[Dialogue] {Spam?} spong 10-10-07

[KroegerD at aol.com]

October 10, 2007 
Jean Illingworth, Djarragun  College and the Beauty of one Human Being  

In the five years that I have been writing this column it has been my  
privilege on two occasions to introduce rare people, who have changed the world  
around them. The first was a man named John Titaley, President of a university  
in Salatiga on the island of Java in Indonesia. John, a Christian pastor and 
the  recipient of a cosmopolitan education, believed that the task of education 
was  to open student minds to a world that most of them would never see and 
for them  to appreciate even the diversity in the world's religions. The second 
was a  woman in England named Phyllis Weller, who, although elderly and frail, 
 dedicated her life to turning a tiny spot in front of her 
government-supported  house into a beautiful garden to enrich the whole neighborhood. She 
epitomized  to me the sacredness of the ordinary. Today I want to share with you a 
third  unique and transforming life. Her name is Jean Illingworth. A white 
Rhodesian by  birth, she has spent her life working for the ethnically 
marginalized wherever  she has lived.  
The day on which I met Jean began when our car pulled up in front of  
Djarragun College, a school for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children  located 
in a rural section of North Queensland, Australia. Two sixteen-year old  
members of the student body, Monica Fourmile, an Aboriginal girl from Yarrabah,  
and Phillip Brown, a Torres Strait student from Hammond Island stood almost at  
attention to welcome us. They were dressed in formal school uniforms of 
orange  coats with the Djarragun College Emblem on their breast pockets, dark 
trousers,  yellow shirts and school ties. Later, we were joined by a third student, 
Ned  Ingui, of mixed Aboriginal and Torres Strait ancestry and whose 
personality  would light up the world. It would be through these student's eyes that 
we first  met "Miss Jean," their principal, and began to grasp her story.  
Jean is a woman in her late fifties who earlier in her life had worked with  
and supported the transformation of white-ruled Rhodesia into black-ruled  
Zimbabwe. She was one who saw the future clearly and had once believed in the  
vision of justice and self-rule articulated by the young Robert Mugabe. When  
Mugabe became just one more tyrant and corrupt politician and turned his wrath  
on the descendents of the early British rulers, she left the land of her birth 
 for Australia. A trained educator she continued to work as a teacher and  
administrator. In time she found herself heading up a school for Aboriginal  
children in the Northern Territory of Australia, not far from Darwin. For a  
white woman to head an Aboriginal school requires rare sensitivity and  
dedication. Jean's commitment to the well being of her students and their future  
dominated her work. Her dual task was to appreciate fully the Aboriginal  culture, 
while assuring that her students were equipped by their education to  live into 
the future.  
She was also aware that the diet eaten by most Aboriginal people was at a  
subsistence level only and wrestled daily with the health needs of her students. 
 She got her school to increase its food budget and to see to it that her  
students had healthy and well-prepared meals. This program was so successful  
that slowly many of the students' family members - parents, grandparents and  
siblings - began to come to the school at meal time and they too were fed.  
Education is much easier when stomachs are not growling and when bodies are  
healthy. The popularity of Jean's school began to grow in this region.  
Threat, however, began to be experienced by some of the Aboriginal farmers  
and Elders who saw their own markets decline because the school was feeding the 
 parents. So they demanded that the school begin to pay them a tax for 
feeding  those who once bought food from them. When the school declined to do that 
the  Elders turned their wrath on this white teacher. They issued an official 
curse,  not only on the school, but on those who ate there. They began to call 
Jean a  witch. Parents and students became fearful of continuing to be 
identified with  the school and thus violating their relationship with the ruling 
Elders they had  been taught to respect. Attendance plummeted. Drop-outs rose. 
All attempts at  negotiation failed. Jean resigned. It was the only way the 
school could be  saved. She entered the ranks of the semi-retired having failed in 
her only goal  to provide her students with the education they needed for 
their lives.  
Meanwhile, in 1993 several thousand miles away in Northern Queensland,  
another Aboriginal school, to be called Emmanuel College was being opened by a  
Pentecostal clergy couple serving as pastors of Emmanuel Christian Fellowship.  
In Australia "college" means a boarding or day school for children from  
kindergarten through high school. Such schools are able to attract funding from  
individuals, foundations and the government. No matter how many grants this  
school received, however, neither the physical plant nor the quality of the  
education seemed to improve. People assumed that the need must be so great or  that 
the school's officials were unskilled in financial management. When the  
board of the College sought a short term loan from Anglican Financial Services,  
the CEO of that Brisbane based organization, who happened to be an active Roman 
 Catholic layman, began to probe the affairs of this school. He did not like 
what  he saw and together with a government funding agency, made a 
precondition of  further funding that he be made a member of the finance committee.  
The problem, however, was neither the depth of need nor inexperience in  
financial management. It was dishonesty on the part of this Pentecostal clergy  
couple. They not only paid themselves a salary three times the Australian  
teacher/principal norm, but with school funds were building themselves an  
ocean-going yacht, charging personal face lift and hair transplant surgery to  the 
school and going on what were called "recruitment drives" to Russia and  Europe 
at school expense. It also became apparent that the educational process  had 
been subverted by the desire to convert the students to Pentecostal  Christian 
religion. Twenty percent of the school week was dedicated to "Assembly  
Programs," which were little more than preaching services in which a  fundamentalist 
Bible was pounded home, the devil in the children was proclaimed  to be the 
source of their evil and the leaders engaged frequently in speaking in  tongues. 
 
