Columns » St John’s Southgate
Christmas scents
What are your favourite Christmas memories?
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Friends in new places
It’s been almost two years since my wife and I moved from Adelaide to Southbank.
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Beautiful harmonies come through difficult struggles
Van Diemen’s Band is currently conducting a national concert tour that provides refreshed renditions of the classical music of the Baroque and Modern eras.
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How two planter pots tell the story of the scourge of smoking at Southgate
A human battle recently ensued outside of Southgate’s upper-level atrium as centre management sought to enforce its no-smoking expectation. There’s no argument from me.
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Missed: commemorating National Missing Persons Week
I can’t imagine the pain and penetrating confusion created by the disappearance of a family member or close friend. It is a pain all its own.
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The visible dangers all over our streets
As I walk around our Southbank neighbourhood caches of discarded large nitrous oxide gas bottles in our nature strips and laneways have piqued my interest.
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We are what we wear
Clothing not only covers and protects our bodies; as a merging between our internal and external worlds it also communicates our identities and the rich, continuing stories that form them.
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Our federal election is over
By the time this article is published Australia’s political landscape is changed, albeit by degrees. Who governs us? How will they govern? Will much change?
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Easter at St Johns Southgate
Easter celebrations in most Christian communities will soon begin. For many communities those celebrations include Palm Sunday (April 13), Maundy Thursday (April 17), Good Friday (April 18) and Easter Day (April 20).
Read MoreConnections
I feel strangely nostalgic for the Coronavirus years of 2020-21. While the disease threatened and terrified us, and some institutional responses were adverse, good things also happened.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a modern martyr
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a 20th century martyr.
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Christmas presence
A friend once told me that presence, or “turning up”, is the key to effective parenting. Presence is, in fact, the key to any good and thriving human relationship.
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Remembered
Following the death of his wife, C S Lewis wrote, “Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything” (page 8, Kindle: Tingle Books). While beautifully expressed, his words are achingly sad and familiar.
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My first column as the new pastor of St Johns Southgate
My name is James Winderlich and I serve as the new Pastor at St Johns Lutheran Church, Southgate. St Johns Pastors have enjoyed a long association with the Southbank News, and I am grateful for the opportunity to regularly contribute.
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Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Ukraine. Enough said. You know what I’m talking about. Even at extreme distance from the conflict, Melburnians have been horrified by recent events.
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The power of nostalgia
Over the new year I was excited to go and see part four of the Matrix franchise, The Matrix Resurrections.
Read MoreA humility shared
On November 28 this year, for the first time since March 2020, the congregation of St Johns Southgate knelt before the altar to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Read MoreMy name is Tom, and I am a long-suffering-no-longer Melbourne Demons supporter
As you would no doubt be aware, the Melbourne Football Club won its first premiership in 57 years back on September 25.
Read MoreWhat is freedom?
Almost 501 years ago, Martin Luther, famous figure of what we now know as the Protestant Reformation, wrote a treatise titled, On the Freedom of the Christian, which would go on to be one of his most influential writings
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Religion: It ain’t sexy. Or is it?
The pain of true beauty
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