Something a little different today — a video post…

Dear Friends,

For something a little different today I've published a video blog on the forum responding to some of the posts and recent commentaries. It's experimental at this stage but check it out and let us know what you think. The idea came to me after a long video conversation last night with Dr Kania at Oxford and I'd dearly love to have some way of recording some of these conversations I have with him as I think they would generate a lot of interest. Unfortunately there's no easy way to record the skype conversations at this stage and one of the limitations of video is the bandwidth that is required. My wife and co-publisher is in America for 12 days, partly to promote her new cd, and I include a sample at the end of the video as well as some background on her trip. <Watch the video on our forum>

Our lead commentary from Dr Ian Elmer today is really interesting. He looks at the learning and intellectual sophistication of the early Christian leaders and particularly St Paul. Is it a myth that Jesus chose simple, unsophisticated folk as the leaders for his movement? Dr Elmer explores some of the evidence... <Link to Ian's commentary>

Christian theology and Aboriginal spirituality… Daniel Gullotta in today's commentary explores the challenges involved in inculturating, or enculterating, Christian theology into Australian indigenous cultures and spirituality. Thsi essay was originally written as part of his theology studies at ACU. <more>

Transforming our lives through a breakfast 'eucharist'… With the continuing crisis in vocations, the reality is that the opportunities to participate in the Eucharist are declining. Fr Kevin J Murphy is a priest in a rural Australian diocese which has been in the news in recent days because the shortage of priests is becoming acute. His reflection today wasn't written to address that crisis albeit that in the future we might be forced more and more into finding new ways of "living our faith". It is a gentle reflection that invites us to transform every meal into a small 'e' eucharist — a time of transformation in our lives. <more>

What sort of Church do we want? Today's Wednesday Forum endeavours to extend the discussion that Dr Andrew Kania triggered yesterday in his lead commentary. Andrew is seeking to have the Latin Church show more respect for the Eastern "lung" of Catholicism but many of us in the West are coming to have a growing disenchantment with the thought police and those who support them in high places in Rome who think they are God also — or they sincerely believe they have been appointed by God as the only authentic interpreters of "the Divine mind". The discussion starter today comes from Paul Kelly, a reader of Catholica in the United States who is also a friend of Robert Blair Kaiser. Paul takes up the arguments of some valuable stuff we in the West can learn from the autochthonous Churches of the East. <more>

Can the Eastern Churches offer us anything? Today we re-publish what is probably Dr Kania's most provocative commentary ever. "Breathing Deeply, With One Lung", was one of the first pieces that Dr Kania published after he returned to Australia from his studies in Uppsala, Sweden. The article has been published many times in various journals in Australia and overseas, and is probably the piece that Dr Kania is best known for. Recently it formed a major part of the educational material published in Australia for WYD 2008, regarding the structure of the Catholic Church. The article has become the point of reference for much that Dr Kania has written since on the Eastern Catholic Churches. As such it forms good background reading for a piece that Dr Kania has written for the forthcoming edition of The Tablet. <more>

7.2: Women and Leadership… Concluding Part 7 of Tom Lee's manuscript, today's excerpt examines the role accorded to women in the early Church and how it gradually became subverted at later points in history. It also has some valuable observations on the role played by the early community leaders — the bishops and presidents of the local communities. <more>

A Family Wedding… Tom and Elaine McMahon's son, Tommy, married Phuong Nugyen on July 8th. His commentary today explores a complex mix of the personal and the communal, the secular and theological. The underlying focus continues to be this exploration of the meaning of Sacrament in the vastly changed, and changing, world we occupy today. <more>

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life or in our world!

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher