Lakes Entrance: Bairnsdale: Doing the Chris McAleer: Graham Knott: Murray Hannah: Combined churches maths for Mission God leads churches Age or merit? Science and faith dinner page 4 page 5 to connect page 10 page 11 page 12 The Gippsland Volume 116, NumberAnglican 7, August 2019 Published in Gippsland Diocese since 1904 people seeking safety in Australia. Proceeds from the Seeking safety in Australia bags are directed to support people in settling into their A Refugee Week event in Bairnsdale raises awareness new lives here. Michael FoX read two heart-rending and beautifully Wendy Nickson written passages from Behrouz Boochani’s literary n interesting and prize winning book No enlightening Refugee Friend But the Mountains. AWeek event was This author is still languish- held in Bairnsdale on ing on Manus Island. 20 June. Keynote speakers Michael urged people to were Farhat Firdous, originally write letters which must be from Karachi, Pakistan, read (rather than emails and currently Multi-cultural which are not) to Government Strategic Engagement both at local and national Coordinator with Latrobe level regarding the injustices Community Health Service; to asylum seekers. and Ignacio Rodriguez, Finally the audience Multicultural Project was treated to a wonderful Coordinator. performance by The Alley Both came to Australia Cats choir, a very talented as migrants. Farhat left her Bairnsdale-based group who homeland in the face of sing a cappella in harmony. prejudice and violence, while Photo: Wendy Nickson A fnger food meal was Ignacio migrated from Spain. The Alley Cat Singers performing at the EGASS Refugee Week event in Bairnsdale provided and much enjoyed. They spoke of diffculties in gaining recognition of Chris Power of East Gippsland led her to give them their qualifcations and with Asylum Seeker Support new life and value, language, experiences also Group explained its aims as she makes them NAIDOC Week 2019 common to refugees. They and activities. Jeni Irwin into colourful patchwork told of their journeys as explained how her love shopping bags. She sees newcomers to Australia and of fabric, including remnants this as an analogy to their current work. and discarded pieces, has rescuing the displaced East Gippsland Asylum Seeker Support Group The East Gippsland Asylum Seeker Support Group (EGASS) is a group of people from East Gippsland who share and promote a common vision of compassion and hospitality for those forced to flee and seek protection. They meet on the second Tuesday of the month in February, April, June, August, October and December, 7.30pm at St John’s Anglican Hall in Francis Street Bairnsdale. The group has three foci: education – rais- ing community awareness; letter writing to poli- ticians; and practical support for asylum seekers, with personal items and supermarket vouchers. Photo: Wendy Nickson Photo: Cathrine Muston (See: ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au) Michael Fox, Paynesville parishioner and EGASS David Murray takes part in an activity during the NAIDOC service For further information phone 0418 148 657. member speaking at the Bairnsdale event at St John’s Lake Tyers (See page 3) NAIDOC Week 2019: Lake Tyers, Morwell and more... PagesPhoto: Chris 3 and McAleer 5 From the Bishop TGA Index Journeying to “inner” space From the Bishop 2 hen, some months Theologically, space is In the same address at a Prayer Diary 2 ago, we booked signifcant in several respects. UK theological college he Wthe children in for It is associated with the work concluded from this “that NAIDOC Week 3 a NASA run “Space Camp” of creation though which what we have to do about the in Mississippi as part of a God is made known – both in Church is not frst to organize Around the Diocese 4–7 recent visit to our US-based the sense of the cosmos it as a society but to inhabit family, we hadn’t realized revealing God and having its it as a climate or a landscape. Kids’ Min: 8 how close the dates were to existence in God. As such, It is a place where we can Bishop Richard Treloar Colin Oakley the 50th anniversary of the Christians view space not see properly – God, God’s Just a little sin moon landing. so much as a container or creation, [and] ourselves... in thresholds rather than borders. Wide-eyed, children receptacle to be flled up by restored relation to God. It is Such was the calling out – the “ek-klesia” – of early Christian For young disciples: 9 and parents alike explored inert things than as the medium a place we are invited to enter, Daniel Lowe rocket fuselage from Apollo which holds the “quiddity”, the the place occupied by Christ, assemblies (“ecclesia”), Lego Masters Life missions, watched footage of sheer “is-ness” of matter and who is himself the climate adapting an Athenian model JFK setting the earth-bound