It's been a few weeks since the last post. During this time I have been attending a course for the Australian Army, related to my chaplaincy, had a week's holiday and then headed to our Division's Officers' Fellowship.
Things have not been quiet at the Corps during this time.
Our extension at the Seacombe Gardens centre, which will incoporate a new storage space and free up some of our other areas, is well and truly underway.
Our latest soldier, Peter, has been enrolled and others have started their soldiership preparation.
Our Red Shield Appeal has been finalised - with increases in both the Cities of Marion and Holdfast Bay.
We held our latest lead and lunch event, concentrating on the qualities of a leader.
We received a new grant for our Glenelg centre, which has meant we've bought a coffee machine and multimedia projector. It will also pay for the sound system to be rewired and installed.
We farewelled Bruce McDonald, promoted to glory.
Our women's B Grade basketball team brought home the premiership.
Things never sit still.
We also look to the next two weeks when we celebrate Children's Sunday (August 5 - we used to call them 'Sunday School Anniversaries') and Volunteers' Sunday - a great chance to say thank you (August 12).
It's good to be back online.
Monday, 30 July 2012
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
God at work
We often talking about looking for where God is at work among us. In the last week:
A lady came back to our church because this is where people listened to her. The gospel was shared with her, and we prayed with her.
A soldier of our Corps felt led to sponsor a child to attend the Creative Kids camp in September.
We are able to connect with 500 families through the Great Jetty Road Treasure Hunt.
We have young people connected with our Corps attending a basketball carnival where the gospel will be shared.
We have had open doors to pray at a military event and to represent The Salvation Army at a Rotary function.
One of our local members has sought the assistance of our church with an elderly couple in dire straits after immigrating from England.
A person made a bequest to The Salvation Army through our Corps for $5000.
This is just in a few days.
God is at work.
Good things are happening.
A lady came back to our church because this is where people listened to her. The gospel was shared with her, and we prayed with her.
A soldier of our Corps felt led to sponsor a child to attend the Creative Kids camp in September.
We are able to connect with 500 families through the Great Jetty Road Treasure Hunt.
We have young people connected with our Corps attending a basketball carnival where the gospel will be shared.
We have had open doors to pray at a military event and to represent The Salvation Army at a Rotary function.
One of our local members has sought the assistance of our church with an elderly couple in dire straits after immigrating from England.
A person made a bequest to The Salvation Army through our Corps for $5000.
This is just in a few days.
God is at work.
Good things are happening.
A matter for concern and prayer
The Salvation Army is affiliated with ACOSS - the Australian Council of Social Services. This is their latest media release, following the passage of Income Managment legislation through the Senate recently:
Wrong way, go back: Communities seek a change of direction on income management
Friday June 29, 2012
Peak welfare bodies the Australian Council of Social Service and the National Welfare Rights Network and grass roots community groups are disturbed by the entrenchment of Income Management in the Northern Territory and its extension to five new areas from 1 July. The groups argue that to impose income management on communities without proper consultation and solid evidence on its effects is wasteful and demeaning to those people whose household budgets will be controlled by Centrelink.
“We are extremely disappointed to see the Government’s ‘Stronger Futures’ legislation passed in the Senate in the early hours of this morning, that not only extends the NT intervention by another 10 years, but also now imposes the unproven income management model for people on social security payments to five trial sites outside the Top End. The Government committed to evaluate the Northern Territory scheme before extending it further but has now extended aspects of it anyway, both in the Territory and the five new sites, ” said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie.
“From this Sunday the communities of Bankstown in NSW, Playford in South Australia, Shepparton in Victoria, and Rockhampton and Logan in Queensland, in addition to the Northern Territory, will have an invisible fence around them and be treated differently from the rest of Australia, at a very high cost. Spending around $6,000 per person to manage people’s very low incomes just doesn’t make sense. Most of the people targeted are on Newstart Allowance or single parenting payments who are living on as little as $35 a day,” Dr Goldie said.
