George Browning
George Browning was Anglican Bishop of Canberra Goulburn 1993 – 2008. He was President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network 2013 – 2022. He is now its Patron. He is also Patron of Palestinian Christians in Australia, and of the Palestinian ecumenical liberation theology centre -Sabeel.
George's recent articles
15 April 2025
We have good reason to have hope at Easter
At least once in a lifetime, every human being is likely to experience pain of such calamitous proportion that it feels as if the world is coming to an end, but in truth it isn’t.
18 March 2025
Empathy, culpability and madness
Is Trump mad? If declining to share the joys and troubles of the whole human race, to decline a seat at humanity’s common table is a form of madness – then yes, Donald J Trump is mad.
18 February 2025
Trump's and Musk’s monopoly board
Christopher Pyne, one-time Australian minister of the crown, gratuitously recommends Greenlanders embrace Trump’s desired purchase of Greenland on the basis they would be financially far better off. Hello, is everything to be valued exclusively in financial terms? Is this what human beings are all about?
16 February 2025
Trump and Christianity – Why it matters
Trump has created what he calls a ‘Faith Office’ within the White House and appointed a Pentecostal pastor from Florida, Paula White, to lead it. Ms White, widely described in mainstream Christianity as a heretic, teaches a transactional faith. In other words, faith is demonstrated in prosperity.
28 January 2025
Donald Trump at the National Cathedral Washington
Addressing Donald Trump at the National Cathedral’s inauguration service, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, looking the incoming president in the eye, pleaded with him: “to have mercy on people who are scared and help those facing persecution”.
10 January 2025
Awake O Sleeper
“Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit around and eat blackberries”. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Aurora Leigh)
28 November 2024
Zionism: An existential threat to Judaism
When recently sacked by Netanyahu, Gallant, in an emotional speech said: “Israel has fallen into moral darkness”. This is what Zionism has internally inflicted on Judaism – moral decay. The security threat suffered by good Jewish people globally is what Zionism has inflicted externally.
30 October 2024
The banning of UNWRA: The situation could not be grimmer
Let us be abundantly clear. What Israel is intending is against its obligations under international law. What Israel is intending is against its moral obligations as fellow citizens of the human race.
13 October 2024
Dutton and Netanyahu’s projection of good and evil
The leader of Australia’s Opposition, Peter Dutton, is aligning himself with a proposition about good and evil, civilisation and tyranny, that can only lead to the perpetuation of violence and the glorification of war, not its diminishment. The position of both men is dishonest, self-deluding and dangerous.
1 October 2024
Israel’s goal: less defence, more domination
It was almost impossible to listen to Benjamin Netanyahu speak at the United Nations General Assembly without a feeling of despair and disgust.
24 August 2024
Dutton, racism and electoral popularity
About 10 years ago, I found myself in the office of a Coalition Senator in my role as President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network. I and my delegation received a generous reception. At that stage the Senator did not hold an office on behalf of the Liberal Party which would now automatically prevent them from seeing us. The Senator recounted back-packing days though Egypt, Turkey and Israel following university, and assured us that the struggles facing Palestinian people did not need to be made any clearer.
11 July 2024
The two envoys
The Prime Minister says he has appointed an antisemitic envoy and will soon appoint an islamophobia envoy, because the population does not understand the complexity and seriousness apparent in a perceived threat to Australia’s social cohesion. But the boot is on the other foot. He and his government have shown an abysmal lack of understanding or perhaps wilful blindness to the causes of misplaced anger with racist overtones. Defacing war memorials and attacking the offices of members of parliament, which I do not condone, are protests against our government for not sanctioning Israel for its gross violations of international law.
27 June 2024
Where Olive Trees Weep - Australia must recognise Palestine
An open letter to Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Dutton, Senator Wong, Senator Birmingham and Senator Patterson. Yesterday you, or your party, opposed a motion which would have encouraged Australia to join a growing majority of the world’s countries that recognise Palestine. Why did you do that?
12 May 2024
Does self-interest necessarily rule - with inevitable destruction?
Before attempting an answer, first let us hold the mirror up to obvious signs of our dysfunction.
28 April 2024
When words cease being words: and become weapons
We generally assume words carry the same meaning in the mind of speaker and listener. This enables meaningful communication and common understanding. Sometimes however words are given a specific meaning which completely changes their original intent. The words become weapons. This has happened with the word antisemitism and the word terrorist.
30 March 2024
Lights on or lights out?
In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.
8 March 2024
Israel and Judaism part company
Every religion is rooted in core beliefs or dogmas but is judged or weighed by the character it espouses and the values with which it identifies. Belief is verified or condemned by the way life is lived. Christianity is known to espouse love your neighbour as yourself or, do to others as you would have them do to you, or, do not judge, or forgive others etc. By those critical of any value in religious expression it is rightly weighed by the lived quality of these characteristics. Often, Judaism has shamefully been characterised in the negative, such prejudicial characterisation rightly...
