• Keeping The Faith

    Reading Time: 9 minutes

    It’s been nearly five years since the religious community I grew up in ‘regretfully accepted my withdrawal from fellowship’. In reality, I did no such thing, their statement was simply an awkward and disingenuous way to excommunicate me because I could no longer affirm, without reservation, particular tenets they held to be watertight and immutable.
    I feel that had the Bible genuinely been our mutually agreed authority, there would have been no good cause to excommunicate…

  • Crossing Over

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    There are many crossings a human will make in a lifetime.
    Our introduction to life is just the first.
    From the dim, watery, stillness of the womb, we are thrust out into the bright light of day; into this dizzying kaleidoscope we call life. 
    Our lungs, filled with fluid and collapsed upon themselves like waxy, paper bags, suddenly inflate; as our intricately crafted nervous system reacts to the sudden change in temperature and environment. We breathe, for the…

  • The Incarnation Of The Word

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    “In the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
     
    He came into the very world he created, but the world…

  • Leaving

    Reading Time: 8 minutes

    Leaving is never because of just one thing. Not really.
    It’s the result of a thousand, inconsequential one things that all converge in a single moment of sudden, irreconcilable difference.
    For me, the eventual leaving of the religious community I grew up in began as a tiny question fluttering at the back of my mind.
    Back then, I’d never met a question I didn’t want to take apart, examine, rearrange and then carefully reassemble, perfectly ordered, and satisfactorily…

  • Jesus, The Hope Of The World

    Reading Time: 12 minutes

    “Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Emmanuel” (which means, “God with us”)” | Matthew 1:23, BRB
    Scripture tells of a crowded family home in a bustling ancestral town, set at the southern end of the Judean hills. Filled to the brim already, perhaps with relatives from both near and far, there was no room in the guest quarters for the additional arrival of a heavily pregnant…

  • Heaven + Earth: The End Of The Story

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Inarguably, it’s the end of any story that’s the most important part.
    While the beginning of a tale gives context and setting, and the middle gives the story its shape and drama, it’s the ending that provides meaning and gives resolution to the narrative. It’s the ending that makes sense of everything, that allows all the intersecting threads of drama, intrigue, risk, loss, joy, and homecoming to find their place and purpose within the story and,…

  • True Religion

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Religion is defined as “a cultural system of designated behaviours and practices, world views, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organisations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements.”
    Yet, there is no actual consensus among scholars as to what precisely constitutes a religion.
    Nearly 85% of the world’s population identifies as being religious, claiming affiliation with one of the five largest religions; Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. These different religions all have distinct rules,…