Miss Eagle is winging her way to the Northern Territory

The McDonnells: a stunning backdrop to The Alice

Miss Eagle is spreading her wings to-morrow and is off to the Northern Territory for three weeks.  Will be having a couple of days in Alice Springs and then off to my old stomping ground of Tennant Creek which is situated on the western fringe of my spirit country, the Barkly Tableland.  There is a vital element missing from the map:  the Tropic of Capricorn which is about one hour driving time north of Alice Springs.  Tennant Creek is 504 kilometres (5 hours driving time north of Alice).  However, while both are Arid Zone towns they are vastly different.  I recall once leaving Alice at a particularly dry time when one could not see one natural blade of green grass.  One got to Tennant and, by comparison, it was a tropical oasis.

Sunset from the Gold Stamp Battery, Tennant Creek

I have included a map, dear Networker, so that you can get an idea of of distance.  From Tennant Creek to Darwin is approximaely 1000 kilometres; depending on how heavy your foot is travel time is anything from 7 to 10 hours.  There used to be no speed limits in the NT outside the towns.  However, a few years ago  highway speeds were given 130kph limits.  Now, how well these are enforced is open to conjecture.  The long straight Stuart Highway from Mataranka south to the NT/SA border is ideal for cruise control!  Population is sparse in the NT and a significant proportion is Aboriginal - meaning there is regular contact with the most ancient culture on the whole planet: languages, nations, attitudes, and - sadly - socio-economic differences of major proportions.

Currently, there are many undercurrents in the NT due to the abhorrent Intervention.  I will be keeping my eyes open and trying to be sensitive to views, black and white, around me.  But please remember I am kicking off my sojourn in the place where Samson and Delilah was filmed - and that was realistic.

The Water Cycle Boogie by the Banana Slug String Band......and more

...and for more songs

please go here.

Archbishop of Canterbury:, Rowan Williams: Climate change and becoming human again

Published on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by The Guardian/UK

Dr Rowan Williams says Climate Crisis a Chance to Become Human Again

by Riazat Butt

People should use the climate change crisis as an opportunity to become human again, setting aside the addictive and self-destructive behaviour that has damaged their souls, the Archbishop of Canterbury said today.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

Dr Rowan Williams, head of the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, told an audience at Southwark Cathedral that people had allowed themselves to become "addicted to fantasies about prosperity and growth, dreams of wealth without risk and profit without cost".The consequences of such a lifestyle meant the human soul was "one of the foremost casualties of environmental degradation".
Small changes, such as setting up carbon reduction action groups, would help them reconnect with the world in addition to repairing some of the damage to the planet, because it was too much to expect the state to provide all the solutions.
"Many of the things which have moved us towards ecological disaster have been distortions of who and what we are and their overall effect has been to isolate us from the reality we're part of. Our response to this crisis needs to be, in the most basic sense, a reality check."
Williams added: "We need to keep up pressure on national governments; there are questions only they can answer about the investment of national resources. We need equally to keep up pressure on ourselves and to learn how to work better as civic agents."
In the lecture, sponsored by the Christian environmental group Operation Noah, Williams outlined a Christian response to the climate crisis.
"When we believe in transformation at the local and personal level, we are laying the sure foundations for change at the national and international level.
"If I ask what's the point of my undertaking a modest amount of recycling my rubbish or scaling down my air travel, the answer is not that this will unquestionably save the world within six months, but in the first place it's a step towards liberation from a cycle of behaviour that is keeping me, indeed most of us, in a dangerous state - dangerous, that is, to our human dignity and self-respect."
In a message to heads of state attending the Copenhagen summit, Williams said leaders had to create a "suitably serious plan" for the speedy implementation of protocols on carbon reduction.
"We have had unexpected signs that the east Asian countries are readier than we might have imagined to put pressure on the economies of the US and Europe. The idea that fast-developing economies are totally wedded to environmental indifference because of the urgency of bringing their populations out of poverty no longer seems quite an obvious truth."
Earlier this year Williams said that God was not a "safety net" that would guarantee a happy ending and that human pillaging of the world's resources meant the planet was facing a "whole range of doomsday prospects" that exceeded the results of global warming.
Humanity faced being "choked, drowned or starved" by its own stupidity, he said, and he compared those who challenged the reality of climate change to the courtiers who flattered King Canute, until he proved he could not command the waves by going to the seashore and trying to do so. "Rhetoric, as King Canute demonstrated, does not turn back rising waters," said Williams in a lecture in March.
Tonight's remarks came days after research suggested that Britons had little appetite for shrinking their carbon footprint by reducing the number of flights they took.
The study, from Loughborough University, showed that the vast majority of the public would rather cut energy use at home than go without flying for a year. While 88% of participants in the Propensity to Fly survey said they were willing or very willing to "reduce how much energy I use in my home throughout the year" only 26% said the same when asked if they would "not fly in the next 12 months".

