From Paul Turley

“It strikes me as one of those landmark moments where we could see we've made a significant advance. One of the advances is that it is much more accessible. We’ve had chatbots in the past that have been nearly as capable, but they haven’t been quite as accessible. Anyone can access it at the moment for free.”

That’s Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the University of New South Wales AI Institute talking about ChatGPT in an interview on ABC radio in Australia in late January 2023.

OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT or Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer has just received another $10 million from one of its chief investors, Microsoft. Walsh predicts that ChatGPT will “very shortly” be embedded in Microsoft Office.

School districts from New York to New South Wales are banning the use of ChatGPT in classrooms but as many have pointed out, while this program can be removed from school computer networks it is difficult if not impossible to stop access on phones and home computers.

In January of this year, Jonathan Choi, a professor at Minnesota University Law School, gave ChatGPT the same test faced by law students, consisting of 95 multiple-choice questions and 12 essay questions. The bot scored a C+ overall. Publishers have begun to respond to the development and use of ChatGPT. The leading U.S. journal Science has banned listing ChatGPT as an article author and authors from using text from ChatGPT.

“Given the frenzy that has built up around this, it’s a good idea to make it absolutely explicit that we will not permit ChatGPT to be an author or to have its text used in papers,” Said Holden Thorp, the editor-in-chief of Science. “Leading scientific journals require authors to sign a form declaring that they are accountable for their contribution to the work. Since ChatGPT cannot do this, it cannot be an author.”

Some educators say that we are overreacting to ChatGPT. Education and publishing have responded to and incorporated technology from the pocket calculator to Wikipedia and will do the same with programs like ChatGPT, they say.

For now, many education institutions are reverting to requiring students to be in a supervised space, without technology and using pencil and paper to complete exam essays. Meanwhile, Toby Walsh says that the next iteration of the bot, ChatGPT4 is due out before the middle of 2023, and it will be “an order of magnitude bigger than ChatGPT3.”

If one of the themes of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness was the temptation to take shortcuts to avoid struggle, pain, and suffering, ChatGPT and other open AI technology perhaps present us with similar temptations…

Explore… Matthew 4:1–11

• What significance do you think there is that the temptations Jesus faced came after 40 days of fasting?
• What does Jesus saying “It is written…” represent for us today?
• If you were to list three great temptations present in your life, community or culture, what would they be and how might you and your faith community respond?

Prayer…

God of eternal love and grace, we are so thankful for your continued presence in all of our lives. May today we see clearly all that tempts us to live outside of your love and care and, in faith and hope, stay present to you and in you. Amen.

Learn more…

• ChatGPT bot passes law school exam 
• ChatGPT sparks cheating 
• Science journals ban listing ChatGPT as co-authors 

From Paul Turley

In late March 2023, the United Nations Water Conference will convene in New York City. It meets halfway through the UN’s Water Action Decade, which is a response to the sixth Sustainable Development Goal: clean water and sanitation.

Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, welcomed the world to the Water Conference: “Water is a fundamental human right underpinning all aspects of life. It is essential for the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, from poverty eradication to gender equality, food security, health and well-being.”

Mohammed tells us that progress on Sustainable Development Goal 6 “is not on track”

The statistics are daunting:

• According to Food and Agricultural Organization data, currently, 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries.
• 733 million of these people - approximately 10 percent of the global population – live in countries with high and critical water stress.
• Up to 80 percent of illnesses in the developing world are linked to inadequate water and sanitation. 

“By 2050, global production of food, fibre and feed will need to increase by 50% compared to 2012 levels to meet growing demands. Under a business-as-usual scenario, this would mean at least 35% of additional freshwater resources,” Food and Agricultural Organization Director-General QU Dongyu said at the FAOs Rome Water Dialogue in late 2022.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 specifically aims to ensure access to water and sanitation for all, setting out the following objectives for joint action:

• improve the management and quality of water resources, involving communities and including women and girls
• ensure that people have access to safe and affordable drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene
• protect and restore water-related ecosystems.

This global summit brings together powerful nations and influential leaders around an issue that the president of the United Nations General Assembly, Csaba K?rösi, stated was a “crisis poised to become our next greatest threat.”

The Transfiguration was also a summit of power and influence. While on one level it was a deeply mysterious and mystical event, on another, the presence of the two great patriarchs of Israel with Jesus signalled that this was not a private, interior event. This was an all-of-world, all of culture event. And while Peter’s response seemed to perhaps be a top-of-the-head, knee-jerk attempt to make sense of the event and to normalize it, the voice of God, repeating what was said at Jesus’s baptism, tells the disciples not to respond out of fear, excitement, or piety, but only to listen. Let us pray that those with power and influence at the United Nations Water Conference will do the same.

Explore… Matthew 17:1–9

• Why do Elijah and Moses appear with Jesus? What might their significance have been to the disciples?
• If the Transfiguration was to happen in your place and culture, who from your culture might appear with Jesus?
• What do you think is the significance of the voice saying the same words as were said at Jesus’s baptism?

Prayer…

God of great mystery, may the story of the Transfiguration be an inspiration to us to listen to you and to each other, especially to those who struggle for water security. May the way we work together across the globe be transformed. Amen.

Learn more…

• Rome Water Dialogue highlights urgency of sustainably managing planet’s stressed water resources 
• Deputy Secretary-General’s video message to the Preparatory Meeting for the 2023 UN Water Conference 
• African Water Facility 

From Paul Turley

In May 2022, Anthony Albanese, the leader of the Australian Labor Party, claimed victory in the national elections held that day. His first words to the Australian people as prime minister-elect were, “I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. And on behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.”

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a statement to the Australian people calling for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and a process for agreement making and truth-telling. 

The Statement was developed at the Uluru National Constitutional Convention in 2017 and seeks full, rather than symbolic, recognition of Australia’s First Peoples in the Australian Constitution. 

This recognition requires a change to the wording of the Constitution and that requires a national referendum at which a majority of the Australian people and a majority of the seven states and territories of the nation must vote in favour of the change. 

