February 2003

It's Sunday evening (January 19) as I sit to write after conversations with many people in recent hours.

The enormity of the loss in Canberra fires in the last couple of days is starkly visible. Flames and sparks from the fires, carried by horrific winds, consumed almost all before them. Smoke hung, like a huge black blanket, over everything. It all occurred so quickly — it's hard to believe this could have happened, but it has.

Many people have been injured, some have died, and hundreds of homes have been lost. Family memories and treasures no longer exist. Physically, most people have survived.

People may not understand for some time all that has happened for them and their community.

And where was God in this? Some people, who lost everything, have not found God at all in their loss. Others are angry that God was cruel to them, or had forgotten them.

As we celebrated Advent 2002 I asked, "How are you waiting for God to come?" So much has happened in the world since then. No one imagined that we would have had the fires in and around the metropolitan area, the central coast and other areas of the synod. A number of tragedies touched us, including road deaths at Christmas. We have held our breath, in the tug of war (back and forth) on the possibility of war on Iraq.

God has caught me by surprise in a number of instances:

• During the ecumenical carol service held in a retirement village, as the woman carrying forward "the infant Jesus" kissed the forehead of the doll before it was placed in the crib;
• By the warm response of a retired minister who heard Luke's traditional story of Christ's birth from Peterson's contemporary language version The Message and asked to hear some of John Chapter 1;
• By the presence in worship on Christmas morning of one whose gift of new life had come some months earlier through a liver transplant;
• By the butcher asking about my Christmas and New Year and wondering if people really understood they were praying for peace as they sang Christmas Carols.

Many of us return from holidays to work, to school, to worship and congregational activities, which are part of our life for this year. Others are starting the next part of their life commencing school, further education, entering the workforce, or new ministries. Others are retiring. Some live in hope, each day, that the drought will end.
Many people who participated in the National Christian Youth Convention (NCYC) at Newcastle discovered God, the maker and shaker, in a remarkable week in which lives were reshaped. I hope you have an opportunity to hear the experiences of some of the 2,000 people who gathered, both young and old, for that "awesome" week. The majority of speakers and Bible study leaders came from within Australia (and within the Uniting Church) — gifted people whom God is using in the church of the present and the future. Overseas visitors included speakers and delegates. People attending spoke at least 25 languages (including indigenous languages). Two members of my community (my "family" for the week) were young people from Bali who had lost their jobs following the bombings last October.

Easter Gathering '03, an opportunity for people to build on the experience of NCYC, will be held in Bathurst. That was another surprise for me at Newcastle and I am looking forward to seeing and participating in the church together again in this way.

Next month we are all asked to join in celebrating and supporting the work of UnitingCare on Shrove Tuesday (or between March 1-9) by having a pancake event to publicise and raise funds for Australia's largest non-government provider of community services. We have much to be proud of in the work of our agencies. This event allows us to learn about UnitingCare, to raise its profile in our local community, as we raise funds. One congregation is negotiating with its local university to run a pancake stall on Shrove Tuesday. However you celebrate this event, I hope you have fun.