Gospel Luke 4:14-30 (Coptic Lectionary – Coptic New year 11 September 2022)

Reflection

Jesus returned from the desert in the power of the Spirit teaching the people and in Synagogues the message of salvation. Jesus quoted the passage in Isaiah 61 to declare the anointing of the ministry to proclaim the good news to mankind. Isaiah uses the term “good tidings”, whilst Jesus used the term “gospel”. As churches, we carry the Good News to the communities we serve – five clear statements – heal the broken heartened; liberty to the captives; give sight to the blind; liberty to those oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord. The Gospel is proclaimed in all the churches to the communities they serve so faithfully with dedication and commitment. Let’s reflect on the gospel passage on the current context of the church and the ecumenical council. 

The liturgical year for some churches commences with some significant events in the timeline of their church. In my tradition, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the ancient Apostolic Church founded by St Mark the Apostle, is the Year of the Martyrs – stemming back to the Roman Emperor Diocletian who had a thirst to kill Christians in the land of Egypt in the year 284 AD – this marks the first year of the church’s ecclesial year. This year 2022, marks the 1739 Year of the Martyrs. The church remembers the many past martyrs who died as martyrs in declaring their faith in Jesus. Today the Coptic Church remembers the past and modern martyrs of the church. It is not only the Coptic Orthodox Church that remembers the martyrs – virtually all the churches – a good majority of the Eastern churches and Oriental Orthodox families resonate with the martyrs. The ecclesial year – the church year is different from the secular year. The ecclesial year puts in place the life of the church – the life of Christ in a timeline to remember the significant event of Christ and the saints and martyrs of the church. Up to 451AD, the church considered the saints of other churches as theirs. Therefore, we do have common saints up to 451AD. We need to remember our common heritage of the “One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church” – a term that is commonly used amongst the churches to this day. This is used in my tradition and is used in many other traditions. 

The Council’s AGM is the mark of its new ecumenical calendar. The AGM reports on the work of the Council for the previous 12 months. Its ends and begins with an Executive Committee. There is so much that happens in a calendar year. So much to report – and so much to celebrate on the work of the Executive and Commissions. Yes – the Council has its mandate calling. Through the work of the Commissions – we are a voice to a fragmented society – building bridges where we can and advocating for the marginalized and the broken-hearted. The Council is a small embassy of Heaven. We need to believe, as a Council, that we are doing God’s calling on all five statements listed above. The question is – how can we do it better? How can we promote the work of the Ecumenical Council? How can we foster new church relations and build a cohesive society in the work we do for the Glory of God? What can we – as a Council –  to sanctify God’s work and name for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in the State of NSW and ACT? Glory to God in the Highest. 

In Gratitude

I thank God for the blessings of the past year – for your prayers and pastoral care in a very difficult year that has gone past. Since the last Annual General Meeting till 31 March 2022, the Rev’d Dr. Raymond Williamson took charge whilst I was in the hospital for ten weeks with the Delta COVID19 and a period at home recovering from long COVID-19. I am indebted to the Rev Dr Raymond Williamson who took the helm and responsibility as Acting General Secretary. In that period, there were several events organized and arranged.

Heads of Church Meeting

Over the past year, the Heads of Churches met twice in December 2021 and June 2022. The themes were “Climate Change” and “Post COVID Future Visions for the Church in Australia”. The meetings were hosted by the Lutheran Church of Australia NSW District at Bella Vista, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia at Redfern. The meetings were well attended with good outcomes. The talks and the round table discussions were productive and fruitful. The Head of Church meetings is an opportunity for church leaders to physically meet, exchange, and share ideas, support each other, and network where possible. The sharing of a meal and drinking tea and coffee at the round table. The underlying layer builds a stronger relationship, and it breaks barriers. The Scriptures remind us of Christ’s prayer for unity and love between the brethren – ‘that they may be one’.  Finally, the mode of meetings was hybrid – face-to-face and online by Zoom. It appears having a virtual meeting allows many of the Regional Dioceses, Bishops, and church leaders to attend and participate in the discussion. This has been a great blessing to have hybrid meetings. It appears – future meetings will be Hybrid. 

