Researcher, Consultant & Non-Executive Director
South Sydney Uniting Church #wecandobetter A service of hope and lament for people seeking asylum Uniting Church members and friends gathered on 27 November at Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney for a Service of Lament and Hope for people seeking asylum. The texts for the service were Psalm 137 and Matthew 25:31-46. The service was … Continue reading In the midst of grief, agents of hope
This is the speech I delivered at the Let Them Stay Rally organised by GetUp! at Sydney Town Hall on Monday 8 February. There were about 4000 people there all calling on the Government to change our harsh, punitive and abusive treatment of people seeking asylum.
This is a short reflection I offered at the Love Makes a Way ‘Carols for Compassion’ event on 10 December 2015, outside the Sydney offices of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
The parable of the Good Samaritan from the Bible (Luke, chapter 10) has become common place and almost clichéd in Christian conversations about the current Australian Government’s increasingly cold-hearted and abusive responses to asylum seekers.
On the 23rd November, on a storm-drenched afternoon, during a moment of sunshine, a few hundred people from Uniting Church congregations gathered at Circular Quay in Sydney to unveil a giant quilt in an act of public liturgy.
One of the risks for preachers in running with the lectionary for services of worship designed to address a special issue or theme is that the readings just don’t work.
Every person who arrives by boat seeking asylum has a story. Over 90% of asylum seekers who have arrived by boat over the last 15 years or so have been granted protection, so you can be sure that these stories include tales of hardship, violence and persecution.
Acting Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, members of the Council, Staff of the University, Families and Friends of Graduates, and most importantly, Graduates, it is a great privilege to have been invited to give the Occasional Address at this graduation ceremony tonight.
It’s good to be preaching this morning but I wish I’d paid more attention to the readings for the day before I set the date with Andrew. My heart sank when I realised this was Transfiguration Sunday.
In all the outcry about the broad exemptions granted to faith-based organisations in the Government’s draft anti-discrimination legislation, the fact that there are some faith-based organisations that think differently about such matters has been largely overlooked.
Elenie Poulos PhD GAICD 