For St Paul's, Carlingford, the decision to start new congregations on someone's ‘home turf' – a local primary school hall and university lecture theatre – is attracting new people each week who are eager to hear the gospel. Many of the newcomers to congregations at North Rocks Primary School and Macquarie University were not Christians before the churches were planted earlier this year.

If we do not undertake the work of reforming our diocesan organisations and culture, we may find ourselves entirely by-passed in the society in which we live and unable to speak in a contemporary way.

Alan Cole, who died in Sydney on 7 August following a stroke, aged 80, was a classical and biblical scholar, a teacher at Oakhill Theological College London, Moore College Sydney, St Peter's Hall and Trinity College Singapore, a missionary with both the China Inland Mission and Church Missionary Society in South-East Asia, Founding Master of Robert Menzies College at Macquarie University, and Federal Secretary of CMS (Australia). He was an Honorary Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney from 1979, and during his last nine years living in the parish of St Clement's, Mosman, in addition to numerous speaking engagements both in Australia and overseas, he was devoted to ministry in Chinese congregations in Sydney.

Stunned amazement greeted the voice on the phone from Western Australia, when the rector of St John's, Parramatta received a call telling him he had just been elected bishop of one of the largest Anglican Dioceses in the world.

Looking for a church to visit in Christchurch, New Zealand? St John's, Latimer Square has a number of thriving congregations under the ministry of rector, the Rev Wally Behan and his wife Rosemary. Their 10.30am Sunday congregation has run into a problem that most clergy long for: it's too big for the church building.

Burmese church leaders say their government's deliberate attempts to create tension between the Buddhist majority and the minority Christian and Muslim population has led to greater solidarity among the churches of war-ravaged Myanmar (Burma). This is despite a ban on foreign missionaries and, in some parts of the country, the outlawing of evangelism.

As the first anniversary of the October 12 Bali bombing approaches, the long-term effects of the tragedy are only just starting to take hold for the Balinese people.