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201

What’s the antidote to loneliness?

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by Richard Fox

According to recent government surveys, one in three people feels lonely. On Messages of Hope in April, Rachel and Emma share their stories of loneliness and where they find hope.

Problems in Rachel’s life led to her being ‘completely cut off’ from people she loved. ‘My marriage ended. My friends didn’t want anything to do with me’, she says. ‘I’d lost my job. I had to start again with nothing. It’s unknown and the unknown is what fear lives from.’

Rachel shares her experience of the unknowns, isolation and lost connections with family and friends. Listen to what she learnt and how she found the strength to face the unknown on Messages of Hope at www.messagesofhope.org.au/fear-to-hope-rachels-story-2

NOT FITTING into ‘SOCIETY’S BLUEPRINT’

Almost 40, with no partner or children, Emma is constantly faced with questions around her single life. She’s also been given plenty of unwanted advice!

She explains: ‘I call it the society blueprint. You finish school, you get a job, you get a partner, you buy a house, children, retire. So, if you don’t fit the blueprint, where do you fit in society?’

Listen as Emma shares how she navigates society’s expectations as a single person, and the hope she has discovered in embracing being single on your Messages of Hope at www.messagesofhope.org.au/single-but-not-lonely

Watch the short video on Loneliness at YouTube.com/Messagesofhope

Pastor Richard Fox is Director of Lutheran Media.

202

Church@Home April 2022

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CHURCH@HOME www.lca.org.au/churchhome

Comfort in difficult times

With many people still facing uncertainty or grief two years into the COVID pandemic, plus the devastation of floods and bushfires close to home and war overseas, we can all benefit from encouraging words, uplifting Scripture and a sense of God’s closeness. Nurturing our faith at home through regular devotions strengthens our relationship with Jesus. We pray that you will be blessed by the devotional materials here and in the Church@Home resources collection online at www.lca.org.au/churchhome

      Lisa 

Psalm 27:4b,5

This only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

DEVOTIONS FOR HOME WORSHIP

These reflections are adapted from a collection of devotions written for our LCANZ family and friends to help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus no matter what we face. You can find the full versions of these and others on the LCA website at www.lca.org.au/daily-devotion 

Comfort his people by Sal Huckel

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God (Isaiah 40:1).

Read Isaiah 40:1–5,11,12.

The headline here is also the words of a very famous aria from Handel’s Messiah. Glorious! As I first read this passage, I was immediately drawn to find the music to listen along to. I strongly encourage you to do the same, with your Bible open. Find an image in the Scripture to meditate on.

What struck me as I listened was the comforting nature of the strings and harpsichord supporting the soloist. The overall effect, I realised, was perfect: Handel has written a perfectly comforting aria to highlight this wonderful Scripture.

We open this passage with an instruction to comfort God’s people. We find later in verse 11 a beautiful picture, pastoral in nature, of the Lord tending his flock like a shepherd, carrying the lambs in his arms close to his heart, gently leading those with young. Let’s think more about this instruction to comfort God’s people. Do we still have this gentle touch, or are we feeling worn and jaded? Do we have the patience and gentleness, fruits of the Spirit, in abundance to care for each other in the manner we see the Shepherd in verse 11 in our mind’s eye?

In these trying days, come back to this picture. Listen to this comforting music; lose yourself in this passage we are likely so familiar with that it can just become a memory verse we skip over as we read. Find a way to slow down – and take in the Lord’s words to you – not least this instruction. ‘Comfort my people.’ Who can you encourage and comfort? As our society becomes so preoccupied with our own individual health and freedoms, whom are we leaving behind? We might be surprised who needs our comfort. Comfort his people.

Lord, where we are too occupied with our own comfort to heed your words and comfort your people, please forgive us. May we remember you are the Good Shepherd who carries the lambs and gently leads those with young. May the fruit of the Spirit grow and flourish in our lives so that we can bring your comfort to hurting people in a hurting world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Praise the Lord and press on by Pastor Joshua Pfeiffer

I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).

Read Philippians 3:12–20.

