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Permission to reproduce this book Lent Event is keen to make this Journey Guide widely available. Permission is granted to reproduce and transmit this material, provided Lent Event is acknowledged as the resource originator. Copies of Lent Event resources can be downloaded without charge from www.lentevent.com Copies of the Journey Guide can be purchased from www.lentevent.com or by calling 1300 536 838. All proceeds from the sale of the Journey Guide go towards running Lent Event.

Photography by UnitingWorld - Relief and Development

Graphic design by Boheem Design

Printed by MediaCom Education (www.mediacom.org.au) in Australia.

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1 This One Life

Lent Event 2012 Journey Guide

Bible study by UnitingWorld, based on material from Rev Dr Ian Price

Daily Prayers for the Journey by Melanie Crawford

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3 Insert Contents page

4 The Call to Lent Event:

The causes of extreme poverty are many and complicated and it’s all too easy to become overwhelmed with a sense of being powerless to respond. Nevertheless, those of us who enjoy relative affluence have both a responsibility and an opportunity to address this great moral challenge through our everyday choices.

Lent Event came about as a fresh approach towards tackling the problem of extreme poverty by promoting the reconciliation of peoples and resources. The Lent Event discipline involves setting aside non-essential material goods for the Lenten period and donating the money saved to support projects that offer a better future to our brothers and sisters in some of the world’s most impoverished nations.

We've seen Lent Event participants contribute over $2 million for transformational projects in Asia, the Pacific and Southern Africa facilitated by UnitingWorld - Relief and Development. Conducted by local partner churches around the world, these projects focus on promoting local ownership and building up local capacity to manage development.

As a result of the Lent Event action-reflection-connection discipline, we have seen transformation happening: not only in developing countries, but across Australia as well. Australian faith communities are being transformed as they follow where Jesus leads. We've seen hundreds of Uniting Church congregations growing closer with our sisters and brothers living in poverty and closer with God through the Lent Event journey. I hope that this Journey Guide will help you to experience that ongoing growth too. As you reconsider your priorities, lifestyle choices and values, I trust that you will experience a deeper sense of God's love and grace at work in and through you.

We at Lent Event are grateful that you've decided to step out on this journey. If you have any questions that we might help you with along the way, please ring us on 1300 536 838 (free call) or visit our website at www.lentevent.com.

Blessings,

Sarah White Lent Event Founder

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5 Welcome to the This One Life Bible study: One of the most important questions for people of faith today is how to live an authentic Christian life, a life that is faithful to Jesus Christ. It may be a question of: o Time – where can I find the time to attend to faith? o Complexity – where do I begin? Whose voice do I trust? o Money – What discretion do I have when normal living expenses take it all? o Influence – What’s the point when, realistically, I cannot make a difference? The deeper question is: o How can my faith influence what I do?

In the Christian faith, authentic living has to do with experiencing God’s Spirit and living in God’s grace. Lent Event resources invite us into a daily pattern of personal prayer, meditation and study, aimed at facilitating such openness because prayer, meditation, worship, study and meeting together can open us to God and others. In this study, trusting in God to guide us, we will ask: How can we live authentic lives that honour God with the transformational love Jesus showed? How can we adopt life-styles that are good for the whole earth? How do we live an authentic Christian life when, collectively: o the lifestyles of the country we live in seem to influence us more than the spirit of Jesus

o we worked to achieve a certain standard of living and we enjoy it

o there is significant disparity between people who are wealthy and people who are poor and individual generosity seems to make little difference

o people who seek to follow Jesus in many cases do not seem to live in discernibly different ways from people who do not look to Jesus for guidance

This series consists of six sessions that invite us to think further and share with others about these challenges. The Gospel readings are those commonly used in many churches each Sunday in Lent. Each study has three aspects- connect, reflect and act: o To begin each week, you’ll connect with each other and the theme by talking and praying

o Next, you’ll read the Bible passage, reflect on the commentary, which offers a perspective on the passage and on what is revealed about Jesus, yourself and your following of Jesus

o Finally, you’ll hear the voices from some of our partners and ask what actions you might look to take as a follower of Jesus.

Connect ... Reflect ... Act The studies are designed for small group discussion. However, if you are unable to meet with others you will still find benefit from individual use of the study. If using the material in a small group the best use of limited time will be made by each member working through the material in advance and noting down responses 6 in the spaces provided. It will also be valuable to note any questions or surprises that arise. In this way you can prepare the mind and heart so discussion will be deepened by sharing of considered responses.

We hope that when you reach the end of your six-week conversation, you’ll be inspired to deepen your discipleship journey beyond Easter. Following the final session, you’ll find a section called: ‘ Where to from here?’ that contains some suggestions of practical ways that you can continue along your path of spiritual growth through action, reflection and connection. The chart in this section is intended to meet you where you are on the journey and suggest ideas for your next steps. You can find more information and resources at www.LentEvent.com/next Finally, there is an important section called Effective Global Partnerships and Project Focus for 2012 which outlines how we can all be involved in international development and the areas of impact that your contributions will have through Lent Event. Our hope is that you will be inspired to share financial resources with these communities through Lent Event, and to seek potential connections and possibilities for further engagement so that God’s reign of peace and justice continues to take hold across the Earth. The team at UnitingWorld

A note to group leaders: These studies deal with complex themes. They invite participants to consider how they influence systems. This might be more than people were anticipating from a Bible study. However, we believe the Bible invites us into these difficult places. We encourage you, therefore, as group leader, to think in advance about each of the questions and to find ways that will help people connect with the questions. This might require you to give practical examples beyond what is offered, or to suggest to the group how you yourself have sought to make sense of the study.

7 Week One The In-breaking World

Psalm: Psalm 25:1-10 Old Testament: Genesis 9:8-17 First Sunday in Lent Gospel: Mark 1:9-15 Epistle: 1 Peter 3:18-22

Connect As people gather for the first time, help them to feel comfortable and safe in the group. Invite each participant to describe something that happened in the last week that has affected them. When each has shared, invite one person to lead the group in the following prayer: Loving God, who invites us into your company, a sacred community of grace and mercy, we come with many thoughts, emotions and desires – lives filled with hopes and dread, fears and ambitions; lives that are complex and confusing. As we come here, we pray that we may be open to the guidance of your Spirit, enabled to discern your Word in our midst, that in meeting together we may be shaped in deep humanity and inspired to embrace your will for us, both as individuals and as part of your church. Guard and guide us we pray. In the name of the Christ. Amen. Think of a time recently when you were embarking on something new or facing a change. What was the change? How did you feel? Why did you feel this way? Reflect Read aloud Mark 1:9-15 Read it a second time in silence, noting anything that seems to leap out or be unusual. Share with the group what you noted. Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark launches into his story with the baptism and temptations of Jesus. It is as though he wants to say, in the words of the Nike ad “Just do it!” “Get on with it! The kingdom is at hand. There’s no time to waste.” Images portray how the new was breaking in on what had been settled and assumed. The heavens are torn open and the divine voice speaks, suggesting Jesus comes with a different way. In him God’s reign is breaking in. Yet, in being baptised, as in his birth, he enters fully into the existing world, the world we know and live in. Jesus brings God’s reign to bear in this world. John’s baptism was for repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Although Jesus did not need to repent, he was baptised. It seems he wanted to enter fully into our world and identify with us in our place. He comes to inaugurate God’s reign in the midst of this world. The reign, or rule, or kingdom of God is the world transformed to be as God intends it to be. In this world we experience temptation. The world we know holds us in its power. Satan is the voice of the world as it is, trying to close off possibilities for a different way of being. On the other hand is God’s call to the new transformed world, the kingdom of God, but it is not as well known as the way Satan represents. How does this opening set the scene for the rest of Jesus’ life?

8 How have you experienced being tempted to stay with what is and on the other being drawn towards a more life-giving, God-honouring way? Act Overseas partners help us glimpse dimensions of the new world that our culture closes down. Many of us are, for example, used to private ownership of land. The countries of many of our partners, however, have communal ownership with a strong sense of stewardship of land bequeathed to communities by previous generations. Such legal systems embody shared responsibility and inherited stewardship. Partners help us experience God in a fresh way, expanding our capacity to experience the greatness of God. It might be the priority they give to community, showing restraint in relation to the environment, conspicuous simplicity, quiet deference, taking costly steps towards reconciliation or exhibiting vulnerability. The image of Christ as the one who ushers in a new order invites us to enter and participate in the reign of God, where there is justice, equality, peace and ecological wholeness. Where in your life/work/circle of friendships do you sense a call to seek a new way of being? What are the barriers and tests that might make you hesitant? What next steps might you take to answer your present call? When have you experienced God when you followed his call in a specific way? Thought for the week: I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Nelson Mandela

Action for the week: During this week reflect on where you sense the difference between the new world Christ brings and what you presently experience. What dimensions of that new world are being disclosed to you in your life? Is there a person you know who could act as a mentor to a new possibility? Pray for them and seek to learn one thing from them that would help you to really live as a disciple of Jesus. Prayer of the week: Loving God, in my thinking, in my doing, and in my acting let me follow the way of Jesus. Amen.

9 WEEK Two Wrenched into a new world

Psalm: Psalm 22: 23-31 Second Sunday in Old Testament: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Lent Gospel: Mark 8:31-38 Epistle: Romans 4:13-25

Connect The action from last week was to reflect on where you sense the difference between the new world Christ brings and what you presently experience. What dimensions of that new world are being disclosed to you in your life? You were invited to pray for a person who might help you to live according to God’s reign, to learn one thing from them. Talk about what happened or, if you were not able to reflect and act, what occurs to you now. Opening prayer: Gracious God, who called the universe into being and is beyond our understanding, we thank you that you are as near as the breath we breathe, ever-present, perfectly loving, always caring. Open our hearts to one another. Open our minds to your truth. Open our spirits to new possibilities, that we come closer to you and be empowered to follow the way of Jesus. Amen. There is a story of an old man who was asked once what was the greatest lesson he had learned. “Oh,” he said, “Never to expect anything but always to accept what came along.” “What do you mean,” his enquirer asked. “Well, when I was a young man, I fell in love with a beautiful woman.” “Oh, that’s good!” “Not really, because the emperor saw her and took her away from me.” “Oh, that’s terrible!” “Not really. It turns out she had a terrible temper and made his life miserable!” “That’s lucky.” “Not really. I could never get her face out of my mind so I never married and have no child to inherit my wealth.” “That is sad.” “Perhaps, but my brother had six children who fought and one killed him in the end.” “Terrible!” “Well, except that an angel came to me in my grief in a dream and told me that my brother was a thief and murderer who was planning to take my life and all I owned. I think it may have been true.” And so the story goes on and on and on. Knowing what is the right way is always a tricky thing. Our perspective is influenced by our culture. People who go to live in another culture often experience culture-shock, in which their previously accepted perspective may not be shared. The differences might be in relation to the place of physical touch between people of different gender, the extent to which people put emphasis on group rather than individual activity, the relative importance people give to economic wellbeing or different views about political activities. Carolyn Gillette wrote a hymn about a story in the Bible about a blind man Jesus healed. A verse says:

O Christ, you are the light to all who follow you; You give to us the gift of sight — a new world-view.

