A fresh perspective on faith, church and life
In the last edition of Revive, we printed an opinion piece submitted by Rev Ken Devereux, Uniting Church Chaplain at Royal Perth Hospital, supporting the drafting of a Parliamentary bill for Voluntary Assisted Dying. Premier Mark McGowan introduced a Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill to the Parliament in August this year.
This edition, Prof Brian Hill, member at Billabong Uniting Church, responds to the current conversation. Continue Reading
We live in a time where obsessions abound; fabulous fashion, funky food, fierce football and flourishing finance. We may argue that these obsessions are fairly harmless and mere cultural shifts in an ever changing secular society.
May I invite you to consider another obsession that I think is bringing with it some negative consequences to our quality of life and the common good? I am referring to the current obsession with the body. Continue Reading
After a short hiatus, Revive magazine is back in print with a brand new look. We’ve made a few changes to the structure and layout of the magazine, as well as the distribution; we’ll now be printing four times a year, instead of six.
One of my favourite additions to Revive is the recipe section on page 25. Not because I love cooking (actually, I hate it!), but because I love church morning teas. My brother, Phil, often jokes that being at a church event is the only time we ever get to eat curried egg sandwiches anymore. And I think he’s probably right. Continue Reading
By Diana Butler-Bass, Harper One 2018.
Reading small chunks of Grateful has been my morning reading for the last month. Gratitude, I learnt, is often missing as a spiritual practice in a selffocused world.
More and more people are finding this experience of God beyond the walls of traditional religious institutions, but often miss the church community itself and its shared spiritual practices such as gratitude. Gratitude can easily get buried in rote liturgy with religious words that have lost their meaning. Many claim gratitude in their daily lives, but Bass finds that claim to be at odds with the discontent that permeates modern society and dominates our political discourse.
This highlighted a gap, she argues, between our desire to be grateful and our ability to behave gratefully—a divide that influences our understanding of morality, worship, and institutional religion itself. In Grateful, Bass challenges readers to think about the impact gratitude has in our spiritual lives, and encourages them to make gratitude a “difficult and much-needed spiritual practice for our personal lives and to inspire us to work together for a better world.” Continue Reading
Directed by Randall Wright, Heritage Films, 2018
This review was published in the April 2019 hardcopy edition of Revive. Sadly, Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, passed away yesterday. We keep all those who knew and loved him in our thoughts.
In this heartfelt documentary, we are invited to spend time in a L’Arche community. This film is not so much the life story of Jean Vanier, but a peek into his everyday life and the community he founded.
The L’Arche community was founded in France in 1964 and aimed to do away with institutions for people living with disability and build life together instead. People with varying levels of ability live together in community, sharing day-to-day activities and becoming friends – equals – rather than residents and staff.
After visiting an institution for people living with disabilities in 1963 France, Jean was deeply affected by the suffering of those who lived there. He left his job teaching at the University of Toronto and moved to France to live with the people he met, helping to revolutionise the care system in the western world.
The violence, he says, was hard at first, but over time it became a place of peace. Continue Reading
When I bought my first car, I was encouraged to do regular checks on key components of the car. Checking the water, oil and tyres is standard practice to maintaining a healthy functioning car.
Just as my car needs regular attention, so do other aspects of my life. I try and go to the doctor and the dentist at regular intervals, so that my physical and dental health is in good shape. In more recent months, I have been thinking about how I check my levels of empathy. Continue Reading
This month, Heather Dowling shares some online resources and ideas for Easter. Continue Reading
