Upcoming Events
We are very excited to announce that on July 18 we will have the pleasure of hosting theologian and author Grace Ji-Sun Kim at the Kirk.
Grace is in Australia to deliver the Cato Lecture at the UCA's National Assembly. After that she will undertake a handful of speaking engagements across the country, one of which will be at the Kirk.
The night will be a long-form interview, where I will talk with Grace about the Holy Spirit, the church, suffering, faith, and more. There will also be a chance for all of us to ask questions. Grace will also have copies of her latest book for sale.
Grace is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion and a world-renowned theologian and scholar. She is the author of an incredible 22 books and a much sought-after speaker and preacher.
To find out more about Grace and her work, and build excitement for the event (and encourage your friends) you can check out these two interviews that Liam conducted with Grace in 2021 and 2020.
You can also check out our facebook event page for the evening.
Grace is in Australia to deliver the Cato Lecture at the UCA's National Assembly. After that she will undertake a handful of speaking engagements across the country, one of which will be at the Kirk.
The night will be a long-form interview, where I will talk with Grace about the Holy Spirit, the church, suffering, faith, and more. There will also be a chance for all of us to ask questions. Grace will also have copies of her latest book for sale.
Grace is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion and a world-renowned theologian and scholar. She is the author of an incredible 22 books and a much sought-after speaker and preacher.
To find out more about Grace and her work, and build excitement for the event (and encourage your friends) you can check out these two interviews that Liam conducted with Grace in 2021 and 2020.
You can also check out our facebook event page for the evening.
Past Events
THREE DAY MATE BYSTANDER TRAIN THE TRAINER
MAY 22-24
In May, our church's Domestic Violence and Abuse Support Group led by Dr Julia Poole, staged a course run by a team from Brisbane’s Griffith University MATE (Motivating Action through Empowerment) group.
Over three days, the training equipped a group of 20 volunteers (including three members of the Kirk) to educate the wider community on prevention strategies to address gender-based violence and abuse.
Rev. Liam recounts some of the story to Insights
"One of our members, compelled to 'do something' in response to the scourge of domestic violence, was disheartened to find there was very little available by way of programs in prevention and culture shifting,” Rev. Miller said.
She then found a program, MATE (Motivating Action Through Empowerment) that runs out of Griffith University. This took an active bystander approach to prevention and focused attention on gender inequality as the source of DV.”
She undertook a three day course and was authorised to run two-hour training on the topic. We began to run those training courses at and out of the Forest Kirk as part of our wider ministry in the area of domestic violence response and prevention. Through community connections we were able to run workshops and give talks at local Rotary, Probus, and Lions groups, as well as through a local community college. We also built connections and relationships with the Northern Beaches Domestic Violence Network and its various member organisations.”
Wanting to equip more people to run this training and expand the awareness of bystander approaches, we sought grants to run a train the trainer program in Sydney. After being unsuccessful on a few different attempts, a Spirit-led series of events ended up with us receiving a grant from a private benevolent fund. This allowed us to put on the training and provide it for free for other ministers, community organisers, and people working on the frontlines of this issue.”
The training was excellent. It was vibrant and energising, even as it was intense and heart wrenching. At the end everyone felt powerfully equipped to run this training in their various organisations and community groups and committed to working together across the area. We covered a huge amount of ground, from the many ways in which DV can manifest, to the way gender stereotypes, inequality, and prejudices fuel violence.”
We also learnt how to help encourage empathy and curiosity when approaching this topic, and the ways to teach safe and effective intervention practices, whether they be in direct or indirect action, distraction, or protocol.”
We now have four people from the Forest Kirk authorised and equipped to do this training and would be happy to discuss running workshops at different churches (there were other ministers from other areas also at the training who will be running workshops). There are many excellent stories and resources out there, and the Uniting Church already does a good job in sharing those.”
Perhaps the main takeaway is that we are all bystanders. We are all present in conversations where women are dehumanised, where sexist jokes are cracked, excuses are made, victims are blamed, and wayward hands ignored. The active bystander approach encourages us to do something (safely of course), to hold one another to a higher standard, to interrupt and question, to call in and offer counter narratives, to step in and speak up. We can’t as individuals fix/solve the problem in its entirety, but we can contribute to a culture of safety, dignity, and respect.”
Over three days, the training equipped a group of 20 volunteers (including three members of the Kirk) to educate the wider community on prevention strategies to address gender-based violence and abuse.