10 When culture hems us in with values that destroy, Lord, help your church to see again your kingdom's joy.

Talk about a time when a different culture or world-view changed your perspective, or how you imagine it might do that. What persuaded you to change your perspective? What did you leave behind? Reflect The first study focused on Satan tempting Jesus to succumb to the prevailing system with its known enticements and so close off a world of new possibilities,. Today’s study presents the same temptation in a different way, to stay in the world we presently know with the same range of enticements, rather than be opened to the reign of God embodied in Christ. The imagery used highlights how much it costs to follow Jesus’ way. Think of a time in your personal life where a situation wrenched you, jolting your way of living. In hindsight, how might you see God in that wrenching? Read Mark 8:31-38. You may wish to use a dramatic reading. If there are enough participants, ask one person to take the part of Jesus; one the narrator; and one Peter. The rest of the group will focus on the three crowds in the story – the elders/chief priests/scribes; the disciples; and the crowd he was teaching. Read the story aloud, each reading the section belonging to them (Jesus, Peter and narrator.) Most of the participants are acting out of their best frame of reference. The religious leaders are doubtless concerned for the sanctity of the law and the best interests of the people in keeping the peace. Peter cannot imagine letting Jesus suffer. Even the strength of Jesus’ retort makes one wonder how much struggle lay behind his acceptance of the inevitable. What do you imagine each of the people was feeling as this scene unfolded? (E.g. how would Peter have felt? What about the disciples?) If you were part of the religious set, how would you have reacted? Can you imagine what was going on inside Jesus? The passage emphasises how costly it is for Jesus to be true to the reign of God. The consequences are severe. The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected. He must lose his life, take up his cross and be raised to new life. The path to the new world involves going with Jesus, losing our existing life, taking up the cross and entering into the new world. Congregations of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines have stood with people pushed off their land so mining companies can access resources. Many pastors and lay leaders have been killed as a result, losing their lives for people whose rights have been denied. Think of a time when you experienced being involved in a struggle in a community or in your own life and in hindsight recognising God’s leading in that struggle. What do you do to ensure that you remain open to the cost involved in following Jesus? Why might the new world be worth such a cost? What possibilities does it present that the existing world does not offer? Act Some years ago I heard Desmond Tutu (the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa and high profile defender of human rights) speak. He had been asked about the feelings the African National Congress (ANC) and others had as they sought to resist apartheid. He remarked how they knew that they could not be beaten, because there was nothing that the regime could do to destroy them – no threat, no torture, nothing. The reason? He said that the leaders had

11 already died. They had chosen to sacrifice all for the sake of “the children” and as they already considered themselves dead, what more could be done to them? Hubert was a Bougainville Liberation Army (BRA) Commander, familiar with fighting and killing. In a Young Ambassadors for Peace Workshop he decided to give up fighting and take up the way of peace. He is now a YAP Coordinator in Bougainville. Jacob refused to relate to people with HIV/AIDS. When his sister contracted HIV/AIDS he threw her out of the household. When his sister died he was convicted about his attitudes and became an HIV/AIDS Coordinator in the United Church of Papua New Guinea. Where do you see examples of people taking the step of “laying down one’s life”, being called in challenging ways into the new world in Christ? Where do you find encouragement to consider such a step? Thought for the week: “To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer Action for the week: Identify a part of your life that might change in response to the call of Jesus into his new world. Identify someone or somewhere in which you might find encouragement for the change. Make arrangements to spend time with that person or in that place. Keep praying that dimension of yourself into that new world. Prayer of the week: Loving God, heal me at the points where living and thinking differently will help me to live in the new world of Jesus Christ. Amen.

12 Week Three Overturning the tables

Psalm: Psalm 19 Old Testament: Exodus 20:1-17 Third Sunday in Lent Gospel: John 2:13-22 Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Connect Last week the passage invited us to think about what it means to lose one’s life and to live as followers of Jesus Christ. Where did you find encouragement to make a change in your life that reflected that new world? Opening Payer: Merciful God, who sees all we are and knows the very depths of our being, grant us faith to be honest with ourselves; grant us love to support each other in grace; grant us courage to be open to you and one another; and grant us a vision of life lived in the fullness of your presence. Amen.

Tell of a time you experienced or saw a protest, and how you felt.

Reflect Silently read the passage John 2: 13-22. Divide into three parts – a reader, a cheer squad for the traders, and a cheer squad for the people who are at the mercy of the authorities and traders who sell the requisites for making sacrifices and celebrating the impending Passover. Read the passage aloud and invite the other two groups to provide the sound effects appropriate to the reading. For the community on which Jesus unleashes his wrath, this must have been astounding. This was business as usual. People needed the necessary items for worship and sacrifice. “So, Jesus, what is your problem?” What was the problem? Consider this. Jesus is so aware of the burden of the people, oppressed by a foreign power, oppressed by poverty, and now, even burdened down by religion that he decides that the whole system must be challenged and opposed. In every sense, this is more than the action of an angry man – a ranting person gone mad. Rather, Jesus is standing firmly within the traditions of the prophets as he acts out the indignation of God towards those who exploit the poor and powerless. Here is Isaiah (e.g. Isaiah 5: 8 – 23). Here is Jeremiah (e.g. Jeremiah 22: 13-17). Here is Amos (e.g. Amos 6: 4 – 8). Oppression on all sides, the system must change. God must be honoured. When have you found yourself wanting to shout at the TV in response to a news item or wanting to go public in protest at an injustice? What is one of the issues you are really concerned about or angry at right now? How would you describe the system producing that injustice? Can you describe how it might be in the alternative system of the new world of Jesus Christ? At the beginning of this reflection you were invited to cheer for one side of the story or the other. Which side do you think you would naturally feel more comfortable cheering on? Of course, most of us will say the people’s side, and especially Jesus’ side. Yet, for many Christians, any form of protest, any display of anger, any subversive action is often considered unacceptable. This is not a criticism, it is our learned response. Generally, the modern church tends to avoid public conflict. More so, immersed in our own culture, we often fail to see the perspective of

13 others who are affected by our systems and actions. We do not find it easy to consider who might be disadvantaged by how we live. Who are invisible to us? Where do you feel uncomfortable about the way our society works? What do you think Jesus would be doing and saying about this? Act Some years ago I visited a nearby country as the guest of one of our partner churches. It was a seven hour, cramped bus trip from the airport to the city we were visiting. About halfway, our “guide” said casually, “Twenty-nine people were shot dead outside that hacienda two days ago. The workers were rallying in support of a demand for three cents (equivalent) per bushel for the corn they pick. The people live in poverty and do not have enough to feed their families. The owner called in a favour, and the military came and killed them. A small boy was shot accidently and when his father ran to his aid, he was killed as well. One man, trying to escape, was caught on top of the barbed-wire fence, and he was shot dead too. The military paraded their bodies through the streets as a warning.” I shook my head in sympathy. Perhaps the guide saw something in my eyes. The scene she was describing seemed incredible. There was no evidence. All seemed peaceful. Maybe she could see doubt on my face as the next morning at breakfast, she brought four papers, all describing in varying detail, depending on the political persuasion of the paper, the scene she had outlined. We would be horrified by such a story, except we know it all too well. We live in a world where this kind of story is commonplace. Invite the group to recount other stories of such injustice that come to mind. How do you feel when you see or hear such things? Do you feel outraged, or do you feel you are becoming numb to such events? The Uniting Church in Australia has 36 partnerships with overseas churches. Many of these partner communities experience daily injustice such as denial of basic human rights. The Church of South India, for instance, has been supporting India’s indigenous people, the Adivasi, to assert their right to land and identity. Although the Indian constitution gives the Adivasi special recognition, in practice they find it extremely difficult to keep their land. Tea plantations steadily encroach and squeeze them into remote, inhospitable and smaller tracts of land. The Church of South India is helping to uphold people’s rights by persistent referral to the Constitution and publicising what is happening, through providing assistance to gain identity papers and insisting it is the duty of government officials and companies to respect the human rights of Adivasi people.. We in Australia sometimes benefit from such injustice in other countries. In West Papua a nickel mine is destroying some beautiful coral islands and decimating local communities. The ore that is mined is shipped to Australia for processing. Responding to injustice involves building and upholding mutual respectful partnerships. In so doing we learn how we may be implicated, how we benefit, what needs changing and how best to support our partners. Think of a situation of injustice facing a partner church of the Uniting Church. What might “turning over the tables” mean for us and for that partner? What prophetic action could we take within a mutual respectful partnership?

Thought for the week: “When, however, prayer makes us reach out to God, not on our own but on his terms, then prayer pulls us away from self-preoccupations, encourages us to leave familiar ground, and challenges us to enter into a new world which cannot be contained with the narrow boundaries of our mind and heart.” Henri Nouwen

Action for the week:

14 Identify a person whose background and culture is different from yours. Ask them: What do you think are some of the strengths and weaknesses of your culture within the Australian context? Reflect on their answers and consider what Jesus is saying through these insights.

Continue to pray for our partner church/s this week using the daily prayers as a guide. Prayer of the week: Lord, give me the courage to confront injustice and greed so that our world may better know your will and ways. Amen.

Week Four Living in the Light

Psalm: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Fourth Sunday in Old Testament: Numbers 21:4-9 Lent Gospel: John 3:14-21 Epistle: Ephesians 2:1-10

Connect Share with one other the result of last week’s action and the insight you gained by speaking with someone from a different cultural background. Even if you were not able to follow through, share what you sense God is stirring in you that might help you to live a more authentic Christian life. Opening prayer: O God of new possibilities, When darkness surrounds us on every side – Help us to choose light. When confusion and uncertainty overwhelm us – Help us to choose light. When selfish ambition seduces us – Help us to choose light. When evil and violence tempt us – Help us to choose light. Help us now, O God, to embrace the light, to rejoice in its truth and to shine forth with its radiance, here and always. Amen. Reflect Read John 3:14-21 through silently. Read it a second time, this time putting a tick alongside of anything that you agree with, a cross against anything you feel uncomfortable with, a question mark against anything you feel uncertain of, and an exclamation mark against anything that excites you. Share one of the points you have identified. Several ideas and related implications can be drawn from this passage. One is that God loves the world with love so great it is beyond comprehension, and that love embraces all creation. We are invited into that love which is to enliven all our being and doing. Another is that while God enables us to live in the light, we seem attracted by darkness. Darkness has a power which, like an addiction, is not easily conquered. Although we may like the light, we find it devilishly difficult to extract ourselves from personal self interest and the systems and structures and thinking of our world that keeps some wealthy and some poor, some benefitting to the detriment of most. We want to live justly and yet find ourselves desiring what we do not need and more than creation was meant to give. A third is that Jesus invites us to live in the light. Although the darkness remains real and powerful, Christ has overcome the darkness. The remarkable work of God is that in Christ we can be born again into a life of light, freed of the power of darkness. Just as always telling the truth means not having to remember the lie, so in Christ the effort once given to pretence can be channelled into love.

