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Katherine Waite

Mar 09
0

Hon Dr Ken Crispin’s Speech: Voices and Values in the Public Sphere

By | Apologetics, Past Forums

 

The Hon Dr Ken Crispin QC spoke at the Christians for an Ethical Society forum on 19 February 2020 on the topic ‘Voices and Values in the Public Sphere’. His speech is available to download and read.

Audio files from the event are now available to listen to as well.

 

 

  1. Introduction and welcome by David Hunter
  2. Invitation by Hazel Davies to attend a yarning
  3. John Warhurst introducing speaker
  4. Address by Ken Crispin
  5. Question 1: To what extent have political leaders like Trump brought about a change in how society regards questions of right and wrong?
  6. Question 2: Rise of antisemitism in the context of the alt-right
  7. Question 3: How is it that a decent society has taken such a hit?
  8. Question 4: Effects of raising age of criminal responsibility & scope of Integrity Commission
  9. Appreciation and thanks by John Warhurst
Jan 11
0

Forum 19 February 2020: Voices and Values in the Public Sphere

By | Past Forums

 

Speakers: The Hon. Dr Ken Crispin QC

When: 7.30pm 19 February 2020

Where: Chapel, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture

During recent decades public attitudes to issues such as divorce, contraception, abortion, drugs, sexuality and gender identity have changed dramatically. Some see such changes as evidence of moral decline whilst others insist that they reflect moral principles such as fairness and respect for others. Intemperate statements and child abuse scandals have led many to dismiss Christians as sanctimonious, if not hypocritical, moralists. Perhaps paradoxically, long-recognised rights and freedoms have been eroded by new laws and unprecedented government secrecy. Whistle blowers are being prosecuted for revealing government misconduct. Faith in democracy is waning. Within this maelstrom of change, we need to reflect upon the values we affirm and the voices we raise.

The Hon Dr Ken Crispin QC is a leading jurist having occupied the position of DPP for the ACT, a Supreme Court Judge, President of the Court of Appeal. He is currently the Commissioner for Standards for the Legislative Assembly. His most recent publication is A Sceptics Guide to Belief.

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Dec 12
0

Audio available from CES Forum: Getting the democracy we want: government with the people

By | Past Forums

Christians for an Ethical Society in association with the Canberra Alliance of Participatory Democracy (CAPaD) held a forum on 20 November 2019 on the topic “Getting the democracy we want: government with the people”. Audio is now available (see below)

Four CAPad members shareed what the group is doing and learning, ideas for democratic renewal in the ACT and actions we can take as individuals and in our groups and associations.

Beth Slatyer has a background in health policy and system reform and is an Honorary Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Through her work with governments and civil society in Australia and overseas she has developed a deep appreciation of how good governance, public interest institutions and accountability underpin equitable and sustainable social and economic systems.

Peter Tait has been a General Practitioner for 38 years, 30 in Aboriginal health in Central Australia. He was the 2007 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners General Practitioner of the Year, and 2017 Public Health Association Australia Sidney Sax medalist. He attained a Masters of Climate Change at the Australian National University (ANU) in 2010. He is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Population Health at ANU Medical School. Peter believes a person’s health is grounded in a healthy society, and a healthy society in a well-functioning ecosystem.

Sue Ingram has a deep interest in governance building on a professional career as a senior executive in the Australian Government, as a senior member of post-conflict peacebuilding missions in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands, as principal governance adviser in AusAID and as an international governance consultant. She holds a PhD in political science based on research into the post-conflict political settlements in Timor-Leste and Bougainville and has joined international election observation missions for the last three national elections in Timor-Leste and Bougainville.

Petra Cram has been a Primary school teacher for 25 years, is committed to excellence in education and also cares deeply for the well-being of Earth and its complex living systems. She is passionate about finding participatory and democratic solutions to the problem of the corporate takeover of our and political lives, and is convinced that a cohesion of our diverse civil society groups, will garner the power needed to create a balance between economic, civic and political forces in our society.

