December at Sunday Stuff

Fabulous is the new normal at Sunday Stuff - I hope all churches can say that! November at Sunday Stuff was stunning - so good that even the rain started coming.

We kicked off with our Jesus Meal - which just grows in beauty as we do it together. We also explored some new ways of praying with joy and gratitude, sang with astounding gusto (on-ya, Dave!), threw ourselves into games and met aboriginal people together - and that was just all ages! Adults learned about Barak, experienced empathy with aboriginal people, suspended ourselves in music, studied a much-loved bible story and prayed through a Celtic morning prayer. Many thanks to Cate, Naomi, Andrea, James and Liz for helping out a bit extra this month whilst we were short-staffed.

December is a joyful time for Christians. At Sunday Stuff we will

6 Dec (Advent 2)
Jesus Meal
The Ways with Stu Davey

13 Dec (Advent 3)
Singing
Presentation on Missional Christianity with Paul
Planning our new venue and new year

20 Dec (Advent 4)
The Christmas Story

24 Dec 4pm (Christmas Eve)
Fairfield SPACE Christmas Eve

25 Dec 9:30-10:30 (Christmas Day)
Champagne Breakfast and Nativity Celebration

Sunday Stuff - a gathering to help people engage with Jesus-centred spiritualities - run by Solace at Fairfield SPACE.
Solace Sunday Stuff.
Sunday 10:15 (doors open) to 12:30. Fairfield SPACE, 88a Station St Fairfield

Advent is Incarnation

Advent is coming up on Nov 29. Sunday Stuff will be following a candle lighting liturgy and reflecting on the incarnation of God and how that impacts our incarnational mission.

November at Sunday Stuff

October was great - thanks to Olivia, Jacob wrestled the angel (man? Esau? Jesus?), we participated in the Open Minds Fiesta, we practiced some contemplation (thanks Stu), we spent time praying, singing, read some stories and started thinking about engaging with the indigenous people of our area.

November promises to be a great line-up

Nov 1
Jesus Meal
Lectio Divina (funky bible engagement) on 'Jesus Blesses the Children'

Nov 8
All Ages prayer
Morning Prayer from the Northumbria Community

Nov 15
Singing
'The First Australians'

Nov 22
Story Time
Guest Speaker from the Indigenous Community

Nov 29
First week of Advent
Games Games Games
Singer Songwriter Christina Green

Sunday Stuff - a gathering to help people engage with Jesus-centred spiritualities - run by Solace at Fairfield SPACE.
Solace Sunday Stuff.
Sunday 10:15 (doors open) to 12:30. Fairfield SPACE, 88a Station St Fairfield
Contact Paul Minty on paulm@solace.emc.org.au or 0418 307 475
http://solaceemc.blogspot.com
http://solace.emc.org.au/SundayStuff.htm
--
Paul Minty
Solace Sunday Stuff Leader
paulm@solace.emc.org.au
0418 307 475
http://solace.emc.org.au

Sunday Stuff Spring 2009 Calendar

My, my, we are organised.

Get your copy of the Sunday Stuff Spring Calendar for 2009.

Beware it changes!

Sign up for the Sunday Stuff email list.

October in Sunday Stuff

The details are coming clear for Sunday Stuff in October 2009.

• Oct 4: Jesus Meal and Olivia looking at Jacob Wrestling with the Angel.
• Oct 11: Open Minds Fiesta (open to the public, Prayer Flag Stall running)
• Oct 18: Singing and Stu Davey doing the Seven Ways'
• Oct 25: Story Time and Praying

See http://solace.emc.org.au/SundayStuff.htm for more details.

Woah! That was September

What a great September we had at Sunday Stuff.

We did the Way of Relating with Stu, had our Solace Liturgy, did 'Job for Dummies' thanks to Olivia and picked apart the story of Zacheus (world's shortest stand-over man). We sang some cool songs, celebrated the Jesus Meal, prayed together and had story time. The hard-working younger Stuffers (many of whom are yet to start school) raised almost a thousand dollars for development projects in Cambodia (with vital help from Kath).