‘Praise the Lord and press on!’ These are words I’ve heard several times from a much-loved Christian brother in the LCA circles. Some of you probably know of whom I speak. No matter the conversation or circumstances, he almost always leaves on this note: ‘Praise the Lord and press on!’ I find it a simple yet profound Christian encouragement. The temptation is always to look back and dwell on past hurts, sufferings, wrongs, failures and sins. But Christ would have us look forward in hope. He is the goal and prize of our Christian life, so we can confidently ‘praise the Lord and press on’.

This little motto is seemingly drawn from – and inspired by – the Apostle Paul’s words in the verse above. It’s worth remembering in that context that on his Christian journey, the Apostle Paul knew hardship, suffering and obstacles. You can read the full list of these experiences in 2 Corinthians 11:23–12:10. It even appears that as he wrote this very letter to the Philippian Christians, he was, in fact, imprisoned and perhaps literally in chains. Even in these circumstances, he maintains what could be called his ‘holy optimism’, saying not once but twice: I press on.

Paul was under no illusion that he could persevere and gain eternal life by his own strength. He says he can ‘press on to make it his own because Christ Jesus has made me his own’ (verse 12). The ‘goal’ and ‘prize’ he is striving toward is, in fact, a call of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is drawing him graciously to himself. Yet, in the mysterious interaction between the grace of the Almighty God and the redeemed will of the Christian believer, the Apostle Paul does ‘strain forward’ and ‘press on’.

You may be facing situations in your life that hold you back, weigh you down, and even tempt you to give up. Be encouraged: Christ Jesus has made you his own, so whatever you face, you can press on.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the prize of your heavenly call in Christ Jesus. When I am downhearted, encourage me by your Spirit to press on. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

PRAYERS 

APOLLO 8 PEACE PRAYER

Give us, O God, the vision which can see your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.

– Frank Borman, Apollo 8, 1968, from justprayer.org

 

DEEP PEACE BLESSING 

Deep peace of the shining star to you,
Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep joy of the leaping fire to you,
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

– An adaptation of an old Celtic Blessing. By Sister Susan, Nada Hermitage, Colorado, from justprayer.org

Nahum 1:7
The Lord is good … He cares for those who trust in him.

No more quid pro quo by Pastor Noel Due

If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them (Luke 6:32).

Read Luke 6:27–38.

Jesus, as always, puts his finger directly on the spot. His teaching – especially in his parables – emphasises the difference between our normal ways of acting and relating to one another and God’s ways of acting and relating to us. Our default principle is quid pro quo: a favour for a favour. We’re so familiar with the ‘I’ll scratch your back; you scratch mine’ approach to life that we don’t begin to think of how wrong it is. But Jesus exposes the folly.

The real world (that is, in the kingdom of heaven) doesn’t operate by that principle at all. It’s not just that Jesus teaches us about the difference; his incarnation is the proof of it. It’s not just word – but deed. In Jesus, God comes to a hostile world with mercy in his hands and love in his heart. He loves those who hate him (us) and rescues those who despise him (us again).

There’s nothing quid pro quo about that – it is all sheer grace. Jesus’ words expose our tawdry, conditional ‘love’, and his presence reveals the true nature of God and his universe. His death and resurrection enact God’s saving love. We earn none of it. Hell is where quid pro quo rules; heaven is where that principle has been obliterated forever.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that you do not treat us as we deserve. Thank you that your kingdom is so different from our wrong-headed attitudes and actions. Thank you for your kindness to us in Christ. Amen.

Cup full and overflowing by Norma Koehne

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he reveals his glory; and his disciples believed in him (John 2:11).

Read John 2:1–11.

What is revealed about Jesus in this his first miracle? First of all, it reveals him as truly human. Here, he is seen as a man enjoying the wedding of a friend or relative, at home with everyone. These were probably people he had known and worked with, played with and shared in their everyday life.

But he is also different, as his mother realises as she tells him that the greatest embarrassment has occurred, ‘They have no more wine’. What did she expect him to do – go to the corner shop?