Maree O’Halloran from the National Welfare Rights Network said, “The passage of the ‘Stronger Futures’ legislation makes us a weaker nation. Ninety per cent of people under compulsory income management in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal which should be a matter of national shame.”
Pam Batkin, Executive Officer at Woodville Community Services and member of the Not in Bankstown Not Anywhere Coalition said, “Income management is a bad social policy. Rather than helping people look after their families better and manage their money better income management punishes and stigmatises people in our community who are already struggling.
“When so many people across our community agree that the Newstart Allowance is simply not enough for anyone to live on, there is something profoundly wrong with the government spending so much to manage the spending of a single person on this allowance. We call upon the government to abandon income management across Australia and to act to ensure that all people in our community simply have enough money to live on,” Ms Batkin said.
Ms Randa Kattan, Executive Director of Arab Council Australia and spokesperson for the Bankstown Coalition, visited NT communities late 2011 to see firsthand the impact of income management. "From the bush to Bankstown, people do not need income management. They need job opportunities, higher incomes and improved social services. But here in Bankstown 'Stronger Futures' means the same punitive approach that we see in the NT. Only $2.5 million has been allocated for community based programs, while $23 million will be spent on income management,” she said.
David Tenant, CEO, Family Care, in Shepparton, Victoria said, “It’s absolutely vital that the people who are referring clients to income management ensure they are not making difficult situations more difficult for those people. Too much of welfare reform is focussed on what is wrong in communities. The Commonwealth needs to work harder on building strength and opportunities and that work has to be done in partnership with communities.”
Terry Stedman, Chairman, Logan Indigenous Community Justice Centre in Queensland said, “We are very concerned about the absence of any way of evaluating decisions made to refer people onto income management and the lack of an appeals process. Instead of punishing people the government should be spending this money on ensuring enough support services for these families - such as more mental health services for children and adults, more advocacy services (particularly for migrant families), domestic violence perpetrators programs, drug and alcohol diversion facilities and others - which are sorely missing or lacking in Logan. Local businesses are worried too about the impact this will have, especially when you consider that there was no economic impact statement done in our community.
“I fear where this is all going when we start to treat people differently like this. We’d like to see a Families Responsibility Commission set up in Logan so we don’t have bad decisions and so targeted individuals and families have some sort of recourse. This seems to work well in North Queensland where the FRC can properly assist people and even be critical of government where support services for our society’s most vulnerable families are simply inadequate,” Mr Stedman said.
“Despite any evidence that income management is effective, $117.5 million will be spent to fund a mini-bureaucracy to micro-manage the spending of 4000 Australians living on poverty-line payments,” Ms Maree O’Halloran said. “As discriminatory social policy, welfare quarantining has pervasive and far-reaching impacts. For example, half of the Clean Energy Supplement and the Clean Energy Advance, as well as the proposed $210 per year Supplementary Allowance announced in the recent budget, will be quarantined on the BasicsCard.”
Ms O’Halloran added, “With just days before the starting date we are struggling to obtain a comprehensive picture of how the rules will operate in the five new areas. The lack of clear information about how the schemes will operate is causing unnecessary anxiety. In some circumstances, the right to an independent appeal is effectively being stripped away. In light of the recent Commonwealth Ombudsman’s report on the experience in the Northern Territory, this is deeply concerning.”
Dr Cassandra Goldie said, “Neither Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory nor the communities of Bankstown, Shepparton, Logan, Rockhampton or Playford asked for income management. It was imposed by Government. As the peak national body for Australia’s community sector, we urge the federal government to rethink income management. The Government should work with local communities, peak bodies, and grass roots services on lasting solutions for the real problems that exist in these communities.
“There are good models available, including the Northern Territory’s ‘Every Child Every Day’ strategy on school attendance, the Cape York Family Responsibilities Commission model, and new investment by the Federal Government in local employment, family and support programs in the five regions targeted for income management, ” Dr Goldie concluded.
Each of the communities affected have a significan Salvation Army presence. Please pray for our staff, volunteers, Corps and officers in these areas as they engage with the communities that have been disempowered and impacted through these policies.
