After a quiet time in the middle of the year, we are finishing 2011 with a bang.
In October Manna Gum took an active part in the TEAR Victoria Gathering, themed ‘Good News Stories’. Between them, Kim and Jonathan presented three workshops covering the state of the world and the church(!), houeshold economy as a Christian discipline and urban food possibilities. This was a great weekend for us, with many significant conversations (but never enough time!). TEAR’s work in fostering these networks and discussion is immensely valuable and an enormous gift to the broader Christian body in Australia.
Also in October, Manna Gum and Oxfam released our major new report, Banking on Aid: An examination of the delivery of Australian aid through the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (see also the article in this edition of Manna Matters for more on this). The report was launched at the Australian National University in Canberra in a forum with government, academics and others in the aid sector, and we will also hold a smaller launch event in Melbourne. The primary purpose of Banking on Aid is to stir up debate about some underdiscussed areas of Australia’s aid program. It has been a major undertaking for us, involving a significant investment of time and energy, so it has been gratifying to see it finally out there.
And finally, in the beginning of December we will be running A Different Way: a week-long exploration of Christ’s call to a new way of living. Once again, there has been a lot of interest in this week and a number of people have missed out - stay tuned for A Different Way in 2012!