15 God’s purpose in Christ is to save the world we know. In Christ, the world we know is ushered into the new world of Christ. It is drawn into the light, which reveals how things are, what our community is really like, who we really are, what is the nature of our living and what is going on behind the scenes, where truth and evil struggle. Christ sheds the light of truth in the world, uncovering injustice and wrongdoing. Berlin Guerrero is a pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. When he was an intern pastor, he felt so concerned with what was happening to people in his congregation that he challenged the injustice of how they were treated. As an example, farmers were being pushed off their land without adequate compensation. Although it is usual for a minister to speak about issues arising from the congregation, the military abducted and tortured him, and then took him to the Police who charged him with an unsolved murder. Berlin spent eighteen months in Cavite Gaol during which time he ran Bible studies and organised community building activities like karaoke concerts. Bringing unjust systems into the light has cost many people in the Philippines their lives and nearly cost Berlin his. Coming to the light subjects to scrutiny our lives and the systems and structures that shape them. In verse 20, Jesus might have been referring to secret arrangements with occupying forces or mutually convenient understandings that enabled religion to be practised within narrow constraints or forms of religion that restricted people’s ability to live abundant lives. For many of us the light does not present itself in blinding brilliance. Limited by the perspectives in the world as it now is, we often only see gleams of light, little reflections here and there in people’s lives or how a community behaves or in some small step of faith we experience. When we do so we are empowered to take more steps of faith. Talk about times when you have experienced or sensed powers of darkness being brought to light. In the context of this study, if Jesus were speaking the words in verse 21 about doing what is true to you today, what elements of life do you think he would have in mind? Where do you hear Jesus addressing you? Act The challenge of this reading is to be honest – honest about what we believe and don’t believe; honest about what we know of the ways others live; honest about who we are and what we do. Jesus invites us to an honest way of living and loving without condition. That is what it means to live in the light. Being transparent and accountable are two ways of living in the light of Christ. Transparency is about being honest about who we are, not pretending to be more or less than we are in Christ. Living authentic lives requires transparency with others, reflecting our accountability to them. Our accountability is primarily to God in Christ, but also to each other in the community of faith, especially those least heard because they are at the edge. Christ stands with people at the edge of our structures and systems, and from there asks us about our lifestyles. Christ reflects back to us how our lives seem from the edge. Our overseas partners often tell us how we seem to them. The Churches in Kiribati and Tuvalu, for example, keep asking what we are doing to limit our carbon emissions (what are we doing to prevent global warming, sea level rises and the consequent destruction of their land and communities). How do you feel about giving an account of your life to people experiencing life at the edge, including overseas partners? When viewed by people without access to resources of health and education, how are we exercising influence for life? Thought for the week:

16 The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle. Albert Einstein Action for the week:

If every aspect of life was transparent to others, what things would you want to change in order to live a more authentic life? List some things you might change and think through how you might go about this. Discuss this with a friend who can covenant to support you to make a change.

Prayer of the week:

Help me, every day, to live in the light. Let there be at least one way in which others will see your light in me. Amen.

17 Week Five Dying to New Life Psalm: Psalm 51:1-12 or Psalm 119:9-16 Old Testament: Jeremiah 31:31-34 Fifth Sunday in Lent Gospel: John 12:20-33 Epistle: Hebrews 5:5-10

Connect Last week you identified some things you might change in order to live a more authentic Christian life. Share how you are faring with this reflection and how you are feeling about this challenge. Opening prayer: Divine Wisdom, source of all knowledge, guide us we pray as we meet together. Guide us in the truth; guide us in love and mercy; guide us in openness to one another; guide us in the ways of Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. Reflect We are approaching the end of our Lenten journey. The goal has been to think about ways we can live in Christ more authentically. The studies have highlighted: o The new world of Christ breaking in on the world we live, with Christ as the power by which we might live beyond this world

o The temptation to stay with how we now live and the wrench involved in giving it up

o How living into Christ’s new world overturns systems in this world

o The power of the world we know and the transforming work of Christ in overpowering darkness bringing us into light

In the Gospel for this week, some Greeks ask to see Jesus. When Andrew and Phillip go to Jesus with this request, Jesus talks about fruitful living and losing life in order to keep it for eternal life. He troubles over what that will mean for him with a sense of impending judgement. John connects seeing Jesus with the image of a grain of wheat falling into the earth, leading to fruitfulness. Read John 12:20-33 and consider the following questions: How do you understand fruitful living? When you think of a person or a community living fruitfully, what are they like? What makes them fruitful? What do you think the image of the grain of wheat falling into the earth might say about how we are called to live today? In contemporary Australian society, we have come to understand fruitfulness as maximising productivity, efficiency and achieving growth. We tend to equate fruitfulness with attaining new or greater heights in our chosen endeavours. Our perspective usually centres on individual or organisational achievement. Today’s reading invites us into a more life-giving way. . We are invited to set aside our individualistic living for the good of the whole of creation. The calling is to lay down our self-interest for the sake of the earth and its people. How do we die to appetites, approaches and aspirations that seem to be damaging creation, our sense of community, the first peoples of our nations and overseas partners. Conversations with Pacific partners implicitly question which gospel we 18 now propound. “You came”, they say, “with the gospel of Jesus Christ, teaching us the value of every human being, reminding us of the value of caring for each other, eschewing violence. Now you tell us that the real gospel is to compete with each other in selling goods, to make the most use of the earth, to focus on what we can achieve individually rather than as a community, and to consume more, feeding our aspirations so that our economies will grow, and we will be better off. Why?” What is abundant life, life in Christ, seeing Christ? In our day, perhaps, abundant life involves restraint on economic growth, a deepening sense of community, an overthrowing of individualism and consumerism. Abundant life is about dying to self, to the present order of things, and thereby rising to new life in Christ. This is the narrow path that leads to life for all creation.

Act In a workshop on empowering people to take responsibility for economic wellbeing, the bishops of our partner the United Church of Papua New Guinea were asked whether they wanted PNG to be predominantly a provider of raw materials that are processed by the so-called First World, that are then processed and sold back to PNG at a profit for the First World. Their vigorous response was that PNG needed to take hold of its destiny and be more than a provider of raw materials and cheap labour for the First World because there was much more they had to share than the prevailing economic system extracted. Share an example of a cause in which you are or were involved or support, or a step that you have taken, or an evangelistic conversation you have had aimed at helping people die to self for the sake of the earth and its people. What did it cost you? How do you deal with the cost? What dying is involved for you that fruitfulness for you may emerge? Thought for the week: To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal is reached. The key is action. Michael Hanson Action for the week: Look over the Lent Event brochure and reflect on your daily lifestyle. Where are there opportunities for you to change your way of life that may lead to new life for another person? Choose a course of action that will make that difference.

Prayer of the week: Holy God, grant me a vision of where I can make a difference and the courage to act.

19 Week Six Faithfulness

Liturgy of the Passion Psalm: Psalm 31:9-16 Old Testament: Isaiah 50:4-9a Sixth Sunday in Lent Gospel: Mark 15:1-39, 40-47 Passion Sunday Epistle: Philippians 2:5-11

Connect This is the final week of our Lenten journey. At the outset, let us look back over the weeks that we have been together. Reflect on the following three questions: Where have you felt challenged to make a change in your life? What have you discovered about yourself? What has inspired you from your experience of Lent Event? Share your response to one of these questions with one other person. Opening prayer: O God of the way of sacrificial love, let not this week pass without my coming into your presence, knowing your love, hearing your call, sensing the way, and embracing hope for all humankind. Guide us now as we attend to your Spirit. Amen. Holy Week and Easter take us to the heart of the gospel. At stake is authentic living at its most crucial. Our potential for fruitfulness relies on Christ remaining faithful to God’s way through humankind’s most violent denying of that way, and on God’s faithfulness to humankind despite that denial. In the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, God is determined to stay in love with humankind, despite the worst. This is the foundation of living in love, the most authentic way to be human. What do you find is the most disturbing part of the Easter events and why? What has been for you the most perplexing part of the Easter events? Where do you see good news in the events of Easter? Reflect The reading for this week is long. We will focus on the passion narrative rather than the Palm Sunday story. It provides us with an opportunity to reflect deeply on these final events in Christ’s life during Holy Week. These events occur within a story that speaks of divine faithfulness. We are used to acknowledging that at the end of his life, Jesus had to endure his suffering and death alone. Yet, even so, there were people who stood by him, who offered some compassion or help, who remained, even if only at a distance, there with him. Read the passage (Mark 15:1-39, 40-47) aloud. As it is being read, note any assistance, compassion or care that is extended to Jesus. What is the nature of the help that is offered? What limits that help? How do you imagine people might have felt looking back on their part in the event a week or more after that first Easter? Jesus’ faithfulness to God requires that he endure injustice, suffering, ridicule and even the sense of God’s abandonment. Nevertheless, Jesus remains true to God and God’s cause even when the crowd calls for his crucifixion and Pilate sentences him. The Roman centurion’s observation is surely what Mark wants his readers to recognise also, “Truly this man was God’s Son.” In Mark’s version of

20 the story, Jesus hardly says a word. He makes a brief statement before the High Priest. There is his three word reply to Pilate and his quoting of the beginning words of Psalm 22 in which he never manages to go beyond the opening sentence, but nothing more. What do you think Mark is trying to convey to his readers in the following aspect of the reading: through Jesus’ silence (see Isaiah 53), Barabbas the bandit being set free instead of Jesus, the soldiers and passers- by mocking him (sinful humanity), and Jesus’ cry of dereliction (see Psalm 22)? What is the significance of the curtain of the temple being torn in two from top to bottom? What does Jesus’ faithfulness mean for us today as we seek to live authentic Christian lives serving God’s purposes in a world that continues to be characterised by so much injustice, violence and suffering? Act In the passion narrative there are people who stand by and watch passively. There are people who are drawn into the story unwittingly. There are people who are willing to get involved. Lent Event has been an invitation for you to reflect on how you live. How authentically am I living? It has also been an opportunity to think about your place in the world community. How do I contribute to the well-being of others? In summary, what change am I invited to make personally, locally, and globally? Using the grid below, name steps you feel invited to take as you are being drawn into the story of Jesus. How do you experience that call to participate and what do you think is the new life towards which God is calling you in different aspects of your living?: Aspect of What is the call? What is your response? life Personal

Global

If you feel comfortable doing so, share your experience of completing this grid with the group. The story of Easter is a story of faithfulness. When all seemed lost, God showed in faithfulness through the Cross and then in a garden on a Sunday morning that life is stronger than death, love more powerful than hate, hope more fruitful than despair. Overseas partners tell stories of such faithfulness. For example, a young woman in Ambon told how in 1999 her family had to flee when they faced the prospect of brutal death and the razing of their home. A crowd had believed a rumour that a local mosque had been torched by Christians and they sought revenge. She escaped across the nearby lagoon, and then spent five years in a refugee camp. Her family has not been able to return and had to start a new life. Despite feeling grief, distrust, bitterness and anger, within three years this young leader was instrumental in establishing the UnitingWorld Maluku Ambassadors for Peace. She began to seek Muslim friends and went on to study Christian/Muslim relationships. She is typical of many intelligent, capable, inspiring young leaders in Ambon, both Muslim and Christian, actively promoting, organizing and educating for peace supported by the Uniting Church. People who rise above horror to reach out in love reflect the Easter story. In your group share stories of how faithfulness to the way of God amid suffering and difficulty has led to new possibilities.