Supporting Church Relations

The Council had a Mid-Lent Prayer service for peace in March 2022. With the escalating problem with Ukraine and Russia, the Council invited both parties to attend the prayer service that was held to also support the growing conflict experienced by Ethiopian Orthodox Church in their country in Ethiopia.  The service attracted community members from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and from the Ukraine Catholic Church. An ecumenical service was conducted with a Jewish Rabbi representing the Ukraine Jews – Rabbi Zalman Kastel. The event was successful in promoting awareness and advocating for the less fortunate. At the end of the service, Father Justin McDonnell from the Ukraine Catholic Church invited NSWEC and the National Council of Churches, General Secretary, Ms. Liz Stone to attend a service the following day at the Ukraine Catholic Church at Lidcombe. This commenced a new church relationship in building ecumenical relations with the Ukraine Catholic Church.  

Building Bridges with non-member churches

The Council invited two non-member churches to its recent Heads of Churches – the Ukraine Catholic Church (noted and apology) and the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Whilst the Ukraine Catholic Church noted an apology, the two non-member churches were delighted with the invitation and opportunity to participate as observers. The Council is working to have further discussions and conversations with the Ukraine Catholic Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church. 

Interchurch Councils

Over the past years, the Council has engaged with Epping, Mosman Neutral Bay, and Ku Ring Gai Interchurch Councils. The purpose and mission of Inter-Church Councils is to foster local initiatives by local churches. Currently, The Council is aware of three active councils in Ku Ring Gai, Epping, and Hunter’s Hill. It is with regret to report to the AGM the closure of the Mosman-Neutral Bay Inter-Church Council. The Council needs to find a mechanism to support local initiatives and support their work. The Council has reached out to 4 known Interchurch Councils to attend the AGM – 3 in Sydney and the other Regional NSW: Kur Ring Gai; Epping and Hunter’s Hill Interchurch Councils, and Coffs Harbour Council of Churches.

Recent Endeavors

Recently, I attended the inaugural meeting of the Bayside Christian Churches – Local Government Area of Rockdale and Botany. The gathering brought in the Pentecostal, Catholic, Uniting Church, free church, and church agencies serving social justice in the homeless, youth, and outreach. It appears the drive to bring churches is driven by doing activities together. Pre-COVID19 I was engaging with the Combined Liverpool Churches doing a large activity for Christmas at a large park in Liverpool. The founding Pastor passed away and they are no longer active. I contacted another group that was engaging with Combined Liverpool Churches, the Liverpool Christian Church Celebration they have not been active due to COVID19. The third group I have recently engaged with is the Sydney Minister’s Coffee and Breakfast – they meet in the Jardin Café at St James Anglican Church Sydney on the 4th Wednesday of each month. 

It may appear there are ecumenical local groups engaging with the Local Government Areas. 

There are two questions that come to mind. The first question is, what do we do to support local initiatives”? The second question is, how do we reignite the energy back into local initiatives? These will be a challenging endeavor for the next 12 months in developing a simple framework to re-energize local initiatives.

Flyer on Local Initiatives 

The Council thanks Rev Dr Raymond Williamson who took the time to produce a flyer, “Ideas for Local Ecumenical Initiatives”. The flyer is attached to the AGM Report 2022. The flyer highlights the principle and premises of local ecumenism and provides how to start a local initiative and two main annual events in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (21-28 May 2023) and an Ecumenical Sunday in November. The future options to consider within your own church and with other local churches nearby are left to imagination and willingness. The local initiative will foster better relationships between churches and strengthen the bond between churches. 

Post COVID-19

The round table conversation on post-COVID19 at the June 2022 Heads of Church meeting showed that post-COVID19 has had a positive and negative effect. The Heads of Churches raised the downside of COVID19 affecting family relationships. There are mixed reporting from the Sydney Morning Herald article and the with the Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun-Herald, and The Sunday Age providing their own commentary on the effects of COVID-19 on family relationships. The churches are the front liners who meet their community’s needs and resolve family conflicts. The increase in applications for divorce may be due to a rise in family problems caused by stresses associated with the lockdowns and surfaced with pre-existing difficulties in family relationships, finances, and housing to name some, etc. The challenge ahead is to prepare for the coming five years on what may happen – how do we support families and ensure the safety of children?  The second matter raised was the church’s online services. This has been a positive feature to reach out to congregation members who had difficulty coming to church, particularly those who are disabled, housebound, have caring responsibilities, travel issues, etc. Some churches have found it difficult for their congregation to return to face-to-face church services.

