Wednesday already! I have just launched a harangue for this week’s church newsletter about the necessary evils of statistics and surveys. We are beginning a Church Life Review by filling out National Church Life Survey forms as a congregation together during the service. (This will be good practice for Census night on Tuesday). Then weContinue reading “Analysis Paralysis”
Category Archives: churches of christ
Well, well, well!
The challenge to the church was to raise $4000 to sink a well in the remote drought stricken hinterlands of Zimbabwe. Individuals and groups set about to devise their fund-raising schemes. Our resident artist devised a working model that would show week by week how far the bore had sunk towards the water table farContinue reading “Well, well, well!”
Eucalyptus
It’s the name of a book by Murray Bail that I’m reading at the moment. It’s also what the stand of tuarts around the church are saying after this morning’s loppings – “You clipped us!” (Sorry, can’t help it!). Tuarts are a very hardy species of eucalyptus, peculiar to this part of Australia. Bail’s bookContinue reading “Eucalyptus”
Grand Opening of Universal WC
A little piece of doggerel to commemorate the opening of a universal WC at the Wembley Downs Church of Christ Now its here! Now its done! A toilet that all can access – the halt and the lame, the gent and the dame may “go” with all speedy success. “Let’s have a grand opening!” theContinue reading “Grand Opening of Universal WC”
Van Tuong Nguyen
A single flower in the church courtyard fountain measures the strength of community feeling over this morning’s execution of convicted drug mule, Van Tuong Nguyen. It is understated but eloquent, for indeed, community feeling is divided. Public debate, emotive as it is, lines up as retribution vs rehabilitation. The apparent rehabilitation of Nguyen, enhanced byContinue reading “Van Tuong Nguyen”
Oranges; No Lemons!
Lots and lots of oranges have been boosting some of our local church fund-raising projects. One church family decided life was not busy enough, so invested in an orange orchard near Bindoon, about 100 kms north of Perth. Since then, the whole congregation and beyond has had regular access to a healthy dose of VitaminContinue reading “Oranges; No Lemons!”
What are weasel words then?
Don Watson, author of Death Sentence of the English Language, has published Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words: contemporary cliches, cant and management jargon. Like a weasel sucking the yolk from an egg while leaving the shell intact, the champions of “weasel words” suck the meaning out of a word. I received my 2006 diary fromContinue reading “What are weasel words then?”
How would the great commandment sound in weasel-wordese?
Perhaps something like this: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” “Persons shall adopt measures of high positive regard to the primal executive consultant with maximised internal resources, including all material and notional sources of motivation, and all intellectual capital. This is the prime and initial directive. In addition, a non-primal directive carriesContinue reading “How would the great commandment sound in weasel-wordese?”
Saying What I Mean
This has always been a challenge – finding the words to say what my mind is churning over at a very rapid rate! This is when it’s so easy to lapse into jargon. And the reason I’m thinking about this is because of another strange conjunction of several episodes today – another instance of synchronicityContinue reading “Saying What I Mean”
100 years of Women’s Ministry in WA
That’s what we’re celebrating this Sunday! Almost evokes a “so?” in this congregation which has not really differentiated ministry along gender lines from its inception. No new thing this – in fact my church would say women’s ministry has been a feature of the Church since Martha and Mary looked after Jesus in their respectiveContinue reading “100 years of Women’s Ministry in WA”
Wondering Pilgrim 