Sermon for Williamstown
Trinity Sunday
‘Sophia, the Wisdom of God’ by Betsy Porter
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
John 16:12-15
Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. We celebrate explicitly what is implicit every time we gather for worship: that the God we are worshipping is both One and Three. This is the central Christian understanding of God. We don’t worship a God who is an isolated individual, but a God who in God’s very self is a community of love. Continue reading
Looking back at my thesis, which I wrote in 2003, I wonder if my conclusions were accurate. Ten years’ on, what do other people think?
The (homo)sexuality debate in the Uniting Church in Australia began before the Church was created and has not yet been concluded. In some ways it appears that the Church has achieved nothing in its three decades of discussion. Homosexual Church members have not received the absolute welcome for which they yearn; nor have they received the simple condemnation that some other members of the Church would like the Assembly to proffer. In many ways their situation is the same as it was when the Church was created. Some people and groups accept them; others reject them. Membership is (almost) universally open to them; yet their leadership usually faces challenges. High profile homosexual ministers like Byrnes and McRae-McMahon face regular demands that they be disciplined. Low profile homosexual members are welcomed and accepted by their congregations. Continue reading
Recently, in the course of a conversation on Facebook, someone suggested that the Uniting Church hadn’t done any biblical and theological reflection before accepting that presbyteries can ordain people in same-sex relationships. My experience as an historian is that the Uniting Church is absolutely hopeless at remembering our history, and constantly seeks to reinvent the wheel, so it’s no wonder that people don’t remember the biblical and theological reflection that the Church has done on sexuality. Continue reading
The third annual Sci Fi and Fantasy-Friendly Service of the Church of Latter-Day Geeks will be held on Sunday the 30th of June with the theme: “Community: There’s no such thing as a solitary hero”
The service has moved from Romsey to Williamstown, and will be held at the Williamstown Uniting Church – Electra St, 36 Electra St, Williamstown 3016.
Everyone is welcome to come and worship God in sci-fi or fantasy costume but, as at previous services, all stakes, swords, lightsabers, blasters and other weapons must be left at the church door.
If you have any questions, comment on this post and I’ll do my best to answer them.
There’s no such thing as a solitary hero.
Sermon for Williamstown
Feast of the Ascension, 12th of May 2013
Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
Ascension, Bath Abbey
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension. We’re cheating a little, because in the lectionary the Ascension comes forty days after we celebrate the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, so we should have observed it on Thursday. The reason I want us to remember the Ascension today, despite being several days’ late, is because it’s a part of the story of Jesus that we often ignore. Every time we say the Apostles’ Creed together, as one of the things we believe about Jesus, we affirm: ‘He ascended into heaven’. But how often do we think about what that actually means? Continue reading
On the first day of the 2013 meeting of the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, the Synod heard about the mistakes that led to the closure of Acacia College and left the Church tens of millions of dollars in debt. 
A great deal of the discussion was about the failures in governance that happen when there is no single point of accountability. Many suggestions for improving these were made. What wasn’t mentioned in the report from the consultants with which the Synod was presented was whether any of the problems were caused by trying to set up a highly-resourced private school on a low-fee basis, or indeed whether the Uniting Church should be setting up private schools at all. Continue reading
Sermon for Williamstown
Easter 5, 28 April 2013
John 13:31-35
Acts 11:1-18
Revelation 21:1-6
The Christian faith has a dual personality. On the one hand, the church is an ancient institution, drawing on thousands of years of history. At the beginning of every service the Scriptures are solemnly carried into the worship space, in recognition that it’s through them, words written thousands of years ago, that we hear the Word of God. We draw on prayers prayed by Jews and Christians throughout the centuries when making our own prayers, and we repeat rituals established by the first Christians when we celebrate the Eucharist. We do all this because we know that God has been present in human history from the very beginning, and that in Jesus God decisively intervened in human history in one particular time and place. We live in a culture that values the new over the old, that demands innovation and finds repetition boring. And yet the church persists in telling the same old stories and following the same old liturgical cycle year-in and year-out, as Advent leads to Christmas, and Lent prepares us for Easter, and the same stories of Jesus’ life are told throughout Ordinary Time. The church knows the value of memory and tradition. Continue reading
This has been a bad week for me, mental health-wise. Such a bad week, that I want to write it as BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. That’s how bad it has felt. In one way it’s not a surprise. My experience of clinical depression is that no matter how well I look after myself: how healthily I eat; how much I walk; how carefully I take my medication – there are days when my brain rebels, the fog descends, and life becomes temporarily unbearable. Fortunately, my experience of clinical depression is that if I wait my brain will re-balance, the fog will lift, and I can keep going. But the pain is hell while it lasts. Continue reading
I’ve been having a bit of a Buchan-fest, reading the works of John Buchan and his sister Anna, who wrote as O. Douglas. They were writing a century ago, and I’ve been pondering the ‘datedness’ of their books. I had decided that Buchan’s books seem more dated than Douglas’, because he wrote about race, attitudes to which have changed enormously, while she wrote about class, and 21st-century readers aren’t as shocked by class prejudice as we are by racial prejudice. But then I read The Setons, and realised that O. Douglas’ attitudes to war are as dated as Buchan’s attitudes to race. Continue reading
Sermon for Williamstown Uniting Church
ANZAC Service – 21st of April, 2013
On the 25th of April, 1915, some 20,000 Australian, New Zealand, other British, and French servicemen landed at the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. Russia, which was under attack by Turkey, had called for help from its allies, and it was also thought that attacking Turkey would help protect Egypt and the Suez Canal. But the strategy failed. In November 1915 one young woman, writing to her soldier fiancé who was overseas, said: ‘Things about the Dardanelles are coming out now and it is openly acknowledged a failure. And the details of the failure are appalling.’[1] In December 1915 the invading forces withdrew. About 120,000 men had died: more than 80,000 Turkish soldiers; roughly 8700 Australians; and approximately 2700 New Zealanders. Controversy has raged ever since over whether the soldiers were landed in the right place and whether the invasion at Gallipoli ever had a chance. But one thing is certain; the landing at the Gallipoli Peninsula was not a great military victory. Continue reading
Rev Doc Geek 