Dear friends It’s NAIDOC Week, a time for all Australians to remember and celebrate the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Last Sunday, the start of NAIDOC Week, we welcomed Bianca Manning to our regular morning service in the Church (via Zoom from Brisbane where Read more…
Walter Brueggemann speaks of the importance of arriving at praise through lament – rather than starting with praise. Over the last three Sundays, we have been looking at the psalms of lament and, as we come to end of that series, fully aware that there is still suffering in our Read more…
Get up, God! Are you going to sleep all day? Wake up! Don’t you care what happens to us? Why do you bury your face in the pillow? Why pretend that things are just fine with us? And here we are — flat out on our faces in the dirt, Read more…
My word for the week has been ‘paleochannel’! Last Sunday after church was our second church walk, and a large group of us walked through the Jerrabomberra wetlands and enjoyed a short address from Patrick Paynter on the ACT government’s land management of this area over time. He spoke of the ‘paleochannels’, Read more…
Last Sunday morning we had our annual Blessing of the Pets service. In fact, we had 2 services — one in the Church (with maximum allowable humans) and a parallel service enjoying the beautiful weather in the courtyard (with even more people). There was some crossover towards the end when Read more…
This Sunday, 11th October, at 10am is our annual Blessing of the Animals Service, but there is one animal I am not feeling so disposed to bless this Sunday! Last weekend we were at a campsite near Huskisson which was also inhabited by a large number of peafowl. Thanks to Read more…
Dear friends Last weekend was the start of the school holidays and the coming one is a long weekend. I’m aware that some of you are away on a short break, making the most of the warmer weather and the easing of COVID restrictions. If you are one of them, Read more…
Dear Church My last Sunday-to-Sunday was a fortnight ago, at the beginning of Spring. I commented then on the excitement of seeing new plants shooting and included a photo of tulip leaves appearing in the garden at the Church. What a difference two weeks makes! The tulips are now in Read more…
How do we as Christians respond to this pandemic? During this year, I (and probably many of you) have been hearing Christian voices call us back to the language of lament. As I mentioned in my sermon on the crossing of the Red Sea two weeks ago, in relation to Read more…
Over the last couple of weeks John and I have been preaching through the Old Testament story of Exodus, the powerful saga of how, out of unbreakable love, God freed the people of Israel from their captivity in Egypt, a story which dominates Jewish theology and practice, and resonates with Read more…