Champions of Freedom #2

This is the second in my three stories about Baptist Champions of Freedom

In my last blog I mentioned King James 1 who was persecuting Catholics and Puritans, including burning heretics at the stake. He was replaced in 1625 by King Charles 1 who began another campaign of persecution against the Puritans.


Roger Williams was a Church of England minister who left the Church of England to become a Puritan because he became convinced in his beliefs of separation of church and state, so after Charles began his campaign Williams and his wife Mary sailed to America. After challenging the government in Massachusetts Bay in 1635 about the way it tried to regulate religious matters and its appropriation of land from Native Americans, Roger and Mary Williams were banished from the colony.


They headed south from Massachusetts to Rhode Island where they purchased land from the local Naragansett Indians and founded Providence where Williams organised the first Baptist Church in North America. In 1652 Williams wrote a pamphlet entitled “The Bloudy Tenent yet More Bloudy” which discussed the separation of church and state. His work on this subject has been credited by US Presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as providing the original influence for the first amendment of the US Constitution.


Just as Helwys, who I described in my last blog, was critical to English thinking about religious freedom and freedom of conscience, so Roger Williams, another Baptist, provided the impetus for fresh thinking about religious tolerance in North America and as a result influenced the decision-makers.

Champions of Freedom #1

Understanding our roots is always important to helping us identify where we come from and guiding us into the future. A couple of years ago I ran a series of posts looking at three people I call champions of freedom.  They were significant people in the Baptist movement and highlight one of the distinctives of the Baptist Church since it began in the 17th century, that of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. I am repeating these stories because I think they're worth repeating.

Born in England around 1550, Thomas Helwys joined an independent church at Gainsborough in England at a time when independence was not looked upon favourably by the church-controlled Government. In 1607 the High Court of Ecclesiastical Commission began putting intense pressure on independent churches and a group of people, including Thomas Helwys, made their way to Holland where the first Baptist Church was established by John Smyth.

After some time Helwys became concerned at the persecution of both Catholics and Puritans that was occurring in England under King James (the guy who authorised the translation of the Bible we now call the King James Version) and in 1612 he decided to return to England shortly after Edward Wightman, a Baptist, became the last person in England to be burned at the stake for heresy. Helwys found a publisher for his book, “A Short Declaration on the Mystery of Iniquity” and dedicated a copy of it in his own handwriting, to King James. The Mystery of Iniquity was the first exposition in the English language to fully express the concept of liberty of conscience and religious liberty for all people, including those who claim to have no religious attachment. Helwys was imprisoned for his efforts and probably died in prison.

Happy Birthday Rosa

If she were still alive, Rosa Parks would be 100 today.

Rosa Parks has been described as the "first lady of civil rights" and the "mother of the freedom movement".

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey a bus driver's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Her act of defiance and the subsequent boycott of buses in Montgomery became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

While history will tell us that Rosa, who was the secretary of the Montgomery branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, did not act independently, there is no doubt that her courage to defy widely accepted practices of discrimination was a personal strength and she suffered personally because of what she did.

The great significance of the civil rights movement was that Rosa Parks' actions and others who championed the cause, like Martin Luther King, maintained that non-violence was critical to their cause. Courage and justice not only involved standing up against discrimination, but doing it in a way that was filled with grace.

On Rosa Parks' 100th birthday it is appropriate that we spend a moment to reflect on courage and justice, which are values held by Baptistcare, and what these values mean for us in Western Australia in 2013.

Beauty and Abandonment

I'm back on deck (woops, I'm using maritime terminology) after two weeks cruising around New Zealand. Although I was out of contact by phone, email or any other form of technology for two weeks, I have to say I did not miss it at all.

While the cruise provided us with some great experiences and some wonderful scenery there was one aspect of the trip that caused us to wonder.



One day the woman who cleaned our rooms on board the luxury cruise liner told me about her son who she hadn't seen for 10 months and her six month old daughter who she had never met. I was curious that she had not met her daughter.

It turned out that her sister in the Philippines was looking after her son and one day a baby girl was dropped at her doorstep in a box. "God gave me this little girl so I will look after it," she told me.

Such situations are not uncommon the Philippines, and someone who has been able to get work on a cruise ship is seen as being more financially secure than most.

Living for two weeks in the luxury of a cruise ship there was something incompatible about the story of child abandonment I was hearing from a woman who maintained her livelihood in "sail-in sail-out" employment.

According to the Abandoned Children's Fund there are more than 20 million homeless or abandoned children in the world today, many of them orphans.

