Weekly reflections

“Let him then who is to be received, in the oratory, in the presence of all the brethren, make promise of stability, of conversion of life and of obedience, in the presence of God and of His saints…” (The Rule of St Benedict, c.530) Last week I was in Wellington, New Zealand, attending the Baptist ‘city pastors’ retreat where we were invited to think about the Benedictine vows of stability, fidelity and obedience and how these shaped our life, our Read more…

Hi Office Belinda is away this week on a pastor’s retreat. We pray her time is enjoyable, refreshing and encouraging as she meets with others from capital cities in Aus and NZ.  I will be leading the service this coming Sunday, as part of the service, we’ll hear something of the experience from some of those who attended the Sydney Tour. <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Helvetica; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; Read more…

Dear Friends, We had an amazing couple of days in Sydney as part of the Sydney Mission Trip! The group were buzzing after visiting the different mission expressions and having different conversations. The week reminded me that we are not just called to serve our neighbours because it is our Christian duty, but that we are called to love our neighbours! As I mentioned on Sunday, Northside Baptist Church (Executive Pastor, Josh Dowton, is pictured here) started off with a Read more…

Good morning church! I am killing two birds with one stone with this email! In a hour or so, I’m heading to parliament with the Micah Women Leader’s delegation to urge our parliamentary leaders to increase the Australian aid to at least 1% of the Federal Budget, so I’m practicing my speech on all of you! (I hope you don’t mind!) Just as a bit of background information, Micah Australia is supported by a coalition of Australia’s leading Christian international Read more…

A song I have running around and around in my head at the moment is ‘Peace, Salaam, Shalom’ by Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow of Emma’s Revolution. (You can read the origin story of the song here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FETbuMdnthI) But thinking about that song, and especially about the story of Hagar and Sarah that we heard last Sunday, I came across this artwork by Siona Benjamin and the poem (below) by Mohja Kahf.   “Kin” by Mohja Kahf Sarah, you Read more…

I shared this painting with you on Sunday. It is titled ‘David and Uriah’ and was painted c.1666-1669 by the Dutch master, Rembrandt. It captures the traumatic moment in 2 Samuel 11:14 when David signs Uriah’s death warrant and sends it to his general Joab “by the hand of Uriah.” The painting was first given its title by Dr. Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), a Dutch art collector, art historian, and museum curator, and this has been supported by a number of other scholars Read more…

As I promised in the middle of last Sunday’s sermon – here is the last cheeky sign from the new Oxford Terrace Baptist Church in Christchurch, New Zealand. And as I was praying, in our prayers of intercession on Sunday, for the different rooms of our houses – particularly our bathrooms – and how God is present in all these spaces, I thought I should have been bolder and included this image then too. Because humans live in bodies. And Read more…

The story we read on Sunday, of David transporting the ark of God to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6), sounds – at times – like a game of hot potato! Having captured the ark of God (1 Samuel 4), the Philistines are soon convinced (1 Samuel 5 and 6) to return the ark to Israel, to the people of Beth-shemesh, but they in turn are quick to hand the ark on – this time to the people of Kiriath-jearim. Then David Read more…

Dear Friends, Happy NAIDOC Week! On Sunday I mentioned the beautiful resources indigenous Salvation Army officers have prepared to celebrate NAIDOC Week this year, and I wanted to share this video with you – a sermon from Aunty Clare Lena, speaking alongside the Tweed River in Bundjalung Country,  on ‘The Power of Fire’. I spoke on Sunday about Moses’ encounter with the burning bush and the verse from Romans about keeping ourselves “fuelled and aflame” (Romans 12:11), and she reflects Read more…

Dear Friends, As I was looking for quotes related to refugees and boats last week, I came across this poem by young Somali-British writer and poet, Warsan Shire. The line that was picked up in my search was: you have to understand,that no one puts their children in a boatunless the water is safer than the land It was such a powerful line, I went searching for the poem and was not disappointed. There are parts of this poem, entitled Read more…