UWA are offering this as a course between July & September. You couldn’t offer a topic I am much more interested in!
So I imagine I will be back to my old University for 12 weeks auditing a course that looks like it will be very interesting indeed.
Backyard Missionary
unrefined theological musings, random personal reflections and occasional naughtiness…
Hamo,
Make a point of sharing what you learn.
That sounds absolutely fascinating. I sure hope you’ll make a blog series or something out of it?
Would be VERY interested in what you learn.
Hamo, G’day mate. This “Australian Suburbia – History & Culture” sound s a hoot! Why is it so far a away? I am south of Wollongong and getting to anything worthwhile seems to be a whole day trip. The Forge Festival was real shot in the arm. I am still going on about it. Some of my mob think I have ‘got religion’ ’cause I can’t shut up about it. The fact is that I have been thinking these things for a lot of years now and allowed them to be eroded by the changes and chances of this fleeting world – especially in the established church where I came with good intentions and lost sight of them simply for want of being able to share them with someone who spoke the same language (I am reflecting on the ‘sold out’ comments elsewhere in the blog).
One of the question that I am continually grinding gears on is the whole idea of working class and middle class churches, or expressions of faith to be more precise. I think I have put the idea of class to bed: Australia is not a classed based society in the popular understanding of the term. However there is a distinct change of culture that reflects the divide between what we popularly call working class and middle class. There is an observable dearth of effective ‘working class’ churches particularly in my neck of the woods but also across this wide brown land of ours. This is reprehensible I recon.
While you are pocking around the halls of learning if you happened to come across anyone who can help me define or identify what this thing is that we call ‘working class’ that would be very helpful. I am working in a suburban, working class environment; high Dept of Housing population, low employment prospects, high rate of family breakdown, low value on education, lots of trade occupations very few managers, hardly any leaders. It is the oldest part of my city, has the oldest population but also has the greatest number of young single parents, mostly mums. I have the highest concentration of people living alone in my city, but they don’t seem to be able to pally up with each other. The local police command is one of the busiest in NSW and has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the state. Working class is a little generous at times as we ahve one of the highest rates of unemployment or underemployment in the state and one of the highest rates f youth unemployment in the country. I am looking for a handle to grab it all by. ‘Working class’ just doesn’t do it. I am not even sure if a handle will help!
Anyway mate, enough of a rant from me. Enjoy the learning and bring bck the benefits.
Brian