The referendum is likely to be held in the latter part of 2023. While the government is yet to release the wording of the referendum question, both the “no” and the “yes” campaigns are getting ready to launch. 

The two major political parties in Australia, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia, both agree that First Nations Australians need to be recognized in the Constitution, the debate is how that recognition should be framed. Many of the conservative side consider the “Voice” as the wrong way to go. 

While a large number of First Nations Australians and First Nations organizations were a part of formulating the Statement from the Heart, there are indigenous voices who are calling first for truth telling, then for a treaty, and only then for the Voice. The Australian Greens political party says, “All Australians must understand the past of Australia’s history and its ongoing impact on First Nations people before we can all move forward as a healed country. The establishment of a Truth and Justice Commission is one of this country’s first priorities. The Commission should recognise the essential protocol of the relationship, Sovereign to Sovereign, between the Australian state and all groups of First Nations people.”

The commitment of the government remains that the referendum question should be about whether Australians agree that First Nations Australians should have a constitutionally enshrined voice that requires them to be consulted on issues that affect them. The details of how that voice should be constituted will, the government says, be left to the parliament. 

In the words of our text for this week, we could frame this important issue for Australia like this: You have heard it said that First Nations Australians are the most disadvantaged cohort in the nation. You have heard it said that many First Nations Australians are calling for recognition and engagement and have been doing so for a very long time. And I say to you, all Australians now have an opportunity think and act differently.

Explore… Matthew 5:21–37

• How do you read Jesus saying, but I say to you? Is he critiquing the commandment? Is he expanding it? Is he doing both?
• Why do you think Jesus chooses these three – murder, divorce and oath-taking to teach from?
• What norm of our culture could you imagine Jesus speaking to with the words, you have heard it said? 

Prayer…
God of all knowing and all goodness, give us the courage and the grace to look clear-eyed at the norms of our culture and to imagine new and expanded ways of living. Help us to live in the truth that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Amen.

From Fraser Macnaughton

It is so often the case that the media news round is just that – a merry-go-round. Important items are headlines one day and forgotten the next as the news machine moves on to the next story.

Meanwhile, across the world there are continuing examples of ordinary people being salt and light to those less fortunate than themselves, in many different aspects of life. One such piece of good news emerged from Africa recently. The country has suffered one of its most challenging Ebola virus outbreaks in the past five years. Since September, many have died and far more have been infected with the “Sudan” strain, which was one of the worst Uganda has experienced in two decades, and for which there is no vaccine. Two districts in central Uganda were put into lockdown in attempts to control the spread of the virus, which causes fever and vomiting, accompanied by internal and external bleeding, and which is transmitted via bodily fluids. Infections had also occurred in the major cities of Kampala and Jinja, fuelling concerns that the disease could extend well into 2023.

However, thanks to the efforts of many ordinary men and women in primary health care, government agencies, and the World Health Organization, Uganda has been able to declare an end to the Ebola outbreak. The health minister said, “Uganda put a swift end to the Ebola outbreak by ramping up key control measures such as surveillance, contact tracing, and infection prevention and control.” WHO and partners supported Ugandan health authorities from the outset of the outbreak, deploying experts, providing training in contact tracing, testing and patient care, as well as building isolation and treatment centres and providing laboratory testing kits. This resulted in a community-wide effort that had the whole system working together, from having an alert system in place, to finding and caring for people affected and their contacts, to gaining the full participation of affected communities in the response.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, congratulated Uganda: “I congratulate Uganda for its robust and comprehensive response which has resulted in this victory against Ebola.”

Explore… Matthew 5:13-20

• Can you think of other examples of community solidarity in the face of disasters, natural or human made?
• What are the small victories your local community has made over the years, made possible by ordinary people?
• Can your faith community set any challenges for itself to be salt and light to its wider community this year?

Prayer…

We pray for the grace of insight, that we may recognize ourselves as salt and light and be instruments of healing and transformation for our society. We pray for all who strive to be salt for the human family, that they may heighten our awareness of the needs and sufferings that exist and awaken in us a zeal for justice and solidarity.

Learn more…

• Uganda declares end to Ebola outbreak 
•  

Fraser Macnaughton

Sara Miles is the founder and director of The Food Pantry and serves as Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. In her book Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, she explores what it means to her that Jesus has given us all the challenge of “being Jesus.” He gives us the power and presence to feed the hungry. Just as the disciples were astonished by this grace, so are modern day Christians. It is far easier to relax with our beliefs in Jesus than to be Jesus to our family, friends, co-workers, and strangers.

It is at the pantry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church where Miles discovered that ordinary people can do Jesus’ work. Nirmala, a Chilean woman says, “It’s an ashram here. This isn’t just a food place. It’s a spiritual place. The pantry is spiritual nourishment”

As Sarah Miles says, “Just give the people something to eat, just touch them, just say you’re sorry. And our lives had changed. I felt more blessed. It didn’t come from the sky, but from plates of enchiladas, the bruises of strangers, frustration and tears. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus had said: just give the people something to eat.”

All across the UK and in many other countries, the rise of foodbanks and the provision of hot meals by Christian communities are providing much needed blessings to people in poverty. One of many examples is in Northern Ireland where the Footprint Women’s Centre and Marianne Daly have turned to an ancient staple to help the women of west Belfast weather the cost-of-living crisis: lentils. The staple helps to fill out curries and sauces in a much cheaper way than meat. The charity FareShare, which gathers surplus supermarket stock that would otherwise end up in landfill, provides goods collected in a chilled van, which are then stacked on shelves to be sold at a nominal price, making the difference for many families between eating or not eating.

One of the important aspects of many of these community resources is changing people’s eating assumptions away from expensive ready-made meals, often not very nutritious, to teaching women home cooking. As one said, “The cooking courses have taught me how to make decent, healthy dishes for my kids basically out of nothing.”

