Bernie Banton 1946 - 2007

Farewell Bernie. I am sure God has greeted you with the words "Well done , good and faithful servant". A true Australian hero. In the words of our new Prime Minister. "When so many were prepared to cast you to one side, Bernie Banton, you have been a beacon and clarion call for what is decent and necessary in life and I salute you."
For my friends overseas who may not have heard of this remarkable man the Sydney Morning Herald Obituary

Praise the Lord, Howard is going, going, gone?

I have not posted my views of the election as I was working as a polling official and should maintain my neutrality (though all my friends know my views :-) ). One elderly lady asked me how to vote for Mr Howard and I told her to read the ballot paper (if she does not know he is Liberal, who cares). Another elderly lady asked me for help as she had left her glasses at home and wanted to vote Labor but her husband voted differently so would not help. I gladly assisted :-)
I do not think Labor is the answer to prayers - sadly I never trust a committed Christian like Rudd and I vote Green - but it is a vast improvement over the Howard led Liberal/National Government. I hid my Australian flag when Australia invaded Iraq. Am trying to find it again. However, sadly, the Liberals did not lose due to this abominable action, most Australians no longer seem to care. It seems to have been achieved by the unfair Work Choices legislation that showed Howard in his true light, no real friend of the battler despite his claims over the years.
Hopefully people also saw he had no vision for the future, blind to Climate change and the need for developing infrastructure and education. Hopefully also people were sickened by his treatment of refugees and Aborigines. He pretended to be changing at the last but this was only an attempt to save his miserable neck which thankfully did not work. As I left for work at the Polling booth, the newspaper polls showed a swing back to him and I was deadly afraid, people were believing the scare mongering. My booth traditionally votes Labor and in 2004, we knew Labor had lost as even that booth had voted for the Liberals. This time I had heart as I saw Labor were way ahead and was happy to see my feelings confirmed when I arrived home and turned on the TV. How I hope Bennelong goes to Maxine McKew and Howard is completely kicked out. Hopefully we will soon say goodbye to the pompous ass Alexander Downer(Minister for Foreign Affairs), the buffoon Kevin Andrews (Immigration) and the disgraceful Philip Ruddock (Attorney-General). At least they will no longer be able to do any harm to Australia's reputation. So it is a day of celebration and cautious optimism but my bags are still being prepared for the move to New Zealand.

Bishop Gene Robinson

I have had such an exciting day. I set off to hear Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. First I heard him preach at Choral Eucharist at 11am. Then I wandered the city for a few hours and prided myself that I avoided the temptation to buy any books although I spent over an hour browsing in bookshops.
Finally at 3pm there was a session in which Canon Kearon was to be interviewed by Julie McCrossin who has been a radio interviewer and makes no secret of the fact that she is a lesbian with a partner and children.
I expected and did learn a lot about the developments in the Anglican Communion. However at the beginning it was announced that the 2 men sitting just along from me, visiting in an unofficial capacity were Bishop Gene Robinson and his partner. I nearly fell off the chair. At the end I introduced myself to Bishop Gene and told him how much I admired him. I gave him a potted account of my intentions as a young man to enter the ministry but luckily God showed me, by seeing my parish priest have a nervous breakdown due to his homosexuality, the problems that would develop. Standing with us was our lay preacher and Synod representative from St James who had already told the meeting of the anger he received in Sydney synod as a straight man supporting gays. The Bishop hugged me and asked me to continue praying for him.
During the session Canon Kearon put forward the idea that the World Church needs to have some consensus and that improvements should not come from individual dioceses going on their own. He did regret that discussion had not begun way back in 1978 which would have meant we were now further along in the process.
However speakers pointed out that the ordination of women priests and women bishops had occurred by Dioceses going alone. For those unfamiliar with Australia, the Diocese of Perth was first, closely followed by the Diocese of Canberra-Goulburn. The Sydney Archdiocese tried to prevent (and did delay) the ordination in Goulburn by taking them to court. I attended the ordination in Goulburn, a highlight of my life.
Of course Sydney has no women priests, objects to women bishops and will do anything to stop ordination of gay persons. Perhaps my prayers should be for the Diocese rather than the wonderful Bishop Gene Robinson.

Women Bishops in Australia

At last Australia can have a woman bishop but the Sydney contingent have pushed for alternative oversight "a man on standby for those unable to accept the woman".
Can I have someone on standby because I have no respect at all for the current Archbishop of Sydney and would happily replace him?

Dr Muriel Porter

Three cheers for this wonderful woman. She has organised for the stories of 4 gay clergy to be read to General Synod Anglicans 'fearful' on gays
The Sydney delegates must have blocked their ears at evidence of such sinfulness.
Sad these people could not speak for themselves.
From discussion with friends in the United States, it seems gay people are more visible in the church there but almost completely hidden in politics and public life. In Australia we do have Bob Brown and Justice Michael Kirby and a few in State parliaments while Dorothy McCrae-McMahon is the only name I know in church life.
When Dr Porter preached at St James over a year ago, I had the opportunity to personally thank her for her defence of gay men in the Diocese of Sydney. Unfortunately I was in Queensland when she returned this year and gave the Cable lecture. Her book "The New Puritans" with its outline of all that is wrong with the Sydney Anglican Diocese is a very important part of my library.

