Well I had quite an amazing evening last night. A fundraising dinner with our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at Bishopscourt! Present also were Peter Jensen (Archbishop of Sydney), John Woodhouse (Principal of Moore College), Bruce Baird and 15 or so others who made fantastic company. We were there to try and raise the funds to help Moore college through this challenging time in the economy, and Mr Rudd was our honoured guest.
Kirst Sandell (2nd year Moore), Afred Olwa (PhD. student, Moore), and Tim (3rd year Moore) were simply there to share our experiences as students. And it was a humbling and greatly encouraging night.
The real highlight was the address by the Prime Minister. As usual, his speech was prepared for him in advance – but during Archbishop Jensen’s address, John Woodhouse’s speech and the short interviews with us students, he was jotting down some notes. Then, as he rose to speak it became apparent that he spoke not from the pre-prepared speech, but from the notes that he had jotted down. What came next was an amazing display of intelligent and genuine public speech. Engaging with those who had just spoken (so much so, I was referred to as “mate”!), Kevin Rudd rehearsed his deep knowledge of the theology and ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He then went on to explain his tension between being “true to thine self,” and how he handles making a public prosecution of his faith. It was an incredibly honest and genuine moment of sharing. His commendation of Moore College came next. Followed lastly by his exhortation to acts of mercy in light of the economic challenges ahead. Us students were particular urged to think through what claims these challenges might make on us in the parish we will minister in. The night ended in prayer and thanks.
And then he left around 10:30pm (after an already hectic day – he’s been preparing the country’s budget!) and went off to another meeting.
I was blown away mainly by 1) his genuine faith and honest time of sharing, and 2) the physical and emotional strength he must have to meet and greet people all through the day, and yet engage with them with such friendliness. Praise the Lord for the encouraging night we had!
Let’s hope it encourages many to give financially to the work of Moore college in service to Christ’s church. And may we all take up our cross as we move into this next challenging period of our country’s life.
As Bonhoeffer says in his Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, He calls him: Come and die.”
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14 comments
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Nick says:
May 7, 2009 at 8:41 pm (UTC 10 )
Sounds like a great night. Wish i was there. Sounds like you, Kirst and Alfred are the PR people of Moore college once again.
I hope Sue Hardwick sent you an email to make sure you wore a suit. (sharp dresser)
Nick
jimmy says:
May 7, 2009 at 9:55 pm (UTC 10 )
mark!
sounds like a killer night, excellent stuff indeed!
Mark says:
May 7, 2009 at 10:30 pm (UTC 10 )
@Nick – I reckon eh! The slightly holy trinity of college fundraising! I kept this one on the downlow just in case Nick Moll caught wind of it!
@Jimmy – It was a cool night. Ps – when are we watching wolverine???
dave miers says:
May 7, 2009 at 10:33 pm (UTC 10 )
very cool man.
sounds like it was a great night!!
SamR says:
May 7, 2009 at 10:33 pm (UTC 10 )
Wow.
Yep K-Rudd is actually a pretty inspiring speaker. I got to hear him at a Christians in the Media thing a few years back when he was just shadow treasurer (?) and he spoke about how important it was for Christians to be heard in the media. Sounds like you guys had a great night!
SamR says:
May 7, 2009 at 10:34 pm (UTC 10 )
And I reckon if I leave another comment I might just become #1 commentor?
Mark says:
May 7, 2009 at 10:46 pm (UTC 10 )
Ha! I’ve just renamed it for you fellas! And @Sam – totally agreed mate. I reckon us preachers could learn a thing or too from him!
dave miers says:
May 7, 2009 at 11:34 pm (UTC 10 )
sam have you counted how many comments you’ve made?? how do you know the number?
dave miers says:
May 7, 2009 at 11:35 pm (UTC 10 )
touch down.
onlinesoph says:
May 9, 2009 at 5:15 pm (UTC 10 )
Very cool! Have you read Rudd’s article on DB in the Monthly?
SamR says:
May 10, 2009 at 8:10 am (UTC 10 )
Just using the ‘comment fight’ widget to keep track.
Mark says:
May 10, 2009 at 2:39 pm (UTC 10 )
Hey OnlineSoph, is that the DB article he did a while ago (around the time of becoming PM??)?
I remember reading something fairly interesting by him on Bonhoeffer a while ago. My poor memory’s failing to help me recall where I read it!
Christine says:
May 19, 2009 at 7:22 pm (UTC 10 )
was it videoed at all? Is there some transcript of the night? I’d love to hear what Kevin had to say.
Mark says:
May 19, 2009 at 9:55 pm (UTC 10 )
I think it was going to be videoed, but it wasn’t (perhaps because he didn’t go off his pre-prepared speech?)… and nope, no transcript – just my dodgey memory
sorry I can’t be of better use Christine!
Break it Down #10 | dave miers dot com says:
May 18, 2009 at 12:07 am (UTC 10 )
[...] Dinner with Kevin Rudd! [...]