photo by Lauren Cain.

By Caro Field
Candidate for Ministry at Centre for Theology and Ministry

I have been thinking about death a lot lately.

This is partly because my father died a couple of months ago, and there are still times when I catch myself thinking, “I’ll have to ask Dad about that,” and then have to remind myself that he’s not around any more. However the main reason for my thoughts turning to this subject this week is because I am currently participating in a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) unit in a cancer hospital as my second Field Education placement for my ministerial training. (more…)

By Rev David Pargeter
Executive Director
Commission for Mission

Christmas cards have started to arrive. Actually, I’m exaggerating a bit. I’ve just received one from my sister in the UK. It’s one of those nostalgia coated water-colour scenes of a peaceful village church covered in snow. The words “Christmas greetings from Cambridge” twinkle at me. Inside it says ‘Wishing you a peaceful Christmas’, Love Kay. It’s nice to know that my sister and the people of Cambridge are thinking of me this Christmas. It’s also nice to know that peace is something that might just come about by wishing for it. (more…)

By Julie Perrin
Centre for Theology and Ministry
Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Vic Tas

Occasionally when I hear a piece of music there is a perceptible shift inside me. It is as if a frayed dispersion of energy suddenly rises and coheres into a stronger heartbeat, a clearer pulse.

Lost in weariness recently, I was lying in dazed collapse, stretched out across the bed with half an ear to the voices on the radio. Suddenly I was fully awake. Out of nowhere had come this thrumming guitar, a Latin buzz, a set of strings that somehow called me. I wanted to engage with the world, I wanted to meet with the makers of this beautiful music, travel to far places, see strange wonders. Just one chord can do that to you. (more…)

By Adele Pargeter
Project Officer, Communications
Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Vic Tas

The Christmas festivities are well and truly with us. Shopping centres, city streets and local communities are all buzzing with fairy lights and an array of Christmas decorations.

This year Christmas is different for me; it’s my last Christmas before I become a mum. This in itself is a massive notion to process. Things will never be as they have been, ever again.

As my belly grows, my stamina decreases and I get slower and slower. Shopping centres aren’t a great place for me to be right now. It doesn’t matter how pregnant you are, people won’t always move out the way. It has brought to my attention something that seems quite prominent in our society at the moment – individuals are moving at full speed and they aren’t slowing down anytime soon! (more…)

By Julie Perrin
Centre for Theology and Ministry
Uniting Church in Australian, Synod Vic Tas

There is a book in the Unichurch Bookshop called ‘The Fear of Beggars’, its cover and blurb were so compelling I bought it immediately. I was attracted to it because it addressed that twisted up response that is at once compelled and afraid when we meet someone begging. The book’s author, Kelly Johnson says, “I see a man holding a sign that reads ‘I am at your mercy’. My normal perception of myself… is thrown into Protean contortions. If he is ‘at my mercy’, then what am I?” Johnson doesn’t promise to answer the question of how one should respond to beggars, but she does give the question a good depth charge. (more…)

By Jay Robinson
Centre for Theology and Ministry

As a ministry intern getting ready for placement in the New Year, Advent has taken on a new meaning for me.

My new placement in Frankston will mean a move for our family of three (and a small dog) and do you think we can find a house to move into? All the stuff I have been hearing about the rental market in Melbourne, the price of housing, the shortage of good property is actually beginning to mean something to me now. We have been very fortunate to have a house that we have lived in for the past 24 years and have had no need, or thought, to move.

As I go from one place to another, look at this house and then that one, arrive at a property only to find that there is already on application – or 10 – with the real estate agents, I begin to feel a bit like Joseph and Mary as they went from place to place in Bethlehem. (more…)