James Alison visit to Australia

James Alison is visiting Australia in September. He will be in Canberra and Sydney and Perth.
(sorry Melbournians, you seem to miss out!)

For those who can't attend any of this, it is still very worthwhile looking at his pages at http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/

He has influenced me deeply. I did a short Good Friday meditation a few years ago and a theology teacher asked me after how much of Girard I had read. I hadn't even heard of him then! But I has picked it up from reading James on line.

The Canberra events include

Monday 13th September 2.00-4.30pm Atonement Retreat
Tuesday 14th September 7.30pm Public Lecture
both events at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture
(Blackall Street Barton)


Australian program:
http://www.eremos.org.au/news/james-alison-comprehensive-list-of-events

Itinerary:
10–18 September Charles Sturt University, Canberra, contact Scott Cowdell scowdell@csu.edu.au
Thurs, 23 Sept Eremos presents - The Challenge of an Opening Horizon at Paddington Uniting Church (Sydney). For more details, click here: http://www.eremos.org.au/news/james-alison-an-opening-horizon-thursday-23rd-sept
Fri, 24 Sept Eremos presents - The Shape of God's Affection at Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney. For more details, click here: http://www.eremos.org.au/news/james-alison-the-shape-of-gods-affection-friday-24th-sept 
 
Sat, 25 Sept Eremos and the UTC present - Undergoing God at the Centre for Ministry, North Parramatta (Sydney). For more details, click here: http://www.eremos.org.au/news/james-alison-undergoing-god-saturday-25th-september 
 
26 Sept - 2 Oct Perth (Contact Sr Mary Engelbrecht mengelbrecht@sosjwa.org.au) 
 
3–9 October New South Wales, Contact Br Peter Carroll brp@trinitylismore.com

 

He was speaker at the most recent John Main Seminar http://www.jms10.com/speaker.html

http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2010/08/broken-hearts-and-new-creation-james.html

The Public Conversation (& a Green Ad. to watch)

The ad that hopefully everyone is talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4jI1atQwp4

A brilliant ad, it can't be used by The Greens (ABC policy I suppose); so we (all of us) need to pass it around.



Other Conversations:

In the last few  weeks three voices have impressed me.

General Leahy's Lowy Institute Address is at:
http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=1343
(use Internet Explorer to download.) When are we at war? Who should be involved. It isn't just about big aeroplanes and submarines. What part do civilians play? I wait to hear more. We do waste so much money... and don't get to the underlying issues/causes....


The voice of reason: Patrick McGorry (Australian of the Year 2010) in The Age 23 July 2010. He concludes: "Middle Australia is entitled to ask why there is so little money for vital mental health services for Australians but unlimited funds to support a policy driven by emotion and optics. Why not inject some hard-nosed pragmatism into the discussion and take the paranoia out?" http://tinyurl.com/2489dvn  His calm and deliberate tone cuts through the rhetoric that has perhaps seemed to be out of control during an election. Well worth reading the whole article!

http://tinyurl.com/23y8vnm  The Edmund Rice Centre August newsletter. With words of encouragement: "In monitoring public debate in the past months we've seen a marked improvement in public discourse. Within the asylum seeker debate, there is a new wide-spread 'human rights literacy' at the broad grass-roots level. For the first time on this issue there is an ascendant strong community voice empowered to readily debunk the myths."

Pride, and a sermon... links.

http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2010/08/changing-attitude-at-brigthon-pride.html

A lovely item from Colin about Pride Parade in Brighton, UK. It must be summer in the northern hemisphere! (It is lovely and wet here today.)

This Changing Attitude post fits in nicely with my sermon for Stephen's Day last week.
http://www.stphilipsoconnor.org.au/sermons/01August2010_LA.html