13 January 2024
International Court of Justice and the Global court of Public Opinion
South Africa has presented an overwhelming brief to the international Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocidal motivation and demanding immediate cessation of such activity. The decision of the court will soon be known, but the opinion of millions, probably billons of the worlds citizens is known. Israel has crossed an uncrossable line.
22 December 2023
Christmas 2024: Why is peace so elusive?
With apologies to Charles Dickens and a Christmas Carol.
1 December 2023
The future for Palestinians, Israelis, and peace in the Middle East
Following the Hamas attack of October 7 and the subsequent Israeli response, the ground has irrevocably shifted. There can be no going back to the previously prevailing status quo in which the Palestinians of Gaza suffer an endless blockade, the Palestinians of the West Bank face on-going rule through military occupation, and the people of East Jerusalem suffer continuing restriction and loss of identity.
21 November 2023
Antisemitism and criticism of Israel: open letter to Julian Leeser MP
Shocking discrimination suffered by Jews in the past does not give Israel a warrant to make victims of others. You say anti-Zionism is a cover for antisemitism. Let me tell you why your view is wrong.
6 November 2023
Massacre of the Innocents
The UN is calling the Israel-Hamas war a 'graveyard of children'. an adult conflict, in which the young are suffering most. What we see on our TV screens every night is impossible to watch. Did Netanyahu see the young lad who had just carried the decapitated body of his friend from the rubble. If so, what did he think? He almost certainly thought the same as Natali Bennet the former Israeli prime minister who said to a reporter on Sky News: Are you seriously asking me about Palestinian civilians? What is wrong with you? Were fighting Nazis.
31 October 2023
Netanyahu invokes Genocide
Prime Ministers Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison have signed a statement drafted for them by the Zionist Federation of Australia in support of Israel. In doing so, were they aware that on Sunday, in launching the ground offensive into Gaza, Netanyahu invoked a genocidal precedent for his war on Gaza?
24 October 2023
Albanese must deliver a grave message of warning to Biden
Prime Minister Albanese has an obligation to engage President Biden in a conversation on Gaza. Australia cannot and must not stay in lock step with Israel. If US support for Israel is written in concrete, no matter how Israel behaves, or what inhumanity it inflicts on an imprisoned people, it is Australias duty to deliver a message of dire warning to the US on what this will lead to.
8 October 2023
Support the strong, suppress the weak: West betrays Christian traditions
What is playing out on the border of Gaza and Israel is awful. Loss of civilian life is inexcusable and must be condemned. Unsurprisingly, and understandably, Biden, Albanese, Trudeau and other Western leaders have condemned the Hamas attack in the strongest possible terms. But is that all they are going to do double down behind Israel in responding to Palestinians as vicious terrorists who need to be taught a lesson, or worse, eliminated?
6 April 2023
Easter Message: Power, control, autocracy, Empire...
.... not the path to a life of harmony and peace. The 1924 Hibbert Journal published what appears to be the earliest printed version of a very well-worn joke with the final punchline: a gintleman with a face like your honours cant miss the road; though, if it was meself that was going to Letterfrack, faith, I wouldnt start from here.
1 April 2023
Netanyahus nakedness: democracy whose democracy?
Look at the King! Look at the the King! Look at the King, the King, the King!
31 March 2023
Powerlessness and the Voice
Poverty is powerlessness. It is the incapacity to deal with ones own issues. It is not addressed through charitable acts, but through empowerment. Responding to the presenting signs of poverty only through acts of charity is like dealing with a major physical ailment only with a pain killer. Indeed, addiction to the pain killer can become the biggest problem. Powerlessness can only be overcome with empowerment.
9 March 2023
Palestinians are not terrorists
Australia supports, indeed resources, Ukrainian armed resistance to Russias invasion and its attempt to forcibly exert its sovereignty over Ukrainian soil. Very few Australians appear to find fault with this position. For what reason is Israels provocative and continuing colonisation of Palestine not seen in the same light?
4 February 2023
Australia: peacemaker or warmonger?
What role is Australia playing in the diplomacy that ultimately will end the Ukraine conflict and prevent war over Taiwan? Even the most hawkish cannot seriously believe such conflicts will end militarily.
21 January 2023
George Pell: the Faith vs the Institution
Cardinal George Pells vision of a church beyond criticism, its edicts to be slavishly followed, and governed almost exclusively by elderly men sits very uncomfortably with Christs proclamation of the Kingdom of God and our contemporary world.
