Meditations | News And Media | Theological School

In him all things hold together

17/11/2021

By The Revd Dr Robert Derrenbacker

Contemplating the reign of Christ in a season of uncertainty

An Incongruous Unity

26/10/2021

By The Revd Professor Mark Lindsay

In two apparently contradictory celebrations, we are directed towards a shared truth – one that is needed more now than ever before.

Anxiety and Faith

12/10/2021

By The Revd Professor Dorothy Lee

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

The Disappointment of the Apocalypse

29/09/2021

By Dr Scott Kirkland

Something strange is happening to our language of freedom. Perhaps an opportunity is being lost.

Forgive them Father

15/09/2021

By The Revd Dr Chris Porter

"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" – Luke 23:34

By the rivers of Babylon

31/08/2021

By Dr Rachelle Gilmour

Before we wish that the downtrodden would temper their anger, or express it in a nuanced way, remember the words of Jesus: “first, take out the plank.”

Make a Joyful Noise

17/08/2021

By Dr Peter Campbell

Why is music so intricately bound up with worship? What is it about music that affects us, and how should we make use of it as part of our own devotions?

We can often get bogged down thinking through the mechanics of Jesus’ miraculous meals, but what if we step back and see the miracle in John 6 anticipating the miraculous fact that the Eucharist has sustained millions on their journey through life?

Reconciliation must become a way of life

07/06/2021

By The Revd Canon Dr Bob Derrenbacker

The Revd Canon Dr Bob Derrenbacker reflects on the tragic discovery of 215 children’s graves at a former Indian Residential School in Canada.

On Speaking of Israel and Palestine

20/05/2021

By The Revd Professor Mark Lindsay

With the conflict in the Middle East showing no signs of abating, care is needed in how we speak of it.

Theology of the Child

04/05/2021

By Dr Scott Kirkland

Often children are spoken about as sites of hope. What might it mean to hope for a child beyond projecting imagined futures?

On Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann’s ‘Dadirri’

13/04/2021

By Dorothy Lee and Garry Deverell

The Revd Professor Dorothy Lee and the Revd Dr Garry Deverell on Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann's invitation to white society to listen to Indigenous cultures.

What Did Jesus Do?

31/03/2021

By The Revd Dr Fergus King

What Did Jesus Do? Eating with an Enemy?

The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul

17/03/2021

By Dr Rachelle Gilmour

Self-denial is about as popular as Old Testament law these days, despite how important self-denial has been in containing and avoiding infection during the pandemic.

Taste and See that the Lord is Good

01/03/2021

By The Revd Dr Chris Porter

A diet for our world of fear and uncertainty.

Ash Wednesday

17/02/2021

By The Revd Dr Colleen O'Reilly

Remembering to live more thoughtfully…

Skinning, Shearing, or Serving?

25/11/2020

By The Revd Dr Fergus King

Biblical texts about shepherds ask pointed questions about the role of political leaders as rulers or servants.

Seasons

18/11/2020

By The Revd Dr Gary Heard

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." Ecclesiastes 3:1

The Interregnum

11/11/2020

By Dr Scott Kirkland

In these times in between times something about ordinary moments becomes legible.

Do not put your trust in princes

04/11/2020

By The Revd Canon Dr Bob Derrenbacker

“Do not put your trust in princes (or in presidents, premiers, or prime ministers)…”

Breaking Down Barriers

28/10/2020

By The Revd Dr Chris Porter

Being peace makers in a siloed world.

The Trinity in the Age of Narcissus

21/10/2020

By The Revd Dr Fergus King

What incentives drive people to hold public office: self-interest or a desire to serve others makes a huge difference…

Longing for the face of God

14/10/2020

By The Revd Dr Colleen O'Reilly

Kimmy? Kimmy? Kimmy, now look at me. Look at me Kim. Look at moi. Look at moi. Now, I've got one word to say to you, Kim. Mask.

On Compassion

07/10/2020

By The Revd Canon Professor Dorothy Lee

Compassion for the self and for others is a pathway to peace and harmony, and what the world needs right now.