21 Conclude the Lent Event study series by praying together the following prayer: Loving God, Change my heart, that I may be a person of love. Change my mind, that I may know your will. Change my will, that I may act for others. Change my life, that I may follow in the Way of the Christ, the Lord of all justice and hope. Amen. Thought for the week: Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. Martin Luther King Jr Action for the week: Consider what sacrificial gift you can make to Lent Event. Pray daily for those who have been named in the Lent Event materials and for the changes you have decided you can embrace to change our world. Prayer of the week: Disturb us by your grace; hold us in your love; and empower us by your Spirit, merciful God, now and every day. Amen.

Where to from here?

Easter is not the end, but the beginning of the journey we've been on. Where will Jesus lead you next? In this next section we’ll offer some suggestions of practical ways that you can continue along your path of spiritual growth through:

action, reflection, and connection.

You might find that in some areas you're just getting started while in others you're further along in the journey. For example, the First Steps in Action might not be much of a growth challenge if they're the kind of things you're doing already. If so, the ideas under Stepping Up and Stepping Out might help you to go further.

At the same time, you might find that the Connection ideas under Stepping Up and Stepping Out are too much of a leap for you right now. In that case, an idea or two from the First Steps column might help you get started.

For more information about the ideas here, along with helpful resources and links, go to: www.LentEvent.com/next

23 First Steps: The Lent Event Stepping Up: My Lenten Stepping Out: I’m ready to Action experience has sparked journey has inspired me to risk taking a servant-leader something new in me and I deepen my commitment to role in my community and risk want to journey further. seeking justice for people forge real connections with living in poverty. people who are poor. Insert image ► Run an inspiring fundraising event for a ► Join or establish an ► Form a group to advocate on UnitingWorld project e.g. International Justice issues relating to poverty in ‘Afternoon Tea for Timor’. Group or similar in your the community. ► Approach politicians church. ► Organise a community forum regarding justice for ► With a group, organise a to raise awareness about the Millennium Development people living in extreme justice advocacy event Goals. Invite a UnitingWorld poverty. such as ‘Walk for Water’. keynote speaker. ► Take part in a community ► Volunteer in the ► Set up an engaging justice justice event. UnitingWorld office – display at a local community ► Sign the Micah Call and contact 8267 4267. event or public place. encourage others to do ► Talk about fair trade with ► Stage a community so. neighbours, friends and conference or expo to raise ► Commit to making a colleagues. awareness and engage regular contribution to ► Take an active role in the people on the issues of UnitingWorld’s New Start Fair Trade movement in justice. Program. your faith community. ► Become a Fair Trade advocacy group promoting ► Buy Fair Trade products. ► Make a statement about fair trade to other churches ► Simplify your eating or international justice using and in the community. lifestyle for a period of your creative gifts. ► Formulate and work to a time. ► Form a writing group to personal and church budget ► Write to a UnitingWorld lobby key leaders on that gives increasing priority partner church. issues of international to giving to international justice. development. .

NB. For more information about the ideas here, along with heaps of resources and helpful links, go to www.LentEvent.org/next

24 First Steps: The Lent Event Stepping Up: My Lenten Stepping Out: I’m ready to Reflection experience has sparked journey has inspired me to risk taking a servant-leader something new in me and I deepen my commitment to role in my community and risk want to journey further. seeking justice for people forge real connections with living in poverty. people who are poor. Insert image ► Prayerfully reflect on your spending and lifestyle. ► Form a prayer group to pray ► Conduct a justice audit on Consider where to from for people affected by yourself and your church here? extreme poverty and for just community and implement ► Talk with people from and compassionate change to help bring about developing countries to responses to poverty. justice. broaden your understanding. ► Organise a prayer vigil ► Write prayers for people ► Investigate what the Bible centred on lifting up one or living in poverty and share in says about poverty. more of UnitingWorld’s church, publications, blogs ► Engage with your group in a partner churches. etc. relevant follow up study. ► Include justice themes in ► Start a book club with non- ► Read articles and blogs on your community’s worship church members to reflect on poverty. through prayer and song. poverty and responses to ► Learn more about good ► Explore Christian responses poverty. international development. to injustice through reading ► Plan and lead special ► Watch movies dealing with recommended books. worship services centred on justice issues. ► Begin a personal daily issues of poverty and lifting journal reflecting on your up partner churches. Invite journey with people in the community and key leaders developing world. to attend.

25 First Steps: The Lent Event Stepping Up: My Lenten Stepping Out: I’m ready to Connection experience has sparked journey has inspired me to risk taking a servant-leader something new in me and I deepen my commitment to role in my community and risk want to journey further. seeking justice for people forge real connections with living in poverty. people who are poor. Insert image ► Sign up for UnitingWorld’s updates. ► Organise cross-cultural ► Consider becoming a ► Obtain educational community events such as volunteer in a partner material from UnitingWorld worship, meals and church or project with about effective partnership concerts. UnitingWorld. and good development. ► Invite a UnitingWorld ► Fund and support some ► Familiarise yourself with speaker to share project young people to go on a UnitingWorld’s projects. partnership opportunities UnitingWorld short-term Order ‘Compilation DVD’ with Church Council or exposure trip to visit one to learn more. appropriate body. of the projects. ► Purchase gifts from the ► Nominate leaders in your ► Become a Uniting World Everything In Common congregation to connect Australian Partner Church. Gift Catalogue. with UnitingWorld and ► Sponsor and host ► Pray for people you know plan engagement. members from your who are very poor. ► As a church, commit to partner church to visit ► Write to one or more of praying for a specific Australia. the people you are praying community for an ► With a group, plan a for. extended period. mission trip to a partner ► As a church, make a church to engage in good financial pledge to support development and effective a specific community for partnership. an extended period.

26 Prayers for the Journey:

I often think of the period of Lent as being a time for summoning hope, strength and faith. We walk with our Saviour Jesus through a great deal of suffering in the lead up to and including Good Friday. As we listen to him address people’s hurts and struggles, and watch the events of Holy Week from a safe distance we are confronted with our participation in the brokenness of our world.

During Lent we are also reminded of Jesus’ proclamation of God’s immeasurable goodness and abundant grace. Sometimes when we reflect on our sinfulness, we find ourselves resting too easily, too quickly, knowing how the story ends and that we are offered full forgiveness. Of course, at heart we are Easter Sunday people, celebrating God’s victory over sin and death. However, we need to break the cycle of forgetfulness that lulls us into spiritual laziness. The challenge of the season of Lent, therefore, is to take our confession and our repentance seriously. God is calling us to live by God’s values to forge new ways for our world, and it begins with taking stock of the way we are living here and now with honesty and courage.

I am blessed to have this opportunity to pray with you each day of Lent 2012. You may find my prayers a little poetic at times. You may find them occasionally challenging or difficult (and I hope that you’ll stay with them when you do). However you find them, I hope that you will trust in the heart from which they have been offered. The heart of a busy woman of faith: a wife, mother, daughter, sister, artist, poet, student, worker, teacher and friend. The heart of your neighbour, who, like you, wants to see hungry people fed, poor people clothed, sick and forgotten people cared for, knowledge shared and hope multiplied.

I have followed the lectionary readings throughout each week along with a few extra for good measure. Each day of the week is written with a different prayer emphasis in mind.

Sundays: Solidarity Praying for our Uniting World partner churches around the world connects us across the distances or geography, language and culture. Mondays: Waiting Waiting is a discipline that prepares us. Waiting is useful for quieting our voice in order to find out what God needs from our prayers and our living. Tuesdays: Confession Confessional prayer acknowledges our personal weaknesses and our corporate failure to adequately respond to God’s call. Wednesdays: Watching With our lives filled with so many distractions, we often miss God’s action in the world. Watching prayer is a time to open our eyes to see in a new way. Thursdays: Intercession Prayers for others guided by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aim to halve global poverty by 2015, reflecting on what needs to happen between now and then. Fridays: Thanksgiving We truly do have so much to praise God and be thankful for and we nourish the spiritual posture of gratitude through prayers of thanksgiving. Saturdays: Silence We often arrive at Saturday spent and drained; in need of space and time to reflect in silence that we might grow and learn as we journey in faith.

27 I am grateful to UnitingWorld and the Lent Event team for the opportunity to be stretched in this way. I appreciate my husband Kent’s faithful editing skills and his unconditional support and encouragement throughout this project. I am thankful for the friends and family that provide security for me that I rarely acknowledge and for my delightful children who supply me much joy, grace and awe-filled amazement. Ultimately, I am ever thankful to our Creator God, for taking me by the hand through the wonderful Lenten pilgrimage of heart, mind, soul and strength. I am thankful for each of you, for taking the time to pray with me. Shalom.

Melanie Crawford Daily Prayer author

28 Wednesday, 22nd February, 2012

Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51:1-17

“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

We, your people, set out once more on our Lenten journey, with a familiar call to repentance ringing in our minds.

If we dare to be honest with ourselves, Holy God, we would set out with hearts burdened and heavy, acknowledging that we have distanced ourselves from you.

On this journey you call us to leave our zones of comfort and privilege to seek your wisdom, your guidance and your healing.

Speak to us as we journey with Jesus toward his destiny, and ours. Redirect us that we may not fall back into lifeless patterns. Open us as we journey in ways that shake us from our stubbornness and reveal new possibilities.

Take all that we bring, as we set out today: our brokenness, our failures and neglect of your beautiful world and your people.

Take all that we bring today: the hurtful and selfish things we have thought and said and done.

Take all that we bring today: thoughts of all the times our backs have been turned away from you.

Take all that we bring, that which holds us back, and unleash your Holy wind and fire and storm upon it all.

Refine, re-imagine and re-deliver us this day.

Send us out with ash upon our face, marked to bring your life and light and hope to this darkened world, for we know that we were created to declare your praise with our lips and by our lives.

With you, our journey begins again.

29 Thursday, 23rd Feb

MDG1: Eradication of extreme hunger (Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.)

Prayer mindfulness today:  For the 1043 days of urgent action to achieve this Millennium Development Goal by 2015.  For those who suffer from extreme hunger and for those who live on less than one dollar a day.  We remember Micah 6:8 “To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”

Isaiah 58:1-12

When you invite me to your table, Lord, To remember you, I take and eat And yet confess, I constantly forget.

