Being a woman on the fringe of the Church
Without intending to be out at the edge, that is where I find myself.
To be called by name is to be known
How we name another, how we speak of them, St Benedict reminds us, is more a reflection of our own heart and our desire to build up or break down...
The question we each need to ask
“Are you an ecclesial person?” It’s a loaded question because it is a radical question. It will take us to places we may not wish to go, to answers we...
Remembering the young who died at Santa Cruz
The 25th anniversary of East Timor’s Santa Cruz massacre will be especially poignant for those families who still long for a body to bury, some physical link to a child,...
Caring for the one in five among us
In our wealthy and stable society, the most dispossessed and vulnerable today are the mentally ill, writes Margaret-Mary Flynn.
About death and dying
One of the biggest gifts we can give one another is to honour and validate someone’s expression of suffering, be it physical, spiritual, emotional or a combination, and not judge...
Paralympics strike different tone to Olympics
The unique challenges of competing in Rio, which so often became the headline during the Olympics, became a footnote in the Paralympics, writes Evan Ellis.
Am I included or not?
There is a link between exclusive sexist language and abusive behaviour towards women, writes Good Samaritan Sister Patty Fawkner.
Lost battles of the Christian churches
How do the Christian churches effectively counter such marketplace-driven ideas as assisted suicide, asks Garry Everett.
Diversity saves us from bland, monochrome world
“Thank God you’re here, I’m surrounded by NLUs!” A friend related the story of being greeted this way when she had joined a tourist group of Australians visiting another country,...
Do we need women deacons?
Why ordain women as deacons to stand forever on the first rung of the hierarchical clerical ladder, asks Good Samaritan Sister Mary McDonald.
It’s time to draw the line: justice in the Timor Sea
It is amazing that Australian tax-payers’ money is being used to fight a small neighbour over where the fence-line should be, says Josephite Sister Susan Connelly.