The story is told of a young soldier fighting for the Union during the American Civil War. It was 1864, and he had been away from his family for several years when news reached him that his father was gravely ill and unlikely to live much longer. “Please come home.” The soldier immediately sought compassionate leave, but his request was refused...

What exactly are we angry about? That is the excellent question asked by sports journalist Rana Hussain in response to the scandal that has engulfed the Sydney Swans. Five players have been suspended for the remainder of the season after a late-night gathering in a Melbourne hotel. A police investigation into an alleged sexual assault continues, but, at the time of writing, no player has been charged, and the club’s sanctions were imposed for breaches of its standards, independently of that investigation.

This Sunday we begin a new nine-week sermon series called The Seven: From Vice to Virtue. It has nothing to do with the Seven Wonders of the World, The Magnificent Seven, or even the rather less magnificent seven dwarfs. Instead, we will be exploring seven patterns of thought, desire and behaviour that Christian tradition has identified as particularly destructive: pride, envy, sloth, wrath, greed, gluttony and lust. In case you are already thinking, “This sounds like the perfect time to try another church for a couple of months,” let me try to dissuade you!

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…”