Audio files of the night’s proceedings are now available.

  1. Introduction and welcome from Ann Skamp
  2. Address: Overview by Beth Slatyer
  3. Address: Mini Publics by Petra Cram
  4. Address: The relationship between electred representatives and their constituents by Sue Ingram
  5. Address by Peter Tait: How are we going to make representatives and government work better for us in the ACT?
  6. Reflection by Beth Slatyer on Hopes for engagement with CAPaD
  7. Question 1: What has been the experience in the ACT Citizen Juries that have already taken place?
  8. Question 2: To what extent is democracy in teh ACT able to throw off teh hold of vested interests and foster representation of grass roots interests?
  9. Question 3: How it is possible for electors to hold politicians accountable to their pre-elections committments?
  10. Question 4: How is it possible to encourage more independent candidates in the ACT?
  11. Question 5: Enhancing engagements of the electorate with its political representatives?
  12. Question 6: How do we get more decisions based on evidence?
  13. Concluding remarks and thanks by Ann Skamp.
Nov 05
0

Forum 20 November 2019: Getting the Democracy we want: government with the people

By | Past Forums

“Getting the Democracy we want: government with the people” in partnership with the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy (CAPaD)

Speakers: Beth Slatyer, Peter Tait, Sue Ingram and Petra Cram.

When: 7.30pm 20 November 2019

Where: Chapel, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture

People everywhere are questioning what is happening to democracy and how governments could better work with “We, the people”. Some have called the current failures of trust and integrity a “democratic recession”.

CAPaD is a community group committed to making democracy work better, through citizen deliberation and action. CAPaD wants a democratic Canberra — where citizens trust their elected representatives, hold them accountable, engage in decision-making, and defend what sustains the public interest. The ACT is an ideal test bed for exploring how to achieve reform.

The group is actively working in three domains:

  • finding ways to create genuine citizen participation in decision making
  • understanding the role of MLAs, the relationship between citizens and their representatives and what a richer notion of accountability might look like
  • exploring community level agenda setting and monitoring, to build system and policy literacy and create the basis for government accountability

Four CAPad members will share what the group is doing and learning, ideas for democratic renewal in the ACT and actions we can take as individuals and in our groups and associations.

Beth Slatyer has a background in health policy and system reform and is an Honorary Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Through her work with governments and civil society in Australia and overseas she has developed a deep appreciation of how good governance, public interest institutions and accountability underpin equitable and sustainable social and economic systems.

Peter Tait has been a General Practitioner for 38 years, 30 in Aboriginal health in Central Australia. He was the 2007 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners General Practitioner of the Year, and 2017 Public Health Association Australia Sidney Sax medalist. He attained a Masters of Climate Change at the Australian National University (ANU) in 2010. He is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Population Health at ANU Medical School. Peter believes a person’s health is grounded in a healthy society, and a healthy society in a well-functioning ecosystem.

Sue Ingram has a deep interest in governance building on a professional career as a senior executive in the Australian Government, as a senior member of post-conflict peacebuilding missions in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands, as principal governance adviser in AusAID and as an international governance consultant. She holds a PhD in political science based on research into the post-conflict political settlements in Timor-Leste and Bougainville and has joined international election observation missions for the last three national elections in Timor-Leste and Bougainville.

Petra Cram has been a Primary school teacher for 25 years, is committed to excellence in education and also cares deeply for the well-being of Earth and its complex living systems. She is passionate about finding participatory and democratic solutions to the problem of the corporate takeover of our and political lives, and is convinced that a cohesion of our diverse civil society groups, will garner the power needed to create a balance between economic, civic and political forces in our society.

