Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has upset some parents of Potter fans by taking part in a stage performance of Peter Shaffer's play Equus at London's Gielgud Theatre. Publicity photos for the play show Radcliffe, 17, topless and buffed. He plays Strang, a troubled stablehand who one night blinds six horses with a hoofpick. The publicity shots were taken between filming of the fifth and sixth Harry Potter movies.

Equus, by Peter Shaffer, is the story of Dysart, a psychiatrist, who attempts to help a young man, Strang, who has an odd fascination with horses. As Dysart exposes the truths behind the boy's demons, he finds himself face-to-face with his own.

Shaffer wrote Equus after hearing of a crime in which a teenage boy mutilated some horses. He play portrays what might have caused the crime. Randy Harrison, who starred in the play in 2005, described Equus as "one of the most significant English-language plays of the past 30 years. Anybody who hasn't seen it or read it needs to, if they care at all about theater or literature."

Equus first opened at the National Theatre in 1973, before transferring to the West End and Broadway for record-breaking runs. It won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play, and in 1977 was made into a film starring Richard Burton as Dysart and Peter Firth (then 24) as Strang. Firth had played Strang on Broadway and in London, winning a 1975 Theatre World Award. The male nudity in the film was notable and controversial, but the film is far more important for its powerful performances and Schaffer's challenging drama. It received a number nominations and awards, but some argue that the play was not well transferred to film.

Here Firth is rehearsing the Strang role for the theatre production of Equus.


Daniel Radcliffe could easily have chosen some post-Potter pap for the next step in his career. Instead, he is to be applauded for taking on such a challenging role for his West End stage debut.

And as he said to The Independent "I couldn't do it with my pants on. That would be rubbish." Err . . . quite.

In the annual Australia Day honours, the Reverend Dr Elizabeth MacKinlay of Canberra was made a Member of the order of Australia (AM), "For service to the welfare of aged people, particularly through the establishment of the Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies, to nurse education, to the Anglican Church of Australia, and to the community."

Well done Liz, and congratulations!

Elizabeth's brainchild, the Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies, was established at St Mark's in 1999 and she has been its director since then. The multidisciplinary Centre's work looks at ageing within the context of wellbeing and meaning in life. It conducts research,education and public speaking on quality of life questions for older people and ethical and policy issues relating to ageing.

Research topics include the spiritual dimension of ageing, social and spiritual isolation in ageing, and quality of life and living with dementia. At the 2006 School of Theology graduation ten graduands were presented with a Graduate Certificate or Diplomas in Ageing and Pastoral Studies.

The Centre has an outstanding record in publishing books and workbooks and conducts very successful, international conferences. In 2006 CAPS organised its Third National Conference entitled Ageing, Disability & Spirituality. Addressing the challenge of disability in later life.

Precious Lord, we thank you for your tender love shown to us in Jesus Christ and the life of sacrifice he taught us. You have brought us together. We claim all your hopes, dreams, and prayers for us.
	By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out your blessing upon us together. Let our love for each other be a seal upon our hearts, a cloak upon our shoulders, and a crown upon our foreheads.
Be with us in our work and our companionship, in our sleeping and in our waking, in good times and through trouble or change.
	Bless our home. Make us worthy of each other's best, and tender with each other's dreams, trusting in your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

In the Church Times 7506, 19 Jan 07, Dr Giles Fraser once again hits a nail on the head.

The Bible is not a legal document

The relationship between Christian theology and law is disputed and complex. Jesus railed against the lawyers for not understanding, and Paul contrasted a faith based on grace with one rooted in law. It would take volumes to discuss it, but even the most unbiased observer should see that the law is not an unambiguously good thing in the Christian tradition.

I would want to go further. I think a legalistic mindset has been deeply corrosive to Christian theology, and particularly to how we read the Bible. It has twisted a book of diverse genres, through which a loving God guides, nudges, inspires, and cajoles human beings towards a greater love for each other and a greater appreciation of the divine.

When someone put in those nasty verse numbers, the lawyers started to feel it was their book--a set of regulations. Chapter and verse started sounding like paragraph 1, subsection 3 of a legal contract. That was the point at which some Christians began to reject the idea that the Bible could be read in various ways, and, worse still, that it might contain contradictions or poetry. Such things would undermine its status as the ultimate legal document.

We may be entering a new age of Christian legalism, as an organisation called the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship has begun the task of interpreting the scriptures for the rest of us and pursuing its theological vision through the courts. It is spearheading resistance to the anti-discrimination legislation now passing through Parliament (News, 12 January). Like many, I want to cry out: "Not in my name."

