Reflections

A Reflection: The Wise Women Written by +Deon K. Johnson, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. They came. As they always had. At every birth. The midwives. They came with the ancient wisdom. No fuss. No fanfare. They came as women always have with the insight of attending the most sacred act of birth....Continue reading→

Christmass 2024 The muck of our mistakes. It is easy when we know God is born into our good stuff, in our joy and giggling and triumphs. This is where we see Him, feel Him, and delight in the sense of closeness with Him. In these moments we do so easily with clarity and glee....Continue reading→

Advent 4 Who will make him welcome…?? This homily completes our advent series where we have been reflecting on some of our most popular christmass carols. A good Christmass carol, or any hymn for that matter, should not only be a joy to sing, should not just teach us something, but it will also challenge...Continue reading→

The Challenge of a Silent Night. Here we are on the cusp of another Christmass. At this time of year it’s easy to be diagnosed  with the disease ‘sensory overload.’ This is a highly infectious disease and passes quickly from one to another, especially in congested areas like supermarkets and dining establishments. There is no immunisation...Continue reading→

Advent 3 What child is this? …What child indeed? We are reflecting on the words of some of our Advent and Christmass hymns this Advent. We sing them lustily and so frequently that we can easily forget that the words have something to teach us.  The best hymns make us think a lot. Today I...Continue reading→

Advent 2 December 8th. Hark:  Sit up, Take notice. Listen! During this Advent, we’ll be reflecting on the words of some of our Advent and Christmass hymns. We sing them lustily and so frequently that we can easily forget that the words have something to teach us.  The best hymns make us think a little.. or...Continue reading→

Gatlin: The Parable of the Broken Match Stick. This is one of those many conversations that happened a long time ago in a place far, far away.  Not quite in another galaxy, but pretty close. It was towards the end of a rather long lunch and it was just the two of us sitting there with...Continue reading→

Silent Night… really…??? During this Advent, we’ll be reflecting on the words of some of our Advent and Christmass hymns. We sing them lustily and with great gusto and so frequently that we can easily forget that the words have something to teach us.     The best hymns make us think a little. Today I...Continue reading→

Retreat - the great misnomer Every year the Anglican clergy of our diocese gather for retreat. There is no truth in the ugly rumour that we actually nick off to the Melbourne Cup and bet on slow horses. So what do we do? We gather for a rather noisy meal on Monday night. We catch...Continue reading→

The Privilege of Grey Hair The inspiration for this reflection came from my attendance at the Remembrance Day service. As I toddled along I found myself thinking that my hair is quite a different color than it was 40 years ago. I have photos to prove it! When my hair first became more ‘Silver Foxish’...Continue reading→

24/11/24 Then we will have begun. Of all the homilies that I try to piece together, the ones that seek to address the issue of Domestic violence are some of the most challenging. For one thing, it's such a heinous crime. What on earth does one say? And for another, it should be mind blitheringly...Continue reading→

A Hannah Kind of Hurt Today I would like to reflect on the story of Hannah in the Old Testament reading.The book of Samuel comes in a 2 part mini-series. These two books of Samuel tell us about the difficulty Israel had in transitioning from a loose system of judges to having a King. Hannah’s...Continue reading→

To Plant is to Hope The parable of the tomato plants There is a wizened gardener who grows tomato plants from seeds. Each year we are privileged to go and get some from him and you never know exactly what sort he has come up with. It's a real liquorice all sorts, a lucky dip...Continue reading→

Of Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher was killed on 2 June 2009. He was one of the youngest soldiers to die in the Afghanistan war. I am going to read the letter that he wrote to be delivered to his family if he died. I want to read this to emphasise the importance of remembering...Continue reading→

Desiderata: Original Text This is the original text from the book where Desiderata was first published. Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,...Continue reading→

All Souls Dear Brutus, Thank you so very much for your letter which I received the other day. For a young man of just 6 years old, you certainly write terrific letters and I was jolly impressed. If I were your teacher I would give you a gold star, the day off school and a...Continue reading→

A lesson I keep having to (re)learn. It was one of those one-liners that smacked you across the lower jaw. “A lesson I keep having to learn time and again and again, is the value of going to things I don’t actually want to.” I was surprised to read it from this friend as they...Continue reading→

Marlo Schalesky is the author of 11 books (both fiction and non-fiction), including Reaching for Wonder: Encountering Christ When Life Hurts. Bartimaeus may just be my favourite character. There’s something about his tenacity, his audacity and his fierce vivacity. He lived in darkness, and yet he saw more clearly than any of his seeing contemporaries....Continue reading→

Some Advice, Please. I once wrote to a priest to ask for advice about funerals. It seemed like a pertinent and good question to ask. I’m not sure what I was expecting them to say. Something pragmatic and organised I hoped. This particular priest was particular about time and organisation. The priest said lots of...Continue reading→

Three cheers for James and John Today I want to give three hearty cheers for James and John, because of today's gospel I think they’ve had an unnecessarily harsh press throughout history. They come to Jesus and ask: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you”. They get short shrift...Continue reading→