Rev. Liam recounts some of the story to Insights
"One of our members, compelled to 'do something' in response to the scourge of domestic violence, was disheartened to find there was very little available by way of programs in prevention and culture shifting,” Rev. Miller said.
She then found a program, MATE (Motivating Action Through Empowerment) that runs out of Griffith University. This took an active bystander approach to prevention and focused attention on gender inequality as the source of DV.”
She undertook a three day course and was authorised to run two-hour training on the topic. We began to run those training courses at and out of the Forest Kirk as part of our wider ministry in the area of domestic violence response and prevention. Through community connections we were able to run workshops and give talks at local Rotary, Probus, and Lions groups, as well as through a local community college. We also built connections and relationships with the Northern Beaches Domestic Violence Network and its various member organisations.”
Wanting to equip more people to run this training and expand the awareness of bystander approaches, we sought grants to run a train the trainer program in Sydney. After being unsuccessful on a few different attempts, a Spirit-led series of events ended up with us receiving a grant from a private benevolent fund. This allowed us to put on the training and provide it for free for other ministers, community organisers, and people working on the frontlines of this issue.”
The training was excellent. It was vibrant and energising, even as it was intense and heart wrenching. At the end everyone felt powerfully equipped to run this training in their various organisations and community groups and committed to working together across the area. We covered a huge amount of ground, from the many ways in which DV can manifest, to the way gender stereotypes, inequality, and prejudices fuel violence.”
We also learnt how to help encourage empathy and curiosity when approaching this topic, and the ways to teach safe and effective intervention practices, whether they be in direct or indirect action, distraction, or protocol.”
We now have four people from the Forest Kirk authorised and equipped to do this training and would be happy to discuss running workshops at different churches (there were other ministers from other areas also at the training who will be running workshops). There are many excellent stories and resources out there, and the Uniting Church already does a good job in sharing those.”
Perhaps the main takeaway is that we are all bystanders. We are all present in conversations where women are dehumanised, where sexist jokes are cracked, excuses are made, victims are blamed, and wayward hands ignored. The active bystander approach encourages us to do something (safely of course), to hold one another to a higher standard, to interrupt and question, to call in and offer counter narratives, to step in and speak up. We can’t as individuals fix/solve the problem in its entirety, but we can contribute to a culture of safety, dignity, and respect.”
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On June 17, 2022 we held the following community forum:
Family and domestic violence and abuse remains a pervasive issue in our community. We are confronted with statistics, tragic stories on the news, and advertising on bus stops reminding us of the complexity of the situation and imploring us to intervene when we spot red flags. And yet, many still wonder how to best respond to disclosures or suspicions of abuse, how to respond when someone makes a troubling comment, and how to be someone that a loved one could trust with their story. This evening is designed to assist with those questions, to help us feel ready to respond positively when we might need to. The evening featured an expert panel comprising: CEO of Women and Children First (which oversees three local women's & children's refuges) A member of the Court Advocate's Office A Professional Counsellor (experienced working with DVA survivors) Trained Instructor of Bystander Training (who teaches how to be an active and impactful bystander) The night also included personal testimony of survival. |
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We are hosted a panel discussion (and Q&A) at the Kirk on May 18, 2023 entitled The Spectre of Death. The panel was composed of Dr Anthony Rees, Rev Mary Pearson, and Rev Dr Raymond Joso.
The interest of the night is less about life after death and more about life before death (in the sense of before a horizon). How does death shape life? Give life its meaning and shape? Indeed how does the reality of death create life as we know it? Beyond this why is it that death elicits a mix of revulsion and fascination, denial and purpose? The panel and Q&A will help us consider theological and biblical resources that can help us respond to these questions, shape the way we live, enrich the practices we develop to face and mark death. |
The problem with all thinking about death, as I see it, is that it takes death for granted. Death is an absolute circumstance to us, and therefore we have great difficulty thinking that death may be unnecessary. But if that is so, the question then becomes one of what death adds to life, of what is it good for, and what it does. If the answer to that question is that death makes room for more life, the question then becomes one of what that might be good for. Certainly, more life opens up the possibility of new life, and new life alters the balance of existing conditions, creating challenges to which they must adapt, which is to say yet more change. Death is what makes evolution possible. We are just as unneccessary as death, and however odd it may sound, our presence here is more closely attached to death than to life. Death created us.
Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Morning Star (Penguin Random House, 2020).
Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Morning Star (Penguin Random House, 2020).