"All Christians believe, must believe . . ." is how the barrister Mark Mullins confidently began his theological disquisition about homosexual relationships on the Sunday programme. I didn't agree with a word that followed. But, for the likes of Mr Mullins, I am simply not a Christian. I imagine he believes that the sine qua non of Christianity is treating the Bible as a law book. I don't. Unfortunately, Mr Mullins and his legal friends seem to think that the only real Christians are the ones who think like him.

I find the prospect of Christian lawyers pursuing their definition of Christian interests an unappealing one. As a parish priest, I can think of few things better designed to sabotage evangelism in this country than a high-profile campaign defending Christian values, led by smooth Christian lawyers. Perhaps their intentions are entirely honourable, but they need to be told what a sinister impression they give.

. . .but only if it's decent Scotch (or Australian wine).
(Cartoon from Savage chickens. Scotch by Balvenie.)

Urideul-ui haengbok-han shigan [=Our Happy Time]; English title: Maundy Thursday (2006).

Based a book by famed novelist Kong Ji Young, Maundy Thursday is both a tender love story and a critique of capital punishment. The film uses the stolen time between uncertain life and certain death for an unlikely romance between a wealthy but suicidal young woman and a death-row prisoner. Director Song Hae Sung (Failan) and actors Kang Dong Won and Lee Na Young give a delicate portrait of two compelling characters. Author Kong's works usually balance social criticism and popular appeal. She was praised for raising awareness about the abolishment of capital punishment and received a special award from the South Korean committee of Amnesty International.

In the story, university lecturer Yu Jung (Lee Na Young) does not trust her surroundings and does not believe in love. Troubled by a traumatic past, she has attempted three times. At the her aunt's urging, she reluctantly enters therapy and meets convicted murderer and death row prisoner Yun Su (Kang Dong Won). Drawn to each other, two people with no will to live find a new motivation for life: a meeting in the prison chapel very Thursday.

I liked it; the acting was very fine, the photography appealing and the treatment sensitive.

On 1 December severe storms brought lightning strikes but little rain to Victoria's mountains; within 12 hours, there were 80 bushfires. It is 50 days since and fires are still burn over a vast area. More than 1.1 million hectares have been burnt -- an area greater than all of metropolitan Melbourne -- Victoria's fires are no closer to being put out after 50 days than they were after five.

In 2003, 1.12 million hectares were burnt; the worst recorded year for fires was 1851, when a quarter of Victoria, some 5 million hectares, was burnt.

On 20 September 2006 lightning strikes sparked 273 fires across the state. Between October 12 and 14, more than 600 separate blazes burned.

During the 50 days of fire in Victoria, nearly 19,000 fire fighters have been at work, including 14,000 have been volunteers, many of whom have done three, four or five tours -- away from homes, families and employment. Regional economies, especially in the state's north-east, have been devastated. Melbourne has been shrouded in smoke haze.

The most serious threat is pollution of the city's water supply, with the risk of fires in the catchment of the large Thomson Dam catchment, which provides 60 per cent of the city's water storage.

The fire threat remains extreme.

Bushfire prayer Loving God, our prayers today are where our hearts and minds have been all week: with the victims of the bush fires. We pray for those who mourn or are in shock. Those who are injured. Those who have lost their homes. Those whose livelihoods have been damaged or lost. O God, please be with them in their sorrow, and their pain, comfort them and heal them from their injuries, their nightmare memories, and let them find joy, peace, hope and love. Thankyou God, for people who care so much as to step out of their comfort zones to help others in times of great risk. Thankyou for fire fighters, the people who are directing operations, the support agency workers like those in Red Cross and St John's Ambulance, police and emergency services, and all those who are, and will continue to help with the rehabilitation process. God help us all in the weeks ahead for we know the danger is far from over. We ask you to help us in our management efforts and may the containment lines hold and all other control measures work until the rain comes that will extinguish these dreadful fires. Lord, drought is tearing the lives of people apart on four continents, and is the underlying cause of our current disaster, so we pray for forgiveness for any human mismanagement that has made any of this worse. Holy Spirit we most definitely need your enlightenment in dealing with all things, and we pray for your wisdom in our approach to all aspects of environmental management world wide. We pray you will be with all people who are suffering. Help them to find, once again joy, peace, hope and love. Amen. -- by Mr Don MacRaild, an elder in the Uniting Church of Australia in Victoria who has been living close to the fires, near Valencia Creek.

