Table Thought for Palm Sunday of the Passion, Sunday 25th March 2018
Stay Awake
Table Thought for the start of the Season of Advent, Sunday 3rd December 2017
Build his Kingdom, Serve our King
Reflections on the ordained life on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, at the…
Holiness
A sermon on Holiness, preached on the Solemnity of All Saints, Sunday 6th November 2017
Stress Less
A sermon preached at the Mass for Thanksgiving for Creation, and the Blessing of Animals, Sunday 22nd October 2017
Greater Love
A sermon preached at the Mass to Commemorate the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Start of the Battle of Passchendaele…
Work for All
A sermon on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard preached on the Sixteenth Weekend after Pentecost, Sunday 24th…
Not Looking Away
A sermon on the God who does not turn his face away Fourteenth Weekend after Pentecost 2017
Identity
A sermon reflecting on Jesus’ identity questions to his disciples, “Who do others say that I am?” and “who do…
In the Boat
A Sermon on Being in the Boat with Jesus Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 2017
Finding Treasure
A Sermon on the Treasure found in the Field and the Pearl of Great Price Eighth Sunday after Pentecost 2017
Three and One
A Sermon for Trinity Sunday
Breath
Home
On the Road
Two Beaches
Flowers of Life
In the Presence of Jesus
Welcome to Holy Week
Welcome One Another: Parish Priest’s Annual Report
Transforming Society
Welcome to Lent
Reconciled
Shine
Called
Epiphany Proclamation of Easter
Light in the Darkness
Christ the King of Truth
Being our Best
In Honour of Saint Luke
Trust
Lost and Found
Celebrating Saint Egwin
Jesus, Mary’s Flesh
Urgency
Being Rich
Four Guys on the Road
Here and Now
In Honour of Saint Barnabas
What image is conjured up in your mind, I wonder, when you hear the name Saint Barnabas? For those of…
Looking through the Glasses
One of the rich insights that Saint Paul gives us is that we see through a glass dimly. What we…
Beyond Language
There are times when language fails us. There are other times when we fail language and they are not the…
The God who is Love
Wind and Fire
A small puff of air, breathing out onto a candle on top of your birthday cake is fine, but generally…
Two CVs
I have two CVs on my desk at the moment. One is from a priest who has expressed interest in…
Experiencing Resurrection
The Easter stories are full of people getting the wrong end of the stick, or misunderstanding what is going on.…
Do Not Be Afraid
On Maundy Thursday students from Hunter Valley Grammar School were here in church for a visit as part of the…
Running the Race
Introduction At all three services this weekend, I want, in place of a sermon to present to you my annual…
Proclaiming
I suspect that it isn’t there any longer, but many years ago there used to be a church sign outside…
Returning to the Lord
“In baptism, God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light. To follow Christ means dying to sin and…
Living in the Moment
A sermon for the Commissioning of Mother Jane Trigg as the Parish Priest of the Parish of Branxton, Greta and…
Preaching to the Home Crowd
There is a story about a couple in conversation as they leave Church one weekend. The wife says to her…
The First Christian Baptism
The beginning of January brings with it the joy of preparing the annual statistical returns for the Parish about attendance…
Where is Caesar?
What a contrast! What a mystery! Here is the great Emperor Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man of his age,…
The Glory of the Lord Shines Around Us
Surely all that goes on here this evening conspires to point us to the glory of this night. The darkness…
Waiting with Mary
In September I received an e-mail that delighted and then perplexed me. It read like this: Dear Colleague, You were…
Holy Matrimony
It is such a privilege to be here, amongst you, at Father Chris’ invitation. So wonderful for me to be…
Have Salt in Yourselves
In ancient times, the Greek poet Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as being especially…
Don’t Miss the Meaning
The House of God
There isn’t a week that goes by when someone isn’t working practically to repair or enhance this great church building.…
In the Eye of the Storm
Corpus Christi
First Fruits
Ascended Living
We live in a world in which ‘up’ is better than ‘down’. Singers want to be at the top of…
Loving Judas
No Small Thing
Alleluia! Christ is risen! This is the night! Five times our Deacon Will sang that great phrase of promise as…
Ministering for the King
When Luisa and I moved to Newcastle from Perth our home was in the Cathedral Close on one of the…
Faithful to the King
Whilst the world around us, even in early November, is beginning to count down towards Christmas, we here in the…
Blessing
Blessing: that is what our Gospel reading is all about, and we might say that that is what our central…
Giving Ourselves Back to God
For many people, probably including some of us (whether we like it or not) money is one of the high…
Good Spirits
A belief in the presence of spirits – both good spirits and bad spirits – is unmistakable in many, if…
The Big Question
The stories of the life of Jesus, as we find them, reflected upon and brought together by the Church in…
The Motherhood of Mary