Executive Committee

The Executive meets five times a year and has met accordingly – September, November, February, April, and June. During COVID-19, the Executive met via Zoom, and with the relaxing of restrictions, the meetings have been hybrid meetings – face to face and zoom. The meetings were generally well attended with good content discussions and with good outcomes being reached. There is obviously lots of room for improvement, to name two – delivery of reports and the round table engagement of the Executive at the meetings. The Executive Agenda is relatively full for each meeting. One of the many positive features of the President, Rev Myung Hwa Park, has initiated roundtable discussions at the Executive, and the management of its time and positive outcomes. 

Core Group

The Core Group consists of the President, two Vice Presidents, the Treasurer, an Executive Member, and an honorary member. The group is not elected by the Council. The Core Group has assisted in the work of the Executive between meetings of the Executive. I am deeply grateful for their wisdom, encouragement, and guidance.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 

The annual event was held at St Hurmizd Cathedral Assyrian Church of the East. The event was well represented by several churches showing visible unity as the way forward and strengthening the bond and relationship between churches. The homily was given by the President, Rev Myung Hwa Park, who reminded us as individuals and as churches, our role is the life of the Church…the visible unity that we may share in our personal lives and our own personal involvement. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an important ecumenical calendar date. My only hope is for more churches and traditions to adopt the event into their church calendar. I am deeply appreciative to His Beatitude, Archbishop Mar Meelis for accepting the Council to use the Cathedral for the prayer service, as he has been very accommodating over the past few years. The date for 2023 has been set for Sunday 21 May 2023 at St Paul’s Anglican Church Burwood. The church has been booked for the event.

Annual Fund-Raising Dinner

The event was held after the completion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, walking from the Cathedral to the adjacent hall, Eden Venues at the same compound of Assyrian Church of the East Cathedral Greenfield Park. The event was organized by the Fund-Raising Commission. The Chair, Deacon Nishan Basmajian, and members of the Commission worked very hard to make the event a memorable one. After all-expense paid, the fundraising dinner raised $15,221.68. We thank the Fund-Raising Commission for their efforts in raising funds for the work of the Council. The date for 2023 is set for Sunday 21 May at St Paul’s Anglican Church Burwood. 

eBook 

The Theological Reflection Commission has launched the 2nd edition of the eBook titled, “A Celebration of Ut Unum Sint: The 25th Anniversary”. The second edition has an additional four chapters offered by those who presented their paper on 9 October 2021: Doug Hewitt; Rev Josephine Inkpin; Fr Claude Mostowik; and Rev Myung Hwa Park. These four new additions are found at the end of the book. The book has also an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) – ISBN 978-0-6454563-0-1.

Church Agencies 

Over the past period, the Council has re-engaged with several church agencies Examples of agencies: Act for Peace; Australian Religious Response Climate Change; Australian Centre for Christian and Culture (Canberra); Australian Church Women; Edmund Rice Centre; House of Welcome; PAX Christi; Columban Mission Centre; Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network; World Day of Prayer; Well Spring; Lutheran World Service; Uniting Church World; Faith Housing Alliance; Jubilee Australia; State Ecumenical Bodies; National Council of Churches in Australia; Safe Church Program; Interchurch Councils in NSW; and the Theological Colleges in Sydney. These are the main ones. The past two years with COVID19, it has been a difficult period to maintain contact. The purpose of meeting with these agencies is to share common purposes, learn from each other’s work, support one another, and look at organizing common activities. 

Engaging with other Communities

The Council has been engaging with several other communities and organizations that are not core Church Agencies – either belonging to Government, Interfaith or secular. Networking with the organizations has allowed the deepening of understanding in many of the aspects important to culture, language, identity, cohesiveness, and embracing a cosmopolitan society.  Each organization brings a flavor to understanding a segment of society. The member churches and the Council are engaging with broader society. Recently, at the Heads of Churches, its leaders raised the importance of how important it was to show leadership during the COVID19 pandemic. The engagement with the Bhai has led to a deeper understanding of a cohesive society. The engagement of the Abrahamic Conference has led to the importance of breaking barriers and building a collegial understanding of the Abrahamic faith communities of Christian, Jews, and Muslims. The Palm Sunday Committee is a mixture of secular and faith-based communities in support of refugees, and asylum seekers and advocating peace. The Council of Christian and Jews, a Council that brings in two faith-based communities for regular discussions on matters that deepens the relationship between Christians and Jews. Multicultural NSW was instrumental to update NSW Religious leaders on COVID19 and matters relating to faith-based communities in NSW. This forum allows being engaged with other religious leaders from the Interfaith Communities in NSW. Council has engaged with Linking Hearts – an Islamic organization – an alliance of male ambassadors who use their knowledge and expertise to positively impact the sphere of Domestic and Family Violence in Australia. The Council engaged with Together for Humanity for the education of school students in living in harmony with each other – preparing students for the real world of acceptance, respect, and tolerance. The Jewish Board of Deputies engages with the Council with Jewish festivals, events, and the Jewish Museum. In the long term, the relationship is building better relations with key officers of the Jewish Community. The Council engages with the NSW Police, Federal Police, and the city’s Local Police Command from time to time. The Council engages with Government Agencies – such as NSW Ombudsman Office and Children’s Guardian and Local Government Areas. The Council has engaged with Sydney Alliance learning the art of community engagement and involvement at the grass root level. 

