Bishop

‘Living in a liminal time is certainly challenging. That’s where I’ve been for the last few months, between my election as District Bishop and the conclusion of my ministry at St John’s Unley. I’m both excited and nervous about what is ahead of me.’

‘I express my gratitude to everyone I have had the privilege of serving for for over 13 years now in this role, and for nearly 37 years in ministry. I thank God for you, for your prayers and encouragement.’

The SA-NT District’s new bishop team has been elected by delegates at the recent Convention of Synod, held in May at Victor Harbor. Pastor Andrew Brook was elected unopposed as the next bishop, succeeding Bishop David Altus who did not seek re-election after 13 years in the role.

‘For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a pastor, and I’m immensely thankful to God for being able to follow this calling. I feel both excited and daunted as I prepare to serve you as District Bishop.’

Who am I? What is my identity? These are basic questions we all grapple with. But our lives are hidden with Christ in God – a comfort we can rely on always.

‘Imagine an endlessly renewable source of pure life, eternal life even. Life that resides not in a deep well somewhere, but in the depths of your own being.”

Grief can make God hard to see. Easter’s comfort is that in the lonely, helpless, lifeless, brutalised figure of Jesus dying on Good Friday, God meets us in the ‘basement’ of life.

This Christmas we may be back in our churches, but it is not quite the same as it was. I pray that at Christmas, Christ will come to his church and his whole world, weary and dislocated and threatened and unsure of the pathway forward, and his presence will comfort and strengthen us.

We live with an expectation that things get fixed. We are used to having things repaired, put back together, improved, or these days mostly replaced.

Two weekends ago some of us here today walked through the Barossa Valley as part of Walk My Way – 670 Christians walking 26km together in faith and in love for God and for the vulnerable children of the world. Persevering in the hope of reaching our destination and goal together, leaving no one behi