Have you ever stopped to wonder how Joseph felt about all of this? Perhaps this is simply a window into…
Abundance in a Desolate Place
“What was is that Jesus heard?” That is the question that must surely be uppermost in our minds having just…
Exclusion and Embrace
Peter said to Mary, ‘Sister, we know that the Saviour loved you more than any other woman. Tell us the…
Seeds
It is probably not always uppermost in our minds when we hear the readings from the Bible Sunday by Sunday,…
The Lighthouse
Many years ago there was a little village on a rocky seacoast. Storms often battered that coast line harshly and…
Bread and Wine
“That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.” That declaration will go down in history as…
The Tight Rope of Faith
Jean Francois Gravelet was one of the great dare-devils of history. On 30th June 1859, under his stage name ‘Blondin’,…
From the Local to the Global
Most priests will preach to more people in their life times than Jesus ever did. Let me say that again…
Fully Alive for God’s Glory
The great Saint Irenaus, Bishop in Gaul (in what is now France) in the early second Century proclaimed, “Gloria Dei…
On the Road of Resurrection Living
Woody Allen once famously said, “our civilisation stands at the crossroads. Down one road is despondency and despair. Down the…
God’s Final Word
It is early in the morning, on the first day of the week. We who are gathered here this…
Amidst the Palms
‘Behold the Cross’ – that has been our theme this year, as we have forced ourselves during the long season…
On the Road to Lazarus’ Tomb
“Baruch atta Adonai Eloheynu melech ha-olam, dyan ha-emet.” Holy One of Blessing, Your Presence fills creation. You are indeed…
On the Road to Lazarus’ Tomb
“Baruch atta Adonai Eloheynu melech ha-olam, dyan ha-emet.” Holy One of Blessing, Your Presence fills creation. You are indeed the…
Giving Thanks for God’s Faithfulness: Parish Priest’s Report to the Annual General Meeting
At all three services this weekend, I want, in place of a sermon to present to you my annual…
Living Water
The benefits of drinking plenty of water are well documented. We know that if our water intake falls below our…
In Celebration of the Country Women’s Association
Churches can be very strange places. I have never forgotten one of the first visits that I made to a…
Light
Right back at the start of everything that we can imagine, in the beautiful picture language of the first of…
Not Fearing Death
Snakes (not only in our culture, but around the world) have since ancient times haunted humanity. When we use the…
Worry
Living totally without worry will seem to most of us to be as impossible a task as living totally without…
Loving our Enemies
As I look back over the years I have always been very fortunate with neighbours. I have had the kinds…
Being Salty
We humans have a love-hate relationship with salt. Doctors have told some of us who have high blood pressure to…
Opening the Maternity Department
Within a few minutes drive of this Church building – depending on the traffic on the New England Highway– there…
Seeing Australia Through the Lense of the Kingdom
“All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice: him serve with mirth, his praise…
The Lamb Who Pursues Us
Around the time that the architect Edmund Thomas Blackett was designing the beautiful building in which we worship today, another…
The Eighth Side of the Baptismal Font
There are baptismal fonts of all shapes and sizes in the churches of our Diocese. Some fonts are so small…
Three Astrologers Bearing Gifts
The story that we hear in our Gospel reading this morning is very familiar to us all. We can picture…
Tragedy
One of the things that happens in the days immediately following our Christmas services each year is that priests around…
Good News of Great Joy
“I bring you good news of great joy for all the people,” says the angel, “to you is born this…
Rejoicing with John the Baptist
“All of you rejoice!” That is the message for us on this Third Weekend in Advent. All over the world…
Waiting with the Prophets
It isn’t often that you see a priest breaking into a car, but on Friday afternoon that is exactly what…
Coming Soon: Signs for the Start of Advent
The horror of being confronted, whilst you are driving down a road, by a sign that says “wrong way, turn…
Christ the Suffering King of our Salvation
The world held its breath as a boy stood in front of a tank in Tianamin Square – an image…
Christ the Loving Servant King
I am sure that you know as well as I do the rather profound children’s story about King Midas. King…
Christ the Eternal King of Glory
There are forty-four days left until Christmas. I know this because I received an e-mail message reminding me of the…
The Church
When I was growing up we learnt a little rhyme with hand actions about the Church, it went like this:…
What to Do When You’re A Camel
Last Saturday a number of members of our Parish Council joined me, and priests and Parish Councils from around this…
Re-imagining God
I read an interesting statistic recently that claimed that Anglican clergymen in Australia were ten times more likely to have…
Approaching the Miracles
How do you respond to that beautiful miracle story that we have just heard from Gospel of Luke? What do…
In Search of Angels