Over the last two weeks I have had the opportunity to appreciate the wonder of God's creation, from the awesome thermal wonderland of Rotorua to the rugged glacier-formed fiords of Milford Sound. But I am thankful that in the midst of this I have been reminded of the vulnerability of human life and the precious gift of love that enables a young mother to take an abandoned child into her family.

This is the world in which we live, and for that I give thanks. 

Being Stewards of our Resources

The year 2013 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Water Cooperation.

The reason for making the declaration according to the resolution of the UN General Assembly is to "emphasise that water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the eradication of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being and central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals."

It also reaffirms "the internationally agreed development goals on water and sanitation, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration" and determines "to achieve the goal to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford safe drinking water, and the goals set out in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation and to develop integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans by 2005, with support to developing countries."

It's a big call but if the developed nations work alongside the developing nations there is a greater chance that these goals can be attained.   We also have our own issues here in WA and the Water Corporation has embarked on a 10 year plan to drought-proof Perth. It's worthwhile reading this document and consider how we can work towards higher levels of sustainability. 

 I may not post about this subject again this year, but if I have helped in some way to make readers aware of the International Year of Water Cooperation, and through that to raise our awareness of an important environmental issue I think it is worthwhile.  

One of Baptistcare's values is Stewardship of the responsibilities in our care, and sustainability at all levels, including water cooperation, is part of that stewardship. Take a look at this website for some tips about how we can be better stewards of this valuable resource.

The Simple Things

Another year has come and gone and the politicians are again giving us positive messages for the new year.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has called for a renewed national spirit and unity and she has pledged to create a better world for future generations. The opposition leader, Tony Abbott is going to deliver jobs and a strong prosperous economy.

We've heard it all before.The promises of hope and prosperity and the calls to get behind our leaders as we march forward into a brighter and better future.

I guess that is better than having them tell us that it is all gloom and doom; that 2013 is going to be a tough year when we're likely to lose our jobs, the economy will go into recession, and politicians will continue to say nasty things about each other.

So let's just hang on to those positive messages for a minute as we reflect on how we do our own planning for the new year. If your plan is to create a better world for future generations you are likely to wind up on December 31, 2013 feeling a little disappointed. But if you plan for more achievable goals you may be better off.

At the risk of being considered simplistic my little piece of new year's advice is: Enjoy the moment.

• Take the opportunity to appreciate the brief conversations you have in passing;
• Look at the flowers, the birds, the trees and the clouds and give thanks;
• Have a theological discussion with a three-year-old;
• Drive slower than the speed limit;
• Say thankyou to someone for no reason at all;

There you go. Simple as they may be, these small goals will help life to be less stressful, and maybe .... just maybe ... you'll be on the way to creating a better world for future generations.

Happy new year.

A Time of Mystery

I remember waking up early on Christmas Day as a child, and in the early morning light silently looking to make sure there was a bulging pillowcase hanging at the end of the bed. Pillowcases, you would realise are bigger than stockings, but in tough times they were probably also cheaper, because there was a supply of them in the cupboard. Whatever mum and dad's financial capacity, they always made sure that Christmas was a special time and the pillowcase was always full of interesting things.

There was a certain mystery about Christmas that I was happy to maintain.  I don't recall Santa ever getting a serious mention, but I did know that mum and dad always acted very strangely on Christmas Eve and were anxious for me to get to bed early.

There is something special about Christmas that I fear we have taken away in our rush towards commercialism, but it is worthwhile, just for a moment, to take a childlike look at this important season.

In a world of economic rationalism and globalisation, a world of climate change and carbon taxes, a world where violence is evident in schools and homes as well as on the battlefield, the story of a baby born in a stable somewhere in the Middle East may seem insignificant.

But it is in this story that we are introduced to someone who had been anticipated for hundreds of years before and whose life and death has influenced society for thousands of years since. This story is not just a blip in history, but the defining story in the lives of those who have chosen to say yes to Jesus. Christmas is a time when I am able to give thanks that Jesus came as a baby, and that through his life and death I have found a purpose and hope.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Christmas to all those who have read my blog this year and to thank you for your support.  While this blog is written specifically for people associated with Baptistcare, it is read much wider than this and it is a privilege to be able to say something from time to time that helps people, wherever they are, to think more deeply about various issues we face in life.

I gave the benedication at our church's Carols night last night. Here it is:

May the Christ of Christmas bring peace in a world where violence is so evident;
May the Christ of Christmas bring joy when sadness surrounds you like a black cloud;
May the Christ of Christmas being hope when you feel that things are hopeless;
May the Christ of Christmas enfold you, and envelope you, and enrich you with his love at Christmas and every other day.
Amen.