Local Responsibility

The Victorian bushfires, which have torn through our state and hearts, have brought unspeakable grief and loss to many.

We felt horrified and helpless as the death toll soared and the terrifying reality of what had happen sunk in.

This Wednesday past (18th Feb) I was part of a small response team in Yarra Glen, where The Salvation Army is working alongside other agencies to assist those effected. Local Red Cross volunteers serving in the kitchen there mentioned they had lost friends and where still unsure of whether other friends had survived. Those volunteering at the makeshift distribution centre also said they had also lost friends in the fires.

One family I spoke with told me of how they saw there neighbours houses bursting into flames and feared they were about to die. They took me out to where they live and showed me how the fire had come within two hundred metres of their home. One house will be in tact, front garden and all, while the house next door is nothing but rubble.

I could see how the ferocity and indiscriminate nature of the bushfires will remain in and trouble the collective memory of Yarra Glen for decades to come. Yet I could also see a deep resilience and courage in the eyes of many; a profound determination to overcome. Some were even reluctance to accept help if it meant those who had fared worse than themselves got less.

As part of a nation and world that has reached out to embrace those who have been through so much, I felt privileged that it was my hands that touched the lives of a few very amazing people.

In days to come I hope and pray the bushfire survivors come to realise, and are encouraged by, just how big those loving arms really are.

Global Responsibility

I have recently finished reading Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic by Hans Küng.

In this book Küng explores the need for an ethical consensus amoung the great world religions; a consensus that will save humanity from itself.

Building on the foundational document,

Declaration Toward a Global Ethic,

(http://www.weltethos.org/dat-english/03-declaration.htm) people of faith are challenged to look past that which divides and to consider instead what lies at the heart of their own religion and how they are to remain true to themselves and their faith.

Today, we are aware of the faith-experiences of those outside our own religion. We are humbed, too, by the vastness and beauty of our world. And we are finding God in people and places previously unimagined.

Speaking as a Christian, and as I reflect on my own faith-experience, I find: a God of love, a golden rule (do to others as you would have them do to you) and now six billion people created in the image of God. I find the imperative to love unconditionally inescapable.

As we hurtle into uncertain and challenging times as a global community, I am interested to learn of what others are thinking and feeling.

The social, political, economical, environmental and spiritual realities of our time are complex.

Let me ask you, and invite you to respond,
'What does global responsibility mean to you?'

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.

I will begin by inviting everyone and anyone to use this blog to initiate dialogue (by posting comments under this welcome entry) and/or make comment on my posts.

It is my hope that this forum will allow for meaningful engagement with various issues and interests between myself and those I know (and dont know yet).

Thank you for your time in visiting and reading this.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,
Andrew