I expect that one of the questions that is upper most in your mind as you sit here in Church…
The Challenge of Wealth
There aren’t many experiences in the life of the Church when Luisa and I feel like we are the senior…
Being God’s Family
Whatever else the Church is called to do beyond itself, in the way that it shares the good news of Jesus…
Crowds
There’s a wonderful cartoon that has been doing the rounds on the internet at the moment made up of three…
The Banquet of the Kingdom of God
In the process of moving from primary to secondary schools I was required to sit a number of examinations. I could…
Preparing for the Ballot Box
We are in the midst of a great debate about the identity of Australia: about what it means to be…
Imagining Jesus Looking in the Mirror
When you look at yourself in the mirror who do you see? That may seem a strange question to ask,…
Being Transfigured for His Glory
“Where on earth is Lewisboro?” That was the question that I was greeted with by an officer as I attempted…
Two Sisters
Over the next week the Brothers of Saint Gregory will be eating and drinking together in Convocation. We will do…
Not Looking Back
Have you ever stopped and listened to the stories that you most often recount to other people when you are…
The Sacrament of Confirmation
Because of his dyslexia, a friend of mine wore a pair of glasses for years that had one red lense…
The Sacrament of Holy Communion
Eating and drinking are essential for our living – whether for humans, or for animals. But in human living they…
The Mystery of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity
Before I say anything else this morning, I think that it is worth noting, that by rights Deacon Wendy should…
First Fruits at Pentecost
When we hear the word ‘Pentecost’ most of us probably presume that it is a Christian word – a word…
The Ascension of Jesus
If we had not moved our celebration of this great feast from Thursday to today most of us would probably…
Persecution
All Australians have become amateur psychiatrists. The culture around us has learnt enough from the founders of modern psychology and…
Deep Change or Slow Death
One of the most confronting realities about the world in which we live is that on a global scale we…
Inclusion and Exclusion at the Home of Cornelius
There is a story in my dreaming that comes to me every now and again and captivates my whole being. If…
Word and Sacrament on the Emmaus Road
When I was growing up in London my family taught me to take reading the Bible seriously. I had a…
Experiencing the Risen Christ
What would you think if I told you that I had seen Bishop Tyrrell (the first Bishop of Newcastle) riding…
The Surprise of Easter
Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! A young man rose from poverty and obscurity, to a place…
As Dawn Breaks on Easter Morning
It is early in the morning, on the first day of the week. We who are gathered here in the…
At the Table on Maundy Thursday
Have you ever experienced that terrible feeling, of being at a dinner, party when everything is going wrong? When the main…
An Invitation to the Holy Week Journey
It is still uncertain when Christians first began to make an annual, as opposed to a weekly, memorial of the…
The Passion of Christ
Over the last few Monday evenings in this season of Lent, the congregations in the Anglican Parish of East Maitland…
Annual Report of the Parish Priest in Preparation for the Annual General Meeting
At all three services this weekend, I want, in place of a sermon to present to you my annual report…
The Call to Evangelism on Mothering Sunday
Every one of us who is gathered here today, is here because we have been evangelised by someone else. Each…
Pharisees
When the Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him, his response is not as surprising as…
The Journey to Jerusalem
On your way home from Church today you are down on the New England Highway, and suddenly you become aware…
Questions at the Start of the Season of Lent
We live in a world of many questions. Some of those questions have one answer; some of those questions have…
Abundance
When I was a young boy I remember singing a Bible chorus about the Gospel reading that we have just…
Candlemass
What do you want more than anything else? What do you long for, right from the very centre of your…
Older Brothers and Sisters
Who do you most associate with in the story that Jesus told, and that we have just heard? We have…
Abundance
For those of us who enjoy a glass of good wine, or even a bottle between friends, the Gospel reading…
First Communion
75% of the world is covered with water. 97% of the earth’s water is in the oceans. It takes over…
Chalk and Astrologers
Around the world this weekend priests armed with chalk, water and in many cases ladders will be walking the streets…
The Search for the Infant Jesus
“When the boy Jesus was five years old he was playing at the crossing of a stream, and he gathered…
The Manger
My dogs and I have a basic communication problem. I say that the fault is with them, but I know…
The Magnificat Dance
There’s shocking news and there’s shocking news, and we respond differently depending on what the news is all about. Hearing…
In Honour of John the Baptiser
In our Gospel reading today, and in our Advent Wreath prayers, we are confronted by the rather other-worldly character of…