A Million Year Mind

Let’s kick off the Physicists & a Parson Parley series with a look at the lead article in New Scientist (1 March 2014) – “Your Million Year Mind.” (I keep catching myself reading it as “your million dollar mind” – how conditioned am I by the prevailing culture of economic rationalism?) In summary, the piece explores how the measurableContinue reading “A Million Year Mind”

Physicists and a Parson Parley

There’s a heap of New Scientist magazines on my desk. Scientists of various disciplines, some at the peak of their field, have always been present in the various faith communities I have served. To varying degrees, conversations between faith and science have been mutually rewarding. All have eschewed the alleged dichotomy advanced by fundamentalists of either religiousContinue reading “Physicists and a Parson Parley”

Blogging 101: considering a blog title & tagline

After several years of blogging in fits and starts, I’ve signed up for the basic course at WordPress Blogging 101. Today’s exercise is to consider my blog’s title and tagline and whether its time to change it. I quite like the current title and find it quite suitable for my purpose. It carries a questionContinue reading “Blogging 101: considering a blog title & tagline”

The twelfth day of Christmas… Epiphany!

Tradition usually has the visit of the magi with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh on the final day of Christmas, heralding the season of Epiphany, the celebration of a manifestation, that in Jesus, all that needs to be known about God is revealed. The gifts of these 12 days comprise this epiphany. The challengeContinue reading “The twelfth day of Christmas… Epiphany!”

On the eleventh day of Christmas … Auld Lang Syne

The gift of connection. The final days of Christmas coincide with New Year celebrations and reflections. As the calendar turns over to the new year, Robert Burn’s Auld Lang Syne rings out through the gathered crowds. It is a song of connection and Christmas is about God’s ultimate gift of connection in dwelling amongst us inContinue reading “On the eleventh day of Christmas … Auld Lang Syne”

The tenth day of Christmas… Word dwells amongst us

Sometimes a gift takes more than one day to unwrap, so we continue to reflect on the implications of deep Wisdom (the Word) taking on flesh in Jesus of Nazareth and dwelling in our midst. A gift is not always well received – look at how busy the “Returns” counter is at the Boxing DayContinue reading “The tenth day of Christmas… Word dwells amongst us”

On the ninth day of Christmas – Deep Wisdom

There is a deep wisdom behind the universe. It is beyond knowledge – knowing how things work. It is beyond mysticism – trusting how things work. Yet it involves and transcends both. In the Jewish and Christian traditions, this deep wisdom has a central focus. Hebrew tradition personifies wisdom as a woman practical and presentContinue reading “On the ninth day of Christmas – Deep Wisdom”

On the eighth day of Christmas … a fresh start

Why is New Year’s Day so evocative of lists to improve and enhance our personal and communal living? Life is comprised of cycles, and somehow, deeply embedded in our collective psyche, a New Year (always capitalised!) marks that part of the cycle where we take a deep breath and start all over again. The giftContinue reading “On the eighth day of Christmas … a fresh start”

On the seventh day of Christmas… hope that envisions a new heaven and a new earth.

This morning another eight Christian leaders face court in Perth on charges of trespass, a result of advocacy for asylum seeker children in the face of political intransigence and obfuscation. A particularly disturbing feature of the incidents of these arrests was the decision by the police, for the first time, to introduce strip-search procedures, evidently designedContinue reading “On the seventh day of Christmas… hope that envisions a new heaven and a new earth.”

On the sixth day of Christmas – cosmic outlook!

Imagine being freed of all spatial and temporal limitation! The high fence surrounding our time frame of an allotted threescore and ten (or thereabout) is torn down. Star Trek type transportation effortlessly disassembles and reunites our cells so that, at a word,  we can be present to any place in the universe. We are perenniallyContinue reading “On the sixth day of Christmas – cosmic outlook!”