Just recently I heard about a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary in which over 120 words about nature have been slashed out of the book. The publishers made this choice because they no longer thought that these words are relevant to ‘modern day childhood’ The deletions included: acorn, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, kingfisher…
From Coralie: As a cold tongue of air from the Antarctic has been resting over us we have been shivering in zero temperatures. Yet a warm glow comes to our area with the golden blooming Cootamundras on Canterbury Road near the light rail. And there is a warm haze of purple from the Hardenbergias climbing…
I write this to you sitting in our wee church with small and gorgeous group of humans who are exploring ways to co create safe and affirming sacred space in the UCA. The Daring Conference is online and in our church and we have heard reflections from folk all over Australia about feeling safe and…
He shakes my hand. Wild old man beard whipping in wind. We are all strung out against the fence at yet another climate action. The Australian Federal Police look bored. The grandmas look determined and this Quaker, the one with the beard, is shaking my hand. ‘I got arrested with a Quaker once’ …
I am sitting in front of my laptop doing a refresher course with the VCC on Psychological First Aid and Emotional Spiritual Care so that I can be deployed as an Emergency Chaplain. I am hearing stories of disasters and fires and floods. I am reflecting on what it is to live, as we all…
Random diary entries from a working priest: ‘You’ she spits at me from her crow clothes, all black and torn and crumpled cloth. ‘You, who are you You homeless?’ I have come up to her as she sits muttering on the bench out the front of the church I have knelt down…
Listening on a Zoom this week to a colleague who ministers in Lismore… listening to stories of sandbags and tin boats listening to the open mouth shock and the anger that this climate crisis gallops apace… Listening to the news that floodplains which held housing and supermarkets and primary schools may never be built upon…
Hello dear ones, another week at the Engagement Hub has passed, another week of bread being broken and meals shared. I am slowly beginning to find my way amongst the growing grass and plastic chairs to feel the beating heart of god in all this love. Slowly too, beginning to know you, to hear some of your stories…
Being a christian community means being part of the great and ever expanding body of the cosmic god. It means being in our bodies and using them, when we can, to bring about justice and peace for the other bodies that cannot stand on their own. Bodies, and their many identities have been at the…
Jacaranda meets Bougainvillea on Grey Street, St Kilda. Misty mauves and brilliant purples entangle Southern cousins meet journeying across the Indian and Pacific oceans. They thrive in this great South land, Welcomed and proudly part of the street scene. Their colours light up life for the stumbles and beggars, The backpackers and construction workers, Sacred…