A Church that does not provoke any crisis,

preach a Gospel that does not unsettle, proclaim a word of God that does not

get under anyone's skin, or the word of God that does not touch the real sin of

the society in which it is being proclaimed: what kind of Gospel is that?

OSCAR ROMERO

A Time to Speak is a challenge to the churches in Australia to recover their prophetic voice; to engage with Australian society and systems, to reflect on the tradition of the ancient prophets in Israel and the teachings of Jesus, calling people to care for one another, putting the other before the self.

Here is a call to the churches to change directions; to abandon their emphasis on personal morality and individual salvation and to focus instead on those issues that are at the heart of the Gospel tradition, issues that affect the entire Australian society, its direction, its priorities, its sense of identity. It is an invitation that demands that the churches re-engage with the public forum, recover confidence to speak the timeless, gospel message.

But to do this will require change within the churches - changes of style, changes of leadership, changes of structures, changes that will restore confidence that the Jesus tradition reveals the purposes of God for the world and its creatures, changes that will enable fresh ways of being church in a context where Christianity is no longer automatically valued and respected.

The author brings a lifetime of ministry to the task, with more than forty years of engaging the church and the community in public discourse on the social, ethical, justice and economic concerns that affect community life, climate change, housing, economics, the needs of children young people and families as well as broader social justice issues.