Explore… Matthew 5:1–12

• How are local foodbanks a blessing in your community?
• In what ways might you encourage your faith community to help or start a community fridge, foodbank, or soup kitchen; or offer cooking courses?
• Can you think of other ways in which your group can “be Jesus” to your local community?
• How might the Beatitudes be implemented meaningfully in your community?

Prayer…

In today’s world of growing inequality, it seems to get harder and harder to live out the gospel values of Jesus. But then he did not call us to an easy life. May we continue to be a support and a blessing to one another as we seek individually and as a community to be a blessing to others. Amen.

Learn more…

• Cheap and delicious: It’s lentils to go on Belfast’s cost of living frontline 
• Take This Bread (book) 

From Fraser Macnaughton

In the UK, the debates and arguments about the merits of leaving the European Union, following a referendum in 2016, rumble on. According to a new poll, one in three Conservative (the governing party since 2010) voters (33 per cent) now believe Brexit has created more problems than it has solved.

According to a poll conducted by survey organization Opinium, on behalf of campaign group Best for Britain, many felt that the UK departure from the EU was creating more problems than it was solving, particularly in regards to what is known as the Northern Ireland protocol, whereby special arrangements on trade and travel between the north (in the UK) and south of Ireland (in the EU) were in fact hampering business with red tape and increased costs. Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, which campaigns for closer ties with the EU, said, “Our polling clearly shows voters across the political spectrum now realise Brexit has made the UK poorer, less competitive, and less attractive for businesses.”

Since the ramifications of leaving the EU have become fully implemented, it would appear that it is dawning on more and more people that the whole project, embarked upon by former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and implemented by his Conservative successors, in order to appease the right-wing rival UKIP party, was not all it was cracked up to be. 

Businesses, travellers, and UK citizens living in the EU are all beginning to realize that the practical workings of the call for the UK to “take back control” of its borders, finances, and laws, are having a detrimental effect on many sectors of British society. 

There is, of course, an expected backlash from “true believers” in the Brexit process, who appear to blame outside influences or people’s lack of faith in Brexit for all the woes now being felt. Some Conservative MPs think colleagues are backsliding on their commitment with pressure being heaped on current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “not to let down electors.”

Explore… Matthew 4:12–23

• Can you share your understanding of what Jesus’ call to you involves? Was it sudden or a gradual realization?
• In what ways do you think you should test a feeling or emotion that you are being called to something?
• How do you react to those who appear to be very fervent about some cause or issue that they feel called to?
• How do you feel about sharing times when you have lost faith in a cause or in Jesus, or hearing about that from others?

Prayer…
May we be aware of how we can support each other as we follow our call, realizing that we all will waver at some time, while at others we will be full of enthusiasm. The sense of call rises and falls like the tide but, like the tide, is constant. Amen.

Learn more…

• One in three Tory members lose faith in Brexit 

From Heather Burton

As 2023 begins, this past year may be remembered in Canada as, among other things, the year of protest convoys. Ottawa, Winnipeg, and other urban centres faced major disruption from people in semi-trailer trucks, tractors, and cars protesting vaccine mandates and related pandemic actions. The police departments involved came under scrutiny and criticism for what may be seen as their inability or unwillingness to be the light of justice, law, and order.

Trust and confidence in the police, particularly in the ways in which they perform the work they have been tasked with, has been dwindling for the past number years all over North America. Police forces have been seen to apply the law differently to various social and ethnic groups, and Black, Indigenous, and people of colour feel especially vulnerable. The Black Lives Matter movement is one result of this lack of trust in law enforcement. In the province of Manitoba, the treatment of Indigenous people has been a sore point for quite awhile. Shortly before the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, police in Winnipeg had killed three Indigenous persons: a young girl of 16 and two young men, aged 22 and 36, in circumstances where many assert that racism was a contributing factor. These and other incidents where racism played a role raised cries to defund, abolish, or reform police agencies.

Individual police officers, as well as police departments and associations, have been feeling increasingly vulnerable. The lack of public trust, along with the feelings of vulnerability and the stresses of the pandemic, has led to attempts by police forces in many places to “rebranding,” so to speak.

In a unique move, the Winnipeg Police Service chief approved the dissemination of articles from a police perspective on the publishing platform Substack. Their newsletters, under the banner “Tried and True,” are written by handpicked members of the service. The WPS chief says that this provides a way to “tell our story from a police perspective.” He writes further that “police integrity has become the story, rather than the work we actually do.” The move has met with mixed reactions. One concern centres on the seeming preoccupation with shaping public opinion rather than on engaging the public and undertaking deep self-reflection. This concern may mirror a broader tendency, at least in North American society, to take sides and to cast blame rather than engage in meaningful dialogue.

Former Vancouver police officer Lorimer Shenher suggests that “the police could use their Substack to make room to listen to dissenting voices… I don’t think police leadership [in general] sees the opportunities in things you might call a failure or a mistake. There’s so much opportunity in that in terms of increasing public trust and confidence if they would just embrace it.”

Explore… Isaiah 49:1–7

• Can “integrity and “the work we… do” be separated, as the WPS chief suggests?
• How do we make value judgments about the people and institutions in our societies?
• Where is the room for a prophetic voice?
• How might prophetic voices be drowned out by a preoccupation for defending a) our actions; b) the status quo?

Prayer…

Eternal Light, we seek to perceive the prophetic ray of light that can part the clouds of our minds and hearts and enable us to find our path through the bombardment of perspectives, ideologies and dis-information that fills our lives. May we listen for your voice through the prophets who cross our paths. Amen.

Learn more…

Cops on Substack: How police are using PR to combat criticism 

From Heather Burton

Epiphany. A time of journeying and searching, a time of revelation, perhaps of transformation.

Wikipedia defines pilgrimage as, “a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their [sic] self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.”

Pilgrimage has been an attraction for humans globally and has spanned (and continues to span) continents, cultures, and religions. At its most meaningful, it has offered and continues to offer a merging of body and spirit, an opportunity for individual self-development.