Oblivious and satisfied Surrounded by plenty I am numb and full.

I have loaves and fishes And I have cake How can I remember you when I doze off, satisfied?

My stomach doesn’t groan or churn from hunger My sleep is not disrupted with discomfort or distress My every day is not consumed with a struggle for survival.

Yet at your table, Lord, you invite me to learn more about who you truly created me to be.

At your table, I discover that I want to be hungry, ravenous for justice, freedom and equality for all.

At your table, I perceive a different vision of myself as a nourishing agent of change for our world.

At your table, I am fed with your love and compassion, and compelled by your vision of enough for all, and too much for none.

When I arise from your table, I pray, Lord, that through faithful remembrance you would teach me anew to pray and act for the end of all hunger for the removal of all barriers that maintain systematic poverty, to overcome the injustices that deprive your beloved people.

30 Lord, may the light of all who gather at your table shine in the darkness until all are fed and cared for.

31 Friday, 24th Feb

o 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

God with us, we give you thanks for your boundless grace and love.

In this moment we close our eyes, knowing more deeply with every breath that you are with us at all times.

And now is the time.

Right now in this moment, we thank you for what you have done in our lives.

There is more than enough right here. We have all that we require.

God with us, We thank you that we have the ability and the opportunity to do your reconciliation work. We thank you for obstacles and pain, challenges and arguments. We thank you for grief and difficulty, disappointment and frailty. These are reminders that we are not in control. Reminders of our poverty. Reminders of how much we need you in our every day.

Thank you, God, for your gentle and steadfast grace and your daily reminders.

32 Saturday, 25th Feb

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

“Only by God’s grace, and with great effort, can we escape the shower of luxuries which has almost suffocated our Christian compassion.” Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Hodder & Stoughton, 1977, p.151)

God of truth,

When I have circumnavigated the homeless I have distanced myself from you

When I have failed to rest in contentment I have distanced myself from you

When I have idealised consumption I have distanced myself from you

When I have envied ignorance I have distanced myself from you

Because consciousness is a heavy burden and malaise is convenient I have distanced myself from you

Forgive me gracious God, and show me a better way

A way of quiet generosity A way of open-hearted commitment A way of faithful stewardship A way of keen engagement A way of embodied truthfulness

Show me your way.

33 Sunday, 26th Feb

Isaiah 41:17-20

Prayer for our partner, the Church of North India

Ever-present God of wonder,

We join in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Church of North India. We give you thanks and praise for faith-filled Christian ministry and mission and for all who serve lovingly throughout this land. We pray for unity amongst the churches and institutions working for human rights, social justice, religious freedom and protection of minorities. We pray for an end to fighting and unstable political tensions in North India. Bring peace to ethnic and religious conflict and wisdom to those in government.

In the vibrant colours of North India we see remarkable strengths, gifts and abundant possibilities. Yet we also witness division, great disparity between rich and poor people and discriminating hierarchies. We pray for the human need and suffering within India due to massive overpopulation. Loving Lord, create pathways of peace and self-sufficiency for your people of North India.

We pray for the acute needs of marginalised children, for the millions of your precious children: the orphans, the abandoned, the abused, those living on streets and in slums and those forced into slavery and prostitution. We pray for resources, education and vocational training to begin transforming lives and communities, for clean water and food for all, and for adequate sanitation to address the devastating impact of disease.

We pray for accountable and courageous leaders in all levels of government. We join together with local people of faith to pray that political, economic and social challenges might be met with approaches that focus on the bigger picture of India’s future.

Come radical, peacemaker God,

Heal and renew your people, your land, India.

34 Monday, 27th Feb

Mark 1:9-15

Majestic God, here I stand in the vastness of the universe and all around me swirls your creation: amazing, breathtaking, overwhelming, wondrous.

I spend much of my living unsure. The road is too undulating to contemplate all at once. Answers to my many questions feel too obscure to grasp or realise.

I experience the quiet. I sit for a moment, still.

You say I am never alone, yet, I feel hollow and restless. I am still, yet I feel troubled.

Alone. Quiet. Still.

My weary feet have journeyed through rocky wilderness, yet nothing compared to that which you have traversed.

I wait and I pray, for strength to gather within so that I may run when you need me the most.

Companion God, here beside me now, catch me in this stillness, hold me alert and aware, and fully awake, ready to encounter your path to hope.

35 Tuesday, 28th Feb

Genesis 9:8-17

God of the superhighway, globalise us with love.

Connect us, ping and link us in, we need reprogramming.

You are the Great I am, yet we revere iPad or iPhone. Forgive us.

We are fragmented.

We click follow… and forget you are our shepherd. We click like… but we forget to love. We comment… yet we don’t speak out against inequality and injustice.

Host our sharing with those who are poor and weak. Free us from the myth that we are all online, that we all have access.

Forgive us for our selfish internal hardened drives. Forgive us for the alternate commands we seek.

God of worldwide wisdom, Your web is more than we can comprehend. May we acknowledge you in all that we take for granted. In everything: word, works and search, may we know of your presence. Find us in cyberspace, YourSpace, not MySpace. Restart, reboot and reconnect us.

36 Wednesday, 29th Feb

Isaiah 64:1-6

Holy God,

We are deeply concerned that we live in a world where killing is common and lives are seen as cheap, where slavery is widespread and is for many the only option, where titles like soldier and prostitute follow the word child. We are deeply concerned.

We kow that your world wasn’t meant to be this way.

Globally, we have the knowledge, the information, the technology and resources to bring poverty to an end. Yet we are unmoved. There is a mountain that is in our way and it has overwhelmed us.

Globally, we have the food, the land, the water and the clothing; we have enough for all. Yet, we are stuck. There is a mountain that is in our way and it has overwhelmed us.

Holy God, May mountains quake and nations tremble for peace on earth.

We pray for diminishing gaps between promises and actions. We pray for the making of peace, person to person, community to community. We pray for corrupted lips to be sealed, violent fists to be unclenched.

Open eyes and hearts across our world. Wake us from our apathy. Fill us all with faith that guides like a compass. Equip us all with light that banishes the darkness. Empower us with compassion and hope.

Holy God, May mountains quake and nations tremble for peace on earth.

37 Thursday, 1st March

MDG2: Achievement of universal primary education. Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

Prayer mindfulness today:  For the 2 years and 10 months of urgent action to achieve this Millennium Development Goal by 2015.  For those who yearn and dream for education.  We remember Micah 6:8 “To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”

Matthew 25:31-46

Rescuer, Inspirer Lord,

Education has meant a future and hope for me. I have taken it for granted. I pray for what is fair and right for all your people.

Education has meant a life for me to be proud of. I have taken for granted that for generations my future has been invested in. I pray for material and human resources to flood into all the countries of the world, directed and dedicated to the transformative power of education.

Loving, Listening Lord,

I pray for conviction in the hearts of world leaders to prioritise children in every remote corner of our world. I pray that strong foundations of policy and infrastructure are built for adequate provision of education for all. I pray for families, for parents to understand the value of schooling for their children. I pray for adequate nutrition for children to learn well and safety from alternate recruitment. I pray for quality teachers to empower and inspire. I pray for those who become educated to find jobs that keep them home to rebuild communities. I pray for protection and equality for all children, life changing education for boys and girls alike.

Healer, Generous Lord, Hear my prayer.

38 Friday, 2nd March

Mark 8:1-21

“Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?”

You, Creator God, are the painter of the sky.

We picture the beauty of a sunrise.

How can we not be awed by this unfathomable beauty that unfolds every single day? How can we not know deeply in our being that you are with us? How can we not stand in wonder at your infinite greatness?

Yet, we constantly seek a sign of your existence. Forgive us.

Sometimes we imagine what it would be like to be you. Would we make something as all surrounding, vast and undulating as the sky? Would we paint an abstract masterpiece, dramatically changing it minute by minute? Would we use the most exquisite palette of colour and light, capturing movement and stillness, texture and depth? Would we?

Yet, daily, we fail to see, and we beg instead for a sign.

Sunrise to sunset to sunrise again, awesome Creator God, help us to deeply know this is you!

There is always a sign.

Thank you.

39 Saturday, 3rd March

Psalm 25:1-10

Lord, Lend me your pillow So that I may dream your dreams.

I walk through this life, Sleepwalking.

I turn my head to look away from those in need, those suffering pain, rejection, starvation and poverty. I avoid the news, I am anaesthetised to distant war and violence. I have lost the way to feel, to mourn, to cry out at injustice, oppression and exploitation of your people. Apathetic and mute, my heart has grown cold

I tell myself that I alone cannot mend the brokenness and so I rest in that indifference.

I hear your calling but I choose not to listen. I watch the images but I choose not to see. I ignore the nagging reminders.

I dream dreams that are all about me.

Lend me your pillow, Lord, So that I may dream your dreams.

40 Sunday, 4th March

Deuteronomy 15:6-11

Prayer for our partner, the United Church of Zambia

Ever-present God of miracles and healing,

We join in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in Zambia. We are thankful for the 1991 declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation and we are thankful for the religious freedom granted your people there. We give praise and thanks for open doors for faith- filled Christian ministry and mission, and for all who serve generously throughout this land.

We pray for your people of Zambia, nestled within a land-locked nation, plagued by disease and poverty. We pray for stability in weather conditions, for the economic market to secure agriculture, and for sustainable work opportunities within communities. We pray for access to clean water and adequate sanitation for all. We pray for sufficient nourishment and shelter. We pray for wise, compassionate and sacrificial leadership that will ensure a strong future for Zambia.

We pray for the children of Zambia, your precious children born in precarious conditions. For the fatherless, God our father, be ever present. For the motherless, God our mother, hear their cries. For the plight of vulnerable babies, we pray Holy God, breathe life and hope into your children.

We pray for ambitious, widespread generosity and love to touch all people. We pray for education and the support networks necessary to enable hope and a future for all. We pray for good development which will in turn change families, villages, communities and provinces. Bring home Zambia’s own professionals who have travelled for work. May they return to their homeland to work to bring blessing upon it.

Come radical, peacemaker God,

Heal and renew your people, your land, Zambia.

41 Monday, 5th March

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Lord, I am stopped. Where do I start?

Lord, this is baffling. How can I truly understand?

Lord, I am impatient. Why do I sit here, idle?

Lord, this feels hopeless. What can possibly be done?

Lord, I am distracted. When will I change?

Lord, I feel inadequate. Who can I reach out my hand to?

Come, Holy Lord.

Bless us with faith that we can join with you in making a revolutionary difference. Bless us with strength and courage to nourish and comfort all your people.

Bless us with patience and hope in governments and world leaders. Bless us with tears of joy at answered prayers for peace.

Bless us with focus and intent to work for justice and equality throughout the nations. Bless us Lord and enable us to walk humbly in service of every neighbour. For then we will be walking alongside you.

42 Tuesday, 6th March

Galatians 6:1-10

Divine and generous God, I confess that I have been unseeing and unthinking. I have walked willingly away from you Turning my back on you and seeking my own way.