When both sides of this dilemma, basic dishonesty and religious  
propagandizing, were revealed, the board dismissed the two leaders and began  legal 
proceedings against them. It then hired the Aboriginal preacher who had  replaced 
the Pentecostal couple as pastor of Emmanuel Christian Fellowship to be  the 
collage's Acting CEO and Board Chairman. The board then began to advertise  
nationally for a new principal. Three people applied, but only one had the  
necessary qualifications. She was hired. Her name was Jean Illingworth.  
The work of reclaiming this school, however, had just begun. Jean recognized  
that many faculty members had been recruited by the original founders more 
for  their religious zeal than for their educational abilities. Next she 
discovered  that the new Acting CEO was continuing the practice of diverting the 
school's  resources for the benefit of his church. She confronted his dishonesty 
openly  only to be faced with his attempt to use his Aboriginal heritage to 
discredit  her. She was yet again "the white devil trying to intimidate 
Aboriginal  leaders." The tensions were palpable when the board stepped in once again,  
dismissing the board chairman and terminating forever the connection between  
that Pentecostal Church and the college. It renamed the school Djarragun 
College  after the pyramid shaped mountain just behind the school. Slowly, Jean 
weeded  out those faculty members, who put conversion ahead of education, and 
began to  recruit new faculty. When the school reopened in 2001, it had only 66 
students,  but its faculty included Samoans, Fijians, Aboriginal and Torres 
Strait people  plus a Dutchman, a Canadian and a Scot of Italian background. In 
addition to  demanding educational quality, Jean was committed to teaching 
students to value  their Aboriginal and Torres Strait cultures. The children 
learned traditional  dances, wore traditional clothing and used traditional body 
paint. Religion was  to be respected, not imposed. Slowly, these students began 
to take great pride  in being both Aboriginal people and citizens of modern 
Australia. In addition to  the regular school curriculum, apprenticeships in 
various skills, from  automobile mechanics to computer programming were offered. 
The students, now 600  strong, have become the ones for whom the school 
exists and the College's  mandate is to treat every child with respect...  
This may be the happiest school I have ever seen. The students all love and  
respect "Miss Jean" and their wonderfully diverse faculty. In our honor on the 
 day we visited, the students presented various cultural events that conveyed 
an  understanding of their past, concentrating on Aboriginal tales of how 
animals  came to be and on how their ancestors learned the healing arts. We saw 
boys and  girls doing Torres Strait dances and Aboriginal dances and Ned Igui, 
who has  ancestors in both camps, doing both. We saw passion, joy and a sense 
of  unshakeable identity in these students. We also saw teenagers like Monica, 
 Phillip and Ned firmly committed to taking their place in the life of modern 
 Australia.  
Behind it all stands Jean Illingworth, a smiling "grandmother" who is the  
heart and soul of this school, admired by students, faculty, administration and  
parents alike. Fifty miles beyond this school Jean Illingworth is unknown, 
but  in the life of this community she is the source of their inspiration, 
dreams and  hopes. I would take nothing for the privilege of visiting this school 
and  meeting Jean, a modern-day saint.  
I invite my readers to write Jean a letter of thanks for transforming this  
small corner of the world into something special. Her address is: Jean  
Illingworth, Principal, Djarragun College, Maher Road, P.O. Box 771,  Gordonville, 
North Queensland 4865, Australia. Her e-mail address is 
_Jean at Djarragun.qld.edu.au._ (mailto:Jean at Djarragun.qld.edu.au)  I thank  you in advance for doing 
that.  
John Shelby Spong  
