Bushfires and response-ability - a re-think needed?

The article below is from the pen - oops, the keyboard - of Bronwyn Lay, daughter of B.I.N. member Margaret Lay. It is worthy of consideration.

Bushfires demand response-ability

Bronwyn Lay |  22 October 2013

I've never felt the earth move but have sniffed smoke, ashes and the aftermath of bushfires. The fright of inferno is akin to the world being taken away in an instant. It makes bodies tremble and language vanish. In front of violent nature, who are we but helpless and mute?

In bushfires, tsunamis and earthquakes, our relationship to the 'natural' world comes at us like an alive nightmare, and hurts. The natural world might not possess emotions like anger and revenge, but asks violent questions about meaning and action and responsibility. Many ask us to draw a line in our mourning, and only think about the humans. This is repression, for on such occasions humans and nature are bound in a dangerous dance.

In Lisbon 1755 the Western world changed direction. The ground literally moved as the biggest earthquake recorded in Western history hit the Portuguese coast and decimated Lisbon. A tsunami and fires followed. It was All Saints day and many people were at Mass when the earthquake hit. The monarchy fled to the hills to live as nomads, and thousands died.

To read more please go to Eureka Street magazine on line.

A charming portrait of two little girls at prayer

Isn't this photograph marvellous. 

It comes from Side Entrance - a blog that B.I.N. follows on Tumbler.  

Hind Makki is the author of the blog 

and there are some wonderful photographs on the site.

Art, Dance, Multimedia, Performance, Talks, - AND INTERFAITH SPOKEN WORD/POETRY @ THE WHEELER CENTRE

Islam, women and men at worship, sacred places and spaces.

 

Hind Makki is nothing if not interesting,

on Twitter, on Facebook, on Tumblr.

You will also find Hindi on the blog, Hindrospectives

with her thoughts on Islam, the West, and pop culture.

Particularly of interest, is Hind's presence on Tumblr

where she posts on a site call Side Entrance.

The focus of Side entrance is on photos from mosques around the world,

showcasing women's sacred spaces, in relation to men's spaces.

She claims to show the beautiful, the adequate and the pathetic.

 

 Sacred spaces are important. 

They have a resonance which somehow our human psyche can tap into -

whether these are human made spaces

or spaces which we come across in the natural environment.

They are places of connection with something universal,

yet not contained by our own

knowledge of physical space.

 

Hind often highlights the feature of Islam where men and women

have different sacred spaces in mosques -

different places for prayer and prayerful listening.

 



Women of Islam - 10

 

Anousheh Ansari (USA, 1966-Present)

In 2006, Anousheh became the first Muslim woman in space.

 

When asked about what she hoped to achieve on her spaceflight, she said,

 

"I hope to inspire everyone -- especially young people, women and young girls all over the world and in Middle Eastern countries that do not provide women with the same opportunities as men -- to not give up their dreams and to pursue them. ... It may seem impossible to them at times. But I believe they can realize their dreams if they keep it in their hearts, nurture it, and look for opportunities and make those opportunities happen."

 

 

From Huffington Post



Women of Islam - 9

Daisy Khan (USA, 1958-Present)

In 2005, Daisy founded the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), the only cohesive, global movement of Muslim women around the world that works to reclaim women's rights in Islam using a human rights and social-justice based framework.

 

Further, in 2008, Daisy spearheaded the creation of the Global Muslim Women's Shura Council, whch is comprised of eminent Muslim women scholars, activists and lawyers from 26 countries.  The Council's statements have informed numerous university curriculums and legal opinions. 

 

Daisy is viewed as a credible, humane and equitable voice within the global Muslim community.