The traditional understanding of pilgrimage is that it is a journey with a religious motivation. Although that still exists for many pilgrims, in the modern context, it is not a necessary component, even when the goal of the pilgrimage is a place of historical religious significance. Ian Reader, author and professor of religious studies at Lancaster University, wrote, “If pilgrimage is found almost universally across religious traditions, it has also, in modern contexts, become widely associated with places that have no specific religious affiliations or links to formal religious traditions.”

There is power in particular places, but that power is not necessarily tied to religion. Along with traditional pilgrimage sites, a wider diversity of locations have attracted pilgrims. Often these are associated with cultural icons that have acquired, through popular culture, a quasi-religious status: the graves or homes of popular heroes or celebrities, for example. Pilgrimage has, in fact, become a part of the tourism industry, often promising the possibility of transformation, rejuvenation, ritual, and meaning. Those for whom this type of travel is appealing are in search of a deep, life-changing or consciousness-changing experience.

Explore… Matthew 1:1–12

• Suzanne van der Beek from Tilburg University (Netherlands), in a research paper considering the modern pilgrim and the Camino, asks, “Why do we think that religion, spirituality and meaning making are contradictory to online culture?” Do you think “secular pilgrimage” is contrary to the essence of pilgrimage?
• Where are you witnessing an evolution of pilgrimage?
• Can one simply return to ordinary life after being on pilgrimage?

Prayer…

Spirit, as we seek an experience of conscious-changing transformation, lead us. Inspire in us in both new and old ways, that we may journey as so many before us have, in search of a deeper communion with you. Amen.

Learn More…

• Conceptualizing the changing faces of pilgrimage through contemporary tourism 
• Pilgrimage: A very short introduction 
• The varieties of contemporary pilgrimage 
• The significance of pilgrimage in the 21st century 

From Paul Turley

As you read this, the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) is concluding in Montreal, Canada. This conference is a part of the COP (Conference of the Parties) on climate.

While COP27, the recent UN Climate Conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, focused on taking action under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to these changes, COP15 is focusing on the living world through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a treaty adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and related issues.

The Natural Capital Project scientists at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment working with other experts presented new research to COP15 to show that conserving 30 percent of the Earth’s land and 24 percent of coastal waters would sustain 90 percent of nature's contribution to human wellbeing.

“All people on the planet benefit from nature,” says study lead author, Becky Chaplin-Kramer, principal research scientist at the University of Minnesota. “What is striking is just how many benefit from a relatively modest proportion of our total global land area. If we can maintain these areas in their current state through a variety of conservation mechanisms that allow the types of use that make them so valuable, we can ensure that these benefits continue for years to come.”

The research highlights areas of the world well-known for how vital they are in sustaining the world environment – places like the forests of the Congo Basin – as well as other, perhaps less well-known places, like the Appalachians in the U.S., the headwaters of the Yangtze and Mekong rivers, and the Paraná River that runs through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

This project, so far the most extensive global mapping project ever, shows that every country has some critical areas that benefit local communities and add to the biodiversity and health of the planet.

Chaplin-Kramer says, “Global maps can provide a big-picture view, which can reveal large-scale patterns, but requires local context to make sense of and to make decisions for implementation. It’s like how a mapping app on your phone might first give you an overview of where you’re going, but if you really want to see what it will look like once you’re there, you would switch to a street-level view – you need both to really know where you are going.”

As the United Nations said ahead of COP15, “Acting to address biodiversity loss has never been more urgent. The planet is experiencing a dangerous decline in nature as a result of human activity. It is experiencing its largest loss of life since the dinosaurs. One million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction.

Humanity’s existence relies on having clean air, food and a habitable climate, all of which are regulated by the natural world. A healthy planet is also a precursor to resilient economies. More than half of global GDP – equal to $41.7 trillion – is reliant on healthy ecosystems.”

Explore… Psalm 98

• Given what we are learning about the intimate relationship between humanity and the planet, how do you understand the language in Psalm 98? Are the floods clapping their hands and the hills singing together for joy only poetic metaphor?
• Since the rise in the world’s consciousness of environmental destruction and global warming, what words and practices have changed in your faith community?
• How do your heart, mind, and spirit expand when you think about the arrival of Emmanuel as not only a gift for humanity but, as Paul seems to indicate in Romans 8:18, as a gift for the whole of creation?

Prayer…

God of all that is and ever will be, we open ourselves to the love you have for all of your creation. May this Christmas we be alive to your coming in every forest, mountain, and elephant; every shrub, stone, and flea. Amen.

Read more…

• What to expect from this year’s UN biodiversity conference: COP 15 
• New research shows link between nature conservation and human wellbeing 
• International Day for Biological Diversity 

From Paul Turley

It takes courage to step out of the crowd and take action that others might not understand or approve of. This is what Joseph does in our text. He knows the convention and he knows the likely consequences for breaking them. Yet his desire for justice and care overrides his fear of a system or social practice designed to keep things “just the way things are.”

Joseph was a whistleblower, of sorts.

In Australia, whistleblower legislation has been in the news. The Australian Labor party, voted into power in May of this year, promised to strengthen whistleblower laws to make it safer and easier for people to come forward to expose government wrongdoing.

In 2017, the then conservative government instituted the Moss Review into the current legislation. That review made 33 recommendations for changes to make whistleblowing safer and easier. During the election campaign, the Labor Party, critical of the government’s lack of action on the review, committed itself to enacting all 33 recommendations should they form the new government.

The new attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said that the government is “committed to ensuring that Australia has effective protections for whistleblowers. “I am delighted therefore to announce that I will introduce a bill into the parliament before the end of this year which will make priority amendments to the Public Interest Disclosure Act.”

Last week, that bill was introduced into the parliament. It includes a “positive obligation” to support disclosers and witnesses involved in whistleblowing complaints, in addition to the obligation to protect disclosers from detriment. Witnesses will also receive the same protections from reprisal, civil, criminal, and administrative liability as a discloser.

