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361

Understanding guilt – Its purpose and power and THE ONE panacea

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The part guilt plays in our relationship with God and with others can be perplexing. We know we’re forgiven as Christians and loved children of God, so why do we still feel guilty? We put this and some other curly questions about guilt and shame to Noel Due and asked for his insights.

Why do people have feelings of guilt?

Simply because they have a conscience. That conscience is schooled by upbringing, peers, social norms and other factors. It registers when we have transgressed. That’s not to say a conscience is reliable. It’s not. It needs to find a law to align itself to. The things to which it aligns itself may be a long way from the truth of who God is. And when we transgress, it acts as judge, jury and executioner.

How do feelings of guilt differ from shame?

Guilt is related to transgressions: I have done a wrong thing. Shame is related to our identity: I am a wrong thing. Guilt and shame may work in tandem, but shame always carries the feeling of how you appear in the eyes of another. It always leads you to believe you are not enough. Not just that you have not done enough or done too much of the wrong thing (guilty feelings); but that you are not enough.

Why do forgiven Christians, who know they are forgiven and saved by grace alone through faith feel guilty?

Because our consciences are still at work. Often, they are misaligned too. They can be aligned to all sorts of pietistic and religious attitudes and actions, which carry with them ‘should’, ‘ought’ and ‘must’ type words. In addition, your conscience – being as much a part of fallen humanity as the rest of you – will constantly need to be renewed by hearing the gospel. It’s never a once-off thing. The amazing thing about grace is that it is always amazing. If we’re not amazed, it is because we may not be hearing the gospel, or because our consciences are so deeply bound by the ‘should’, ‘ought’ and ‘must’ vocabulary of church life that it has built up like wax in our spiritual ears.

What is the difference between a shame-based culture and a guilt-based culture?

That’s not easy, as both cultures operate with shame and guilt as real experiences; but they are often expressed differently. In shame-based cultures, the fear of being put to shame (losing face) acts as a powerful social conditioning factor. It relates to the way one is viewed by the group, and therefore the status and acceptability (or not) of that group. In the West, shame-based action (being put to shame on the one hand or presenting a face so that we maintain group acceptability) is increasingly evident through social media; and the associated ‘cancel culture’ or ‘defriending’ actions that cause so much pain.

Can feelings of guilt ever be a useful, productive, or positive thing in terms of our lives, our faith, and our relationships with God and others?

While the conscience is not the inner voice of God, God can awaken the conscience so that we begin to hear him through that means. The Spirit comes to convict of sin, righteousness and judgement. He uses the Law to do that and under the weight of that conviction, our consciences become deeply troubled. We cannot put things right and so find grace in the love of God. Luther’s experience of that arc from the conviction of sin to the experience of God’s grace was the spark for the Reformation. But if preachers or well-meaning Christians use guilt as a motivator it destroys relationships. It produces the deeds of the flesh, not the fruit of the Spirit.

Can guilt damage our relationship with God?

Yes, especially if we feel that God can never forgive us. So, we continually try to go up the down staircase. Instead of seeing that God has come to us, we are constantly trying to get to him; imagining that he has high expectations of us and that we must keep trying harder to please him. We become like the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son; or we look down our noses with contempt at others, like the Pharisee in Luke 18.

Can guilt damage our relationships with others? What can we do in such cases?

Nothing but the love of God can free us to forgive and confess our failures to others. Guilt only leads to more and more self-justifying behaviour, chief of which is being critical of others in the very areas in which we feel most guilty. Shame likewise corrodes relationships, because it feeds envy, jealousy and the need to constantly be proving to others that we are enough. But where there is true forgiveness, there is no ground to defend. That means we can be both authentic and vulnerable because we all stand in the same place at the foot of the cross.

What is false guilt? How does false guilt harm us?

False guilt is feeling guilty when you don’t need to feel guilty. It is one of the great weapons of manipulative people, conmen and dictators. False guilt is feeling you must take responsibility for something that is not your responsibility. It is often more linked to the insecurity that arises from shame, but emotionally it feels like a burden of guilt.

I know God has taken the burden of my sin, and I have confessed my sin to him, but I am still weighed down by feelings of guilt. How can I be free from such a burden?

