutting through...  maybe we'll sing it in coming weeks!

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and restless sleep,
a missile glideth by
While children weep in shallow sleep
for friends who are no more
How silently, how silently
their hope has gone away
No laughter rings, no choir sings
in shepherds’ fields this day
The angels in the heavens
are hushed in sad lament
the holy child forced into exile
finds Herod won’t relent
O holy child of Bethlehem,
descend on us we pray
Your love bring down on David’s town,
drive fear and hate away
Awake the ire of nations,
let justice be restored
Rebuild the peace in silent streets
where once your love was born
O broken town of Bethlehem your people long for peace,
But curfews, raids and barricades have brought them to their knees
Yet still they long for justice, and still they make their stand.
Their hopes and fears still echo down the years
Come heal this holy land.
O holy child of Bethlehem, a royal refugee.
Your place of birth, now hell on earth, through our complicity.
The innocents still suffer, their backs against the wall.
We see the crime, the pain and death
And choose to ignore it all.
O holy streets of Bethlehem, where watch towers block our view.
With armoured cars and tanks and guns so no one can go through.
The market place stands empty. The fruit rots on the tree.
While loving families strive to build
A life of dignity.
O hopeful town of Bethlehem quite soon your day will come
When tanks go back to Israel and prison walls are gone.
Go tell it on the mountain and spread it o’er the plain
The ancient land of Palestine
A nation once again.

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 4

 Station 4. "Photo Reflection News 2022"

Time to observe and reflect and pray about the news here and across the world for 2022!

Just a simple opportunity for you also to think of people, places you know...

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 3

Station 3. "World Map and Tea light Candles"

Lit or unlit, place a candle anywhere in the world you believe needs our prayers and/or God in action.

Let's be careful with any Children and lit Candles but this always creates a significant stunning image! 

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 2

"Play dough symbols of God's Love" 

Everyone is an artist, when it comes to play dough and shaping a simple symbol!

I've seen people make trees, hearts, a hand symbol, a sun, or two people figures, a flower, who knows!

It's a simple way to spend time reflecting on what the symbol means to you...

Leave them together on the table...

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 1

 

"Station 1 "Hope & Longing in the Manger"

The manger is a symbol, as if all the world's trouble, missed opportunities, our struggles and everything needing hope, joy, peace and love is stuffed in there and love was born into it all! Can we write our hopes & longings on a strip of paper and add it to the manger... Pens and paper are there, maybe grab a book to lean on and write your hopes... taking a turn to place it there...

10mins max, consider social distancing for safety as well!

Christmas Worship Hamilton Uniting Church 2022

   Christmas holds so many truths all at once, as it has for thousands of years. Matthew wrote with strong intention to place Jesus story in parallel with that of Moses, reflecting also Isaiah's prophetic tradition. In this way the details, taught as concrete literal truth, get in the way of what this story might just be about... God One Of Us Here Now! Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, leads us to look with several new lenses at the story we’ve heard since we were toddling around in pajamas. "There’s the beauty of a young family shepherding a new life into the world, amid brutal oppression from a power-hungry empire. There’s the unwed teenage girl who’s told she will carry the savior of the world while a disdainful religious culture watches her belly swell. Through it all, we get a glimpse at Mary’s fierce desire to honor her Creator, and the tremendous power held in the way she accepts this divine assignment." 

As Nadia takes us through the Christmas story, she points out how God moves through the world by turning the notions of “power” and “blessing” upside down while lifting up the voiceless and the oppressed, reminding us that “being ‘blessed’ means seeing God in the world and trusting that God is at work even in things we can’t see, understand, or imagine.” (adapted from Jen Hatmaker)

   Can love be born again in a manger full of all the problems in our world today? Can we know we are all daughters and sons of God as we live out the call to join God in the neighbourhood?

   The Nativity image above invites what all this means, a story in context, note all the hidden clues to meaning in the image, don't stop at 10-12 subtle inclusions...

"TOP GUN Maverick" Spoiler Alert

"The machismo posturing of elite flyboys and the joys of male camaraderie" is how film reviewers Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat highlighted their article on the original 1986 Tony Scott directed film "Top Gun." I was 25 when I saw the film at least twice at the Cinema and half a dozen more times on VHS video at various movie night sleepovers! I was in the process of trying to leave the Steelworks, finish a part time Economics Degree and the incredulous plot, stunts, acting, humour and bravado of this film summed up the spirit of the times. We loved it, in all it's escapist, mysoginistic, jingoism!

