Category Archives: Random Musings
Book Review: Yet in the Dark Streets Shining: A Palestinian Story of Hope and Resilience in Bethlehem
Bishara writes that three issues make it difficult for Western Christians to listen to Palestinians: guilt over Christian antisemitism; belief in Israel as an ally of the West; and, most potently, Christian Zionism, the belief that the State of Israel is the fulfilment of prophecy and a harbinger of the eschaton. Of the three, it is probably the first that keeps members of the Uniting Church silent on the question of Palestine. Bishara’s story makes it clear that Western Christians must not assuage our own guilt at the expense of Palestinians. Continue reading
Bit cut out of Sunday’s sermon
Sadly, there was no room for this paragraph in the sermon for Sunday the 21st. Throughout history various groups, religious and otherwise, have predicted the end of the world and hitherto all have been wrong. Going down the rabbit hole … Continue reading
Zadok the Priest
‘May the king live forever’ struck me as a strange thing to say, so I took a deep dive into whence that line came. Continue reading
Sermon: In favour of the Voice to Parliament
The final paragraph of the Uluru Statement is: ‘In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future’. I do hope that Australians will walk together with First Nations people and approve the Voice, in numbers comparable to the 90% who voted ‘Yes’ in the 1967 Referendum, because doing so will be, I believe, an act of love. Continue reading
There is no ‘war on Christianity’ in Australia
This was going to be in this Sunday’s sermon, but there’s no room for it. But it took me ages to find the correct Synod Minute, so I’m sticking it here so that I will remember it. There is no … Continue reading
Reflection: The Offering
What I explained over the course of that year is that as a worship leader I stand up every single Sunday and tell a congregation something along the lines of, “Everything that we have is a gift from God, given to us to share”. If I mean that about my money, and my time, and my talents, then I could also mean this about a spare kidney, if I had one. Continue reading
Covid19 Diary 12
Samuel Pepys: October 5, 1665The Bill, blessed be God, is less this week by 740 [deaths] of what it was last week. Today, for the first time in months, the number of deaths from covid19 over the past twenty-four hours … Continue reading
Covid19 Diary 10: Signs of the Times
Samuel Pepys: July 20, 1665 … walked to Redriffe, where I hear the sickness is, and endeed is scattered almost everywhere – there dying 1089 of the plague this week … But Lord, to see how the plague spreads; it … Continue reading
Covid19 Diary 9
I have seen enough disasters in my time as an emergency chaplain to know that they don’t change people. The generous are still generous; the greedy still greedy. People act either courageously or with cowardice, but the roots of both were always in them. Continue reading
Rev Doc Geek 