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15 Feb 2009

A conversation with Ted Mason… It is our pleasure today to bring you a mini-video documentary on the Shalom House of Prayer at Carcoar in rural New South Wales and an extended audio interview with Ted Mason who has recently retired as manager of Shalom and leader of the lay prayer community located there. As editor I see two particular values in the documentary and interview. Firstly, the Shalom House of Prayer in itself is a fascinating lay initiative that's been going for 34 years now — and it pays its way. Secondly, Ted Mason is simply an interesting person. He calls himself "an ordinary bloke" and, in some ways, I think he fits that description from the point of view that I think he thinks a lot of the thoughts that I come across today in people who've seen a bit of life and who have been "mugged by reality" when it comes to many aspects of the spirituality and religiosity we were brought up on. At another level he's far from ordinary. There are few lay people around this nation who would have put in the 25 year full-time commitment that Ted and his wife, Ada, have put in furthering a valuable initiative in adult faith development like this. Enjoy — the video lasts about 5 minutes and I've broken the 50 minute audio interview into segments of about ten minutes duration. We're publishing the first three segments of the interview today and the two concluding segments tomorrow. Brian Coyne, Editor and Publisher [more]