A big thanks to all who helped make September a great month!

Sunday Stuff August 30

A fifth Sunday! Games, Games, Games. We have a bunch of games gear from Scripture Union (thanks, Naomi) including giant boxing gloves and we are gonna have some fun.

Check out Playing Childrens Games as Spiritual Practice

Stu Davey on the Way of Learning - the spiritual practice of learning and understanding. Stu will show how the story of the prodigal son can come alive by using a series of different ways of looking at it (including with your eyes).

Sunday Stuff August 23

THE BIG DAY HAS ARRIVED,

August 23
Bible Story for All Ages - with pictures and actions and all!
Olivia preaching on Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery: THAT'S RIGHT, OLIVIA IS PREACHING.
(Oh, alright, it's cheap trick to get you reading this week. Still, it's worth hearing Olivia and she doesn't preach that often at the moment. This may be a chance to get in before she gets all famous and exclusive through being a star on YouTube as a preacher.)

August 30
A fifth Sunday! Don't you people know how hard it is to plan for fifth Sundays!
Games, Games, Games. Elves TRIP giants when we're playing with pre-schoolers, people! We'll get some games from SU or something and go nuts.
Stu Davey on the Way of the Everyday - the most mysterious, yet most accessible of all the ways (I just made that up)

September 6
Carlton plays an AFL final for the first time in a little while. Can they keep their wonderful record of a premiership in every decade (except the '50s, dammit) alive?
Jesus Meal for all of us
Solace Liturgy - everyone can help prepare.

Running Commentary

There's a bit of blue sky and sun coming through our tiny, high-up, window in the Solace office in Clifton Hill today. I just hung our signature clock up from an old piece of string that I believe is attached the the ceiling. Stu is working here and he hasn't noticed yet.

Today I'll work on preparing for Sunday Stuff this week. I've got a short segment on Grace, getting some prayer stuff organised for Children and Adults (adults will do a choice of three praying stations, so we need stuff for each station). It will be 'beer o'clock' with Stu and Olivia this arvo: it's nice to sink a brew and have a winge with your colleagues! Otherwise, I'm starting to plan a working bee at SPACE and there's ongoing work pulling together strategic planning for the medium term. Feels like a god day to come.

So Far at Sunday Stuff...

Our August program at Sunday Stuff is going well (see last post). The campfire videos were great! We loved Cyclovia and the American-Muslims holding up signs with short messages. Our sing-along last week went really well, thanks to Naomi leading strongly and Andrea playing wonderfully with the minimum of preparation. I did a workshop on Spiritual Hungers that went pretty good; it's pretty abstract stuff, but with great emotional and everyday possibilities. Even though it's a cold, wet month here in Melbourne, we're having great times at Sunday Stuff.

Sunday Stuff in August

Sunday Stuff is raring to go for the coldest month. It's a five Sunday cracker coming up!

• August 2: Jesus Meal, Short Films from the Campfire Project
• August 9: Singing, Meditation and Presentation on Spiritual Hungers
• August 16: All Ages Praying, Reflection on Grace, Prayer Stations
• August 23: All Ages Bible, Sermon from Olvia
• August 30: All Ages Games Spectacular, Stu Davey on The Way of Learning

Sunday Stuff - a service for people leading Jesus-centred spiritualities - run by Solace at Fairfield SPACE.
Sundays 10:15am (coffee) 10:30am (All Ages) 11am (Playgroup & Adults) 12noon (informal chat)
Fairfield SPACE: 88a Station St Fairfield - come in the front doors like regular people!
Contact Paul Minty paulm@solace.emc.org.au 0418 307 475

The End of Poverty - Book Review

'The End of Poverty', a book by economist Jeffrey Sachs is a fantastic resource for those interested in The Way of Justice, and particularly the issue of Extreme Poverty.

Jeffrey Sachs is a leading economist from the USA. He was involved in bringing about free-market reforms and associated development in Bolivia, Poland, Russia, China, India and Africa. He works at Columbia University and often consult to various governments.