I have been skating on the surface of triviality. I am caught up in whirlwinds of aspiration and consumerism, Persuaded by misguided pathways to happiness.

Forgive me for thinking that it’s all about me, When I have bought into the promises of an insular, self-indulgent world, When I’ve walked right past you in the city street alleyways aloof and gazing at the glitzy mirrored windows, When I’ve eaten an abundant meal without a second thought for the hands that prepared it.

Divine and generous God, Burst my bubble, Break through all that encourages my gluttony, Cleanse all my egotistical greed.

There is more than enough to share in this generous world of yours And all that you provide is sufficient for all my needs.

I pray for forgiveness and restoration that I may learn to see with your eyes and walk in your way, not as an accumulator, but as a humble servant of life.

43 Wednesday 7th March

Romans 4:13-25

Jesus, you said watch and pray And I find myself at times, oblivious.

Jesus, you came and healed the blind And I find myself at times, in darkness.

I pray now for alertness and vigilance.

Jesus, you told me that you were my shepherd, watching over me And I find myself assuming I am a lone wolf, fending for myself.

Jesus, you said that I am saved through my faith in you And I find myself ticking boxes on lists of my good deeds.

Jesus, you told me to watch out that no one deceives me And I find myself believing the lies sold to me by the world.

Jesus, you told me to watch and keep awake for you And I find myself preoccupied, missing you in the midst of my world.

Open my eyes Lord.

44 Thursday, 8th March

MDG3: Promote gender equality and empower women. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2015. MDG5: Improve maternal health. Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the number of women who die giving birth.

Prayer mindfulness today:  For the 24,696 hours of urgent action to achieve this Millennium Development Goal by 2015.  For protection, healthcare, nutrition and support for women, in pregnancy, childbirth and all aspects of motherhood, in the full knowledge of the resources available in this age for maternal health.  We remember Micah 6:8 “To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”

Genesis 1:26-28

Created in God’s image…. woman We pray for her gifts: Nurturer Sanctuary maker Community builder Truth teller

Created in God’s image…. woman We pray for her value: Dreamer Healer Teacher Protector

Created in God’s image…. woman We pray for her potential: World changer Peacemaker Reconciler Leader

Creator God, Comfort sorrowful women across our world. Hold the soft hands of the abused, neglected and abandoned. Bring peace and equality. Build new fertile community. Repay in joy what has been sown in tears.

45 Friday, 9th March

Psalm 22:23-31

Our God, we give you thanks.

Your love is borderless, relentless and fearless. Your grace does not let us go. Your peace dwells within the depths of our soul.

We thank you for your presence in our lowly monotonous humdrum.

We thank you for your endurance in our regular vexatious complaining.

Your love is unconditional, persevering and enlivening. Your truth will never fade. Your everlasting song will not escape our hearts and minds.

We thank you for your magnificence in our sorrowful grumbling distraction.

We thank you for your compassion in our bland bewildered inadequacy.

Your love is faithful, liberating and igniting. Your blessing spreads out. Your light makes vision possible amidst the shadows.

46 Saturday, 10th March

Mark 9:2-9

Glorious Lord, The bright light of that mountaintop lives within me. When my mind is clear, I know it well. You are driven by love and your mark is upon me. Change me, Lord.

Magnificent one, Foolishly I speak out of turn, I dream too small But your ways are higher than mine. Teach me, Lord.

Prince of Peace, I bow down, out of my depth, Weighed down with feelings of unworthiness Yet you lift me up and remind me that I am yours. Hold me, Lord.

Shining Jesus, With every breath in this silence, change me. With every thought in this silence, teach me. With every minute in this silence, hold me.

Remind me of all that you have called me to. Strengthen me for the task ahead. For you lead me from the mountaintop into a life of ever deeper faithfulness. Lead me, Lord.

Habakkuk 3:16-19

Prayer for our partner, the Methodist Church of Zimbabwe

Merciful Lord,

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe, a land of rich agricultural and mineral resources devastated by unmitigated economic and political disaster. Amidst turmoil and trials we are thankful for the passion and dedication of the many Christians throughout Zimbabwe. We pray in solidarity with them now.

We pray for Zimbabwe’s leadership, for an end to corruption and mismanagement. We pray for employment and empowerment that will lead to the restoration of the morale of this nation. We pray for every human being to be valued and invested in, so that they may be able to share their specific and unique gifts to rebuild this wonderful nation.

We pray for the regeneration of the once reputable education system of Zimbabwe. We pray for plentiful resources for health care. We pray in particular for an end to the pandemic of HIV/AIDS throughout Zimbabwe, that information and care may become widely available so that stigma, isolation and fear are replaced with action, healing and love.

We pray for land reform and the reinstating of once fertile farmland to communities so that they become self-sufficient and so that wildlife can again prosper. We pray for healing for this land.

We pray for winds of change. We pray for plentiful clean water to flow. That swollen streets of homelessness would be nurtured in peace, weeded from crime, watered with innovation and flowered with opportunity.

Luke 6:27-36

“The Undertaking” Melanie Crawford Acrylic on Canvas, 2010

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” Nelson Henderson

Some questions as we meditate upon you, Lord.

We know that we cannot take it with us. So, what are we to make of this life?

We know that to plant a seed is an act of faith. So, what are we truly planting?

How do we plant seeds that will grow peace? And seeds that will bear grace? And seeds that will reap justice? And seeds that will harvest love?

As caretakers of this earth, we must nurture these seeds and together, plant hope in the heart of the earth. Lord, lead us.

Open us to your light, your new life in us.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

God, help me To ache for the thirsty as I sip from this glass of cold refreshing water. I feel the weight of all my thoughtlessness and waste. For the long hot shower I had today and all the vibrancy and health I have taken for granted, God, help me.

God, heal me To cry out for the sick as I take some medicine and contemplate cosmetics. I feel the weight of all my luxury and extravagance. For the long comfortable sleep I had last night and all the beauty and energy I have taken for granted, God, heal me.

God, mend me To yearn for the hungry as I choose my next meal, and the next, and the next. I feel the weight of all my excess and greed. For the constant satisfaction of all my impulses and all the tastes and delights I have taken for granted, God, mend me.

50 Wednesday, 14th March

John 2:13-22

Lord Jesus, be a revolution in me make me glue for all the brokenness a canopy of forgiveness for, too often I am damaging, reckless and insolent

Lord Jesus, be an innovation in me make me a melody in the storm a venue of contentment for, too often I am complacent, nonchalant and covetous

Lord Jesus be a mediation in me make me sober to the impulsive a wellspring of hope for, too often I am pandemonium, vacant and cowardly

Lord Jesus, be an introduction in me so that others may see you in me for the sake of human community everywhere.

Thursday, 15th March

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality. Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the number of children 5 years old or younger who die from preventable illnesses. MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Prayer mindfulness today:  For the 2 years, 9 months and 17 days of urgent action to achieve this Millennium Development Goal by 2015.  For adequate, honest and widespread provision of health services, medicine and education in order that the prevalence of childhood mortality and disease decreases.  We remember Micah 6:8 “To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”

Micah 6:8

God of the pathways and highways, Where did we first step from the way you set out for us? When did we become so distant from you?

God of the margins and edges, When did we give up on the miracles of compassion and healing? Where are the villages that it takes to raise your children?

God of the shadows and valleys, Take this coin that I conserve today to a child riddled with pain to a daughter deserted to a resident of a cardboard house.

God of the rivers and streams, Take this rainy day coin to a fatherless boy to a forgotten old man to a mother with an empty cradle.

God of the barren and wasted, Change this lonely offering coin to a wellspring overflowing.

God of the common and everyday Take my meagre coin And use it to change me and change the world.

Psalm 19

Glory to you

Great Artist God

Sculptor of limbs and trees Connoisseur of laughter and wonder Painter of complexions and sunsets Composer of birdsong and friendship

Glory to you

Great Artist God

Engraver of star and intricate fingerprint Crafter of vast oceans and tiny flowers Architect of heartbeat and rainforests Dancer of beauty and forgiveness

Glory to you

Great Artist God

For all the majesty and wonder of your creation, For so many daily surprises Glory to you

Exodus 20:1-17

I am restless

Exhausted by pride Searching for honesty Hoarding words of praise Delighting in cleverness

Dwell in me In this silence For you are the Lord my God

And you are all I need

I am restless

Numbed by affluence Bloated by consuming Camouflaged from reality Sweltering in plenty

Dwell in me In this moment For you are the Lord my God

And you are all I need

John 3:14-21

Protestant Christian Church of Bali (GKPB)

Prince of peace,

We pray in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the Protestant Christian Church of Bali (GKPB). We pray for bustling congested towns and the thriving chaotic streets. We pray for persevering people on overcrowded scooters humming past tranquil villages of this tiny island. For those who serve you and share of your love, we give you thanks.

God of light, We lift up the glory of your creation that is Bali: such incredible beauty and vivid colours, in beaches, waterfalls, coral reefs and rice terraces. We pray for wise stewardship and governance over natural resources and an end to the exploitation of natural resources of this beautiful land. We are thankful for the awe and spectacle of the dance of the marketplaces and we praise you for the gift that is the smile of a Balinese child.

Nurturing God, Inspire creativity and invention beyond our dreams to meet the ever growing necessity in Bali. We pray for resourcefulness and innovation, blessings and green lights for development programs that empower women and provide livelihoods through the work of our partner church in Bali.

Strong Shepherd, We pray for bountiful understanding and enlightened engaging so that women gain a voice in deciding how resources are distributed. We pray for renewed hope and a dependable future for your land Bali.

Ephesians 2:1-10

A poem offered for reflection today:

I’m sitting at the station Tumbleweed and amber sound Wondering about the coming train And if it’s homeward bound.

I have the ticket in my wallet. Vivid memory and regret. Loyalty card awaiting stamps And bills that can’t be met.

My suitcase right beside me Jammed with all my stuff. And all I really want to know Is am I good enough?

The train arrives as grace itself, and ‘all aboard’ for free Every carriage filled end to end With sinners just like me.

Numbers 20:1-13, 21:4-9

Sun-shower God, With water, you made us. We are droplets and reflections of You, you formed us in your image. Yet we are floating in an ocean of complacency, Drifting away from you and from your magnificent creation. Rainbow maker, We confess that we are broken buckets, leaking vessels, shipwrecked boats. Heal and harbour us, forgive us, we pray.

Sojourner Spirit, From your inhalation of inspiration We became your exhalation, animated by your great love. Yet we have been complaining at the rain, the sombre clouds and the raging sea, And in the face of our suffering, waterless neighbours We have let our hearts turn to ice. Breath of life, We confess that we are dull and barren wastelands with shallow minds and dry eyes. Be like a fresh dawn mist, forgive us, we pray.

