Pen and Ink Reflections
  • Blog
  • about
  • other reflections
  • contact
  • Sunday 27 June 2021

queering the mantle

6/26/2022

2 Comments

 
Picturephoto: by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash
The stories of the great biblical prophets are certainly extraordinary, not least those of Elijah and Elisha.  As Penny said last week, in some ways such biblical narratives are really top cartoon action stuff.  That is certainly true of our story from the Hebrew Scriptures today.  This contains powerful features which have had enduring value in faith communities, and elements which have been overlooked.  There has also always been a good deal of tidying up, and ignoring, of some aspects of the narratives.  For one thing we can assuredly say about the prophets is that they are not comfortable figures.  We see this too in the story of Jesus which we will come to later.  After all, as we have just sung, in John Bell’s words, Jesus is a ‘provocative preacher’, an ‘itinerant teacher‘, and an ‘outsider’s friend’.   Be clear about that if you want to follow Jesus – all things may be up for grabs and turned upside down.  To put it another way, your life and world may be profoundly queered...

the centrality of God

Let’s focus for the moment on Elijah and Elisha.   Much traditional interpretation of their shared story centres on well-rehearsed features of the passing on of ministry from Elijah to Elisha.  Two aspects are particularly prominent in dominant Christian reflection.  Firstly, as in other places in the wider Elijah-Elisha narratives, we are witness to the centrality of God, displayed in awesome, indeed supernatural power.  For Elijah is taken up into heaven spectacularly: in a chariot of fire, with horses of fire, and in a whirlwind.  In this, I suspect, there is a first great challenge to many of us in Pitt Street Uniting Church, prone as we can perhaps be to reducing the realm of the mystical, the miraculous and the magical.  Are we open to the possibilities of God beyond everyday experience and one dimensional naturalistic causal relationships?  In picking up Elijah’s mantle, Elisha also shares in divine miraculous powers, as he parts the waters, like Moses before him.  Like Elisha’s request for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, it is a striking reminder of how God, and not human power or ingenuity, is the ultimate mover and shaker of spiritual transformation.  The story thus challenges us to ask: what are we expecting of God?
 
spiritual succession

Secondly, traditional reflections develop the second central theme of spiritual succession within the story, symbolised in the passing of Elijah’s mantle to Elisha.  Depending on particular Christian faith traditions, much has therefore been said about such vital concerns as the sharing and passing on of ministry; about mentoring and discipleship; about the intimate relationship of spiritual guide and pupil; and about spiritual roles and offices, not least prophecy and priesthood.   Again, the story may thus prompt us, in this faith community, to ask questions.  How, for example, are we going in nurturing and sharing spiritual gifts, and how are spiritual roles and offices being passed on?

on not avoiding the violence of Elijah and Elisha

Significantly, much less has been said about the dark and violent aspects of the Elijah and Elisha narratives.  Elijah, in particular, is frequently exalted as a great biblical hero, without much qualification.  With Elisha, he is also sometimes offered as a model of ministry and mission, as if times and mores were unchanged.   Even such things as ordinations are occasionally seen in the framework of this Elijah-Elisha story.   Church traditions have indeed typically emphasised Elijah as a particularly mighty man of God: confronting unjust and murderous powers; offering mercy and restoring life to a non-Israelite widow and her son; being faithful to God despite great danger; and even having the ability to discern God’s voice in silence and stillness, not only in sound and power.  Elijah thus becomes Moses reborn, a model for John the Baptist and Jesus, and a great hope for justice, restoration, and, as in the African-American spirituals, release from slavery into freedom.  On all of these aspects we may rightly draw. Yet Elijah, and Elisha too in following him, is also a man of great violence. 
 
As Amy Merrill Willis has put it (in her online essay ‘The Politics of Elijah: Struggling with Elijah’s Legacy’),[1] Elijah may be a ‘hero of the covenant’, but:

If we are honest about our own (Faith) family history, we might concede that in the hands of the writers of 1-2 Kings, Elijah and Elisha sometimes act and speak as culture warriors.
 