In part, this is the battle of life on this side of heaven. We are yet to fully realise what we have been remade as in baptism. We are a new creation in Christ, but every day the world, the flesh and the devil tell us otherwise. The battle of faith is to believe that God’s promises are true all the time. Luther once said something like this: ‘the Law says, “do this”, but it is never done. Grace says, “believe this because all is already done”.’ We are not alone.

Rev Dr Noel Due is pastor of Northern Territory’s Top End Lutheran Parish and formerly served the LCANZ as Pastor for New and Renewing Churches. Among other publications, he is the author or co-author of New Life New Love, Live in Liberty: The Spiritual Message of Galatians and Spirit Filled: Normal Christian Living.

362

Shame, guilt, regret and the path to repentance

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Why do we feel guilt, shame and regret? We asked Lutheran psychologist Dr Michael Proeve, whose research interests include shame, guilt and remorse, to unpack what these emotions teach us and what their relationship is to repentance for us as Christians.

The Greek theological term ‘Metanoia’ is often defined as ‘a transformative change of heart’. It is the turning again or change in mind and change in living that in Christianity we commonly call repentance.

And if we are to live repentance and articulate our experience of it, we may do this through the language of emotion. For, as creatures of flesh and bone as well as spirit, we are used to speaking our experience through those fusions of thought, feeling, physiological response and interpersonal action that ebb and flow and recur in our lives, which we call emotions. I want to focus on three emotions that I believe feature when we work through repentance: regret, guilt and shame.

The idea of looking backwards seems contrary to one of our current cultural imperatives of ‘moving forward’ but looking backwards is what regret entails. The Frank Sinatra song My Way talks of having had ‘… a few [regrets], but then again, too few to mention …’. However, I suspect people who endorse this view either have extraordinary foresight or more likely are not paying attention to the consequences of what they do. The rest of us have regrets.

Psychological interest in regret has been developing since the 1990s and the value of regret is recognised in business-oriented self-help literature. Put simply, we experience regret when we wish that things were other than they are. This is broad, in that we may regret the situations and behaviour of others, but I want to focus particularly on regret as it applies to ourselves when we wish that we could turn back time, and start the day, month or even years again. Regret for actions and opportunities we did not take may preoccupy and weigh very heavily on us, but our behaviour is often a painful source of regret and need for repentance. When we regret, we think of mistakes we made, that we should have known better, and we want a second chance.

Though regret may bite and ache, it offers us the motivation to look at how we might do things differently and make the changes that we can, if we should be given a second chance. We can feel regret because of what we have suffered, but we may also regret what we do because it has hurt others, and this is where regret links to guilt.

Guilt is known as a self-conscious emotion in that we evaluate ourselves against standards and rules. When we feel guilty, we judge our behaviour negatively against the rules and standards we hold for ourselves, particularly about behaviour towards others, and we feel responsible. We want to apologise, repair matters, and remind ourselves to live by the values we hold. Recent psychological thinking sees guilt as generally a good thing, as people who feel guilty tend to be empathetic towards other people, understand their perspectives, and they want to repair their relationships with others.

However, there are times when guilt is not so helpful to us or others. For example, sometimes people take too much responsibility for what happened in circumstances where others would not judge them so harshly.

When we feel guilty, it can be good to ask what we are truly able to control and be responsible for, as we cannot necessarily control all circumstances and we cannot control what other people do. We can then repair what we can repair, reach out to other people whom we have hurt and be more conscious of living according to the values we hold.

The emotion of shame, however, is a mixed blessing. Shame is a very painful emotion, which involves judging our whole self as inferior or bad, and perceiving that other people see us that way too.

Some scholars hold that shame serves a valuable function, as shame tells us that we are in danger of being rejected by others. It may therefore impel us to change our behaviour or to repair what we have done. However, this may happen only to the extent that we believe that we can repair what we have done.

Also, people commonly feel shame not because of their behaviour, but because of their appearance or because of things done to them. In these circumstances, shame results from events or aspects of ourselves for which we are not responsible and which we cannot necessarily repair.

As well, whether shame results from our behaviour or not, we can respond to shame in unhelpful ways. People may cope with shame by turning it outwards, being angry and blaming others. Or we may cope with shame by isolating ourselves and hiding from others. So, shame can result in responses of attack or paralysis, neither of which benefits others or ourselves.

The way out of shame is often by means of the opposite of shame, which is compassion. When others treat us with compassion and accept us for who we are, and we learn to do the same towards ourselves, shame can decrease. If shame comes from what we have done, we may then transform shame into guilt, take appropriate responsibility, and return to our values.

