Chaplains Chat

Harmony Week activities have been held at Shore this week. Harmony Week is the celebration and reflection that recognises our diversity in this country. There is diversity in the different cultures, languages and backgrounds of so many people in this country. And yet we can all reflect on different people in our country, understand them better and seek to get to know people and their differences. For many Australians who have moved from other countries to reach Australia, their culture remains an integral part of who they are as people.  

In Chapel this week, we reflected on the differences in language and culture at Shore. We reflected on how God wants us to respond to those different from us. Jesus tells us one of his most famous parables in Luke 10, whereby a man was beaten and robbed and left to die on the side of the road. While fellow countrymen walked past on the other side of the road, it was the Samaritan man, the enemy of this injured man, who was the one who loved him, helped him and tended to his wounds. Our neighbour is the one who is near, and indeed as the Bible reminds us, every one of us is made in God’s image (which makes us all similar), and Jesus tells us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Indeed, he goes further to say that we are even to love our enemies. John 3:16 tells us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son“, which is a wonderful reminder that God cuts across our different cultures, languages and backgrounds and loves all people and was willing to show that through Jesus’ death on the Cross. We are called to love those around us as a result. 

Rev Anthony Benn
Chaplain