A prayer during bushfires God of mercy and pity, remember all those suffering from the effects of bushfires. Especially we ask for those who have lost homes, animals, possessions. Help us to minister to their needs, and to be sensitive to all who have suffered loss. Heal the distressed, the broken-hearted and the wounded: comfort and sustain them in their need. Give them wise and faithful friends, and courage for the road ahead. Help the firefighters to bring the fires under control and protect them at all times. Sustain them, the support workers and all volunteers, in their myriad tasks, sacrifices and generosity. Watch over all those involved and give them the assurance of your presence. These things we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. -- Bishop John Harrower of Tasmania, adapted from A Prayer Book for Australia pages 205-209

Marketer Carey Sherrell was sacked from the American 'reality' show The Apprentice recently when teams were asked to design a line of men's and women's swimwear, but buyers didn't like Carey's 'skimpy' suit. Trump said Carey's suit was a "loser" -- and fired him for it.



Perhaps the suit didn't sell because it was too 'gay'. More than one suit was on offer by each team. Sherrell talks about it in an interview.

I designed a lot of bathing suits, not just that one. Two of the girls bathing suits and all of the guys ones. ... It's a creative task, it's about being as creative as you want to be. And, what you don't see is me picking out the fabrics, you don't see me designing the guys suits, or saying "Hey, let's come up with three different types of bathing suits for three different sections of America or a broad range of consumers."

You don't see the fact that Trina Turk has a store in Palm Springs and that 70% of the male consumers that shop there are gay. If we know that about our client, why wouldn't we want to bring something to the forefront about our client to help sell it? You don't see that and it comes off as, "Carey's gay and so he designed this bathing suit that would just be about gay people." I designed the women's suits too . . . You don't see the footage of them approving the designs or anything like that. ... It''s hard. It's hard to come off as this guy who just designs small bathing suits, because that isn't the case.

You don't see me, for instance, saying to the team when they tell me to put on the swimsuit that I don't want to wear it and I'm not going to be on the runway. You only see me on the runway, wearing the suit. There was a whole debate to that. I'm not a model, I've never walked down a runway in my life. But, when you see me on the runway, smiling, you think "Oh, this guy really loves his suit." I understand marketing and know that you have to sell it; that's why I'm smiling, although I'm nervous as all get-out. I can't let you see that though, because I'm selling the suit.

Oddly enough, Sherrell will soon launch a swimwear line, Blue Motion Squared. It will be board shorts, by the way. If anyone is prudishly troubled by Carey's offerings, they might try wearing one of these pink numbers from Aussiebum. I'd wear one, if I were about 30 years younger and 30 pounds skinnier.



On the other hand, if pink doesn't suit, there are other possibilities.

The entry path to our home.

Comment (11 Jan 07) from Archbishop Ndungane on Tanzania Primates Meeting - South Africa -- (ACNS 794)

Comment from Anglican Archbishop of Southern Africa, Njongonkulu Ndungane, on the reported threat by some African Bishops that they will not attend the forthcoming Primates' meeting in Tanzania in February because of the presence of Katharine Jefferts Schori, new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA.

Africa is on fire with conflict in places like Darfur and Somalia. Added to this is the life and death struggle against HIV and AIDS, malaria, famine and unimaginable poverty, all of which are creating a continent of orphans. There is also climate change which threatens to bring untold devastation to our continent.

What we need is a united front to bring the needs of the people of Africa to centre stage at every international forum.

Reports of a boycott by some Anglican Archbishops of the Primates meeting in Tanzania because of the presence of a woman, who has been legitimately elected by the church in her country, is like fiddling while Rome burns. Most importantly it goes against God's fundamental call for unity and reconciliation.

I hope it is not the case that Bishop Jefferts Schori's presence is objectionable to some because she is a woman. Women have always been the backbone of Africa and, as an African, I am honoured to welcome her to our great continent.

Well said, Your Grace.

---

News24.com (South Africa, 11 Jan 07)

Johannesburg -- Several African leaders have blasted Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to head the US Episcopal Church, for backing gay clergy and same-sex unions. They have urged Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams not to invite her to a global meeting of Anglican primates in Tanzania. Williams, who admitted this week he was losing control of the divisive debate, insisted Schori meet her critics "face to face" but sought to appease traditionalists by inviting conservative US church leaders too.

The archbishops from Africa, home to more than half of the world's 77 million Anglicans, say they will stop short of an all-out boycott but cannot meet with Schori.

Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said he found it "difficult to share a meeting with somebody who is ... fighting what we believe Scripture is saying. "There is dialogue, this can take place, but I think we have listened to one another enough," he said. A spokesperson for Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola, Africa's staunchest opponent of gay rights, said many primates - heads of member churches - were loathe to meet with Schori. "How that can be done remains mere speculation," said Canon Akintunde Popoola.
[. . .]
Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi has not changed his position since primates from the Global South said in September they could not "sit together" with her, an aide confirmed. Archbishop Benard Malango, leader of the Central African Province including Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, said: "We cannot be in communion with those who advocate ordination of gay bishops in our church."

The South African church, with its strong liberal tradition nurtured during the anti-apartheid struggle and financial links to the United States, is the continent's lone voice in support of Schori and urged unity to fight Aids and poverty.

"[A] boycott . . . is like fiddling while Rome burns," said Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of southern Africa. "More importantly it goes against God's fundamental call for unity and reconciliation."

The National Trust's S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney has a survey exhibition The Art of Chris O'Doherty aka Reg Mombassa. Musician and artist O'Doherty also works as Reg Mombassa. His art is sold by Watters Gallery where he has had a number of sell-out shows since 1975.

Sermon (2005) acrylic, glitters on canvas 90 x 70cm.

Mombassa is known for his funky designs for the Mambo brand, blending humour, music themes and social criticism on religion, the environment and popular culture. His designs gave Mambo overnight cult status, establishing the artist and the label internationally.

Commemorative Tumulus (2005) colour pencil, charcoal on paper 50.5 x 71.5cm.

As Chris O'Doherty, the artist has long been a serious exhibitor of landscape, often with suburban themes. His work is well represented in the Art Gallery of New South Wales as well as the National Gallery of Australia and other important collections. The Victorian Tapestry Workshop has also completed a commissioned a work. During endless touring with the band Mental as Anything, O'Doherty used his spare time to make many sketches and develop a style of Australian and New Zealand landscape. (With his brother, Peter, he now has a band called Dog Trumpet. )

This 1998 work, Fire with fleeing houses (charcoal pencil on paper 32x28cm) encaptures the bushfire threat faced every summer.

A love to hide [Un amour à taire], directed by Christian Faure with actors Jérémie Renier, Louise Monot, Bruno Todeschini, Michel Jonasz, Charlotte de Turckheim is the story of the love between two men in Nazi-occupied France, interwoven with family conflict about patriotism and collaboration.

The Nazis murdered millions of Jews, but also hundreds of thousands of homosexuals, gypsies, mentally ill people and other so-called deviants. The deportation from France was a shameful memory for decades, but is now acknowledged and mourned by a Memorial to the French martyrs of the deportation, on the Île de la Cité which I visited in 1993. As recently as 4 Nov 2006, Richard Waters wrote about the memorial in The Age; "a chilling memorial to one of the most tragic and arguably shameful episodes in France's recent history."

Located on the upstream end of the Île de la Cité the memorial sits low into the ground bordered by a long low wall and a lawn. It is hidden until you approach it and read the words "Memorial to the French martyrs of the deportation; 1945." Slashes form the letters, imitating the stitching of the numbers sewn on the uniforms of concentration camp inmates. The lettering is the the colour of dried blood.

From a gap in the wall, a narrow staircase leads down into a concrete courtyard. The walls are the colour of ash. Where the two longer sides meet is a low opening fronted by a spiked gateway. Beyond, all that is visible are the murky waters of the Seine. It is eerily reminiscent of Traitors' Gate, the ancient one-way entrance into the Tower of London from the Thames.

The courtyard walls loom six metres high, creating a feeling of confinement. Georges-Henri Pingusson, the memorial's architect, designed it to evoke the concentration camp environment, with bare concrete, barred openings, narrow passages and no visible horizon. The memorial creates triangular spaces and patterns, reflecting the symbolic triangle worn by all deportees and coloured according to the classification of each persecuted group.
[. . .]
A narrow entrance off the courtyard leads to a dim inner chamber, with walls of the same bare concrete. The air is chilly. Black triangular recesses are in the walls, each inscribed with the name of a concentration camp, and each containing earth and ashes gathered from that camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, Buchenwald . . . 30 names, 30 triangles.

Inscriptions in the same lettering as on the wall outside line the main chamber. Texts and poems -- by the likes of Robert Desnos, Louis Aragon, Jean-Paul Sartre and Antoine de Saint-Exupery -- recall the deportation.
[. . .]
Facing the entrance is a barred opening, beyond which a long narrow vault stretches away to end in a blank black wall. The body of an unknown deportee lies beneath the stone-flagged floor. The walls glow softly with thousands of tiny yellow lights, representing the deportees who never returned from the east. Two prison cells lead off the main chamber. Visitors peer in, silenced by the blank austerity. No one speaks. The only sounds are the echo of footsteps scraping on the concrete and people sniffing, not all of them just from the cold.