Download Pdf
Sep 19
0

Panel Forum 16 October 2019: The impact of information technology and social media

By | Past Forums

A Joint Forum with the Catholic Social Justice Commission based on their 2019-20 Social Justice Statement

Speakers: Paul Bongiorno AM, Beth Doherty, Huw Warmenhoven and Toni Hassan

When: 7.30pm 16 October 2019

Where: Chapel, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Social Justice Statement for 2019 – 2020, Making it Real: Genuine human encounter in our digital world, affirms the positive possibilities for encounter and solidarity offered by new digital media, while warning of those elements of our digital world that may be harmful. These include information overload; social isolation; marginalisation of the vulnerable; consumerism and fake news.

The Statement reminds us that the new digital media cannot be seen as neutral or ‘unaffected by any moral considerations’. While many users do not realise it, the core business of social media platforms is to sell advertising and maximise profits. People’s personal lives may be reduced to data that is traded for profit or power, and it is used to target and influence us in ways previously unthinkable. Pushing users to more extreme positions and promoting fake news and conspiracy theories sells, but this is at odds with human solidarity.

The Statement amplifies Pope Francis’ call to us to ‘boldly become citizens of the digital world’, with the image of the Good Samaritan as our inspiration. We are called not only to love our neighbour, but to bring the love of God to the new global neighbourhood. The Statement points out that we are called not just to be inhabitants of this new digital world, but active citizens shaping it. All of us – whether we are users, communities, industrial or political leaders – have a role to play in rejecting hatred, divisions and falsehoods. We have a duty to foster a neighbourhood that promotes those human attributes and social values that lend themselves to genuine human encounter – love, understanding, beauty, goodness, truth and trustworthiness, joy and hope.

Paul Bongiorno is a veteran political journalist. He writes weekly columns for The Saturday Paper, The New Daily and other publications as well being a regular commentator on ABC Radio. He is also a contributing editor to Network Ten. He has been a journalist for 45 years and in that time has won four national Walkley Awards for journalistic excellence.

Beth Doherty is a journalist and educator who currently works as a religious education teacher at St Clare’s College, Canberra. She is the author of Tweet others as you would wish to be tweeted: A scripture-based guide to social media for the Church, published by David Lovell in 2015 under the auspices of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Huw Warmenhoven is the Youth Coordinator in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. He has worked over the past 7 years in developing Youth Ministry in Catholic school across Australia, Europe, Africa and the Pacific. He has a passion for communicating the timeless Gospel in our time, inviting young people into the mission of the Church and responding through faith to contemporary social justice challenges.

Toni Hassan is an adjunct research scholar with The Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Charles Sturt University. She is an emerging artist, journalist and author of Families in the Digital Age: Every parent’s guide (Hypbrid, 2019).

Download Forum Flyer

Jul 16
0

Dinner Forum 27 August 2019: Telling Truth, Building Community

By | Past Forums

Tuesday 27 August 2019

Speaker: Bishop Mark and Monica Short
When: 6 for 6:30 Tuesday 27 August 2019
Where: Bella Vista Restaurant, 84 Emu Bank, Belconnen

At our August Dinner forum, Bishop Mark and Monica Short will address the topic “Telling Truth, Building Community: What the Indigenous Church Teaches Us”.

Mark and Monica Short returned to Canberra in 2019. Mark serves as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn and Monica is a Lecturer and social researcher in Social Work with Charles Sturt University. For the previous seven and a half years they lived in Sydney but were actively engaged with rural and regional Australia. For Mark this came through his role as National Director of The Bush Church Aid Society and for Monica through a series of research projects looking at the interface between the rural Anglican Church and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people living with a disability and Aboriginal peoples. In both those roles Indigenous Christian leaders have been generous companions and guides and we will draw on their insights in this talk.

Cost: $60 per person for a three-course meal with wine, juice & tea/coffee

To book: Transfer to “Christians for an Ethical Society” BSB 805-022 acc’t 03310199 reference with “your surname Dinner” and also email booking details to admin@ces.org.au

Or

Send cheque made out to “Christians for an Ethical Society” to 15 Blackall St, Barton ACT 2600. Bookings close 6 August 2019.

Download Forum Flyer