A church in the wolrd

17 May, 2010

Deleivered by Rev Dr John Evans
On Sunday 16 May, 2010

Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
John 17:20-26

If you have not noticed, Britain has a new Prime Minister. It has taken a while, however, out of a strange marriage of convenience, the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron is now the leader of that country. In one of the numerous reflections on all of these recent events I was taken by a blog on the ABC website: UK Election: Why politicians need theologians. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/06/2892388.htm?site=thedrum) I was aware Gordon Brown, the former PM was a son of the manse – his father being a Church of Scotland, Presbyterian, minister. This article was however, about the Tory leader, now PM, David Cameron.

Cameron actually is a good Catholic. One of his chief advisors helping to formulate his policy has been one Phillip Blond. Blond had in fact been lecturer in …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

A church of “all Nations”

9 May, 2010

Delivered by Rev Dr John Evans
on Sunday 9 May, 2010

Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
John 14:23-29

In the afterglow of our 150th Anniversary this morning I propose to consider again what it means to be a Church of All Nations. Certainly our readings today prompt such a consideration of this description.

So briefly, our reading from Acts is the story of the conversion by Paul of Lydia and her household. Lydia, coming from Macedonia, is famously regarded as the first  European convert to the Christina faith. Meanwhile the reading from Revelation continues with these seemingly far fetched visions of John, the seer. This time we have more detail and information about this new Jerusalem; the new City of God, as it descends out of the heavens. A clear feature of the New Jerusalem is that all the nations are a part of this new way of life:

“The nations will walk by its light (ie by the light of God), and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.” (21:24)

And finally within Psalm 67, a psalm of blessing, indeed the psalm …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

All Things New

3 May, 2010

delivered on 2 May 2010
by Rev. Dr John Evans

Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35

The world, it would seem is obsessed with newness.

We are all familiar with the marketing ploy that something is new.  If it is soap powder it usually is “new, improved Sudso”.  One certainly would not be seen dead with “the same old, same old”.  Things have to be new; different from last season.  It will not be long before we will have “The New Storm” rugby league club in town. It needs a new name to mark that break from its troubled past – we call an organisation, even a political party new. Tony Blair in England went so far as to re-brand the British Labour Party as New Labour.

Newness is extolled . . . and it would seem religious faith sees newness as one of its major underlying themes. Certainly this is true of the Christian faith – where transformation; transformation from being – well, in sin, out of relationship to God, to some different sort of …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Anzac Day and the Good Shepherd

26 April, 2010
A 15th-century portrait of Thomas Aquinas by Gozzoli

Gozzoli's 15th-century portrait of Italian theologian Thomas Aquinas, proponent of just war theory

delivered 25 April 2010
by Rev. Dr John Evans

Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30

ANZAC Day is problematic for the preacher – especially when our regular Sunday worship falls on the actual day. All sorts of temptations arise. One is perhaps tempted to collapse the two events – our regular Sunday worship into being an ANZAC commemoration. Perhaps as our honour rolls say – For God King and Country. Our faith comes to undergird past and present military engagement – and so one is to fight for God on behalf of God. On the other hand one could use this day …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

150th Church Anniversary

22 April, 2010
Palmerston St Methodist Church: original 1861 church on left -- now gone -- the 1870 bluestone church on the right

Palmerston St Methodist Church: original 1861 church on left (now gone), the 1870 bluestone church on the right

Sermon delivered on 11 April 2010
by Rev. Alistair Macrae, President of the Uniting Church in Australia

Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31

On occasions like this we are aware of the communion of saints … and that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Many stories have already been told in the lead-up to this day of people who have been part of this extraordinary congregation these past 150 years. I remember doing lessons as a primary school student in rural Victoria learning about this Church in far off Melbourne where they did translations into different languages to accommodate the different migrant groups.