In launching a report in support of whistleblower protection reform from the Human Rights Law Centre, A. J. Brown, Professor of Public Policy and Law, Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, said, “Whistleblowers play a crucial role in ensuring integrity and accountability in all parts of Australian life each and every day. Australians must be able to speak the truth about wrongdoing without suffering adverse consequences. Unfortunately, the research shows that all too often those who blow the whistle suffer personal and professional detriment.

Explore… Matthew 1:18–25

• Joseph plays a very small role in the gospels, but his courage in what was a small thing in the world of public affairs helps change the world. Where do you see the small actions of your faith community making a big impact in your wider community?
• Like the angels at the beginning of Luke’s gospel, the angel that appears to Joseph tells him to not be afraid. To what extent do you see fear motivating what happens in your faith community?

Prayer…

God of love and welcome, give us courage to stand against convention and to stand up when truth-telling and justice-doing are required. In the name of Christ. Amen.

Read more…

• Labor to boost whistleblower protections 
• Labor slams “shameful” government delays to whistleblowing reforms 
• New report outlines roadmap for whistleblower protection reform 

From Fraser Macnaughton

Since time immemorial, songs of protest have had a powerful effect on people, individually and collectively. Mary’s song of justice echoes an even older lament from the Hebrew scriptures. Less usual, however, is when a group does not sing and by its silence makes a statement about justice in the face of oppression. In its own way, the silence can speak loudly.

Take for example the recent decision by the team from Iran at their opening game in the 2022 soccer World Cup being held in Qatar. Prior to the match, as the Iranian national anthem played, the entire Iranian team to a man – all 11 players – stood shoulder to shoulder in silence. This was an act of solidarity against their own despotic regime and its brutal repression of its people protesting for human rights. And this was after the Iranian captain, Ehsan Hajsafi, spoke out openly at a press conference against their country’s current regime and the devastating impact it is having on the population. The Iranian captain opened his remarks by saying “In the name of the god of rainbows,” a phrase uttered by a 10-year-old boy, Kian Pirfalk, who was killed by Iranian security forces. There was also a noticeable amount of booing of the anthem amongst the large groups of Iranian fans.

The protests started after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd who died in police custody after being arrested for not wearing the hijab in conformity with Iranian law. As many as 55 security force members have been killed. Human rights groups say more than 450 people have died.

Iran’s heavily censored media made very little mention of the team not singing the national anthem. Some closest to the regime fumed at the way in which protesters had cheered an English victory.

The Iranian team showed a scale of courage and dignity which is almost unimaginable and which may have real-life consequences for the players and their families. This is not the first time they have shown solidarity against oppression. In late September, the team opted to wear black jackets to cover the country’s colours in their match against Senegal.

However, their use of a song, in this instance their own national anthem, has generated headlines and more across the world, and has highlighted how unpopular the regime is in Iran among ordinary people.

Explore… Luke 1:47–55

• Can you think of other examples of individual or group courage that have inspired people to follow Jesus’ values of equality and justice?
• What examples of courage can you think of in your own community?
• How hard is it to keep positive and to believe the reign of God will come despite what look like terribly odds.

Prayer…

If a teenage single mother-to-be could make a long journey not knowing what was in front of her, but trusted in her faith, then can we not, in our own circumstances, follow her example and in turn be a witness to the Christ child? Amen.

Learn more…

• Fears grow Iran players may face reprisals 
• Iran players stay silent for anthem 

From Fraser Macnaughton

Climate change is a global problem that requires cooperation between all nations. Time is running out. Rather than getting out of fossil fuels and into clean energy, many wealthy nations are reinvesting in oil and gas, failing to cut emissions fast enough and haggling over the aid they are prepared to send to poor countries. All this while the planet hurtles towards the point of no return – where climate chaos becomes irreversible.

No continent has avoided extreme weather disasters this year – from floods in Pakistan to heatwaves in Europe, from forest fires in Australia to hurricanes in the U.S. Given that these came about from elevated temperatures of about 1.1C, the world can expect far worse to come.

The world’s poorest people will bear the brunt of the destruction wreaked by drought, melting ice sheets, and crop failures. To shield these groups from the loss of life and livelihoods will require money. Developing countries, says one influential report, require two trillion dollars annually to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and cope with climate breakdown.

Rich countries account for just one in eight people in the world today but are responsible for half of greenhouse gases. These nations have a clear moral responsibility to help. Developing nations should be given enough cash to address the dangerous conditions they did little to create – especially as a global recession looms.

However, the prevailing atmosphere (no pun intended) is one of fear that countries will backslide on their commitments to tackle the climate crisis. At the recent Cop27 talks in Egypt 27 governments were supposed to hear about progress on the promises made last year at Cop26 in Glasgow. These include limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, doubling the amount of financial assistance for poor countries to adapt to the impacts of extreme weather, and addressing the issue of loss and damage, which means financial assistance for countries stricken by climate disaster.

However, accounts from negotiating teams, showed some countries attempting to unpick agreements and water down commitments.

As one commentator put it, “We need everyone on board if we are going to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and the decline of the natural world. Common sense and, frankly, common decency tell us that addressing climate inequality is the smart thing to do and the right thing to do.

Explore… Isaiah 11:1–10

• To what extent do you think our world leaders, especially the rich countries are “playing pretend” when it comes to serious action on climate change?
• Share in your group how much you know about the issues around global warming.
• To what extent does the Christian imperative to be good stewards of the earth inform your faith?

Prayer…

It’s so hard to keep hoping against hope with all the news headlines. But as followers on his Way, we look forward to welcoming the Christ child once again and remind ourselves it is still a beautiful world where miracles happen daily. Amen.

Read more…

• Fear of backsliding on Glasgow pledges dominates Cop27 

• How do you think the prophets kept their vision of a peace alive?
• Where do you find the stories of hope looking toward the future?
• Where do you see individuals and communities living out the Kingdom? 
• Where locally might you or your faith community take action toward a better future? 