The book addresses extreme poverty, the fact that 2.7 billion people survive on less than 2 dollars per day. Sachs argues that we know how to end extreme poverty and have the resources available to end extreme poverty. He claims that extreme poverty will eventually come to an end, but making an effort to end extreme poverty soon will save millions of lives.

The book outlines the facts of extreme poverty and tells enough stories to visualise the effects easily. The facts of various nations being successful in eliminating extreme poverty were surprising and encouraging.

The middle part of the book is a bit slow, as it describes the various big projects Sachs has undertaken over the past twenty years. It serves to establish his credentials and are interesting to a student of economic history, but are a diversion from the current problems of extreme poverty. More space could be devoted to current, successful, projects such as micro-credit schemes and global free-trade.

The last part of the book build a very careful and comprehensive argument for an approach that would eradicate extreme poverty. There is enough here to address the major concerns of sceptics. It is important, but long-winded for someone who is already keen for action to happen.

Sachs is an advocate for free-trade, open markets and a form of globalisation, as he sees it as a necessary pathway to material improvement for those in extreme poverty. This will set him at odds with those who oppose globalisation in any form. I found Sach's arguments convincing and I am now much less cynical about globalisation than I was before.

This is a great book, it goes beyond the hype that is a necessary part of charitable fund-raising and it provides a strong critique of current approaches to ending extreme poverty. Well worth having a copy for reading or referring to.

The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs website
The UN Milleniunm Development Goals website

Mid Winter Feast - It's on for 2009!

Last year, Sunday Stuff ran a mid-winter feast in our Sunday morning time at Fairfield SPACE. The idea was to mark mid-winter with a traditional celebration. Mid-winter has been important in Europe and other parts of the northern hemisphere since the beginning of history. The mid-winter festivities have greatly influenced western Christianity through Christmas (a Christianised mid-winter festival).

We held our feast to encourage people along as the days got darker and colder. From mid-winter on the days get lighter, but colder and wetter (we hope!). It was a great time, with hearty food, some stories and music ("Bring Us In Good Ale" got a really good listen and we sang Carols with gusto).

We want to do it again this year, and open it up to out friends and neighbours to encourage them along. We'll do it on June 21, starting 10:30 at Fairfield SPACE (88a Station St Fairfield). If you have ideas or want to invite someone, shoot me a message!

Rusty Spring Festival - Highlights

Great festival - wow!

Solace ran a house party up at the Hepburn Springs Chalet, lovely venue and we all had a great time. Good to spend a weekend with our broader faith community.

Stu ran a great festival. My highlights were:

• short film festival from Campfire film festival (campfire.net.au), heaps of unusual perspectives captured with humour and insight
• Reading the Gospel of Mark through with 5 other people - what a story!
• Hearing Dave Collis unpack the Jubilee stuff from the Old Testament a bit - very inspiring and a good source of imagination for our economic arrangements
• Chatting with Paul Steel about work and finding meaning and inspiration no matter what job we're in
• Sharing the Hymn of the Big Wheel with a bigger bunch of people - thanks all who came!

Check out rustyspring.net for more info on the Rusty Spring Festival

Work and Sabbath - week 7 Household Covenant

The question is: "What impact does your 'work' (whether paid or unpaid) have on your time for family, commnunity and service? Do you have adequate space for spiritual reflection and renewal?"

The suggestions include setting aside time regularly for reflection, restricting distractions and urgent messages at certain times, and even taking a year off to consider life goals, etc.

Funnily enough, I'm on a career sabbatical at the moment. I'm working a couple of part-time jobs that are in areas of interest to me, mainly to research on which area I will focus on in my next, full-time role. Even though I'm quite deliberate about this, a few things make me worried. I worry a bit abouot whether I am contributing enough, about whether I (and, more importantly, my family) are going backwards in terms of prosperity (which may affect our long-term health and my daughter's education oportunities), whether I'm losing ground in terms of social status and whether that will make my voice marginal in times to come.

Overall, though, it is a good thing. Most of the reading I've done on leadership and personal effectiveness do recomend setting aside time to reflect on your own life and how you can plan to make it happen.