_Note  from the Editor: Bishop Spong's new book is available now at 
bookstores  everywhere and by clicking here!_ 
(http://astore.amazon.com/bishopspong-20/detail/0060762071/104-6221748-5882304)   
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
D. R. Marsh, via the Internet, writes: I am a member of the Spiritual Quest  
group at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. One of the  
topics we have been studying is the ancient Wheel of the Year and the  
relationships of pagan beliefs, customs, and celebrations to those of  Christianity. 
At the vernal equinox, we found a variety of very interesting  stories, one of 
which follows: In Rome, about 200 years before the birth of  Christ, there was 
a wide range of what we today would call "mystery cults."  Attis and Cybele 
held their vernal equinox rituals at the same place where St.  Peter's Basilica 
now stands in the Vatican - the center of Catholicism today.  Attis was also 
known under various names such as Osiris, Dionysus, Tammuz, and  Orpheus. The 
Attis and Cybele festival had a death or day of blood, three days  of 
semi-death, then a return to life for the deceased. Attis' mother was called  Nana and 
she was a virgin - no surprise there. Attis was crucified on a pine  tree and 
his followers ate his body; his blood was spilled or released to  
renew/redeem the earth. Attis was both a sacrificial victim and a savior, his  death and 
re-birth intended to bring salvation to mankind. Most researchers will  
declare that Attis is clearly the prototype for Christ. (This information is  from 
_Ireland's Druidschool Web site_ 
(http://www.druidschool.com/site/1030100/page/765341) ). It appears that the Christian  churches tried to win over the 
pagans by taking over or blending in with their  celebrations at these particular 
times of the year pertaining to the sun, moon,  fertility, harvest, and 
otherworldly observances like Halloween. Does the church  calendar have any meaning? 
Does it really matter? How does all this complicate  our understanding of God, 
Jesus, and our ministry in the world? And, lastly,  what do you think about 
it?  
Dear D.R.,  
It is now quite obvious that as Christianity moved out of its Jewish womb  
into the Mediterranean world, it was introduced to, conformed with and shaped by 
 the culture.  
For example, the virgin birth did not enter the Christian story until the 9th 
 decade. There were lots of virgin birth stories in the pagan religions of 
the  Empire. They were clearly mythological interpretive devices. The 
cannibalistic  ideas associated with the Christian Eucharist in which the flesh and 
blood of  the savior figure are eaten and drunk clearly have pagan origins. The 
account of  a hero figure dying and returning from death is also present in many 
ancient  pagan sources. Easter was a pagan word for spring and the return of 
the earth to  life after the winter. That is why the crucifixion of Jesus was 
moved to the  season of the Passover so that his victory over death could be 
celebrated at the  same time the forms of life showed victory over the death of 
winter by coming to  life again.  
Christmas and Hannukah were attached to the return of the sun from its  
retreat into darkness. Hence both celebrations come at or near the shortest day  of 
the year in the northern hemisphere.  
Every religious system is layered over ancient roots. Christianity is no  
different. That is why anyone who literalizes the Jesus story or the Bible is  
revealing little more than profound ignorance. That is also why it is my  
experience that studying the Christian faith requires a lifetime. None of these  
things, however, distorts the basic Christian message that God calls us to live,  
to love and to be.  
John Shelby Spong  
P.S. Please give my regards to the people of St Mark's. I remember with much  
pleasure doing a series of lectures there some 4 or 5 years ago. 



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