Wrong way, go back: Communities seek a change of direction on income management
Friday June 29, 2012
Peak welfare bodies the Australian Council of Social Service and the National Welfare Rights Network and grass roots community groups are disturbed by the entrenchment of Income Management in the Northern Territory and its extension to five new areas from 1 July. The groups argue that to impose income management on communities without proper consultation and solid evidence on its effects is wasteful and demeaning to those people whose household budgets will be controlled by Centrelink.
“We are extremely disappointed to see the Government’s ‘Stronger Futures’ legislation passed in the Senate in the early hours of this morning, that not only extends the NT intervention by another 10 years, but also now imposes the unproven income management model for people on social security payments to five trial sites outside the Top End. The Government committed to evaluate the Northern Territory scheme before extending it further but has now extended aspects of it anyway, both in the Territory and the five new sites, ” said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie.
“From this Sunday the communities of Bankstown in NSW, Playford in South Australia, Shepparton in Victoria, and Rockhampton and Logan in Queensland, in addition to the Northern Territory, will have an invisible fence around them and be treated differently from the rest of Australia, at a very high cost. Spending around $6,000 per person to manage people’s very low incomes just doesn’t make sense. Most of the people targeted are on Newstart Allowance or single parenting payments who are living on as little as $35 a day,” Dr Goldie said.
Maree O’Halloran from the National Welfare Rights Network said, “The passage of the ‘Stronger Futures’ legislation makes us a weaker nation. Ninety per cent of people under compulsory income management in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal which should be a matter of national shame.”
Pam Batkin, Executive Officer at Woodville Community Services and member of the Not in Bankstown Not Anywhere Coalition said, “Income management is a bad social policy. Rather than helping people look after their families better and manage their money better income management punishes and stigmatises people in our community who are already struggling.
“When so many people across our community agree that the Newstart Allowance is simply not enough for anyone to live on, there is something profoundly wrong with the government spending so much to manage the spending of a single person on this allowance. We call upon the government to abandon income management across Australia and to act to ensure that all people in our community simply have enough money to live on,” Ms Batkin said.
Ms Randa Kattan, Executive Director of Arab Council Australia and spokesperson for the Bankstown Coalition, visited NT communities late 2011 to see firsthand the impact of income management. "From the bush to Bankstown, people do not need income management. They need job opportunities, higher incomes and improved social services. But here in Bankstown 'Stronger Futures' means the same punitive approach that we see in the NT. Only $2.5 million has been allocated for community based programs, while $23 million will be spent on income management,” she said.
David Tenant, CEO, Family Care, in Shepparton, Victoria said, “It’s absolutely vital that the people who are referring clients to income management ensure they are not making difficult situations more difficult for those people. Too much of welfare reform is focussed on what is wrong in communities. The Commonwealth needs to work harder on building strength and opportunities and that work has to be done in partnership with communities.”
Terry Stedman, Chairman, Logan Indigenous Community Justice Centre in Queensland said, “We are very concerned about the absence of any way of evaluating decisions made to refer people onto income management and the lack of an appeals process. Instead of punishing people the government should be spending this money on ensuring enough support services for these families - such as more mental health services for children and adults, more advocacy services (particularly for migrant families), domestic violence perpetrators programs, drug and alcohol diversion facilities and others - which are sorely missing or lacking in Logan. Local businesses are worried too about the impact this will have, especially when you consider that there was no economic impact statement done in our community.
“I fear where this is all going when we start to treat people differently like this. We’d like to see a Families Responsibility Commission set up in Logan so we don’t have bad decisions and so targeted individuals and families have some sort of recourse. This seems to work well in North Queensland where the FRC can properly assist people and even be critical of government where support services for our society’s most vulnerable families are simply inadequate,” Mr Stedman said.
“Despite any evidence that income management is effective, $117.5 million will be spent to fund a mini-bureaucracy to micro-manage the spending of 4000 Australians living on poverty-line payments,” Ms Maree O’Halloran said. “As discriminatory social policy, welfare quarantining has pervasive and far-reaching impacts. For example, half of the Clean Energy Supplement and the Clean Energy Advance, as well as the proposed $210 per year Supplementary Allowance announced in the recent budget, will be quarantined on the BasicsCard.”