Reading

Richard Plant. The Pink Triangle : The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Owl Books, 1988. 0805006001
Gunter Grau and Claudia Shoppmann. The Hidden Holocaust?: Gay and Lesbian Persecution in Germany 1933-45. Fitzroy Dearborn, 1995. ISBN: 188496415X
Ina R. Friedman. The Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis. Houghton Mifflin, 1995. 0395745152
Michael Berenbaum. A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York Univ Pr, 1992. 0814711758
Heinz Heger. Men With the Pink Triangle: The True, Life-And-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps. Alyson Pubs, 1994. 1555830064
Geoffrey J Giles. Why bother about homosexuals?: Homophobia and sexual politics in Nazi Germany. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, 2001
Rudiper Vismar and Erhard Lautmann. The Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany: Sexual Politics in a Fascist State. Edwin Mellen Pr, 1992. 0889467919
Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany, Robert Gellately and Nathan Stoltzfus (eds). Princeton University Press, 2001. 0691086842
Eugen Kogon. The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them. Octagon Books, 1972. 0374946108
Frank Rector. The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals. Stein and Day, 1981. 0812827295
Ian Young. Gay resistance: Homosexuals in the anti-Nazi underground. Stubblejumper Pr., 1985. 0920869009
Gad Beck, Frank Heibert, and Allison Brown. An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin. (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies) University of Wisconsin Press, 2000. 0299165043
Pierre Seel. I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror. Basic Books, 1995. 0465045006

With permission of © CartoonChurch.com

With the opening of the new Dendy cinemas in Canberra, replacing the great Electric Shadows, James and I have had our own little film festival, with a new film each day. The cinema's offerings exhausted, we then went for some DVDs

The ACT moved to Stage 3 Water Restrictions on 16 December. With daily useage now at an average 201 meglitres, the target is 139 ML -- a reduction of 30 per cent. Dam storage is at 40.8 per cent. In 2006 we received an inflow into our storages of only 12% of the expected average.

Ther have been dramatic hailstorms the past few days and some rain, but we need months and months of steady downpour to ease the drought.




Sprinklers and any watering of lawns is banned, with a once-weekly general exemption. Hand watering is restricted. Washing of buildings and hand washing of vehicles are illegal. Swimming Pools can't be filled, emptied or topped up.

The main observation station at Canberra Airport experienced its second lowest total rainfall on record for Spring with a total of 64.0 mm (average 181.3 mm) with the lowest occurring in 1957 when 46.1 mm was recorded. There were 16 rain days during Spring which was well below the historic average of 30 rain days. Rainfall across the ACT varied from a high of 71.8 mm at Ainslie to a low of 32.8 mm at Mawson. These are the rainfall for the past six months -- way down on the usual; and Canberra is a dry place to begin with.

Jul		Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1	0.4
2	1.2
3	0.2		1.2		12.2
4			10.4		15.6
5	0.2
6
7			3.8
8					2.2
9			2.6
10			0.2
11
12	0.6				0.2	0.4
13					3.0
14					8.4
15	11.0					2.2
16	6.8				0.2
17	1.8
18	0.4			0.4
19				2.2
20
21
22	0.2
23
24	7.6					2.4
25	4.0	0.4	0.2	1.4		0.2
26	1.6	11.2
27	0.2
28
29
30						10.6
31	0.2					0.8
	36.4	11.6	18.4	4.0	41.8	16.6

Meanwhile, satellites have been used to map all of Australia's fresh water for the first time, and the story is a bleak one. In just three years, the continent has lost 46 cubic kilometres of fresh water, or 46,000,000,000,000 litres. Based on current consumption patterns of about 1.5 billion litres a day, the water lost could have supplied Sydney, for example, for more than 80 years.

The discovery has been made using two US and German satellites designed to map all the world's water stocks. GRACE, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment involves two identical craft circling 220 kilometres apart, 485 kilometres up. By repeatedly plotting variations in the tug of earth's gravity, GRACE can estimate changes in the mass of the water below. It will take another five years of mapping before his team could say if Australia's drying was a short-term variation created by drought, or a long-term trend triggered by climate change.

Despite all of this, the Bureau of Meteorology reports that across the whole of Australia, rainfall in 2006 was abou average; but its not falling wherte we need it. Rainfall in the northern tropics was well above average, while the parched southwest and southeast remain dry, year after year.

drought