• India's street kids... write their own headlines  

From Sandra Rooney

November 20, 2022, falls just before some will be celebrating Thanksgiving. The Latino community recently celebrated Day of the Dead, a day when they seek to commune with their deceased loved ones. For many Christians it was All Saints Day, also a time of remembering loved ones, especially those who have made an impact on their lives and beyond. The New York Times recently remembered just such a man. The headline read, “Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, 73, Who Melded Faith, Power and Politics, Dies.” He served 33 years as pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, in Harlem, and was known not just for his preaching and his political savvy, but also for his wide-reaching efforts for social and racial justice. Notable among those efforts was how he raised $1 billion to renew many historic Black neighborhoods in New York. And that only touches the surface of all that he did throughout his life on issues such as affordable housing, educational opportunities, commercial development, and social services for those in Harlem and throughout the city. The tributes to his life and the details of his legacy filled two-thirds of page in the Times.

Butts’ life and service also reflected the dramatic changes in how Americans have dealt with the country’s history of racism. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, with whom he worked to create lasting change in Harlem and beyond, said of Butts that he, “took the idea of building the kingdom of God literally.” Daren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation and former chief operating officer of the non-profit Abyssinian Development Corporation, said Butts, “worked more effectively than any other leader at the intersection of power, politics and faith in New York.” Walker added that in addition to understanding the role of faith in people’s lives, especially in the Black community, “He understood power and how to wield it and how to demand power from those who often sought to hoard it.” He was described as a pragmatist, a realist, but also a dreamer.

Butts became a force to be reckoned with long before he was called as pastor at Abyssinian in 1989. His gifts were recognized and he served as youth minister, assistant minister, and executive minister. During his years as pastor he found it necessary to weigh his words and choose his battles carefully as he sought to reconcile sometimes discordant parties. White civic leaders saw him as progressive and a “responsible Black opinion maker.” Then there were his own more socially conservative church members and other Blacks, like Rev. Al Sharpton, fed up with the status quo and the slow pace of change, who were often more militant.

In a 2008 interview with civil rights leader and former Georgia legislator, Julian Bond, Butts described his style as “very confrontational, very in-your-face.” He then added that while physical altercation was not impossible for him, as he had matured and grown older and understood more about life and people and had travelled, and his style had “become more negotiable.”

Explore. . . Colossians 1:11–20

• What does it mean today to live as Jesus lived and taught?
• Who in your own life are you grateful for, who helped form the person you have become?
• Who in your community are you grateful for because of their words and actions?
• What lessons might we learn from Calvin Butts’ life? 
• What are the challenges you face as you seek to follow Jesus more faithfully?  

Prayer. . .

Eternal Spirit, as we name and remember those who have gone before us, may their lives be a beacon for us in dark days, and may we be inspired by their faithful example to live our lives with compassion, justice and love. Amen.

Learn more…

• Rev. Calvin O. Butts III dies at 73 

By Joan Kessler

In the early morning hours of Saturday, September 24, Hurricane Fiona made contact with Atlantic Canada. With maximum sustained windspeeds of 145 km/hr gusting to nearly 180 km/hr, some 415,000 customers lost power. The community of Port-Aux-Basques on the southwest coast of Newfoundland bore the brunt of the intense storm with nearly 100 homes destroyed. Media images show heavily damaged homes teetering on the cliffs while others were washed out to sea because of high winds and strong storm surge. States of emergency were declared and shelters established for those displaced by Fiona. The cleanup cost we can surmise will be in the billions of dollars.

We know that climate change is impacting weather systems, causing storms to be more intense and more frequent. Photos of Atlantic Canada display coastlines that will be forever changed because of high winds and rising sea levels. Climate scientists report that fossil-fuel emissions are the leading cause of more intense tropical storms that make their way to Atlantic Canada. Ocean waters off the Maritimes have risen by 1.5 degrees over the past century. Warming waters give fuel to storm systems, making them stronger and more damaging, particularly to coastal communities.

The devastation left in the wake of Fiona has some people questioning how rebuilding takes place given the reality of storm systems becoming more severe and more frequent. Adaptation is what’s necessary according to climate scientists and activists. Living close to the ocean may no longer be possible. The discussion about rebuilding will need to consider location and proximity to the ocean; homes may have to be positioned further back, a heart-breaking reality to many who make their homes and livings near the water.

Coastal communities are not the only ones that need to adapt to the changing climate. As global citizens, we all must consider lifestyle changes in order to be ready for the effects of a warming planet. Possible adaptations include revamping building standards, limiting development in coastal areas, restoring wetlands to reduce flooding, and making different choices to protect our health during heatwaves. 

This month, COP27 will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with heads of state, activists, and members of the business community coming together for this annual gathering on climate action. Adaptation will be on the agenda, as participants will explore ways that countries can become more resilient in the face of climate change and help others to become the same. Isaiah’s prophecy calling us to pay attention to a new heaven and a new earth couldn’t be more timely or poignant. Our climate is changing and as God’s people we are called to participate in this new creation.

Explore… Isaiah 65:17–25

• How does where you live impact the environment?
• Adapting means changing. What changes to your lifestyle are you considering making to become more resilient against the effects of intense storms and changing weather patterns?

Prayer…

God of infinite possibilities, you are ever-changing and we are ever-changing. Our planet is in a constant state of flux. May we be adapters and leaders of change in our communities. Because nothing stays the same. Amen.

Learn more…

• Fiona demonstrated wild hurricane future and need to adapt to climate change 
• COP27: What you need to know… 
• Climate adaptation

From Joan Kessler

Since Russia’s war on Ukraine started eight months ago, our media has filled us with images of Ukrainian cities and villages destroyed by Russian bombs and missiles. Ukrainian religious life has not been spared from the violent destruction; hundreds of sites – including churches, synagogues, and mosques – have experienced heavy damage or total destruction because of the conflict. Priests and chaplains have been killed while others have been imprisoned. 