© 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited

Horns of a dilemma: Diarmuid O'Murchu and The Lord's Prayer

On the horns of a dilemma
(and I don't mean the poor jailed goat)!

Over at Diarmuid O' Murchu's site I found a lovely version of The Lord's Prayer supposedly "based on the original Aramaic - source unknown". I like the prayer. It has struck a chord with me. However....

and it is a big however, Michael Booker at the National Association of Scholars site gives the background to the prayer.

Ah, caution!
I think I should bear in mind what Michael Booker has to say.

But, as a prayer, I think it's not bad. And striking a chord in me - as it undoubtedly does with others - bears witness to our thoughts on the universe, idealistic or psuedo-poetic though they be. So I pass it on here - but without the claims for the 'original' Aramaic.

The Lord’ s Prayer

(modern version by Neil Douglas-Klotz)

O Cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration! Soften the ground of our being
and carve out a space within us where your presence can abide.

Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered
to bear the fruit of your mission.

Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with your desire.

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share
what each being needs to grow and flourish.

Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us,
as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.

Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose,
but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.

For you are the ground and fruitful vision, the birth, power and fulfilment,
as all is gathered and made whole once again.

Thomas Berry - Memorial Service - London

Thomas Berry Memorial Service
London

There will be a memorial service for Thomas Berry on Sunday 20th September 2009 at 5pm at St James' Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. Click here for a map.

Diarmuid O'Murchu will give the homily. More information about the service will be sent out on this email list in due course.

Silver Wattle at Ben Cruachan

Silver Wattle photo by Duncan Fraser
from his blog, Ben Cruachan

One of the most beautiful blogs you will ever see and arguably the best nature blog in Australia is done by an older man called Duncan Fraser who lives in a very beautiful part of rural Victoria. The blog is elegantly laid out, the photos are of a supremely high standard, and his text gives wonderful insight into our environment. All praise to Duncan and to the Creator Spirit who laid out all this beauty for him to record.

Coal for breakfast?

There is a saying about us here in Australia:

If it moves shoot it.

If it stands still, mine it.

That saying probably came from our own droll sense of humour. This next one came from a marketing company:

Queensland. Beautiful one day. Perfect the next.

I've come up with another which expresses both sayings in one:

Queensland.

Beautiful one day.

Mined the next.

I am an expatriate Queenslander exiled and living in Melbourne. Many moons ago, I lived in Toowoomba on the Darling Downs. The Darling Downs and the neighbouring South Burnett region were ancestral homelands for one branch of the family tree: places like Pinelands, near Crows Nest; Bunya Mountains; Neumga near Nanango; Maidenwell; Cooyar (where my grandparents were the first to be married inthe Catholic Church there); MacLagan; Kingaroy. As you can no doubt guess, I came from farming stock at a time when most Australians living in urban areas had relatives back on the farm to whom they would go to for holidays.

The Darling Downs is a beautiful part of the world: a major granary and a major wool producer. Rich soils under cloudless blue skies for miles on end. The sort of place in which you wouldn't travel without picnic basket and thermos at the ready.

On my recent visit from Brisbane to Toowoomba, I didn't get out on to the Downs proper but the urban blight contaminating the landscape up through the Lockyer Valley to the Toowoomba Range made me wish I hadn't made the journey. When I left the Downs just over 30 years ago, the blight had started but it was minimal. Now it has sped up along Warrego Highway and the memories of rolling green paddocks made me want to weep.

Just as I want to weep when I see the video at the top of this blog. If we let this go irreparably to coal, what does this say about Australian society, Australian governments, Australian corporations. It says that we are after the quick buck taken from leasehold land, mining leases.