There are few more striking descriptions of guilt and shame than King David’s outpouring in Psalm 51, his prayer of repentance. For Christians, as for David, God is the compassionate ‘Other’ to whom we may bring our shame, guilt and regrets, to be restored, renewed and compassionate towards ourselves. In turn, when we can be compassionate towards others, their shame may be lessened, they can feel appropriate guilt, and they may be renewed and may renew their relationships.

A clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr Michael Proeve is an academic at The University of Adelaide. He is co-author or co-editor of the books Remorse: Psychological and Jurisprudential Perspectives, and Remorse and Criminal Justice: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. He has had a long involvement with the Lutheran Church as a congregant and member of church committees.

363

Reconciled to God

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by Rev Dedi Pardosi

When the Bible mentions ‘guilt’, it almost always refers to theological guilt, namely the guilt that arises as a result of violating God’s law. Some Bible scholars say the Bible never separates guilt from sin.

It is very important for Christians to know that the Bible does not emphasise guilty feelings – which are often subjective and may be unfounded – but rather addresses the guilt of sin. Therefore, Christians must be careful not to try to create guilty feelings as a tool to make it easier to change and motivate someone. Guilty feelings should only exist as a normal reaction to our awareness of the reality of sin. For this reason, Christians must be able to distinguish between ‘constructive sorrow’ and ‘worldly sorrow’.

Constructive sorrow or positive grief is a term used by theologian, psychologist and author S Bruce Narramore in his research article ‘Guilt: Christian Motivation or Neurotic Masochism’, which appeared in the Journal of Psychology and Theology in June 1974 and is based on 2 Corinthians 7:8–10. In this passage, the apostle Paul distinguishes between worldly sorrow, which is roughly equivalent to simply subjective guilt feelings and constructive sorrow, which is positive and results in a constructive change in attitude to life.

An example of these two contrasting emotional states could come from a driver who hits a person with his or her car. The driver could experience worldly sorrow, by which he or she may feel guilty, curse themselves and forever refuse to take the wheel and drive again. In this case, constructive sorrow may also lead to the driver feeling guilty but would also see him or her acknowledging their mistake, being willing to receive the appropriate punishment and, where possible, endeavouring to remedy the harm caused.

Indeed, the world often prefers worldly sorrow, because the world is bound with a lust for revenge so that people are only satisfied when guilty people receive a death sentence. But this reality should not be a reason for us to choose such a guilty way.

A great theme in the Bible is God’s forgiveness. The Lord Jesus came as God’s lamb to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29) so that humans might receive forgiveness and be reconciled to God (Acts 5:30,31; Colossians 1:14; Ephesians 1:7).

The Bible often emphasises that forgiveness from God is concerned with important matters such as repentance (1 John 1:9, Proverbs 28:13) and the forgiveness of our fellow human beings (Matthew 6:12 and 18:21). Without repentance, there is no forgiveness and without a willingness to forgive the faults of others, there is no forgiveness from God.

Indeed, faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8; Romans 12:3) from the Holy Spirit, not a virtue of our own standing or works (John 3:3). Without the Holy Spirit’s renewal of our whole nature, we are not aware of our sin and the need for God’s forgiveness. Without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sins.

The proof of repentance is a life under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, which produces the fruits of kindness, generosity, patience and peace (Galatians 5:16,22), namely the main elements that mark the event of forgiveness. PH Monsma, in his article entitled ‘Forgiveness’ says: ‘A person who seeks forgiveness but doesn’t forgive others hardly knows what he/she is asking for and is not worthy of it.’

S Bruce Narramore provides a comparison chart between psychological guilt (worldly sorrow) and constructive sorrow, as follows:

  1. The centre of attention in the first instance is self; in the second it is God and our neighbour.
  2. Thoughts on the problem in the case of psychological guilt focus on the mistakes that have been made; while constructive sorrow focuses on the consequences of mistakes that have been made and corrective steps to be taken.
  3. The motivation behind the actions taken contrasts between freeing oneself from guilty feelings and encouraging others to grow, and doing God’s will (love).
  4. Attitudes towards yourself are angry, hateful, and frustrated versus being deeply concerned or contrite, and loving yourself so that try your best.
  5. The outcome or effect of worldly guilt can be temporary external change, withdrawal from responsibilities, failure repeating itself and self-hatred; while with constructive sorrow, the result can be ‘repentance and change based on an attitude of love and respect’.

