Stephen Tan, fresh off the plane from Singapore, was hand picked by the Rev David Gilmour, rector of St John's, Campsie, to lead the church's Mandarin congregation. “We could not find someone in Australia who was theologically qualified, who could teach the Bible faithfully and speak Mandarin, so we went international,” Mr Gilmour explains.

I have always been aware that reading my Bible and prayer were vital for my growth and maturity as a Christian. The Way was a book that we all read and carefully studied in youth fellowship groups. Scripture Union Notes helped me keep up Bible reading, especially because they were dated and friends were keen to talk about the readings. I have always found prayer to be the area of struggle.

I have always been aware that reading my Bible and prayer were vital for my growth and maturity as a Christian. The Way was a book that we all read and carefully studied in youth fellowship groups. Scripture Union Notes helped me keep up Bible reading, especially because they were dated and friends were keen to talk about the readings. I have always found prayer to be the area of struggle.

“Life is better here,” says Sophie Rajdev, as he pushes his daughter on the swings at the park across from his Liverpool flat. It is a windy, humid Sunday, his one day off in a long working week. That morning, his family, wife Pinky, a high school economics teacher, and daughter Jesswy, had been to church at St Anne's, Hammondville, where they have become committed members of the Indian Sub Continent congregation.

We should be thankful for the democratic blessings we enjoy, but we should not take them for granted.

A young, professional couple in their early 30s with a baby daughter, Greg and Suzie Atkin were first drawn to St Martin's Killara as they were looking for a church to get married in. Greg had a Christian background but had never really committed to Christianity, while Suzie had grown up in a non-Christian environment and had never attended church.

Parish in focus. In upper North Shore Killara, Christians are being encouraged to break old ways of doing things, embrace change and move outside their comfort zones to bring the gospel to more local people.

It's a long way from a small settlement in outback Tanzania, where people struggle daily with the reality of poverty, disease and death, to the glitzy Eastern Suburbs and the parish of Vaucluse right in the middle of the ‘insular peninsular'.