Writer
Stephanie Dowrick
Rev Dr Stephanie Dowrick (PhD, D.Min) is a writer and long-time social justice activist. She was co-founder and first MD of The Women's Press, London; has long been a contributor to Australian media, including "Inner Life" columnist for Good Weekend Magazine. Her newest book is Your Name Is Not Anxious (2023). Earlier books include an updated edition of Intimacy & Solitude, and also Seeking the Sacred: Transforming Our View of Ourselves & One Another. Follow on Twitter @stephaniedowric. Visit www.stephaniedowrick.com
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. After al-Noor, a new sense of “neighbour” is needed.
There’s a simple, eloquent community song written by parish priest and musician Father Kevin Bates SM that begins with a sacred invitation: “Come and sit at my table. Though you have no money, come! Come and sit at my table and make yourself at home.” It goes on to ask, “Are you lonely or fearful? Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. We owe the dead and grieving insight and action as well as unlimited sorrow
The first response of most to the catastrophic tragedy in Christchurch is unlimited sorrow for all those directly and indirectly affected, but most especially for those whose lives have been ended or shattered. “Noor” means light in Arabic. Most of those slaughtered were at al-Noor, the “Mosque of the Light”. Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. The LNP have far more than a “women problem”
The “broad church” messaging from the Liberal Party is self-evidently in disarray. The Member for Cook’s eagerness to spend a little shy of $7m on a re-enactment of the Captain Cook circumnavigation-that-never-was may be his major gaffe this past week. Or that dubious prize may go to his choice of newly-hatched Liberal, ex Labor President, Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. The Best of 2018: Issues of Integrity, Not Sex.
The story of a middle-aged husband and father talking up the “failure” of his marriage to justify his relationship with a much younger and previously childless woman is too clichéd to have much drama. The effect of this on the abandoned wife and, in this case, four daughters, would of course make for a story Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Glad tidings of great welcome
Among the most affecting, timeless stories known to us is that of a heavily pregnant, very young Jewish woman, barely more than a girl, making her way towards a town called Bethlehem, in an area of the Middle East then called Judea. She was accompanied by her husband, Joseph, although, as the story tells us, Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Facts flung overboard on refugee health – and our nation’s.
Thursday 6 December was the final sitting day of the Australian Parliament for 2018 and one of only 10 sitting days between now and next May when an election is expected. It was a day to get things moving. Yet far more was undone than done, and not just for the asylum seekers and refugees Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK: Free the suffering children on Nauru – now.
Most readers of “Pearls and Irritations” will be at least somewhat sympathetic to the plight (what an inadequate word) of the refugee families on Nauru. You won’t need me to remind you that those families sought asylum because they were fleeing violence, war, death. You won’t either need me to remind you that they have Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Exposing the myths of “border protection” we will see the refugees as real people; and act accordingly.
On Thursday morning of the Liberals’ week of mayhem, facing front benches empty of ministers and with the day’s sitting of Parliament about to be shut down, ALP leader Bill Shorten said: “The purpose of government is to uplift the nation’s vision”. He’s right. We all know that he’s right. But vision takes courage. And Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Do we have a problem with refugees – or war?
In scrambling for solutions to the “refugee problem”, too few are contemplating the pervasively deadly “war problem” that plagues our global family. The article that follows is one of three I had published in July in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, filling in for regular columnist Elizabeth Farrelly in the Saturday editions. I Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. What is education for?
That quite distinctly beautiful word “education” has its origins in the Latin educare – to draw out or bring forth. But we’re entitled to ask: bring forth and draw towards what? It is well established that the happiest (least discontented, least endangering) people across all cultures are those able to participate actively in their society, Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Would ordaining women save the Catholic Church?
In our 21st century, and even allowing for widespread secularism especially in the West, about 2.2 billion people still call themselves Christian. Of these, about 1.2 billion are Roman Catholic. This number is only slightly smaller than the total number of Muslims (1.3 billion). The overall picture is clear: Catholicism is still a force to Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Taxing questions
The duty of any government to keep its citizens safe is apparently taken very seriously in this nation of ours. It justifies the existence of the largest department over which this government presides and gives Peter Dutton, the Minister for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, unprecedented powers with a seemingly unlimited budget. But Continue reading »
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Issues of Integrity, Not Sex
The story of a middle-aged husband and father talking up the “failure” of his marriage to justify his relationship with a much younger and previously childless woman is too clichéd to have much drama. The effect of this on the abandoned wife and, in this case, four daughters, would of course make for a story Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Weapons of Moral Destruction
A few days ago I drove with a friend from Sydney to Leura in NSW’s Blue Mountains. We were heading towards a meditation centre and on the way shared views about social justice and most especially peace activism. As long-time meditators, we were tossing ideas back and forth about how we can most effectively align Continue reading »