By looking at the differences above, between psychological guilt and constructive sorrow, it is clear that what humans need is constructive sorrow and yet this is never perfect in a person’s struggle without God being present.

Indeed, humans can seek constructive sorrow, but without repenting and being reconciled to God, this is groundless and has no clear purpose, so it does not guarantee the resolution of the guilt problem.

As writer Johann Ludwig Konrad Allendorf says in the English translation of the hymn ‘Jesus ist kommen’, ‘Jesus has come! Now see bonds rent asunder! Fetters of death now dissolve, disappear, see him burst through with a voice as of thunder! He sets us free from our guilt and our fear, lifts us from shame to the place of his honour. Jesus has come! Hear the roll of God’s thunder!’

The Bible emphasises very clearly the futility of those who do good apart from the gift of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:20, 9:32, 11:6; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5).

Rev Dedi Pardosi is a pastor of Indonesia’s HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan) church and Director of the National Committee Lutheran World Federation Indonesia (KN-LWF). Previous to taking on this role early in 2022, he was working with the same body’s Luther Study Centre.

364

ALC calls for support

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Australian Lutheran College (ALC) has this month launched its annual appeal with the theme of ‘Encouragement brings students to ALC’. ALC is calling on all members of the LCANZ to support the college with their prayers and gifts – and by encouraging people to serve the church as pastors, teachers and other church workers. You can read more in the ALC publication Saints Alive, included with this month’s print edition of The Lutheran and available to download at www.alc.edu.au/connect/publications/saints-alive

Appeal packs are available in your congregation, or you can donate online at www.alc.edu.au/donate or by using the donation slip in Saints Alive.

365

Global mission leaders gather

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The New and Renewing Churches department of the LCANZ is hosting the International Research Consortium’s (IRC) annual conference in Adelaide this month, including an Open Day. The IRC is an ecumenical group of mission practitioners, scholars and church leaders from around the world who study, reflect on and research ‘missional’ local churches, including new church plants, and the systems that support them.

The Open Day, which will be held on 29 June, will feature the theme ‘Riding the Waves of Change’. Guest speakers will be Rev Dr Ian Robinson, Emeritus Scholar in Mission and Leadership from the United Theological College in Sydney; Dominee Danie Mouton, Executive Officer of the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Eastern Cape in South Africa; Professor Patrick Keifert, of Church Innovations USA and Revd Canon Dr Nigel Rooms, of the Partnership for Missional Church, from the Church of England’s Church Mission Society.

The LCANZ’s Pastor for New and Renewing Churches Nathan Hedt will open the day, while Dr Tania Nelson, the LCANZ’s Executive Officer – Local Mission, will facilitate a panel discussion to conclude the event. For more details, go to www.newandrenewingchurches.org.au/events/

Registrations for the Open Day can be made at https://cvent.me/gekRD9

366

What can I do if my child loses faith?

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by Vicki Rochow

Being a parent is one of the toughest jobs on the planet! Parenting is not an exact science and, in the end, the best we can do is to do our best, and hope it is enough.

Some Christian parents face the burden of their children turning away from their faith and no longer coming to church. You may have done all the ‘right’ things – taken your child to worship, shared your faith at home and encouraged them in their faith journey, and yet they still make the decision to stop believing or they may have an inactive faith.

If this is your story, you may feel you have failed. You may feel grief, disappointment and guilt. God’s solution to the problem of guilt is forgiveness. If you feel guilty about failing as a parent, be assured of his forgiveness. You may need to forgive your child. You may also need to forgive the church for its failures.

ONE FAMILY, TWO DIFFERENT STORIES

One friend shared her story of her two children. One has a rich and personal relationship with God, the other does not. Both children were brought up in the same home, with similar experiences.

But one child received care and love through adult mentors and formed relationships that nurtured and encouraged their faith. The other child did not. One child found a way to contribute to congregational life through their gifts and talents. The other child didn’t feel like they belonged. Did these relationships and opportunities have an impact on faith development?

MANY FACETS OF FAITH DEVELOPMENT

We have learnt at Grow Ministries that to grow our faith we must have a multi-dimensional experience. The faith we learn at home is only part of that experience. As children of God, we are part of a bigger family. Acceptance and love from our congregational family have a major influence on how our faith grows.