It's been a long time coming (including pandemic delay) and I can't possibly see "TOP GUN Maverick" and know how you'd experience it compared to the original. I worked hard to go with no expectations, beyond articles and interviews trumpeting CGI-less authentic flying scenes...

To see this film and fully appreciate it 

means suspending judgement about:

- faceless enemy pilots blacked out masks + 'superior' jets

- The absence of actors Kellie McGillis + Meg Ryan

- suspending belief, rules & wisdom about who lives or dies

But it's cinema, storytelling, make believe and escapism! For that I give this movie 5 Stars! 

The best films have a good story and try not to get in its way, a cast who fit the roles AND they take you on an emotional roller coaster! Miles Teller (who will win an Academy Award one day) is perfectly cast as "Rooster," the son of "Goose" who was killed in a flight accident (hitting his head on the canopy after activating the ejector seat) with 'Maverick' as Pilot in the original film!

To me, it isn't corny, it pays homage to music and the original iconic scenes, even beach volleyball! 

It's still a flyboy film, but with a female and culturally diverse 'Top Guns' returning to train for an impossible mission! Of course I liked "Bob!" The old fashioned picture walls and nostalgia work!

The fact I had tears in my eyes through much of the film puts me right back in 1986 with all it's upheaval, emotion an growing to be done! It meant I was invested in the characters, able to escape any cynicism in the predictable yet surprising film. It was clever and creative. 

I can't stand the length of films today, but this one was over fast, without distraction and I'd see it again in the Cinema! I found it to be incredibly sad, poignant and heartwarmingly funny!

It has to be said, Tom Cruise knows how to pilot these films, just like a obsolete F-14 with a twist (or is that a roll)!

Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw "My dad believed in you. I'm not going to make the same mistake"

Rear Admiral "Thirty-plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations. Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last 40 years. Yet you can't get a promotion, you won't retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die. You should be at least a two-star Admiral by now, yet here you are. Captain. Why is that?" [pause] Maverick "It's one of life's mysteries, sir"

Federal Election Forum for Newcastle

   We held a Federal Election Forum at Hamilton Uniting Church 7pm Wednesday 4th May as host to participation in our community, to be in the public square fostering questions and answers so the community could have informed participation in our democratic processes, regardless of being a 'safe' Labor Seat with just over 13% margin in 2019! 

    My role was that of Organiser/Facilitator/Moderator, giving each Candidate 2mins for Introduction, then over the audience for Question each would have opportunity to answer as they chose. I have spent some time processing my observations of the evening, aware it's tricky to unpack and comment, having worked hard to give all equal time! 

    I can report, like two previous Forums in the Seat of Hunter, it is difficult to directly contact Candidates locally beyond the sitting Member, who has a staff, though it can be a week before response, which you haev more confidence in receiving. 

 Candidates via Electoral Commission at close of nominations 

 1. Sharon Claydon ALP replied, attended, participated 

2. Charlotte McCabe GREENS replied, attended, participated 

3. Emily Brollo ANIMAL JUSTICE replied, attended, participated 

4. Garth Pywell INDEPENDENT replied, attended, participated once I found direct contact 

5. Mark Watson PAULINE HANSON’S ONE NATION replied, attended, participated 

6. William Hussey INFORMED MEDICAL OPTIONS PARTY replied late in the afternoon, attended, participated 

 7. Katrina Wark LIBERAL never replied, rang the day after to explain absence - work project deadlines 

8. Amanda Cook UNITED AUSTRALIA PARTY never replied 

    I offered an Acknowledgement of Country and a few Opening Remarks, mostly to values set and lay out the process to best allow a constructive conversation, answering the why are we hosting question on the way... 

Tonight, we acknowledge the custodians of the land and waterways, holders of wisdom, story and culture where we gather - the Awabakal and Worimi people. We pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging. Here we value opportunities like the Ngramma Vigil at King Edward Park, to sit and listen to truth telling AND the Gimbay Gatigaan (or Friendly Mud Crab) story sharing at Throsby Creek, Carrington Parklands (even with the rain) here we are aware of our neighbours, Awabakal Medical Services and local Pre School. 

  A Few Remarks to “Set the Scene” Why is Hamilton Uniting Church hosting the Forum? 

We try to engage in our community. It includes Hamilton HIVE Community Hub next door AND “Bill’s Place” Op Shop & Tea Rooms, here -$7 cuppa and cake, five days a week, so we hear people’s stories - hurts and hopes across the community. 

