Thanks Tim for drawing our attention to this research within the legal world.

By Monidipa Fouzder4 April 2023 for the Law Gazette (UK)

Defendants who do not ‘swear by Almighty God’ in court are more likely to be found guilty by jurors with strong religious beliefs, a study published today in The British Journal of Psychology suggests. The research has prompted Humanists UK, a group representing non-religious people, to call for an end to defendants swearing an oath in front of jurors.

The research was conducted by Professor Ryan McKay of Royal Holloway, Dr Will Gervais, of Brunel University, and Professor Colin Davis, of University of Bristol.

It consists of three studies. The first study explored whether court witnesses who choose to swear an oath are more religious than those who choose to affirm. Two in 10 who chose the oath did so because they believed it was the more credible choice.

The second study explored whether the type of legal declaration made by defendants in a trial can influence perceptions of their probable guilt. A hypothetical defendant who stood trial for the murder of his wife was perceived as slightly more likely to be guilty when described as choosing to affirm than when described as choosing to swear an oath.

The third study explored whether the type of legal declaration made by defendants in a trial can influence the trial outcome. Participants were sworn in as jurors in a mock trial and 28% chose to swear an oath. Mock jurors who swore an oath found those who affirmed guilty at a higher rate than those who swore an oath.

McKay, who led the study, said: ‘If taking the oath is seen as a sign of credibility, this could lead to discrimination against defendants who are not willing to swear by God. An earlier proposal to abolish the oath in England and Wales was defeated when opponents argued that the oath strengthens the value of witnesses’ evidence. This is ironic, as it seems to acknowledge that swearing an oath may give an advantage in court.’

Humanists UK suggests the oath should either be abolished, with only a secular affirmation allowed, or religious people swear an oath in private in front of court officials, away from the jury.

Richy Thompson, director of public affairs and policy at Humanists UK, said there was no reason why jurors should know a defendant’s religion or belief. ‘Given that prejudice based on religion or belief is still too common in the UK today, it would be best to reform the oath and affirmation system to one that doesn’t reveal this information to jurors,’ Thompson said.

Go to Juror Bias to see the discussion on this work.

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St Lucia Spirituality Group
Newsletter March 2023

Greetings
Our March meeting on Zoom was attended by 13 – even though several of our regular attendees were unable to be present. New faces and ideas are always welcome. We discussed matters raised by Kevin Treston in his discussion paper “Where to now for the Christian Story.” The discussion was thoughtful and wide ranging, including many perceptive insights. If we are to grow in our faith, we must be able to critically question some long held beliefs and determine through our own study and reflection what we believe to be true. That is a sound foundation for an adult faith, isn’t it?

Original Sin or Original Blessing?
The concept of original sin is well known and deeply engrained in our psyche. First proposed by Augustine in the fifth century, it has greatly influenced Church dogma including Atonement Theory, the idea that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Yet this presents a negative view of human development, that even before we were born our character was stained by something we did not do.

In the thirteenth century, an alternative proposition was debated by the Dominicans – who supported the concept of original sin – and the Franciscans who proposed another view based on Genesis 1 – the concept of original blessing. The Dominican view prevailed although the Franciscan view was accepted as a minority view, but rarely taught or publicised. For example, the doctrine contradicts the actual experience of parents who intuitively know that their newly
born children are not born with any inherited moral blight of sin, but inherit a propensity for choosing both good and evil as they mature.

At our April meeting we shall examine the consequences of this focus on sin. Is it any wonder that the pews are emptying? As Richard Rohr writes, “I believe this is the key reason why people do not so much react against the Christian story line, like they used to; instead, they simply refuse to take it seriously.”

We shall also consider the Franciscan arguments for the alternative concept of original blessing and, more importantly, what some consequences on our theology might be if this concept of blessing underpinned our faith.

Butterfly Series – Next Meeting
We shall consider a discussion paper tracing the history of the doctrine of original sin and its impacts along with the alternative concept of original blessing and its potential impacts.
This paper is available on our Facebook page or you can simply email us and we’ll send it to you. There is no obligation to join our meeting.

Our Episode 17 meeting will be held on Zoom at 6:00pm AEST on Tuesday 18 April 2023. Come early to meet the others there. Use this link to join the meeting. The zoom meeting will open at 5:45pm.

To register your attendance, please email John at jscoble@hradvantage.com.au.
If you are concerned about your ability to participate in these zoom meetings, we can accommodate you by simply allowing you to listen. Just let us know.

Book review: The New Spirituality – An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the 21st Century by Gordon Lynch. (2007)

John writes: “Since my retirement from paid work approximately 10 years ago, I have had time to indulge my interest in religion and spirituality. Through my reading, I have developed views that are critical of some aspects of my Roman Catholic Church and a relatively progressive worldview that is accepting of the value of other religious traditions. It is not surprising therefore that I found Gordon Lynch’s book extremely interesting.

Lynch, a Professor in the Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck, University of London, traces the emergence of a new generation of progressive religious thinkers and organisations since the 1950s. He suggests that the term “progressive” religion tends to denote at least one of two things. Firstly, it normally indicates a commitment to understanding and practicing religion in the light of modern knowledge and cultural norms. A second defining feature Is a sympathy with, and often engagement in, green and left of centre political concerns.

