We are increasingly being urged not to prioritise our Western heritage but to open ourselves out to a broad spectrum of diversity. Yet it’s not Christianity that is Western, but the retreat from traditional values and the new approach to diversity that puts everything (and everyone) in the same box – a modern pax Romana.

In engaging the powers of the political realm, Christians on both left and right have been ensnared in the world’s ways of doing things. At root this is a deep spiritual problem. There is a way forward for re-discipling our nations, but it will not happen in the way we think, and it will require unprecedented humility.

Young culture makers are an unknown quantity to many Christians. They care about cultural and ethical values, but find religion weird and see Christianity as a system through which inequality and oppression can thrive. What would it take to bridge this world and the world of the church?

Australia is now set to become a top ten global arms producer and dealer. The government’s amorally framed announcement was justified purely financially, but the consequences of favouring warfare over welfare will be felt for generations, with nations indebted, lives lost and environments destroyed.

Australia Day is offensive because it represents the ongoing genocide of Aboriginal People. And all non-indigenous people, including churches, are complicit because they are beneficiaries of stolen land and participants in the destruction of culture, language and spirituality that continues today. But we need more than a change of date or an apology; we need a cessation of hostilities, reparation and treaty.

While we have much to celebrate as a nation, January 26th is a day of sorrow for indigenous Australians. There is no approach to the problem of celebrating or not celebrating this nation’s morally ambiguous origins and history that is going to make everybody happy. But one solution could help break the impasse.

We need to confess that we built this country upon the oppression of the original inhabitants, and that the results of this continue today. We celebrate our nation on a date that reminds the original inhabitants of the evil and injustice done to them. What would grace do?

Millennials are leading the demographic shift towards ‘religious nones’. And in many ways millennial Christians are at odds with their Gen X leaders. But they have much to offer, and collaboration is possible. In a world that is profoundly fragmented, and often burned by Christianity, the hopeful openness of millennials could do wonders for the church’s witness.

The Gospel writers respectfully leave out most of the details of Jesus’ boyhood, to be told within his earthly family’s remembrances, part of Mary’s heart-stored treasure. This silence reminds us of the God-blessed integrity of marriage and family life, even as the Good News of Jesus Christ encourages us in our story-telling generation to generation.

For Margaret Pestorius, one of the Pine Gap Peace Pilgrims, faith-based, creative and disruptive nonviolent direct actions are about witnessing and responding to truth. Lament is an important part of this, as a way of breaking the denial, embodying the suffering of the victims, and driving transformation and action.