Dementia, cats and oranges
A note to the future: Anne Weeks posted this on her facebook and asked people to share. So why not? If I get dementia, I’d like my family to hang this wish list up on the wall where I live.… Continue Reading
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Farewelling my big sister Sylvia
A eulogy by John Sandeman at the thanksgiving service for Sylvia Sandeman at Rosanna Baptist Church on Thursday June 12, 2025. Today, we farewell our big sister, aunt, and great aunt, Sylvia Ellen Sandeman. We are a complicated family, one… Continue Reading
Aunty Jean Phillips awarded an OAM
The widely respected indigenous leader Aunty Jean Phillips was awarded a Medal of the Ordaer of Australia (OAM) in the latest King’s birthday honours. After decades of leadership, Phillips might be most widely known across the continent due to her… Continue Reading
Vic/Tas Unitings have sold more than ten per cent of their church buildings in the last 5 years
“Just heavenly: Holy listings boom across Vic as churches sell up” is the headline in a Herald -Sun story about the market activity in buildings designed as churches. The Catholics are quoted as saying they rarely close and sell a… Continue Reading
Children are (really) good gifts
An excerpt from Motherhood: How the gospel shapes our purpose and priorities by Jocelyn Loane There is a gap of nearly six years between our third and fourth children (twins) and our fifth. Some of this time was a planned… Continue Reading
Life’s up and downs are precious
Learning to be present: Journeying up and down to Melbourne for the last three months to visit my sister Sylvia in hospital, for a short time in rehab, and now preparing for her funeral, rotating in and out of those… Continue Reading
A gutsy student at NIDA
Entertainment industry chaplain Charles Brammall at the epicentre of Australian acting Professor Ken Healey, lovely, God-fearing History of Theatre lecturer at NIDA, invited me to lecture the whole of the student body on “The Lasting Effect of the Judeo-Christian Heritage… Continue Reading
Women’s ordination trailblazer honoured in King’s Birthday list
Gwenneth Lillian Roberts has been described as a “trailblazing ordination of women campaigner, mother of six, nurse and midwife, childbirth educator and social justice advocate.” Roberts has been appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for “significant service… Continue Reading
Compassion, the mark of knowing God
The Other Cheek remembers my big sister Sylvia Sandeman who died late last month: A Sermon on Amos 7: 7-17, Luke 10: 25–37 & Colossians 1: 1–14 by Sylvia Sandeman As I read the Lectionary passages for today one word… Continue Reading
Is Egypt’s government trying to take over Christianity’s most important monastery?
Paul Marshall via Religion Unplugged (ANALYSIS) Much of the Christian world, especially the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, has been roiled by reports that an Egyptian court has mandated that St. Catherine’s Monastery be taken over by the government. This… Continue Reading