According to international law, religious sites are protected as Cultural Property. Attacks on religious sites and artifacts are considered war crimes. Rendering a building inaccessible violates the human right to practice one’s religion. Russian government officials deny any intentional strikes on religious sites. And yet bullet holes riddle doors and religious artifacts; blown-out domes leave debris scattered in piles inside sanctuary spaces.

The conflict has exacerbated tense relations between the different Orthodox communities in Ukraine, with some holding historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukraine, unlike Russia, is a pluralistic country, with many different faith traditions observed. The state does not control nor interfere in religious expression. Groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which are banned in Russia, find a home in Ukraine and can practice their religious beliefs. The destruction of churches, synagogues, and mosques is viewed by the people of Ukraine as an act of aggression towards their right to freedom of religion, and their Ukrainian way of life.

As places of worship and religious artifacts are damaged and destroyed by war, taking an inventory of such losses is proving difficult. A coalition of priests and religious leaders have put differences aside in an effort to come together to document the damage. The project, Backup Ukraine, is collecting 3D scans of Ukraine’s architectural heritage sites including its churches. It is an international response led by Danish project manager Tao Legene Thomsen. Thomsen calls the work a “passion project” and a “moral obligation.” He affirmed the importance of religious structures as a reflection of Ukraine’s historical power. Preservation of these centuries-old sites will be critical to the rebuilding a nation and its religious sovereignty.

Explore… Haggai 1:15b — 2:9

• When the people of Judah return to their homeland after decades of being exile, they find the centre of their religious life has been destroyed. How much does a physical worship space mean to your life of faith?
• Have you ever experienced the loss of a physical worship space? Due to fire or flood or renovations? How did it feel to be displaced? What sustained you in the time of separation?

Prayer…

God, in this time of war, we pray for all who have known destruction of their sacred spaces. We pray for their spiritual welfare as they look for you in the rubble and begin to imagine what rebuilding will look like. May they be comforted and surrounded by your presence and a hope for the future. Amen.

Learn more…

• Ukrainian churches and place of worship devastated by war 
• In pictures: The Ukrainian religious sites ruined by fighting 
• 200+ religious building destroyed or damaged… 

From Paul Turley

In our text for this week, Zacchaeus pledged, “half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

In September 2022, Bill Gates, while announcing a $20 billion donation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reiterated his pledge to give away “virtually all of my wealth to the foundation.” Gates said, “I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact for reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up in this moment too.”

Gates, along with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, has already given more than $50 billion to the foundation since 1994. In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffet launched The Giving Pledge. “The Giving Pledge is a promise by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.” The Pledge launched with 40 of America’s wealthiest people. Today that number has doubled. Each person signed up has pledged to give away at least half of their wealth. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a part of Gate’s commitment to The Giving Pledge.

Last month, the Foundation launched its sixth annual Goalkeepers Report. The report focuses on the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2015. The UN is working toward achieving all goals by 2030. This year’s Goalkeeper Report notes that nearly all the indicators measuring the achievement of the goals are below where they need to be at this halfway point in the journey.

“It’s no surprise that progress has stalled amid numerous crises,” said Bill Gates. “But this is not a reason to give up. Every action matters to save lives and reduce suffering. Turning away would be a mistake.”

In the last three weeks the Gates Foundation has announced grants totalling nearly US$128 million to support the development and accessibility of maternal vaccines for Group B Streptococcus and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, two of the leading causes of death for newborns and young infants in lower-income countries, and US$1.2 billion to support efforts to end all forms of polio globally.

Explore…Luke 19:1–10

• What are some of the possible reasons the story of Zacchaeus includes the detail about him climbing a tree?
• There are trees mentioned in the moments of creation, in Genesis 2 – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What ideas come to mind thinking about these trees and Zacchaeus’s tree?
• Why does Jesus say, “Today salvation has come to this house” and why does he add, “because he too is a son of Abraham”?

Prayer…

God of forgiveness and grace, today we know that salvation has come to our house and that, because of your forgiveness and grace, we too are your children. May we live in the generosity of your love. Amen.

Learn more…

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Report 
• United Nations development goals 
• Gates and Buffett’s Giving Pledge 

From Paul Turley

The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

The Pharisee was standing by himself. This is beginning to sound like a description of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. His invasion of Ukraine, which began in February of this year, is costing the Russian people US$500 million a day and has so far involved more than 150,000 Russian troops.

Putin, whose actions have provoked many countries to institute sanctions against Russia, increasingly finds himself not only at odds with other nations but also within his own nation. More and more it looks as if he is standing by himself.

According to U.S. News and World Report, “Russian and Kremlin-backed leaders have escalated their unusual public acknowledgements of embarrassing battlefield losses in Ukraine while also beginning to turn negative attention on a previously forbidden target: the decision-making of President Vladimir Putin himself.”

In response to the president’s mobilization of 300,000 extra men with “military experience,” it is estimated that as many as 700,000 people have left Russia to avoid being drafted, or a family member being drafted, into the army to fight in Ukraine. While the government has promised that only those with military experience will be called up, in practice nothing legally prevents even those without such experience from being enlisted. In response, the Spring youth democratic movement called for renewed demonstrations against mobilization in the centres of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and in all Russian cities.

“Vladimir Putin has just announced a partial mobilization in Russia. This means that thousands of Russian men – our fathers, brothers and husbands – will be thrown into the meat grinder of war,” Spring wrote on their Instagram page. “Now war will truly come to every home and every family. The authorities used to say that only ‘professionals’ were fighting and that they would win. It turned out that they were not winning – and prisoners began to be recruited to the front. The war is no longer ‘out there’ – it has come to our country, our homes, for our relatives. The deputies and officials who daily yelled about the need for mobilization will remain in their warm chairs, alive and well. We believe that they should be mobilized and sent to Ukraine – let them die for their sick fantasies, and not send ordinary guys to their deaths.”