PIEN

PIEN is an acronym for Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network. PIEN is a member of the Middle East Commission, and NSWEC is a member of PIEN. NSWEC works closely with PIEN for several member churches that have small communities or presence in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Palestine. In the past, the Council has hosted several guests coming from Palestine to listen to lived stories of the difficulties Christians and Muslims face in the occupied territories by Israel. Israel has slowly occupied Palestine’s land by building settlements and infrastructure for its people. The lived stories tell of discrimination, prejudice, and an apartheid state between Jews and non-Jews. PIEN wants to tell the story as it is. Why should Palestinians who have been living in their land since the time of Christ be asked to leave or forced out of their land due to a lack of education, employment, opportunity, and finding a partner for establishing a family? These matters have become difficult in Palestine. I understand from the Jewish perspective and space – anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, at the events at the Jewish Museum, and the Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration. We cannot forget our Palestine Christian brothers and sisters of Palestine. I thank the Middle East Commission led by Rev Gabby Kobrossi for placing the plight of Palestine as part of their Charter.  In short – the Council needs to do something. 

Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACCC)

This year has seen a change of leadership in the chair and the executive officer of the ACCC. The new Board Chair is the Rt Revd Dr. Sarah MacNeil (Anglican) and the Executive Director, Professor Anthony Maher (Catholic). I had the opportunity to speak with the Executive Director on several matters to see how the NSWEC can work closely with the ACCC. The new vision for the Centre led by Professor Anthony Maher is leading the Centre towards excellence and research. One other area of Professor Anthony Maher’s interests lies in Interfaith, where he is a member of the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta Interfaith Commission, and he has expressed a desire to be part of the NSW Ecumenical Council Interfaith Commission. Discussions is continuing and we do look forward to having Professor Anthony Maher part of the NSW Ecumenical Council as a Commissioner of the Interfaith Commission. Other areas of engagement are being discussed in how both organizations may work for the common good. 

Administration

There are lots of administration matters since the last AGM 2021. They are listed as follows.

Building Valuation 

The Council has received a revaluation of the floor at Level 7 379 Kent Street Sydney. The Valuation received dated 12 April 2022 values the floor at $4.5 Million. This is now reflected in the Council’s Balance Sheet as of 30 June 2022. 

Telephone

The landline phone system is no longer in use. The system now uses an online system to receive calls. The system at Level 7 uses the Zoom online telephone system. The Council’s new telephone number is +61282590819. 

Business Activity Statement (BAS) 

The Council now directly submits its own quarterly BAS statements when due.

Donation links and Tap-On facility

The Council now is registered with PayPal and Square Reader. 

Next 12 Months

Over the next 12 months, the focus will be on:

1. Building relationships with like-minded organizations with the Council’s partners and networks.
2. Visit Member churches in Sydney metropolitan and regional NSW & ACT
3. Working to extend the work of the Commissions
4. Update – new editions of one or two Council’s Books 
5. Working on Local Ecumenical Initiative 
6. Promoting Friends of the Council 
7. Social Media & a New Format on the Council’s Newsletter
8. Connect with University students and Christian bodies, such as the Australian Christian Student Movement, and other University Christian Bodies such as FOCUS (Orthodox)  who have presence in Universities

Once again, I am deeply grateful to the Council for the support I personally received during the period of my illness – from the Heads of Churches, the Executive, the Commissions, and from the Core Group. I am deeply grateful to the Rev Dr Raymond Willimason for the constant telephone calls that I received from him during those difficult days in the hospital and at home recovering.

 

Your servant in the Lord Christ

Very Rev Fr Dr Shenouda Mansour

General Secretary 

17 September 2022