Northern Community's Podcast

There is a whole industry devoted to personal improvement – known as self-help. The self-help industry rests on the idea that individuals can become more by making small personal changes or shifts in thinking – to develop our hearts, our souls, if you like. The reason there is an industry is because this holds some truth to it. But as we will find as we look at the next section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians today, we actually c...

'Just don't seem right somehow that all the good you did,
That people preach, not practise, what you said,
I wonder, if it all died with you, that day on the cross,
And if it just never got raised from the dead.' (Watson)
What would it take for the Maureen Watson's of the world, those who look at the church and see nothing but hypocrisy, to see the risen Christ working in and through the church t...

If you were to travel by car in the 1930s from Sydney city to North Sydney, less than 1 km away, the long way round the harbour – all the way to Parramatta and back along the northern side of the harbour it would have taken 2 hours or more. The Bridge connected the north side of the harbour in ways that car ferries and land roads just couldn’t. Bridges are all about crossing the divide. And that is what we are thinking about this m...

It can happen to the best of us. The inverse proportional nature of our denials, that the older we get, the more we deny and protest our need for glasses, hearing aids, health checks, home help or giving up driving.
And as we push the reminder notices that come in the mail to the side, we convince ourselves that all is OK.
Then a whole new world opens up when we accept that things are not as they should be, perhaps even cou...

Call and response – we see it in so many areas of life. For the jazz musician, one instrument puts out the call, and another instrument in the band provides a response. Or a singer on stage sings a line and points the microphone to the crowd, who respond with the next line.

Then you have the Australian chant that is apparently an adaptation of a 1960s Cornish Oggy, Oggy Oggy. With the Australian call of Aussie and the resp...

There is something fascinating about paintings. While many are WYSIWYG, others demonstrate that there is more going on than immediately meets the eye of the observer. Take, for instance, Salvador Dali’s Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) with Jesus crucified on a tesseract, with Dali’s wife Gala depicted looking on, but is also seen on one of the knees, while Dali is represented on the other. 
Then there’s Rembrandt’s Christ in th...

According to Nell DeBevoise from Forbes, “We make 35,000 decisions every day (on average). That is a huge number of choices to make, and of course, they range from micro (which socks) to mundane (what to eat) to life-changing (take the job or not). Each has a varied level of pressure associated with it, depending on the gravity, and also the personality of the decider.” (27/10/2023)
But what if one simple decision could be so p...

In a world where our pursuit of power, success, and happiness often leaves love feeling out of reach, this week we explore the truth that love isn’t always easy. We'll delve into how our default approach to relationships can leave us feeling stuck—and how rethinking love can transform our lives. Join us as we uncover timeless insights that inspire a deeper, more authentic connection with those around us.
A message by Sam B...

For a little more than the cost of registering a 60cc moped in Victoria, you can register your relationship – doing away with the need for a celebrant, seeing a register, having a wedding, or a two-year wait. According to the ABS, there were 118,439 marriages registered and 48,700 divorces granted in Australia in 2023, with the median duration of marriages was 13.0 years.
In today’s track of Jesus’ Greatest Hits, we look at a c...