Ms O’Halloran added, “With just days before the starting date we are struggling to obtain a comprehensive picture of how the rules will operate in the five new areas. The lack of clear information about how the schemes will operate is causing unnecessary anxiety. In some circumstances, the right to an independent appeal is effectively being stripped away. In light of the recent Commonwealth Ombudsman’s report on the experience in the Northern Territory, this is deeply concerning.”
Dr Cassandra Goldie said, “Neither Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory nor the communities of Bankstown, Shepparton, Logan, Rockhampton or Playford asked for income management. It was imposed by Government. As the peak national body for Australia’s community sector, we urge the federal government to rethink income management. The Government should work with local communities, peak bodies, and grass roots services on lasting solutions for the real problems that exist in these communities.
“There are good models available, including the Northern Territory’s ‘Every Child Every Day’ strategy on school attendance, the Cape York Family Responsibilities Commission model, and new investment by the Federal Government in local employment, family and support programs in the five regions targeted for income management, ” Dr Goldie concluded.
Each of the communities affected have a significan Salvation Army presence. Please pray for our staff, volunteers, Corps and officers in these areas as they engage with the communities that have been disempowered and impacted through these policies.
Monday, 2 July 2012
Building works
For those that frequent our Seacombe centre, please be aware that we've started building works again.
The new extension will provide much needed storage space, freeing up the corridors and other areas where we currently stack boxes, deliveries and the like. It will help us to secure items as required and also move stacks of gear out of some of the offices.
Please be careful, especially if venturing around the Sturt Rd/ Profix side of the church building.
The new extension will provide much needed storage space, freeing up the corridors and other areas where we currently stack boxes, deliveries and the like. It will help us to secure items as required and also move stacks of gear out of some of the offices.
Please be careful, especially if venturing around the Sturt Rd/ Profix side of the church building.
Commissioner's Open Letter to Salvationists
In the last fortnight, Major Andrew Craib from THQ was interviewed twice by Joy FM as part of their 'expose on some of the realities of 'charities' and 'Christianity'' (from their website - http://www.joy.org.au/). Both interviews are still posted on the front page of their website. The first, Major Craib suggests, went quite well. The second was bitterly framed, misinterpreted our doctrines, beliefs, postional statements and practices and became a nasty personal attack on Major Craib. He was not given real opportunity to respond to questions and the female presenter, particularly, often cut him off dismissively.
This has left an unfortunate and misinformed situation, and a lot of hurt people on both sides of the conversation. Both Australian territories have responded to try and clarify our position with mixed resuls.
The Eastern Territory responded with a letter to Joy FM, from their communications and fundraising team member Major Bruce Harmer, which Joy FM have posted on their website. The Southern Territory responded through an open letter to Salvationists, but have yet to respond in the public arena, perhaps, it would seem, through a mistrust of how it will be handled in the light of the Joy FM interview.
The open letter to Salvationists has raised more questions than it has answered for many of our people. It has led to one or two telling me that they will discontinue their association with our church because they believe that our Commissioner has been deliberately ambiguous so as to pander to public opinion. I disagree, and have tried (unsuccessfully, to date) to clarify the Commissioner's letter with these folk.
It seems that the questions regarding the Commissioner's letter are not confined to Marion. As such the Chief Secretary, Colonel Peter Walker, has issued supplementary comment as follows:
On receiving the attached Open Letter from our Territorial Commander on Friday, some of you have raised some queries; for example:
membership
does sexuality mean practicing, celibate or both in the context in this letter?
does 'service' mean that those engaging in same sex sexual relationships are now "not" excluded from holding service as "officers" within the Salvation Army?
with the proposed change to the marriage act if successful under the rights of marriage as celebrants for the Salvation Army will we be able to marry same sex couples?
... and you may well have others that have arisen in your mind.
