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Welcome to Spring! We hope you enjoy enCompass for September 2011.
NEW DIRECTOR OF COMPASS NZ
With Roshan and Lottie winging their way to Oxford, England this week, I am excited to be stepping into the role of Director of Compass Foundation, New Zealand. The last three years working as a researcher and writer for Compass have given me a huge passion for our mission and thankfulness for all God has done and is doing through our work. I feel privileged to play a part in the unfolding story of Compass. ANDREW SHAMY 
WELCOME
Compass New Zealand is very pleased to welcome Miriam Strom as our new Operations Coordinator, the person responsible for making things happen. Miriam is originally from Australia, but has lived in New Zealand for the past six years. She is currently completing degrees in Counseling and Theology and loves watching the way people’s lives are transformed in relationship through the Gospel. Miriam has been to the last three Compass Summer conferences and we are excited to have her join the team. THE COMPASS TEAM
COMING HOME
My wife Julia and I returned home last week after almost three months away overseas. I have already blogged briefly about some of the specific delights that New Zealand embraces its long lost sons and daughters with – but I wanted to write more broadly here about the concept of home and the comfort that is provided by having one to return to. It was that comfort, and the growing fondness of home we developed while on the trip that I found fascinating. And although I enjoyed this trip even more than others I have done, the simultaneous evolution of a deep appreciation for home is not a feature I have experienced before. Evolving thoughts about home are not new. I heard a mum this week describe having a child as: “A birth, followed by a lifelong painful process of letting go…!” She was half-joking, but I think there is an element of that same tension experienced by the one being let go. Much of our late childhood is defined in “can’t wait to leave” terms, and rightly so – we are being prepared to enter the wider world. But then, once we leave, for many there is at least an element of “can’t wait to go back!” Be it for a home-cooked meal, a chat with old school friends, or kicking a ball around the local park with a mate. I think there was an age-related element to my experience as well. The departure point had broadened to be about much more than simply an ancestral address. And what was once an anticipated home-cooked meal – the arrival point – had also broadened to be an anticipated suburb, a city and a country that has truly and personally become home…with, of course, the people who inhabit those spaces. Now in my thirties, I found myself in these wonderful locations abroad, not asking whether I could/should live there forever (a feature of almost every destination in my twenties) but instead asking, "What small aspect of that wonder could I embody and/or export back home?" I guess it is inevitable that with age the questions are going to change. It is inevitable too, I think, that with faith the questions change. This time I was experiencing my travels as one (at least in part, I hope) shaped by the gospel. In my twenties I was not. My point in mentioning this is not that Scripture has something to say specifically about travel, but rather, that it shapes us to be appreciators of home. I know that ‘Home’ is a broad concept and that it will therefore mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but there are a couple of features I want to briefly mention that I think should be common to most descriptions. One feature is Familiarity. We even take this aspect into our technological lives and talk about a website’s home page. In other words: if you get lost, just find your way back to here and you’ll be able to regroup and carry on. Commenting on the concept of home this week a friend said, “At the very least, it should be a place where we know and are known.” I agree. Home should be familiar…perhaps even mundane at times. Our fast-paced lives have us suffering under the mistaken belief that anything mundane or routine is to be avoided at all costs. But that is exactly how some aspects of home have to be…if it going to be home! We think the quest for constant change is a mark of our sophistication and our maturity – instead, it usually reveals our restlessness and immaturity. As G.K. Chesterton wrote: “Grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.” The other feature is Safety. If the knowing and being known is going to involve others (and it is) then they need to be more than just familiar – at least some of them need to be safe. It is impossible to do life well in a constant atmosphere of comparison, criticism or cruelty. Home needs to be a place where we are known and celebrated – warts and all. Stories of those who have, sadly, never experienced this at home only serve to underscore how essential safety is. As Christians we know, of course, that the familiarity and safety we experience now will not quite feel complete – however positive our experience of home is. We were made for a home, but that home is no longer as it once was. It is broken and in need of redemption – and so are we. As we co-operate with the transforming of it and us, I think we will find our homes increasingly become places we enjoy returning to. SAM BLOORE
ALUMNI INTERVIEW WITH AMY DWIGHT
