The Rev'd Dr Garry Deverell explores the relationship of Christianity and Aboriginal culture.

Workshop 1 (May 12): Dreaming and Christian Tradition:

What is the relationship between the Christian God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and our Old People/ Ancestral spirits? Is there are relationship at all? How would we know?

A workshop looking at the most fundamental questions facing those of us who have a commitment to both Aboriginal and Christian cosmologies.

Workshop 2 (August 11): Space, Time and Ceremony

What is the relationship between a Jewish and Christian sense of time - divided up into past, present and future - and Aboriginal emphases on the sacred priority of particular places? Can there be a relationship at all? If so, what would it look like on the ground, in the way we do liturgy or ceremony through the cycles of the year?

A workshop looking at the ways in which colonial Christian liturgies might be tweaked to take account of more local sensibilities concerning the sacred.

Workshop 3 (date to be confirmed): Relational Ethics for the Apocalypse

What is the relationship between the Christian duty to love God and one's neighbour, and the Aboriginal duty to care for country? Are these duties mutually exclusive or can they be thought and taught together? And How might we give effect to these duties in a time of ecological emergency?

A workshop looking at the ways in which the relational ethics of two ancient traditions might help us to decide what is important here and now.

About Garry Deverell

The Rev’d Dr Garry Worete Deverell is a trawloolway man from northern Tasmania, a theologian of country, and a canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne. Across 27 years he has ministered in parishes, hospitals and academic institutions. Most recently, he was the academic dean in the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Divinity. His written works include The Bonds of Freedom: vows, sacraments and the formation of the Christian self (Paternoster Press, 2008), Gondwana Theology: a trawloolway man reflects on Christian faith (ATF Press, 2018 and 2024) and Contemplating Country: more Gondwana theology (Wipf & Stock, 2023).

About the Workshops

Each workshop is a stand-alone event. You are welcome to book into 1, 2 or all 3 workshops. When booking select the online option if you do not intend to be at Yilawaru in person. Please note that tickets for mob are free, friends and allies charges apply.

Workshop timetable:

10.00 Arrive and morning tea

10.30 Workshop

12.30 Lunch

1.30 Workshop

3.30 Depart

Please bring your lunch, tea and coffee supplied.