When human rights fail us

Psalm 12:1-8 Australian navy personnel rescue asylum seekers from a sinking boat off Christmas Island in 2001.ย  I have had the privilege of sitting with asylum seekers at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney, and at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre in remote north-western Australia,  as the asylum seekers shared their stories of oppression, fear, …

How to face the reality of evil

Psalm 4:1-8 Individuals associated with the federal government have, in defiance of a court order and without a trial or any form of due process, deported hundreds of people from the territory of the United States to El Salvador, where they will be held indefinitely in a concentration camp.[1] That was American historian Timothy Snyder, …

Two ways to live

What is your experience of the Psalms in the Hebrew Bible? Take a moment to reflect on the following:  Which psalms most readily come to mind? What memories do you associate with those psalms? What people and places do you think of when you hear a psalm? What Christian hymns and songs extend the reach …

Even greater things

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 widowโ€™s son from death to life, and then raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was one of the most unusual, noteworthy …

Sermon for World Day of Prayer

St Stephenโ€™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. โ€˜Kia Ora-naโ€™, as we say it in the Cook Islands: which means, โ€˜To live onโ€™ or โ€˜Continue being alive.โ€™ To a Cook Islander, โ€˜to …