In my Good Friday sermon I was focusing on the way in which the crucifixion reveals the evil of humanity, and moved through a series of illustrations including the Forrest River massacre in Australia. This was an incident in which police and others responded to an altercation between a white boundary rider and an elderly Aboriginal man by systematically working down the banks of the Forrest River hunting down Aboriginal camps, separating the men from the women, chaining first the men and then the women to trees and slaughtering them. The genocide had all the markings of recent events in the Balkans. The slaughter was brought to a halt when the Rev. E.R. Gribble, a Methodist Minister, caught a hint of what was happening, challenged the police, and began an investigation into the massacre. Despite Gribble's valiant efforts, the police and others involved were acquitted. Details of the events are found in Bruce Elder's book, *Blood on the Wattle*.

I pointed out to the congregation that these events did not happen in 1780, or 1890, but in 1926, and there may still be people in the congregation who were old enough to know the Rev. E. R. Gribble. To my great delight, an older lady in the congregation remembered him and described him in detail. It appears he may have suffered some form of facial paralysis in later years. I wondered if any others on the list had contact with the Rev. E. R Gribble, or know any more details about him.

An Australian Uniting Church Minister

April 2002