Jewish rabbinic tradition has named some of the troubling features.  Christian reflection however has been typically silent.  Are we however simply to pass over events such as Elijah’s slaughtering of 450 prophets of Baal as heroic and justifiable?  This is just one element in Elijah and Elisha’s holy war against Canaanite culture.  Indeed, the fiery chariot carrying Elijah away to heaven can be read as a parting shot in the ideological Israelite war.  For in taking Elijah to heaven in that way, in the midst of a mighty whirlwind, the God of Elijah thus puts down Baal who was said by his followers to ride the cloud chariot, and bring the powerful winds, rains, and fiery lightning.  As Elijah’s successor, Elisha continued to represent this religious force which not only denigrated and diminished Canaanite culture, but inflicted further violence: including, as we learn from 2 Kings chapter 9, taking perverse enjoyment in seeing a woman pushed out of a window, trampled by horses and eaten by dogs. Not for nothing did the biblical writer record that woman’s name as Jezebel, with the word making a pun meaning ‘exalted of dung’ or ‘trash’: rather than her more likely Phoenician nomenclature ‘Jezebul’ or ‘Jezebaal’, meaning ‘exalted of Baal’. 

seeking greater honesty in queering the texts

The Elijah-Elisha narratives are therefore a mix of very ambiguous, including some quite disturbing elements.  If we are to appreciate them properly, we need to have honesty.  Just as we must not practice amnesia about our own personal, communal, and national contributions to violence and distress, so we must recognise the shadow sides to our faith traditions.  Unless we do so, we cannot fully receive the healing gifts of the Spirit, and we may ourselves be consumed by destructive fires of our own. 
 
In life-giving ways, applying queer eyes to scripture has been part of finding fresh hope and healing in scripture with greater honesty.  Rather than merely following traditional interpretations, and essentially just linking Elisha with Elijah in succession, the US scholar Rhiannon Graybill is, for example, one interpreter who offers us fresh insight.[2]  Moving beyond the well-rehearsed themes, she is among those who have brought contemporary critical and cultural theory into study of the biblical texts.  As in Rhiannon’s own work on issues such as rape, sexual violence, and masculinity, this allows a necessary wrestling with the violence in the biblical narratives.  It also enables fresh light to be shed on hidden aspects of figures such as Elisha.[3]
 
Rather than continuity with Elijah, Graybill has highlighted how Elisha is a quite different figure, especially when viewed through the interpretative lens of the body.  For conventional interpretations tend to assume that both the work of biblical prophecy and the bodies of those who carry them out are typically always similar.  Instead, whilst almost all the biblical prophets are male, the reality is that their masculinities are quite different, and, as prophets, as in the case of Elisha, they can indeed be quite queer.  I won’t tire us now with all the ins and outs, but note the radical difference between the powerful body of the very macho Elijah, and the seemingly weak and deficient body of Elisha. Perhaps the strongest expression is found in the later story where Elisha curses some boys in the name of Yahweh.  Two female bears then emerge from out of the woods and tear forty-two of the children to pieces.  Leaving this aside for a moment as another act of violence, the point is that the provocation was the boys’ mockery of Elisha as a bald man.  For, as we see elsewhere in the Bible, whilst baldness is a property of many men, hairiness is typically to be more valued. 

seeing the mantle afresh

This brings us back to the mantle of Elijah, who was said to be a very hairy man.   In putting on Elijah’s mantle, although he was bald and in other ways a comparably ‘deficient’ man, Elisha was assuming Elijah’s power and position.   Still more, he was literally wrapping himself in the very touch and traces of Elijah’s own body, including perhaps some of his hair.  Now, in Christian tradition, touch has certainly been an important feature of the communication of ministry down the ages: think, for example, of laying on of hands and anointing with oil at ordinations.  Yet this has been somewhat sanitised from the Elijah-Elisha sharing of call, which appears as so much more physical, and even tinged with the erotic.
 
