For A Change articles from April 2000

For A Change archives from April 2000

Season of renewal.
April 1, 2000... This issue appears as our Christian readers prepare to celebrate Easter, with its message of rebirth and renewal. Our Guest Column is written by the spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, the Ecumenical Patriarch...

Will Australia go for gold in race relations? As Australia prepares to stage the Olympics, John Williams offers a personal sketch of a fortunate country with huge questions before it.
April 1, 2000... The Olympics are a superb way to celebrate the start of this millennium. And Sydney, one of the world's most beautiful cityscapes, is an ideal place to delight in the incredible human--even superhuman--achievements we will watch in September....

Living memorial.
April 1, 2000... `I spit at that place every time I go past,' glowered a former resident of the Colebrook Home in South Australia. She was referring to the site of a now demolished institution, which was home over nearly 30 years to 350 Australian Aboriginal...

Toybox for Guatemalan streetchildren: (Duncan and Jenni Dyason work with the streetchildren of Guatemala).
April 1, 2000... Sitting in leafy Buckingham-shire on the edge of London's commuter belt, watching BBC television on a Sunday evening, is not many people's idea of a trigger for a life of commitment to disadvantaged children on the other side of the world. Yet,...

Pathway to regeneration: (Pauline Maclachlan works to improve her community in England).
April 1, 2000... It annoyed Pauline Maclachlan that her mother and her neighbours, all pensioners, were constantly terrorized by rude and noisy youths playing football against their bungalows. She also felt it was unfair for the boys that they had nowhere else...

Otranto cares for refugees (from Albania).
April 1, 2000... Otranto is a small port on the south-eastern tip of Italy, just 50 miles from Albania. Its location has recurrently brought it into the headlines because the surrounding coast is the easiest landing spot for the big rubber dinghies with...

Listening to the voices of suffering: Bjorn Ole Austad meets the Director of Caritas Malta, a priest (Victor Grech) who feels the pain of those in difficulties - and puts others to work to help them.
April 1, 2000... Some years ago I attended a Mass for the parents and families of young people who had lost their lives because of drug abuse. The Mass was celebrated by Monsignor Victor Grech, who constantly reaches out to those who suffer more than most. ...

Cricketer for the oppressed: Sir Conrad Hunte, the West Indian international cricketer, died in December ... a man who will be remembered for his contribution to human relations ...
April 1, 2000... Conrad had a smile and a laugh that could lift the spirits of the gloomiest roomful of people. The smile was set in a face as rugged as the North Coast of Barbados where he was brought up. It was a face that had confronted the fastest bowlers...

Becoming one person: Sir Conrad Hunte.
April 1, 2000... I met Conrad Hunte because of a shared talent for sport. His talent showed in superb play, while mine took the form of devoted watching and constant day-dreaming about it. Finally I became embarrassed about my obsession, and had a quiet word...

Finding a purpose in life: Goretti Nguyen.
April 1, 2000... Goretti Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and migrated to Australia when she was eight years old. There she was reunited with her father who had been separated for six years from the rest of the family as a result of the Vietnam war. As...

Contributing what you are.
April 1, 2000... `Information, inspiration and practical tips for 21st century peacemakers' was the theme of a recent reunion conference of young people who had taken part in the Caux Scholars Program, an annual month-long course in conflict transformation (see...

Nizhny Novgorod meeting (in Russia).
April 1, 2000... Thirty young people travelled by train for two days to attend a weeklong Foundations for Freedom (FFF) regional meeting in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in January. Others came from Novosibirsk in Siberia. FFF, based in Britain, aims to equip those...

Firing the bells (at the church on New Year's).
April 1, 2000... Midnight on New Year's Eve. The villagers are gathered in the churchyard to greet another year. On the first stroke of 12, the church bells peal out, fireworks light up the sky, and the champagne corks pop. A new century, and a new millennium,...

Forgiveness at the gate of no return: ... meeting between the descendants of those who bought and sold Africans and the descendants of those they shipped to the Americas.
April 1, 2000... In the halls of the US Congress, a heart beats for racial reconciliation. The efforts of Congressman Tony Hall and Senator James Inhofe led to 100 Americans journeying to Benin, West Africa, to attend to what one called `the irresistable need...

Anyone for quidditch? When Sarah Mayor Cox started reading the Harry Potter stories, she forgot she was a lecturer on children's literature. What's so special about this series ...
April 1, 2000... If you don't have children and don't read the literary pages then chances are you've never heard of the Harry Potter phenomenon that is sweeping the world. Penned by JK Rowling, a 31-year-old graduate of Exeter University, the books...

She said yes - the unlikely martyrdom of Cassie Bernall.
April 1, 2000... She said yes--the unlikely martyrdom of Cassie Bernall by Misty Bernall Plough Publishing, [pounds sterling] 7.99, $20 ISBN 0-87486-987-0 She said yes is a profoundly touching little book by Misty Bernall, whose 17-year-old...

Liverpool faces the past - and the future.
April 1, 2000... The English city of Liverpool is transforming the image it once had of dilapidation and decay. Its waterfront area is cleaned up, thriving and very tourist-friendly. The home of the Beatles and the Mersey Sound, of the Grand National and...

Leaf in the stream.
April 1, 2000... Some time ago I wrote the following: `I am like a leaf that has fallen into the water. It goes wherever the current takes it--with no mind of its own, nowhere to go, no purpose, de-rooted and too fragile to change its course. It is only in a...

Preserving the sanctity of creation.
April 1, 2000... The alliance between the Orthodox Church and environmental scientists may sound paradoxical, yet it is only the latest expression of the Church's ancient inheritance. The Bible and the patristic literature of the Church convey a deep...