His analysis suggests that progressives are a small percentage of the population (between 1% and 3%) and are generally found in groups of less than 100 members or organisations of up to a few thousand. Despite collaboration between these groups and organisations, Lynch does not expect that a new cohesive religion will develop from their common values.”

Christians who hold that the Church is a divinely ordained entity existing parallel to the human condition will resist these progressive views. However, those who believe their faith calls them to actively experience and live life in abundance (John 10:10), will pursue their quest for truth cognisant of the interrelationship between the knowledge of modern science and their experience of religion.

On our Facebook page John has posted a three-page document, in which he has extracted the most salient paragraphs. This may help you to decide whether you wish to read the book.

Our Newsletters & Facebook Page
Do you know anyone who might like to receive these newsletters too? You can contact us by email slsg4067@gmail.com. We invite you to find our Facebook group by clicking on this link, it will take you to our page where you will be able to apply to join.
Go well…
John Scoble & Robert van Mourik

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Whilst individuals are encouraged to make their own decision after carefully reading and thinking about the forthcoming Referendum the Assembly of the UCA and The United Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress meeting last week took a strong position in favour of the YES vote.

The reasons are put clearly in the latest National Update

Go to: “Now is the time for Australians to unite”.

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To be all we can be.

Thank you, John and Robert, for keeping us in the loop on developments at your wonderful group. Your objectives are something we can all take on board. All the best with your plans for 2023.

St Lucia Spirituality Group Newsletter January 2023 Greetings Our December newsletter reflected on the growth of our group and our activities over the last fifteen months. Now, as we look forward, it is worthwhile considering why we engage in these activities. On our Facebook page we rely on Anthony de Mello’s definition of spirituality to mean waking up. “An awakened person no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within. Awareness means to watch, to observe, to understand, to wake up.” To be free. A recent Christmas reflection by John Shelby Spong on Jesus illustrates these characteristics: “He possessed the courage to be who he was. He is described in terms that portray him as an incredibly free man.” “Jesus seems to have had no internal needs that drove him to prove himself – no anxieties that centered his attention on himself. He rather appears to have had an uncanny capacity to give his life away.” “Freedom is always scary. People seek security in rules that curb freedom. So, his enemies conspired to remove him and his threat to them ……. he found in himself the freedom to give his life away and to do so quite deliberately.” “Christmas stories year after year for one purpose only: to worship the Lord of life who still sets us free and who calls us to live, to love and to be all that we can be.” These brief quotes illustrate our objectives, particularly the last: “to be all that we can be” within the context of our faith tradition.  We encourage our readers and supporters to wake up; to be spiritual seekers; to ask questions about their faith; to seek answers through research, discussion and prayer; and thereby to continually grow in their faith. The full text of Spong’s reflection can be found here. If you are interested in pursuing some of these ideas further, an updated and revised version of de Mello’s book, Awareness, is now available as Stop Fixing Yourself: Wake Up, All is Well, available at book depository.com and as a Kindle version at amazon.com. For a comprehensive examination of Jesus as a man, the Spanish biblical scholar José Pagola’s book Jesus: An Historical Approximation is a worthy investment. He addresses basic questions about who Jesus was; how he understood his life; what was the originality of his message; how the vision of the Kingdom of God centred his life; and why he was executed and who intervened in the process. Available at bookdepository.com and at amazon.com. Butterfly Series – Next Meeting Our next meeting will contribute to our overall objectives by exploring some of the characteristics of an adult faith journey. This journey involves the shedding of childish beliefs and actions and replacing them with an adult faith. Through our pre-reading for this episode of the Butterfly series, we will put the spotlight on the difference between a childish faith and an adult faith. We will examine issues such as dependency, the ego, evolution through experience, expansion of one’s worldview and the importance of community. We hope you can join us. If you would like a copy of our discussion paper, simply email us. It is also available on our Facebook page. There is no obligation to join our meeting. Our Episode 15 meeting will be held on Zoom at 6:00pm AEST on Monday 13 February   2023.  To register your attendance, please email John at jscoble@hradvantage.com.au. If you are concerned about your ability to participate in these zoom meetings, we can accommodate you by simply allowing you to listen. Just let us know. Our Newsletters & Facebook Page Do you know anyone who might like to receive these newsletters too? You can contact us by email slsg4067@gmail.com. We invite you to find our Facebook group by clicking on this link, it will take you to our page where you will be able to apply to join. Go well… John Scoble and Robert van Mourik oOo

St Lucia Spirituality Group
Newsletter December 2022

Greetings
It is worthwhile reflecting on what has happened in our group since our first newsletter in August 2021. Our mailing list now numbers approximately 80 and our private Facebook group has grown to 46, a diverse and multi-denominational group. We have held 14 meetings on zoom with up to 10-12 participants, and there is a small group that meets for a monthly breakfast. Several have commented favourably on their experiences participating in our group and how it has benefited them.