In Elisha, we also see how queer God’s Spirit is in prophetic action.  For whilst Elijah’s powerful body and miraculous actions are one model for divine life, in Elisha we have another.  God it seems, does indeed move in various, as well as mysterious, ways.  Whereas Elijah waves his powerful staff and things just happen, the more impotent Elisha constantly needs assistance.  Even when he inflicts violence, he does not do so directly but through the agency of others, even female animals.  Moreover, Elisha’s healings are not, like Elijah’s, worked from a patriarchal distance.  As with his healing of the Shunnamite’s son, they not only involve touch, but typically intimate, close touch: the kind of touch that is resonant with mothers and other women, or men who do not fit the masculine stereotype.  
 
Seeing with queer eyes thus opens up fresh vistas on the biblical texts.  In the case of today’s story, looking again, we can see that Elisha’s body, offers new ways of thinking about gender (especially masculinity), about embodiment, prophecy and vocation.   We see how God can use all kinds of bodies, how bodies and touch are intimately involved, and how ambiguity is tied up in the work of God’s prophets, in their bodies and in their actions. 
 
In this light, Elisha is perhaps nearer to us than we might immediately think.  He is so very human as a divine follower: in his intermittent weakness and power, in his violence and his healing, and in his overwhelming desire to be like Elijah yet with his real gifts coming when he is most himself.  There is spiritual strength and there is also shadow, like the biblical books of Kings as a whole and their response to God and their treatment of Caananite culture.  Elisha may not be a perfect model for us, but he helps queer any straightforward idea of calling and taking up Elijah’s mantle.

the even queerer mantle of Jesus

The real queering of the mantle comes however with Jesus.  Let me therefore conclude by touching briefly on our Gospel text today (Luke 9.51-62).  Note well key features in comparison to the Elijah-Elisha narrative.  It opens in Samaria, where Elijah and Elisha had struggled against the kings of Israel.  Knowing their stories, the disciples therefore assume that when some reject his message, Jesus will act like Elijah and call down fire from heaven.  Jesus is absolutely clear: this is not the way of God in Christ.  Nor do female bears rip apart children.  No one could deny that he was a prophet, but, so much beyond even the ambiguities of Elisha, Jesus shows us a very different kind of masculinity, and even more embodied forms of healing and hope.  Like Elijah with Elisha, Jesus also has those around him who would follow in his place, share his own spirit, and take up his mantle.  Unlike the story of Elijah and Elisha however, the mantle of Jesus is also very different.  It will also be stained in blood, but not the blood of others. Following is not an act of repetition, but involves stepping into the unknown.  True strength for Jesus is not in supernatural acts of power, nor even in a mantle, however queer, but in his Body, freely given, suffering and resurrected. 
May those who have ears hear. Amen.


by Josephine Inkpin, for Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sunday 26 June 2022

[1] https://politicaltheology.com/the-politics-of-elijah-struggling-with-elijahs-legacy-2kings-2-1-2-6-14/#_ftn2

[2] See for example her book Are We Not Men? Unstable Masculinity in the Hebrew Prophets (Oxford, 2016).     

[3] Graybill. R ‘Elisha’s Body and the Queer Touch of Prophecy’ in Biblical Theology Bulletin (2019) vol.49. no.1 pp.32-40 at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/btba
2 Comments
Jeremy Chavez link
10/10/2022 11:49:59 am

Figure good work case challenge full. Image easy report. Soldier data amount suggest computer meeting design though.

Reply
Jeremy Zuniga link
10/24/2022 09:06:03 am

Whole room though edge. Join little enjoy institution citizen order.
Close we read office nation civil wall. Face bag memory risk her politics. Education imagine former anyone film sign trip.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    sermons and reflections from Penny Jones & Josephine Inkpin, a married Anglican clergy couple serving with the Uniting Church in Sydney

