| April 15, 2001 |
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What is the Awakening? Awakening 2001, also known as the Aussie Awakening, has its beginning on the weekend before the opening of new Parliament House in May 1988. The rumour had leaked out that there where to be no prayers at the official opening. And in a grass-roots response that even shocked the organisers, 50,000 people turned up from across the nation. From every religious and even non-religious background they came to pray as a protest. The whole thing had been uncharacteristic of our Australian culture to that point. Inspired by this spontaneous expression of unity, the question was asked, " What else do we have in common that we can come together productively around?" It was decided it might be right to reclaim Easter as an authentic Australian community celebration. It was agreed it should have an emphasis on participation, it was to be done in such a way to find a sense of ownership of every wing of the Church. It was to have language and symbols that would unite as well as a culture that was welcoming to non-church people and their families. It was also to have an emphasis that would cause reflection, celebration, community building and commitment. The goals, aims and strategy was born out of extensive consultation with Church & Community leaders. The rest is history. Reclaiming Easter Programs They included Festivals; school activities where kids wrote their prayers to be prayed at Good Friday Prayer Vigils; Capital City Marches; Mayoral Prayer Breakfasts, etc. And just as that Aussie invention 'Carols by Candlelight' managed to celebrate Christmas in a community setting, it was designed to achieve a similar result. Kicking off in Sydney in 1990 as an attempt to reclaim Easter from an encrouching commercialism, but the process of understanding the essential nature of Easter, meant that the leaders of the movement had to face the fact that Easter also needed to be reclaimed from medieval irrelevance. The result has been the discovery of an Aussie Easter. This year in every capital city and in many of towns in Australia, people have come together in a way that now feels normal, as they celebrated, one of the most important events on the Christian calendar. A most fascinating aspect of the Aussie Awakening is that it has stimulated thinkers in other countries to explore the same process of discovering Easter in their own cultures. Canadians, New Zealanders, South Africans and American cities have also joined Australia in engaging in the Awakening process. Schools in Harmony Programs As we moved up to the Year 2000 it was clear school children were going to be missing from school at the time of the turning of the millennium. In consultation with educators and church leaders, "Schools in Harmony" was born. It would give a way for local schools to come together to celebrate the meaning of the millennium, the birth of Christ in special Advent Pageants in leading up to Christmas 1999. Students from Catholic Schools, State Schools, Private & Christian schools were invited to perform on the Friday before the first weekend in Advent (usually first week in November). They were invited to dress up as shepherds and angels, tuned in to a satellite broadcast, marched down the streets of suburbs and towns singing Carols together and performing a Christmas Pageant. It was remarkable success with 30 thousand participating in the first year. Most schools were then invited to learn songs and to come to the Olympic Stadium in the Year 2000. One hundred schools participated. From Cairns to Geraldton, from South Australia to Tasmania students came to an event they'll never forget. This of course led to the Reclaiming of Christmas and now the Pilgrimage to Uluru where hundreds of students from across the nation will bus out in waves after Easter and take the journey from the coast into the heart. Indigenous, Anglo-Celtic and students from a range of Ethnic backgrounds will engage in practical reconciliation and community building. There were schools across the country were finding it hard to integrate Indigenous young people. On hearing of the Uluru Pilgrimage, they were delighted because it gave them a way not only to integrate the whole school, but to give dignity to their Indigenous young people in the process. This is expected to be an annual event. The first week in June 2001 this year all of those who have participated in the Awakening so far have been invited to take the Pilgrimage to Uluru for a climatic and transitional celebration after which is expected that the organisation's infrastructure of the Awakening will be dismantled. Fusion Australia in association with Church and Community leaders will continue to network and support the many hundreds across the country who want to continue in the spirit of the Awakening. It's expected Festivals at a regional level, Schools in Harmony program and a whole range of outreach processes will continue. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT
THE AWAKENING: FOR OTHER INTERSTATE AWAKENING
EVENTS: or for more information: or contact your Awakeing State Office |