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At some point, I became faintly aware that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples didn’t feel the same way about January 26 as I did.
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Spokesperson, Brooke Prentis, and team member, Tanya Riches, recently caught up with Dave from PEACEcast - the new podcast by the PEACEtalks team at Paddington Anglican in Sydney - for a good chat about all things Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice and January 26 - including THAT lamb ad!
... It was a moment of honesty between two Aussie men. One of them was me – a guy often accused of being a ‘tree-hugging-bleeding-heart-lefty’ (of the specific Jesus-freak variety). The other was a cashed-up tradie. The kind of guy that you expect to have Southern Cross tattoo.
January 2017. My family moved to Brisbane Australia four years ago, and this year, we plan to start the process of becoming Australian citizens... It is likely that I will need to understand what Australia Day is all about.
I am a white Australian. On one side of my family I have a convict grandfather who arrived in 1812 having poached a rabbit in England. He made quite a life for himself in the new Sydney colony and I have grown up spotting the buildings he built and owned in the early settlement. I am a beneficiary of his arrival.
Kylie Beach, Common Grace's Communications Director, closes our Advent Series with a celebration of Christ's birth as good news for all. Even animals.
Tamie Davis - a missionary in Tanzania with CMS Australia, partnering with the Tanzanian Fellowship of Evangelical students - reflects on the heartache of being away from her Aussie homeland at Christmas, and determines to be truly present in her Tanzanian community.
Father Shenouda Mansour - General Secretary for the NSW Ecumenical Council, and a Priest in the Coptic Orthodox Church - considers our common calling to live a life of grace, as Christ is born in our hearts.
Jarrod McKenna, the Teaching Pastor at Westcity Church and Co-Founder of First Home Project, reflects on the agony and the holiness of real hope this Christmas.
River Bennett & Bel Pangburn - birth photographers at 'The First Hello' - reflect on being present to the wonder of the night when Jesus was born.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artist Safina Stewart, together with Brooke Prentis, contemplates the spiritual art of welcome this advent.
Joel Houston, Worship Leader in Hillsong UNITED and Lead Pastor at Hillsong NYC, reflects on Advent, Jesus and Batman.
Good Samaritan Sister Elizabeth Delaney, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), reflects on witnessing to the love and mercy of Jesus, the Incarnate Word.
Rachel - who works in Community Development and Training at Alice Springs Women's Shelter and is a key member of Common Grace's Domestic and Family Violence Justice Team - writes about being present in the mess of life this Advent.