Humanist Pages July 2014 | Page 4

Humanist SA—Vol 1, Issue 1 For the Calendar AUGUST Sunday 10—1:30pm Piatto Ristorante Café, 264 Rundle Street, Adelaide Café Moot—An informal social gathering Thursday 21—7pm The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George Street, Thebarton TBA September Sunday 14—1:30pm Piatto Ristorante Café, 264 Rundle Street, Adelaide Café Moot—An informal social gathering Thursday 18—7pm The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George Street, Thebarton TBA *Dates accurate as of publication check meetup.com/Humanists-SA/ for up-to-date details Update from the President T his month Humanists in SA created some National impact in the media by publicising to senior Advertiser columnist Tory Shepherd a video I discovered and summarised (in the HumanistSA Youtube channel) of Angela Jolly, CEO of Schools Ministries Group admitting that her aim is to bring every public school child to understand their "purpose" is "to have a relationship with Jesus". (Link to video: bit.ly/ Justin Millikan JollySMG). This resulted in National coverage in the News franchise with an article discussing how this was unacceptable. "Tory Shepherd: Our in-school counselling should be from counsellors — not chaplains". (Sydney Morning Herald, June 24, 2014) (bit.ly/chapSMG) From the Editor .............................. W elcome to the first issue of Humanist SA. I hope you’ll forgive me for taking up more space than I might normally, but it’s exciting! Humanist SA plans to be a bi-monthly publication that will bring together news from around the state, the nation and the world. It will also serve as a venue for articles and other content written or created by members of the Humanist Society of South Australia. I hope it will become a forum for informed debate on issues—with letters to the editor—as Humanists in South Australia form or change their positions. This first issue comes not long after the successful National Humanist Convention that was held here in Adelaide back in May. The convention saw humanists from around Australia converge on Adelaide to celebrate the Australian Humanist of the Year Award being given to Geoffrey Robertson and to hold the CAHS AGM. A full review of the convention and Sunday’s discussion panel has been written by the Secretary of the Humanist Society of South Australia, Janette Menhennet. A, hopefully, regular article in Humanist 4 Important Details SA will be “SA’s Humanists.” Each issue will shine the spotlight on a valuable member of the South Australian Humanist community. This issue focusses on Dick Cillford who was awarded life membership to HSSA at the AHoY Award dinner. You can look forward to reading about the other HSSA member who was awarded life membership, Dorothy Bell, next issue. The Humanist Society of South Australia Inc. and its membership are affiliated with the Council of Australian Humanist Societies Inc. and the International Humanist & Ethical Union. Stewart Henderson has a well written article this issue summarising the National School Chaplaincy Program, and just how hard it can be at times to work out its modu operandi. Secretary Janette Menhennet Treasurer Peter Toomer Humanist SA Editor Scott Sharrad I look forward to curating, what I hope will become a key aspect of organised Humanism in this state. I also hope that you, dear readers, will help by making contributions to this new publication. Either in the form of articles about a current event, reviews/summaries of meetings, opinion pieces and letters concerning a current state or national issue or even a piece of creative writing. Artwork and photographs of HSSA events will always be welcomed as well. Contributions—Editoria l Policy Welcome and I hope you enjoy Humanist SA! HSSA Committee [email protected] President Justin Millikan 0412 345 678 [email protected] 0403 835 058 Contributions are welcomed from all members of HSSA as well as the public. Preference will be given to previously unpublished items that advance the ideals of Humanism or offer Humanist views and arguments on matters of concern and interest to South Australians. All content appears at the discretion of the editor. Articles (max 800 words), short items or reviews (max 250 words), letters (max 150 words) and illustrations or photographs should be sent to the editor by email as a plain text file with no formatting . Longer articles possible at the editor’s discretion. The views expressed in this publication are * not necessarily the views of HSSA