Norm will be with us for a full day seminar on Saturday 4 September and will be our guest preacher at 9.00am on Sunday 5 September.

For full details of the seminar download a copy of the seminar brochure.

Norm Habel is an old testament scholar with a passion for the environment. He has written numerous books, the most recent of which is An Inconvenient Text. Norm has also been instrumental in progressing the celebration of A Season of Creation in churches around the world.

This week we begin our Lenten study groups. There are three groups meeting each week to reflect on the Gospel passages for the Sundays during Lent. The groups are meeting on Tuesdays at 10.00am and 7.30pm and on Wednesdays at 7.30pm. All groups are meeting in the Harbour Room at Christ Church Cathedral.

You are most welcome to join us or you can join in the discussion on our Facebook page (go to the discussions tab – you need to have a Facebook account to participate… very easy to set up if you don’t already have one)

To see what else is happening at the Cathedral check out our online calender here

With music provided by the Darwin City Brass Band, we hope people will come and see what it is we do here on Sunday mornings and why we think we have something worth sharing.

As part of the service the Dean will offer an apology to those who may have been hurt by the church in the past, either at the Cathedral or in other places.

We hope many people will accept our invitation to “come as you are” on Back to Church Sunday.

Who have you invited back to church?

Click here to see what else is happening at the Cathedral this month.

there had been too much rain
and the roof
long cracked after years of stress
gave way from water seeping in.

Others said
what fell from the heavens
had nothing to do with it,
that the church walls
had pushed out toward the street
so that the massive stained glass window of the Almighty Father
had fallen in and left a hole,
a silhouette of the icon
that used to command the whole church
from high above the nave.

Services now
were held under the God-shaped hole:
prayers said
hymns sung
infants baptised
sermons preached
offerings made
communion celebrated
couples wed
the dead remembered.

Meanwhile reconstruction began,
but it turned out harder than planned.
Some folks had taken home
bits of the original window
as a piece of devotional or historical curiosity,
and when it was discovered
there was not enough left to restore
the original ancient grandeur,
debates erupted if they should even try
to recreate what was lost.

Some said
they should begin and finish the project
as quickly as possible
because people were not coming as they used to
since the window had collapsed.
Others pointed out
new people were entering the church
curious about the place
in a way they never were before.
And these newcomers joined
with those who had always been scared
by the window’s fierce eyes
to suggest they replace the old image
with a new one.

The differences about what to do
broke into conflict
so that for now the construction
was nearly halted,
though some workers
tried to assemble the roof in bits and pieces.

But without an overall plan
nothing would stay put.
Even the stars from another section
that surrounded the hole
began to fall from the ceiling
so that another group of folk arose
suggesting they take down the entire
edifice and start all over anew -

except that the most devout
could not bear to lose
this or that pulpit
or rail where they had prayed so long
and the carpet worn so thin
by the knees of many generations.

So for the time being
all that was done
was to rope off the area beneath
the God-shaped hole
to make sure no one was hit by a piece of falling glass
that would fall from time to time
from a cracked angel or star,
and to pray
that people would keep coming
while the church continued to be,
as the sign alerting those who entered said:

Under Reconstruction. (from Thomas Troeger “Preaching while the church is under reconstruction” Edited)

The challenge of a “good” shepherd is the same presented by a “good” samaritan – all our prejudices are confronted by the Christ who says”everyone is your neighbour – and especially those you hate” (like shepherds and samaritans for Jesus’ first hearers). The scandal is lost on us who have only romantic notions of shepherds. Perhaps we get a better feel for Jesus’ intent if as Nigel Taber-Hamilton suggests, in his article in The Witness, we hear Jesus say “I am the good Muslim”, “I am the good homeless person”…

Tuesday, 7.30pm in the Harbour Room

Join us for our final session before Easter as we look at the “Resurrection as Resistance” with John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg using material from the Living the Questions series.

Stations of the Cross – exhibition opening

Friday, 7.00pm at Framed: the Darwin Gallery

The Dean, the Very Revd Jeremy Greaves will open this exhibition that draws together artists from accross Australia to interpret the Sations of the Cross. The exhibition will run until April 27th.

Friday Films for Lent – “God on Trial”

Friday, 8.00pm inthe Harbour Room

The last in our series of Films for Lent is a challenging look at the problem of evil from the prespective of Jewish POWs in a concentration camp as they wrestle with God’s role in their situation.