anglican focus

The news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland: nourishing and connecting our faith community

Poetry

Reflections A hand holding a clear globe to the sky with trees and clouds in the background Reflections

The God who delights in circles, pregnant bellies and fruit hanging on trees

“Finding ways to do meaning-making is an incredibly important and life-enhancing activity in our society which has a tendency to see things through a utilitarian lens. That is, we look at things in terms of their usefulness to we humans, rather than seeking to appreciate their deeper intrinsic value…,” says The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt

Image of Siegfried Sassoon by George Charles Beresford (1915) (George Charles Beresford, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Reflections

“I knew a simple soldier boy”

“Siegfried Sassoon was an English soldier during World War I. Born into a wealthy Jewish family, before the war Siegfried lived the life of a member of the landed gentry…While fighting the war he was decorated for bravery because of his actions on the Western Front. He also became severely depressed as he came to terms with what war was like,” says The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt

Reflections

“And a Good Friday Was Had by All”

“A few years ago I walked a set of The Stations of the Cross that had been erected in a farm paddock in the Hunter Valley. The day on which we walked it was hot, dry and dusty. Many of the participants were quite elderly; some were very unsteady on their feet…one of the participants stumbled and fell,” says The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt

Video

Bishop Cam Venables' Maundy Thursday 2024 poem

“The elements of THAT Thursday include a bowl and towel, and wine and bread, and the knowledge He said, ‘Whenever you do this…remember me’, before His plea to simply love…The appalling injustice of ‘Good Friday’ is not something from long ago, it is happening even now,” says Bishop Cam Venables in his Maundy Thursday poem

Reflections

"Near Golgotha strolls many a priest"

“Seeing the Passion of Jesus as being played out in the everyday can heighten our response to those everyday situations. So the children of Gaza become one with the Holy Innocents and Christ loses limbs with Ukrainian soldiers. What are we called to do in response?” asks The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt

Dates & Seasons

Embracing a new beginning

“Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent present opportunities for us to make the same sort of return. They offer us the opportunity for reflection, sifting and renewal; they are constructed so as to offer us the opportunity to embrace new beginnings,” says The Very Rev’d Dr Peter Catt