G20 Radical Christian response.

I feel so good!


This afternoon I spent a few hours with the Radical Christians, as the press referred to them, at the "Third World and Environment Embassy" on Flinders St at the barricades. It was amazing the feeling and cameraderie there, especially that with the police.

I'd been sent an email invitation from Rev. Simon Moyle who is a much better Baptist than I am, a very humble and genuine person who is active in non-violence training and quotes Ghandi often. He doesn't pretend to be some you-beaut celebrity Minister, but has a sincere desire to see positive, constructive change in the world. To contribute more blessing and less damage. I was really happy to meet a whole bunch of other people who have the same agenda. Many are widely read and well educated, being aware of the damage being done by greed, fear and violence in global culture these days.

It was disappointing not to have gone to the festival, but by all accounts it was wonderful.

Melbourne Indymedia carried some reports, but predictably most focused on the sporadic dust ups at a couple of spots. For the most part, the gatherings were quite peaceful, and certainly where we were today the police weren't doing any bashing and we weren't throwing anything. It was very much like I'd imagined it. The Age and The Herald-Sun carried some news of the Christian collective on Friday which was pretty positive. There was also articles about the related Make Poverty History events held over the weekend.

Apparently on Friday the only people present were the Christian group, so they got all the press. It went down very well and there was a fair bit of reportage on tellie from what I heard. Then after Saturday when some idiots turned up at Spring St (what a novelty!) that had the attention of most, especially Channel 9, who as I mentioned yesterday have been absolutely spoiling for some dirt. (Another astounding surprise.)

At the end we were having a chat about summing up and where we felt God was with us during the event, and the atmosphere was incredible. I was looking around at everyone eating together and talking, and it struck me that this is the modern day disciples. Peacefully gathered, standing up for the rights of the poor and justice, sharing together and praying for more blessing and less damage in the world.

What spoke loudly to me was that sometime during the weekend the police had given the folks at the "Third World Embassy" a couple of chocolate bars. When we had an impromptu communion together we broke those to share. Later someone suggested we practise that old custom of everyone shaking hands and passing the peace. Someone else asked are we going to share that with the police? We did. It was great. A couple of them seemed quite happy to participate in that. A couple of others looked a bit embarassed but joined in. I was about in tears! Their politeness and consideration toward us was remarkable.

The feeling of the whole gathering was wonderful, even though some of them had been there for 60 hours including sleeping out. Overnight a few people copped quite a bit of abuse from passing drunks, but some homeless people came and joined the gathering. Possibly because they had so many cardboard boxes to keep warm. There are about 18,000 people who sleep on the streets in Melbourne every night because they're homeless and most of them are mentally ill. Kennett sold the infrastructure that had been in place and Bracks has done bugger all to make it up, so there we are.

Peter Costello made a brief appearance to shake hands with the police, and ignored polite requests from the Christian collective to engage in any discussion or simply accept an open letter explaining our agenda. He snubbed the gathering entirely, one of whom was a member of his constituency in Prahran who was quite miffed. His brother Tim, on the other hand, was out all weekend promoting social justice and fair trade.

Plenty of people stopped to ask about the motive for the vigil, which really seemed to me to be more of a response than a protest or demonstration. A response to a system that has had it's time and not delivered fairness or food to the world, but concentrated control of so much in the hands of so few at the expense of so many. Although we live in one of the richest nations on earth, people sleep on the street at night, drug abuse is epidemic and five people, on average, commit suicide in Australia every day... So consumerism hasn't been the magic cure all for delivering worthwhile lives for us. We need change. We were prepared to fast and pray to demonstrate our commitment to and vision for peaceful, constructive change in society. We desire to create a valid and livable alternative to our current cannibal culture.

Another story told me by those who'd been there all weekend was how a group of Muslims and Jews gathered at one stage, and there was a three way interfaith discussion of global social justice and compassion going on. I wish I had a photo of that. That alone is worth staying out all weekend for!

All in all, other than a couple of episodes of violence and the overnight noise pollution, everyone felt very positive about the contribution they'd made and the spirit in which they'd done it. Ghandi's spirit, and (Christ's!) is alive and well, making the case for fair trade and social justice in Melbourne.

We have plans to do this more in future. It felt like a very practical application of our beliefs to express our wish for justice for the poor and marginalised in the world.

Shalom et Salaam.



Christian
G20
Melbourne