The 20th century gave witness to what can happen when dictators become isolated from those they are supposed to lead and from reality itself. Historians continue to try to calculate how many million perished in the Nazi camps and the Soviet gulags. Jesus’s story of a Pharisee standing alone and declaring himself not like other people, is surely the beginning of a road to despair and destruction.

Explore…Luke 18:9–14

• The Pharisees are mostly not well regarded in Luke (Luke 11and 12), and tax collectors are not well regarded by the Pharisees (Luke 5:30, 7:34). What can we learn from Jesus’s decision to make a Pharisee and a tax collector the protagonists in this story?
• What can we take from the description of the Pharisee as “standing by himself” and the tax collector as “standing far off”?
• What does justification have to do with humility in this reading?

Prayer…

God of all goodness, teach us what true humility is and help us to experience your justice, your forgiveness, and your love. Amen.

Learn more…

• Cost of war 
• Putin faces unprecedented criticism 
• Where have Russians been fleeing… 
• Thrown in the meatgrinder: Russians react to mobilisation

From Fraser Macnaughton

Opposition to Vladimir Putin’s recent partial mobilization of the Russian male population is being met with stern resistance within the country. Protests against the mobilization order to recruit more people for Russia’s army appear to be continuing in the Russian republic of Dagestan, with videos showing standoffs between police and the public. Video footage posted on social media shows the police arresting demonstrators. A video appeared to show people angrily confronting an official arguing in favour of the draft at a recruitment centre. The official said that her son had been fighting in Ukraine since February. “You’re fighting for your children’s future,” shouted the woman, who was not identified, in front of a crowd outside a municipal building. “We don’t have a present, what kind of future are you talking about?” a man in the crowd responded. The order will see thousands more Russians drafted to be part of the war effort in Ukraine.

Meanwhile long queues of vehicles are at border crossing between Russia and Mongolia as people continue to flee the Kremlin’s partial mobilization order. The head of a checkpoint in the town of Altanbulag had more than 3,000 Russians entering Mongolia via the crossing.

Some brave souls are not giving up and taking more direct action. A drafting office in southwest Russia came under attack from a man who threw Molotov cocktails at the building in protest of the war in Ukraine. After having rammed a car into the entrance of the building, the man stands in the street and begins lobbing petrol bombs into the building. As the office soon alights, the man continues to throw Molotov cocktails and, as a film of the event shows, the blaze spreads rapidly.

In Siberia, another man shot a military draft officer to at his friend’s conscription. Video clips show the official being carried from the building and placed on to a stretcher. He appeared not to be moving. According to reports, the man said moments before opening fire, “nobody is going to go anywhere’

More than 2,000 people have been detained across Russia for protesting the draft, according to independent monitoring groups. With criticism of the conflict banned, the demonstrations were among the first signs of discontent since the war began.

Explore… Luke 18:1–8

• How do you react when you see people taking justice into their own hands?
• Can you think of any instances where prayer has been enough to change the course of something that is unjust?
• How do you reconcile the support given to President Putin by the Russian Orthodox church to pursue the war in Ukraine with the gospel message of peace and justice?
• Share any stories you know of ordinary people who never gave up?

Prayer…
May the Spirit of Christ help us as we navigate our way along his Way. Often we reach crossroads and are unsure of the correct path. May we have wisdom, may we have discernment, may we have grace to follow and never give up. Amen.

Learn more…

• Russia descends into chaos 
• Russia: Man shoots officer 

From Fraser Macnaughton

The victory of the Brothers of Italy Party, [ironically led by a woman Giorgia Meloni] in the recent Italian general election, has sparked a reaction from a network of groups, from those protecting refugees, to those advocating for more gay rights such as adoption, as well as progressive politicians. The election results mean that Italy now has the most right wing government since the era Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at the end of the second world war. Unsurprisingly Vladimir Putin of Russia was one of the first to offer his congratulations to the new administration.

This reflects trained that has become increasingly common across Europe and many other parts of the world in recent years. It is seen as backlash against the concepts of globalisation and a perceived undermining of the nation state, fertile ground for right wing nationalist parties to encourage their nationals to circle the wagons and keep anyone seen as the ‘other’ out, whether that be migrants, homosexuals, those of different ethnic backgrounds. Indeed anyone they see as a threat to the purity of the own nation.

The fear for Italians is that the right wing coalition of the Brothers of Italy party, the [Northern] League party, and the party of former darling of the right Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia, will produce a raft of legislation aimed at vulnerable groups.

Whether it is women seeking safe abortions, refugees being turned back at sea and refused help, or following up on their blocking of a law in parliament last year that would have criminalised homophobia, on the grounds it was against freedom of speech, many Italians will have reason to fear the future. The loud voices have indeed triumphed and not for the right reasons.

“We are facing an extreme right that is really worrying, especially if you look at their closeness with Viktor Orbàn’s Hungary, Poland and Russia,” said Mario Colamarino, president of the Mario Mieli Circle of Homosexual Culture association. New prime minister Meloni’s moral and economic inspiration is Viktor Orban, the man who in recent years has destroyed the opposition in Hungary and achieved legitimacy by weaponizing popular consensus. So much so that last month the European parliament declared Hungary could no longer be considered a full democracy. Perhaps most distressingly, Meloni declares in a rally ‘“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian.’ For many of the Italian faithful, it may seem that God’s call to feed the hungry and relief the poor is a far cry from the new Italian government and make restoration of the community even harder.

EXPLORE

• How do you react to situation where people claim to be doing God’s work or acting in God’s name when at odds with your understanding of the gospel.
• Do you think Jesus’ injunction to pray for your enemies could also include fellow Christians
• How do we navigate through the interminable mix of politics and faith where loud voices re not in praise of God but rather engendering division.

PRAY

We are called to pray without ceasing. We are called to pray for our enemies. Sometimes we have to wise up and realise they might be standing next to us in church. May we have the grace to engage gently, to love unceasingly and be Christ to all, as we are able Amen.

READ MORE

• Unite Against Italian Nationalism