Celebrating 30 Years of Partnership

Why do you think your church community has remained committed to supporting the work of AOA?

We love the idea of being partners in God’s global mission, partners with God and partners with Christians throughout the world who are doing God’s work. AOA connects us with wonderful Christian people and projects in different parts of the world in a way that we wouldn’t be able to achieve on our own. AOA helps us to have a sense that we are part of something much bigger than our own church and local community.

Why is supporting our global neighbours experiencing poverty, disasters and injustice important?

As well as being committed to the whole world, we know that God is committed to the whole person and the whole community. Therefore, our Christian faith calls us to share the same commitments and so support work to alleviate poverty, assist in disaster relief and work for justice. We also recognise that our ways of achieving this across different cultures may not be the best because of our own cultural biases and blind spots. We need to be attentive to the voices of our global neighbours about what they need and the best solutions for achieving it. That’s why we love the idea of partnership through AOA with Anglican churches, dioceses and agencies who are local and can do this work best.

How has your church community benefited from the partnership with AOA?

We benefit from seeing the amazing work that God is doing around the world and the incredible resilience and faith of our Christian sisters and brothers in different places. We often can take for granted the resources, wealth, and safety that we enjoy in Australia, and so we have learned how hard it is for others in very different circumstances and yet how they find joy and exercise deep faith amid these circumstances. That is inspiring and calls us to persevere in our own circumstances, too.

Sometimes, it can be hard to remain hopeful when working towards a world free of poverty, what helps you to remain hopeful and continue to pursue a more just world for all?

Ultimately the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope, that the full weight of injustice, death and evil could not defeat him but that he rose victorious. We live in that resurrection hope knowing that although the world is still full of injustice, death and evil it will not remain so forever. As we fix our eyes on the risen Jesus and look to his coming again to restore and renew the whole of creation we can work now in the present to bring this amazing future forward. The work that AOA and its partners are doing, and we do with them all, is part of this great future work that we can be involved in right now.

Are there any partners, initiatives or stories from AOA that have significantly impacted you?

There are so many over the past 30 years that have impacted our church community. We think with sadness about the devastation of the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 and how powerless we felt in the face of such a massive tragedy. And yet, our support through AOA was a means to channel our grief into positive action to help

those in need. The same has been true in other disasters and conflicts since, including most recently, the devastation at the al-Ahli Hospital in Northern Gaza. We are impacted because partnership brings both grief and hope: grief because we are tangibly connected with the people who are suffering and so are pained by their loss, and hope because we have the means to contribute and help, even if it is in small ways. It’s a privilege to have this partnership with AOA, and we look forward to the next 30 years.

Tim is also Archdeacon of the Yarra. He has served on the board of Ridley Theological College and is an Adjunct Lecturer in Practical Ministry there. Tim regularly visits Papua New Guinea to work with pastors and church leaders in his role as international facilitator for Langham Preaching.