Over the course of our meetings, we have considered a range of topics:

• A model of the two halves of life, the second embracing a search for a spiritual life
• The future of Christianity
• Suffering and loss
• An introduction to Ken Wilber’s model of human development embracing waking up, cleaning up, growing up and showing up
• An introduction to meditation and its benefits
• Praying with scripture
• Historical influences on beliefs
• Schisms in the church and
• Understanding the meaning of kingdom of God

More broadly, we have considered the need for a coherent world view and a religious framework that makes sense to us, so we seek to reframe discussion responsive to the need for an adult faith cognisant of current knowledge. Sr Ilia Delio, renowned Franciscan, theological scholar and authority on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, writes:

“At the Center for Christogenesis, we are keenly aware of our fragile world, but we see things from a new perspective.  We see the power of divine love at work, pushing through the limits of the world to shape us into something more beautiful and whole. We see a new role for religion to catalyze our energies, to nurture a zest for life.  We see a role for science revealing the secrets of nature, showing us the incredible and infinite potential of nature to do new things.  We see Science and Religion as partners in the overall flow of life. This is not a dream but our deepest reality. The Center for Christogenesis is committed to a new vision for a new world.  We do not seek to repeat what we have inherited; we seek to build on what we have inherited by looking at it with new eyes and seeing what has not yet been realized. For without a vision, the people perish.” (December 2022, our italics added for emphasis).

Quite appropriate, we think, even exciting for this points to a religious framework that is life giving and fulfilling without seeking perfection or focusing on sin management.

Yet we are also aware of the dangers of holding our beliefs too tightly. Firstly, just as we think the beliefs of two millennia might be founded partially on erroneous knowledge, in time to come, we may well be thought of as ignoramuses!  And secondly, Judy Cannato’s observation in her last book, Field of Compassion, as she was dying with cancer, that holding on to beliefs too tightly leads to judgements that get in the way of love.

That is why we ended our last meeting considering James Finlay’s (Faculty, Center for Action and Contemplation) quote about our loving response to the will of God:

“What is God’s will? All things considered, what is the most loving thing I can do right now? For my body, for my mind, for this person, for this relationship, this family, this plant, this animal. This world, all things considered, how am I going to live my love? “

Thank you

We would like to send out a big thank you to our supporters and correspondents whose reflections, constructive comments and insights have assisted us on our faith journey and have led to improvements in our leadership of the St Lucia Spirituality GRobert <slsg4067@gmail.com>roup.

Butterfly Series – Next Meeting 

Our Butterfly Series is now in recess until next year, our first meeting will likely be late in January or early February, we shall provide more information in our January newsletter. It will continue our theme of exploring adult faith education.

Robert

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Hope our input was helpful.

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Woman calls herself Jesus Christ.

Thanks to Tim O’Dwyer for this article from his reading of the UK Law Gazette. The life of the legal profession is never boring!

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/woman-claiming-to-be-christ-warned-to-stop-using-court-time/5114158.article

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Thanks Dick Carter for sharing this news with us:

New Executive Officer for eLM Victoria and Tasmania Synod

Rev Duncan MacLeod – currently Presbytery Minister, Port Phillip East Presbytery, Melbourne

Duncan was part of the team facilitating the establishment of the UCFORUM in Queensland more than 2 decades ago.

The position is one of the most influential in the Synod particularly because it contains Pilgrim College and the other units involved in the preparation & ongoing education of clergy & also of lay education. He replaces Rev Dr Jenny Byrnes, a good friend of the progressive movement, who is retiring.

The Uniting Church in Australia
Synod of Victoria and Tasmania
Port Phillip East Presbytery
Thursday 16 August, 2022

Dear friends,
I am writing to inform you that Rev Duncan Macleod has accepted the call to become the Executive Officer, eLM (equipping Leadership for Mission), commencing 1 February 2023.
Rev Dr Jenny Byrnes has retired from the eLM EO position, with 30 April 2022 as her last day active in the role. The updated placement profile was approved by the Placements Committee in November 2021. Discernment by the Placements Committee was undertaken and the role was advertised twice, but no appointment was made.

In May 2022, the Placements Committee resolved that the position be classified as a priority placement. This means that the Placements Committee could approach a person still within their first five years in a placement.

Duncan was approached, and after discernment he agreed to enter a conversation. His appointment was confirmed by the Synod Standing Committee at its meeting on Saturday 13 August, and a letter of call was issued
on Monday 15 August. Duncan has now accepted the call.
Duncan will be taking up a significant missional leadership role in the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. eLM is focused on serving and resourcing the presbyteries and congregations, the individuals and groups across the Synod to increase their capacity to engage, lead and thrive as disciples in mission. It has four streams:
• Education and formation for leadership
• Priorities, focus and advocacy
• Relationships and connections
• Marketing, functions and administration

We in the Presbytery of Port Phillip East know that Duncan is well equipped to carry out this role with distinction. He takes on the role with our support and prayers. While we are sad to lose Duncan from his position as Presbytery Minister: Team Leader, we look forward to working closely with him in his new role.

The Presbytery Standing Committee has commenced the process for finding someone to take up the Presbytery Minister: Team Leader role. We will keep you informed of our progress in this important task.

Yours in fellowship
Tom Spurling
Presbytery Chair

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