 

 

 

From the Huffington Post

Critiquing Christian values and helping the poor - former U.S. President Jimmy Carter



News from disputed land - disappearing farm land as settlers occupy Palestinian territory

From the occupied Palestinian territories to the European Union

Raba Fanoun from Nahhalin village near Bethlehem shows his olive trees destroyed by Israeli settlers.
© Merita Saajos 
       

09 October 2013

Jenny Derbyshire, a volunteer for the World Council of Churches programme for Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), previously based in Bethlehem, was part of a team that travelled to Brussels recently to bring to light stories of Palestinians living under siege. Derbyshire, from Ireland, used her eye witness accounts from the occupied territory to urge the European Union to support the two-state solution for peace and stability in the region. 
 
By Jenny Derbyshire
In March this year, Raba Fanoun, from the village of Nahhalin near Bethlehem, discovered that settlers had come to his land during the night with hatchets and destroyed 80 mature olive trees, which his father had planted thirty years ago. This was nearly half the total number of his mature olive trees. The livelihood for his extended family depended on them. Later that day, volunteers from the EAPPI Bethlehem team visited Fanoun, to report on this destruction.

“When you plant a small flower in your house,” Fanoun said, “imagine how you feel when it dies; and think about the trees we have cared for, for 30 years.”

“This is a big attack on your livelihood,” I said.

“It’s not just our livelihood, it’s our life,” was the reply.

During my three months in Bethlehem I was often in this village, which is under constant threat from settlements on the surrounding hilltops, including the huge nearby settlement of Beitar Illit. In April we were called out to witness and report on the military orders left under stones on village farmland, confiscating another area of land for the extension of the security zone around Beitar Illit.

“When you go home, tell people in your countries,” the mayor urged us, “tell them what is happening here. This is the last of the farmland of our village. They want us to leave. They are trying to drive us away.”

As part of a meeting of EAPPI representatives with EU officials in September this year, I was able to tell the stories from Nahhalin to members of the European Parliament (MEPs), permanent representatives, officials from the External Action Service and the cabinet of the commissioner for research. We showed them a photo of the building activity that we saw taking place in Beitar Illit, right above Palestinian farmland. Such establishments lead to the extension of the security zone, and run-off from the settlement sewage system polluting the Palestinian farmland and water supply.

I was also able to show a photo of Fanoun with his destroyed olive trees and describe the impact settlement has on local people. We told the MEPs what Fanoun and the mayor shared with us.
We also brought to them words of another farmer from Nahhalin: “What they call Area C is actually the future of Palestine.” What most people in the occupied territories shared with us was that “the situation is urgent, if the two-state solution is to have any chance of success”.

For the visit to Brussels I worked as a team with two other former Ecumenical Accompaniers: Jonathan Adams from the United Kingdom and Dominika Blachnika from Poland were EAPPI volunteers in East Jerusalem in 2012; I was in Bethlehem this year and in East Jerusalem in 2012. So we also described the impact of the developments in the E1 area outside Jerusalem on the lives of the Bedouin people we had met there.

This is now a well-known issue politically, but the stories from people living there and the impact of the loss of land, water and access to Jerusalem shows the level of displacement and deprivation. We linked this with the stories from the Bethlehem villages, where Palestinian people are also threatened by forced displacement. Their farmlands are disappearing into settlement construction, is claimed by the route of the separation barrier, and comes under repeated attacks from settlers.

We shared what we had seen and passed on the words of the Palestinians we got to know during our stay; we shared maps and photos; we shared statistics. We reminded politicians that under international humanitarian law, which the EU upholds, Palestinians have a protected status and settlements are illegal. EU officials have recently taken steps through issuing EU guidelines on grants and loans to settlements. We hope that our testimonies will encourage them to continue in this direction and take the necessary actions for the resolution of the Israel Palestine conflict.

Read also:
EU asked to honour its position on Israeli settlements (WCC news release of 1 October 2013)
More information on Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel

    

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, by the end of 2012 the WCC had 345 member churches representing more than 500 million Christians from Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other traditions in over 110 countries. The WCC works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.

