Dear Friends I remember my mentor Rev Athol Gill saying to me: ‘Always have a sunset clause’. Those sage words I carried for many years and they helped shape a kind of strategy for church and for the many community development projects I have been involved in; meaning, that we always need to prepare for change. Nothing is permanent. Yet, as I write this my last Pastoral Note, I can truly say I had no thought of a sunset clause Read more…
Dear Friends I know all of you continue to be shocked and saddened by the news Martin and I have experienced substantial difficulties in our working relationship and that Martin made the decision to resign. It has been a difficult journey for us, and we are very grateful for your prayers, but we know that you are also hurting and so we also pray for you and lift up our leadership team up in prayer as well. Over the last Read more…
Dear Friends For our 10 day break, Margaret and I travelled to Broken Hill. It was a family gathering because there we were to scatter the ashes of Margaret’s parents. Jim and Helen Nixon grew up in Broken Hill and the family decided to scatter the ashes in a dry creek bed at Silverton because that was a favourite picnic spot for them. Cremations and the scattering of the ashes, especially in a dry riverbed, for Christians dare I say, Read more…
Dear Friends Two months ago, we were visited by members of The Community of the Transfiguration, a Baptist monastic community situated in Teesdale, Victoria, and we had the opportunity over five days to experience different forms of contemplative prayer. As you know, one of our church goals is exploring what it means to follow Jesus today, and this year we have been focusing on prayer, along with other spiritual disciplines which have can invigorate our lives as individuals and as Read more…
Dear Friends Two weeks ago, I had the wonderful experience of joining the Micah Women Leaders Delegation to Canberra. I was one of 40 women church leaders, representing over 35 churches and organisations, who had 45 meetings with politicians on our day in Parliament. We were there to advocate for women and children in the Pacific where nearly 87 percent of children, and one in four adolescent girls across eight countries, experience physical violence regularly, while one in 10 experience Read more…
Dear Friends Some weeks ago I wrote in the Pastoral Note (1 Sept) about the man sleeping in the patio near the men’s toilets; how we assisted him, looked after his cat and how he was so grateful that he gave us $20 for the Centre and resolved to return and confront the problem at home. Well he returned dismayed and broken. After some considerable networking I am so pleased to report that we have been able to find accommodation Read more…
Dear Friends Over the next three Sundays (8th, 15th and 22nd September) and – after the school holidays – on the 20th October, we will be working through a sermon series produced by Baptist World Aid called The End of Greed: Consuming as if God, People and the Planet Matter. Increasingly we hear voices in our society saying that our over-consumption of the planet’s resources, our callous attitude to living things, our neglect and exploitation of the poor and our Read more…
Dear Friends I mentioned at the church meeting that last week we had a guy sleeping on the patio near the men’s toilets. We were able to talk with him, assist him, and give him rest. In fact, more than that, he had a cat with him, and when he woke he asked if we could babysit his cat while he went to get his pension in Civic. We did and he returned most grateful for our care of him Read more…
Dear Friends “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles…” Last Sunday’s Bible reading followed me this week, all the way to New Zealand, to Christchurch, where the inner-city pastor’s conference was held, for there in the foyer of the rebuilt Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, above the niche where the baptismal sits, is that verse in English and in Maori (“Na, i Read more…
Greetings from Miriam, Andrew and Ann from the Holy Transfiguration Community. It was a delight to spend time with the Canberra Baptist community during this last week and we were grateful to be welcomed with warm and generous hospitality, despite the very chilly weather! There were several opportunities for conversations around life in a monastery, our experiences of contemplative living, and times of prayer together in a contemplative way. These enriched our visit and we have come home with memories Read more…