At the top of my favourite Christmas song list sits John Lennon’s ‘War is Over’. So this is Christmas And what have you done? Another year over And a new one just begun I’ll tell you why it’s my number 1 shortly. I quite like some of the traditional Carols: my favourite carol being In…
What a privilege and opportunity to speak with someone from another culture. Our conversations began over six months ago, and we have been in contact ever since. Ryon, whom you will meet in this morning’s worship, is a teacher in the Black Pearl Network’s English-speaking program. She and fourteen other teachers are involved in teaching…
If our encounter with a Coronavirus and an exhausting period of lockdown has taught us anything, it would have to be what it feels like to sit with a deep longing and learning how to patiently and sometimes impatiently wait for it to be satisfied. A longing to see and hug family. A longing to…
We are almost there – all being well, the St Kilda Uniting Church will gather in the building at 163 Chapel St on Sunday 13th December. That may sound like an odd way to describe returning to the building which for over 140 years has stood on the corner of Chapel and Carlisle and been…
One of my favourite TV shows was an Australian original concept – myth busters. It first went to air on SBS in 2003. I really liked the idea of taking a popular myth and subjecting it to some rigorous scientific and at times rather crazy testing. It was science and it was entertaining. But there…
I’ve been searching my vocabulary for words that might describe the past week in the post-election USA. Words like relieved, followed by disturbed, and mixed in with a fair bit of stunned, just about sums it up. If it wasn’t so serious it would be farcical. And what has disturbed me more than anything has…
Sorting through some papers in the bottom of my wardrobe I came across an idea for a short play that I had written quite a few years ago. I had just taken the grandchildren to a local circus. I thought I would share it with you; well, the guts of it at least. The play…
My very first international flight was as a ’10 pound pom’ emigrating to Australia in 1972. It was a convoluted journey with many landings and take-offs. As you can probably imagine there was heaps of excitement looking out the cabin window at the cities below as we circled for landing. So many memorable moments. One…
In terms of personal favourites, a very close second to science fiction has to be historical fiction; especially tales set in the 7th Century CE when land of many kingdoms was being forged into one. One of my favourite writers is Matthew Harffy – he does great research. Not everyone’s cup-of-tea, but I like him.…
When I first saw the Public Purse statue outside the old city post office building in the Bourke St Mall, I thought it was a crab with no claws. Then I thought it was a snail making its way across the road. But when I stood on the steps of the PO, I realised it…