Church traditions and the creeds (1)

Thomas Cranmer,  the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and chief architect of the Anglican formularies. Real or imagined crises are often the catalyst for the formulation, promulgation and revision of creeds and confessions. During the brief period during which the New Testament writings were being composed, a โ€œtrinitarianโ€ confessional pattern emerged that shaped later credal formularies.  …

Mountains of Scripture (8): Mount Hermon

One of the less well-known mountains of the Hebrew Bible is Mount Hermon, the highest mountain in Israel. With a snow-capped summit of 2,814m (9,232 ft), Mount Hermon is 586 metres taller than Australiaโ€™s tallest peak, Mt Kosciuszko (Kunama Namadgi).ย  The mountain range is located at the north-eastern border of modern Israel, between Syria and …

To creed or not to creed

Matthias Stom, โ€œThe Evangelists St Mark and St Luke,โ€ c.1635. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. As I said in the first post in this series, none of the churches I attended as a child affirmed creeds or confessions of faith. The Bible alone was said to be our rule of faith. While I remain grateful for the spiritual …

Statement by Australian Church leaders on Israel

Archbishop Phillip Aspinall addresses the Heads of Jerusalem Churches at a dinner in Jerusalem, 6 Dec 2007. Photo credit: Rod Benson In December 2007, a delegation of nine Australian Church leaders visited Jerusalem and the Holy Land. I was one of the nine. Seventeen years on, so little has changed. So many have died, and …

Tomatoes filled with goat’s cheese

Last week, Masterchef Australia (season 14) set an invention test where contestants had to create a dish that clearly reflected two cuisines. That set me wondering what I'd cook up if I were in the fabled Melbourne kitchen. I started thinking about Japanese-Italian pairings, and this is what I created. INGREDIENTS 12 truss tomatoes (smaller …