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NOVEMBER 17 NOVEMBER 2012 ISSN 0819-5633 CREATIVE WORSHIP EXPERIENCE LAUNCHES FESTIVAL page 3 ADRA ISSUES CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE page 6 THE FACE OF JESUS page 16 ICC Australia, a ministry, is independent of the Seventh-day Adventist Church organisation but is supportive of the Church. NEWS Creative worship experience launches festival Melbourne, Victoria Films, flowers and hundreds of drama, film, flowers, live and recorded colourful paper birds featured at a music, the paper birds and preaching. youth rally in Melbourne, Victoria, on The aims: to present biblical perspec- October 19-20. tives on living faithfully, to create a It gave participants a taste of what memorable experience and to evoke to expect at the third annual Manifest a response. Creative Arts Festival, which Adventist “So much in our world and in our Media Network and Avondale College lives pushes us toward numbness—or of Higher Education will present in hardness of heart, in biblical terms— March 2013. often as a means of survival,” said The rally, organised by Victoria’s Mr Brown, who is also book editor Adventist Youth Ministries department, at Signs Publishing Company. “But Young adults plant flowers during a worship began in a cafe-style setting with an the faithful and creative life should service at the launch of Manifest. art exhibition, live music and a show- be sensitive and deep and fully alive. case of the best shorts from the SON- That’s what God calls us to be and screen Film Festival and Manifest’s that’s what He calls us to share.” and the launch of a Manifest-branded HopeChannel Filmmaking Competition. Manifest 2013 will feature filmmaker book on faithful creativity. It continued the next day with a wor- Terry Benedict, producer and director “The support and enthusiasm of ship service that explored questions of the documentary The Conscientious [Victorian Youth Ministries direc- of tragedy, beauty and transformation Objector, and Dwain Esmond, vice- tor] Moe Ioane Stiles and her team followed by afternoon workshops on president of editorial services for the is important,” said Avondale public creativity. Review and Herald Publishing Associa- relations officer Brenton Stacey. “It The service, presented by Mani- tion. New events include the premiere not only shows Manifest is growing fest co-convenors Nathan Brown and of a play written by Avondale alumna but that others value creatives and the Joanna Darby and Ms Darby’s friend, Linley Lee, a dinner and awards cer- way they challenge us to think about Photo: Fred Zinggl Photography Photo: Fred Lidia Nowicki, featured Bible reading, emony for Adventist communicators our faith.”—Brenton Stacey Blind given scholarships to develop life skills Wahroonga, New South Wales Christian Services for the Blind and Hearing Impaired tance. His appeal to CSFBHI for help planted the idea for a (CSFBHI) is broadening its scope with the announcement of scholarship. In the past, New Vision blind camp attendees a scholarship program. each received a subsidy from CSFBHI, but in recent years The Personal Pursuit and Empowerment (PPE) scholar- government regulation has made the camps too difficult ships will assist people with sight and hearing impairments to operate with non-professional volunteer counsellors, to develop general life and occupational skills. Two $A2000 so the scholarships make a worthwhile alternative form of scholarships will be available in 2013. assistance.” Perth (WA) resident Tim Meyerinck, who is undertaking Mr Meyerinck, 31, has worked for some years, including a six-month independent living course at the Hatlen Centre in the office of Western Australian parliamentarian and for- for the Blind in San Francisco, USA, is the inaugural schol- mer pastor of the Christian Reformed Church, Peter Abetz, arship recipient. In fact, who endorsed his application. “He takes his blindness in an he provided CSFBHI with accepting way and makes the most of his life,” he said. the idea for a scholarship The scholarship will support Mr Meyerinck in a resi- program. dential living course, which involves life skills training by “As a teenager Mr professionals and practical community experience. Meyerinck attended New PPE applicants must be legally blind or deaf and be Vision blind camps at pursuing some form of formal and certified, impairment- Logue Brook [WA],” said related self improvement; must be endorsed by a referee; CSFBHI manager Lee Dun- and give a written summary of their pursuit and its goals. stan. “It was from recalling Full conditions and application information is available his pleasant association on the CSFBHI website <adventist.org.au/CSFBHI>, or from Mr Meyerinck is completing a there that he contacted CSFBHI manager Lee Dunstan, <leedunstan@adventist residential living course. me, asking for assis- media.org.au>.