Welcome to the first newsletter
October 18, 2024
This week, eyes are on the outcome of the October 2023 referendum on the "Voice to Parliament" and coming to grips with the meaning of the demographics and the voting patterns.
There is a temptation to “tidy” the results into polarities.
In reality, neither the “yes” or the “no” tell us much about how much recognition, realism or empathy Australians have for the many diverse, profound and culturally challenging aspirations and needs of our first and indigenous fellow Australians.
Despite the saturation of images, dollars and corporate messaging, it is clear that the majority of Australians were simply unconvinced by the legality, the authority or the credibility of the "Voice" proposal.
This is not a signal to cheer or jeer or to let the dust of complacency settle as if equitable polity is a given in this "great land of the Holy Spirit".
As ever, the genuine answers require mind and soul-searching.
In both Church and land, we need engaged and informed people, hospitable and fair communities and institutions that promote the dignity and representation of all Australians – especially those indigenous people dispossessed of culture, meaningful work, country, family, health or hope.
For these and many other reasons, the time seems ripe to revive the Thomas More Centre, an entity we today might call a distinctively Australian "creative minority".
It originally established over 30 years ago in 1989 under the entrepreneurial leadership of “Dr Joe” N. Santamaria and his brother “Bob” B.A. Santamaria, and some of their professional colleagues and family.
I served a life-changing apprenticeship as a young theology student, walking and working with the intellectually voracious, generous and humorous Dr Joe, as his research assistant and assistant editor in those early and adventurous years of the Thomas More enterprise.
That experience convinced me of the importance of interpersonal “mastery” and inter-generational and interdisciplinary engagement with adults in search of ethical, spiritual and practical formation.
A creative minority – being creative cannot simply be rehashed. It needs fresh 21st-century shoots grafted onto the trunk of Christian social teaching, life ethics, thought and culture and it will use newer technologies of connection and participation.
The concept of a “creative minority” was originally devised by the English historical philosopher and historian Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975).
The now-deceased English Chief Rabbi (1945-2020) author and Baron Jonathan Sacks once offered a helpful theologically informed insight into the role of a creative minority, which can assist us now.
The Rabbi drew on the prophet Jeremiah and the role of the Jewish people in history as “leaven” when they were faithful to God and His Covenant - and lived in that covenant. It worked when they:
a) undertook internal spiritual reform and formative education
b) integrated living faith with their pursuit of profession or business as “cultural mediators”
c) nourishing the organic seedbed of culture and faith in households and families so that great figures emerged, some becoming “architects” of the wider culture.
The newly grafted Thomas More Centres (for we are encouraging regional hubs) will also aim to:
a) build the person through formation and spiritual enrichment
b) encourage interaction of vocational and professional seekers and “masters”
c) help to build culturally “thick” intentional communities – welcoming the diversity of age and experience.
Please join us.
Anna Krohn OAM
Executive Director
Thomas More Centre
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