15 April 2025

Building peace through contemplation, compassion and our common humanity

We acknowledge respectfully the Boonwurrung people and the elders and people of the Eastern Kulin nation who have traditional connections with, and responsibility for, the land on which we meet.

4 April 2025

Appreciating being in Australia and resolving to make the best of our opportunities

That we live in one of the best contemporary democracies is to be appreciated.

26 January 2025

Instead of noise and bluster, can January 26 be a day of loving awareness of those who are hurting?

I have been reading Stan Grant’s beautiful new book, Murriyang song of time (Bundyi: Sydney 2024). There is in it a sentence pertaining to the Uluru Statement of the Heart and the subsequent failed Referendum. Stan Grant says, poignantly, that ‘the Uluru Statement spoke from the afflicted to a nation that has never loved us.'

24 December 2024

At Christmas, the loving intent must be to stop carbon emissions as soon as possible

This Christmas, we can give to all planetary life. The loving intent must be to stop carbon emissions as soon as possible. The transition to renewables is obviously complex but ‘loving our neighbours as ourselves’ includes those on islands in the Pacific who know the consequences of global warming and need us to focus unambiguously on cutting emissions. They and our own endangered species, need us to honestly interrogate the necessity for every action that adds further emissions.

7 December 2024

Attack on Ripponlea Synagogue: As faith leaders we stand together

Reflection after ‘A Suspicious fire ion the Synagogue on Glen Eira Avenues around 4:15 am, Friday, 6 December. As faith leaders we seek to stand together at times like this.

14 November 2024

At UNCOP29, improper dealings and safety concerns promise disaster

The chief executive of UNCop29 has been filmed apparently agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at the climate summit.

1 November 2024

Survival of planetary life depends on decisions made now

Next month, UNCOP 29 is in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11. And as we speak, UNCOP16 on Biodiversity is continuing in Colombia. It would be wise to run them together, given the complementary goals of protecting biodiversity and preventing catastrophic climate change. But the importance of a successful COP29 can’t be overstated.

21 August 2024

A dream: of world leaders meeting to make peace

“Everything begins with a dream” - Rumi

4 August 2024

Finding hope, giving hope, by remembering our roots

On Wednesday 31 July we listened to two people who were speaking to us from near Hebron, where Abraham and Sarah are buried.

28 July 2024

Awakening: Stories of grace and inner peace

“Another world is not only possible, she’s on her way… On a quiet day, if I listen carefully, I can hear her breathing” - Arundhati Roy.

30 June 2024

Caring for creation: making the transition to renewables

Ever since the Leader of the Opposition’s statements on nuclear reactors, along with many, my heart has ached.

23 June 2024

Remembering that which holds us together

“I want my tenderness back…Give me back that soft, sacred part of myself that weeps at the corpses of children, so I can Behold the world gently again…” - Caitlin Johnstone

13 June 2024

'Two years to save the world'

This was the haunting title of a recent speech by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, at Chatham House in London.

12 May 2024

Negativity and the Budget

The commentary that surrounds the Federal Budget is a noise of dissatisfaction and ‘negative bias’. The reality is that the ‘power of constant attack’ will make it harder to co-operate together, in bipartisan fashion, on crucial matters. Is there another way?

29 April 2024

The song in our hearts and of our hearts

In the end as at the beginning all that really matters is how we treat one another.

17 April 2024

Why does Australia want to be so suicidal?

Australian leadership is no longer an embarrassment at UNFCCC COPs. Nonetheless, Australia’s participation in the fossil fuel industry, including through new projects, is not putting us on the fastest path to net zero. Will we miss our “brief and rapidly closing window” to secure a liveable future?

31 March 2024

Peacemakers for our wounded humanity

Has there ever been a more important time for peacemaking with a universal consciousness?

28 March 2024

The Cross: What do we bring to the Cross this Holy Week 2024?

The Cross speaks to us of how we find God in places where compassion is needed.

16 March 2024

Thinking about peacebuilding in Australia on St Patrick's Day

You would think that the suffering we are now seeing, including on and after October 7, would also compel international leaders to negotiate a peaceful future. There is no future in hate.

24 February 2024

Here, while others are not: A meditation on peacebuilding

When our father was one of those Australian soldiers fleeing the advancing Nazi army in Greece, an aircraft suddenly appeared. He jumped into a ditch on one side of the road. Others of his mates jumped into a ditch on the other side of the road. The guns in the plane killed all those on the other side of the road. Hence, we are here with our children and grandchildren...and others are not here.

20 January 2024

Division, terrible suffering, and learnings about peacebuilding

Amplified by the terrible sufferings in many places, and by the divided voices, especially as regards Israel/Gaza, we have some learnings about peacebuilding that it might be timely to reflect on. Cease-fire, of course, is just a less vivid way of saying we will stop killing people we dont know.

6 January 2024

Flourishing democracy: Australia and a 2024 of beauty

In Australia, despite the relentless misery conveyed in daily media, we have so much beauty to appreciate, and so much freedom to create more beauty.

23 December 2023

This Christmas, live the choice of healing, not harm

Out of our hearts can come thoughts that are pure and beautiful or evil intentions, murder... What we think and let influence our thinking shapes our words and actions, for good or ill. How important therefore are the choices we make! The choice to nurture love with words and actions that bring healing as compared to the choices which just cause more harm. Frankly, people who cannot control their capacity for angry violence should be in therapy, not in political power.

6 December 2023

UNCOP28 at a time of international stress and vivid suffering

At UNCOP28, clear-eyed, we persist. And not without hope. There is a saying; Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will. The time to have an influence comes and goes. Like life itself Therefore it is best to live by the highest one can conceive when one has the opportunity!

