Author Archives: Church Mouse

Sydney priest tours rainbow church

By | | Worthy
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St Mary’s Church in South Brisbane is well known for pushing the boundaries of convention in theology and politics. On Tuesday, 22 August, the church filled with the curious, the converted and the faithful to celebrate the Brisbane launch of Ted Kennedy’s book, Who is Worthy?

Ted sat among many Murri friends. The Watson family, singer Dermot Dorgan and the Brisbane Lesbian and Gay Pride Choir combined for an evening of storytelling song and celebration.

Tony Robertson, a self-styled holy irritant and host for the launch invited Ted to cut a cake baked for the occasion. The rousing chorus of … Continue reading →

Ted Kennedy weighs up Irish Christian heritage

By | | Worthy
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On 21 July, at the Melbourne launch of his book about radical Christianity and the views of Archbishop George Pell, Who is Worthy?, Ted Kennedy, parish priest of Redfern in Sydney’s inner city, gave the following address. From Tain Volume 8, September 2000.

I remember as a boy making a trip to Melbourne to visit my aunts, getting off the Cotham Road tram at Studley Park Road, Kew. At its lower end I would see what seemed even then an anachronism – an old cabman with his horse drawn Hansom Cab waiting for a fare to the Kew Asylum. … Continue reading →

Sydney priest challenges Archbishop George Pell

By | | Worthy
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What is modern? what is traditional?

Editor’s comments from Tain Volume 5, June 2000

A wise person will be both modern and traditional, as Terry Eagleton pointed out. While reevaluating the tradition, one can also insist on assessing the latest developments in the light of ancient wisdom. Those who have a strong knowledge of their traditions are equipped to analyse and assess the various developments of the modern world. We are not rootless, we have some points of reference.

Three contributions in this issue point towards some of those anchors, the article on the Tain, that on the Book … Continue reading →

Outlook Book Reviews

By | | Worthy
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WHO IS WORTHY?

Ted Kennedy (Preface by Prof Tony Coady), Sydney: Pluto Press, 2000, pb, 152pp, ISBN: 1864030879, $24.95.

Those like me who have admired Fr Ted Kennedy for years have keenly awaited this book. The fruit of many years in his double role as Parish Priest working amongst Aborigines in Redfern and as support and guide to educated laity gravitating to his Masses there, it draws together ideas that have informed his thinking and marked his preaching for a long time.

A document for reconciliation

By | | Mum Shirl
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In 1991 the Federal Parliament voted unanimously to establish the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation to promote and guide a formal process of reconciliation. One task Parliament set the Council was "to consult Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and the wider Australian community on whether reconciliation would be advanced by a formal document or documents of reconciliation".
Over several years of discussions, consultations and independent research, the Council determined that there is wide support for such a document.
In June this year the Council launched a Draft Document for Reconciliation. The Council has been seeking the views of all … Continue reading →

Guidelines for Appointment of Religious

By | | Our pastors
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Guidelines for Appointment of Religious to Ministry with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Prepared by a Sub-committee of the Founding Forum in consultation with ACLRI Aboriginal Issues Task Force. 1999.

Introduction

These guidelines are offered to Congregational Leaders for use in the appointment of religious to Ministry with Indigenous Australians. They are intended as support and assistance in this task, rather than imposition while at the same time reflecting and strongly asserting a shift in our manner of working with Indigenous Australians.

Funeral of Veronica Green

By | | Homilies
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I‘ve been casting my mind about, during the last few days, asking myself what it is that could possibly express the uniqueness of Veronica Green. I think it is all to do with liberation. She was a woman liberated. Her freedom was entire and irrevocable. And what is most important, it was a freedom which she herself won by dint of personal pain and personal inner struggle – personal experience. And that gave her a possession of an interiorness in the spiritual life which included an uncommon insight into the inner meaning of ordinary people’s lives. It gave her a … Continue reading →

On the Occasion of the Funeral of Shirley Smith

By | | Homilies
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St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney

“Mum Shirl" was born Colleen Shirley Perry on 22nd November 1924 at Cowra. She was born into what many whites accepted as pre-ordained penury. It is significant that even the two surnames she ever bore were borrowed from an alien culture – Perry from Perry’s Circus, and her husband Darcy Smith was assigned his name as a boxing pseudonym. That branch of her grandfather’s proud traditional name, Boney, was destined to be consigned to oblivion. Like the shabby ill-fitting 2nd-hand clothing that aboriginal people are required to settle for, her family was supposed to accept a … Continue reading →