More than 5000 Christians gathered at the Sydney Opera House for the OneSydney concert, turning the secular, historic site into a place of prayer on Sunday. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Split into a matinee and evening sessions, this ecumenical event provided participants with a showcase of Christian creative works such as traditional and contemporary Christian music, opera, and visual and performance art.
The performers, both local and from overseas, included Catholic singer-songwriters Matt Maher and Fr Rob Galea, Dami Im, Bella Taylor Smith, Budjerah and Tarryn Stokes.
Over four hours, a number of speakers shared their dreams and insights on Christian unity.
They included the Scripture scholar Mary Healy, one of the first women appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
“The fact that we are not in unity is a scandal to the world,” Dr Healy said.
“We are children of divorce and we don’t know what normal looks like. You can’t put a Band-Aid on a gaping traumatic wound, but the good news is that God is doing something new in our time, right here, right now.
“And he is stirring up a holy dissatisfaction in the whole body of Christ around the world, stirring up this thirst and this sense that polite coexistence is not good enough.”
Event director Philip Ryall said the OneSydney concept had been a leap of faith.
“I think as you get older, you learn to recognise the pattern of the importance of taking risks as Christians. When we say goodbye to people as Christians, we shouldn’t be saying ‘take care’, we should be saying ‘take risk’.
“Then I started to imagine, ‘Why couldn’t we do that [ONEsydney] under the Opera House? And so I stepped out in faith”, he said.
Squeezing his wife’s hand out of disbelief as he witnessed his dreams turn to reality, he was moved to tears.
“So many times backstage, I was watching the artists one by one [and could see] they were just feeling the grace, and I was just in tears because these were dreams that I’d thought of, and I could see them happening on stage.
“I realised they weren’t my dreams, they were God’s dreams. And if they’re God’s dreams, then they’re going to carry this great anointing.
FULL STORY
‘Children of divorce’ given fresh heart at OneSydney concert for Christian unity (By Callum Hussein, The Catholic Weekly)