12 November 2023

The relational consequences of October 7

Overhead, suddenly, there was a noisy helicopter. I didnt look up. Then I noticed that I hadnt looked up. If I was in a place of terror from the sky, I would have looked up.

19 October 2023

The Crumpled Heart and the role now of wounded healers

The scars from mean words and actions can last a long, long time. After the outcome of the Voice Referendum, and as the suffering in Israel and Gaza intensifies, can the choice to heal rather than to reciprocate harm take us out of a spiralling set of retaliations which just cause more suffering? Perhaps we can all learn from an exercise called the 'Crumpled Heart'.

14 September 2023

Imagine a day when the whole planet was at peace

The UN International Day of Peace is next week, September 21st. It is a day for rekindling our noblest aspirations. Imagine even a day when the whole planet was at peace. A day when our most attractive power, our capacity to love, was all one could see. A day when not one person was killed by hateful violence. A day when no one was fearful for their loved ones.

19 August 2023

A 'Statement From The Heart' should always be cherished

How is it that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is even slightly controversial?

31 July 2023

Compromised by vested interests: UNCOP culture doesnt match reality

At the end of a Retreat together on Spiritual Leadership in Difficult Times, a German social scientist asked me to help her to organise a Retreat for decision-makers at the next UNCOP - the annual UN Conference of Parties focused on preventing catastrophic climate change in ways that are just. Just, yes, especially towards those who have had the least benefit from a carbon economy but need help with adaptation, mitigation and support as regards the loss and damage already suffered.

22 July 2023

Australias deepest yearning

Is our deepest yearning to be Us, together, on our islands of Australia? A reflection on the Voice referendum and life, after a conversation this week at a swimming pool.

27 June 2023

From war to peace

In the Soviet-era film of Leo Tolstoys epic novel War and Peace there is a haunting scene, brought to mind by recent events in Russia.

30 May 2023

What will it take for Peter Dutton to say YES to the Voice?

Obviously if the Hon. Peter Dutton were to change his mind and offer bipartisan support for the Voice Referendum, its prospects would be immensely improved.

20 May 2023

Unity: Living together with a more Sympathetic Imagination

The spirit of the age seems to foster division more than it nurtures unity. The G7 Summit is meeting in Hiroshima where thousands were killed at breakfast time on a summers morning, August 6, 1945. The G7 leaders meet as a hostile imagination fuels a terrifying arms race. How can we yet pull out of this spiral?

13 May 2023

A reflection in federal budget week that is cost-neutral!

It is a big week for but and however, delivered with some vehemence in responses to the Federal Budget. It is also a timely reminder that simple things matter, like our tone of voice in private and public conversations.

29 April 2023

Abundant life: honouring the discovery of Mungo Lady

On Wednesday I met with a wonderful Australian geologist, Jim Bowler, famous for discovering the Lake Mungo remains - the oldest human remains in Australia, dated to 40,000 years ago. Mungo woman; Mungo Man. Jim and I will dream dreams on Sunday, within the abundance of the divine. Asking, against the backdrop of nuclear bombs and submarines: what might Australia yet become? It will be a joy to thereafter share where our dreaming takes us.

22 April 2023

National day of prayer for just peace in Mayanmar

After years of cruelty to their own people (whose safety it is their duty to protect), just after Easter, the Myanmar juntas airforce dropped multiple bombs on a civilian gathering of several hundred people in Sagaing Region while attack helicopters strafed the crowd. Later the same day jet fighters returned to kill anyone left.

8 April 2023

Easter: A new beginning for wounded humanity and our depleted planet

An Easter reflection on romantic weddings, love, and our global context. Towards a Calming of souls and a lightness of being'.

18 March 2023

Slowing the roaring river of violence

Avulsion refers to river science and how a number of little incidents can slow the river's flow and, over time, cause the river to go in a different direction - a fallen tree, for example, that slows down the river's flow, causing further deposits until the resistance to flow leads to change. If enough of us resist the roaring river of violence by dropping our little deposits of prayers, meditations, songs, conferences and public advocacy, can we too help the river of life to flow in a healthier direction?

18 February 2023

How can this be happening?

The first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine approaches. No direct dialogue has yet been established between the warring parties. Just more hostility. More weapons, always more weapons and therefore more dead people.

25 January 2023

26 January echoes with torment of First Nation peoples' powerlessness

To assist the healing of our history, it is essential that Australia Day be some other day than 26 January.

17 January 2023

Inspired by love and anger: Oil CEO heads UNCOP28

Perceptions arent everything but they can be very powerful. On the face of it, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) appointment of an oil company chief as the next President for the UNCOP28 is not a good look. Thats putting it mildly! There has, in fact, been much colourful criticism. This appointment goes beyond putting the fox in charge of the henhouse, said Teresa Anderson of ActionAid, a climate justice charity.

21 December 2022

True love never coerces: a meditation for Christmas 2022

Imagine if we did not need to pray for those who die today, violently and unprepared. Imagine if the United Nations members convened in deep silence and resolved to rid the planet of all weapons of mass destruction and to prevent catastrophic climate change. Imagine if the cruelty being inflicted on the people of Ukraine, mid winter, was to cease and young people of both nations partnered in rebuilding all that had been destroyed... Join with me, for a time, and imagine, imagine, imagine

1 December 2022

You shall not kill

Amidst wars and rumours of wars, can people of faith help the human family hear afresh what the creator is saying to us? You shall not kill.