GREG MOSES: SHORT RESUME

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Greg Moses (actually Gregory James Moses) is, or regards himself as, a freelance philosopher theologian albeit in a retired mode, working out of Nowra, NSW, Australia, on the banks of the Shoalhaven River. I have been here since retiring from full time ministry in the Diocese of Cairns, Far North Queensland, in early July 2017. I still function as a Catholic Priest in good standing, but only when I am within the Diocese of Cairns, attached for that purpose to St Monica's Cathedral Parish.

Before that, Greg Moses from 2006 to mid 2017 used to be

� Parish Priest (for want of a better expression) working in the regions of Herberton, Malanda and Yungaburra,and from October 2012 as Parish Priest of Atherton and Herberton, on the Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland, Australia. From 2012 I was also something called the Dean of the Western Deanery, but that is not something to worry too much about.

� an Australian philosopher and part time theologian still with a part time attachment to the Roman Catholic St Paul's Theological College, within the ecumenical combine, the Brisbane College of Theology.

� a visiting fellow at Griffith University, also in Brisbane, attached to the School of Theology there;

� worker on occasion, at the Brisbane campus of the Australian Catholic University.

Taken after the Christchurch, N.Z. ANZATS Conference, on Eco-Theology, in July 2000. That's Mt. Cook in the background (or a part of it.) This is from a time when I still had most of my hair.

Before that, from 1994 to mid 2005, apart from occasional sabbaticals and a semester in New Orleans, I was at Banyo Seminary and then St Paul's Theological College at Banyo in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

St Paul's Theological College, at a place called Banyo, where I have worked and/or lived for almost half of my life, is set on an 100 acre property on the north east side of Brisbane, Queensland, about 20 minutes drive from the Brisbane airport and close by the Gateway Arterial highway. The site is right next door to the Boondall Wetlands, the largest wetland area still existing within the Brisbane region. The Banyo property itself is something of a sanctuary for various species of birds, of which more than 100 varieties have been detected over the years. I�ve also spent some time (1985-1993) in Sydney, NSW, at St Paul�s National Seminary for mature aged students, at Kensington just south of the city. That was also a very good time for me.

Enclosed below some of the more common Birds of Banyo! The accessibility of such beauty in daily walks is what used to keep me sane:

(1) Red-backed parrot (Psephotus haematonotus)
(2) Cattle egret (Ardeola ibis): tends to keep company with the horses on the property.

(I�m probably still sane, but now relying on a sit-in kayak on the Shoalhaven River out front to supplement the daily walks, plus a battery assisted bicycle.)

From 2003, the site came to be shared between us and the Brisbane campus of the Australian Catholic University.

Gregory James Moses was born at Mareeba, North Queensland, Australia, in 1948, and brought up in the neighbouring country town of Atherton, on the Atherton Tableland, a lovely place, God's own country.

My parents Alex and Ann (maiden name also Moses) were born in Australia of Syrian-Lebanese parents, on both sides, religion Antiochian Orthodox, from ancestors who were possibly Christian aligned to the old See of Antioch already at the time of the Moslem conquests. Their parents migrated to Australia in the 1880's and 1890's and earned their living initially as hawkers, i.e. travelling sales-persons, servicing the 'outback', in father's case from Thursday Island to Melbourne, in mother's case to the south of Sydney and inland N.S.W.

They eventually settled, as hotel keepers or publicans (father's family in Atherton, the "Grand Hotel", still existing under other ownership) and as sheep/wheat farmers around Temora in N.S.W. (Ann's family). Mother was born in Braidwood, on the banks of the Shoalhaven River, inland N.S.W. They were married in Sydney in 1945 and arrived as a couple in North Queensland the day peace was declared. In 1972, mother retired from managing the Grand Hotel, and went to live at what is the present family home in Nowra, downstream on the banks of the Shoalhaven, 100 miles to the south of Sydney, which is where I am now.

Kookaburra sits on the old clothes line (at mum's place in Nowra)!. There was a gum tree in the background.

Both parents are now deceased, Alex in May, 1958, Ann in January, 1998.

I have two brothers, my older brother Peter, who was a criminal lawyer, my younger brother Vincent, who was an engineer. Vincent is married to Mary Rose, and they have three children, James, Elizabeth and Katherine, all of whom now have jobs and partners, with one grandchild so far.

Katherine, Vincent, Elizabeth, Mary Rose, James, photo taken Christmas 1998, Orange, NSW.

I was educated in Atherton (St Joseph�s School) and Cairns, North Queensland (St Augustine�s College), with tertiary education at Banyo Seminary the predecessor establishment to where I used to work, at Queensland University, but mostly at the University of Leuven in Belgium (B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Leuven 1985). Postgraduate research was on the Scottish philosopher David Hume.

Lately I have been more interested in the possibilities of Process Thinking as a way of operating ethically and truthfully in the world in prospect of the 21st century now well under way. More lately yet, since my later years on the Atherton Tablelands, and even more so since I moved to the northern border of Yuin Country, I have taken a strong interest in Aboriginal or Australian First Nations Spiritualities and Cultures. I am strongly convinced that these Gifts have to become an integral part of both Australian Church and Australian general culture, as well as or as part of justice being done.

From 1985 to 2005, apart from a semester at Loyola New Orleans (just before Katrina) and sabbaticals mostly in Leuven, New Haven and Claremont CA, I worked almost entirely in theological colleges, at Kensington, Sydney, N.S.W. 1985-1993 within the Sydney College of Divinity and at Banyo, Brisbane (1993-2005) within the Brisbane College of Theology.

This was with the exception of a ten week sabbatical in the parish of Ravenshoe in Far North Queensland, and the last six months of 2005 at a marvelous parish called Daisy Hill filled with wonderful people half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. When I moved back North to move for almost twelve years into full time parish ministry, I carried with me as a supervisor half a dozen research projects and also did a little bit of lecturing in Intensive mode in both Brisbane and Cairns. That is all finished though.

I am an ordained Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Cairns, north Queensland (since 1972). This, as things have turned out, prior to 2006 did not function very strongly in my life, except for 1973-1975 as an assistant priest in the diocese of Cairns, and excepting the role of 'formator' of seminarians at Banyo and Kensington for about 13 years. Apart from that, main 'pastoral' involvements have consisted in baptisms, marriages and funerals for family and friends.

I strongly treasure my family, mostly in Australia but scattered in various other places such as London and parts of the U.S. I also greatly treasure my friends, in Belgium, the U.S., Great Britain and Australia.

Some of my friends, photo taken in 1985 in Leuven, Belgium. The dog is Ferdinand, now deceased.

To both family and friends I hereby send warmest regards and greetings!

I still retain a firm allegiance to Catholicism broadly considered, as a way of being taken over by the intense, all embracing Love of God experienced in nature and sometimes in people and as manifested in Christ Jesus Our Lord, and also in so far as, in spite of all its problems, it constitutes one of the few remaining counter-forces to the modern day religion or complex of idolatries, variously named as 'economic rationalism', 'globalization', 'consumerism', 'economism', etc, now seeming to want to spread its way of doing business to the whole of human life.

As well as a business or working address for pastoral purposes in a volunteer capacity when I am within the Diocese of Cairns, Greg Moses has his home address at what was my mother's home on the banks of the Shoalhaven in Nowra NSW. Below some photos of my present home:

Spring time flowers, house in background

Another bird sitting on the old clothes line.
White-headed Pigeon, residing in the back yard, eats our lemons.