It`s an interesting time being around Perth at the moment. Actually for many people it`s very exciting seeing the Queen and Prince Philip and engaging in some traditional English activities like a high tea. I myself can`t get too enthusiastic about it as I confess to be a republican but I can see the attraction of the royal visit.

The reason she is here, of course, is because of CHOGM. I recently listened to Michael Kirby, the retired Chief Justice, both on the radio, and then at a presentation at UWA, on the importance of this meeting and whether it was worth all the effort. As part of an Eminent Persons Committee, he has been meeting and preparing a number of proposals to be presented to representatives of the 54 nations who are here. From this experience he had some interesting things to say, particularly about the vexed problems of human rights. His committee was not only proposing that a commissioner of democracy and human rights be appointed, but also that the criminal law that makes homosexuality illegal in most Commonwealth countries be removed. Now whether or not that happens is debatable. But what he did say was that it was time the Commonwealth countries took seriously their statements about the values of democracy, the rule of law and human rights which are often talked about. Talk is cheap, and while countries are at different stages in their development, all can be acting towards making these values real in the lives of their citizens.

Michael Kirby is a well respected leader and a man of integrity. He does what he says he will do. He wants the Commonwealth countries to help each other do what they say they will do.

It`s funny how sometimes the reading from a book written a long time ago, in fact almost 2,000 years ago, can speak to us today so clearly. In Matthew`s reading, we hear what Michael Kirby was on about.

Jesus is presented as being quite blunt when passing judgement of some of the Jewish leaders of the day. He doesn`t mince his words when addressing the issue of leadership. He is heard to say, `Do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practise what they teach`.

These leaders or interpreters of scripture, as Bill Loader points out, were seen to place unrealistic burdens on people through the law, while at the same time they sat and did nothing for them. Instead they surrounded themselves with the trappings of power, which reinforced their claim to greatness. Sounds like some of our politicians. But Jesus could not tolerate smugness or elitism. He could not tolerate an abuse of people in the name of purity, or holiness or obedience. And he could not tolerate those who were said to be religious and faithful but were speaking from a place or position of opulence. So he holds them accountable.

This interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees reinforces the faith differences between Jesus and the ruling religious elite. His leadership and the leadership he called his disciples to, was characterised by unity - a unity of purpose, where one`s inner life and outward behaviour, were totally intertwined. This was a leadership with integrity, one of faith and action. It was a leadership that proclaimed love and compassion as the essence of faith, social justice and the needs of the poor and marginalised paramount, and welcomed everyone.

Yet how often over the time since Jesus, have the church and church leaders fallen for the way of the Pharisees rather than Jesus. When they have become obsessed with the laws and the rules of scripture and with their own power, and have forgotten the needs of the people. And how often have those who have spoken out been demonised, sacrificed or exiled from the church that they love. Much like Jesus.

Matthew Fox is one such person, a priest expelled by the Catholic Church because of his theological views which were seen as too progressive. In a new book from him, he calls for a new reformation, seeing our current world situation similar to that faced by Martin Luther in 1517.

Luther attacked the Catholic Church at that time for its corruption, greed and lack of concern for the poor. As Fox suggests it was difficult to see any resemblance between this corrupt papacy and Jesus, the founder of Christianity. But the worst thing for Luther was the selling of indulgences. Indulgences were offered by the church as exemptions from works of penitence required of the soul in this world because of past sins. The church taught that the virtue or merit of Christ and the saints, or the lives of those who were entirely holy and without sin, could be applied to those who still had penance to perform. It was like taking some of the treasure from those with large savings and applying it to the accounts of those with deficits. It was not purchasing forgiveness but rather the debt you owed. The granting of large scale indulgences was a particular expression of papal power, but it had become a corrupt practice, used by many priests to make money or by political leaders of the day to do what they liked. When a well known indulgence seller came to Luther`s home town, Luther challenged him, one theologian to another, about the validity of such a practice. In 1517 he posted his Ninety-five Theses or academic points against indulgences on the door of the Castle chapel, in accordance with university custom initiating academic debate. Unfortunately the respectful theological protest against the misuse of indulgences by Luther, an Augustine monk, became a papal accusation of heresy. No one could challenge the church and get away with it. Particularly when the church was in the pocket of the political powers who ran the empire.

Rather than being excommunicated Luther`s theology, which gave people a new spirituality and a renewed understanding of Jesus and God, helped form a new church, the Protestant church. But it was not easy.

Fox suggests it is now time for another reformation. And again it won`t be easy. Fox writes, `Today ecological crises, poverty crises in the midst of plenty, youth crises, religious crises, educational crises, survival crises and the worldwide spread of fundamentalism require a spiritual awakening at least as great as those in any previous periods of history`. We have lost our way. Again, like the Pharisees much of the church focuses on personal salvation, and what needs to be believed rather than how we live, becoming insular and exclusive in the process. Again as in Luther`s time there is corruption, excess and a lack of vision for a better more just world.

We need to go back to where it started and re-imagine our faith as Jesus did. Not with rules and requirements and judgement, but with love and compassion and action in the world. The old ways are just not going to deliver the change that is needed. We have to set our sights on the values Jesus expounded then work to bring them into being. Right Faith is worthless without right action. Sounds a bit like what Michael Kirby was advocating at CHOGM. Right values are worthless without right action. And leadership is required. Our leadership.

Fox has written his own 95 theses or faith observations in response to these crises he sees in the world. For him they are not just a reformation but a transformation, back to our origins, to the spirit and teaching of Jesus and his prophetic ancestors. I am going to place Fox`s 95 on the wall for you to read, but here are some examples - 6, 10, 18, 20, 32, 35, 38, 54, 59, 61, 66, 75, 76, 80, 89. I place them in public not to sacrifice him, or get him exiled from the Catholic Church again, but to indicate they are open for debate. The way it should be. Open to a new way of understanding and a new way forward.

Let me finish with another person who during their lifetime helped challenge the existing order. At the talk I went to with Michael Kirby, the Vice Chancellor of UWA Alan Robson used a quote from John F Kennedy to open the forum. Robson spoke about the change in our society over the last 30 years, which has seen a greater openness and inclusiveness pervade institutions like the university. But there is much work to be done, by people willing to speak up.

His quote comes from a speech JFK gave on the Day of Affirmation, given at the University of Capetown South Africa 1966. Here is some of what he said . . .

`There is,` said an Italian philosopher, `nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.` Yet this is the measure of the task of your generation, and the road is strewn with many dangers.

First, is the danger of futility: the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world`s ills - against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence. Yet many of the world`s greatest movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant Reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the thirty-two-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal.

`Give me a place to stand,` said Archimedes, `and I will move the world.` These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. Thousands of Peace Corps volunteers are making a difference in isolated villages and city slums in dozens of countries. Thousands of unknown men and women in Europe resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many died, but all added to the ultimate strength and freedom of their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.`

This is what the world needs now. People of faith who believe they can change things, both inside and outside the church, and then who act to do just that, taking others with them. You never know, the tiny ripples of hope could become that current, with enough force to transform of all we know into something better.

Fox M, `A New Reformation – Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity`, Inner Traditions, Vermont, 2006.