The 2020 Summit: A spiritual reflection

Christopher Newell

The 2020 Summit was an important and devastating experience. Its importance lay in the bringing together of 1000 people of good will to imagine the future. An opportunity for citizens to seek to engage in the activities of the polis, reminiscent of its early Greek origins. It drew upon the activities of 1990s activities and ideals of New Labor in the UK in the Blair years. Famous, powerful and ordinary rubbed shoulders in imagining the future. Perhaps most importantly, indigenous voices spoke of important steps in healing our nation. My quiet times with wise people such as Sir William Deane will be forever cherished, especially as we admired each other's work and shared a Christian vocation. Such moments are nourishing and build connection.

My devastation lay in struggling to translate my words and life experiences of daily being dependant upon the health system into a future scenario to which others without that experience related. It is only with deep listening and space that this can be done. Yet the hurried focus on outcomes when we had not built relationship was devastating. How can I dream with someone I do not know and had not broken bread with? How can I dream when so much of our shared time had blaring music rather than the Wisdom found in shared quiet and reflection? How can I feel valued when so much of our imagining together was built upon a Cult of Celebrity and a desire for fame? The front-page photos of the body beautiful Jackman and Blanchett (with baby!) reflected the central role given to celebrity. At one stage I imagined a country where in 2020 each person knows they are loved and have a valued place in society, yet this was dismissed as not fitting into a discussion focussed on generating a few jingoistic words. Fame and position was in, as journos jockeyed for the right shot and power interview. None seemed interested in the mum who over a boxed breakfast told me of her beautiful son with multiple disabilities who had died in her arms recently. We shed a tear quietly together as around us others told stories to each other, also unrecorded in the media and official outcomes. Such wisdom, such beauty!

There were important lessons and I would suggest missed opportunities for us as Church. Special consultation was held prior to the event with the Jewish community because of the Passover, yet on Sunday morning we as Christians needed to witness together and pray collectively. On Sunday very early morning I said the Office alone and reflected on where is God in all this? Is God so unimportant we could not find time in our busy schedule to stop and be nurtured? It would have been so powerful for the Christians at the Summit to have recognised and proclaimed God in our midst.

Theology teaches us of the importance Christ placed on the poor and dispossessed. We needed more of those voices, silence, and then corporate action. My suggestion is the Church still has significant opportunity: To listen to spiritual cries found in each suggestion recorded, and the many that did not make it to the official record, and to engage with the spiritual yearning. All of us yearn for valued place, to know we are loved and to be all that we can be. The spiritual dimension to the Summit needs to be made explicit: Why not do that as a Church, as we seek to live out our theology?

Christopher Newell
24 April 2008