Progressive Network of WA - Newsletter Number 4 - July 2019
 
Aims of the Network

1.    Promoting progressive religious and spiritual thought and practice

2.    Exploring the implications of critical biblical or scriptural scholarship and the emerging proposals of eminent contemporary theologians, scholars and others.

3.    Exploring alternatives to traditional religious beliefs and practices and new ways to understand religious faith and spirituality

Newsletter– July 2019

Welcome to our fourth newsletter, and the first for 2019.  It has been a busy year so far, with 2 talks by Rev. Prof. Bill Loader, and 2 talks by Michael Morwood, held during lent.  Michael talked on prayer in a progressive context, while Bill focused on the death of Jesus and whether it gave us a monopoly on forgiveness.  Both were well attended and provided thought provoking and inspiring material.  We also finished the final Living the Questions series on Paul, called Paul and God, again with many people attending all the 4 sessions. Finally we recently ran a Sustainability workshop, with many high profile speakers presenting both the reality of our environmental crisis but also ways in which the challenge to change is being accepted. A review of this by Richard Smith, is included in this newsletter. 

We hope to keep you informed on meetings and activities planned for the remainder of 2019.

Book Club

The book club, which commenced in February, 2018, has continued. We meet on the second Monday of the month at Wembley Downs Uniting and at last count had 20 people attending. We alternate a book with an interesting podcast, video or piece of writing from elsewhere.  This year we finished Diarmuid O’Murchu’s book, “In the Beginning was the Spirit”, in February. In March we discussed an abstract of Rupert Sheldrake’s book , “The Science Delusion”, and also viewed an interview with him.  In April we discussed John Bodycomb’s autobiography, “No Fixed Address”, and in June we met to discuss the book, ”How I Found God in Everyone and Everything”, edited by Phillip Clayton and Andrew Davis. If you want a review of this book, as part of my Pentecost sermon, go to the blog, wehaveadreamtoo.wordpress.com. The month of May was taken up with the Paul series.

We are continuing this month, reading Richard Rohr’s new book, “The Universal Christ”, which we will discuss in August. 

Let me know if you want to join. The books are very interesting and the discussion lively.

Report on Sustainability Now Workshop 

Plato advised: Leave it to the experts and Aristotle: Trust it to the wisdom of the people themselves. 

The Progressive Christian Network WA conducted a very successful Sustainability Now workshop at All Saints Uniting Church Floreat on June 8th. The inaugural event was dedicated to the first peoples of Australia and the late Dr Bernard Bowen, a lifelong member of the Uniting Church, whose scientific legacy will benefit generations to come. 

Over 70 people engaged with a range of eminent speakers. Fr Rod Bower set the religious theme with the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden as a sign that humankind was not to consume all that nature provides, to value the Sabbath for a sense of belonging to a wider community and the feeding of the five thousand; a story of creating abundance in the face of scarcity. Prof. Jorg Imberger reflected on how unconstrained economic and population growth is threatening the paradise of Western Australia; evidenced by the impacts of excessive deforestation on pollution, warming and declining rainfall. He gave an alternative vision where the richness of all the elements of Sustainability become WA’s marketable commodities. Caterina Aniere introduced us to her Millennial Kids Inc. an environmental youth organisation that empowers young people with a multi-cultural ‘skills for life’ approach to becoming leaders and change-agents in their communities. 

After a Q&A session and morning tea, lawyer Robyn Glindemann spoke on the importance of laws for the sound environmental practices needed for ecologically sustainable development, that would benefit both Australians, but also the international community and environment. Hon. Julian Grill outlined the key to environmental achievements from his time in Government; from electrification of the Perth-Fremantle railway, establishing substantial marine reserves and a sustainable fishing industry as a result of excellent scientific input from academia and civil servants. Concluding that effective Government requires proactive leaders of integrity and enthusiasm. 

Following a further Q&A and lunch break, Prof. Peter Newman compared the collapse of ancient Babylon from environmental degradation with a modern city, offering the possibilities of reduced CO2 emissions from the expanding use by citizens of renewable energy from roof top solar and lithium energy storage, powering more efficient homes and private and public transportation. Dr Mark Andrich introduced his service enabling investors to drive change towards a sustainable future through selection of environmentally friendly superannuation investments. Concluding the workshop, Dr Dean Revell disclosed how carbon credits from the Government’s emission reduction fund could enable much of Australia’s vast land area to be used to extract global CO2 from the air by Carbon Farming and grazing techniques which increase the storage of carbon in vegetation and soil. 

There were free and open discussions throughout the day which all found informative, thought provoking and motivating within an attractive religious setting confirming that Sustainability was the challenge for which religion was born. 

There are plans for a follow-up seminar in 2020 on “Energy Now”.

Program for Remainder of 2019

Upperty Women of the Bible, A Living the Questions Series 

Coffee at 3.30 pm, Study starts at 4 pm – 5 30pm, Wed  Oct 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30thand Nov 6th

·     $20 Cost of Coffee and Cake  

·     $20 for DVD, Transcript and Study Guide

All Saints Floreat Uniting Church 

Common Dreams Conference 4 

July 10-14,  2019 in Sydney 

Matthew Fox, author of “Original Blessing, speaking on Creation Spirituality.

A forum will be held at Wembley Downs Uniting Church at 11 am on Sunday 8thSeptember to give a Common Dreams summary to those unable to attend.

A Poem to Finish 

A Summer’s Day – Mary Oliver
 

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?