Even though Jesus almost rebukes her, she tells the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’, and they follow what must have seemed rather bizarre instructions, filling 6 stone jars with water, 120 gallons in total. That would have taken some time. Then they take the water turned into wine to the master of ceremonies, and it turns out to be the best wine ever.

A miracle to help and save his friends and their family from shame. Jesus shows he is truly God, a saving God.

Most importantly, it is revealed that Jesus, as truly God, gives the best to us and in abundance. Christians are not cup-half-full or half-empty people but are blessed people whose cup is always full and overflowing (Psalm 23:5b). We are triply blessed. We have a loving Father who showers us with his love. We have Jesus, our brother, who gives us his hard-won forgiveness and clothes us with his righteousness. We have the Holy Spirit, our friend and guide, walking beside us every day to strengthen and protect us. Praise God for his abundant goodness!

Loving Saviour, my brother and Lord, thank you that through your saving death, I have life in all its fullness as you shower me with an abundance of blessings. Amen.

203

Joyful reunion for church friends

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The relaxation of Australia’s border restrictions has led to many happy reunions between long-separated family members and other loved ones.

And it was a similarly joyful reconnection between international church friends when Lutheran Church in the Philippines (LCP) President Reverend Antonio del Rio Reyes visited Adelaide recently for the installation of LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith. The three-day visit was President Reyes’ first to Australia, but it offered the opportunity to catch up with Lutheran leaders and members, including Bishop Paul, whom he had met previously, or connected with online.

President Reyes attended the installation as the Asia-Pacific representative of the International Lutheran Council (ILC) and conveyed greetings from the international body and LCP. He also thanked the LCANZ ‘for the love and support you gave to our church workers … at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic’, referring to financial support sent to assist pastors who were without income.

While the LCANZ and LCP are still working towards an official partnership, the two churches have forged a strong friendship. Pastor John Henderson, immediate past bishop of the LCANZ, and Pastor Matt Anker, Assistant to the Bishop – International Mission, are among those who have worked to build on the close working relationship with LCP.

According to President Reyes, the Philippines church’s membership of ILC and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has resulted in an ‘automatic relationship’ with the LCANZ, which is an associate member with both bodies. But, he says, the fruits of the friendship attest to a shared commitment to ‘walk and work together’ for the sake of the gospel and Lutheran Confessions. ‘I look at the LCA as being also a partner in the proclamation of the gospel in doing good works, because in Ephesians 2:8,9 it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your work, it is God’s gift lest you should boast”. And then verse 10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good work”’, President Reyes says.

‘Doing good works collectively as children of God is one thing I look at in this relationship – so we walk together, we work together, we study together and how can we manifest the fruits of our faith together? We have different gifts we can put together and then we work as one body.’

Pastor Matt says he is inspired by the Philippines church for several reasons: ‘The first is the depth of understanding and living in the scriptures and the confessions that I see in their church workers, which then inspires them to be very mission-focused. Secondly, they are so ready, as Saint Peter says, to give a reason for the hope that is in them. That kind of evangelistic passion and readiness and zeal is something that we can learn a lot from.’

204

LCANZ bishop installed

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Pastor Paul Smith has been installed as the sixth churchwide leader for Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand since church union in 1966, in a service of celebration at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide.

Pastor John Henderson, who served as LCANZ bishop from 2013 until his retirement in December 2021, installed Pastor Paul to the role of bishop on 20 February at the same church where the new churchwide leader was ordained in 1988.

At Bishop Paul’s request, South Australia-Northern Territory District Bishop David Altus focused his sermon on St Paul’s words in Galatians 5:1 – ‘For freedom Christ has set us free’. Bishop David encouraged the new church leader with a reminder that God’s saving work through Christ Jesus sets us free to live and work for him, unafraid of making mistakes in our quest to share the gospel.

‘Paul, you don’t need me to remind you it’s a daunting task that you have accepted at the call of the church’, Bishop David said. ‘And God says we are accountable to him, the Chief Shepherd, and the bar goes up a few notches for those of us who would be overseers of his church.’

