In 2007, on my first visit to Israel, I spent several hours at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, including a tour of the Dome of the Rock, where the Jewish Temple stood during Jesus’ life, until its destruction by Rome in AD 70. Beneath the great gilt dome on the Temple Mount today is a …
Must have a short memory
We have all heard of the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2024, and the military responses and counter-responses. That deplorable conflict, far from over, is now further complicated by evidence of mass starvation, allegations of genocide in Gaza, and Israeli “pogroms” against Palestinians living in Israel. And this is merely …
Iron, silver and gold ethics
On Thursday, I attended a Prayer Service for Peace at St Stephen’s Uniting Church in Macquarie Street, Sydney, led by my colleague, Rev Dr Manas Ghosh, a champion of interfaith dialogue and minister of Wahroonga Uniting Church. Manas is Chair of the Abraham Conference, a group of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders that formed after …
There’s some good in this world
Walter Brueggemann, one of the great Protestant theologians of the Hebrew Bible, died on Thursday, aged 92. Brueggemann is widely described as a modern prophet in the tradition of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. He possessed the ability to explain the meaning of the ancient text with clarity and precision, and interpret its prophetic …
Speech for Palm Sunday Rally 2025
Friends, We gather today on the lands of the Gadigal people and pay our respects to the people, cultures and elders past and present. We gather today as people of faith, and people of conscience. On Palm Sunday, Christians everywhere remember the time when Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem—not on a warhorse, but on a …
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