The street names of Macquarie Fields conjure up images of paradise: tea tree, hibiscus, rosewood, peppermint, wild orange. But appearances are deceptive in the sleepy suburb nestled in bushland southwest of Sydney. Young lives have been lost, blood has been shed and Anglicans like Prue Gregory are left to heal the wounds.

Its a new academic year and Sydney Christian university groups are running at top gear to promote their activities and make contact with new students. On the other side of the world a handful of Italian students have been learning about evangelism from their British brothers and sisters.

Are the demands lay people place on clergy too high?

Consumerism is the new religion, Christendom is dead and buried and the Church is widely seen as peripheral, obscure, irrelevant and confusing. This is the reality facing Sydney Anglicans today, the Bishop of Maidstone has warned, and it is an illusion to assume people outside the Church are just waiting for the right invitation to come back.

How do you go about translating deep theological thinking into powerful, relevant communication for people trained by an attention deficit media? Expository preaching is the goal, but audiences can find it hard going. Phil Newton offers helpful hints here...

A single vessel, grounded on the sand, holds the hopes of dozens of people from one devastated village in Sri Lanka. Boats donated by the Archbishops Overseas Relief and Aid Fund (ORAF) are slowly transforming the lives of communities devastated by the Christmas tsunami.

October 23 started off as a typical Saturday morning for 21-year-old Meredith Walker. As she prepared to spend the day out with friends, she was not to know that she would be fighting for her life in the intensive care unit of Nepean Hospital a mere 24 hours later.

Should we stay or should we go? Its a question that has confronted Sydneys Moore Theological College for several years and now looks set to be resolved in 2005.