It's hardest to do when you have some responsibility, whether with parenting or at work. It's easy to feel that you are letting others down by not being busy all the time. But, other people have to solve their own problems; a few hours spent on sabbath each week may well mean you increase your effectiveness for the rest of the week; and working is not the only thing we are on the planet to do.

We've got a reasonable handle on this topic in our household. I reckon we'll address some of the anxieties we feel about taking down-time and also be a bit more deliberate about when we do down-time so that it happens before we crash in an emotional and physical heap.

Social Justice and Spirituality

For me, getting involved in social justice has two main elements: it's right, and it helps me be complete.

I have no doubt that following Jesus means (in part) trying to be a moral person. One out-working of my personal morality is to help others. I see that social justice is a means of doing that. I like Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan and I take it to mean that all people are my neighbours (whom I should love), even if I'd like to screen them out on the basis of race or distance.

But I am not completely altruistic about social justice, I say that there is a benefit to me.

Being involved in justice demands that I consider the plight of others. This helps me feel empathy for others. I reckon that being able to feel empathy is a great sign of health and maturity. If I ever managed to focus on my own needs to such an extent that I simply did not feel anything when I heard of another's suffering - I reckon something would have died within me.

So, I can see that I will me more alive if I feel empathy, I can keep working my sense of empathy by considering the plight of others (especially those I may be tempted to ignore), and I can make sure that I consider the plight of others by being involved in social justice.

Others receive justice, and I get to be more alive. That's a fair and healthy way of living!

Poverty & Marginalisation - Week 6, Household Covenant

Wekk 6 of the Household Covenant concerns Poverty & Marginalisation. The key question is: "Do you ever interact in a meaningful way with people from a very different social stratum than your own, particularly those who are marginalised?"

Some suggestions are: volunteering at soup kitchens, shelters or clinics; researching the needs of local refugee or migrant communities; committ to a 'exposure' program, where you are introduced to marginalised people.

For our own household, this has definitely dropped since we became parents (and needed to focus more on career, saving for a home, etc.). Partly because of new focus, partly because of lack of time and energy.

We do get to say hello to some marginal people in and around Sunday Stuff (our church service), both locals who drop in for a cuppa and also a couple of attendees. It's not really a very meaningful interaction though.

In the past, I've been involved in a community lunch in Carlton, which gave good exposure to a broad cross-section of the local community. The lunch held in Credo Cafe at Collins St Baptist church is another great way to get involved.

To boost our involvement in this, we'll have to work hard to create some time and energy for it - a tough call with a pre-schooler and several part-time jobs to consider!

Consumption - Week 5, Household Covenant

The household covenant asks this key questions concerning consumption: "What ways can you go further in reducing your consumption and changing your patterns to conform to sustainable patterns?"



Some ideas are: checking you're not addicted to anything (coffee, books, shoes?); an audit of goods produced under fair-trade, anti-sweatshop or locally produced conditions; setting a target for foods sourced locally or produced organically or; learning about local food sources.



A suggested resource is the Sustainable Living Consumer Guide.



For us, this will require a bit of work. We don't have a fancy lifestyle, so we don't tend to think of ourselves as big consumers. We'll have to think very carefully about what we do consume and the related issues.

I'd like to know if spending on second-hand books has any negative ramifications. We tend to get tinned tomatoes from Italy (they're pretty cheap): is this better or worse than Australian tinned tomatoes? Is there an alternative to tinned? Does the preservation in steel cans actually help to reduce waste? Does the extra weight of the steel (during transport) outweigh the benefits longer-life?

And it's tiny things too. Is it better to buy pre-chopped sundried tomatoes than chop them up ourselves? I'd assume that a factory can chop them up in huge amounts and that would save energy consumption somewhere - but is that better than using my muscle energy at home?

I think the way to go is to write down a long list of things that we buy, then try to find out the things that have significant negative (or positive) impacts.

