Weekly reflections

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!  It was wonderful last weekend to gather – over Zoom – with a congregation meeting in different homes and different states (and even different countries) to remember again the life, death and resurrection of Jesus – that within our darkest night God’s powerful love has kindled a fire that never dies away. Attached is a picture of the flowers on the communion table on Easter Sunday – with the Christ candle and other candles Read more…

Dear Friends,   It is interesting what we can do and what we can’t do during this Covid 19 emergency. Our family can’t drive to Sydney for a special meal to celebrate my brother’s birthday this week, but we are having a 40 minute Zoom conversation with our four households – each week – bringing us closer than we have been in years! As a church we cannot at the present time hold services in our buildings, but we can Read more…

Dear Friends, What a week this has been! Last Sunday we were trialing Zoom church and this Sunday it has become our only option! Also, in the course of this week, all church programmes and Community Centre activities have ceased to be physical gatherings and gone on hold or on line, and John, Cecelia and myself are now all working from home. And so many Australians – friends and relatives and some members of our congregation – have faced even greater turmoil. Its not Read more…

Dear Friends  The following statement is part of a helpful email distributed to Churches this week by Steve Bartlett, the Director of Ministries for the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT.  With the Covid19 virus present in our communities and the projections for how it will spread in coming days, weeks and months, we find ourselves in extraordinary times.  It is easy during a time of crisis to grasp for control and certainty. As followers of Jesus, how can we live differently in what is a time of Read more…

Dear Friends   What a difference water makes! Kristine and I were in Wellington (NSW) for 18 months while I did an Intentional Interim at the Baptist Church. The region had already been in a prolonged drought when we arrived, and it continued during our whole time there. Farmers and businesses were struggling. When we left just before last Christmas, many paddocks were just dust and the landscape was an ugly brown. With Burrendong Dam at 1.5% capacity and severe Read more…

Dear Friends   It was a journey that Jesus had undertaken a number of times before. There was inherent excitement and expectation in heading off from Galilee for the capital, especially with the prospect of worshiping at the Temple. It was even more exhilarating to travel to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, joining the crowds of other pilgrims on the way. Jesus had made that pilgrimage with his parents when he was 12 years old. It had been a formative Read more…

Dear Friends   Today is the first Sunday of Lent. In some traditions it is called Quadragesima, the Latin term for fortieth. Lent commences on Ash Wednesday and extends up to Easter Sunday (40 days, excluding Sundays). It is a time of preparation for Easter in a similar way that Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas. However, Lent is characterised more by prayer, self-examination, repentance, fasting and spiritual renewal. In recent centuries, the idea of giving up something Read more…

Dear Friends    The theme in today’s services is “sharing God’s love and justice and words and actions” (the third of our three church goals). As we consider that, I’d like to refer you to the “Lausanne Covenant”.  www.lausanne.org/content/covenant/lausanne-covenant  It is widely regarded as one of the most significant documents in modern church history. It arose from the First International Congress on World Evangelization held in Lausanne in 1974, which brought together around 2,700 Christian leaders from over 150 countries. Under the heading “Christian Social Responsibility” it declared the following.  “Although Read more…