Opinion

A kaleidoscope of scenes whirls through my memory – moments, places, people – locked in a cell for four hours with two life sentence prisoners, sitting on concrete steps in intimate conversation with one woman while the things of earth grew strangely dim around us. Moments of prayer that have changed a woman’s anger into tears of healing, or have ...

I have a passion to see men come to a faith in God. Wouldn’t it be great to see a company of men praising God in our churches? I mean real men, men built like front row forwards, guys with tattoos on their arm, men with rough hands, men who aren’t afraid to say they love Jesus. Well, I have ...

Imagine being imprisoned for thirteen years. How much would society have changed in that time? In 1992, the last time you were a part of society, the Australian Prime Minister was Paul Keating and Queensland’s Premier was Wayne Goss. Mobile phones were rare and resembled a brick and the Internet was just catching on. Fittingly, the 1992 Academy Award winning ...

On 2 December 2005 a bell tolled 25 times in Melbourne while a young man was hanged in Singapore’s Changi Prison. He was a convicted drug trafficker, caught carrying 400g of heroin. The pictures on the television were heart wrenching: a mother embracing her son following his brother’s execution. Capital punishment has been the subject of much debate over many ...

During my time as a Senator there were two contradictory questions/comments frequently asked by Christians. One was, “What is a nice clergyman like you doing in a place like that?” and “I am glad you are in politics. We need more Christians in Parliament.” Both of these well-intentioned statements reveal a lack of knowledge of political processes and of the ...

At the precise moment Journey phoned me about writing this, I was reading The meaning of Jesus – Two Visions by Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright and had just read Marcus Borg’s section What was Jesus up to: Social Prophet in which he talks of the domination system that prevailed and had prevailed on and off since the ...

The recent controversy, and accompanying violence, sparked by the publication in many newspapers around the world of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, raises some pertinent questions for reflection by Christians. It is my personal view (and I accept that there are differing opinions) that the media in general could act with a much greater degree of responsibility in such matters. ...

Mark CornfordIf I had been asked this question ten years ago I would have answered with something like “the Uniting Church is no better or worse than any other church”. I had a general agreement with most of the theology of the Uniting Church, historically it was where I had grown up, and I had a vague sense that this ...

It may not be the most important thing that will happen in the Uniting Church in Queensland in 2006, but the 11th Assembly to be held in Brisbane 5th-11th July will certainly dominate the attention of the popular media and probably the energy of many of our leaders and members. There have been many anxiously waiting since the 10th Assembly ...

Over the New Year I’ve been reading Jim Wallis’s book, God’s Politics. It’s a confronting book, as you might expect from the founder of Sojourners, but a very important and timely publication. While the book’s primary focus is on the developing relationship of contemporary religion and politics in the USA, most of the issues he addresses, and all of the ...