Yesterday I joined with a whole heap of others at an ANZAC Day celebration. We were at the gathering at Glenorchy, one of the cities that makes up greater Hobart. It was a good sized mob there and I quite enjoyed the service, apart from, sadly, the ‘religious’ bits. Continue reading
John Lennon’s “Imagine” has always been one of my favourite songs, even back in the days when I felt a wee bit guilty singing along with the line “…and no religion too”. That worries me a lot less than it once did. The imagery and optimism of the song made it one that I just really liked. Lennon was my favourite Beatle, but I was never under any illusion that he was some kind of saint. He was a man with all of the usual human foibles and demons, and perhaps a few extras, but I liked that he dared to imagine a better world and a better way to live. Continue reading
My grandfathers, William Peppiatt (Pop), and James Saward (Papa), served in the Australian armed forces in WW1, as did a great-uncle, Alexander Harvey. Alexander, Grandma Saward’s brother, was killed at Flanders in January 1917. Pop and Papa obviously survived, but died when I was 2 and 6 respectively, so I knew very little of their stories personally.
When I knew that I was coming on this trip and had the chance to be in northern France, I hoped that I might be able to visit the area where Pop was involved in battles from 1916-18. Papa was involved in the Palestine campaign, and was not in France. This week my wish was fulfilled in a wonderful way… Continue reading
One of the most striking things about the “Fresh Expressions” conference thus far, in my experience of it, has been the way that most presentations have begun. Crudely caricatured, most have started with something like this:
“The church is in crisis and we have to do something, so what we’re doing is …”
Please forgive me, dear presenters, if this sounds harsh, but it’s what I’m hearing. On many levels, I agree with your analysis and warmly endorse what you’re doing about it.
But the question it keeps raising for me is one that I’ve been thinking about for a while now, to do with our theology of crisis.
What follows is not a well-developed and systematic attempt to articulate such a theology. It’s not even well researched. For now, it’s a series of thoughts strung together as I try to process what I’m hearing…
On my second day in London I bought a loaf of bread. Just your standard Sainsbury’s wholemeal loaf, ideal for out of hours munchies and cheap lunches. After a couple of days it was a bit stale, but still more or less edible, and I began to wonder how long it could last. Several more days later, I decided if it was THAT full of preservatives I wasn’t going to eat it, but kept it out of curiosity. Day 9 was hot, and finally brought it undone!
The loaf has been in my mind a bit this week as I attend the ‘Fresh Expressions of Church” conference. At risk of being unkind and overly critical, I’m not finding anything especially fresh about it as yet, and am wondering about the preservatives involved… Continue reading
It has been instructive during the last few days to walk, to sit, to listen, (and to try to keep up with!) Rev Lord Andrew Mawson, They have been full days, challenging, affirming, questioning days and, above all, interesting days. It has taken me until now to know roughly what I wanted/needed to say about this experience… Continue reading
To quote Monty Python’s Mr Gumby, “My brain hurts!”
This has been my feeling for the last few days, as I tried to get my head around what we have seen and experienced so far this week. It has been a very full on few days, not only because we have done a lot of listening and visiting, but because some of what we‘ve seen has created mixed thoughts and feelings. What I write here will describe some of what I experienced in these three days, with further comment and reflections to follow as things fall a bit more into place… Continue reading
