As we come to this point of rest on the synodal journey, we go to the mountains. The first is Mount Nebo where, after the flight from Egypt and the wandering in the wilderness, we find Moses finally glimpsing the Promised Land across the Dead Sea. Gazing...

The theme of this Synod, "I am making all things new", are words of the Risen Christ taken from the Book of Revelation (21:5). They were spoken into a world wracked by the old demons of brutal power and bitter persecution. They embodied a divine promise...

I first met Gerald O'Collins in 1971 when I was a seminarian at Corpus Christi College Glen Waverley in what was then called first year Theology and he was a young and rather glamorous teacher of theology who seemed to know everything and everyone. Those...

Mary MacKillop was by all accounts a peaceful woman who, it has been said, "respected and loved people even when they were at their worst". Yet she was no stranger to conflict through her life. She didn't seek conflict, but it seemed to seek her. Mary's...

It was Winston Churchill who said, "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us". He echoed the words of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, "We create our buildings and then they create us". In this sesquicentenary celebration we tell the story of...

Warfare has changed dramatically in the span of time we remember on Anzac Day. Perhaps the greatest emblem of that change was the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. We have all seen images and read stories of the apocalyptic devastation...

A large stone was rolled across the entrance of the new rock-hewn tomb where Jesus was laid. It was the custom to seal a tomb of this kind, not only with a large stone but with other seals as well to prevent the incursions of grave-robbers and wild animals...

In his letters, the Apostle Paul speaks of the two Adams - the first Adam of the beginning and the second Adam, Jesus, of the new beginning, the man of earth and the Man of heaven, as today's Opening Prayer has it. The first Adam fell because of disobedience,...

In the story we tell tonight and through these Easter days, there's a lot of movement up and down, especially by Jesus. He goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover; he goes down to wash the disciples' feet; he then goes back up to the table for the meal;...

The Cathedral of St Stephen This evening we are drawn deep into the mystic triad of the Mediterranean world - the grain, the grape and the olive. The grain and the grape will become the bread and wine which we bring to the altar to become, by the Spirit's...