In raising some of these issues with him, the following response has been received from the Chief Secretary, which I trust will provide some clarity for you as you share the contents of the Commissioner's letter with your people:
There have been no changes to our teaching or understanding.
The essential question is whether the person concerned is a practicing or non practicing homosexual.
We would continue to recognize a distinction between homosexual orientation and practice, and while our services of any nature will always be offered freely to anyone regardless of their sexuality or practice, officership will not be available to practicing homosexuals, in a similar way that we would not consider a defacto couple for officership, or a promiscuous single person. There are already those in our officer ranks who would regard themselves as gay, and who live a lifestyle of abstinence in the same fashion as would any single heterosexual officer.
In regards to marriage, as we are required to marry under the rites of The Salvation Army, we will therefore be precluded from marrying same-sex couples. A change in the law of the land does not release us from adhering to biblical teaching. The legislation before parliament respects the rights of faith communities not to be forced to conduct weddings where it would conflict with their beliefs.
You would be aware that we are an international Christian movement, and it would require a fundamental change to our understanding of Scripture at an international level for these requirements to alter.
Clearly this issue demonstrates the wide variety of views within our movement and within the broader community. At this time, let's pray for a sense of unity among The Salvation Army and particularly for our leaders as they navigate this complex situation. Please also pray for Major Craib and his family.
This has left an unfortunate and misinformed situation, and a lot of hurt people on both sides of the conversation. Both Australian territories have responded to try and clarify our position with mixed resuls.
The Eastern Territory responded with a letter to Joy FM, from their communications and fundraising team member Major Bruce Harmer, which Joy FM have posted on their website. The Southern Territory responded through an open letter to Salvationists, but have yet to respond in the public arena, perhaps, it would seem, through a mistrust of how it will be handled in the light of the Joy FM interview.
The open letter to Salvationists has raised more questions than it has answered for many of our people. It has led to one or two telling me that they will discontinue their association with our church because they believe that our Commissioner has been deliberately ambiguous so as to pander to public opinion. I disagree, and have tried (unsuccessfully, to date) to clarify the Commissioner's letter with these folk.
It seems that the questions regarding the Commissioner's letter are not confined to Marion. As such the Chief Secretary, Colonel Peter Walker, has issued supplementary comment as follows:
On receiving the attached Open Letter from our Territorial Commander on Friday, some of you have raised some queries; for example:
membership
does sexuality mean practicing, celibate or both in the context in this letter?
does 'service' mean that those engaging in same sex sexual relationships are now "not" excluded from holding service as "officers" within the Salvation Army?
with the proposed change to the marriage act if successful under the rights of marriage as celebrants for the Salvation Army will we be able to marry same sex couples?
... and you may well have others that have arisen in your mind.
In raising some of these issues with him, the following response has been received from the Chief Secretary, which I trust will provide some clarity for you as you share the contents of the Commissioner's letter with your people:
There have been no changes to our teaching or understanding.
The essential question is whether the person concerned is a practicing or non practicing homosexual.
We would continue to recognize a distinction between homosexual orientation and practice, and while our services of any nature will always be offered freely to anyone regardless of their sexuality or practice, officership will not be available to practicing homosexuals, in a similar way that we would not consider a defacto couple for officership, or a promiscuous single person. There are already those in our officer ranks who would regard themselves as gay, and who live a lifestyle of abstinence in the same fashion as would any single heterosexual officer.
In regards to marriage, as we are required to marry under the rites of The Salvation Army, we will therefore be precluded from marrying same-sex couples. A change in the law of the land does not release us from adhering to biblical teaching. The legislation before parliament respects the rights of faith communities not to be forced to conduct weddings where it would conflict with their beliefs.
You would be aware that we are an international Christian movement, and it would require a fundamental change to our understanding of Scripture at an international level for these requirements to alter.
Clearly this issue demonstrates the wide variety of views within our movement and within the broader community. At this time, let's pray for a sense of unity among The Salvation Army and particularly for our leaders as they navigate this complex situation. Please also pray for Major Craib and his family.
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