Reflections

It’s only a flesh wound… or is it? I want to begin with a phenomenon that I have noticed with some hospital patients. Occasionally they will show you their scars and they are quite persistent and passionate about it. I suspect they want to do so for two reasons. First, to prove unequivocally to the...Continue reading→

The three essentials for Life. So they came, and even before they arrived at their first destination they were bug-eyed from a long flight that had been thwarted twice by foul weather. Frazzled nerves and fear of the future coursed through their souls. And when all proof of the next leg of their journey had...Continue reading→

Nothing is ever really lost One of the things that continue to dazzle and enthral me is the interconnectivity of life. I went and knocked on a door recently (nothing new there) only to discover that folk behind this door were present at a wedding I had conducted a long time ago. More than a...Continue reading→

9th of April Question 1. Woman, why are you weeping? Both the angels and Jesus ask this of Mary Magdalene, but we are not privy to the way it was spoken. The way this question was put to Mary makes all the difference to our understanding. For example, was it spoken quickly and harshly? Woman! Why are...Continue reading→

Of cranes and apples I was plucking apples this morning. Years ago someone had the thoughtfulness to plant some apple trees on our nature strip and every year I go and reap the fruit of their ingenuity and foresight. I’m not sure exactly when the trees were planted but they are fully grown now so...Continue reading→

He carried the sins of the world. He carried every wrong decision I have ever made. He carried those moments of wilful wrong-doing, where I have stared down the right path, seen what it would cost me, and chosen the easy road instead. Why, I even stood in the street as he walked by, carrying...Continue reading→

Glimpses of Gold This article does not try to pretend that COVID was anything less than abhorrent. People got sick and died. There are those whose health (physical and mental) can never be the same again. People are still being diagnosed and finishing up in ICU to say nothing of the scars of our healthcare...Continue reading→

Bishop Stephen writes This is how he had come to see it –. That God had spent everything to try and create community with his beloved; with us; – through covenants, through prophets – everything except himself. And now, when all was exhausted except for the love from which this world was made there was...

He carried his followers’ disappointments. They thought he was going to be a different sort of king. Heaven knows, he had tried. He had tried to etch eternity into the stubborn humanity of those who followed him, but now nearly all of them have abandoned him. Through eyes smarting with grief and narrowed by pain,...Continue reading→

 Of lawns and edges. I’ve just been out to admire my handiwork. The lawns are all neatly mown and the edges crisply trimmed. It’s a great look and a smug feeling. I feel virtuous and maybe even a little proud, for to do both of these jobs properly takes me about 2 hours. Of course,...Continue reading→

During January we gather up last year's palm crosses and we torch them. The result of this safely contained mini fire is the ashes for the Ash Wednesday services. You know the little black smudge on the forehead business. So the folk had kindly returned their faded 2022 palm crosses with the aid of an...Continue reading→

He carried a seamless robe. It was a thing of delicate beauty and of great craftsmanship, robust and at the same time light, woven in one piece from top to bottom; like the robe, a high priest would wear as he went about his duties. Like everything else, it would be taken from him. Freshly...Continue reading→

All those things we never said. There is a book called “All those things we never said.” The basic plot is this Days before her wedding, Julia Walsh is blindsided twice: once by the sudden death of her estranged father…and again when he appears on her doorstep after his funeral, ready to make amends, right...Continue reading→

Bishop Stephen Cotterell The soldiers’ logic had a brutal simplicity. A cruel, schoolboy logic. He said he was a king, so dress him up as one. A purple robe. Some twisted thorn. A makeshift crown. The barbed wire of the bush. Harvest it gingerly. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Stack him up....Continue reading→

The things he carried Lent 1 - the cross  26/2/23 They handed it to him like it was nothing. Like it could be thrown away; like they were going to throw him away, this thing of terrible beauty. He held the rough wood in his hands; gripped it, felt its shape, tested its weight, imagined the...Continue reading→

I get to hear a lot of eulogies. Long ones, short ones, poorly worded but effective ones, and even sometimes, ones that go on for far too long. The record is forty-five minutes. Perhaps the most potent are those who say what they miss. Anything from a cuddle to chocolate cake, to the whiff of...Continue reading→

A reflection for Sunday 19th of February. I began writing this on Tuesday 24th of January. The news was not good that morning. It was especially grim for the people of Los Angeles in general and the people of Monterey Park in particular. A man allegedly shot 11 people in a dance club. He then...Continue reading→

I gleefully reached two separate milestones at the end of 2022. First, I accomplished 50 ‘park runs’ which entitles me to a swanky red T-shirt telling the world that I have in fact accomplished 50 park runs. The other milestone was that the Christmass of 2022 was my fourth with you in this parish. It...Continue reading→

The work of the table. They come every so often and together we sat at a table. We have swapped stories, shed tears and laughed raucously. The wine like the conversation has flowed, been consumed and enjoyed. The bread was broken and the food was passed around. But there are other tables I go to...Continue reading→

Get right with God a reflection for the 12th of February Well! Today’s Gospel is a bit different from last week’s. Last Sunday Jesus was calling us the salt of the earth, and the light on a hill and it was all very gooey and wonderful. The week before that he was dolling out blessings...Continue reading→