This is a very Anglican edition, to celebrate a new Archbishop of Canterbury, affectionately nick-named 'the Druid', who is tipped to galvanise the Christian world through his articulate theological dialogue with diverse cultures.
'Just war' is much in the headlines, and appropriated by just about everybody, without too much reference to the fact that the Just War doctrine was developed in very different world circumstances to the international crisis management scenario which now confronts us.
In the Advent edition of Common Theology Archbishop Rowan Williams pointed out that nation states no longer have the power to provide security for their citizens. A placard in the New York peace protest on February 9 read - 'Prevent Mad Cowboy Disease', and it is worth noting that none of the chief protagonists of war against Iraq have personal experience of armed conflict.
It may be necessary to help national governments realise that peace-making belongs in more altruistic hands, preferably with international bodies that have the cultural resources, democratic authority, and economic support of a panoply of nations to administer a just and orderly world politic.
Julian Burnside QC writes in this edition on the erosion which must occur in our Rule of Law if Australia continues to treat refugees as criminals. It is paradoxical that the Prime Minister consigns the Stolen Generations to the past, without apparently realising that some children of refugees growing up in detention centres will bring similar charges against a future government for the abuse they suffer now in Woomera and Villawood. Julian Burnside sounds a warning for a decent society should justice lack compassion.
Quietly, moles such as Dr Ros Kidd are uncovering our national debt to Aboriginal people. Her scholarship, applied to the contents of Queensland government archives, provides much food for theological reflection. What damage is done to a society that throws away broken things? How much personal power do we give away by blaming others for our corporate guilt? How do we discern destructive elements in our attitudes and behaviour? How do we take responsibility to correct these?
One thing is certain - neither federal nor state governments, neither church councils nor gurus can do this for us. It is up to each one of us, within the context in which we currently find ourselves, to discern and define the future of a decent society.

Maggie Helass