Minister’s Blog 7 November 2021

You may have seen the BBC sitcom “Keeping up Appearances concerning the efforts of a lower-class woman to impress those she considers her social betters in order to be accepted by them. The comedy comes from her ostentatious efforts to be seen as upper class herself and her frequently being brought down to earth by…

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Minister’s Blog 17 October 2021

A question I hear a lot is, “What’s in it for me?” It seems that we make some decisions based on the sole criteria of what the perceived benefit to ourselves will be. It’s a trait that carries over into human relationships too. Some only consider being a friend with someone who will benefit us…

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Minister’s Blog 3 October 2021

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, on average, one woman a week is murdered by her current partner. One in three Australian women have experienced physical violence and one in five have experienced sexual violence since the age of fifteen. One in four Australian women have…

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Minister’s Blog 19 September 2021

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” John Donne, Meditation 17 “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions”. As a society, we have become increasingly individualistic in our outlook. We tend to only consider things in terms of how they affect us rather than…

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Minister’s Blog 12 September 2021

Right in the middle of Victoria Square in the city stands a statue bearing the image and likeness of Queen Victoria. It was commonplace to erect a statue of the monarch in the far-flung parts of the empire so that the good citizens living there could see what their monarch looked like. No doubt this…

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Minister’s Blog 5 September 2021

This Sunday is the first Sunday in the Seasons of Creation where we will be focussing on Planet Earth. According to “National Geographic”, scientists estimate there to be around 8.7 million different species of plant and animal life in this world. What is remarkable is that they have only identified 1.2 million species so far!…

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Minister’s Blog 29 August 2021

Thomas Jefferson is widely credited with being the main author of the American Declaration of Independence. Of note, in an extremely famous passage, he wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty…

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Minister’s Blog 22 August 2021

I love a story with a surprising twist at the end. You’ve been gripped by it all the way along and you reckon you’ve got a good idea of what’s going to happen at the end. Then there’s the change and you’re left shocked; you never saw that coming! Movies like “the Sixth Sense” or…

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Minister’s Blog 8 August 2021

I saw an advert that simply said “Admire, Aspire, Acquire” and it struck me how accurately these three words can sum up life for many these days. Advertisers are constantly pointing out how empty our lives are without this or that thing and how our lives will be complete if we get it. We are…

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Minister’s Blog 11 July 2021

I have a difficult relationship with social media. Maybe it is because when I was growing up, one of the worst things you could be told was to “stop showing off”. It was hugely embarrassing to be told that your behaviour was simply a ploy to get people to pay attention to you. Yet there…

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