The Feast of St Michael and All Angels is a day in the church calendar when we remind ourselves of the ‘unworldly’ reality that surrounds us – the community of saints, the great cloud of witnesses that urge us on, and heavenly beings who liaise between heaven and earth. Today’s great festival draws our attention …
Who is the greatest? Although we might mock the disciples for their stupidity in this week’s Gospel reading, as they argue with one another about who was the most important, or most senior, or who had more rights, aren’t these the very things that preoccupy us? We may not put it in terms of who is …
In today’s Gospel we are back with Mark’s fast-paced narrative, and we have an odd, perhaps even awkward pair of stories, that don’t present Jesus in the best light. In the first, Jesus is a long way from home, and by implication a long way from his Jewish compatriots, the children of Israel. When a …
Today is the day in the Anglican calendar when we remember the New Guinea Martyrs. When the Japanese declared war in December 1941, it was clear that Papua New Guinea would soon be under threat of attack. Missionaries on the island were in acute danger, and yet although many civilians were evacuated, they stayed, believing …
Our monthly Healing Mass tonight will not only provide a space for us to pray for healing of our bodies, but to also pray for the healing and cleansing of our Church, following the recent revelations of past abuse. Together in both ritual and prayer, gathered around bread and wine, we will express our sorrow for …
It’s a good and holy practice to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord, whose feast day was Wednesday 15th August. And who we honour and celebrate in our Masses this morning. In the Roman Church, our sisters and brothers likewise honoured Mary, with the day focusing on her Assumption. An interesting dogma, …
Over the past few weeks, we have had a recurring theme about ‘bread’, the most fundamental food in the human, or at least western, diet. Jesus feeds 5000 people on the hillside by miraculously multiplying a few bread rolls and fish. When the crowd following him become over-excited about this practical miracle and demanded more, he …
More than 35,000 people are reported missing across Australia each year, and although many are found, this is not always the case, and many families are left to deal with the pain of simply not knowing where their loved ones are, or what has happened to them. Today, as we do each year at the …
Today we are all invited to our regular fifth Sunday Parish brunch, where we have an opportunity to share food and fellowship with one another. Sharing food in this way should lie at the heart of our congregational life. We do this on a day when the lectionary takes us to John’s account of …
On this Sunday each year, we mark Mary Magdalene’s Feast Day. We do this because she was undoubtedly a leader in the early church, the apostle to the apostles, sent out by Jesus to announce the resurrection, and one of the few women we take note of in our annual cycle of ‘saints’. We know …