The Melbourne-based writer Julie Perrin, a regular contributor to the ATA site, has been writing a series of collects during and for this time. Julie has given us permission to repost them here, and we will do so throughout Holy Week. These will be accompanied by some wonderful photography by Ian Ferguson, photos taken over … Continue reading Collects in a Time of Virus – I
At a gathering recently I heard a rendition of Paul Kelly’s song ‘Meet Me in the Middle of the Air’. It brought back the moment, more than ten years ago, when I first heard Kelly sing it in a pub in Torquay, on the coast southwest of Melbourne. It was the height of the summer … Continue reading Paul Kelly and the lighthouse in the sky
He is a man fully present to himself. In the botanical gardens he wears a neat, close-brimmed hat and weaves through the crowd following a child. Deftly he catches her up, bringing her back into the gathering for the wedding ceremony. He is bearded and his body is compact, perfectly formed and compellingly small. He … Continue reading Faith: Love doesn’t come in specific sizes and shapes
Every generation throws up popular reflection on how best to live. Much of it comes from within religious traditions. It is designed to help people reflect on their lives by building bridges between religious traditions and the world in which the reader lives. It is instructive to note how its style and emphases vary with … Continue reading Kindness stories in the modern spiritual mode
A few years ago, just before Easter, I pulled into the supermarket carpark. It was mid-afternoon on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. I had been stuck in a one-way back street behind a truck revving impatiently. It was not the ideal lead-up to my observance of Easter. Through my car radio came the … Continue reading Before Good Friday
When Mary came to our house on Christmas Day she smelled of smoke and found it hard to walk. She had a croaky voice and a deep laugh. Our young children circled shyly around this strange new person as she sat on our loungeroom sofa. Mary kept saying thank you for inviting her and apologized … Continue reading Mary at Christmas
The interview was well underway when I tuned into the car radio. A man spoke about weeping every day, how he’d got used to the weeping in the time he’d been researching the First World War. He also said he seemed to be bleeding a lot; he kept cutting or scraping himself. Tears and blood. … Continue reading The Diggers’ Requiem, Tears and Blood
Art/s and Theology Australia 