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    2 Peter
    Abide
    ABM
    Aboriginal
    Abraham
    Abuse
    Active
    Acts Of The Apostles
    Adam And Eve
    Advent
    Advocacy
    Aelred
    African American
    African-American
    Aidan
    Alan Webster
    Albanian
    Albert Wendt
    Alice In Wonderland
    Alla Renee Bozarth
    Allegory
    All Saints
    American Pie
    Andrew
    Angel
    Angels
    Anger
    Anglican
    Anglican Method
    Animals
    Anna
    Annunciation
    Anoiniting
    Anselm
    Anthony Bloom
    Antioch
    ANZAC
    Apology
    Apophatic
    Archbishop Of Canterbury
    Armenian
    ARRCC
    Art
    Artist
    Ash Wednesday
    Asylum Seekers
    Atonement
    Attraversiamo
    Augustine
    Aunty Rosalie Kunoth-Monks
    Australia
    Authenticity
    Awaken
    Baby
    Baha'i
    Bakerwoman
    Baptism
    Barabbas
    Barefoot
    Barnabas
    Barnard Castle
    Barth
    Bartimaeus
    Basis Of Union
    Battle Of One Tree Hill
    Beach
    Beatitudes
    Becoming
    Bede
    Being
    Believing
    Belonging
    Beloved
    Benjamin Oh
    Berlin
    Bethleham
    Betrayal
    Bible
    Bill Bryson
    Binary
    Birmingham
    Birth
    Bishop
    B.J.Hipsher
    Black
    Blessed
    Blessing
    Blessing Of Animals
    Blessing Of The Waters
    Blood
    Boat
    Bob Dylan
    Body
    Bones
    Bonhoeffer
    Border
    Born Again
    Boudicca
    Boundaries
    Breach
    Bread
    Bread Of Life
    Breath
    Brexit
    Brian McLaren
    Bride
    Bridegroom
    Bridge
    Brigid
    Brisbane
    British
    Brixton
    Brokenness
    Bruegemann
    Buber
    Buddha
    Buddhist
    Buderim
    Bunyan
    Call
    Calvin
    Cambodia
    Campfire
    Cana
    Canaanite
    Candle
    Candlemas
    Cappadocian Fathers
    Care
    Careers
    Carefully
    Carnival
    Carol
    Carter Heyward
    Catholic
    Celtic
    Centurion
    Challenge
    Change
    Charismatic
    Charles Wesley
    Cheesemakers
    Chelsea Watego
    Chick
    Child Of God
    Children
    China
    Christ
    Christian
    Christian Aid
    Christianity
    Christmas
    Christology
    Christ The King
    Church
    Circumcision
    City
    Climate
    Climate Change
    Climbing
    Cloak
    Cloud Of Unknowing
    Coin
    Colonialism
    Colossians
    Commandment
    Common Good
    Communion
    Community
    Companion
    Compassion
    Condamine
    Confession
    Conflict
    Congregationalist
    Connect
    Contemplate
    Contemplative
    Contemporary
    Context
    Conversion
    Corinth
    Coronavirus
    Cosmology
    Cost
    Courage
    Covenant
    Covid 19
    Covid-19
    Crack
    Cranmer
    Create
    Creation
    Creed
    Creek
    Crib
    Cricket
    Criminal
    Cromwell
    Cross
    Crossan
    Crossing Over
    Crucifixion
    Csg
    C.S.Lewis
    Cuddesdon
    Culture
    Cunnamulla
    Cuthbert
    Cynthia Bourgeault
    Cyprian
    Dalai Lama
    Dance
    Darkness
    Darlughdach
    Dave-andrews
    David
    David And Elizabeth Inkpin
    David Jenkins
    David-mach
    David Steindl Rast
    David Steindl-Rast
    Day Of Mourning
    Deacon
    Dean Inge
    Death
    Delight
    Demon
    Denise Levertov
    Desert
    Desire
    Deuteronomy
    Devil
    Diarmaid McCulloch
    Difference
    Disability
    Disciple
    Discipleship
    Dispossession
    Diversity
    Docetism
    Don Cupitt
    Donkey
    Dorcas
    Dorothy McRae-McMahon
    Dorothy Soelle
    Doubt
    Dragonflies