However, Bishop David said the freedom won in Christ ‘is not an escape’. ‘It’s a gift and a life we can all enjoy together in God’s church and share with the world’, he said. ‘The Christian faith says that in his love, God stepped into our shoes, lived a life of perfect love and then willingly took our place, dying for our imperfect lives. God has already stepped forward and taken your place Paul, and you have stepped into a life of freedom with him.’

In his remarks at the end of the service, Bishop Paul asked for the prayers of the church and highlighted a commitment to servant-leadership in relating his response to Lutheran school students who had asked him what a bishop does. ‘I [explained] that the word bishop was a technical church word for “foot washer”’, said Bishop Paul, who has spent many years as a school pastor as well as being the immediate past district bishop of Queensland.

‘Having just washed his disciples’ feet, our Lord Jesus says, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

‘I ask you to pray for me and for all the people of our evangelical Lutheran Church in New Zealand and Australia and for the people of all Christian churches of the world, that we would gladly serve in the Lord’s name.

‘As we all travel purposefully together in this mission life as the church of the Lutheran witness to Jesus Christ, let us hold fast with joyful hope to our Lord’s sure promise – that he will always continue to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail.’

The service included recorded songs from the Ntaria Choir of Hermannsburg Northern Territory and the St Peters Lutheran College Chorale from Indooroopilly Queensland, and a setting of Psalm 37 written for the occasion by Lutheran Church of New Zealand Bishop Mark Whitfield.

To watch a recording of the service, go to www.lca.org.au/livestreams/

205

Knitting together past and future: the new ALC

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‘Like a piece of knitting, we hold in tension what is already there and what is emerging … who we are and who we are becoming.’

Principal of Australian Lutheran College (ALC) James Winderlich has used a knitting analogy to explain the two guiding principles for the college’s new direction: its identity deeply embedded in the history and life of the LCANZ, and the need to embrace and respond to the diverse needs of a 21st century learning church. Explaining the vision of ALC’s recently unveiled strategic plan ‘Towards 2028’, Pastor Winderlich said, ‘We are not always who we once were, and we need to balance this with who we are becoming and need to become’.

The ‘new ALC’ has been shaped by feedback from members, congregations, leaders and agencies, gleaned from various churchwide surveys in 2021. One key theme was the need to focus on being gospel-centred and knowing how to minister to people. There was also widespread reluctance to move to Adelaide to receive training; this was seen as a ‘deal breaker’.

‘We’ve listened to you, we understand your training needs, and we are responding’, Pastor Winderlich said.

The change of name from Luther Seminary to ALC in 2004 was a major step in promoting the college as the LCANZ’s training institution for not only pastors and teachers but for all people of the church. The new direction builds on progress made in creating learning hubs that equip LCANZ people for mission and ministry wherever they are serving or will serve. A stated aim of the plan is to ‘affirm people in their vocation and reflect the diversity of the contemporary, missional church’.

The days of teaching exclusively via classroom lectures at the North Adelaide campus are long gone. Under the new plan, ALC is embracing practice-driven learning and experience in the field, while ensuring that the college is ‘a safe place for learners (staff and students) to wrestle with questions of theology and faith’, Pastor Winderlich said.

Digital learning capability will be enhanced to engage with learners as they remain connected to the community in which they live, worship and serve. Flexible and responsive learning programs will be key components of the new ALC.

Increasingly, the staff team will reflect the diversity of the communities in which LCANZ people serve.

Cheryl Bartel, vice-chair of the ALC Board, said the changing profile of the church ‘is triggering a need to understand what it means to be inclusive’. ‘We need to visualise what a connected, intercultural learning community looks like, and to value the richness that this brings to our church’, she said.

Reflecting on the recent ALC Festival of Learning, which was held under the theme ‘Speaking Many Languages, Hearing One Voice’, Mrs Bartel said it presented ‘a rich and diverse opportunity to engage with practical theology and contemporary issues’.

‘We need to be proactive and initiate opportunities to be visibly present in the life of the church as it grapples with what a contemporary missional church looks like’, she said.

