On Sunday 15 May the Dominican Family gathered to start reflecting on the topic of mission in preparation for the national gathering in November.
After gathering prayer Lyn Smith led a session that spoke of JUSTICE, MISSION AND TRUTH. There was a call to take a stand for what we see as injustices in our world. We were encouraged to think about what the situations of injustice were in our own community … child abuse, family violence, homelessness, working poor and families living in cars and shipping containers were all concerns that have been in the news over the last week.
We watched a clip on family violence prepared by the NZ Herald:
The following session took us through a practical session where we explored through role play how it would feel to be the victim of family violence …. and in a second roleplay … how it would feel to be the perpetrator of abuse? We were raising consciousness and this led us to think about what changes were necessary. We talked of individual responsibility and corporate/community responsibility to seek the truth. Could we as the Dominican Family have a role to play in sparking intelligent conversation? How might we engage people in conversation so that the best decision possible can be made at the time.
- Affordable housing
- Climate change
- one in ten families in South Auckland don’t have their own accommodation (eg couch surfing) or are living in a garage or shipping container
- 200-300 children dying each year as a direct result of poor housing
- Why do we have working poor in a country that is so blessed?
We need to educate ourselves … to study and reflect. But we must act as well. We must be be people who have the courage to walk with those who are struggling, those who are afraid. We asked the question how do we enable people? We will continue this conversation at our next meeting – likely to be early in October.