    Dragonfly
    Dream
    Duncan Andrews
    Duns Scotus
    Durham
    Durkheim
    Earth
    Easter
    Easterfest
    Eating
    Ecology
    Ecopella
    Ecstasy
    Ecumenical
    Eden
    Education
    Egg
    Ego
    Egypt
    Elder
    Elijah
    Elisha
    Elizabeth
    Emerging
    Emmanuel
    Empire
    Empowerment
    End Times
    Environment
    Ephesians
    Epiphany
    Equality
    Eternal
    Ethics
    Ethiopian
    Etty Hillesum
    Eucharist
    Eugene Stockton
    Eunuch
    Evangelical
    Evangelism
    Evelyn Underhill
    Evil
    Exile
    Exodus
    Exorcism
    Express
    Eyes
    Ezekiel
    Failure
    Fair Trade
    Faith
    Fame
    Family
    Fast
    Father
    Fathers Day
    Fear
    Fellowship
    Feminist
    Fig Tree
    Fire
    First Nations
    Fish
    Fishers
    Flesh
    Flora And Fauna
    Flourish
    Follow
    Foolish
    Footwashing
    Forgiveness
    Fountain
    Fox
    Francis
    Franciscans
    Frederick Barker
    Freedom
    French
    Friend
    Friends
    Friendship
    Fruit
    Fruits
    Fukuyama
    Fulfilment
    Fundamentalism
    Fundamentalist
    Funeral
    Funk
    Gadigal
    Galgala
    Galilee
    Galileo
    Game
    Garden
    Garry Deverell
    Gary Deverell
    Gate
    Gateshead
    Gay
    Gaze
    Gazelle
    Gender
    Gender Variant
    Genealogy
    Generosity
    Genesis
    Gentile
    Gentleness
    George Fox
    Gerard Manley Hopkins
    Gerasene
    Ghost
    Gift
    Gil Bailie
    Glennie
    Glenn Loughrey
    Glory
    Gnosticism
    God
    Golden Rule
    Gondwana Theology
    Good Friday
    Goodness
    Good News
    Good Shepherd
    Gospel
    Grace
    Graeme Rutherford
    Graham Warren
    Grandchamp
    Grandchild
    Gratefulness
    Great Commission
    Greenham Common
    Greenness
    Gregory-of-nyssa
    Grief
    Growth
    Gungor
    Habel
    Haggai
    Happiness
    Harry Potter
    Harvest
    Headlam
    Healing
    Heart
    Heaven
    Hebrew
    Hebrews
    Hedgerows
    Helder Camara
    Hen
    Henri Nouwen
    Henry Scott Holland
    Henry Vaughan
    He Qi
    Heresy
    Herod
    Hesitation
    Hijra
    Hildegard
    History
    Holding
    Holiness
    Holy Saturday
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Trinity
    Holy Week
    Home
    Homophobia
    Honour
    Hope
    Hosea
    Hospitality
    House
    Humanity
    Humility
    I Am
    Icon
    I Corinthians
    IDAHOT
    Identity
    Ilia Delio
    Image
    Imagine
    Immanence
    Imperialism
    Incarnation
    India
    Indigenous
    Indooroopilly
    Inn
    Inspiration
    Interbeing
    Interfaith
    International Women's Day
    Interplay
    Intimacy
    Invitation
    Iona
    Isaiah
    Islam
    Israel
    I-Thou
    Jack Haas
    Jack-in-a-box
    Jacob
    Jairus
    James
    Jamie Dunk
    Jan Berry
    Janet Morley
    Jan Richardson
    Jar
    Jarel Robinson-Brown
    Jarowair And Giabal
    Jarrow
    Jeremiah
    Jerusalem
    Jester
    Jesus
    Jesus Christ
    Jewish
    Jews
    Jezebel
    Jihad
    Joan Chittister
    Joel
    John
    John Arlott
    John Bell
    John Coleman
    John Naish
    John O'Donohue
    John The Baptist
    John Wesley
    Josef Zacek
    Joseph
    Josephine Butler
    Journey
    Joy
    Judaism
    Judas
    Judgement
    Jujitsu
    Julian
    Julian Of Norwich
    Jurgen Moltmann
    Justice
    Jyllie Jackson
    Kaleidoscope
    Kataphatic
    Katherine Appleby
    Keble
    Kenosis
    KIerkegaard