True, much of our pastoral and agricultural land was once taken the same way and those interests were not unlike miners insofar as they picked the most suitable country from which to "mine" its contribution to agricultural production. That sort of tenure has long since gone and there has been too much hard labour and sacrifice by men, women and children poured into winning a livelihood from the land to think to hard on the actual investment made.

We now live in a land of competing resources: mining -v- agriculture and both compete with urbanised communities for dwindling clean water resources. We are playing one resource off against another as if we can afford to play this game as long as all the balls stay up in the air.

Of course, the balls won't stay in the air. Governments will see to it that agricultural land is swallowed up to miners or land developers. As the video points out, we can't eat coal for breakfast. We can't drink clean water when it is no more because of our own carelessness and bad management. What a bequest to future generations.

Our friendly Network, Denis from The Nature of Robertson, has sent the following Statement from the Anglican, Catholic and Uniting Churches on the Darling Downs. Clearly, the churches are standing right where they should be: beside their people. Listen. Because, it is not only here that the battle is being fought. It is also being fought in the equally rich Liverpool Plains of NSW - and I am sure, dear Networkers, you will write and tell me of others facing similar impending catastrophes.

~~~~~~~~

A Statement of Concern Regarding Mining and Agriculture on the Darling Downs

The local leadership of the Anglican, Catholic and Uniting Churches on the Darling Downs have great concerns about the impact of some proposed mining activity on prime agricultural land. They support calls for a regional plan that would identify areas which could be mined and others which should be kept for sustainable agriculture and food production. Two areas in the region currently under consideration for coal mining are Felton and Haystack Plain.

Caring for creation is a strong part of the three Christian traditions. We believe that we are called to be wise stewards of the earth. In terms of our fragile planet we are facing an ecological crisis. Respect for nature and ecological responsibility are key parts of our faith.

Transformation to wise and sustainable use of the environment is at heart a spiritual matter. Environmental concern is a legitimate and necessary part of a Christian's response to God's loving provision for us. (Green by Grace A Report prepared for the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia 2004)

Experience shows that disregard for the environment always harms human coexistence, and vice versa. It becomes more and more evident that there is an inseparable link between peace with creation and peace. (Message of his HolinessPope Benedict XVI for the celebration of the World Day of Peace 1 January 2007)

We are concerned with the basic human rights of future generations and will urge the wise use of energy, the protection of the environment and the replenishment of the earth’s resources for their use and enjoyment. (Uniting Church, Statement to the Nation, 1977)

As communities of faith we stand in solidarity with those farmers who fear for their security and future way of life at this time. We also understand the contribution of mining and the generation of electricity in our region. We have a particular perspective on development which centres on the human person, the family and the community. When we consider future planning or development our primary question would be, “What is happening to the people?” rather than “What is happening to the economy?”

With the current world food shortage we believe it is important to protect land that has a history of sustainable food production. With a growing understanding about the impact of climate change we would also urge the Queensland State government to consider alternatives to coal mining in the Felton and Haystack Plain districts. These alternatives should be more sustainable and contribute more to the local community and economy.

We have concerns that the proposed coal mines will have an irreversible damaging impact on the soil and people of Haystack Plains and Felton. We would urge respectful and genuine dialogue between the resources and agricultural sector. For generations farmers in the Felton and Haystack Plains district have produced food for the wider Australian and international community. They have adapted their practises to ensure that future families can also live from and with the land. Our hope is that decisions made on the future use of these areas are based on the common good of all humanity.

Bishop Rob Nolan (Bishop of the Western Region, Anglican Diocese of Brisbane)

Bishop William Morris (Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba)

Sharon Kirk (Presbytery Minister Uniting Church in Australia Downs Presbytery)

A Tribute to Thomas Berry (1914-2009),

Scholar, Visionary, Planet Lover

by

Mary Evelyn Tucker

Friends, students, and colleagues are mourning the passing of one of the great philosophers of our time. Thomas Berry, teacher, visionary, and author, left us with a story of the emergence of the universe and our extraordinary place in its unfolding.

“The basic mood of the future might well be one of confidence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through the Earth. If the dynamics of the Universe from the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, lighted the sun, and formed the Earth, if this same dynamics brought forth the continents and the seas and atmosphere, if it awakened life in the primordial cell and then brought into being the unnumbered variety of living beings, and finally brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of ourselves and our relation to this stupendous process. Sensitized to such guidance from the very structure and functioning of the Universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture.”

—Thomas Berry, "The New Story" from The Dream of the Earth

A journey of nearly four decades with Thomas Berry has been one of the greatest gifts of my life, as it has been for countless others.

What is it that we all share—those of us who admire his unflagging spirit, his self-effacing manner, his compassionate visage, his penetrating insights, and his comprehensive vision?

