thinking honestly about life and faith
In the last week, there have been two dreadful road crashes which have taken the lives of young people, in one case 6 teenagers and another 5 people, including a mother and daughter. This last week, our local news media … Read More »
The Gospel reading for this morning and tomorrow morning (Mark 8. 11 – 21) tells of the Pharisees asking Jesus for ‘a sign’ and his responses to them in terms of what they should be able to see, already.’Do you … Read More »
Speech-making has become virtually a lost art. If anything, oratory is suspect: it has the air of what used to be called ‘sophistry’ – an ancient greek form of speech and argument which relied more on the style than the … Read More »
On Saturday, January 28th, Martin Flanagan wrote a brilliant piece in The Age newspaper, offering an analysis of the current situation in Australia – reflecting a little on the ‘Australia Day’ rhetoric and on some of the articles over this … Read More »
Back on deck: a new year and (I hope) some new and fresh challenges.I have long since known the importance of making it, or allowing it to be, a new year and not just another year repeating what happened last … Read More »
It’s been a hell of a year, for so many people. Beginning with the tsunami, and later the earthquake, the hurricanes, there have been so many stories of tragedy, suffering and crisis.Our personal lives too have their own accounts of … Read More »
Many of us have been deeply disturbed by the race riots in suburban Sydney.We had imagined that things like this happen in other parts of the world, but not here. Why would we think that?How fortunate we are, to have … Read More »
It’s difficult being a scholar of theology or Biblical studies, during Christmas.The faith community loses its critical awareness at Christmas. I’m not talking about all that commercialism. I’m talking about the music, the children’s plays and all the other traditional … Read More »
I’ve been marking student essays for days. Sometimes a rewarding experience. One student’s essay included the following quotation, which reminded of the wonderful resources in the book from which it comes —but even more of the marvellous thought that real … Read More »
Margaret Mead, arguably the greatest cultural anthropologist of the last century, once observed:‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’ So many people today feel … Read More »