    Kindness
    King
    Kingdom
    Kosuke Koyama
    Labyrinth
    Lamentations
    Land
    Language
    Lantern
    L'Arche
    Laughter
    Law
    Lazarus
    Lead
    Leadership
    Leap
    Learning
    Leaves
    Legion
    Lent
    Leonard Cohen
    Leper
    Lesbian
    Les Murray
    Levertov
    Levite
    Lewis Carroll
    LGBTI
    LGBTIQ
    Liberation
    Liberty
    Life
    Light
    Liminality
    Lincolnshire
    Lindisfarne
    Lion
    Lionel Blue
    Lismore
    Literalist
    Liturgy
    Living Dance
    Living Stones
    London
    Longing
    Lord
    Lord's Prayer
    Love
    Love Of God
    Love Your Enemies
    Luke
    Luther
    Macrina
    Macrina Wiederkehr
    Mad
    Magi
    Magnificat
    Mahatma Gandhi
    Makaratta
    Malcolm Guite
    Manchester
    Manger
    Mantle
    Maori
    Maranatha
    Maranoa
    Marcella Althaus Reid
    Marcella Althaus-Reid
    Mardi Gras
    Margaret Silf
    Marginalised
    Marianne Williamson
    Mark
    Mark Copland
    Market Rasen
    Mark Jordan
    Marriage
    Martha
    Martin Luther
    Martin Luther King
    Martyr
    Mary
    Mary Magdalene
    Mary Of Bethany
    Mary Oliver
    Mary Poppins
    Mary Sumner
    Masculinity
    Materiality
    Matthew
    Maundy Thursday
    Maya
    MCC
    Meaning
    Meditation
    Meewah
    Meister Eckhart
    Melbourne
    Melchizedek
    Memory
    Men
    Mercy
    Messiah
    Metanoia
    Methodist
    Michael Leunig
    Midnight Oil
    Midwife
    Migrant
    Milton
    Mind
    Ministry
    Minster
    Miracle
    Mirror
    Mission
    Moltmann
    Monastery
    Monk
    Morality
    Moses
    Mother
    Mother Hen
    Mothering
    Mother-in-law
    Mothers Union
    Mountain
    Multicultural
    Multifaith
    Multuggerah
    Music
    Muslim
    Mustard Seed
    Myall Creek
    Myrrh
    Myrrh Bearers
    Mystery
    Mystic
    Myth
    NAIDOC
    Nakedpastor
    Name
    Natalie Adams
    Nathaniel
    Nathan Tyson
    Nativity
    Nazareth
    Neighbour
    Nelson-mandela
    Net
    New Age
    New Creation
    New Life
    Newman
    New Year
    New Zealand
    Nicodemus
    Night
    Nikita Gill
    Noel Preston
    Nonjudgement
    Nonviolence
    Norman
    Nungalinya
    Obedience
    Ocean
    Offering
    Oil
    Oppression
    Ordination
    Orthodox
    Oscar Romero
    Other
    Otter
    Overcoming Violence
    Oxford
    Pacific
    Pain
    Palestine
    Palm Sunday
    Pamela Lightsey
    Parable
    Parent
    Parish
    Participation
    Party
    Passion
    Pastor
    Patience
    Patriarchy
    Patrick
    Patrick Oliver
    Paul
    Peace
    Peacemaker
    Penitence
    Penny Jones
    Pentatonix
    Pentecost
    Pentecostal
    People Of God
    Perfume
    Persecution
    Perseverance
    Persistence
    Peter
    Peter Millar
    Pharaoh
    Pharisee
    Pharisees
    Philip
    Philippians
    Pig
    Pilate
    Pilgrim
    Pilgrimage
    Pitt Street Uniting Church
    Plague
    Plato
    Poetry
    Political
    Politics
    Poor
    Pope
    Pope Francis
    Possibility
    Poverty
    Power
    Praise
    Prayer
    Preacher
    Pregnancy
    Presbyterian
    Presence
    President
    Pride
    Priest
    Prince Of Peace
    Proclamation
    Progressive
    Prophecy
    Prophet
    Prophet Mohammed
    Protecttion
    Protestant
    Providence
    Psalm
    Puppet
    Purification
    Purity
    Quaker
    Queer
    Rabbi
    Race
    Rachael Mann
    Rachel Collis
    Racism
    Rage
    Raiinbow
    Rainbow
