I recently saw Christopher Nolan’s new film The Odyssey. I greatly enjoyed it and would warmly recommend it—although, at almost three hours, you may want to choose your cinema seat carefully! The film has been both a critical and commercial success. Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope and Tom Holland as their son Telemachus, it has already earned more than $1.1 billion worldwide, becoming Nolan’s highest-grossing film.

Last Sunday was an encouraging beginning to our guest series, The Beauty and the Sense of Christianity. We welcomed guests at each of our four services, and I am thankful to God for every person who came. But the number who attended is not the only measure of encouragement. Just as important were the many invitations that were made. Some were accepted; probably many more were politely declined. Every invitation required prayer, courage and love, and every one was an expression of our desire that others might meet Jesus.

Last Sunday, in our final sermon in the Worth Sharing series, I encouraged us to pray for others, love them, tell our story and invite them to come and see Jesus for themselves. I have been greatly encouraged by the stories our staff team have heard of people doing just that. Invitations have been offered to friends, neighbours, colleagues and family members. Some have been accepted; others have not—at least, not yet. But every gracious invitation is an act of love and a step of faith. Thank you for taking those steps.

As we reach the halfway point of 2026, it is a good opportunity to pause, look back, and thank God for his kindness to us. At the beginning of the year, I spoke of our desire to see St Andrew’s grow—not for the sake of appearances or institutional success, but because every number represents a person whom God has made and loves. We want to grow disciples of Jesus Christ through Belonging, Maturity and Outreach.

I recently watched the 2014 film Lucy...What interested me most was the film’s underlying question: what does it mean to be human, and what is our purpose?

Let me begin with a story. Albert McMakin was a young farmer in North Carolina. In 1934, when he was 24 years old, Albert became a Christian at a series of church meetings in a nearby town. He was so excited by what he had discovered that he filled his truck with friends and drove them to the next meeting so that they could hear about Jesus too...

Over the past twelve weeks, while we have been reading and preaching through Isaiah, I have also been reading Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens begins his novel with some of the most famous words in English literature: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

It is football World Cup time. It is also State of Origin time. Together, these two great sporting contests confront me with a surprisingly difficult question: who am I supposed to support?

Over the long weekend I read Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library. Published in 2020, it became a worldwide bestseller and has sold more than ten million copies. Its heroine, Nora Seed, reaches a point where she no longer wants to live. Instead of dying, she enters a mysterious library in which every book contains a different life she might have lived had she made other choices...

Last Wednesday was a special day for me. From beginning to end, its themes were prayer and community.