September has arrived and the land begins to flourish with Spring. Can this be a reminder that there is hope, new life on the way, despite the terrible deprivation of continual lockdown waiting for the vaccination rate to reach acceptable levels? I decided that I would take my focus to the land, the place where…
Church building importance This Sunday, I’d like us to think about the importance of a particular space, a building, for our spirituality. We’ve always gathered in a church on Sunday and for me, churches have something special to them. Although we can meet and are meeting God anywhere, church building always was a place when…
Last Sunday I was part of the Council for Christians and Jews AGM, chaired by our moderator Denise Liersh. She spoke about the discussion on prayer that she was part of as a multifaith advisor to the Victorian Parliament. Members of the advisory group really valued having the Lord’s Prayer to begin each parliamentary session.…
I received an email from Gail Cresswell who is a teacher, prison chaplain and lay leader for the Mowanjum congregation in the Kimberley. She asked me if I remembered a hilarious morning when I stayed at her house in Derby. I was woken by a funny noise outside my window. Gail was up at 6…
Con te partiro` – A recording of a song by this name has become Andrea Bocelli’s signature song. It became a best-selling single around the world in many countries. It translates literally as ‘With you I shall leave’. It was popularised under the title ‘Time to say goodbye’ but it doesn’t really capture what the…
I try to get a walk into my daily routine. COVID or no COVID. I also have a favourite café around the corner from home that has great coffee. It’s where I go either for a sit-down drink or a take-away. When we first moved here 3 years ago the café had the unusual name…
I was sitting in Truffle’s café on the corner of Chapel and Carlisle. My fruit toast had arrived, and I was about to enjoy my first sip of coffee when a stranger wearing a Skull & Crossbones mask sat down at the table next to me. He was in his 30’s, I reckon. We nodded…
I can’t believe just how quickly the past 6 months have passed. Here I am knocking gently on the door of retirement with just 4 Sundays to go. It’s a rather strange feeling – some of you have been through this experience already. Some recently. Some, quite a while ago. Some might be looking forward…
As we clamber slowly out of lockdowns and restrictions start to ease, we can look forward to a bit of stability with some degree of hopefulness. It’s been a long journey and it has not ended yet. This morning (Friday), while sitting on my favourite bench with my skinny ‘flat-white’ take-away, I found myself drifting…
During ‘lockdown version 4’, I’ve been watching a brilliant made for TV series called: The Man in the High Castle. It’s a superb adaptation of Philip Dick’s 1962 novel of the same name. I haven’t read the book but the TV adaptation is stunning. It’s a dystopian alternate history depicting a parallel universe where the…