Maria's blog

So I am currently in Vancouver, Canada - studying for a year at Regent College. If you want to keep a track of my reflections and updates, check out my blog here: https://mariafekirkland.wordpress.com.

Here's also a photo of Vancouver, looking from Jericho beach over to Downtown from last night. There was a fireworks display that we watched down at the beach once it got dark.

Celebrations...

We've had a few weddings that we celebrated in the last few months, both Elaine and Peter's and Anna and Andre's! They were both great times of joy - check out some of Brett's awesome photos!

Greenhaus celebration party

This last weekend, we celebrated the last season of the Greenhaus Community. People who have been part of the Greenhaus over the last season (10 years or so) came, as did a few others who have been connected. We also invited our friends INK from down the road to join us and hand over the mantle as such of the big haus.

Nearly all of us are moving out on 6 Feb 2016 and INK will move in the following week. We are still continuing as a community and we are in the process of figuring out what shared life and mission looks like made up of lots of multiple households without the context of quite a few of us all living together in one big haus.

Here are some awesome photos from our celebration party that Brett took.

Greenhaus Community 2015 weekend away at Ngatiawa

We recently had a lovely Greenhaus Community weekend away at Ngatiawa. We had some beautiful weather and some great conversations and time together reflecting on the life of our community and hoping for what may be with the transitions happening for us soon.

If you haven't heard, nearly all of the current members of the Greenhaus are moving out of the big haus in February 2016. This brings to an end some of this era of the Greenhaus and so we have been talking about what re-envisaging community life might look like for next year and beyond.

Here are some photos from our weekend away - enjoy:)

Greenhaus Christmas soiree 2015

Hi all,

We thought it would be good to let you all know of some of the changes that are happening in the Greenhaus over the next few months. Due to life stages and transitions, nearly all of the current residents of the Greenhaus will be moving out in February 2016, and our friends the INK community (from down the road) moving in. We are very stoked to let you know that INK who have been coming along to the soirées, will continue on the tradition of Greenhaus soirées that have been going for such a long time! 

From the current members of the Greenhaus community, we would like to say thanks for the wonderful memories and stories we have shared with you at soirées and in everyday life over so many years - we will miss hosting and welcoming you all in the same way but know that the 'kingdom moments' we have experienced at the soirée will continue. Many of us will still be living in Newtown and look forward to seeing you around.

Please join us at our Christmas soirée - it will be a special time celebrating.

Love the Greenhaus Community

Exciting news - Anna and Andre are engaged!

The Greenhaus has somewhat of a history of couples getting together while living in the big haus! Love has struck again with Anna and Andre getting engaged last week - whoop whoop:)

Here is a photo of them just after they got engaged on the West Coast as well as another photo from the other night when we celebrated with them.

Learning the life that lasts

I just read this article by one of my favourite authors and thought others might enjoy it too. I particularly like the metaphor around community being a lot like a garden - there's always work to be done, including meetings!:)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kofrp9n34orxr3s/LearningLifeLasts%20wilson%20hartgrove.pdf?dl=0

Come and join us for the Spring Soiree

Greek crisis: 3 ways out and 3 causes

Here's my personal view and analysis on the unfolding Greek financial crisis, written before the recent Greek referendum on their way out of the crisis.  

3 ways out:

1. Halt austerity:  Austerity hasn’t worked and shouldn't be extended.  Austerity has weakened Greece’s ability to repay its loans, since it has contributed to GDP falling by 25% and unemployment rising to 25%. The medicine has made the patient more sick. 
2. Restructure the debt so Greece can grow its economy:  Greece can't repay its current debts and should be allowed to restructure them so that it can grow its economy and repay them in the future.  Restructuring Greece's debts could involve giving them more time, waiving interest rates, or reducing the amount of the loan.  Restructuring the debts gives Greece time to reform its corrupt and inefficient economy. 
3. Vote 'no' on Sunday:  Greek citizens should vote ‘no’ on Sunday.  Voting 'yes' means Greece signing up for loans it can't repay and the crisis dragging on for years to come.  Voting 'no' is the only way Greece has a hope to restructure its loans and grow its way out of the crisis.

3 causes:

1. Both Greece and the EU contributed to growing debt before the GFC:  Prior to the GFC, Greek debt got out of control due to reckless government spending, poor tax collection, and an unproductive and corrupt economy.  Being part of the EU encouraged larger debts since with the Euro, Greece's interest rates are lower (encouraging more debt) and its exchange rate is stronger (making its exports less competitive). 
2. The post-GFC bailouts were flawed:  After the GFC, the troika (IMF, European Central Bank, European Commission) gave large bailouts and required Greece to commit to deep austerity and reforms.  The bailouts were largely driven by Germany’s desire to protect its investments in Greek debt.  Austerity has harmed the economy and the reforms undertaken by previous Greek governments haven’t tackled the biggest curruption and inefficiency in the Greek economy.
3. The current Greek government is on the right track:  Since being elected at the beginning of the year, the current Greek government wants to implement meaningful reforms and restructure its debts.  However, without restructuring the debt, the pressure every few months of repaying its debts makes it extremely challenging for the Greek government to implement effective reforms to its economy. 

Here’s an article showing some well respected economists views on the crisis:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/greece-austerity-economists_n_7714148.html

Pain and kingdom building

This year I've been going along to monthly discussions with a bunch of others interested in Servants to Asia's Urban Poor (check out their website if your interested: http://servantsasia.org.

A few weeks ago, one of the guys mentioned this series of videos from Peter Block and Walter Brueggemann. The series talks quite a bit about our call as people of faith to be building the kingdom and not the empire eg. "kingdom building" or "empire building."

One of the videos is entitled 'Pain and Marching' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-g-LRZmW4) and has this particular quote in it that I loved:

"Pain brought to speech, turns to energy;
    Pain not brought to speech, turns to violence."

I recently went to a gathering/service for friends of mine that had lost their baby at 17 weeks. The service was a time of lots of crying and sadness but also a powerful expression of grieving communally. In the video, it talks about the "communal cost of empire is isolation" - by grieving together with pain expressed to one another, I experienced the powerful alternative of kingdom building rather than empire building.

This morning I also watched Barack Obama's eulogy at the funeral of the Reverend who was one of the people who died in the shooting at the church in South Carolina a few weeks ago. Putting aside some of the political rhetoric, parts of his speech really talked of kingdom building rather than empire building and turning pain into change, rather than violence. Here's a link to the speech if you would like to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXMoO9ABFE