Books published by ATF Press

Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority nation in the world and at the same time has a growing Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, gaining more public attention, both for its size and wealth. Building on two years of research, thousands of member surveys, and visits to almost 300 churches, this book gives insights into the reasons for its growth. It explores the characteristics of the growing community and its social relations with other Christian communities as well as Muslims in Indonesia.

In this volume the personal journey of why a nurse chose to leave Acute Care nursing to be involved in Palliative Care nursing connect with a broader culture of Palliative Care nursing by interviewing those who chose palliative care nursing and examine the reasons for changes in careers from acute, curing based, nursing to Palliative Caring for those in end of life nursing. The longest section of the study travels the world of Palliative nursing with participant observers. It is about the actively working nurse and includes extensive analytical discussion of an attempt to understand the sense of professional change, and the significance of beliefs for the reasoning behind vocational transformation. The second section examines the interviews, the third addresses the heart of the research question and examines nursing moving from a curing model to a caring only approach when death of the patient is inevitable. The volume ends with a letter written by the author to her sons asking them to be there when her time comes at the end of life through a life limiting illness and requests her sons and the Palliative Care professionals observe her final wishes.

'Death is inevitable--none of us will escape it. Ending life with a terminal illness is a slow and rather lonely process. I am interested in the question of why some nurses choose to work in the field of palliative care. I am one who willingly stepped into the role of being with patients at their most vulnerable time ?when death became inevitable. My nursing history has spanned fifty years, of which the last twenty were in palliative care of terminally ill and dying patients. What was it that influenced me to move from a curing model to comfort caring only? My work is an account of how I discovered palliative care nursing after thirty years in the acute-care setting. I migrated to Australia at the age of seventeen after the violence of World War II and the death of my father in a refugee camp. It seemed that taking on nursing was the best way to settle into a new life. I was happy with general nursing but had a feeling that there was more I could contribute to my patient care. My mother's unexpected death with cancer was responsible for showing the way. She died in the hospice unit of the hospital where I was employed. Sitting by her side showed me another aspect of nursing that attracted me to a career change. I transferred to the Hospice after mother died and remained there for twenty years. Naturally I wondered why this change of direction happened.' - Susan Bardy

This book provides reflections on the Sunday Bible readings in the Roman Catholic Lectionary for Years A, B, and C of the liturgical cycle. They previously appeared in separate volumes of Sunday Matters published by ATF Theology in the Dominican Series. They have now been combined in this single volume, colour coded for easier use, and with a revised general introduction and introduction to the Gospel of Matthew. Like the previous volumes, this one is intended to assist those preparing homilies and those with a desire to understand a little more deeply the readings used in the Sunday liturgy.

In November 2012 the Australian federal government announced the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse''. This Royal Commission was set up after many years of reports of sexual abuse in Australia within religious institutions of various Christian churches, some state government inquiries and in the context of inquiries in other countries, most notably Ireland. The Royal Commission began its first hearing in April 2013. It has been forecast that the Commission will be hearing submissions for a number of years from witnesses, both from those who ask to speak to the Royal Commissioners and from those who will be asked to appear before the Commission. At the same time as the establishment of the Royal Commission, the Catholic Church in Australia established a Truth, Justice and healing Council to oversee the Catholic Church''s engagement with the Royal Commission. This collection brings together essays from biblical scholars, a church historian, theologians, ministers of religion from a number of churches, lawyers and a psychologist. They each address the issues of sexual abuse, society and the church in the context of the Australian inquiries. The volume ends with an overview of the processes engaged with by the Catholic Church and the State in the Republic of Ireland and reactions to these inquiries. The volume of essays considers sexual abuse from the perspective of the victims. What is to be done about the mess we are in over clerical sexual abuse? That question is puzzling concerned people today. This diverse collection offers them profitable reading, wherever they are coming from. It has enough useful suggestions and ideas to stimulate the calm, intelligent discussion now demanded by our communities.'' Edmund Campion, Australian Catholic University"