Fisherman Jesus, Walking on water you called us, you met us at the well, and you washed our feet. You quench us with your living water and heal us with your words. Yet we cling to our little boats and we have forgotten our thirst. We have allowed contamination into our lives, by swallowing and swimming in arrogance. We have forgotten our baptism. Holy Baptiser, We confess that we are drowning in preoccupation, immersed in excess and swamped in self-absorption. Be our aqueduct of peace, we pray.

57 Wednesday, 21st March

Acts 4:32-37

Wonderful God, We praise you. We delight in your greatness and your provision. We want to be a community of your people, living for others. We want to heal our world, not in our limited strength, but through your limitless love. We want to live in restored relationship with you, sharing your joy and your pain.

Heavenly peacemaker, Help us to envision tomorrow clearly with eyes like yours. Help us to reimagine a grace-filled and honest life for all people on earth. Help us to be open to change, to realise when we have enough.

Emmanuel, God with us, You are love itself. You are all that we seek. You have shown us all the signs that we need. You have gifted us with everything we require.

As it has always been, love is the answer. True, selfless, humble love is your answer. Let love be our guide. Let love be our legacy. Let love be our responsibility.

Love is your way forward. We believe in the power of your love for all Creation. Come, and make this world whole.

58 Thursday, 22nd March

MDG: Ensuring environmental stability. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Halve by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

Prayer mindfulness today:  For 145 weeks of urgent action to achieve this Millennium Development Goal by 2015.  For this precious earth of which we are caretakers.  We remember Micah 6:8 “To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

All praise to you Creator God for your goodness and for the gift of life and for the wonder of your creation this rare and fragile earth

All honour to you Lord Jesus for coming among us for teaching us to live simply for tending your sheep dusty feet on sand and rock

All power to you Holy Spirit for dwelling within our emptiness as close as our heartbeat readying us for action reminding Creation of its destiny

We pray for freedom from the illusion that wealth can bring contentment. We pray for freedom from distraction, desiring comfort over truth. We pray for freedom from the myth that we must hoard and scheme and justify. We pray for servant leaders, filled with compassion, vision and awareness, making wise and faithful decisions across our world. We pray for a connected global community where deep respect between all people exists. We pray that we may be the kind of caretakers of this earth that we were created to be. We pray for a hopeful legacy that we can faithfully hand on to future generations.

In Jesus’ name we pray,

59 Friday, 23rd March

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Holy God, We shout praise to you! (yet, in all honesty, we whisper or mouth the words)

Holy Lord, We worship you! (yet, in all honesty, only when it occurs to us or fits into our schedule)

Holy Spirit, We long for you! (yet, in all honesty, we avoid you because we are afraid of what you might call us to)

Ever faithful God, we call out to you. Teach us to shout praise, to really shout! Teach us to worship you in every moment, in everything we do. Teach us to long for you and your purposes with our every thought.

We hunger for you in our lives We thirst for justice in our world.

Holy God, We shout loud praises to you. Holy Lord, We wholeheartedly worship you. Holy Spirit, We bravely long for you.

Luke 4:18-19

“The spirit of the lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor, sight to the blind, release for the captives and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Living Lord, You have shared all of yourself with us, you have demonstrated how we should live, and you have promised that we will not be alone.

When you spoke the words of the prophet Isaiah, amongst those who knew you from the earliest days, you shared your great manifesto that shaped your words and actions in all ways.

We have heard it declared that this is the year of your favour. We have been blessed with many gifts to bring to this world, your world. Plentiful gifts that we can list but so often hide. Help us in the silence of this day to commit to your manifesto that it might shape our words and actions in all ways.

Show us how to be good news in our world. Help us to be a blessing to people who are poor, through water, education and our hands… Help us to secure release for those who are captive, with employment opportunities, human rights and our voice… . Help us to restore sight to those who are blind, through healthcare, resources and our willingness… . Help us to provide relief for all who suffer, see those who are oppressed gain freedom. Prepare us to live this as a way of life, so that all may know that this is indeed the year of your favour.

61 Sunday 25th March

Psalm 45

United Church of Papua New Guinea

God of miracles and healing,

Looking at a map, we sense a magnet pull between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Our close neighbours are inhabitants of a blessed and bountiful land.

We pray for peace across the Coral Sea. We pray for unity and peace across complex cultures, beliefs, languages and geography of this nation.

We pray for clean water and sanitation for all, in the knowledge that access to precious water means life and is a crucial step towards eradicating poverty. We pray for those who live in rural or remote areas with limited resources for survival: for support for economic empowerment, for self-sufficiency and an end to the cycle of poverty. We pray for literacy and education resources.

We pray for relevant, nurturing and abundant support for the thousands of villages scattered across high mountains, lowland swamps, coral islands and dense forests. We pray for contiguous partnerships of compassion, encouragement and assistance across all barriers to enable strength and progress throughout Papua New Guinea.

We pray in solidarity with our Christian sisters and brothers of the United Church of Papua New Guinea. We thank you for the wonderful legacy and foundation of Christian presence over many years in Papua New Guinea. We pray for protection, wisdom and guidance for all those who faithfully serve in ministry and mission. We pray for insight and creativity to overcome issues facing the church: for engagement in discipleship, for the breakdown of barriers and for effective education and care in the face of the pandemic of HIV/AIDS which is rapidly increasing.

Psalm 119:9-16

Holy God, We should run outside with our hands in the air Proclaiming your goodness. We should praise your name boldly So that all may hear of your great love and your mighty deeds.

Rescue us From the indifference we allow ourselves And all the controls that we apply.

Holy Lord, We should sing your name amidst the mundane And the ordinary of everyday. Born like us, you walked this earth. You came and you lived a life of true worship.

Rescue us From the deepest voids within Break our plastic chains.

Holy Spirit, We call on you to fill the gaps of our porous being. Stitch together all that makes us incomplete. Breathe gustily within us. We long desperately for you.

Rescue us From our detachment and separation From our blindness and numb comfort.

In our own small way we lift our hands we praise your name we listen for your voice we turn once more to you we walk your path we practice your values and we give thanks for every gift.

We worship you this day.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Lord, hear my prayer,

The burden falls to the oppressed and marginalised those uneducated, those unemployed, those without access.

I confess that I have taken my access for granted. Access to shelter, food, education, healthcare, fresh water and sanitation. So plentiful around me that I forget to even stop and consider. Forgive my unconsciousness.

Lord, hear my prayer,

The burden falls to the widow, the orphan, the refugee those forgotten, those vulnerable, those treated unjustly.

I confess that by my actions I have been unkind, unthinking and unaware. A life with luxuries, frivolities and choices which I consider to be normal. So normal in my culture that I forget to even stop and consider. Forgive my disregard.

Lord, let me hear the prayers of those who carry the heaviest loads in our world.

And then, put your law of love within me. Write it on my heart, then break my heart with compassion for all your people, that grace may enter in and overthrow me completely, that my participation in iniquity and my practice of sin might be tolerated no more.

Now, changed, renewed, called out I am ready for life as you intend it. Here I am. Send me.

64 Wednesday, 28th March

John 12:20-33

Here I am, wanting to see you, Creator God Yet all around me is your glory Speaking to me in thunder and cherry blossom Touching me in smile and music Comforting me with story and cocoa

Here I am, wishing to see you, Saviour Jesus Yet all around me is your glory In sacrifice and service In obedience and faithfulness In dying and rising

Here I am, wishing to see you, Holy Spirit Yet all around me is your glory Looking at me through big luminous eyes Reaching out an eager hand Offering me welcome on a mat

Open the eyes of my heart so that I may truly see you today.

65 Thursday, 29th March

MDG: Global partnership for development (trade/aid/debt). Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC). Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term. In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth. In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries. In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.

Prayer mindfulness today:  For 1008 days of urgent action to achieve this Millennium Development Goal by 2015.  For compassion and sharing, for understanding and generosity.  We remember Micah 6:8: “To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.”

Leviticus 19:1-18

Heavenly bridge builder, Connect your people across divisions of race of wealth of belief of power of age and gender.

Heavenly bridge builder, connect our families, communities, cities, countries and continents connect our resources, languages, ideas, creativity and technologies connect our smiles, friendships, dreams, prayers and hands.

Heavenly bridge builder, dancing across waters of division creating pathways of harmony linking us all back to you reconcile us.

Through your grace and the power of your cross build bridges between us and all around us take away barriers of fear and hopelessness until all creation is renewed.

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-21

God of steadfast love,

Astonishing, unimaginable beauty for as far as we can see, the canvas in your art studio the composition of your orchestra this exquisite world is ever breathtaking. It unfolds before us and we cannot be anything but amazed.

For the blessings of this beautiful earth and all the wonders of your creation, we give you thanks.

For all the ways you reach out to touch us, like rays of hope in parting clouds, we give you thanks.

For the commission you have entrusted to us, believing in our capacity to continue your work here on earth, we give you thanks.

May your grace abound that we may live as if we truly are made in your likeness: that we may honour and tend all Creation; that we may live with creativity and generosity; that we may turn our face towards others with deep and abiding love.

67 Saturday, 31st March

Psalm 46

Stillness and silence is not about emptiness and nothingness.

Let us pray for stillness.

Here in this silence, on the ground, on our knees where we can glimpse the elusive depths of true humility in the dirt, on our knees where we can place our hands, hopeful, in solidarity with all humankind

Here in this silence, let us tune in to stillness, the absence of turmoil, the presence of breath. God, our refuge and our strength, is present.

Let us reflect upon the essence of our life, our energy, our longing, our loneliness, our doubt

In this moment all periphery fades away Let us be still and connected, for we are all connected. God, our refuge and our strength, is present.

And in this silence, we are in awe, of the ebb and the flow of the waves on a distant beach and of the embrace of the sun’s touch on our skin and of the tango of the wind in the trees. God, our refuge and our strength, is present.

We long to sense the sweet taste of heaven on earth, to feel the coming of God's rule and reign, to see the dreams of God for us and for all, to smell the aroma of mercy and forgiveness, to hear the symphony of grace all around, in the silence and the stillness.

In the stillness, we know that you are God. We pray your peace over all the earth.

68 Sunday, 1st April

Philippians 2:5-11

Peace Community Ambassadors in the Philippines

Exalted Lord,

We pray in solidarity with our sisters and brothers of the Peace Community Ambassadors in the Philippines and we thank you for your planted presence within the islands of this nation.

We pray for leadership and government that will wisely pursue justice and righteousness in dealing with serious corruption, development, political unrest and social issues. We pray for grounded peace in the minds and hearts of this nation in conflict, that peace may become a right all can be assured of. We pray that the massive gap between the poor and the rich may be overcome to build a strong and united country.

We pray for Mindanao communities, the marginalized and divided ethnic, religious and political groups. We pray for compromise, respect and freedom from fear, for fair and workable solutions that will end violence and suffering. We pray for communities to overcome conflict and work together towards common development goals to ensure a bright future. We pray for ecumenical healing.

We pray support for UnitingWorld’s Young Ambassadors for Peace (YAP) programs working towards reconciliation in building a culture of peace with passion and commitment and faithful service. On this April day, may we remember that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Lord, bring hope and a future to your beautiful people in the provinces and islands of the Philippines.

