The Christians who tend to get a lot of media attention, like politicians Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison and former Australian Christian Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton, are not quite like the ones David Williams knows.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
So he decided to do something about that, creating Quiet Faith, a piece of verbatim theatre in which he acts with former Canberran Rose Maher.
"I didn't understand why we weren't hearing other Christian voices; the ones I could see were trying to make the world a better place," he said.
Williams was brought up a Christian in the Anglican Church but said he no longer considered himself a active practising Christian.
However, the writer and director of Quiet Faith, which opened at the Courtyard Studio on Tuesday, said he understood and was sympathetic to the Christian faith.
Williams' history with verbatim theatre goes back to 2004; he was a member of the now-defunct company Version 1.0 which brought shows to Canberra.
For Quiet Faith, he interviewed 20 Australian Christians across a range of ages (from their 20s to their 70s), denominations (Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostalist) and occupations — including medicine, social work and music — who were progressive and activist on issues such as asylum seekers and the environment.
Quiet Faith had its first production in 2014 and Williams said his interviews and the resulting material reflected concerns that were uppermost in the minds of people leading up to that time, such as the Love Makes A Way refugee advocacy movement. Had he been working on it last year, marriage equality might have been prominent.
Maher has joined Williams for this tour of Quiet Faith. She attended St Clare's College while growing up in Canberra and while no longer practising any religion herself, she said the Catholic school's commitment to social justice was something she could relate to: "It was part of my upbringing."
Quiet Faith is on at the Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre until Saturday, May 19. Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.