 

Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press
Visiting address: 150 route de Ferney, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland

Video sharing of the Wisdom of Marriage

You may recall the posts on this blog about the Wisdom of Marriage event at the East Melbourne synagogue.  The editor of this blog, Brigid O'Carroll Walsh, was mentioned in these blogposts as speaking at this event.  At the last minute, an addition to the speakers list because someone couldn't make it was Ballarat Interfaith Network's President, Elham Jamali.  So B.I.N. had two speakers at this significant event.  Editor's comment: Punching above our weight?

Below are two videos of the event by Chiluka Desai of WIN Foundation.

The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) - October 2013

           

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit

10 October 2013
The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) begins at the end of October and promises to be one of the most diverse gathering of Christians in the world.

The assembly will be an opportunity for renewing the worldwide ecumenical movement – infusing it with honesty, humility and hope, according to the WCC general secretary.

As to why this is the case, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary, and a Lutheran pastor from the Church of Norway says, it is “through humility, honesty and hope that we can live together as humanity and a Church in a world, where justice and peace are fundamental initiatives and not merely words.”

The theme of the WCC assembly is a prayer “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”.

The assembly will take place from 30 October to 8 November in Busan, Republic of Korea.
It will bring around 3,000 participants from Asia, Pacific, Africa, Europe, Middle East, North America and Latin America, including a large number of young people and several thousand Korean Christians.

In the assembly, Tveit finds the foundation of his hopes in the legacy of the WCC which began in 1948 and has continued during the past 65 years. The member churches, Tveit says, will be harvesting fruits of the work of the WCC since the last WCC assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2006, while setting directions for a new ecumenical vision for the future. There are 345 member churches in the WCC and all but a few will be represented at the assembly.

Tveit expects the WCC assembly to be an opportunity of learning.

“Churches will engage in open and accountable conversations,” he said, about issues important to the church today such as mission and evangelism, faith and order, justice, peace and unity. This dialogue is significant for the WCC assembly as “justice and peace imply effectively addressing core values of the kingdom of God, the will of God, the creator,” he says.

The proposal made by the outgoing WCC Central Committee that the assembly initiates a pilgrimage of justice and peace can unite Christians in a unique way, according to Tveit. This aspect, he says, is also echoed in the call from Pope Francis in which he has proclaimed that the Church is here to serve, for justice and peace.

“This call makes us look beyond our boundaries and limitations journeying towards being a Church together. The assembly will bring a realization of what we have received. But, we are not finished with our tasks and we have to continue our work and prayers for the Christian unity.”

The WCC assembly will feature varied spiritual expressions from churches around the world. The participants will share these reflections of Christian unity through worship, Bible study and prayer.

Having the assembly in South Korea is significant, Tveit says. “The assembly will be a place for the global fellowship of the churches to express solidarity with the Korean churches, which have suffered separations and had been calling for the reunification of the divided Korean peninsula,” he said.

Simultaneously, Asia being one of the areas of rising economies in the world, Tveit sees a great potential for the assembly to provide a critical and hopeful voice in the reality of globalization and a development paradigm that needs to change to be just and sustainable. “The WCC assembly for the churches is a place to strengthen a deeper understanding of the Asian contexts through sharing, caring and dialogue,” he said.

“Praying that this is an assembly where we all meet the God of life, we also look forward to move forward together in a pilgrimage for justice and peace ,” he concluded.

The 1st WCC Assembly took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1948.

Since then assemblies have been in held in

Evanston, United States, 1954; New Delhi, India, 1961; Uppsala, Sweden, 1968;

Nairobi, Kenya, 1975; Vancouver, Canada, 1983; Canberra, Australia, 1991;

Harare, Zimbabwe, 1998; and Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2006.

Official website of the WCC 10th Assembly WCC

    

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service

for a just and peaceful world.

An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948,

by the end of 2012 the WCC had 345 member churches representing

more than 500 million Christians

from Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other traditions

in over 110 countries.

The WCC works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church.

The WCC general secretary is

the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.