tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60369504343436020282024-02-20T13:03:15.690+00:00Humane CatholicFr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-29835151373732738052019-10-20T05:19:00.000+01:002019-10-20T07:33:54.385+01:00Melbourne Synod 2019, and beyond
“The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it.”
“Remember Lot’s wife.”
Melbourne Synod met this week, and I along with the other parish stipendiary clergy, and parish reps Peter Sherlock and Sandra Treadwell-Monk joined several hundred others at the Cathedral. With the exception of one matter, it was probably the most Fr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-58222941837452476742018-10-20T07:46:00.003+01:002018-10-20T07:47:43.750+01:00Synod Speech on Conversion Therapy
Motion 24: Melbourne Synod, 20 October 2018
Conversion Therapy
That Synod
a) acknowledges that all people are made in the image of God, regardless of sexuality or gender identity
b) acknowledges the position of the Australian Psychological Society that “strongly opposes any approach to psychological practice or research that treats lesbians, gay men, and Fr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-60863220951507197902018-10-20T07:42:00.000+01:002018-10-20T07:42:05.885+01:00Synod Speech on Blessing of Civil Marriages
Motion 13, Melbourne Synod 20 October 2018
Form of Blessing for Civil Marriages
That Synod
a) acknowledges the widespread national and local support for the recent changes to Australian marriage laws, to include same-sex couples; and
b) commends the pastoral value of the Archbishop authorising a revised Form of Blessing of a Civil Marriage, which may Fr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-76383448171363282552018-09-30T08:53:00.000+01:002018-09-30T08:56:16.197+01:00Whoever is not against us is for us
A sermon at St Mary's North Melbourne
30 September 2018
Text: Mark 9:38-50
It is probably one of the most mis-quoted texts in the new Testament – “Whoever is not against us is for us.” How often have I heard instead, “Whoever is not for us is against us.”
The grammarians amongst you will understand that this is one of those occasions in English where word order matters. Let’s start withFr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-65304088651276484722018-05-12T10:37:00.001+01:002018-05-12T10:37:47.435+01:00An alternate statement on marriage equality, which could have been made by the Anglican bishops of Australia, but wasn't ... “God is love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”
These words from 1 John 4, which begin the marriage service in A Prayer Book for Australia, undergird the doctrine of marriage as it has been received by Anglicans.
We the bishops of the Anglican Church of Australia, affirm the following:
1) The injunction to love is the greatest of the commandments, and any Fr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-88683261093514502202011-07-18T00:29:00.002+01:002011-07-18T04:00:33.916+01:00The danger of JensenismCommemoration of John Keble (14 July), preached at St Mary’s North Melbourne, 15 July 2011
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
In 1833 John Keble preached a sermon from a very high pulpit to a group of legal and civic luminaries in a university city. Keble’s sermon, in its substance and context, holds almost nothing of relevance for the Anglican Church in Melbourne in 2011Fr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-91882351466720285662011-05-25T07:34:00.001+01:002011-05-25T08:11:00.415+01:00Some further reflections on AccessIt’s an interesting experience; being a temporary minor media personality. The sermon immediately below in this blog was picked up by The Sunday Age, a Melbourne-based broadsheet, and turned into an article with the rather disarming title “Priest urges end to ‘forced’ religious education”. I had been contacted by Jill Stark from The Sunday Age, who had read my sermon, and having realized that sheFr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-45112568593478430122011-05-16T06:57:00.002+01:002011-05-21T09:05:17.539+01:00A different sort of AccessSermon for Easter 4
15 May 2011
Preached at St Mary’s Anglican Church, North Melbourne
“A different sort of Access”
When I became vicar of St Mary’s, I discovered that one of the duties I had inherited with that title was to teach and coordinate religious education at Errol Street Primary School. I’ll be up front and admit that I wasn’t a duty I relished, but over a month or so late last year IFr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-22893497736825677922008-09-08T11:16:00.001+01:002008-09-08T11:19:46.586+01:00Evangelism amongst ChristiansA sermon preached at Evensong at SMV, Sunday 6 September 2008Paul, arriving in Ephesus, finds some disciples who have never heard of the Holy Spirit. He tells them about it, and they are re-baptised into the true faith. And so begins a great tradition – of one group of Christians telling another group of Christians that they are missing some crucial element of faith, and then converting them to Fr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-76328466419550115132008-08-26T18:58:00.000+01:002008-08-26T19:00:52.700+01:00Taking Scripture SeriouslyA sermon preached at SMV, Trinity 7, 2008. The Sunday before GAFCON.Yesterday, if one can believe what one reads in the papers, the Anglican Communion split. The curtain-raiser for the Global Anglican Future conference, the conservative alternative to Lambeth, announced, in effect, that there was no future – at least no future in which conservatives and liberals could co-exist. As someone who Fr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6036950434343602028.post-71156288367802421102008-08-26T18:18:00.001+01:002008-09-09T00:05:32.163+01:00The Daily OfficeA sermon at Evensong at SMV, Feast of St Barnabas (24 August) 2008When I was a student in theological college over a decade ago, there was a regular question raised in the Friday “community time” as to the contemporary spiritual value of the daily offices of morning and evening prayer. Some – including myself – said we found it not merely helpful, but an essential part of keeping sane in the wakeFr Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12062816254880627584noreply@blogger.com