It is a feeling of deep companionship that Thomas evokes—we are walking together somehow. Yes, the journey is long, and difficult. We may stumble or lose our way. But with Thomas another future is possible for the Earth community, and he empowers us to engage in the great work of imagining that future. In a time saturated with false promises and misplaced hopes amidst ecological destruction and economic unraveling, his steady evocation of an emerging Ecozoic era ignites human energy in vibrant and unexpected ways.

Thomas, in his brown corduroy coat, year after year while teaching at Fordham University and beyond, called us into the vast sweep of evolutionary dynamics. He lit up our imagination with a story of universe emergence from star birth and galaxy formation to life on Earth.

But there was more. Thomas wove us into the story—seeing us as beings who are biologically and historically grounded. He understood us as arising out of an immense journey of Earth and universe. He helped us to see our connections from the microcosm to the macrocosm, from the great flaring forth to the beauty of flowers and seeds, fish and birds. Thomas’ enduring appreciation for the communion of subjects in this process is something that has profoundly reshaped our minds and hearts.

Thomas’ inclusion of all of life in his own large embrace is what fills us with an ever greater capacity to enter into life’s rhythms and demands—shaping, against all odds, the clay of a life-giving future. There is no one who has held us to such high aspirations so steadily and with such humor and grace.

It is this remarkable gift that we celebrate in Thomas. Over and over again he stuns us with language that evokes companionship on a great journey—universe formation, Earth’s unfolding, life’s arising, human dreaming. He calls us to find our deep alignment with the powers that have sustained this remarkable epic.

Here now in the early 21st century, a new journey is beginning where the life story and the human story are becoming realigned. Thomas has planted the seeds to sustain this great transition and given us remarkable companions for the road ahead. For all of this gratitude, indeed, abounds.

A Brief Biography of Thomas Berry (1914-2009)
Thomas Berry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1914. From his academic beginnings as a historian of world cultures and religions, Berry developed into a historian of the Earth and its evolutionary processes. He described himself as a “geologian.”

He received his PhD in European Intellectual History with a thesis on Giambattista Vico's philosophy of history. Widely read in Western history, he also spent many years studying the cultural history of Asia. He lived in China and traveled to other parts of Asia. He authored two books on Asian religions, Buddhism and Religions of India (distributed by Columbia University Press).

For two decades, he directed the Riverdale Center of Religious Research along the Hudson River just north of New York City. During this period he taught at Fordham University where he established and chaired the history of religions program. He attracted students from all over North America and directed some 25 doctoral theses. Along with Ted deBary he founded the Asian Thought and Religion Seminar at Columbia.

In 1995 he “retired” to his home city of Greensboro, North Carolina, where he continued to write, lecture, and receive visitors. His major contributions to the discussion on the environment are in his books The Dream of the Earth (Sierra Club Books, 1988 reprinted, 2006), The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (Random House, 1999) and, with Brian Swimme, The Universe Story (Harper San Francisco, 1992). Sierra Club Books and University of California Press jointly published his collection of essays, Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community in 2006.

Two new books of Berry's will be available this fall:

The Sacred Universe (Columbia University Press); and

The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth (Orbis Books).

Mary Evelyn Tucker and her husband, John Grim, are long-time editors of Thomas' work. They were graduate students of Thomas at Fordham University and he inspired them in founding the Forum on Religion and Ecology which they direct at Yale University.

Interested?
See a more complete biography and some of his essays at www.thomasberry.org
Source from Yes Magazine

Further reading:

Thomas Berry's Earth Spirituality and the “Great Work”;

Thomas Berry and the Earth Community;

Remembering Thomas Berry C.P.;

Thomas Berry dies at 94; cultural historian became a leading thinker on religion and the environment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HAVE YOU BEEN INFLUENCED BY THOMAS BERRY?

Please continue to his Month's Mind.

If you would like to contribute your experience of Thomas Berry

in and on your life

- and especially, but not exclusively, in an Australian context -

please send a paragraph or so to

misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(dot)com

Building...stone upon stone

Our own small stone of activism,

which might not seem to measure up

to the rugged boulders of heroism we have so admired

is a paltry offering toward the building of an edifice of hope ...

For we can do nothing substantial toward

changing our course on the planet, a destructive one,

without rousing ourselves, individual by individual,

and bringing our small, imperfect stones to the pile.

- Alice Walker,

The Impossible Will Take a Little While:

A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear.

Thoughts for the Journey

Behold, behold I make all things new,

beginning with you and starting from to-day.

Behold, behold I make all things new,

my promise is true, for I am Christ The Way

First Sunday of Advent: 2008

From http://www.earthsong.org.au/

We are being called into a new place
and our creativity is being placed
at the service of Earth,
in a new millennium and a new moment.

There is an awakening of deep energy,
for embracing the interconnectedness of the whole life community
and finding the place of the human within this community.

Living within the Divine Mystery,
we celebrate the sacredness of all beings
and the integrity of all creation.

Drawing on the wisdoms of our past,
we are moving into new expressions
of our response to the creation:
'groaning in one great act of giving birth'.

We seek to learn new ways,
widening our horizons,
believing in a possible dream,
touching into our deepest experience
to give and to receive life.

