Celebrating the movement of Common Grace

Jessica Carroll Smith, Co-Founder of Common Grace, Operations Director 2014 - 2021 and ad hoc Operations Consultant (2022-present) shared a beautiful reflection on 10 years of Common Grace at our recent ‘Let Justice Flow’ Conference celebrations, on Ngunnawal & Ngambri Country, Canberra.

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It’s such a delight to be asked to mark 10 years of Common Grace with you. Back in 2013 it was a progressive campaigner friend who set the whole thing in motion. He sent a bunch of us - people who’d worked in change making and activism - an email asking why the public voice of Christians was so self-protecting and negative, yet the Christians he knew were all on about the goodness of God and were much more generous. He thought we should get together and do something about it. 

At this time, technology was all the rage and it felt like a new season of democracy was breaking through. So, this group gathered, and dreamed, and the vision of a Christian Action platform emerged. 

The initial bunch hooked up with Tim Costello who was still at World Vision and a small group developed the concept consulting with stakeholders in the space (people like Gershon Nimbalker, then at Baptist World Aid). In 2014 Christians for Justice Ltd was established and World Vision seconded Jarrod McKenna and Jody Lightfoot to the team. 

Common Grace launched in December 2014 and within a month we had an initial database of 2,000 people. Our first big campaign was to gift the nation solar panels for Kirribilli House for Christmas to put the need for climate action on the table. It was creative, and fun, and generous - a tone picked up 6 years later in the wonderful climate scarf campaign - which many of you in this room brought to fruition. 

In that first year the Lord’s Prayer Lent campaign was a chance to build our credibility and served as another open door, growing our database another 2,000 - 4,000 Christians were into this! 

At the time the deep distress many felt towards our government’s treatment of those seeking asylum on our shores was what energised the movement to rally, to call for humanitarian visas for Syrian refugees and to end children being held in detention.

As an Australian Christian justice movement we knew from day one that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice and truth telling needed to be part of what we were on about, but it wasn’t until we began to connect with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders and offer the platform that things emerged. We met Larissa Minniecon and Brooke Prentis, and then Brooke introduced us to Bianca and Adam and Safina and they introduced so many more wonderful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders who all contributed to this movement.

It’s been such a joy to see the incredible work of so many years of churches and individuals engaging in Aboriginal Sunday and Change the Heart, who’ve shared on social that they stand on Aboriginal land, and who have shifted their thinking and behaviour by being invited to listen and learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders.

There have been so many amazing moments over the years. I think of the small team of domestic and family violence practitioners and policy experts that came together to develop the SAFER resource, producing a best practice resource that’s gone on to shape several denominational response to domestic violence. 

Common Grace is a MOVEMENT - a gathering of people captured by the beauty, generosity and justice of our Lord Jesus, so captured that we want to join in and overflow with that beauty, generosity and justice in the world. 

There is no owner of this movement, no one person can claim ownership but in this wonderful work of God so many people have contributed - there have been so many people passionate and concerned to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, who have poured themselves out in service - as board members, as staff members, as donors, as volunteers, as organisers, as knitters, as policy experts, as speakers, as advocates talking to their churches and encouraging participation. 

Without each of us playing our parts, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened. What is striking is how the seasons change and yet the movement is bigger than each individual. While there are people in this room from those early days round the kitchen table, new people constantly emerge who have caught the vision of God’s goodness and grace and long for God’s people to offer a generous voice working for the good in the world.

Back 10 years ago we could only glimpse and hope that we’d make it here. We could only dream and speculate that maybe 20,000 people would resonate and engage with the movement. It’s been over 60,000 people who have participated over the years!

We could only hope there would be sustainable funding and a resourced staff team - there was a period back there when I wasn’t paid for 6 months because things were so tight - we could only imagine steady financial support and this team. And then to think about a conference like this! It’s wonderful to be here!

To see the amazing impact that has been made over the years, to have seen church culture changed through Common Grace. Who would have imagined churches marking Aboriginal Sunday regularly and that Acknowledgement of Country would start to be a common practice in some churches. Who would have imagined that climate change would be mentioned from the pulpit, and that justice action would be normalised in some churches. Who would have imagined that parliamentarians would receive gifts of Common Grace scarves and our little movement would have an impact in the parliament chamber. 

We only glimpse the impacts of the movement, so as we mark 10 years we give thanks to God for sustaining and empowering and using the movement, for raising up each one of us to play our parts. 

I hope we keep dreaming big and imagining into what feels impossible. I hope we all keep playing our parts and floating ideas and as a movement keep coming together for the common good, keep centered on the grace of the Lord, keep offering common grace to our world, working for the flourishing of all people.

We give thanks to our Creator God for what is past and keep praying that God would bless and use us ahead! May justice flow like a river - make it so!

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📸 Feature image taken at Common Grace's 'Let Justice Flow' Conference November 2024; 

📸 Movement Photos One L - R: July 2013 Founding Retreat Group (Jessica Carol Smith, Tim Quadrio, Michelle Farrell, Tim Dickson, Duncan Lockard, Byron Smith, Michael Poland, Hannah Quadrio, Scott Sanders, Nick Moraitis, Jody Lightfoot, and Jarrod McKenna); March 2015 #AcceptTheGift urging PM to accept Solar Panels (Jody Lightfoot, Jacqui Remond, Wies Schuiringa, David Gore, Sister Jan Barnett and Byron Smith); 2019 Palm Sunday Rally; 2014 People Seeking Asylum Justice campaign planning day (Jarrod McKenna, Kylie Beach, Jody Lightfoot, Jo Knight, Jess Carroll Smith, Justin Whelan); Common Grace #ShowYourStripes Conference, Canberra 21 June 2021;'Get involved with Common Grace', filmed in 2017, beautifully reflects the grassroots movement of Common Grace as many different people, all playing our parts in supporting this movement and speaking out together for Jesus and justice; Safina Stewart, Bianca Manning, Jane Kelly, Monique Hughes and Ellaina Welsman at the 2022 'Voice and the Church' event at St John's Glebe/Scarred Tree Ministries.  

📸 Movement Photos Two L - R: 2015 Initial Campaign planning day for Domestic and Family Violence Justice (Erica Hamence, Bruce Chan, Rachel Neary, Cameron Smith, Natalie Lammas Williams, Kylie Beach, Jarrod McKenna and Jessica Carol Smith); Brooke Prentis (Common Grace CEO 2020 - 2022), Bianca Manning (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Coordinator 2020 - present) and Jessica Carroll Smith (Common Grace Operations Director 2014 - 2021); 20 September 2019 Global #Climate Strike; Sydney ‘Walk for Yes’ march 2023; Safina Stewart, Mick Pope, Bianca Manning, Jane Kelly and Rachel Saravanamuthu at 2023 Surrender Conference; Common Grace 'Let Justice Flow' Conference delegates on the front lawns of Parliament House before meeting with 50 MPs and Senators, 18 November 2024