69 Monday, 2nd April

Psalm 36:5-11

Come Lord, change me

Stop all my fickle flailing about Interrupt those distractions Cease my boundless superficiality Redirect that wanderlust Halt my complacency

Activate passionate integrity Furnish loving zeal Empower generous hospitality Commission faithful humility Revive compassionate action

Come, Lord, change me

Make me new

70 Tuesday, 3rd April

Mark 15:1-39 (40-47)

Jesus, Peacemaker, you came to troubled times, walked streets of riot, faced the anger and the mocking.

I am in that crowd.

Jesus, Reconciler, you submitted to torture, kneeled, tormented, faced betrayal and carried the Cross.

I watch from that crowd.

Jesus, Our Hope, you came to our darkness amidst fractured human community, held out your hand with nothing but love, yet in fear we killed you.

I hide in that crowd.

Forgive me for my cowardice, for averting my eyes, for choosing inaction, for pretending I have no responsibility.

Forgive me, when violence spreads behind closed doors and in closed hearts, hidden by clever masks and shifty eyes, across seas and borders and in my community.

Jesus, peacemaker, reconciler, our hope, show us the deeper truth that life is not a property to be defended, but a gift to be given in love for the world.

Bring harmony to the calamity of this world and also to my heart.

71 Wednesday, 4th April

Mark 11:1-11

I see you standing there Jesus far away today, but close

And I’m wondering What are you thinking while you wait for the colt you had sent for? How did it feel, to know what was ahead of you?

And I watch you Jesus walking on a palm tapestry path

Looking into our eyes How did you walk on, when you saw the inevitable future? How did you breathe, while we danced in jubilant hosanna?

I watch the faces Jesus Along this narrowing road

Not quite sure where to look or what to say And I feel your love for us, radiating without despair Your hope for us, in every footstep, closer

You were a refugee amongst us outcast Before we knew it

You were a prisoner amongst us judged Before we knew it

And you loved us anyway, though it cost your life. What unspeakable mercy.

72 Thursday, 5th April

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

We are a jigsaw piece people Scattered and jagged and dusty

We lost sight of the box a long time ago It held the big picture, the guide

We have lost pieces along the way We’re not sure how to care

We are a jigsaw piece people Lonely and difficult and small

We find it hard to move To turn ourselves around, or find our fit

We find more to repel us than to connect We cling to difference, ours and other people’s

Big picture God, How can we love one another? When we don’t know how to love ourselves

How can we love one another? When some people are so hard to even like

How can we love one another? When we hurt too much to love

Come put us back together again with love Remind us of your dream that is the picture on our box

73 Friday, 6th April

Psalm 22

Our God You are the only answer The only way.

Everywhere With dawning understanding The curtain breaks the silence Ancient songs of hope beat within our hearts Daring us to believe that with you there is nothing to fear Not even death.

Praise to you, our glorious dying God.

May we know that even amidst desolation you can and will overcome, that this Friday will be forever known as 'Good'.

Complete your victory over the darkness of sin and suffering, of hatred and despair, of violence and greed.

For your love is stronger than all the powers of evil, and nothing can separate us from that triumphant love.

74 Saturday, 7th April

Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16

A Disciple’s Prayer

Time is irrelevant today Thoughts are turbulent Grief flows numbingly through our veins Words are too cavernous to speak And silence takes hold.

That dark cross is etched on our minds Black and heavy behind our eyelids Where are you, God? Guide us through this barren seclusion.

Help us to see, To catch a glimpse of the road ahead We're searching for the light of your love, But, today, we feel abandoned and defeated.

In this bitter myrrh-filled room, we meditate on your words A dark, smoky aroma sticks to this catastrophe A tiny voice of promise begins a chant in our minds All your words of the past months and years revisit us

We try to discredit this hope that we have welling up within us that, despite the evidence in front of us, compels us to believe you are the Christ, the Holy One of God, come to rescue us, are you not?

You are the Christ! You must be!

Yet... A human death, to us, is death and we can’t comprehend or give voice or hope to anything other than that truth in this moment. It is finished.

We sit in this darkness and dwell here in our bewilderment.

But…

You ARE the Christ

YOU ARE!

Come back to us, Lord. Come back.

75 Sunday, 8th April

Isaiah 25:6-9

“This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isaiah 25:9b

Rejoice! As the dawn breaks through black night a new day emerges and hope is come. As the resurrection truth is told, lives are changed today.

Jesus you are risen! Indeed You are! We see you!

We see you in the faces of those who are poor, sick and the oppressed everywhere. You live, you love and you heal.

Be Glad! As the dew evaporates in the morning light our tears are wiped away. As the banquet prepared in celebration like none we could imagine begins, lives are made new today.

Jesus you are risen! Indeed You are! We know you!

We know you in the generosity and compassion of the faithful everywhere. You live, you love and you heal.

Hallelujah! As the sun sets again on this day we have nothing to fear in the night, for death could not hold you. So, as we conclude our Lenten journey, changed and renewed, life is transformed today.

Jesus you are risen! Indeed You are! We praise you!

We praise you for the staggering grace of your salvation gift. You live, you love and you heal.

76 “Forgiven” Melanie Crawford Acrylic on Canvas, 2009

77 About UntingWorld

UnitingWorld is the Uniting Church in Australia’s agency established to relate with our overseas partner churches. UnitingWorld partners with overseas churches and agencies in transforming their local communities. We have over 35 overseas partner churches in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

UnitingWorld’s mission is: Connecting church communities and people worldwide to partner in God’s mission.

UnitingWorld seeks to empower Australian church communities to be effective global partners by establishing relationships between UCA communities within Australia and our overseas partners.

As an individual, a group or your church congregation you might like to consider how you can connect to people overseas through our partner churches and projects.

UnitingWorld can further assist schools, youth groups, fellowship groups or congregations wishing to continue on this journey of developing real partnerships with our church partners.

Materials can be provided that help groups and individuals to consider what is good, ethical engagement with our overseas partners. This material also explores the underlying principles of development education. This presents issues and challenges associated with good development approaches with a view to understanding the long term impacts of how our help and interactions can affect overseas communities.

These resources can be accessed though UnitingWorld’s online course material or be sent to your church or school in hard copy if preferred.

If your Australian church community is ready to explore what engagement might look like. . .contact UnitingWorld to find out about potential connections and possibilities for further engagement.

78 Project Focus for 2012

Good Development - Building Strong Communities

UnitingWorld’s approach to development means securing people’s human rights through partnership with local church communities. UnitingWorld Relief and Development stands with their church partners who are working within their communities to gain access to clean water, income, education, healthcare and an environment of peace. This empowers communities to lift themselves out of poverty.

Your participation in Lent Event 2012 will strengthen communities in the areas of:

Water and Sanitation

Water Harvesting – Muzarabani | Zimbabwe | Methodist Church of Zimbabwe / Methodist Development and Relief Agency

Access to clean water is critical escaping poverty. In places like Muzarabani, Zimbabwe, clean water is difficult to come by due to low rainfall and seasonal rivers. Using unclean water leads to water-borne diseases that can devastate communities. This project addresses the need for a secure water supply through the installation of water tanks. Local people are trained in construction and build the tanks themselves. Training in water management and sanitation is provided.

Other Water and Sanitation Projects  Milne Bay , PNG - Rural Village Water / United Church in PNG  Ponnai, Vellore, India – Village Water / Church of South India

Economic Empowerment and Livelihood

Microfinance – Betun | West Timor (Indonesia) | Evangelical Christian Church in Timor (TLM)

Empowering people to develop sustainable incomes is integral to overcoming poverty. Around 43% of the community in Betun, West Timor, lives below the poverty line with little access to education, healthcare and other opportunities. Microfinance programs provide small, low interest loans to families and community groups, funding practical projects such as growing and selling produce. Profit pay for education and healthcare, or fund other businesses that change the lives of families.

Other economic empowerment and livelihood projects:  Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea – Micro Finance / United Church in PNG  Rural Bali, Indonesia – Women’s Empowerment Project / MBM Foundation, Protestant Christian Church in Bali  Rural West Papua, Indonesia – Livelihood / GKI – Tanah Papua, Evangelical Christian Church in the land of Papua

Education and Vocational Training

Community Development – Sarenga | India | Church of North India

Achieving universal primary education and securing the well-being of children is crucial to the future of communities. In Sarenga, West Bengal, India many people are considered ‘untouchables’. They are marginalised and excluded from healthcare, education and other social services. The Sarenga Community Development project emphasises long-term development. Beginning with the establishment of early learning centres, this project makes quality education available to the community.

Other Education and Vocational Training Projects:  Jordan , Zambia - Open Community Schools/ United Church of Zambia  Mwandi, Zambia – Orphans and Vulnerable Children / United Church of Zambia  Nilgiris, India- Integrated Tribal Development / Church of South India  Amritsar, India – Education for Disadvantaged Children / Church of North India 79 Health and Nutrition

Eye Care Initiative | Vanuatu | Presbyterian Church in Vanuatu

In impoverished communities many health issues exist that can be alleviated through basic health services. One such issue is avoidable blindness. With 83 remote islands spread over 1,300 kilometres, access to eye care is difficult in Vanuatu. This project is providing mobile clinics to remote communities to treat eye conditions, prevent serious problems and refer complex cases for surgery. Clinics train and equip local people to test eyes, prescribe glasses and provide health education.

Other healthcare and nutrition projects:

 Fiji - Eye Care Initiative/ Methodist Church in Fiji & Rotuma  Los Palos, Timor – Leste - Health Care / Protestant Church in Timor-Leste  Solomon Islands – Helena Goldie Hospital & Health Care/ United Church in Solomon Islands  Melghat, India – Mother and Child Care / Church of North India

Peacemaking

Young Ambassadors for Peace (YAP) Ambon / Indonesia

Between 1999 - 2003 in Ambon, Indonesia, Muslim and Christian communities were torn apart by prejudice, violence and killings. Young Ambassadors for Peace (YAP) has played a vital role in restoring peace through week-long reconciliation workshops, mentoring programs and community education. Recently, tension has resurfaced. In response, YAP has intensified its work, meeting with key leaders and conducting workshops to bring communities together and restore relationships.

Other Peacemaking centres:  Tari, PNG  MaeSot, Burma  North East India  Mindanao, Philippines  Bougainville PNG  Honiara, Solomon Islands

80 Make a contribution to Lent Event to support vital development in the world:

Yes, I’d like to be part of community transformation…...

Easy ways to donate:

(1) Complete and return this form to Lent Event PO Box A2266 Sydney South A1235 (2) Call 1800 998 122 (3) Donate online www.lentevent.com (4) Fax this slip to (02) 9262 7936

Your Lent Event donation helps some of the world’s neediest people

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Lent Event is a part of UnitingWorld, Relief and Development Unit

82 NB. new barcode has been ordered and will to be supplied