On the Luxurious Necessity of Normal

30/09/2020

By The Revd Professor Mark Lindsay

Even in a crisis, ‘normal life’ must continue.

Be patient with all of them

24/09/2020

By Dr Rachelle Gilmour

Now is a season to be gentle with oneself, not to admonish, but to find encouragement or seek help.

Time

17/09/2020

By The Revd Dr Gary Heard

"This time like all times is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finding Breath

10/09/2020

By Dr Scott Kirkland

Breathing is hard at the moment. A few of us are finding ways to do it together.

Caves and Lockdowns

03/09/2020

By The Revd Dr Fergus King

Caves are often considered to be dark and unpleasant places, yet Plato and Inigo of Loyola let us see them as places for reflection and preparation for life.

Hope Does Not Disappoint

27/08/2020

By The Revd Canon Dr Bob Derrenbacker

During this ongoing pandemic season, it is worth taking stock of the things that give us hope.

Do Unto Others

20/08/2020

By Dr Chris Porter

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you” Matthew 7:12

The gift of patience

13/08/2020

By The Revd Dr Colleen O'Reilly

We learn patience through experience as we become adults. We learn that the seeds will push through the soil, the special day will come, and we will ‘be there’ - eventually.

On Gratitude

06/08/2020

By The Revd Canon Professor Dorothy Lee

Gratitude is one way to enhance our resilience and endurance in these difficult days. Psychologists tell us that our brains our wired for the negative—a survival instinct so that we are always prepared for the worst. But our brains also need to be re-trained so that they don’t fall into a pit of despair and hopelessness.

The Perils of Perseverance

30/07/2020

By The Revd Professor Mark Lindsay

Well-meaning rhetoric about ‘persevering’ isn’t that helpful right at the moment.

Hope

23/07/2020

By Dr Rachelle Gilmour

Hope, assurance of restoration, and belief in the God who can bring an end to all suffering, does not prevent Jesus weeping.

'Do unto others' (even in a pandemic)

16/07/2020

By The Revd Canon Dr Bob Derrenbacker

In the face of increasing turmoil, let's continue to follow the 'Golden Rule', and 'do unto others', even in a pandemic.

Curse or Gift

09/07/2020

By The Revd Dr Gary Heard

The yearning for returning to the past may keep us from discovering the new opportunities and perspectives which this time affords us.

Love and the End of the World

02/07/2020

By Scott Kirkland

Repetition ends with failure, and begins with hope. So perhaps love might even interrupt repetition, it might be the end of history.

Trauma and 'the new normal'

25/06/2020

By Dr Chris Porter

One of the phrases that must be in contention for the phrase of the year contest is ‘the new normal.’

Breaking the chain

22/06/2020

By Dr Fergus King

The story in which Ishmael and Hagar are driven out into the wilderness by Sarah, with Abraham’s complicity, has often been read as setting up the animosity which has persisted between different nations and faith across history.

The past is not fixed for nations and peoples

18/06/2020

By Dr Colleen O'Reilly

The impact of the past on the present is not fixed for nations and peoples, any more than it is for individuals.

Reflection on the Trinity

15/06/2020

By Dr Colleen O'Reilly

Over the weeks of lockdown through the coronavirus, we celebrated major festivals of the church’s year: in particular, the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, along with his sending of the Spirit.

Breathe

11/06/2020

By Professor Mark Lindsay

Almost three months ago – when shops had just closed, borders had been shut, and we were beginning to hunker down into an indefinite period of home isolation – my wife, Sonia, chalked a single word on the wall of our house, just outside the front door.

Job's Friends

09/06/2020

By Dr Rachelle Gilmour

In the past week, a cry of protest against systemic violence and racism has erupted in our world.

Beyond Being 'Normal'

04/06/2020

By Dr Gary Heard

What’s 'normal'? We hear a lot about the 'new normal' which has emerged in this lockdown period and which will gradually emerge as we transition not only out of lockdown

On Parasites and Vampires

01/06/2020

By Dr Scott Kirkland

Art often provides us with a glimpse of reality. It provides us with the possibility of thinking differently by estranging us from ourselves for a moment.

