UPTURN 09

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UPTURN 09

• Baptist Community Ministries
• and
• Anglican Action
• Together we can ..

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ANGLICAN ACTION MAHI MIHINAREJustice through
Service

• Justice through Service

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ANGLICAN ACTIONSTANDS FORJUSTICE THROUGH
SERVICE

• ANGLICAN ACTION
• Unites Faith and Treaty in an organisation
• committed to
• flax roots support and challenge
• from the margins
• to an unequal society
• in order to liberate and empower
• WE OFFER HOPE

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Not just another church charity A justice
through service agency

• Archbishop Desmond Tutu lays down the challenges
• I am not interested in picking up crumbs of
  compassion thrown from the table of someone who
  considers himself my master. I want the full
  menu of rights .
• If you are neutral in situations of injustice,
  you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

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KEEPING JUSTICE AT THE HEART OF WHAT WE DO

• Why?????
• Because we take seriously the Christian gospel in
  word and action - the story of liberation
  through justice making, because liberation and
  justice making is what our God is ultimately
  about
• We are a people of covenantal relationships

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The mandate to do what we do

• The Spirit of the Lord is upon us
• WHY
• To bring good news to the poor
• Release to the captives
• Recovery of sight to the blind
• Liberty to those who are oppressed ..

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Claiming the biblical imperative

• There are over 2000 references to poverty and
  oppression in the bible.
• These seem to occupy the mind of God and Christ
  more than any other issue. Some describe it as
  the divine bias.
• The Good News is that the Great Liberator
  lives!!
• Not only in us but more
• profoundly in those walking
• with us along the dusty road

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• Tony Campolo speaks

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HAVE WE SLIPPED INTO BELIEVING THAT POVERTY IS
SOMEHOW NATURAL But in this new century,
millions of people in the worlds poorest
countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in
chains. They are trapped in the prison of
poverty. It is time to set them free. Like
slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural.
It is man-made and it can be overcome and
eradicated by the actions of human beings.
Nelson Mandela
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Muhammad Yunus Nobel Peace Prize winner

• Muhammad Yunus, creator of the Grameen Bank,
  micro credit system that has liberated millions
  (mostly women) from poverty states
• Poverty is not caused by the poor people, poverty
  is caused by the systems, poverty is caused by
  the policies we promote. If we want to address
  poverty, we have to change the systems and the
  policies

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Spirit of God, Search our Hearts

• Injustice is constructed and becomes systemic
  manifesting itself as prejudice, the multitude of
  isms that stereotype people and ultimately deny
  the divinity imprinted through their humanity
• It begins with the search in our own hearts what
  will we be courageous enough to recognise as our
  collective sin enshrined in structure, system and
  policy, own up and give up for the greater good.
• What are the structural implications, the
  practices we choose, the principles that we will
  measure ourselves against?
• ARE OUR IMAGINATIONS BIG ENOUGH

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Remembering our context Our (his)story has
shaped our national character

• The uniqueness of the story of this land
• Te Tiriti o Waitangi A covenant relationship
• The Kiwi egalitarian dream
• The David amongst the Goliaths
• Radical courage Parihaka peaceful
  resistance, womens suffrage, gay
  rights,
  family group conferences,youth justice
  initiatives, anti nuclear stance

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Keep a glocal justice through service
perspective

• Agency to support an overseas aid mission
  fundraise through soup lunches etc
• Write submissions in support of Amnesty
  International
• Only purchase fair trade products tea, coffee,
  sugar, chocolate and gift vouchers
• Bring current international events into a staff
  discussion
• Join the dots between international forces and
  local conditions

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LEADERSHIP THE KEY WHAT IS IT

• Has a SERVANT heart
• Is VISIONARY and engaged in a PROPHETIC life,
  noticing where the intersections between justice
  and service are and living in those cracks and
  crevices the margins.
• Is SACRIFICIAL, not seeking personal gain or to
  feather their nest (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)
• Keeping the dream alive in peoples hearts,
  resourcing, strengthening, inspiring .
• Someone who can join the dots and co create the
  picture, light the path ..
• Is NOT SIMPLY management CEO are not
  necessarily leaders
• Think of some leaders what are their
  characteristics what makes them a leader rather
  than a manager?

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• A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of
  power to create the conditions under which other
  people must live and move and have their being
  conditions that can either be as illuminating as
  heaven or as shadowy as hell.
• Parker J Palmer

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Keep Justice at the Heart of Service

• Upturn 09
• Anglican Action
• September 2009