21 December 2022
Christmas: the uncherished gift
In the irreverent Monty Python film: the Life of Brian, the crowd is listening to Jesus speaking, but because of the hubbub mishear what he says. Instead of blessed are the peace makers they hear blessed are the cheese makers. The crowd wonders what this means; the phrase is symbolic says one, it involves all in manufacturing.
30 November 2022
Zionist violence against Palestinians is the antithesis of Judaism
The wish by Israeli leaders for Palestinians to be eliminated from their ancient homelands is the very antithesis of Isaiahs original Zionist vision.
10 November 2022
Ethiopian Civil War and its manufactured humanitarian crisis
The brutal internal conflict between Ethiopian national forces under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has inflicted untold suffering on millions of innocent people.
22 October 2022
Australia re-joins majority international position on the status of Jerusalem
In reversing the recognition of West Jerusalem as Israels capital the Albanese government has re-joined the majority international position which insists the status of Jerusalem can only be resolved in a final peace agreement between the two parties.
21 September 2022
Anointed not appointed: reign not rule
It is somewhat disappointing that in the wall-to-wall coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth ll, there has been so little analysis of her faith which became the cornerstone for qualities that have been universally admired.
19 August 2022
The Anglican breakaway 'cult' - a swan that quacks like a duck must be a duck
In contemporary English, a cult is generally understood to mean a group committed to a particular or singular personality, ideology, or goal; one that distinguishes them from mainstream practice or belief.
11 August 2022
Relentless violence against Palestinians in Gaza..
Forty-three Palestinians, including children, were killed in the Gaza Strip last weekend. If the situation was reversed and forty-three Israelis killed by rocket fire from Gaza, there would be far greater outrage.
20 July 2022
A national well-being budget
Every functioning household knows the importance of budgeting. No more so than when hopes, expectations and demands exceed resources available. What is possible at one moment may not be possible at another. A priority at one moment will change in different circumstances. A good budget is one that reflects the values of the household and contributes to its wellbeing. A good budget always has a long view in mind. A nation is a large-scale household. Without values that are well articulated and substantially owned, governmental policy becomes stuck on means money, rather than the value-based aspirations wealth should resource.
24 June 2022
Bring Home the Suffering Australian Children and their Mothers in Syrian Camps
The Albanese government has had bequeathed to it several unresolved human rights scandals which together have severely shrunk the moral character of Australia and Australians. Notable among them has been the plight of Australian overseas citizens who have fallen from grace.
20 June 2022
The UN Human Rights report on Israel and Australias welcome statement
The UN special Human Rights investigation into Palestine/Israel which found Israel to be primarily responsible for ongoing unrest and violence received a strong rebuke from the US, which in turn sought support from its allies to sign its statement. Australia declined to do so, issuing its own statement.
1 June 2022
Anglicans divided over same sex marriage
Since the Reformation we have been used to disunity in the Church being demonstrated through denominational loyalty around historical theological dispute and response. This is no longer the primary case. In the Church, as in politics, the deepening rift is between those who, for the sake of simplicity, insist truth is conveyed through fixed dogmatic assertion, usually on social issues, conservatives, and those who believe truth is encountered at the crossroads of faith and life, or to put it more piously, at the point where heaven and earth meet. The latter are commonly called progressives which, like woke, has become...
16 May 2022
Christians and the Federal Election
Christianity and Christians cannot be neutral or disconnected from politics. Christianity is an incarnate faith. While it rightly gives central place to personal piety, Christianity is, at its roots, a way of life deeply immersed in the world for its justice, renewal and transformation. It is so because God, who took human likeness in Jesus, is prejudiced toward harmony and justice and therefore is on the side of the poor and needy, the downtrodden and voiceless. The divine agenda is nothing less than the transformation of human society into one where the first will be last and the last will...
12 April 2022
Easter: A new thing
Before Pilate he was asked what is truth? All humanity must face the same question, but most of us are too afraid, or too self-absorbed.
6 February 2022
Apartheid state: the judgment of the world is turning against Israel
Amnesty International has accused Israel of apartheid, and the Jewish state's actions against the Palestinians are attracting increasing criticism.
19 January 2022
Artists stand up for human rights: boycott of Sydney Festival was the only option
Performers are right to protest when their performance is compromised through association, in this case by a government that has initiated apartheid.
28 December 2021
Vale Desmond Tutu: a teacher of the powerful and voice of the downtrodden
The South African archbishop and activist, who has died at 90, treated both pauper and sovereign with equal dignity and honour.
20 December 2021
Finding meaning in Christmas for all Australians
The overriding emotion of Christmas should be awe and wonder it's a time to reflect and put life into perspective.
25 November 2021
The Israeli lobby and the disturbing SBS board appointment
The Morrison government ignored the mandated independent appointment process to choose its own candidate who brings an aggressive pro-Israel agenda.