Pastor Winderlich and the ALC Board encourage congregations, schools and other agencies to discuss their training needs and to share them with ALC.

A copy of ‘Towards 2028’ can be downloaded from the ALC website at https://alc.edu.au/about

206

‘Please keep praying’ for flood-hit communities

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While deadly floodwaters in eastern Australia have receded and the clean-up continues in the wake of the tragedy, praying for affected communities is more important than ever, say Lutheran church leaders in some of the worst-hit areas.

At least 22 people have died as a result of the floods in south-east Queensland, Brisbane, northern New South Wales and Sydney, while the cost of the damage is expected to be billions of dollars.

Hundreds of residents were forced to evacuate from their homes and at least two people died near Gympie, about 170 kilometres north of Brisbane. However, Pastor David Seligmann of Zion Lutheran Church there believes each of his members is safe and none has lost their homes, something he describes as ‘an amazing blessing’.

But, he says, some business owners are doing it tough due to flood damage.

He encourages members of the LCANZ to keep praying for the people of Gympie and everyone affected by the floods: ‘Praying is absolutely the most important thing people can do.’

Like Gympie, the town of Lismore in northern New South Wales has been one of the worst-hit by the disaster. But Good News Lutheran Church president Glenn Faulkner said thankfully none of the congregation’s members has suffered significant losses.

The church property, located on higher ground at Lismore East, is unscathed, and Glenn said the congregation was keen to rent out the building for much-needed office space for the town. ‘We’re just so grateful [that our members are okay] – this flood was two metres higher than the highest ever’, Glenn said. ‘Everyone has gone and done their bit to help out. Yes, prayers would most certainly be appreciated.’

Members of the church are also invited to donate to help Lutherans and their communities (tax-deductible) via the LCA Disaster & Welfare Fund at www.lcadonate.online/lca-disaster-welfare-fund

208

Knitting together past and future: the new ALC

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Principal of Australian Lutheran College James Winderlich says there are two guiding principles for the college’s new direction: its identity deeply embedded in the history and life of the LCANZ, and the need to embrace and respond to the diverse needs of a 21st century learning church.

209

Because we bear your name

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Bishop Paul’s letter

Rev Paul Smith
Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand

When I became the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, North Adelaide, some of the parish folk told me the story of the recent time when the church building had been broken into. The thieves took the historic ‘mission field’ crucifix from the altar. Thankfully, after a statewide appeal, it was returned. The story told to me was one of the confident witness of God’s people: ‘They can never take the cross out of the church.’ The members would explain to me that even though the crucifix from the altar had been stolen, the sign of the cross was still everywhere: on the paraments, on the font, on the doors, on the pastor, on the charity box at the door, even on the front of each of the hymnals.

We cherish this sign that the Lord has placed over human history as his seal of promise that we have a God who is gracious and merciful. A God who will suffer and die for the forgiveness of sin.

For Martin Luther, the sign of the cross was central to his passion in seeking to reform the church. In one of his early writings, Luther invites us to become ‘theologians’ of the cross. This is when we take stock of everything around us through the lens of Jesus’ death on the cross and through suffering. Martin Luther suggests that when we do this, we will be honest about the world and about ourselves. We will see more clearly sin at work in the world and in our own selves.

When I entered the Lutheran Church through St Peter’s Lutheran College in Brisbane, I was helped to reflect on this way of the cross through the architecture in the chapel building. The St Peter’s college chapel has a large cross at the front in the sanctuary, starkly positioned in front of a plain white wall. This is God’s marker over all time. But then in the private prayer chapel on the side of the main space, is an almost life-size carving of the Lord’s body in pain on the cross. This is the space where I kneel alone before this image of my Lord and confess, ‘He has done this for me. He has done this out of love for me. He died while we were yet sinners, out of his love for the world’.

As I write to you, Lent 2022 is near. In this third year of COVID-19, we are deeply aware of human frailty. We are reminded daily that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We have images on television and our personal devices, showing that human greed and power reign throughout the world as we see places where people are too poor to have access to hospital care and life-saving ventilators. Lent is the season to be ready for the message of the cross, on Good Friday. Historically, Lent was the season of preparation for people who were ‘catechumens’ – that is women and men preparing for baptism. These folk fasted for 40 days, as Jesus did in the wilderness, to be ready for their baptism over the Easter weekend.