On Remaining Together

28/05/2020

By Dr Chris Porter

The Johannine epistles have a lot to say about group boundaries and who is in and who is out.

Vultures around the Carcass? Judgment, Blame and Scapegoats

25/05/2020

By Dr Fergus King

When I worked in Kenya in the 1980s, news circulated from Uganda of a disease which caused healthy young adults to lose weight rapidly and die.

COVID-19 and the Dilemma of Technology

21/05/2020

By Dr Robert Derrenbacker

In Psalm 135, the Psalmist writes: ‘The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear, and there is no breath in their mouths. Those who make them and all who trust them shall become like them’ (vv 15-18 [NRSV]).

Living with new gratitude for the gift of life

18/05/2020

By Dr Colleen O'Reilly

Just when I thought I had the ageing thing nailed, the government intervened.

What will we take?

14/05/2020

By Professor Dororthy Lee

Like me, I am sure you have all noticed how much more silence there is in these days of isolation and being-at-home

Living 'Without God'

11/05/2020

By Professor Mark Lindsay

During the summer of 1944 – 15 months into a 2-year imprisonment that would end in his execution in the Flossenbürg concentration camp – Dietrich Bonhoeffer told his best friend that the world had reached its adulthood and that it was time now, even (especially!) for Christians, to live ‘etsi deus non daretur’ – ‘as if there were no God.’

Rest amidst the Unrest

07/05/2020

By Dr Rachelle Gilmour

The word Sabbath, Shabbat in Hebrew, comes from a root word meaning “to cease”: it is the cessation of work on the seventh day

The Pathway Ahead

04/05/2020

By Dr Gary Heard

There is a sign on an Alaskan highway that warns drivers about the limitations facing them ahead. It reads “Choose your rut carefully, as you will be in it for the next 60 miles” reflecting the deep ruts which previous travellers have created on the highway.

Freedom and Love

30/04/2020

By Dr Scott Kirkland

One of the things that it is easy to forget while “we” are in isolation is that not all of us are so lucky.

Normal Service Will Be Resumed

27/04/2020

By Dr Fergus King

Not “going to church” can make us feel really guilty, especially if we have been brought up that this was something we really ought to do.

Presence and Paraclete

23/04/2020

By Dr Chris Porter

‘But Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ (John 14:5) is Thomas’ anguished cry as Jesus announced his imminent departure from the disciples in that upper room the night before his crucifixion.

The Time of Singing Will Come

20/04/2020

By Dr Peter Campbell

Times of stress often lead to periods of deep introspection. Lent is already a period set aside by the Church for reflection and thoughtfulness.

The New Normal

16/04/2020

By Dr Colleen O'Reilly

Staying home is now our new normal. And going to church at home has become the way we belong to the Body of Christ.

Meditation on Hebrews 2:5-18

14/04/2020

By Professor Dororthy Lee

Meditation on Hebrews 2:5-18: This passage from Hebrews was the New Testament reading set for morning prayer on the feast of the Annunciation on 25 March, and it seems appropriate not just for the feast day but also for our present context.

Sanctifying God's Name

09/04/2020

By Professor Mark Lindsay

In times of crisis, danger, and fear, the Church has frequently sought solace in Hebrew resources of lament and supplication.

A Lament for Holy Week

06/04/2020

By Dr Rachelle Gilmour

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Confidence in Times of Uncertainty

02/04/2020

By Dr Gary Heard

How’s your blood pressure? COVID-19 is leading to lock-downs the likes of which we have not seen in generations.

Long-Distance Worship - An Idea From The Rabbis

30/03/2020

By Dr Fergus King

Over the centuries,  the logistical issues of participating in worship exercised the Jewish ancestors of our faith.

Eucharist and Absence

26/03/2020

By Dr Scott Kirkland

COVID-19 has brought the frailty and vulnerability of the body into sharp relief.

Love One Another

23/03/2020

By Dr Chris Porter

In a society which already experiences so much social isolation—that is only exacerbated by social media—the idea of churches being forced to cease to gather together can feel absolutely heart rending.