THE leaders of the nation's three major churches see the economic downturn as a chance for Australians to boost their sense of community. In his Christmas message, Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell called on people to remember at Christmas those who had lost their jobs. Cardinal Pell said that bad times often gave people a jolt and caused people to check their priorities.
"The world is not as it seems at first glance and Christmas is a time for us to renew our sense of wonder," he said. "Not just wondering how the international captains of finance could have got it so wrong, but wondering about the daily blessings we take for granted: friends, family, a decent society and our way of life.
"The world's fulcrum is not the financial centres of New York's Wall Street or London's City, but a cave in Bethlehem. The most important currency is not the dollar or the euro, but loving service."
Cardinal Pell's Anglican counterpart, Peter Jensen, said he feared for the immediate economic future, and that many people seemed to have "lost the plot".
"We have so favoured casual and transient relationships, personal independence, frantic work practices, that we are now ill-equipped to deal with some of the tough times ahead," Dr Jensen said.
"Tough times require powerful life skills, learned from God, often through families.
"But what if we have chosen not to learn them? We are going to have to change our ways. What do we need? We need to connect with God in 09 through Jesus."
But aside from preparing for tough economic times, the church leaders also found several inspirational stories in the past year in Australia.
Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall, also the Archbishop of Brisbane, recalled the way the community pulled together after storms hit the Queensland capital in November.
"People responded not because they thought they should, or as some kind of future insurance policy, but because, nudged by the spirit of God, when we see fellow human beings in pain our inclination is to hold out a helping hand," he said.
Uniting Church president Gregor Henderson spoke of a church hall at Auburn in western Sydney, situated directly beside an Islamic School, that had been burnt down in the aftermath of the Cronulla riots three years ago but rebuilt this year.
"The fact that the hall is right next door to an Islamic school suggests that the arsonists either made a mistake in their target or that they wanted to attack Christians," he said.
"Regardless of the motivation, the result was that the Muslim and Christian communities in Auburn rallied around the Uniting Church, raised funds for rebuilding, and reinforced the fine history of positive relationships between the two faiths in that part of Sydney."
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(Source: TA)