Amy is an Animateur (Theatre Maker) from Melbourne who graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2008. She attended the Compass Summer Conference in Auckland in 2011. Earlier this year, Amy was asked by Candlelight Productions to re-write and direct VOICES – The Carrical Project, a theatre show that was originally performed in 2009 at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Her version is showing now. We asked her a few questions about the show and about the joys and challenges of being a Christian in the art world. Tell us a bit about the show – what is VOICES about? The content of the work is based on men from Carrical House, a rooming house in Hawthorn, Melbourne, for men with mental illnesses. It is not a show about mental illness, but rather, about the men who happen to have a mental illness. The work explores stories from the men’s lives and the reality of living with illness. It is a raw, moving, hilarious and uncomfortably real portrayal of their world. To search for a person's abilities holds more value than to grasp at notions of their disabilities. How has your involvement with the project challenged you and how are you now hoping to pass that challenge on to audiences? Imagine for a moment...you’re sitting on the train, on hops a man, disheveled looking, overgrown beard, stained teeth and smelling rather wrong. Immediately your mind jumps to, “Please don’t sit next to me, I just want to be in my own thoughts today, please no...oh.” He plonks himself beside you and even though you have your earphones in and are looking obviously like you do not want to chat, he begins talking to you loudly. It’s at this moment we all make a choice. Unfortunately the stories of many of the men at Carrical House are of people who rudely ignore them or promptly infer that this is their stop, then move to the other end of the train. It has been a huge responsibility to represent these men with dignity and respect while holding the tension and reality of the disheveled image they can bare. It is within this tension that I have endeavored to remove the stigma we so easily place upon them in the hope that after seeing this performance, people will no longer “move to the other end of the train.” How do you find the challenge of being a Christian in the arts world? When I was studying at VCA, I quickly discovered that you could mention any faith or god and it would be accepted, even admired. However, mention the God of the Christian faith and you were shut down with the force of Darth Vader! I’ve come to appreciate my faith, not as something I want to convince others of or convert others to, but to simply let it speak for itself. The arts world is edgy, prolific and extremely challenging and it’s no surprise to me that there are few Christians living within it. If I want to remain in this industry and remain a follower of Christ I MUST continue to learn more of what it means to be human. To seek understanding, wisdom and knowledge of this great story that offers freedom and life. It’s so easy to loose sight of it all in the arts world; it’s vital that artists remain in community with the body of Christ. VOICES – The Carrical Project is showing in Melbourne between Sept 1-17th, (for tickets, see www.theatrepeople.com). If you are interested in networking with other Christian artists who are seeking to live out their vocation within the art world, check out: www.cafactory.com. Amy’s own website is at www.the-mesh.co THE COMPASS TEAM
UPCOMING EVENTSTHEOLOGY AT ST PAUL'S
Andrew Shamy and Compass speaker Annette Pereira are teaching upcoming sessions of “Theology at St Paul’s: faith track 1”. The course is held in Auckland from 21 September to 19 October on Wednesday nights and is open to anyone. The aim of the five week course is to “provide a basic introduction into some of the building blocks that have helped form the Church’s thinking about God.” Registration is required. For more details click here. Back to top^
COMPASS SUMMER CONFERENCES, 2012
Registrations and nominations for our 2012 summer conferences are open. We are excited with how the schedule is shaping up and the local and international speakers committed to contributing. Last year spaces filled up fast, so let us know if you are interested in coming. Perhaps start thinking about who in your life would really benefit from the conference and get the word out. New ZealandThe New Zealand conference will be held from 7 - 14 January, at Lifeway campus, Snells Beach (about an hour north of Auckland). Click here for more information AustraliaThe Australian conference will be held from 15 - 22 January, at the St Lucia campus, University of Queensland, Brisbane. Click here for more information Back to top^
Compass Calendar: September
September's calendar is about Jesus, the person who stands at the very heart of the biblical story. This month we invite you to read chunks of each of the four Gospels. The four Gospels address the question, who is Jesus and what has he done? One of the main answers given is that Jesus is the climax the whole story has been building to. He makes sense of the diverse threads of Israel’s history, and finally answers the question of Genesis 3, how will God redeem his broken world? In September, we are exploring the discipline of Prayer. For many prayer remains a mystery – perhaps even a source of much frustration and guilt. It need not be. Back to top^
Latest blog postsPosts from our Conversations blog this past month include:
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