Something unique about Mark's Gospel

Over the last few months on 3 different Sundays we have read Mark's gospel aloud in big chunks. It has been refreshing, confronting and invigorating. Mark's gospel was probably written first and for some (probably some villages in the Galilee area) it was their only written text about Jesus for perhaps a generation. What might it be like to have this story as your only written Jesus story? How might it shape you? (In other words..... what is unique to Mark and what matters most to him?)

Here are a few things..... as you read Mark -what strikes you?

ü     The “parable of the sower” takes the place of the “sermon on the mount.” A focus on God’s goodness and kingdom invitation being thrown everywhere and seeing a dynamic process of life and death, just like in the fields around about you.

ü     Action, emotion– dynamic, immediate, emotional, confronting and confusing. I imagine that this community expected discipleship to be all kinds of highs and lows. There is not a lot of teaching (apart from chap 4.) There are lots of radical acts that are lauded (the widow’s mite, the syro-phoenician woman, John the Baptist). The kingdom is massively different to everyday life and comes to life with big sacrificial acts.

ü     Faith – the “answer” seems to be radical trust in Jesus –and ACTING upon this. (The bleeding woman, his own village and the failure of the disciples to cast a demon out of a boy, moving a mountain.)

ü     Failure and misunderstanding is normative – the followers and “insiders” who choose to remain close to Jesus experience failure as a norm. The ending of the gospel (16:8) highlights that raw encounters with God often produce negative results, as do many other stories. We would want to say that this is not the end of the story but need to be circumspect in this since in this case it quite literally is!!!

ü     Inclusion of all kinds of people, yet something about Israel. Jesus criss-crossed Galilee (the key to this is knowing Jews mainly live on one side and gentiles on the other.) YET felt the need, in dealing with the syro-phoenician woman – to put her in her place.

As we were reading on Sunday i thought of another distinctive. Jesus teaches only in Chapter 4 (what is the kingdom like) AND in chapter 13. This second lot of teaching is as big and is all about the life and times of believers/church after Jesus has gone. This "end times" teaching is passionate and extreme. Perhaps it makes for some hard core "hanging on" in tough times but perhaps also some sad weird end times beliefs in soft times.

 

 

Environment - Week 4 Household Covenant

The topic for week 4 of the Lent Household Covenant is 'Environment'.

The key questions are: 'What concrete steps can you take to make your household and lifestyle significantly "greener"? How can you become knowledgable about the issues in your community and advocate for change?'

We do the usual things of recycling, re-usable shopping bags, turning off lights and appliances (a bit) and walking or biking a little. We only run one car in our household.

We could make more of an effort to get info about current environmental issues. As an engineer and investor, I could learn a bit more complex stuff about power generation and consumption on a big scale. We could do some more to measure our gas and electricity consumption - perhaps by looking at our meters more often.

We eat a bit of meat and don't grow much food at home. We could investigate that kind of stuff pretty easily.

We certainly don't know lots about the natural environment around our home. We could learn a bit more about native vegetation and what is a sustainable ecosystem in our immediate area.

Lot's to think about!

Ethical Investing Resources

I've collected a little list of resources for people wanting to start out in ethical investing.

A key part of investing is being well-informed. If you are wanting to consider ethical issues you will need to seek information from alternative sources. Not all information will lead to sound investments and I do not endorse the investment advice from any of these sources of information. alternative sources of information should be read alongside mainstream sources to get a more complete picture.

Kiva is a micro-credit organisation that matches up investors from the developed world to entrepreneurs in the developing world. www.kiva.org

Ethical Investor magazine is another good newsletter, I've only seen a few hard-copy issues so far. www.sri.com.au

The Uniting Church have an ethical investment fund which has a retail offering. It is both a vehicle for churches to invest, as well as a provider of captial for some social programs run locally. It also invests globally in ethical opportunities. www.ucafunds.com.au

TEAR are starting to produce some resources to help guide investment, check out tear.org.au, they are also a source of general information on big infrastructure projects and developing world infrastrcuture need. TEAR have links to developing world microcredit organisations, but I don't think they offer a retail investment opportunity. www.tear.org.au/resources/harambee/

Reading the 'New Internationalist' alongside The Economist etc. is a good way of following news of infrastructure investments and also micro credit industry movements. www.newint.org

The 'Intelligent Investor', is an Australian value-investing newsletter. This is a good check for the soundness of investments. www.intelligentinvestor.com.au

a picture of faith

For a baptism this morning we were asked to provide a definition of faith that we felt comfortable with. Fortunately I was given pre-warning and in my reflections I came across this picture again by Richard Stine... It's the front cover of his book, one I picked up second hand some years ago - the image speaks volumes to me!

