Current Issue

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

EDITORIAL 3
A PRAYER FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WORLD
by Lizzy Maddox 5
COLOUR IS THE SECRET TO EVERYTHING:
AN INTERVIEW WITH IDRIS MURPHY
by John Foulcher 6
DIVINE PROVIDENCE 2.0 by Fergus McGinley 13
PRAYING ON THE MOUNTAIN by Liz Jakimow 19
VALÉ STEPHEN FRITH by John Foulcher 22
THE HIDDEN HALF OF HISTORY by Rita Glennon 24
‘CONCLAVE’ AND THE ELECTION OF
CHURCH LEADERS by Colleen O’Reilly 27
CENTRING by Sanjeev Sethi 31
REFLECTION ON THE COMMON GRACE
CONFERENCE ‘LET JUSTICE FLOW’ NOVEMBER 2024
by Karen Hartas 32
EREMOS INFORMATION AND MEMBERSHIP 35

EDITORIAL

Over forty years ago, Woody Allen began his satirical ‘My Speech to the Graduands’ this way:

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.¹

It’s grimly amusing, but it feels a bit like that right now, doesn’t it? It’s hard to view the world hopefully at the moment. Brutal wars drag on in Gaza and Ukraine and many other places, and a new American administration threatens to abandon traditional democratic societies in courting the world’s powerful autocracies. 

America has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement and its president is pretending there are no rising emissions and there will be no consequences of unchecked use of fossil fuels. In chasing an ideological fantasy, America’s leaders seem determined to plunge the world into economic uncertainty. 

Everything seems transactional: what can I get, not what can I give. Shared moral and social values seem to be crumbling. Even here, far from most of the world’s major conflicts, we seem to be polarising: attacks on Jewish and Muslim peoples by extremists are increasing, and our politician leaders seem at a loss to know how to combat rising social tensions. Who can blame them?

In a recent interview with Joe Rogan, the American talk-show host, Elon Musk – unelected bureaucrat committed to slashing the role of all unelected bureaucrats in America’s government except himself – suggested that the biggest threat to Western civilisation in the 21st century is ‘empathy’: ‘The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,’ he said. ‘They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.’² 

So who are these hordes of scheming ‘theys’ trying to exploit us? People not like us, of course. And what’s the point in trying to put ourselves in the place of people who are not like us?

§

There was a popular slogan in the 1970s: ‘Think globally, act locally.’ Never has it been more apposite. As difficult as it may be, we have to keep one eye on the world, but if we seem unable to influence global affairs, we can act ethically in our own communities. We can care for each other, live as simply as we can, we can continue to share our personal finances with those less fortunate than us. We can care for our own small plot of the planet, avoiding the use of environmentally damaging products.

We can empathise with people who are not like us.

§

So what. specifically, does all this mean for people with Christian faith? In this issue of EREMOS, Fergus McGinley and Liz Jakimow consider prayer. What does it mean to pray, as we are called to do, and to pray effectively? Both of these insightful articles offer us a way of flourishing, a way embodied in the prayer that opens this issue, written and read by Lizzy Maddox at Sunday worship at Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney early this year.

How do we choose our spiritual leaders? Colleen O’Reilly reviews the film Conclave and looks at the issue of election if a new bishop in the Melbourne Anglican church. How do we work for justice? Karen Hartas reports on the recent Common Grace conference in Canberra and reflects on the ways this organisation is encouraging Christian people to work towards a more just society.

And what do the arts have to say to this world? Sanjeev Santhi and Rita Glennon contribute delicate and challenging poems, while nationally renowned landscape painter Idris Murphy talks of the connection between faith and art, and the holy value of beauty. 

Perhaps, in our own small ways, we’re not that powerless after all.

§

Have you ever read an article in EREMOS and felt you’d like to have your say about it? Perhaps you’ve been excited by an article, or annoyed, outraged perhaps. Well, now’s your chance. Following a recent discussion with some of our members, we intend to return to a practice that was commonplace in an earlier iteration of EREMOS – letters to the editor.

We’d love to hear from you and we’d love to publish your feedback to anything that’s spiked your interest in the magazine. EREMOS is not about us, it’s about you. So don’t be shy, send your letters. And, of course, contributions in the form of articles, poems, reviews and visual images and anything else you think appropriate are always welcome. Let’s hear from you!

JOHN FOULCHER
Editor

1 Woody Allen, Side Effects, New English Library 1981

2 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/elon-musk-rogan-interview-empathy-doge/index.html