Grace Along the Way by Meredith Carr

This past week took me into two communities whose faith and welcome left a deep impression on me. Our first stop was the Sunshine Coast, where we gathered for the baptism of Daniel Brand. It was a gentle and joyful service, filled with warmth and a genuine sense of support. As Daniel entered this new life in Christ, the community around him offered encouragement, support, and a place to belong. It was a beautiful reminder that God works through the sacraments to shape us, bless us, and call us into community…

The Blessings of Community by Meredith Carr

Over the past week, I travelled from Adelaide to Sydney, then on to Queensland to visit in Brisbane and Toowoomba. I moved through busy airports, long stretches of road, and very different landscapes. While the locations kept changing, the relationships did not. Our schedule moved between congregational gatherings, conversations with Mission Centre staff, and meaningful visits in people’s homes. Each encounter had its own tone and setting, but all of them were marked by hospitality and a genuine desire to connect.

New "How We Gather" Australia Mission Centre Series

Across the Australia Mission Centre, people are gathering in creative, courageous, and Spirit-led ways—sometimes in homes or congregations, sometimes online, and sometimes in forms that have grown naturally out of the needs and rhythms of our communities. These expressions of faith are a vital part of our shared story, revealing the many ways the Spirit continues to form community, nurture discipleship, and call us into deeper belonging…

The Well of Hope by Meredith Carr

There are moments in the life of every community when the way ahead may feel less defined than it once was. The paths we once knew have shifted. Our gatherings may feel quieter. The world around us seems louder and more uncertain. In such times, it would be easy to believe that something essential has slipped away. Yet the Spirit continues to move among us with a quiet and steady presence, inviting us not to step back, but to listen with open hearts and to lean forward with hope into what is unfolding…

A Reflection on 40 years of Women in the Priesthood by Rick Sarre

At World Conference in April 1984, W Wallace Smith introduced an inspired document that was to become Section 156. In 156: 9(c) we read “Do not wonder that some women of the church are being called to priesthood responsibilities. This is in harmony with my will.”

This was eight years after the approval of World Church Resolution 1141 (April 1976) which was designed to slow down the growing movement at that time for women to be considered for ordination. WCR 1141 stated “…consideration of the ordination of women be deferred until it appears in the judgment of the First Presidency that the church, by common consent, is ready to accept such ministry.”

Emanation by Evangelist Don Jennings

Some years ago I started a sermon with the statement “I understand that some of you think I have some weird ideas! Only some of you? I must be slipping!” I then went on to talk about what seems to be contradictory ideas. For example, we are living on a giant beach ball called Earth, rotating at considerable speed. According to the law of centrifugal force, we, and every other non-anchored item, should be thrown off the surface of the beach ball, also at considerable speed. But we aren’t. That is because there is an opposing (contradictory) force called gravity, which, thankfully, keeps us on the surface of this beach ball. There are ways of escaping, but only briefly…