I find it interesting that there are many books out there explaining faith, but I haven't come across nearly as many picture books tackling the same topic. Hmmm.

Giving - Week 3 Household Covenant

It's week 3 of Lent and topic 3 of the Household Covenant is 'Giving'.

The Household Covenant states 'Giving helps build social relations rather than private capital'. That's an interesting perspective that is contrast to giving as a simple, non-rational, transfer of wealth.

We give to church, to Red Cross (for humanitarian work both in Australia and overseas) and to the Australian Conservation Foundation to help the environment. We also give a lot of our time to friends, family, church and some causes. We have a strong network of friends as a result.

We've probably given to the extent that money and time that could have been invested in career and wealth creation has been forgone. I suppose only time will tell whether that was a sensible decision. It was a compassionate decisions, so perhaps that's enough.

One idea that came out of my review, is that we could give a little less time and try to earn a little more money. That money could be well spent on eradicating extreme poverty within our lifetime. I've started reading books by Jeffrey Sachs (The End of Poverty) and Peter Singer (The Life You Can Save) that strongly suggest that we can eradicate extreme poverty soon at at reasonable cost.

Above all, I'm keen that giving be something that builds relations, not just a voluntary tax.

Hymn of the Big Wheel - week 3

Last night I read through the section of the liturgy called "List of Poverty". It takes about 10 minutes to read aloud and everyone who's spoken to me about it says that the experience is overwhelming and just difficult to get a grasp on what it contains.

That's the point.

Some of what is contained in it is as follows:
Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
$50 Billion (USD) is spent on cigarettes in Europe each year.
$9 Billion (USD) is required to provide water and sanitation for all.
(you can read the whole thing from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)

Previously I've heard it being read, and last night I read it through for the first time. It was everything that people say it is: overwhelming and difficult. Probably more so when you can actually see the words and numbers on the page.

I've been each week to the Hymn of the Big Wheel and plan to continue doing to. I suspect that as I do, each week the experience will be different, building up to a challenge that I hope won't be overwhelming for me personally, but quite possible to do.

It's easy to get lost in the weight of the enormity of the world's problems. I'm using this time each week to ask the question, "what's my response? what can I do?" For now those are some questions I can manage.

The second Sunday of Lent

A lot of thought went into Part Twelve of Glenferrie Gospel, which went live today. Re-writing and re-contextualising the story of Jesus walking on the water, from John's perspective (Jn 6:16-21), was hard. It was one of the last parts I wrote - having skipped it and left it for a couple of months, almost sacking the episode altogether amidst laboured cries of "why on earth did you put that bit in, John!?!" Scholars were largely unhelpful as they imported the meaning of the story disciphered from the other gospel accounts. Only six verses long, I understand the temptation.

Whether or not I understand it acurately (should such a position be absolutely possible!) I found a point to the story that both seemed outrageously new and exciting, while also reassuringly familiar. In John's account there is no Peter stepping out on the water, no homily about faith and doubt, no unpacking the geographical significance of where they are going and from where. Rather it is about Jesus' friends in the midst of utter fear (darkness, water and storm represented some of the great threats to life in that time). It is about Jesus calming that fear. Is it mostly about Jesus reassurig his friends that they wouldn't face something which he had not - he wasn't (and couldn't) assure them that they wouldn't die, but told them that it wouldn't happen before he first had died.

"Follow me" Jesus said to them. He wasn't interested in them running on ahead without him.