the possibility of history, in and atmosphere of a renewed of civic practice to proclaim and embody the vision of Anglicare Fare: 9 nation a celestial target, caught which events happen and life universe.” (The Christian The Natty Special whispers of even greater itself comes to be. Priest Today, Ripon College, an alternative future to that ambitions, and experienced the Perhaps, then, we can think Cuddesdon, 2004) offered by the empire, namely gravity-defying thrills offered of the vastness of space not Imagining the Church the Kingdom of God. Reflection: 10 As we look up at the stunning Chris McAleer by various simulators. only in geometric terms, but as a “space” – specifcally God leads churches Writing this on the day also in existential terms: as a space of freedom and of night skies over Gippsland to connect of that jubilee I am piecing “lived space”; something we transformation – Australian and watch the moon wax and together an almost-four-year- experience writ small from theologian Stephen Ogden wane, we do well to ponder the mystery of it all, including Graham Knott: 11 old’s memory as scratchy as the the meaning we associate with draws on the work of twentieth- Age or merit? black and white footage which particular places or spaces century French philosopher the God-given human reason united hundreds of millions of in our own personal and Michel Foucault in his recent which enabled human beings to set foot on its heterotopic Wholly, holy: people in July 1969. communal stories, such that work, The Church, Authority, Murray Hannah 12 Space. Is it the “fnal our “inner space” is shaped by and Foucault. In contrast to the landscape 50 years ago. Science and faith frontier”, as the makers of “outer space”. notion of “utopia” (literally, Whilst such a journey is Star Trek have fashioned it, a In a similar way former no place) Foucault coins the literally beyond most of us, we are invited by baptism into no Diocesan calendar 12 terra nullius to be colonized, Archbishop of Canterbury, term “heterotopia”: an “other” with all of the recapitulation Rowan Williams, applies place, or a “counter-space” that less a mystery: called out to of our equivocal imperial this idea of theologically is peculiar or distinctive. that distinctive counter-space legacy that entails? Does “freighted” space to the Like Williams, Ogden cleared by God through Jesus The Gippsland it offer refuge for humanity Church, which he describes sees the Church’s vocation as where we can see clearly so as Anglican should earth become as “a kind of space cleared by heterotopic: to be a particular to become what God made us uninhabitable – a theme God through Jesus in which counter-space which is to be. Member of Australasian Religious rehearsed in “sci-f” literature people may become what God characterized by openness, Press Association and cinema? made them to be”. in which boundaries are Registered by Australia Post Print Post Number 34352/00018 The Gippsland Anglican is the offcial the city to the peace of the newspaper of and is published by Prayer Diary: around the parishes Gippsland Lakes. The parish The Anglican Diocese of Gippsland, “That we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith...” (ROMANS 1:12) encompasses Paynesville, 453 Raymond Street, Eagle Point, Newlands Arm Sale, Victoria, 3850. OMEO ORBOST members who gather every www.gippsanglican.org.au and Raymond Island. EASTERN REGION EASTERN REGION Sunday for services. We may The opportunities of Editor: Jan Down Christ Church, Omeo St James, Orbost be few but we are kept very the Lakes and the wonder Tel: 0407 614 661 St Paul, Benambra Locum: The Rev’d Bevil busy. Our temporary organist of the environment form Email: [email protected] retired last year but we have the backdrop for worship Contributions are due by 15th of Union Church, Ensay Lunson the month prior to publication Honorary Priest-in-Charge: been able to access our music and work, creativity and The Rev’d Thelma Langshaw Our Trash & Treasure shops are on disc. A new organist would prayer. The St Peter’s Quiet Layout by Devine Design still open 5½ days a week and still be very welcome. St Garden overlooking the Printed by Fairfax Media, Omeo is a tiny, pretty, drive- we are amazed at the amount James’ is a happy, vibrant, fun Lake, and the open church, 30-32 Grandlee Drive, through town for other places, of material contributed. The welcome all for contemplation Wendouree, Victoria, 3355. place to be. on the Great Alpine Road, number of clients using our and prayer. The editor reserves the right sometimes bringing in trade Food Pantry has increased, PAYNESVILLE The Diocesan Mission of fnal choice and format of EASTERN REGION from tourists passing through. especially during the at The Abbey is supported material included in each issue.