As parents, we do our best, and sometimes we fail. Thankfully, God’s forgiveness overcomes our shortcomings. He does not love and accept you because you are a perfect parent. He loves and accepts you because he is the perfect parent!

As a Christian parent, you have been given the amazing gift of faith. Because of that, we trust that God has your child in his hands. Continue to pray for them, encourage, accept and be gracious to them, just as our God is to us. Openly live by grace and do not give up.

BIBLE STUDIES SUPPORT PARENTS

Grow Ministries has a resource for parents who face the heartache of having their loved ones turn from the Christian faith. Called Parents in Pain, it is a series of four Bible studies created for parents to come together to share, support, and encourage one another in a group setting. You can buy Parents in Pain at www.growministries.org.au/product/03-parents-in-pain-2/

Vicki Rochow serves in communications for Grow Ministries.

For more resources that support parents, families and congregations in nurturing faith, go to www.growministries.org.au

367

ALC welcomes new academic dean

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There have been several changes at both governance and leadership levels at Australian Lutheran College (ALC) in early 2022, including a new academic dean and board members.

Dr Stephen Haar, who has served as the college’s academic dean for 14 years, has relinquished the full-time role to begin a transition toward retirement. Lecturer in Education Dr Merryn Ruwoldt, also ALC’s former Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, succeeds Stephen. He will continue to serve ALC as a part-time lecturer and will remain as its vice-principal.

Merryn, who has a teaching background, completed her secondary teacher training in Adelaide at Lutheran Teachers College, one of the three training institutions which merged to form ALC in 2004. Her interest in the history of the relationship between the LCA and its schools and the impact of Lutheran theology on Lutheran schools, led to postgraduate study exploring the dialogue between theology and education. She joined ALC as a lecturer in education in 2011.

At the governance level, a new ALC Board was recently constituted for the current synodical term until 2024. Following appointments made by the LCANZ’s General Church Board (GCB), the new members are human resources and business support leader Sharryn Cook from Queensland, health services manager and former aged-care services CEO Phillip Schmaal from South Australia and LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith, the latter of whom holds an ex-officio position on the board.

Continuing their service are Cheryl Bartel (vice-chair), Pastor Peter Miller (secretary), Pastor Greg Pietsch and Andrew Long. The service of retiring directors Glenine Hamlyn and David Prenzler and ex-officio member LCANZ Emeritus Bishop John Henderson ended when the new board was constituted.

Read the full story and more about Australian Lutheran College in the ALC publication Saints Alive, included with this month’s print edition of The Lutheran and available to download at www.alc.edu.au/connect/publications/saints-alive

368

Most LCA pastors deal with family violence situations: survey

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Almost six in 10 Lutheran pastors in Australia have dealt with domestic and family violence (DFV) situations and all LCA clergy have responded to victims of abuse, national survey findings suggest.

The recently published findings were collated from responses to the National Church Life Survey (NCLS) Leader Survey 2016. Domestic and family violence is a serious and widespread problem in Australia and the full survey findings support the belief that it occurs in all communities, including communities of faith.

Ninety-three per cent of Lutheran pastors who responded to the survey reported having dealt with victims of abuse, by counselling them (82 per cent), referring them to specialist services (68 per cent), and/or conducting a safety risk assessment with the victim (18 per cent). More than half of Lutheran respondents (54 per cent) either had counselled perpetrators, referred perpetrators to a service agency or did both (46 per cent counselled, 25 per cent referred).

Around half (54 per cent) provided marriage or couples counselling in relation to DFV situations. However, NCLS Research suggests couples counselling in such situations is problematic. Victims of domestic violence and support services maintain that couples counselling is ineffective and unsafe, as it fails to address the unequal power in an abusive relationship and can place the victim at increased risk.

Overall, two thirds (67 per cent) of senior local Australian church leaders from 14 denominations and movements who participated in the 2016 NCLS reported dealing with DFV situations.

The full domestic and family violence survey results have been published in a peer-reviewed paper in the academic journal ‘Religions’. The paper, ‘Domestic and Family Violence: Responses and Approaches across the Australian Churches’, reports on actions that church leaders have taken when responding to DFV situations and on views about the approachability of Australian churches for those experiencing DFV. The first Australia-wide, cross-denominational survey study to do so, it is available online at www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/3/270

In 2017, the LCA launched its Campaign for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence under the tagline Hidden Hurts Healing Hearts. Visit the campaign website at www.preventdfv.lca.org.au for more information and resources.

