About All Saints

Life is not Fair!

June 8, 2008  - Ian

Life is an important topic in our world at the moment. Life for many students currently is all about exams but soon it will be about life on holidays. Life is struggling in Myanmar. Life is getting harder and so a world summit is now being held on how to care for the poor. Life is more expensive and so there protests about the cost of living. Life is not fair!

At the point of the ending of a life, at the death of one that we love, or in a dramatic disaster such as the Sichuan Earthquake in China recently, most of us look more closely at life and see that it is unfair; that is harsh, fleeting and is so soon followed by death. ... Read the rest of the article. Post a Comment.

Enough troubles?

June 1, 2008  - Dale

Each day has enough troubles of its own, someone once said. But some days seem to have more than enough troubles. Most of us have got used to carrying the usual stresses and troubles. Well, maybe not used to it, but at least we have worked out ways of coping and surviving.

But not all troubles are of the usual kind. It is the new ones that take up more energy. The new pressure or stress or trouble doesn’t come with a best practice solution. So we try various ways to deal with it: trial and error with lots of trials and many errors. Finding the way forward can be very tiring, more so when our emotional or physical reserves are depleted.  ... So did the wise person who said each day has enough troubles of its own, have any helpful advice about this? ... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment.

A Quiet Night

April 27, 2008  - Dale

Last week I spent two and a half days working with four or five other Anglican clergy completing the last of the translations of all the Anglican services into Bahasa Indonesia. The one we finished this week was a service called “Prayer at the end of the Day”, otherwise known as Compline.

It is not in the Book of Common Prayer, being amongst the large number of medieval services that were omitted or merged in the new services of Cranmer’s Prayer Book. However it has gained new life in recent revisions of Anglican liturgy (you can see a typical modern version in our green Prayer Book). It is a simple service that allows people to conclude the day with readings from the scriptures, prayers of confession and prayers for protection.

In the modern service there is still a sense of the dangers of the night.... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

Numbers and Labels

April 6, 2008  - Ian

According to the Vatican – “Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world”. The Vatican estimates that there are 1.13 million members (17.4% of the world’s population) of the Catholic Church compared to the estimated 1.3 million people (19.2% of the world) of the Islamic faith. Yet if all Christians are put together “including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians make up 33% of the world's population — or about 2 billion people”.

There is that in me that is disappointed that there are more Muslims in the world than Catholics. As a Christian Pastor I would like to be on the side where there are more of us than anyone else. But then I ask myself what does God want in terms of numbers and what does he say is more important than numbers and labels.

Just because there are more ‘Christians’ at the moment than any other faith doesn’t excite God....  Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

What kind of Christian?

March  30, 2008  - Dale

 I met some people last week who said they had decided to call themselves “serious Christians”. They explained that this was instead of calling themselves “committed Christians”. The idea I think was that “committed Christians” has been over-used and needed to be replaced.

But the new term sounds a bit serious, doesn’t it? Almost dour. No jokes. Much stroking of the beard. Except I don’t think that is what these friends had in mind. They are not at all serious in that way. For one thing  they laugh too much.

They meant something else...  Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

The place of suffering

March  2, 2008  - Dale

What should Job have done the next time? After his terrible series of disasters and in the middle of his personal suffering, he asked God for a debate, or a hearing in a court of arbitration, or a face to face dialogue.

And then God spoke to him and asked Job what he knew about creating and managing the universe. The series of sustained questions left Job speechless – but he had seen God with his own eyes. He recognised God could do anything, so he stopped complaining.

But having endured both the suffering and the dialogue, what would he do next time? What did he learn that might help him the next time such a thing happened?...

The question is hypothetical for Job. But the lessons learned are understood by Habakkuk. And also by Jesus. The prayer in the garden of Gethsemane is prayed by someone who understands the book of Job. “If it is possible…  if not….”

Paul understood the idea as well. But Paul had some advantages over Job. He had seen what happened to Jesus. ... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

God Talk

February  24, 2008  - Ian

“Only one person has ever spoken to me about God at refreshment time after church”. This comment was made to me recently by one of our members at Don Bosco. That is very sad. Has that been your experience? And how often have you mentioned God in your after church conversation?

I want to challenge us all, including myself, to talk about God more, especially in the safe confines of church morning tea/refreshments at All Saints. After church is a safe time when we are with people who have similar thinking to us, after all they attend the same church. We have talked about God for the last hour, sung about him, sung to him and talked with him and even heard from him....So why end there? Surely God is worth talking about more than one hour per week! ... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

A religious relationship

February  10, 2008  - Ian

It is easy to be religious here in Indonesia. This is an observation that I have made whilst living in Indonesia for just a short time. In Australia the religious affiliation question is non compulsory in the national census. You do not have to declare what religion you are in Australia. But in Indonesia you must declare to whom you belong as it appears on many official personal documents –Are you Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, or Catholic? Here in Indonesia you must have a religious label. But does this mean that here in Indonesia you will be more godly? Will God simply be pleased with a label? ... Read the rest of the Article. Post a comment.

More than enough

February  3, 2008  - Dale

What do you think of that famous occasion when the people of God were told to stop giving because they had given too much!? On other occasions they were told not to bother because their giving was entirely hypocritical. But on this occasion there was too much to handle. An unmanageable surplus.

Hard to imagine isn’t it? Not many people know about it. But it ought to be better known because it concerns the Great Grumblers. “Why have you led us up this road only to starve us to death?” they said. After one of the most astounding events in their history they settled back into self-pity, self-righteousness and grumbled like mad because they had run out of food.

So the Lord gave them food. As much as they needed. Some collected a lot, some gathered little but all had as much as they needed. No one had too much, no one had too little.  But some thought they needed to store some until the next day, despite the fact they were told that there would be enough every day and no one was to store any (what they stored rotted and was full of maggots).

The Great Grumblers were slow learners. Later they ran out of water. ... Read the rest of the article. Post a Comment

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