Dean Andreas,
You were a wonderful collaborator for me when we got together with WW2 veteran Al Godfrey in the cathedral in 2017, as I recall it.
I photographed you with Al below the fabled last words of Jesus, “Consummatum Est.”
You and Al together symbolised mateship. I was thrilled, in part because I saw you as an important public authority.
I took the image of you and Trooper Al to the heart of President Jokowi’s world in Java. My Indonesian friends hung it there with pride.
Six years ago. I have asked you to look at it. You still have not seen it. Why?
One of your cathedral’s talented innovative priests saw it last year and said it is a very good photograph. Why haven’t you taken up my offer to show it to you?
Communication matters.
Logos matters.
I call it living in The Word.
Now to move on to more recent times and other very serious matters:
Last year, I believed that I was treated very unfairly, to say the least, at St Paul’s Cathedral, where you are in charge (as I understand it) in your capacity as the Dean. I believe this unfairness was due to at least some, and maybe all, of my age, my gender, my personal association, my political belief and religious belief and activity. I commenced, but did not formally complete, a human rights complaint against you on or approximately on September 22nd. I did not formally complete it because I wanted you to have a chance to discuss the incidents with me.
Now I am accused of trivial offences by police related to that evening.
Today, I have completed a human rights complaint against you.
With great sadness.
I am a 65 years old male.
On 9/11/2022 during the Queen Elizabeth memorial service, I was in spontaneous association or spiritual communion with a Warthaurong man in the Cathedral forecourt, after asking someone (whom I initially took to be a police officer in plain clothes but who may have been working for the Cathedral) to respect that man’s human rights and to not threaten him with arrest. Then police pulled me away and physically and sexually assaulted me in Swanston Street. My grandfather, J. R. Blanchard, represented the Presbyterian Church Of Australia at QE 2’s coronation. Look above at how I have been treated at your church at her memorial service.
You, Dean, have completely failed to adequately discuss with me a sexual assault which was part of a chain of events possibly initiated by someone working for you, someone who reported me to police for standing up (as verified in a police statement) peacefully for the human rights of a Warthaurong man in the forecourt of your Cathedral.
Your failure to talk with me is a painful breech of my right to freedom of speech from a public authority.
Your insensitivity prior to and during one meeting with me with Uncle Glenn Loughrey was also cruel and degrading treatment.
ON 9/11, I WAS PHYSICALLY AND SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY POLICE.
(N.B. I TOTALLY OBJECT TO ANY REFERRAL OF THIS MATTER TO THE PERPETRATORS, VICTORIA POLICE.)
VEOHRC, IBAC AND THE VICTORIAN INSPECTORATE AND THEN THE HIGH COURT, UN, AND INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ARE THE BODIES I CAN GIVE A CHANCE TO.
I don’t need any more trauma from VicPol.
I am a Libertarian Environmentalist who has wanted to work with you for freedom and for creation.
I have syncretic religious beliefs where both Bunjil and The Word (Logos a.k.a. communication) are very important to me.
I just wanted you to communicate with me but you have not done that, making it harder for me to defend myself against continued police attacks on me in what I believe is this police state.
You may hold vital information about what happened which might give me a chance to get justice.
All this has been profoundly emotionally traumatic for me.
I believe that at your best you could have helped me through this trauma by talking more with me.
But you haven’t.
YOU HAVE MADE IT WORSE.
The above peice of Word Art created by Geoff Fox is based on an original photo authored by Anglicanwiki and the Word Art is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The Anglican Church, at its best, does not trash free speech and other human rights.
But, at its worst, it does.
Geoff Fox, April 3rd, 2023, Terra Nullius
FREEDOM, DEMOKRASI AND CIVILISED HUMANITY 