In the final part of her series, Ruth Harvey reflects on the place of ‘voicewalkers’.

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’ (Matthew 5:9).

THE bright red flower of the Desert Pea flourishes in the Alice Springs/Mparntwe garden of Arrente Aboriginal woman, and peacemaker Bev O’Callaghan.

Recently Bev was inspired to write a dreaming story about the origin of the Desert Pea – a story of the rivers of blood of the First Nations people that flowed through the red-hot earth of much of Australia in the last 200+ years since colonisation. Bev’s story book, The Desert Pea, written for children but cherished by all generations, weaves an ancient story of land, creation, war and peace into the truth-telling project of the peoples of Australia. Through her story-telling and her peace education Bev is a peacemaker, a child of God, a ‘voicewalker’, someone who ‘is close to home no matter where they live or travel or what work they do – someone who walks guided by their inner voice.’

In her book Anaditj, Denise Champion shares a series of reflections that offer ‘language for God, wisdom for God’s people, and challenge for the way ahead.’ Aunty Rev Dr Denise Champion, the first Aboriginal Christian woman to be ordained, suggests that most western Christians need to re-learn the stories from our hinterland, reading the present ‘with the weight of our history behind us’ if we are to move with wisdom into the future’ (Anaditj, page 19). The ‘interruption of truth-telling through colonisation’ was a brutal, violent, arrogant denial by the colonisers of an ancient spiritual truth that was already flowing in these lands now called Australia. Aunty Denise is speaking out, speaking truth to power, with a ‘hunger and a thirst for righteousness’ (Matthew 5:6) not only for the First Nations people of these lands, but for all oppressed by invaders/colonisers/ settlers past and present. Aunty Denise is in touch with her own voice, and with the voice of her peoples. She too is a ‘voicewalker’.

Today we rely on our living prophets, on the voicewalkers around us like Aunty Denise and Bev who are unafraid to speak truth to power, to help us remain informed about injustice across the globe, to stay focussed on ways to live, and who point the way through the lens of faith for actions to take for justice and peace. Voicewalkers like Bev and Aunty Denise remain unshaken ‘when people insult them, persecute them and falsely say all kinds of evil against them because of Jesus’ (Matthew 5: 11). They are humble living witnesses to how to ‘be the change we want to see in the world.’ The ‘sermon on the mount’ (Matthew 5: 1 – 11) offers a powerful manifesto for how to live like Bev and Aunty Denise. The Beatitudes, honouring the peacemakers, the humble, those who are prepared to raise their voice on behalf of the voiceless, those who quietly comfort the grieving, are a focus for how to live in a baffling world.

This short series of bible studies has been looking at the Justice and Peace commitment of the Iona Community through the lens of scripture. Our eleventh Justice and Peace commitment calls members to “work for the establishment of the United Nations Organisation as the principal organ of international reconciliation and security, in place of military alliances.” We learned in October that Russia, the day after the upper house rescinded ratification of the UN Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, proceeded to test a nuclear bomb in order to practise “dealing a massive nuclear strike with strategic offensive forces in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy.” (Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Minister of Defense).

It takes the courage and confidence of voicewalkers like Bev, Aunty Denise, and other fiercely humble prophets in our towns, villages and cities, to build peaceful, informed, focused alliances; to practise the art of peace-building and conciliation in the face of war; to be voicewalkers in the name of Christ. 

Ruth Harvey is a Quaker, a Church of Scotland minister, and Leader of the Iona Community. You can read her reflections on her recent Creation Care Pilgrimage in Australia at www.iona.org.uk/iona-learn/