    Ramadan
    Reason
    Recapitulation
    Reconciliation
    Redemption
    Reformation
    Reformed
    Refugee
    Rejection
    Rejoice
    Relationship
    Religion
    Religious Experience
    Religious Freedom
    Remembrance
    Repentance
    Republic
    Resilience
    Resistance
    Resource
    Rest
    Resurrection
    Revelation
    Revolution
    Richard Rohr
    Rich Young Man
    Righteousness
    Risk
    Rita Mae Brown
    River
    Rock
    Roman
    Romans
    Rose
    Roses
    Rowan Williams
    R.S Thomas
    R.S.Thomas
    Rumi
    Russia
    Ruth
    Sabbath
    Sacrament
    Sacrifice
    Sadducees
    Safe Church
    Safety
    Saints
    Salt
    Salvation
    Samaritan
    Samuel
    Sanctus
    Sanguin
    Santa Claus
    Sarah
    Sarah Bachelard
    SBS
    Schism
    Schleiermacher
    Scholasticism
    School Of Hard Knocks
    Science
    Scotland
    Scott Stevens
    Scripture
    Sea
    Season Of Creation
    Second Coming
    Security
    See
    Seed
    Sermon The Mount
    Service
    Seth Godin
    Sex
    Sexuality
    Shadow
    Shakespeare
    Shalom
    Shame
    Shannon Kearns
    Sheep
    Sheep And Goats
    Shepherd
    Shepherds
    Shirley Erena Murray
    Sibyls
    Silence
    Simeon
    Sin
    Sinner
    Slavery
    Socrates
    Soil
    Solidarity
    Song
    Son Of Man
    Soul
    Sovereignty
    Sower
    Spirit
    Spiritual
    Spirituality
    Spong
    Sport
    Stan Grant
    Statement From The Heart
    Stendahl-Rast
    Stephanie Dowrick
    Stewardship
    St Francis College
    Stillness
    St John's Cathedral
    St Luke's
    St Mary's In Exile
    Storm
    Story
    Studdert Kennedy
    Subversion
    Success
    Suffering
    Suffering Servant
    Sunflower
    Sydney
    Symbol
    Synagogue
    Syrophoenician
    Tabitha
    Table-fellowship
    Taize
    Talents
    Tall-poppy
    Tears
    Teenager
    Temple
    Temptation
    Tennyson
    Test
    Thanksgiving
    The-glennie-school
    Theodicy
    Theology
    Theosis
    Theotokos
    The Way
    Thomas
    Thomas-berry
    Thomas-merton
    Threshold
    Thunderbirds
    Tillich
    Time
    Tomb
    Tongues
    Toowoomba
    Torres
    Torres Strait
    Tractarian
    Tradition
    Transcendence
    Transfiguration
    Transformation
    Transgender
    Transition
    Treasure
    Treaty
    Tree
    Trinity
    Trump
    Trust
    Truth
    T.S.Eliot
    Tufty
    Tutu
    Tweed
    Tyne
    UAICC
    Ukraine
    Uluru
    UN
    Uniting Church
    Unity
    Universe
    Usury
    Valwyn Wishart
    Vanstone
    Veridiitas
    Victory
    Vincent-van-gogh
    Vine
    Violence
    Virgin-mary
    Virgins
    Vision
    Visitation
    Vivid
    Voice
    Waiters-union
    Waiting
    Wales
    Walking
    Walter Wink
    War
    Warrego
    Warsaw
    Watch
    Water
    Wear
    Wedding
    Weeds
    Welcome
    Wellspring
    Wesleyan-quadrilateral
    Westminster Confession
    White
    Whiteness
    White Ribbon
    Widow
    Wilderness
    Willliam-blake
    Wind
    Wine
    Winston-halapua
    Wisdom
    Woe
    Wolf
    Woman
    Woman At The Well
    Woman Bent Over
    Womb
    Women
    Wonder
    Wontulpbibuya
    Word
    Word-of-god
    World-council-of-churches
    World Pride
    World-youth-day
    Worship
    Wounds
    Woy-woy
    Wrestling
    Xenophobia
    Yabun
    Yahweh
    Yoga
    Yoke
    Zacchaeus
    Zebedee
    Zechariah
    Zogron
    Zwingli

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly