TEAR Australia – Speakers

TEAR staff are available to speak at your church or small group. TEAR speakers speak from a Bible based perspective, and include personal experience of issues affecting the lives of our poorer neighbours. Click here for more info.

TEAR Australia – National Conference 2011:

7-9 October 2011, Phillip Island, Victoria

In some of the most desperate, ‘God forsaken’ places around the world, God’s kingdom is breaking in. Releasing the oppressed, giving sight to the blind and unleashing God’s justice. This is good news to the poor and a call for all of us to a new way of seeing and living.

Speakers include Dirk and Nell (Dirk is Director of a TEAR Partner in Afghanistan), Dave Andrews (TEAR National Training Co-ordinator, member of Waiters Union and author of Plan B), Viv Benjamin (National TEAR Advocacy Co-ordinator), Krisin Jack (Former Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor member in Cambodia, now serves as their Asia Co-ordinator and recently edited The Sound of Worlds Colliding), Donna Meehan (Gamilaroi woman and member of the Stolen Generation), Aggrey Omondi (Executive Co-ordinator of Ugunja Community Resource Centre, a TEAR partner in Kenya serving the needs of the local community through awareness raising and sustainable development).
Click here for more info.

UNOH – Open Nights

September 14 with Marita Munro

November 9 with Siu Fung Wu

UNOH Open nights are evenings with some great activist/speakers on a range of challenging topics. To stretch and challange us; to cause us to dialogue and think; to provoke and inspire us. The evenings starts at 7.30, and at 6.30pm there is a common meal for those who can come at that time. (If you do come for the common meal, please bring a plate to share). Location: 2/6-12 Airlie Av, Dandenong (for all the above except July 24)

Costs: No charge but a voluntary offering collected

Contact: Jim Reiher jim@unoh.org

UNOH – Seminars

‘Putting Faith to Work’ with Tony Campolo

Thursday 13 – Friday 14 October, 9.30 am start to 4.30 pm.

This will be an incredible opportunity to explore biblical teaching on putting “legs on your beliefs”. Other speakers include Jim Reiher, Cheryl Catford and Ash Barker.

Cost: $100 or $70 for those on health care cards.

Location: UNOH Centre for Urban Mission: Factory 2/6-12 Airlie Ave, Dandenong.

Booking: Space is limited so please book with Jim- jim@unoh.org

UNOH – Open Dinner

Tony Campolo and ‘Free Burma Cafe’ dinner

Wednesday 12th October, 6.30pm

Come along and enjoy the conversation and the wonderful Burmese food! Find out more about what God is doing with UNOH and hear Tony speak on the topic “Hope for the future”. All funds raised from the evening will go to the work of Urban Neighbours Of Hope.

Cost: $25 Places are limited (to 80) so please RSVP to jim@unoh.org by 5th October. If any dietary requirements, let Jim know that too.

Location:  UNOH Centre for Urban Mission, Airlie Ave, Dandenong.

City Walks for Church Groups

Urban Seed run a variety of walks for church groups exploring a range of different themes.  The walks are designed to bring an awareness of God and His Word not just into our present day context but also our every day spaces, some of these include:

• Gospel of Mark, Part 1: Journey to the Margins

On our ‘Journey to the Margins’ we explore stories of our city of Melbourne, combining them with stories from the first half of the Gospel of Mark. The key theme which we explore is the notion of ‘centres’ and ‘margins’. Where are the central spaces? Where are the marginal spaces? And where is God? We encourage participants to think about how they see themselves in our culture, and where God calls us to be. As we walk around the city, we undertake some exercises in discernment, and encourage participants to take this challenge back to their own locality.

• Gospel of Mark, Part 2: Journey to the Centre

After Jesus took his disciples to the margins and showed them a new way of exploring the world around them, he took them to Jerusalem – the centre of social, economic and political life – to confront the powers. Again, we read stories from the Gospel of Mark in the context of our city and in the midst of what our city represents. We explore the powers our nation is built upon, and try to understand how Jesus might have confronted the powers which rule our society and values today. The disciples still struggle to understand the Way of Jesus! The Way of Jesus ends at the cross. As travellers on a discipleship journey today, we end our walk by sharing together the bread and the wine.

• Laneway Labyrinth

A labyrinth is a winding path (like a maze) that can be found in many old cathedrals. People used to walk the path of the labyrinth as a form of pilgrimage. Many experienced it as a journey toward the divine at the centre of the labyrinth.

The laneways of Melbourne’s CBD make an interesting labyrinth – a public labyrinth, travelled by many people every day, from many different walks of life. This is a contemplative evening prayer walk through Melbourne’s Laneway Labyrinth which usually go for an hour, and are followed by an opportunity to debrief over supper.

• City of Heaven or City from Hell?

This walk starts with a Bible study where we look at how cities are portrayed in the scripture. After this we spend some time exploring our city, and comparing what we find to what we read about cities in the scripture. Afterwards we have some time to debrief what we’ve discovered, and to think about what it means to be a neighbour in the city.

These walks cost $10/head for a group of 10-15 people. The fees for our walks support the work of Urban Seed and are necessary to help cover our costs, however we do not want them to be prohibitive. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this further. For enquiries & bookings information please contact Christop Booth or call (03) 9650 4023.

Christop is also able to offer alt worship station installations which offer opportunities to engage and respond with these and other themes, either in your space or ours. You can check out some of his recent work on sacred space on his blog.