The National Council of Churches’ listing of domestic and family violence resources is at: https://www.ncca.org.au/safe-church-program/domestic-andfamily-violence

GET HELP

If you or someone you know is affected by domestic and family violence, visit www.anrows.org.au/get-support or call 1800 RESPECT (24-hour National Sexual

Assault Family Domestic Violence Counselling Service), or Lifeline Counselling (24 hours) 131 114. In an emergency, call 000.

369

Lutheran Nurses name joint award winners for 2022

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by Bob Wiebusch

The Lutheran Nurses Association of Australia (LNAA) has named joint winners of the 2022 Lutheran Nurse of the Year award – Fred Miegel of Alice Springs and Gillian Mibus of Adelaide. Both have made an outstanding contribution to their profession over many years, including in the past year. The awards were announced last month on International Nurses Day, 12 May.

Gillian is a practitioner at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide and a member of the Australian College of Neonatal Nurses (ACNN). This college has several Special Interest Groups, including one focused on low-resource countries, where there is a high rate of infant and maternal mortality. Helping Babies Breathe is one such program and, using guidelines by the World Health Organisation, ACNN focuses on Papua New Guinea (PNG). Under this program, Gillian has made 10 weeklong visits to remote PNG regions such as Goroka, in her own time and at her own cost, to instruct local midwives and birthing assistants on basic practices to improve health outcomes. Due to COVID, visits were not undertaken in 2021, but the program continued with remote support. Gillian is a member of St Stephen’s congregation in Adelaide.

After arriving in Alice Springs in 1995, Fred was responsible for establishing a palliative care service at Alice Springs Hospital. For many years, he was in charge of this service, recruiting and employing doctors and nurses to provide palliative care in the community and to support hospital staff in delivering appropriate care in a challenging cross-cultural setting. He has also delivered quality palliative care training. Fred was heavily involved in the design and establishment of the stand-alone palliative care facility, which opened in 2018, on the hospital campus. In 2021, Fred received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his years of work in quality palliative care nursing in Central Australia. In 2004 he was named Northern Territory Nurse of the Year in the Acute Services Section. Fred is a leading member of the Alice Springs congregation and served as its chairperson for seven years.

The Lutheran Nurse of the Year award was launched in 2020 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of modern nursing. It recognises faithful and outstanding service rendered by a Registered or Enrolled Nurse who is an active member of a congregation of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand.

Pastor Bob Wiebusch is editor of the Lutheran Nurses Association of Australia’s In Touch publication and a former editor of The Lutheran.

370

Walk My Way on the road for 2022

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Walk My Way is back for 2022 and is already having a big impact on the lives and futures of children living as refugees – with almost $33,000 raised as of 18 May.

Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) is this year again hoping to raise more than $260,000 through its walking challenge – enough to support 10,000 refugee children to go to school. Last year more than $368,000 was donated nationwide, through approximately 4,000 people taking part in the more than 30 events. In 2022, there will be congregational, school and group walks, along with a Lutheran Education Australia-supported schools and community event planned for Friday 21 October. Individuals and families can also take part in their own walking challenge, where and when it suits.

The first group walk of 2022 was staged by Year 9s from Encounter Lutheran College Victor Harbor, south of Adelaide, on 3 May and, as of 18 May, had raised $9,720 to support children in East Africa and Myanmar. Students walked 26 kilometres as a service component of their year-level camps – the boys along the Heysen Trail on the Fleurieu Peninsula, and the girls at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia’s north.

The second group walk for 2022 was organised by members from St John’s Lutheran Church Unley in suburban Adelaide and, as of 18 May, had raised $19,902 to support refugees from Ukraine. St John’s member Jodi Brook said organisers were overwhelmed by the response to the event, which brought together 70 people of all ages and abilities for three walks ranging between 3 kilometres and 7.6 kilometres on the streets near their church.

One of the walkers, Meagan Schwarz, said: ‘We were able to talk to our six-year-old about why we are doing this and to give thanks to God for all the things we take for granted which made this walk possible.’

Community Education Coordinator for Walk My Way, Kirra Lewis, said that since 2019, Walk My Way had helped 62,500 refugee children go to school.

You can still donate to the Encounter or St John’s walking teams, to other walkers or teams, or organise your own walk. See https://walkmyway.org.au for details.