People claim we live in a secular society, from whence the gods have fled. But, on the contrary, the gods walk among us.
Category: Spirituality in the Ordinary
In Carlton, where I work and spend a lot of my time “studying” (aka drinking coffee in cafes, occasionally adding a little cake, (purely for my health’s sake)), the local government has built a beautiful library called the Kathleen Syme Centre. It is a state of the art facility, including a space for the senior […]
This is a sermon I preached a couple of weeks ago about Mary and Martha. You can listen to it here (and marvel at how slowly I’m managing to speak) Or you can read it below. Luke 10:32-48 Sermon at Wesley Church Melbourne 16/7/2016 Life can feel very mysterious sometimes. Random, and often terrible, events fill […]
I recently listened to Rob Bell’s podcast, the Robcast, and was struck by the story he told about his a very unsuccessful book tour which he made. The context was that he had recently written his very controversial book Love Wins – see here and here for a few sample reviews. In his previous book tours […]
So I’ve been even busier than I thought – I always bite off more than I can chew – but the dynamic site for Spiritus et Locus is up. Missing a few features? Clunky? Far from perfect? Perhaps all these things. But, nonetheless, it’s up, and you can now register, and start adding images. Let […]
It’s been quite a while since I blogged last. The reason? I’ve been very, very, very busy putting an exciting project together for Cafechurch and Carlton Church of All Nations, called Spiritus et Locus. It’s an interesting challenge – how do you reimagine the ancient practice of the examen for today’s distracted, wired, socially-connected generation? […]
This post is about the experience of doubt – what it can be like to question deeply held beliefs about what the world is really like, what makes life living, what the universe is ultimately about. What we might call existential doubt, when you find your whole faith-commitment challenged. A lot of different things can […]
As Lent draws to an end, I have been thinking about fasting and feasting. Our culture finds fasting profoundly odd. It runs counter to the utilitarian way modern, liberal societies organise themselves. That is, we are encouraged to enjoy ourselves as much as is compatible with doing sensible, thrifty things like saving for the future, […]
I’ve come across a couple of articles on Bivocationalism recently and, as someone who has been a bivocationalist for a number of years now, pretty well acquainted with the good and bad of it, I though I might get my 5c worth in. First things first: What does this ugly word refer to? In my […]
I’ve been struggling with finding some sort of way to write interestingly about my experience of being involved in Caféchurch. The problem it is unlike \anything else I have ever done. It is entirely all consuming, and has been amazingly rewarding and deeply costly – the most fun, and the most pain, I have ever […]
Alister Pate 