Dear Friends, Over the next few weeks (with a break on the 22nd and 29th October) we are working our way through the book of Philippians and our theme is joy AND I am looking for help! Please email me – ASAP – if you can help! Thinking about joy, I was reminded (not surprisingly!) of C.S. Lewis’ partial autobiography, Surprised by Joy. It is a partial autobiography because it describes his early life (he was born in 1898) up Read more
Dear Friends, Aron and I got back on Tuesday after a wonderful time in Massachusetts and New Hampshire; celebrating my cousin’s wedding, catching up with friends from our years in Japan and brushing up on our knowledge of the American Revolutionary War and authors of the New England region! We even – almost by accident – got to visit Robert Frost’s farm! But there’s no place like home! And it is very exciting to see all that is happening at Read more
Dear Friends, I am not back from leave just yet! I am still in the US at my cousin’s wedding and enjoying some time with friends and family. It seems, however, that I am always away from Canberra at the best times. In April I missed some of Canberra’s beautiful autumn colour and now, in September, I am missing some of the beautiful spring. (Hoping you are having some lovely weather!) When I was at Collin Street Baptist Church a Read more
Dear Family of God! On Sunday we sang a new hymn: Forgive our sins as we forgive,”you taught us, Lord, to pray;but you alone can grant us graceto live the words we say. It was written by Rosamond (now that’s a name that should come back!) Eleanor Herklots (1905-1987) in 1966 and printed in the parish magazine of St. Mary’s Church, Bromley, Kent. Apparently, the idea of the hymn had occurred to Rosamond when she was digging out weeds in Read more
Dear Friends, As I mentioned on Sunday, last week I was in Melbourne, at my annual pastor’s retreat, a gathering of the ‘Baptist city pastors’ from each city in Australia and – this year – from Wellington, New Zealand! It was an encouraging and stimulating week, and as well as correcting my Baptist ecclesiology (listen to Sunday’s sermon!), we also talked about the function of ‘city churches’ (aka ‘cathedral churches’) and how they compare with suburban churches. Canberra Baptist is Read more
Dear Friends, On 14 July, NSW/ACT Baptist churches received a letter from Assembly Council to tell us, that having been charged by the May Assembly to develop a process to disaffiliate churches and disaccredit pastors who do not support the Association’s Position on Marriage, they are making progress. My mother has been serving in a leadership role at Frenchs Forest Baptist Church, and received this letter, and was greatly distressed to realise things had reached this point. She rang me Read more
Two weeks ago, Cecelia and I were part of the Micah Women Leaders’ Delegation, meeting with politicians to raise Micah’s A Safer World for All Campaign that will be launched early next year – focusing attention on ways we can alleviate the crises, or polycrisis, that are/is derailing decades of development progress around the world. Our delegation met with 43 politicians in a total of 42 meetings. Most of the politicians we met agreed to further meetings to discuss A Read more
Dear Friends, I mentioned on Sunday that I recently re-read Tim Winton’s autobiographical short story Twice on Sundays. In addition to his wonderful references to “Jacob pulling a hamstring in his struggle with the angel” (last Sunday’s Bible reading) what also struck me was Winton’s observation that the intergenerational nature of church is countercultural. “In a society where relationships between generations are increasingly rare,” he writes, it is remarkable that church facilitates relationships with people who are, “neither relative[s] Read more
Please note – the Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Rod Lavender will be held at the church on Monday, 7th August, 2:30pm, followed by afternoon tea in the hall. If you would like to help with the afternoon tea, please contact Meryl Jackson. Dear Friends, On Sunday I told the story of a moment that impacted Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s life when he was 9 years old – a moment he describes as the defining moment of his life. Read more
Dear Friends, Tonight at 7:30pm the BIG Book Group is taking place in the church hall – several book groups and many individuals coming together to discuss The Voice to Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayor & Kerry O’Brien. (It takes the same time to read as it takes to watch a film – so if you can get hold of a copy of a copy this afternoon – feel free to join us!) We are going to be discussing: What Read more