Progressive Pod: Recent Episodes
Alexandra Sangster
Gaza Peace Pilgrims..pick up the cross and walk.What does it mean to follow Jesus - is to embrace a life of suffering or is it to stand with all those who fight with all they have- for love
What does it mean to have revolutionary patience when the world is falling apart: Holding Gaza and the God at the Monastery.
Why I'm not clapping my hands with joy about the Tuvalu visas and what it means to say no to a false peace.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTrM0xN6PrI
What would it be like to welcome grief in, to make a small bed for it and to know it would always be with you? What would it be like to actually believe that this life is not all there is...?
The story of falling down before false idols (golden calves, racist lies, capitalist cons) is as old as time...So where do we go from here, and what sort of God do we really believe in?
The Thwaites Glacier is known as the Doomsday Glacier because it is melting at such a rapid rate and is as big as a small country. How do we turn towards what scares us...rather than away in the comfort of cynical collapse?
A 3 meter tree is felled in the Tarkine.St Paul recognises that the Holy Spirit is the one in whom we live and move and have our being...and our hunger for The Father (and for elders) is ever with us...
We all do impossible things..every single day. Jesus invites us to walk on water..do you have the courage to take the hand of those around you and dance on the waves together?
Here in Naarm it's the bleak midwinter but all over the world we have reached a global temperature of 17 degrees. How can we be the reception soil that grows a people prepared to fight for our future?
Fertility - God and the Oak Grove and what gets in the way of you leaping up? by Alexandra Sangster
A truck collides with a bus.Jesus rises..up, up, up.Its Ascension Day again and we are asking the big questions..where is God when the world goes dark?
Our government is spending big arming for war with nuclear submarines. Have we lost hope in peace? And how can HOPE be restored?
Making radical change is hard but we all have to do it..stepping through the many thresholds of our lives..today Jesus rides through the Beautiful Gate and nothing can ever be the same again...what gateway will you step through this Easter?
The Man. Born Blind: Intergenerational Trauma and new ending to an old tale... John 9: 1 - 41
Transfiguration doesn't just happen...You have to climb the mountain first...and moments shot through with glory..they are all around us..in Newtown, in a Bondi Mall, in St Kilda and in your heart
What is the cost of being the Salt for the world?Where do you see everyday examples of Salt in action?And what does it mean to hold the powerful to account...
Where did you experience the incarnation this year? When where the moments were God broke thru and made a manger in your heart?
A Royal Commission has finally been announced into suicide amongst ADF soldiers and veterans. The shepherd god has always been a political metaphor..what is it calling us towards today...?
The Ethiopian Eunuch is probably our first LGBQTI convert...yet over 2000 years later some in our church still struggle to welcome diversity. Acts 8:26-40
The Angel says: Do not be afraid and yet we live in terrifying times How can we believe in resurrection when we are still hiding in the tomb?
This is not a Good Day, this is not a day where we get to race from the tomb and meet our loved one on the road. This is a day of doing the work of grieving...
The Woman at the Well stands in isolation and Jesus stands with her. How can we be present to each other during this pandemic, not give in to tribal prejudice and love one another across the borders of quarantine?
The murder of Hannah Baxter and the outrage at police and media response and the subsequent standing down of a leading Queensland policeman shows that Transfiguration: radical change and truth shining through.. is happening all around us
Thousands of animals and birds are facing extinction because of the fires. And so we mourn...does this mean we are blessed?
The Australian Goverment has run with the apathy mandate given to it by the Australian voters...maybe the Bushfires will wake us up.
We all know the story of the man filled with brokenness, hiding in the graveyard...thank god we don't treat people like that anymore...do we...?
Post election we are left standing on the edge of possibility...Bob Hawke was a lighthouse leader who helped save the Tarkine..what will our new PM do? Every age needs lighthouse leaders...and each of us have a prat to play in the creation of a new heaven and a new earth...
