Martin Scorsese has accurately and piercingly replicated the dire fatalism of isolationist Japan – a world where a lukewarm Christian cannot exist. But Silence is also an analogy for Grace – the undeserved love of God for the weak.

For the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi: The precious animals of Earth we share, / All created intricately and with care,

For the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi: Hummingbirds / Hovering effortlessly / Buzz sweetly

Like domesticated silkworms, faith communities that fly under the radar feel that, in order to survive, they need to break out of that system – or at least work their way around that system. What can we learn from the genius of nature about being gently and respectfully innovative?

What wounds and sins are bleeding, / Unhealed and burning / In our own national history?

Working through the Lord’s Prayer phrase by phrase, Cronshaw invites us to look at it with fresh eyes; to see the implications of this prayer for how we understand God’s character and mission and our place within that mission.

The wealth of the Australian church is the result of colonisation - of systematic murder, rape, theft and lies, disrespect for elders, hatred for Indigenous neighbours enshrined in law, built up over the generations through the use of stolen labour, stolen wages, stolen children and stolen lives. So what should we do?

August 6 is earmarked by the Church to remember the Transfiguration of Jesus - each of the gospels records the event. For me Mark's narrative captures, in Peter's response, the way I'd surely feel in any 'situation extremus' when confronted by divine glory or my own human frailty.

History’s shadows will never find rest / Until the wanderer finds love and care

J.D. Vance’s memoir was extolled as bringing enlightenment to ignorant elites who no longer understood white working-class America, providing an explanation for how Trump won over the resentful victims of decades of growing inequality. In the subversive interpretation of Howard’s film version, Hillbilly Elegy is a timely elegy for American democracy.