Easter morning - while it was still dark

Halleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!



On Easter Sunday while it was still dark, I arrived at church to set up for the outdoor Easter Sunrise service on the plaza at the rear of Pilgrim Uniting Church.
We regularly have ‘rough sleepers’ under the shelter of the verandah outside the church office adjacent to the plaza. My arrival while it was still dark caused the person sleeping closest to the door to sit bolt upright and be on alert immediately for impending danger. I reassured him ‘it was just me, you know me, one of the Ministers here in the church’. With that he relaxed, and resettled into his sleeping position. I felt glad that we are able to offer a place of safety and sanctuary and that we know these rough sleepers by name. I went about the work of setting up for the service, and in deference to the sweet soundscape of snoring coming from the rough sleepers, I moved our usual location to one side so as not to further disturb them.
For the service, we gathered around a brazier fire and shared stories. Afterwards, we shared freshly baked damper finished off in the brazier coals, and fish fingers, and tea and coffee. The rough sleepers came and joined us, enjoying the sweet smells of freshly cooked food, and warm drinks after a chilly night sleeping out. It was perfectly normal for us all to be together - those who had warm beds for the night, and those who slept in sleeping bags on the cold bricks under the shelter of the verandah. And some of the rough sleepers generously helped us pack up afterwards.
On Easter Monday, I came across these images of a campaign by Homelessness charity Depaul, which has launched a new outdoor campaign to deliver varying messages about living on the streets to viewers depending on their positioning near the posters. The messages encapsulate two walls across a right angle. When one side is viewed stereotypes and negative perceptions of the homeless arise, but when both walls are visible are more complex picture arises. Quite literally, “there is another side to the story”. (see the two images below - one from a limited perspective, and then the other with a more complete story)
Each of our rough sleepers have their stories - encounters with bureaucracy and welfare agencies, broken relationships, time in prison, drugs and other things that diminish life. And there are many reasons they choose to sleep rough - with all its dangers and discomforts - rather than go through the system to find housing.
The example of Jesus enables us to see that human worth is not indexed to worldly success, and that each person is beloved of God, deserving of care and compassion.

Holy Saturday

These words come from Neryl McCallum, written for this year's Easter Saturday reflection at Pilgrim Uniting Church.
These words lead us through various stages of grief and loss, as is appropriate for Easter Saturday, the in-between space. Perhaps the words might guide you through the in-between space. It is not the whole picture of Easter - that is still to come on Easter Sunday. But it is a moment in time for Mary of Bethany, caught in the emotions of grief and loss, and yet knowing there is more to come.

Mary of Bethany

I have been here before,
In this in-between space,
This space of uncertainty,
This place of grief.
This place where belief and disbelief collide together
Like waves collide against a rocky shore.
Where you're never certain if you're the shore,
Or if you are the thrashing waves.
Perhaps you are both -
Perhaps you are the moment of collision
Wave crashing into rock,
Rock drowned by wave -
Perhaps you are the emptiness in between
When the wave has resided
And the rock awaits another lashing.

I have been here before,
In this in-between space,
This place of uncertainty,
This place of sorrow;
This twilight place of shadow and light
where gloominess reaches out with fingers of grey
to dim and dull the world,
But where everything is illuminated by a golden touch
that brings forth the stars.
Here you feel the creeping grey
yet you are touched by the gold.
And when you look to the sky
you see a radiance of stars,
But you know they are shining there because it is dark.

I have been to this place before,
This in-between place,
Where what is past, has past,
and what remains, is uncertain.
Where what you have loved is gone,
All breath is gone, all heartbeat is gone,
All speech is gone, embrace is gone;
Yet you remain with your breath, your heartbeat,
with speech, but no words to explain
the aching and longing for one last embrace.

I have been to this place before,
This place, terrible place of abandonment.
Where anger dwells at the loved one's choice
To go passively,
Without a fight,
to simply step into a fate
that would be of no use,
bring about no good,
serve no purose,
other than to destroy the belief
he had instilled in us all,
that life is eternal and has no power over death.

I have been to this place before,
This terrible place of fury.
Where I long to scream at those who ran away,
Curse at those who beat him and hung him high,
Shriek at those manipulating politicians,
Who would not make a stand
against what they knew was wrong,
take revenge on those schemers who planned it all.
This is a place of despair where hatred comes easily.

I have been trapped in this place before,
and it was he, who led me away from here,
away from grief and sorrow,
away from anger and fear,
away from despairing hatred.
It was he who helped me rediscover joy,
who taught me to hope again.
I'm not sure I can leave this place on my own,
yet the lingering scent of my bridal perfume
invades my senses,
and tells me there is more to come
and begs me to go. 

Easter is coming.....

Easter is coming.... and Easter eggs are part of the seasonal celebration in many parts of the world.

The DIAKONIA World Federation Executive has had a focus on human trafficking. Did you know that there are real concerns about the role of trafficked child labour in the production of cocao beans? According to an investigative report by the BBC, hundreds of thousands of children are being purchased from their parents or outright stolen and then shipped to Ivory Coast, where they are enslaved on cocoa farms. Destitute parents in these poverty-stricken lands sell their children to traffickers believing that they will find honest work in Ivory Coast and send some of their earnings home. The terrible reality is that these children, 11-to-16-years-old but sometimes younger, are forced to do hard manual labor 80 to 100 hours a week. They are paid nothing, receive no education, are under fed, and are often viciously beaten if they try to escape. Most will never see their families again.
The most effective way to find ethically sourced chocolate is to look for a short supply chain. "Bean to bar" producers who own the entire production chain all the way back to the beans and "Direct Trade" producers whose chocolate comes from single, identifiable origins are ideal. Many companies today who proudly list extensive information on the cacao farms they work with on their labels. There are also several certifications on chocolate labels to indicate a slavery-free supply chain. These include Fair Trade, Equal Exchange, Fairtrade, and Rainforest Alliance (which has an added environmental component -- perfect since the chocolate industry is also guilty of devastating rainforests for plantations and production) (Source: from this article in Huffington Post)

Purchasing ethically sourced chocolate as gifts for family and friends is a great way to discuss important issue around human trafficking and modern day slavery.

(Haigh’s Chocolate in Adelaide (where I live!) have just announced they are the first Australian-owned bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer to achieve international UTZ certification for ethically and sustainably farmed cocoa beans, which includes a zero-tolerance policy towards trafficked child labour. UTZ certification puts Haigh’s at the forefront of a sustainable production program that spans cocoa-growing countries from Ghana in West Africa to Peru in South America. Congratulations and thank you to Haigh’s for achieving UTZ certification and for making their Easter Eggs slavery-free).

You may be interested in the 'Dark Side of Chocolate' documentary - free to download on Youtube.