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Job, hope and God: Members of Synod study the Book of Job
Rev Dr Christine Sorensen, Presbytery Minister (Formation and Discipleship) for the Uniting Church WA, shared Bible studies at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Synod of WA, on both Saturday and Sunday. She shared her studies on the book of Job, within the theme of Overflowing with Hope.
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Spirituality and Self-care
We’ve probably all heard, and even been challenged by, one of those quotes about a spiritual giant who prayed more the busier they were. So Martin Luther: In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Or St Francis de Sales: Everyone of us needs half […]
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Work Engagement: being energised, dedicated and engaged in our ministries
Would you describe yourself as being energised, dedicated and engaged by and in your ministry? How have your experiences with COVID-19 and the different challenges that have come about in your ministry changed your energy and commitment and engagement in that ministry? It may be if you were struggling already this has either led to […]
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Our culture of busyness
“How has your week gone everybody?” This was a starter question in a small group in the ministers’ gathering. “Busy” is the response that rings around the [zoom break-out] room… The life of ministry is busy and there were all kinds of events that people mentioned that they were working towards that filled their heads […]
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Aligning our theology of ministry and of self-care
I’ve thought about having a ‘theology of self-care’ but actually it is more having a theology of ministry and then part of that is how self-care might have a part. There is no one-size-fits-all when we talk about ministry let alone self-care. So while on one hand that is a comfort (especially for those of […]
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The troublesome language of self-care
We have been talking about self-care for a number of weeks. But there are problems with the language of self-care. Three main reasons are the ways that it buys into the current self-focus of the age, multi-cultural factors, and ministry as a call to service. Self-care: you’re worth it! We live in an age when […]
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Taking ourselves seriously when it comes to self-care
A ministry colleague (and previous student) has just posted his second day of ‘25 Push-ups for 25 days to raise awareness on Anxiety, PTSD, Depression and Suicide’. When I commended him (not volunteering to do the same) his response was ‘self-care is a must!’ I’m pleased that that message has got through to someone. But […]
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Supervision at a distance
We are all grappling with life and ministry having changed dramatically with the advent of coronavirus and consequent social distancing. It is in times of change and stress that the place of supervision comes into its own; at the same time one of the impacts on many of us is that we can no longer […]
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Reflection: Contagion and Anxiety
We have been learning medical – epidemiological language lately that we never knew existed or we would need. Growth rate, doubling time, flattening the curve, and reproduction number (R0), or the number of people who will become infected from one contagious person. The other pandemic we have seen coursing through the world at the moment […]
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Good-Enough: A reflection on the millstone of aspirational perfection
Today I read a Facebook post where a woman was talking about having been a child in Bosnia, where from the age of 8 she missed four years of schooling during the war. She left Bosnia for NZ (I think) at 13 with no English and little schooling. She now has a degree and is […]