With the world changing at an ever-increasing pace, the theme 'New Horizons for the Nineties' drew 230 people from Australia and the Pacific to a Moral Re-Armament conference in Sydney in December.
Australia's Minister of Justice, Senator Michael Tate, outlined some of the problems posed by environmental degradation, by warfare and by attitudes towards embryo research and abortion. The challenge before Australians with a spiritual tradition was to 'develop a comprehensive life ethic', he said.
Opening the conference, Bernard Narakobi, Minister of Justice for Papua New Guinea, introduced what became an unofficial theme. 'God works when I say no to evil,' he said.
Just before he came three policemen had been killed in an escalating conflict over the Bougainville copper-mining operation. 'For 16 years we have not heard the cries of the little people who have to walk in the dust while millions of dollars' worth of earth is being removed,' he said. 'We need help.'
Participants shared the anguish of those who came from other strife-torn regions - a Kanak from New Caledonia, Fijians from both ethnic communities. But there was also hope as Queenslanders talked of their fight for a corruption-free State and an Aboriginal woman described her battle to bring health services to her people in inner city Sydney.
