BULLETIN
of the
The Rotary Club of
Nunawading Inc.

District 9810 Vic Australia Date: May 9th,2007

Club Website:

Editor's Email: or

Aprilis Magazine Month

Please note Interviews this week

Wednesday May 9th
Interviews at ForestHillCollege / Wednesday May 16th
Club Assembly / Wednesday May 23rd
Interviews at Blackburn High / Wednesday May 30th
Auction
In House

DUTY ROSTER

THIS WEEK

/

NEXT WEEK

HOST

CASHIER

RECORDER / John Dear
Susan De Bolfo
Max Drayton / HOST
CASHIER
RECORDER / Susan De Bolfo
Max Drayton
Brian Dunkley
ROTARACT ROSTER / ROTARACT ROSTER
9 May
WayneWilloughbyMax Wittick / 23 May
Neil Ibbott, Roger Wilson

CELEBRATIONS in April

Birthdays / Anniversaries / Inductions
May
08 John Dear
13 Joy Simcox
13 John Lynch
21 Bob Davis
30 Neil Ibbott / May
15 Bruce & Joy Simcox
28 John & Pat Dear
28 Robert McQuade & Alison Penington / May
02(1979) Ian Armstrong
18(1988) Bruce Simcox
18(1988) Neil Ibbott
20(1987) John Dear
Apologies:
Please note there has been a change in John’s E-mail & Phone Contact Details
All apologies are to be given to the acting attendance chairman John Munro before8 am by e-mail and 10 am by phone or text on the day of the meeting.
You can register your apology (in order of preference) by:
  • Email:
  • Phone: 97294495
  • Mobile 0417 585 924
  • In writing or Deliver by hand to 7 Aringa CourtHeathmont3135
Please copy on any requests for Leave of Absence.

Last Week’s Meeting:

Confucius and Confucianism Wai-Kwong Sun

Wai is a pastor at Syndal Baptist church. His father was a wealthy chinese merchant who fled to Hong Kong with the take over of the Communists after the Second World War. The family went from prosperity to abject poverty. His father gradually rebuilt a small business and supported his sons through their education. Wai went to university originally to study economics but moved to languages and eventually trained as a Lutheran pastor in USA and later in Germany. He movedto Australia to head a parish in Melbourne. He has since moved to the multicultural parish at Syndal which has a large chinese population.

His presentation to the club was on Confucius and Confucianism.

Wai started by talking about the large part of the worlds population we call Asians. While the definition varies to a large part we refer to people from South East Asia, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Malaysia and China. The pervasive cultural influence is confucianism and this determines to a large extent the aspirations of this population. They belong to the greater Confucian Cultural Circle.

Confucius lived between 551 and 479 BC at a time of great unrest and disorder in Chinese society when various regions vied for power. The religion and philosophy he founded was called Confucianism. There were 3 long standing religions in China: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

All religions perceive a basic human problem. The basic human problem perceived by Confucianism is disorder – moral, social and political and the basic sentiment of worry. The basic cure for this disorder was seen by confucius as the restoration of the original human nature with the ultimate aim: to restore the social and political order

Confucionism starts with the basic premise that human nature is good and the highest virtue was seen as Ren (humanness, humanum). A little below this was the Root virtue: Xiao (filial piety). The means to achieve this was through : Self-cultivation – from Ideal man (Junzi) to Sage King. To achieve this there was a range of books listed below and known as Confucius classics. The chinese would use these or model on examples of good character. This philosophy was also taken up in the communist era.

Wai saw the basic Asian characteristic as moral pragmatism, regarding all discussion on the existence of God, after-life and prayer etc as speculation neither to be confirmed or denied. In summary: Confucianism was a form of ethical humanism.

From Wais point of view Confucianism had failed morally and politically because the dark side of human nature is not recognised and because the king is hereditary. Confucianism has succeeded in shaping the Chinese into a pragmatic nation excelling in academics, work, business, science and technology.

Today, China pursues a “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. The government actively encourages Confucianism to cure the moral decay. Together with Socialism and Western Liberalism, Confucianism is one of the three major schools of thought in China.

China is looking increasingly to the west where he believes our society has been based on Greek logic, Roman Administration and a moral and spiritual code based on Christian Judaism. There are now 70 million active Christians in China.

Confucian Classics

  1. Book of Odes 1-4 all pre-Confucian, edited by him
  2. Book of Documents
  3. Book of Changes
  4. Book of Rites Another book, the Book of Music, is lost
  5. Chun-Qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals), written by Confucius
  6. The Great Learning 6-9 written by his followers
  7. The Doctrine of the Mean
  8. The Analects of Confucius
  9. The Book of Mencius

New Classification Announced

President Len has announced that the board has opened the classification of Dentistry-Surgical

Called to Higher Service

IA number of members attended Paul Wiltshire’s funeral at St Peter's Anglican Church, Whitehorse Road, Box Hill on Friday. The crowd was estimated at 500 reflecting the regard Paul was held in the community..

Letter Regarding the Portsea Camp

Hi Mr Brear,

The camp far exceeded our expectations and was hugelysuccessful. The youth corp kids were buddied up with refugee kids from 5different countries and by half way through the second day the kids werewere mixing freely and very happily playing and relaxing with each other.Some of these kids had never seen the sea so activities like the giantswing, flying fox, high challenge ropes, beach olympics and games werethings they have never had a chance to do. The teachers who attended

couldn't believe the progress of the kids and I will now try and get thesame program up and running throughout the state with other Police Corps.

The confident and accepting nature of these kids is just what is needed tohelp the process along. I believe the school is sending you and theNunawading Roatary Club some photos and personal thank you's and I believeit will be in this weeks Maroondah Leader. We have a bucket of other photos

on CD if you would like more and as they say a picture paints a thousandwords especially with these kids smiles but from me a big thank you and youhave trully made a difference to these kids lives.

Stuart Sorrell.

FUNNIES

Rearranging the letters of the following words is bit eerie really

DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters: DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters:MOON STARER

DESPERATION:When you rearrange the letters:A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES:When you rearrange the letters:THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH:When you rearrange the letters:HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE:When you rearrange the letters:HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES:When you rearrange the letters:CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY:When you rearrange the letters:IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS:When you rearrange the letters:LIES - LET'S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS:When you rearrange the letters:ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S

A DECIMAL POINT:When you rearrange the letters:IM A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:When you rearrange the letters:THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO:When you rearrange the letters:TWELVE PLUS ONE

AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:

MOTHER-IN-LAW:When you rearrange the letters:WOMAN HITLER