The Longing
Stuff that didn't quite make it into The Briefing
Nothing in my hand I bring: Ray Galea talks to Peter Hastie
Peter Hastie / July 2008
Ray Galea is an Anglican minister who leads the pastoral team at St Alban's Multicultural Bible Ministry at Rooty Hill in western Sydney. His special brief is to work cross-culturally among second-generation Mediterranean and Middle Eastern people in the region.
Ray grew up as a member of a devout Roman Catholic family, and played an active role as a boy in his local parish church. Prior to training for the ministry, Ray worked as a social worker in Wollongong for three years where he specialized in marriage and family counselling. He is a
Doing good: The shape of the Christian life (Part 3): What it looks like
Stuart Heath / July 2008
This is Part 3 of a three-part series. Read Part 1 and Part 2.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matt 7:24)
As people who follow Jesus, we want a firm foundation as we seek to live well and wisely in God's world. We long to be blameless and innocent, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom we shine as lights in the world (Phil 2:15). But how can we know how to live righteously in each moment when we don't always have a
Doing good: The shape of the Christian life (Part 2): Why we can
Stuart Heath / July 2008
This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Read Part 1 and Part 3.
“Which part of ‘thou shalt not’ did you not understand?”
This church sign, smugly berating the morning traffic, communicates an important perception of Christian ethics: it is fundamentally negative and considerably holier-than-thou. This view seems almost as common among Christians as it is in the wider public. Many of us seem to hold the idea that we get in by grace, and then there's a list of things we can't do. We'll be fine as long as we don't do stuff the Bible explicitly