Living in hope

Editorial: Where there is hope

Posted on by in Editorial, Opinion and tagged .

The devastating image of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy washed ashore in Turkey, inundated my Facebook and Twitter feed in September.

I hate seeing the exploitation of such an image; an image which exposed a beautiful boy in his most vulnerable moment. But, I hope that it moved the world to think differently about refugees, asylum seekers and the crisis in Syria. There are real people, with families and children, who are suffering.

On 7 September, at Get Up!’s Light the Dark event, more than a thousand people crowded the Perth Cultural Centre to light a candle to remember  Aylan and others who are seeking protection – many who have died doing so. Similar events were held all over the country.

Jarrod McKenna, founder of the First Home Project and pastor at Westcity Church, spoke at the event.Continue Reading

Moderator’s column: Hope for the future through Jesus

Posted on by in From the mod, Opinion and tagged .

There are plenty of people who are willing to write off the Christian church, believing that we have no future; that we are without hope. In a recent   article, one journalist argued that with the worldwide spread of education, technology and science, the need for religion would evaporate. Our world would become at last religion-less, a bit like John Lennon’s song, Imagine – the dream of a world free of religion.

Rather than ask, ‘has the church a future?’ I first want to ask, ‘has the human race a future?’

Ideas of the future exercise a great hold over us. Indeed, we need some idea of the future if we are to achieve anything in the present. The trainee soldier, athlete, politician and student are often motivated by a sense of what may lie ahead. In our diverse society, different hopes about the future are emerging.

The humanist looks for a society where human reason and mutual consideration will flourish. The environmentalist hopes for a sustainable world  where pollution is minimised and the earth flourishes again. Many dream of higher standards of living, full employment, a fairer distribution of wealth, an end to poverty, injustice, violence and greater prosperity. Christians, while sharing these hopes, have a distinctive contribution to make   when thinking about the future.Continue Reading