This edition of Manna Matters is a little bit different. Traditionally, at the beginning of the year we send out a report of Manna Gum’s work for the previous year, and an annual appeal, but not an edition of Manna Matters per se. However, last May we relaunched Manna Gum with a new logo, new website and new-look for Manna Matters, so our summer mailout is also due for a refresh. This new version will be a hybrid, combining some tidbits of articles, but also incorporating a report of Manna Gum's work for 2024 and our Annual Appeal: a Manna Matters-lite for the summer season. After all, who wants to work too much when there is cricket and tennis to watch, swimming beckoning, and lots of yard work to be done?
Some time in the coming months we will have a federal election and, as I write, Donald Trump's presidency is already destabilising world politics. Serendipitously, Jacob Garrett and I have just finished recording the last podcast in a four-part MannaCast series on Christianity and politics. I can tell you now that it won’t answer all your questions about how we confront these challenging times, but hopefully it will provide something of a map to help us constructively engage the troubled sphere of politics. The central theme of the series is that politics, properly understood, is the practice of negotiating a common life, and something for which we all hold resonsibilities, especially those seeking to bear the message of Christ into the world.
For those able to get there, I will be speaking on ‘Money & Stuff in the Upside Down Kingdom’ at the Surrender Conference in Melbourne, 21-22 March. See www.surrender.org.au.
Jonathan Cornford
Coming up in 2025
WEBINAR SERIES
Kingdom Communities (June)
We will be re-visioning what it means to do church in 21st century Australia, paying particular attention to the implications of the gospel for the economic structure and practices of faith communities.
LEARNING EVENT
A Different Way Exposure Week (Bendigo, November)
Come and spend a week exploring Christian alternatives in areas of money, employment, consumption, sustainability, family, community, care for creation, and serving
the poor.
Stay tuned for further details.