Lent eventually became a common tradition for Christians in many places. In our modern society in New Zealand and Australia, fewer people celebrate Lent. However, for many in our schools, aged-care communities and other similar places, ‘Pancake Tuesday’ (or Shrove Tuesday) has become a bit of a regular festival. However, as with Halloween, there is often little awareness of the significance of the pancake tradition. (It was to eat up fatty foods before the fasting of Lent.)

I believe the popularisation of Pancake Tuesday is a gift to the people of the church. It’s an opportunity to be ready to give a good account of the hope within us, of the gracious work of God in the way of the cross. It can help us to bear witness to our faith at work in the Lenten journey, that ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life’.

Your fellow in Christ,
Paul 

‘Lord Jesus, we belong to you,
you live in us, we live in you;
we live and work for you –
because we bear your name’

210

What it’s like to bear the scars – and how can we do better?

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by Lisa McIntosh

Those who have felt the pain of racism know that the hurt can run deep, and the scars can last a lifetime.

And it’s not just on the sporting field, at the pub or in the classroom that people are subject to hate-filled physical attacks, spiteful slurs or pointed snubs. Racism is everywhere. And whether it is perpetuated individually or institutionally, it is deeply personal to people on the receiving end.

So how can we as individuals and as a church do better in this space?

Dora Gibson, a Thuubi Warra First Nations woman from Hope Vale in Far North Queensland, believes the answer lies in people of different races and cultural backgrounds getting to know each other on a personal level.

‘We just need people to get to know us as an individual, not as a stereotype’, says Dora, a lifelong member of the Lutheran Church and a former teacher who today works with an employment agency helping young people become job-ready. ‘Treat us as a person, treat me as Dora. Get to know people.’

Dora and her husband, Trevor, run cultural workshops in Hope Vale when COVID restrictions allow and she says an example of the power of personal connections came through the visit of high school students from Melbourne last year during NAIDOC Week, which celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

‘They came and lived with us, they saw what we did, they took part in our activities and saw firsthand that it’s not all that bad living in the bush and experiencing living off the land’, she says. ‘Later one of the boys said, “I’m glad we came. You opened our eyes to something we didn’t even know existed. I’m just so thankful that I was given the opportunity to come and see everything firsthand”.’

Having lived much of her life in a community that has a majority of Indigenous people, Dora says most of the racism she has encountered has been what she describes as ‘institutional’. ‘That’s why we were placed in these missions’, she says of former government policies that segregated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in places like Hope Vale. ‘That’s the onset of what I believe is when we were treated as a minority and treated as a stereotype, “Oh, you’re living in a mission”.’

‘Then as we were growing up, we were expected to live with white people down in the cities, so we were sent away, as part of assimilation. That was when they were trying to make us white, in the early 1970s to 1980s’, says Dora, whose secondary schooling included several years at Concordia Lutheran College at Toowoomba.

Of course, a further government policy involved the removal of Indigenous children from their families – people later known as the Stolen Generations. Dora believes the responsibility for that tragedy lay at a systemic level, rather than with people involved in carrying out the policy. ‘You have to feel sorry for them because in their mind they were trying to do the right thing’, Dora says. ‘But it was very detrimental to our whole race.’

During her time working for the local council engaging parents of school-aged children with teachers and schools in the district, Dora also encountered institutional prejudice. She says many people expect a teacher to be a white person and it was assumed that she was the ‘helper’ to a young white ‘teacher’ she was with. In fact, their roles were reversed.

While such attitudes have been painful for Dora, her response is incredibly gracious. ‘It’s not their fault. It’s not deliberate. It’s just the mindset’, she says. ‘It does make you feel inferior though. If it wasn’t for the colour of our skin, it would have been different.’

She says her Christian faith has helped her forgive the injustices, but she doesn’t forget the lingering hurt.

