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.

Title: A Time to Speak
Author: Ray Cleary
ISBN: 978122589057
Publisher: Coventry
Date: 2021