The presence of a worshipping community here all this time, the creation …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Overcoming Hatred and Violence

18 April, 2010

Delivered 18 April, 2010
by Rev Dr John Evans

Acts 9:1-6, (7-20) •
Psalm 30 •
Revelation 5:11-14 •
John 21:1-19

There are some media images which are just seared into our mind. Mine come form the Vietnam war, or as the Vietnamese say, the American war. I think you know the ones: the young girl, naked and screaming in pain fleeing a napalm attack. The other was the summary execution in a street of Saigon of a Vietcong, by the Saigon Police chief. There are others we now can add to: a plane flying into one of the twin towers in New York, a lone protester standing in front of a tank in Tiamen Square Beijing. . . . or perhaps just the standard fare of any nightly news bulletin of violence and destruction on a grand scale, or on a local scale of a bashing, a stabbing or glassing.

…

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By john | Posted in sermons |

History of the Palmerston St church

12 April, 2010
The original 1861 church side-by-side with Jospeh Reed's extant bluestone church to the right

Palmerston Street in the 1920s: The original 1861 church side-by-side with Joseph Reed's extant 1870 bluestone church to the right

Designed by Melbourne’s great architect Joseph Reed in a distinctive Romanesque style, our church in Palmerston St is almost as old as the congregation itself, now celebrating its sesquicentenary.

David Johnson has prepared a carefully researched and illustrated chronicle of the history of the church buildings on this site.  This material is not included in our new book The Need is the Call: 150 Years of Service in Carlton.

Please click on ‘History‘ in the left-hand menu to find his series of 4 brochures available in pdf for easy download and printing:

  1. The Origins
  2. A time-line of changes
  3. Colonial architect Joseph Reed
  4. Changes and furnishing along the way
By olivia | Posted in parish news |

The Turning Point

4 April, 2010

Delivered Easter Day, 2010
by Rev Dr John Evans

Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-18

Easter is about new life; resurrection; new beginnings, hope!

Have you heard about the Fremantle Dockers? That little known AFL football club. My football club. A good source of my sermon illustrations about humility and hopelessness. You may remember a recent illustration about applying the mercy rule as in baseball to football. Anyhow. Last year they were second last. They promised so little and delivered even less. They bravely fought off Richmond for the wooden spoon. This year, after one gruelling round of the competition, they are second! What a turn around. Can you believe it, second. Top four. True it is only on percentages. And true it is only round one. Second. I can only dream.

So if you can forgive my madness, the thing is – it all depends when you view something for you to get an appropriate perspective, at least …

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By john | Posted in sermons |

Join us at Easter & on 11 April

29 March, 2010

Church of All Nations’ anniversary dinner on Saturday night was a splendid occasion, its centrepiece being the book launch, by former minister John Rickard, of our ‘collective memoir’, The Need is the Call: 150 years of service in Carlton.  Contact the church for your own copy of the book for $20 (add $5 for postage).

You are warmly invited to attend our Holy Week services:

Wed 31 March, 7:45am

Thur 1 April, 7pm — incl. a shared meal

Fri 2 April, 10am — followed by hot cross buns

Sun 4 April, 10am

And, moreover, our 150th anniversary service at 10am on Sunday 11 April.

Rev. Alistair Macrae

Rev. Alistair Macrae

We are honoured to welcome as guest preacher the Rev. Alistair Macrae, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, for this special occasion.  He will also unveil an engraved stone commemorating the anniversary.

Please stay for lunch after the service (free of charge), followed by a choice of local history walks.  Don’t miss our superb display of historical documents and artefacts from the rich history of the 10 churches in Carlton and North Carlton that are today represented in the Uniting Church in Palmerston Street.

By olivia | Posted in parish events |

The Prince of Peace

28 March, 2010

Delivered by Rev Dr John Evans
on Sunday 28 March, 2010

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Luke 19:28-40

As long as I can remember Palm Sunday has been a day of peace activism by Christians. Indeed it has been a day of peace activism, generally. When I lived in Canberra in the 1980’s, there were huge rallies and marches on Palm Sunday calling for nuclear disarmament. Indeed do you remember the Nuclear Disarmament Party – formed in 1984, at the time of an arms race, especially with regard to the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons. The US and Ronald Reagan and the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union pushed us to the brink. Peace appropriately has been a feature of Palm Sunday; and peace has always had a political edge in these Palm Sunday events: whether it has been nuclear disarmament, or Iraq wars 1 and 2 or Afghanistan.

The original Palm Sunday also had a profound political edge. So my spoiler alert: this is a political sermon!

The …

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By john | Posted in sermons |