I had breakfast in Rococo on Glenferrie Road this morning, with my younger brother. I noticed across the road a cafe that had changed hands again - possibily the fifth time in the past few years. Its facade now a different color to what I photographed just a couple of weeks ago. I thought about the "death" of various businesses along the street, which has increased over recent months. I looked around at the other people in the cafe, and those on the street. I thought about the people we had seen last night - old school friends and aquaintences. Each have a story, where death and life - death and re-life, are a part.

Jesus says "follow me" and then promises to go before, to leave only to come back, and to walk with us in this following.

Grappling afresh with the fear of the disciples in this part of John's story of Jesus has brought a new awareness to Jesus' promise. Within the next couple of years I hope to be opening up a cafe with friends; should it "die" or shut down, I am reasurred that this isn't something foreign or beyond the experience of Jesus. I am encouraged to engage in the opportunity and face that possibility, rather than hold back from the fear of it. The same can be discovered for many other parts of my life too.

As I've already said, this little 'lesson' from only six verses of the story, seems so new, yet is so familiar.

Debt in the Household Covenant Week 2

Over Lent this year I am assessing our household finances against the topics in the 'Household Covenant'. For week 2 of Lent, the topic is debt.

The Covenant poses the questions - How is debt affecting you? How does debt affect other people? (my paraphrase).

Debt does not affect us overly much. I've been running a small business for a number of years (Mintleaf Studio - professional website design and development in Melbourne) and had made sure I was relatively debt free as part of the overall financial risk. Not everyone in small business does that, I'm sure that many households are greatly in debt to finance a small business that isn't actually very viable.

So, we did it differently. We have no mortgage, a small credit card limit that we pay off most months and a HELP debt (that's a debt to the Commonwealth as they paid for my engineering undergraduate and post-graduate study).

This means we can tighten our belts very effectively and live on less than many of our peers. We can be a little more generous with time and money as we don't have to service debt.

Of course, we may have forgone some wealth-generating investing in order to stay so low in debt; which may not be the best place to be long-term.

We don't know enough about the effects of debt in the world, except that Highly Indebted Poor Countries often face debt that can never be repaid. We've been involved in the Jubilee, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History campaigns for a while and that helped us understand that kind of debt.

We should find out a bit more about how debt affects relatively affluent westerners, as well as how debt can be sustainable in poorer regions of the world. At the moment I couldn't tell you much about the difference between bad and good debts - and I think I ought to know.

Household Covenant Week 1

I'm aiming to go through each of the seven topics in the Household Covenenat over the seven weeks of Lent. The first topic is 'Savings and Investment'. I decided to list out the ways that we save and invest and decide if they are making a positive contribution to a fairer and more sustainable world.

We keep most of our savings in an online bank account. I did a quick check and the bank does do some donations to environmental and children's health causes. Children's health is a pretty safe issue. The causes are located in Australia. Given how many kids die of preventable diseases overseas, that doesn't seem like a priority. Still, if my daughter got sick; I'd certainly feel different about the anmount of care available locally. It's nice to support causes my closest neighbours would identify with as well.

We do have a small amount of money in the 'Kiva' microcredit scheme. The scheme operates out of the US and matches lenders in the developed world to borrowers in the developing world. Borrowers may only borrow a few hundred dollars. Typically there are a good number of lenders, so the loan is spread out across a few lenders. Our money is currently with a woman in India, who has used it to buy a sewing machine. She has successfully paid off most of the loan already. We get a small return on investment, so it's worth doing another loan through the scheme and maybe extending our committment.

We have an online trading account for share market investing and I'm learning about the sharemarket through the ASX public help. I'm aware that there are managed funds for pretty much every investment flavour. I'd be interested to find out if we could go further than a local ethical investment fund (of which there are a number of good ones) and find a fund that helps address a critical need overseas; such as health and education. It's hard to know what needs will be suitable for private investment; especially as we'll need a relatively low risk investment.

After a recent adventure running my own business, we're setting our sights on home ownership. That's a big investment! I'd like to find out more about buying a smaller, more energy efficient, dwelling - maybe renovating a small house over a few years will be better than a large place in the outer suburbs.