However, Dora is hopeful that a growing appreciation of First Nations culture, country and language in Australia can usher in a change in opportunities and a positive sense of identity, particularly for young people.

She is also buoyed by ongoing efforts within the church in reconciliation and making worship more inclusive of Indigenous culture and language. ‘It was through the church that our written language was kept alive, so that’s a big thing. The gospel was read in our Guugu Yimithirr language as well as in English. And still, we do that here, we have hymns in language.

‘Just little things can make a difference. It doesn’t have to be big. You start from that, and from little things big things grow.’

Unlike Dora, Indonesian-born Ani Sumanti has only lived part of her life in Australia – since 2013. But she, too, has experienced the hurt and harm of racism – ‘lots’ of times.

A qualified pastor in Bali’s Presbyterian Church, Ani has been serving as a lay worker at Pasadena Lutheran Church in suburban Adelaide since 2016, as well as ministering to the Indonesian Christian Fellowship which meets there. For the past few years, she has also been working as an aged-care carer, having undertaken studies to better support her late mother, who had dementia before she died last year.

Before joining the staff at Fullarton Lutheran Homes in 2021, Ani worked at a community-run aged-care home outside of Adelaide. There, she says, other staff yelled at her if she didn’t immediately understand them, ignored her, were rude to her and treated her as beneath them, due to English being her second language.

‘Sometimes if I didn’t understand something, their words, they would raise their voice’, says Ani, who began English studies in Australia in 2015. ‘And it was very painful for me; I was crying because I found it shocking. Why would someone not explain first what they mean rather than yell at me?

‘Some of them just ignored me, didn’t talk to me, and made me feel like they put me on the bottom, not the same level with them.’

Ani, who has also experienced negative ‘looks and body language’ when needing assistance with language while shopping, says an Asian-born Muslim friend has told her of the discrimination she has experienced, too. ‘She told me it’s very hard to find a job because they are not accepting someone who wears a hijab and maybe they’re a bit scared because they had heard news about radical Muslims’, Ani says.

‘And my friend said it’s very painful and very sad for her because people are not accepting, not welcoming for her.’

However, Ani, who endeavours to gain a greater understanding of Australian culture through talking with her Australian husband Mark Mosel, doesn’t find such behaviour difficult to forgive.

‘We see this of people in the world everywhere, some are arrogant, and some are humble’, she says. ‘I come from a culture where we care for each other, where the community is more important rather than yourself, but here I find the culture more individual. So that’s why I need to adjust. And then I just try to forgive rather than accept bad thoughts in myself which is not healthy for me.

‘We are all people. We just want to respect each other, just accept that we are different, but we can work together.’

Like Dora, Ani believes that listening to and building relationships with people of different cultural and racial backgrounds is the key to eliminating racism. ‘We need to sit down together and to understand each other, rather than be judging’, Ani says. ‘Maybe we can learn from other cultures and even learn a bit of their language – there’s a door we can build a relationship with. They may be struggling in their life, for their family or how to survive here. We need that attitude everywhere.’

How can we be inclusive?

We have sisters and brothers in Christ from every race and nation. And God may place not-yet Christians of different cultures in our lives, too. So how can we better welcome, include and embrace these fellow (and future) members of God’s family?

Here are a few simple ideas:

  • Educate yourself by reading from reputable sources about the culture, race or nation of the people you meet, including about the local First Nations people.
  • Learn people’s names correctly – check the pronunciation and spelling, and have pen and paper handy so that they can write it down for you. Addressing people by name shows that you respect them.
  • Learn a greeting in the language of the person you have met. LCA Cross-Cultural Ministry is preparing a 40-language friendly phrases booklet entitled ‘Heart Talk’. Email craig.heidenreich@lca.org.au or sign up to CCM eNews at www.lca.org.au/ccministry-signup
  • Get to know people, ask them about themselves and what their interests are. When we get to know people, we are less tempted to buy into stereotypes.
  • Make a welcome sign for your church or school that includes a welcome in the heart languages of the people in your neighbourhood.