Opinion Articles

SOUL MATTERS: Just signatures, yet they blazon hope for all
By Beverly Zimmerman

It is Easter time, the pivotal event of the Christian Churches’ year. It is a time when Christians recall the death and resurrection of Jesus, when they celebrate the triumph of life over death, when despair gives way to hope.

Hope is a gift we often lose sight of, particularly when the world we live in seems so hope-less.

Easter challenges each of us, Christians and non-Christians, to be people of hope, to embrace new life and a different way of being.

Next Wednesday, 2 April, is an occasion of great hope and challenge in our region, with the signing of an historic agreement between the Catholic Dioceses of Maitland-Newcastle and Broken Bay and the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.

The agreement, known as a covenant, is unique, even trail blazing. It has already captured attention in national and international religious media.

The notion of covenant is central to the Christian faith and tradition and stretches all the way back to the time of the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament. The Covenant being signed next week commits the three dioceses to a series of joint initiatives ranging from an annual Bishops Dialogue to the exploration of possibilities for the sharing of church resources.

What a long way we have come since the times when people were hurt, even traumatised, by being unable to attend significant ceremonies such as weddings or funerals held in churches of other denominations. Who, in their wildest dreams, would have imagined the Anglican and Catholic churches entering into a covenant such as this?

There are very real differences in the beliefs and doctrines of the many Christian denominations, including the Anglican and Catholic Churches. These differences can be a cause of great pain for people, particularly in what used to be referred to as “mixed marriages”. As church law stands a couple from two different denominations cannot, as a married couple, participate equally and mutually in worship together.

However, just as the hope of Easter does not right all the wrongs of our world immediately, so too, the signing of a covenant to work together towards greater unity does not make church differences disappear.

Yet the covenant fills me with great hope because it echoes the very essence of Easter – that change is possible, that voids can be filled, that shifts and transformations of some of our most strongly held attitudes and values can occur.

I think it is significant that the covenant is being signed during the season of Easter which we celebrate in many Christian denominations over a six week period. Easter is all about covenant. It is about the promise of God’s love for us, fulfilled through Jesus, and our responsibility to work at relationships with other people, our planet and our God.

All people of good will are invited to attend Christ Church Anglican Cathedral at 7.45 pm on Wednesday 2 April and be part of this hope-filled historic occasion.

Beverly Zimmerman

Dr Beverly Zimmerman RSJ is the Chancellor of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.