 Flyn (for this story) came here experiencing homelessness, rough sleeping, not asking for money but looking for something of value to contribute, asking only a shower, help getting his clothes washed. Buckets of pebbles to stop weeds in our gardens and trimmed hedges, coffee and cake, Care in a shoebox package of toiletries and food in which we partner in with Hunter Homeless Connect, Wesley Mission and City of Newcastle later Flyn was grateful but we received more than we gave. 

One of our Mob donated a bike for us to sell and use the money for others. It sold for $100 on Marketplace in about 15 mins before Christmas. 5 minutes later Liz messaged, was it still available? She had a bike stolen which meant no rides to the beach with her daughter in the school holidays. We bought another bike with the proceeds to drop off, to their home in Hamilton South public housing 

Stories of the pressures of living with a shared public dimension, which we can’t genuinely meet without collaborators or bringing together organisations or people with resources and the power to change things. 

    Lastly, A working definition of POLITICS is ‘work’ or ethics done in public. It’s what emerges in the interactions between people and is not inherently corrupt, partisan or solely about compromise - those are all choices. 

   On a range of issues from First Peoples Voice, Treaty and Truth – action on climate change – to safety for refugees and people seeking asylum – economic participation for all, the Uniting Church nationally advocates flourishing life for all people and the environment, in a more just Australia. 

   We participate in the public square because as well as the dominance of the economy and shrinking role of government, there is civil society or work done in public, for the common good. 

   Tonight is about respectfully listening, ideas, policy, questions and answers... 

 Questions and Answers Context, not speeches or simply comments 

Invite general or particular Respectful listening Microphone, so everyone can hear you and participate + chairs... 

Reflections

 I've run three Forums in notional safe Labor Seats and either had no contact and/or no participation by a Coalition Candidate. The Greens have been articulate, clear and know their Policies, with good local connections and participate confidently. 

   Charlotte MCabe was committed to what the science of climate change requires of us in response to global warming, brought journalistic experience to commentary on wider issues and was able to respond to the few more testy interjections from the One Nation and Medical Options Candidates. 

   Emily Brollo had seen Candidates elected from a wholistic philosophy around just agriculture and experimentation, consumption and diet as they relate to the treatment of animals. Her values were clear and consistent and I was greatful she felt the values setting and Introduction created a safe space for dialogue. The one change I would make to the process was to take the mid session break and change the speaking order in part 2. 

   Garth Pywell's key motivation emerged as community engagement and consultation in democracy, town hall meetings on issues and 'change' as a motif vs 'more of the same. 

   Mark Watson is 'having a real crack' for Pauline Hanson's One Nation. A couple of personal interjections went a little too far and enthusiastic supporters do not legitimise a policy stance built on racism, jingoism, and macho nationalistic feelings misplaced as to blame or solutions, Mark's advocacy for small business, mining and miners gives voice to many peoples concerns in a 21st C economy needing to take a/c of CO2 levels. At the same time, in response to questions around 'Uluru Statement from the Heart,' One Woman a week in Australia dying from domestic violence and the flaws in the Family Court System ... a platform, value or outlook of "equality for everyone" fails to address existing inequalities, ignoring them in favour of meaningless statements. 

   Bill Hussey from "informed Medical Options' basically stands against 'no jab, no job' asking questions about the efficacy of the vaccine, profits for big pharma and Inquiries into the whol pandemic response in relation to those who've missed out on support or the creation of one rule for some. As former military and a Solicitor, Bill's answer on the Family Court was a helful response, as was Charlotte's suggestion of an Independent Body who drive the processes. Questions about who did and didn't receive economic support and whether vaccines are delivering what we hoped are valid questions. I couldn't help feel despite this, the driver of involvement around personal freedom above community responsibility carries underpinning values around "fairness" based in selective selfishness. 

But that's just my intuitive response. 

   Sharon Claydon is an active articulate local Labor member who took opportunity to outline key policies, to talk point of difference with others without doing so adversarily and worked with the equal time principle admirably. Target of a couple of unhelpful comments, Sharon stuck to the issues and ideas. On Refugees, Labor are wedged by the issues while light years ahead of LNP in empathy and compassion. On the Climate, likewise, yet not at levels the science asks. 

   This is where Politics is the art of the possible or compromise, revealing a part of the weakenss or our adversarial system. In all I believe a wide range of issues were canvassed and those in attendance had opportunity to hear exactly what each Candidate was offering and although we ran out of time for a final one or two questions we hit 8.33pm so wrapped up, offered thanks and headed into some informal chit chat and headed home!