I still bump into ‘Christian’ folk who want to assert that the bible is a faith story which begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation, and should be read like a novel. That it contains no contradictions and has within it all we need for our faith. What follows such an assertion is often a…
I was walking on Monday afternoon, when a little Noisy Miner bird fell out of the sky and landed on the road just ahead of me. It had died in flight. Not a sound. Not a final chirp (I love the song they make). I stepped into the road, picked it up and gently laid…
I get what’s left of my hair cut at a little barber shop tucked into the back of a $2 variety gift shop in Balaclava. The barber charges a flat fee of $10. Full head of hair or bald, the price is the same. He’s an immigrant from Russia who speaks many languages. The other…
I was struggling to find a clear topic this week. Just as I settled upon one idea, another would come along and like a dodgem car, nudge it out of the way. I won’t bore you ( or intrigue you ) with the possibilities; they were numerous. But none ‘attached’ themselves to me with anything…
Winter has well and truly arrived. The garden has had its fill of rejuvenating rain. Shrubs no longer look as dull and weary as they did a few weeks ago. It may be very cold in Melbourne but at home some of our sun-loving orchids are primed and ready for spring. They have already sent…
That’s the theme of National Reconciliation week. Truth and justice are not comfortable walking companions but they are necessary components in a journey that leads towards wholeness and healing. Psychological and Spiritual. I have spent time in quite a few countries where truth avoided is justice denied. Sri Lanka. Cambodia. Myanmar. Sth Africa. England. Ireland.…
It’s impossible to talk about last Sunday without struggling to find the right words. As one person said, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had young children running through the building like that”. Said while a string of young boys raced through the back door and out into the courtyard behind the church building.…
The beauty of the Easter season, is that we are reminded that the Church lives in and with the spirit of resurrection. That new life can emerge from anywhere once old stones have been moved out of the way, and fears dispelled. This Sunday, the 19th May, marks the start of a very new and…
The Resurrection aspect of the Easter story has always been a difficult thing to navigate. It’s a sensitive space in which different ‘beliefs’ need to be held in tension. They were held in tension in the early days of the emerging Christian Community but the process of ‘engineering’ a particular orthodox perspective meant that other…
Over the past week I have had a number of conversations in which the word ‘opportunity’ has come up. It’s like a theme was emerging. A more memorable mention of the word came whilst sitting on the bench out the front of 163. ‘Linda’ was having a quiet smoke. I’d never seen her before. I…