Thoughts on faith, culture, and public life.
Ask people what they’re doing for Lent, and you’re likely to get a wide range of replies. Formally, Lent is a 40-day season in the Christian liturgical calendar intended to prepare the faithful to experience the ultimate meaning and resurrection joy of Easter. We take the word “Lent” from the Anglo-Saxon lencten, meaning “spring-time,” which in the …
Continue reading "Regeneration, retreat, or decluttering? The many faces of Lent"
John 11:21-27; 14:12 Teaching, training apprentices, rebuking religious leaders. Healings, exorcisms, turning water into wine, calming a storm, feeding a crowd with five loaves and two fish. And then the biggest of all: raising a widow’s son from death to life, and then raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was one of the most unusual, noteworthy …
Anglo-Saxon, 8th century, reputed to be the earliest Christian poem in English. Translated by Richard Hamer, 1970. Line numbers refer to the preceding line. The Dream of the Rood Hear while I tell about the best of dreamsWhich came to me the middle of one nightWhile humankind were sleeping in their beds.It was as though I …
Inspired by a friend's social media post, I created a list of 30+ films with Lenten/Easter themes. How many of these have you seen? Can you recommend other relevant film titles? The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)The Robe (1953)The Wrong Man (1956)Ben-Hur (1959)The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)A Man for All Seasons (1966)The Shoes …
St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney, Friday 7 March 2025 Sermon by Rev Tinirau Soatini, read by Rev Dr Rod Benson Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ‘Kia Ora-na’, as we say it in the Cook Islands: which means, ‘To live on’ or ‘Continue being alive.’ To a Cook Islander, ‘to …
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