So, that's our review in a nutshell. We have a couple of little things we could committ to, otherwise we'll need to do more research before we can turn these wishes into a definite savings and investment plan.

first Sunday of Lent

The first Sunday of Lent... My focus this Lent is my blog Glenferrie Gospel. I was wondering whether I should update it on Sundays - Sundays having the tradition of breaking the "fast" during the Lent period... I decided to rather spend a part of each Sunday deliberately reflecting on the story, the area of Glenferrie where I live near, and my interaction between both... So here goes...

I've always had the impression that as a foreigner to the time and location of the Gospel story that I missed much. If only I knew the customs, smells and sights it would unlock some hidden treasures of meaning for me... My study of John's Gospel over the years has debunked this idea totally. Sure, there's something to gain in some background knowledge, but in John particularly there is a sense that the whole story is set in front of a blank screen. A blue screen, perhaps, waiting for us to project our own context in it... Maybe.

The observation encouraged me to take a greater look at what can be found in my local area. I've since found many layers and facets of life down on Glenferrie Road, things that are lost when I describe the area simply as inner eastern middle-upper class Melbourne (which of course it is, but it also is not).

Who is in need in this area? 

Where are the poor? 

Where are the wealthy? None of these questions lead me to simple answers anymore. 

I'm encouraged to take the second, third and fourth look at what I see around me. I wonder if what I imagine Jesus doing in Glenferrie, the things that would make him happy, are anything near what actually interests or delights him. I wonder, so I go back for the fifth, sixth and seventh look around me...

Hymn of the Big Wheel - Week 1

The Hymn of the Big Wheel had its début last week; and it worked!

The Hymn of the Big Wheel is a 1 hour contemplative service with a social justice theme. It's focus is a reading of a list of statistics concerning the magnitude and issue surrounding world poverty. It's a list that can't be rationally absorbed when heard; it's more of an emotional thing. Then we contemplate the hope that Jesus brings.

Elements of the service include sitting in silence, listening to music (mostly contemporary), lighting candles, praying together and a few random elements.

Stu and me wrote it to give us a really different contemplative experience. It's great for Lent, but we hope we can put it on any time of the year.

The first week went well, though I was nervous! We noticed that there was a lot of silence, so we've made some changes to allow people to recite prayers together earlier and to make a personal response earlier. We tried a bit of drumming, but it was too much to ask, so we're replacing that with some candle lighting instead. Week 2 should be even better.

One of my favourite moments is when we pray Wesley's prayer, and then the prayer supporting the Millennium Development goals. One prayer is from the start of the industrial revolution and is in archaic language, the other is at the end of the industrial revolution. The prayers have similar sentiments; but are coming from really different contexts. Both ask that we commit ourselves to something different from the pursuit of our own prosperity whilst ignoring the plight of others.

8pm Wednesday nights in Lent, Fairfield SPACE, 88 Station St Fairfield.

The Household Covenant

The Household Covenant is a new thing to help people engage with big issues of social justice and sustainability in an accessible way.

The idea is to make a committment within your household to make changes to patterns of money and other resource use. Each household is completely free to make their own committments. The Housegold Covenant is promoted in Australia by Jon and Kim Cornford from Manna Gum, they've based it on one from the US (Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries www.bcm-net.org).

Jon and Kim came to Solace Sunday Stuff on Feb 22, 2009 and introduced the Household Covenant. Jon explained some of his ideas behind Christians getting involved in economic issues and Kim very generously shared some points from their own Household Covenant. We thought that Solace households could certainly have a go at the covenant and provide each other with a bit of support. I'll be looking at the covenant further over Lent.

The covenant has seven topics, making it easy to review your household economics and make some definite goals. The seven topics are:

1. Savings and Investment
2. Debt
3. Giving
4. Environment and Green Living
5. Consumption
6. Poverty and Marginalisation
7. Work and Sabbath

Each topic has specific questions about whether your activity is sustainable, fair and life-giving.

It's challenging, but very approachable. I'm excited to give it a go!