Tag Archives: multiculturalism
Sermon: Light amid darkness; God amid disgrace.
Terrorists wish to create terror. We defeat them by refusing to be afraid. On Monday night, I attended a Chanukah event at Federation Square with other Uniting Church ministers, and I was so glad that Victoria Police had offered the Jewish community support to continue holding it, rather than advising them to cancel it. Terrorists also wish to divide us. We defeat them by staying united. The weirdest of all the responses to this terrorism was the attempt by Islamophobes to claim that Ahmed al Ahmed was not a Muslim immigrant, but an Australian IT worker called ‘Edward Crabtree’. The response to antisemitic hate needs to be more commitment to the wonderful multicultural and multifaith diversity of Australia, not less. Continue reading
Sermon: International, multicultural, multilingual communities
When Peter receives his vision and Paul is sent to the Gentiles, the church becomes an international, multicultural, multilingual community. Pentecost tells us that even before Gentiles were involved, the Jesus movement understood Judaism to be an international, multicultural, multilingual community. Continue reading
Sermon: The radical roots of the Church at Pentecost
The Church was at its origin and is meant to be today a community that celebrates cultural differences, rather than trying to standardise them. It is a community that is meant to show radical equality between men and women, old and young, slave and free. Sadly, like many of Christianity’s radical roots, these lessons from Pentecost are ones that the Church has had to relearn over and over again. Continue reading
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