—RECORD staff record.net.au • NOVEMBER 17, 2012 3 EDITORIAL Casualty of duplicity James Standish I knew it! Yes, I know it’s ungracious to say so, but it’s financial instability. But most of us don’t know why. With- the truth. Three years ago I stopped by a newsagent in out getting too technical, this is how the mess began. Melbourne’s CBD on my way to the doctor to be treated People were given mortgages they couldn’t afford in for a particularly nasty bug I’d picked up during an other- America. But why would anyone give someone a mortgage wise wonderful visit to Papua New Guinea. they couldn’t afford? Because they got loan origination fees The newsagent launched into a laudation of Lance and then sold the mortgages to investment banks. Why Armstrong, assuming after hearing my American accent would the investment banks buy them? Because they then I suppose, that I’d heartily agree. He did not react well bundled the mortgages together into “mortgage-backed when I replied, feeling very under the weather you must securities”. But why would any sane investor purchase se- remember, that I thought Lance a drug cheat. “A cheat, curities full of dangerously over leveraged mortgages from you call the man a cheat? He’s been tested more than any investment banks? Because investors didn’t know how risky other person in history. What more do you want?” he said, they were. examining me head to toe as if this slightly dishevelled Investors didn’t understand the risks because the “inde- man with a greenish hue to his face, was the last person pendent” ratings agencies rated mortgage-backed securi- on earth who should be casting dispersions on a cancer- ties as very safe. But why would ratings agencies risk their surviving, charity-leading sports hero for the ages. reputation to rate groups of high-risk mortgages as a safe Of course, he was right. I had no evidence whatsoever. investment? It could be that they simply were incompetent. So why was I so sure? Because Armstrong won seven Tour But a number of experts have pointed to another reason: de Frances in an era when we knew for sure many of the they had a financial incentive to do so, as they were reap- riders were doping. Think about that. He wouldn’t just have ing record revenues and profits from, you guessed it, rating to be better than any rider in history, he’d have to be that mortgage-backed securities. And in order to keep the much better than any doped up rider in the most competi- mortgage-backed securities ratings business of the largest tive era in sports history. I haven’t calculated the odds on investment banks, which not only gave them the business that, but it must be somewhere around a gazillion to one. but paid them for their ratings, the ratings agencies had, as But it’s not just Armstrong. I would put money, meta- one analyst put it, “a strong incentive to play along”.1 phorically you understand, that this year’s summer Olym- Eventually homeowners did the predictable—they de- pics were as much about advances in chemistry as they faulted on the mortgages they couldn’t afford in droves. were about advances in athleticism. We have had decades The mortgage-backed securities were then downgraded— now of drug cheats remaining one step ahead of enforce- many from AAA to junk status. As the securities were held ment regimes in everything from baseball to swimming, by banks, pension funds, insurance companies and even athletics to football, weight lifting to boxing. Why would we governments around the world, this downgrading depleted think the enforcers miraculously caught up with the cheats the capitalisation of many lenders. As their capitalisation this Olympics? Some of the more freakish performances shrank, so did their ability to extend new loans and the only confirm my suspicions. whole credit market froze. So everyone from small time But there is another reason I am suspicious of skull- borrowers to large companies couldn’t raise capital and duggery: human nature. You see, wherever you look in things started falling apart in every direction. the world, when the stakes are high, cheating is rife. But Tens of millions of people lost equity in their homes; arguably it’s in the world of finance where the cold face of many lost their homes in total, their jobs and their retire- avarice leads to the most dangerous cheating. ment savings. As an employee of one of the agencies that We all know we’re in a period of tremendous global (Continued page 6) Dr Barry Oliver Senior Consulting Editor Letters [email protected] Subscriptions Official news magazine of the South Pacific James Standish Editor News & Photos [email protected] Record mailed within Australia Division Seventh-day Adventist Church and communication director Noticeboard