Budgets and the Moral Imagination of a Nation
Gershon Nimbalker, National Director of Common Grace, and Eliza Johnson, Policy Coordinator at Common Grace, reflect on the 2026/27 Federal Budget.
Easter, Anzac Day, and Who We Are Becoming
Over the past month, in a world that feels increasingly unsettled, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about war and peace, and who we are as a nation.
April has seen escalating conflict in the Middle East, as the United States and Israel continue to wage war in Iran, amidst faltering peace talks, fragile ceasefires, and ongoing destruction across the region
With the backdrop of Easter, and its vision of peace and hope, the US administration waded further into sanctifying its military actions using Christian language and imagery, and took issue with Pope Leo’s critique of those who would wage war and his calls for de-escalation.
In that context, ANZAC Day felt different this year. Perhaps I was carrying more questions into it than usual. And the events that unfolded seemed to bring those questions into sharper focus.
Like many of you, I was deeply saddened by the coordinated booing that occurred at several dawn services throughout Australia. In Sydney, we saw Pastor, veteran and friend Uncle Dr Ray Minniecon, an Elder who has so faithfully and graciously helped shape and serve our nation and our movement, and who had only just led Common Grace in a reflection over Lent, booed by a small handful of people that allegedly included a self-described neo-Nazi.
It was disturbing and, if I’m honest, aggravating to witness.
Those like Uncle Ray and all Mob who willingly offer up Welcomes to, and Acknowledgements of Country, are graciously inviting us to listen - to hear the stories of these lands we walk, and wrestle with the fullness of our nation’s history.
Perhaps that goes some way to explaining why ANZAC Day has become a flashpoint in recent years.
Because underneath these moments sit different visions of who we are as a nation, what we honour, whose stories we tell, and how we understand sacrifice and belonging.
ANZAC Day, it seems, has become something that is about far more than memory. It is a day that for many, is entangled with the question of who we are as a nation and who we are becoming.
Uncle Ray responded to this event, as he does to most things, with strength, grace, and profound insight. Pointing out that ANZAC Day is not about glory, but about “Sacrificial love that was willing to lay itself down. Love that chose others above self. Love that endures beyond death.”
A virtue displayed in so many of those that served over the decades - and one that feels like a truly worthwhile aspiration for us to embody as a nation.
This ANZAC Day I was also deeply moved by an interview with another veteran, the near centenarian who served in WW2, Harold Roy Pearson. Reflecting on the day, he said:
“No One Wins a War. I think it’s important we show our love to other people, and we think about other people at all times and not ourselves, and we stop going to war against anyone.”
I hope and earnestly pray that increasingly it is the wisdom and grace of those like Uncle Ray and Harold Pearson that shape our collective remembering.
And yet, it seems on ANZAC day, there is always a temptation - subtle, but real - for that remembrance to drift. To become something else. To be shaped into a story not just of sacrifice, but of strength, power, and even pride in war itself.
This is where, for those of us who follow Jesus, our imagination and hearts must constantly look to him as we remember our history, reflect on who we are and dream of who we are becoming.
I was reminded again this Easter, that at the centre of our faith is this truth: that ultimate victory is won, not through violence, but a life given in love.
In Jesus, we see all the power of the God of the cosmos wielded to stoop down and pick up a cross. Power used to forgive, and to show love even to those that would bring about harm. Power that absorbed violence, intimidation, and fear rather than perpetuated it, and ultimately, a power that showed that love wins, even over death.
So as I reflect on ANZAC Day and Easter, I feel called to remember in a spirit of truth, love, and grace.
For those of us who follow Jesus may we be people of love - to deeply listen and respond to our First Nations brothers and sisters with respect and understanding, even when the truths they share are uncomfortable for us to hear. Love that honours those who have sacrificed and served. And love that shapes us into peacemakers who value every person as being created in the image of God. Love that does not glorify violence, but seeks to overcome it. In the words of Harold Pearson, may we “show love to other people, and think about other people at all times”.
At Common Grace, this is the journey we are seeking to walk together in faith, hope and love - pursuing peace, practising justice, and standing in reconciliation.
It’s a constant source of hope for me to know that you’re on the journey with us. Thank you.
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April 2026 Updates
Our National Reconciliation Week 2026 Resource Toolkit is here, and we’d love you to explore it! Developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders, it’s designed to help you listen deeply and take meaningful steps toward reconciliation. Centred on the theme “All In: Reciprocity as Reconciliation,” these resources can be used in your church service on Sunday 31 May or adapted for gatherings - such as school chapel services, classroom lessons, prayer meetings, Bible studies - during National Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June).
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Common Grace recently co-hosted a Q&A event in Brisbane with Palestinian Christians in Australia, Jewish Voices of Hope, Queensland Muslim Inc, and partners titled “Who are the Palestinian people and where do they live?” Watch former IDF soldier Max Gan’s full address, reflecting on confronting his own complicity in “the dispossession, subjugation, and violent suppression of Palestinian people,” and calling for honest reckoning with injustice.
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As gas companies record enormous profits, Australian families face rising energy bills and worsening climate impacts. In a time that calls us to care for creation, the federal budget offers a crucial opportunity for change. A proposed 25% gas export levy could raise $17 billion annually for essential services and cost-of-living relief. Join Common Grace and our partners across civil society in calling for this 25% gas export levy to be introduced in the May budget. Contact your MP and add your voice for a fairer, more just future. Find out more here.
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For Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month this May, Common Grace invites you to join our new webinar, Healing After Leaving Domestic Violence. Together, we will explore what healing can look like after leaving an abusive situation, and how Christian communities can walk alongside victim-survivors with wisdom, compassion, and care. Ahead of the webinar, Ellaina Welsman, Common Grace’s Domestic and Family Violence Justice Lead, spoke with two of our presenters - Dr Rosie Shorter and Dr Erin Hutton - about their research on Reading the Bible After Violence. We invite you to read their reflections and register to join us for this important conversation.
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Each month, we’ll now be sharing a dedicated prayer section as an opportunity for our movement to pause, reflect, and seek God together.
This month, we are delighted to share a prayer written by Rev. Belinda Groves, Common Grace Supporter and Pastor at Canberra Baptist Church, for our online Community Connection Event held last night.
(Inspired by Psalm 46)
God, you are our refuge and strength and help in this current trouble.
While conflict shakes our world and our way of life,
help us drop, let go, abandon
fears that make us selfish and less open to others.
Let us know - even more deeply - you are God.
You are our refuge and strength and help in this current trouble.
While the nations are in uproar.
help us drop, let go, abandon
a nationalism that stops us seeing neighbours in the faces of others.
Let us show - even more truly - you are God.
You are our refuge and strength and help in this current trouble.
You will make wars cease to the end of the earth,
so help us drop, let go, abandon
the view that conflict is all there is and will ever be.
Let us grow in the knowledge you are God,
and that your glorious life will one day be seen among the nations
and across the whole earth. Amen.
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Thank you for partnering with us in this work of justice. In a time when so much can feel uncertain or overwhelming, your generosity and support is a steady reminder that we are not alone. Together, we continue to seek the way of Jesus - pursuing justice, holding onto hope, and encouraging one another along the way.
Blessings,
Gershon Nimbalker
Common Grace National Director
This is Common Grace's April 2026 eNews update.
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