Latest

Read the latest blogs and updates from Common Grace and the wider community.

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Understanding 'Australia Day'

January 2017. My family moved to Brisbane Australia four years ago, and this year, we plan to start the process of becoming Australian citizens... It is likely that I will need to understand what Australia Day is all about.

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Approaching January 26th

I am a white Australian. On one side of my family I have a convict grandfather who arrived in 1812 having poached a rabbit in England. He made quite a life for himself in the new Sydney colony and I have grown up spotting the buildings he built and owned in the early settlement. I am a beneficiary of his arrival.

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Good News for All

Kylie Beach, Common Grace's Communications Director, closes our Advent Series with a celebration of Christ's birth as good news for all. Even animals.

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Stars

Marcello is a 24 year old member of Westcity Church in Perth. Before he had to flee his home in Iran, he was a champion Greco-Roman wrestler. He prays he might help other people and show them Jesus.

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Present, But Not Home

Tamie Davis - a missionary in Tanzania with CMS Australia, partnering with the Tanzanian Fellowship of Evangelical students - reflects on the heartache of being away from her Aussie homeland at Christmas, and determines to be truly present in her Tanzanian community.

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Born in our Hearts

Father Shenouda Mansour - General Secretary for the NSW Ecumenical Council, and a Priest in the Coptic Orthodox Church - considers our common calling to live a life of grace, as Christ is born in our hearts.

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Simeon's Cry

Jarrod McKenna, the Teaching Pastor at Westcity Church and Co-Founder of First Home Project, reflects on the agony and the holiness of real hope this Christmas.

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Present at the Birth

River Bennett & Bel Pangburn - birth photographers at 'The First Hello' - reflect on being present to the wonder of the night when Jesus was born.

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The Art of Welcome

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artist Safina Stewart, together with Brooke Prentis, contemplates the spiritual art of welcome this advent.

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Better Than Batman

Joel Houston, Worship Leader in Hillsong UNITED and Lead Pastor at Hillsong NYC, reflects on Advent, Jesus and Batman.

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Love and Mercy Incarnate

Good Samaritan Sister Elizabeth Delaney, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), reflects on witnessing to the love and mercy of Jesus, the Incarnate Word.

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Present in the Mess

Rachel Neary - who works in Community Development and Training at Alice Springs Women's Shelter and is a key member of Common Grace's Domestic and Family Violence Justice Team - writes about being present in the mess of life this Advent.

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With hearts breaking for Aleppo, we pray...

"I woke up early this morning with a heavy heart for what’s happening in Aleppo and tried to make a vid cause I thought it was important for us to respond by amplifying the voices of the civilians and also to encourage people to pray.” - Jody Lightfoot, Common Grace

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The Women of Christmas

Julie McCrossin - journalist, broadcaster and Elder at South Sydney Uniting Church - reflects on the women of Christmas and what we can learn about being open to the incomprehensible; emotionally engaged in the practical; and responsive to our powerful, trinitarian God.