Deborah Kerr

Just heard the news of her death, and read the following
"What has happened in 50 years? How did we go from Deborah Kerr, Vivian Lee, Merle Oberon to disasters like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears? American cinema and entertainment is a bad joke."
How True.
and
"Man how times have changed with actors & actresses. Ah, the good old days with Tracy, Hepburn, Gable, Davis, Harlow, Garbo, Grable and others. Wish we could have them back. Rest in peace Deborah Kerr. May God bless you in the palm of his hand. From here to eternity it's now off to eternity. He is waiting for you."
My sentiments too.

Television Programs

In the last 2 weeks there have been 2 programs on TV which have interviewed gay persons. How I wish there could have been such programs when I was young but then homosexuality was never mentioned in polite circles.
Anyway, on Sunday the Australian 60 minutes had a section on
Dads Coming Out
One guy is now happily partnered and still is friends with his ex-wife and accepted by his teenage children. He is very lucky but he talks about being brought up in a homophobic family and society which was the pressure on him to get married. His father's view was
'Gays, poofters, just should not be allowed to live — they should be wiped off the face of the earth'. 'All poofters should be put on a boat, dragged out to sea and sunk'. That is what I lived with my entire life.
Since he has come out his father no longer speaks to him.

What a contrast to the interview on Talking heads
with Jonathon Welch an Australian tenor and choirmaster who has become well known due to a program "the Choir of Hard Knocks" which created a choir out of homeless persons.

He came out to his family at the age of 18. He related:
'I can remember it was a Christmas Day, and I said, "I think I'm gay." And my sister said, "I've known that for years." And I went, "Oh. Well, why didn't you tell me," you know? But my family has been wonderful, you know. They've just loved me and accepted me for who I am. I'm very loved. Very fortunate.'

How much misery is caused by homophobia. How different it could all be.

Gay Students at school

What a wonderful article written by a young gay student
We're here, we're queer, we're still in high school
So different from when I was at school , there was no internet and homosexuality was never discussed and unfortunately it is even different today from some church schools which are suppose to provide a caring environment judging from some of the comments.
In my occasional work at state schools, I have seen openly gay teachers chatting about their situation with their students. Of course anti-discrimination and support is the official stance in state schools and the teachers' union but I am not sure if it is always the case in practice. I was able to be completely open in a senior Catholic school in the 80's but it was difficult. However I still receive some messages of thanks from gay students of that time. Some I knew and could counsel, others remained hidden and only now are able to speak openly of their situation.
The comments are also interesting. Only a few show anti-gay prejudice.

Lutheran Pastors in Chicago

Thanks Davis for recommending Father Jake's Blog and through (encouraged by Davis' comments on another forum) there I was led to the stand being made by Gay Lutheran pastors this week. Please read their stories at A Place Within My Walls.
I can only pray for my Diocese as one of the pastors prays
"I pray fervently for the day when we will be fully welcomed and embraced by the Church for the gifts we are and for the gifts we bring."
Sadly I believe that will be a long time in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.

Meanwhile the bishops of my own Anglican Diocese continue their stand against homosexuality by snubbing the Archbishop of Canterbury
Sydney bishops snub Anglican chief in gay row

It is very difficult to worship in a diocese which rejects people like me. Thank God for St James, King Street and its policy of acceptance for all

Moving article in Herald today
Ninety years to forget, but his bloody war lives on

We visited Ypres in May so it is fresh in my mind

"His membership of that steadily dwindling band of veterans of the war to end all wars has earned him audiences with the Queen and the French Legion d'honneur. A few years ago he was taken to meet a German veteran who had fought opposite him in Flanders. "Nice old chap. A pacifist. Same as me. Why did they suffer, those millions of men?"

The afternoon is wearing on and Patch is tired. He pauses to listen to the children playing. What does it feel like to be the last of those millions, that army of ghosts? "I don't like it," he says. "I sit there and think. And some nights I dream - of that first battle. I can't forget it.
"I fell in a trench. There was a fella there. He must have been about our age. He was ripped shoulder to waist with shrapnel. I held his hand for the last 60 seconds of his life. He only said one word: 'Mother'. I didn't see her, but she was there. No doubt about it. He passed from this life into the next, and it felt as if I was in God's presence.

"I've never got over it. You never forget it. Never."

Also a comment in the movie :”History Boys” seen this week that all the memorials to the dead of the First World War were to salve the consciences of those who started that dreadful unnecessary war. Pity some of our politicians today still do not understand that war solves nothing.