~~~~

All Saints - The Anglican presence in Mitcham & Nunawading
Rev'd Dianne Sharrock, B. Theol
Forthcoming Christmas Services
Thursday 4 December
A service of lessons and carols for Advent
organised by the All Saints' Mothers Union
Christmas Eve 24 December
5pm - Family Service with Wombat Divine
11pm - Sung Eucharist with Carols
Christmas Day 25 December
9.30am - Sung Eucharist with Carols
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer of the Day - Advent 1

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came among us in great humility, that n the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MAKE ADVENT YOUR OWN IN YOUR OWN HOME THIS YEAR

Here are some household prayers with daily scripture readings for the weeks of advent

with many blessings from All Saints at Micham & Nunawading

Opening Prayer

Wait for the Lord; be strong and have courage and put your hope in the Lord.

Then then glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.

Thanks be to God.

Readings

Choose a Scripture reading from the list given below)

Thanksgiving for Light

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

We give you thanks and praise, God of all creation:

You gave us the sun that runs its course with joy, the moon and stars to brighten the sky at night.  

Brak through our clouds of doubt and fear.

Wake us up to your saving awesome works;

Teach us again that nothing is too wonderful for our God.

Make us heralds of your peace to all the earth, bearers of your light to those who are sad and afraid.

Grant us rest this night that we may sleep surrounded by your love.

We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world.  Amen

Lighting of the Advent Wreath (if you don't have a wreath, perhaps you can light a candle)

By the tender mercy of our God, 

the dawn from on high will break upon us, 

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 

to guide our feet into the way of peace. 

(Luke 1:78-79)

Jesus said:  

"I am the light of the world."  

The nations will walk by this light 

and all people will see God's glory.  

(spoken as the candles are lit)

Responsive Prayer

Jesus, our Emmanuel, 

you promised to be with us in all times and places:

Come now and be our friend.

Come, Lord Jesus.

You came as a baby, born in a manger,

and the magi called you "King":

Come to rule the world with mercy and peace.

Come, Lord Jesus.

You walked through towns and villages,

Healing the sick and feeding the hungry:

Come and show us your way of love.

Come, Lord Jesus.

God sent you to save the earth and all its people; 

your love for us led you to the cross:

Come with joy, and open wide the door of life.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Closing Prayer

God of Light,

you have promised that you will feed us,

hold us tenderly and protect us:

Guide us through each day,

abnd lead us on the highway to your home.

Come to us when we are afraid and uncertain.

Bless us as we prepared to celebrate Christmas.

Gather us into a community of love,

ready to receive Jesus and 

to bring his healing and peace to the world.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Then say the Lord's Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name....Amen

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The love of God,

and the communion of the Holy Spirit

be with us.

O come, O come Emmanuel!

Advent Daily Scripture Readings

(the list of readings is a *.jpg file.  Please click to enlarge.)