Dec2017
Same-sex marriage – what does it mean for the Lutheran Church of Australia?
Today, Thursday 7 December 2017, the Australian House of Representatives passed unamended the Marriage Amendment (Definitions and Religious Freedoms) Bill, which the Senate passed just over a week ago. The Governor-General will soon ratify the law and marriage between ‘two people’ will then become legal in the Commonwealth of Australia. This significant change will create… Read more
Dec2017
Our future is in God’s hands
What are your hopes and prayers for the future of our church and the preaching of the gospel? Whatever they are, I am sure they involve faith in Jesus Christ and our freedom in the gospel. That’s how the Lutheran church began, and that’s what brought it to this part of the world. Faith and… Read more
Nov2017
Hope in him our shining light
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God (Romans 5:1,2 NRSV). Since being installed as bishop in 2013 I have written… Read more
Oct2017
All God’s church together
Wearing a suit and clerical collar, I was once on my way to an appointment at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. My route took me through Hyde Park, where city workers and tourists ignored me. People sleeping rough on the park benches, however, looked up, since they received support from Christians at the cathedral and… Read more
Sep2017
Church gathers us as community
I guess I grew up taking the idea of the ‘individual’ for granted. It was up to individuals to succeed or fail in life, each shaping his or her own destiny from the opportunities around them. In my Canberra high school there was little local community. We all came from somewhere else, and that’s how… Read more
Aug2017
What counts
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32 GNB) The numbers are finally in: 52% of Australians identified as Christian in 2016. (In New Zealand it’s 48.9% [2013].) The population has increased but the Christian headcount has shrunk from just over 13 million (2011) to… Read more
Jul2017
Saved for – not by – good works
‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no-one may boast’ (Ephesians 2:8,9 NRSV). This year of Reformation commemoration offers an opportunity for reflection. What do we, as Lutherans, consider to be our… Read more
Jun2017
Called to do no harm
At the recent Lutheran World Federation Assembly in Namibia, a Congolese medical doctor delivered a keynote address on violence against women and children in his country. It was a powerful, moving address backed up by lived experience, medical statistics and social research. In the Congo, more than two out of every three women have been… Read more
May2017
Right with God? What a privilege!
I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8 GNB) In today’s world we tend to speak more easily of our ‘rights’ than we do of our ‘privileges’. Since World War II the concept of human rights has proven… Read more
Apr2017
Jesus our breath of life
Every day human beings breathe out and breathe in thousands of times. Breathing keeps us alive. It’s unremarkable until we really start to think about it, usually only when something is physically wrong with us or with the air that we are breathing. In a similar way, as a Christian you live and breathe the… Read more
