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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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August 2006 |
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Small yet punchyThe first of the Bishop’s Seminars was well-received, writes Andrew Lake The paradox of Tasmania is that even though it seems so small, so bucolic and so far from the rest of the world it has punched above its weight in international connections. Like here in Sorell, where I discovered the first Anglican minister had been a missionary in Sierra Leone. From the Rectory I can see across the street to a memorial to Neil Davis, a local who was famous for his photo-journalism in the Vietnam War. Then there’s our bishop and diocesan registrar who have served as missionaries in Argentina and Pakistan respectively. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the Tasmanian Anglican Church in is taking a national lead in educating people about Islam, or that more than twenty people just from the Evandale-Longford-Quamby cluster of parishes were among the 70-plus who attended the seminars in Launceston. Those of us who attended the northern seminar at St John’s Launceston were impressed by Bishop John’s treatment of Islamic origins and theology, which was both balanced, having been discussed with the Imam of the Hobart mosque, and meaty enough to get us looking at some material from the Koran and Hadith, the very sources of Islam. Tom Wallace used his wealth of educational experience to make sure that we made the most of our time and I enjoyed sharing with the participants my interactions with Muslims in Indonesia. So here in Tasmania we’re showing that ‘it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.’ It is better to seek to understand Muslims than to live in fearful ignorance of them.
Andrew Lake is Rector of Sorell, Richmond and Tasman |
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