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Photo  -   Tronson du Coudray art “Middle of Spring” Recently I was reading 'Dr Joseph Parker', one of the recognised great English preachers of the second half of the 1800s in London. A fascinating comment Joseph Parker made when relating to ministers was as follows: "An un-tempted minister will never do us any good, and an untried one will talk over our heads." I have often reflected on this as I for one would have been greatly blessed and enhanced in ministry to have sat under Joseph Parker's preaching and teaching. Morling Seminary in the seventies, when I was there, had similar w...

Yesterday I concluded with a question  -  Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath Now there’s a technicality behind that question, and Jewish scribes used to debate it: is it lawful for a physician to heal on the sabbath? If the answer’s ‘yes’ how about someone else, like a prophet? The Shammaite Pharisees did not allow praying for the sick on the sabbath, but the followers of Hillel allowed it. Arguments, arguments: ‘arguments by extension’ to which Jesus answers with an ‘argument by analogy’. If the sabbath laws allow you to help a sheep, why not a person? (But then, the Essen...

Dr Mark Tronson 2000 in Hamilton NZ A Minister of Religion gets asked many questions. He is supposed to be modest in response and not be outrageous or volatile, and so when asked a question, the answer should seemingly be sensible and even galvanising. However, that was somewhat an implausible situation, when as my youngest daughter some years ago now, came home from school, telling us that her friend said that all ministers are 'fuddy duddies'. I have thought about that image a great deal, so when writing this article all these years later, I thought it provident to check what 'fuddy duddy' ...

Photo  -    Submarine art "Clandestine Submarine landing party" a painting by Tronson du Coudray“ the missionary painter - is the basis of my first Anzac reflections. The art work was specifically painted for Anzac Day and is a portrayal of the Japanese landing party that, according to the Moruya Examiner Newspaper, silently slipped onto Australian soil near Browlee, Moruya on the south coast of New South Wales in 1942. We lived in Moruya between 1992 and 2006. During those years the local newspaper ran the story of the alleged landing on two occasions, although it acknowledged that th...

Rev Dr Rowland Croucher the Pastor’s Pastor writes Being an itinerant (‘hit-run’) preacher has some advantages. I remember a Sunday evening service in a conservative church in rural Victoria, Australia. They had big black Bibles and severe expressions… And they knew their Bibles, and were proud of that. It was a smallish group, so I decided to engage them in dialogue: ‘Who knows who the Pharisees were?’ They did. ‘The Pharisees got a pretty nasty press in the New Testament – particularly Matthew.’ ‘Now tell me all the good things you can think of about the Pharisees.’ I ...