Across my bus stop, on the busy Lower North East Road, Campbelltown, just outside the Italian Aged Care Centre, a tree seems to be re-growing. Two years ago, or so, the Council planted trees along the curbs all over the suburb, and so they did here. I pass this place quite often to catch the bus into the city centre, and one day I saw that the young tree had been broken, the trunk still sticking at the roots in the ground. Some weeks later, it was only the trunk that remained on the side walk, and a small stump in the ground.
The other day, in the middle of the Australian summer, I saw that small branches were trying to spring to life and I was wondering whether they would survive. But even during the heat wave of the past few weeks over the summer holidays, they continue growing.
So I ponder if, and how, this little tree will survive — and what it is telling me!?
Posted:
25.01.2012, 15:38 Hours
Theme: Australia, City Life, MetroBus, Nature.
Tags: Adelaide, City, Nature, Traffic, Tree
Comment: none
Since my Theological studies in the 1980s (a loooong time ago) I have been preaching frequently in my various roles as “Gemeindediakon” (Parish Deacon) or in other related project positions in international Ecumenical, Development and Mission relations between churches in Germany and overseas. In a separate Website I will publish my sermons some time in the future, but this page is dedicated to related links which I find helpful. It is mainly meant to serve me in my worship service and sermon preparations. Almost all websites offer pages with links to other liturgy or sermon resources. [Please read more »]
Posted:
27.12.2011, 22:48 Hours
Theme: Lay Preaching, Theology.
Comment: none
It’s hard to believe but another year has passed with no update of my website. Many greetings to all of you you have been trying to find out what has happened to me in the past 12 months.
Liz, my wife, has written a brief Christmas newsletter to her friends that I copy here: [Please read more »]
Posted:
24.12.2011, 15:30 Hours
Theme: Uncategorized.
Tags: Christmas, New Year
Comment: none
It’s Christmas in Adelaide, and my German soul is longing for ice and snow, darkness and the glitter of the lights at real Christmas trees, the hot and spicy “Gluehwein”, just “Weihnachten”. But here I am — down under, in the summer heat of the Southern Hemisphere. True Aussies around me enjoy these Christmas temperatures in the low and mid-30s … be aware, we are talking shade in some remote corners of a weather station somewhere around here, i.e. the temperature I feel are much higher, and this is definitely true out in the sun.
[Please read more »]
Posted:
25.12.2008, 2:10 Hours
Theme: Comparing Life.
Tags: Christmas, Summer, Winter
Comment: none
Travelling in another country, or migrating into a different nation, seem to be two very different pairs of shoes. A traveller always intends to “go home” again, thus returning to his or her place and familiar customs. However, migrating means to leave “everything” behind, not only the “things” I may easily say goodbye to, but also all non-material patterns, which determine my way of life and the relationship to the people around me. [Please read more »]
Posted:
02.11.2007, 0:05 Hours
Theme: Comparing Life.
Tags: Australia, Comparison, Germany
Comment: none
Sharron Williams, presenting her life story as an Aboriginal Woman to the Workshop Group “Cultural Awareness (Indigenous) / Breakout Session 3 of the Emergeny Relief South Australian Conference “Making Connections – More than just a Handout”, Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs SA (FACSIA), 18 to 19 October 2007. [Please read more »]
Posted:
31.10.2007, 0:25 Hours
Theme: Aborigines, Stolen Generation.
Tags: Aborigines, Australia, Stolen Generation
Comment: none
Since the recent past, Western societies have been facing controversies about the self-determined right to die, or the right of relatives to determine the lives of aging or terminally ill family members. [Please read more »]
Posted:
06.09.2007, 0:27 Hours
Theme: Christianity.
Tags: Christianity, Ethics, Mercy Killing
Comment: none
During my journey from Australia to Germany in mid-April 2007 I was fortunate to watch a very interesting in-flight movie. Not having an idea what it was all about, and bored with the other commercial stuff, I tuned into this show, expecting a typically brutal US American production, but was in for a surprise. [Please read more »]
Posted:
20.05.2007, 0:42 Hours
Theme: Education, USA.
Tags: Education, freedom fighters, USA
Comment: none
As one of the performances during the Adelaide Fringe 2007 festival the TAFE Adelaide Centre for ARTS presented this theatre play by Peter Weiss, from 1964 and originally in German. Directed by the Adelaidian Paul Peers, the 3rd year graduating students staged a play within a play, which for me in times was hard to understand. [Please read more »]
Posted:
31.03.2007, 0:45 Hours
Theme: Australia, Culture.
Tags: Adelaide, Jean-Paul Marat, Theatre
Comment: none
Since my first visit to Australia, way back in 1992, I am struck by a question, which I find really puzzling: How can people in a country as “free” (and as large) as Australia create that large a variety of fences? Wherever ever you travel through this vast continent, whomever you visit – there’ll be fences all over … [Please read more »]
Posted:
15.03.2007, 0:52 Hours
Theme: Australia, Fences.
Tags: Australia, Fences
Comment: none