Come listen to Archie Roach and the Whale Man as they live out a the story of the light in the dark. Know what it is to surge up from below.... and find out how the very earth needs resurrection.
Two wee boys sitting on a couch in NZ, losing their lives to hatred. The recognition that we are all but dust and ashes. And grace. Always grace.
When was the last time someone did a beautiful thing for you? When did you last do something beautiful for the other....? A story of a swagman, a sister and love.
How do we tell a story of light when the darkness rises up with such overwhelming force.....White supremacy and the power of love.
Joseph gets what he has coming...doesn't he? An ancient story of trauma and forgiveness and about how the holy spirit can help break the cycle...
This Christmas we go back to stardust and we remind each other that for the OK people to simply be OK is no longer OK...it is a dereliction of duty
Angels are all around us, in the most unexpected of places...and sometimes, like with Mary long ago, they give us the courage to be the Braveheart of the world...
We struggle to admit vulnerability yet the world only changes when we ask each other for help....
100 year anniversary of the 'Great war' and Australia invests in memorials and weapons while our returned soldiers fight the goverment for compensation....and meanwhile the wildflowers grow
Have we come to the end of the holocene and entered the age of the Anthropocene? What would it mean to become servants rather than masters of creation? And what can we learn from the love of 'Silent Spring'?
Breath - we all need it- but why do we focus on the first and the last and pay so little attention to the ones in between? How do we help each other to truly learn how to breathe.....?
Four more women murdered and its time to look at the darkness within. What does St Paul tell us about interconnection and being 'the body'?
Its a terrible thing, to be lonely, to feel that you have no home. But God tells us that we are all part of the one family...we are all beloved, we are all equal...
How do we bind the strong man... and who is he anyway? Devil, empire or shadow self....whichever you choose... there is work to be done.
It was World Elder Abuse awareness day and Australia denies our eldest refugee on Nauru palliative care…can we learn to be like the mustard tree, can we shelter the vulnerable in our branches?
Tim Winton, Toxic Masculinity and God as Gardener.
How we must be the gardener for each other...as well as the vine.
Once upon a time there was an angry young man.... What can we learn from righteous rage and speaking truth to power? What can we learn from theatre kids in America as they stand up and name their truth? What can we do with our own feelings of helplessness and rage?
All Souls invites us to remember and let go…but what are the proposed euthanasia laws asking us to do?
500 years since Luther nailed his truth to the door. So what have we gained and what have we lost....and what needs reforming still? UCA Clergy weep as our church refuses to take a stand on marriage equality and rabbi's and buddists lock on at the Adani Blockade. The Reformation goes on....
American gun massacres and the dark fears hidden in the hearts of Australia: how does ancient story speak to us today?
What does St Paul have to offer us in this world of diminishment and hatred? And what is being talked about at the monkey bars of Melbourne's primary schools?
What are we to do with a world that justifies occupation and violence based on a literal interpretation of sacred text?
Discovery in cave brings the Mirrar people home and Jacob gives hope to those of us who struggle.
Why do we need to seperate ourselves by going up, or our or away? Whats does it mean when the box of air becomes the box of fire? And how do we respond as people of faith to the Greenfell Tower Tragedy…?
What does it mean to stand on the waters edge and let go of all we carry? Why do we still keep close our interpretations of biblical text which lead to violence and separation...?
What is the source of terror? What does Universalism have to say in response and how does the Trinity heal our world....
What do we do with all this darkness...? King David said 'Yes'. Jesus said 'No'. What do we say....?
Image: Karsten Würth https://unsplash.com/@inf1783
What happens when the Tyrant takes over? How can we imagine there is blessing in grief? And what has a massacre in Melbourne and Trump's battle cry have in common?
White Ribbon day...A cat on the road...and Jesus tells us to Keep watch: Welcome to Advent!
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus tells us that "It's all coming down". But whose tower is really tumbling and how do we not lose heart?
There are 10 lepers and all are healed but only one is made well....When have you chosen the path of pain so that you too made be made whole again?