Dear Friends, Last Sunday’s bulletin included a knitting pattern! It was a new pattern for the Common Grace Climate Change Scarf, a scarf with a stripe representing the average global temperature for each year across the last 100 years. The new pattern has come about because 2023 marked the hottest Read more
Dear Friends, I went to the David Hunter Memorial Lecture last night and was thinking – as we drove away – that the word I would use the describe the evening was ‘feisty’. But I’m embarrassed now I chose that word. Calling the evening’s speakers ‘feisty’ minimises the depth and Read more
Dear Friends, We had a wonderful celebration on Sunday of 95 years of loving and serving God, God’s people and God’s world here in Canberra! Here is the picture John Clark took on Sunday – replicating the black and white image of people gathered around the church on our commencement Read more
Dear Friends, I keep thinking about the icon of the Transfiguration that Megan included in her contribution on Sunday 11th Feb – the image of foot-in-mouth Peter and James and John tumbling down the mountain, but still clothed in the same light, the same halos of light, as Megan said, Read more
Its ‘dirt on the face’ day! That’s how I heard Ash Wednesday described (courtesy of Lucy Gledhill’s nephews) this morning – ‘dirt on the face’ day. I think it is a very appropriate description! In case you are wondering what I am talking about, Ash Wednesday is the day that Read more
Dear Friends, As we thought about Jesus taking Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand and lifting her up on Sunday, and as we saw all those people – children, teenagers, and adults – lifting each other up, I was reminded of the words attributed to St Therese of Avila (and the Read more
Dear Friends,Reading the start of Mark’s gospel (as we have been doing so far in 2024) it is clear that, for Jesus, proclaiming the good news of God went hand in hand with casting out demons. It seems you cannot proclaim a life-changing message and not see lives changed! All Read more
I was tempted to take a picture of the Australia Day offerings in my local Coles this week. That whole brouhaha seemed a seriously flawed response to an ongoing discussion in our nation. Australian test captain, Pat Cummins, did a far better job, in my view, of speaking into this Read more
Dear Friends, It was fascinating to delve into the history of ‘How great thou art’ last week. Several people have commented on that part of Sunday’s sermon. It’s amazing that a hymn that looks so seamless took nearly 70 years to craft into its current form! (Carl Boberg wrote the Read more
Dear Friends, I was remiss last Sunday! I forgot to pass on a special invitation from a friend of Lyle Hingley’s, at the Baha’i Community, to come together to pray for peace for our world. As I mentioned last Sunday in the sermon, according to data from the Uppsala Conflict Read more