As of January 1, the parish of St Paul's, Cambridge Park and St Thomas' Cranebrook will be resigned to the history books, with Cranebrook becoming a separate parish. It is an exciting prospect, says Archdeacon Ken Allen, who says the split has been quite a few years in coming. “When a parish becomes its own unit there is an immediate encouragement to continue to grow,” he said. “It's going to be a great encouragement to the locals; it's [also] a challenge to them. It's saying, ‘we want you to work really hard to reach the area and build it up'.”

A friend of mine lives in an inner-city suburb where varieties of ‘family' are to be found. A lesbian couple live not far from her. Through IVF processes they have a son, a dear little boy. He has two Mummys. It causes some confusion for older-aged neighbours who don't know which woman to call Mummy when they are talking to him. This may be confusing to those neighbours now, but what about the child when he goes to school? While other children talk of Mummy and Daddy, he will have to talk about Mummy and Mummy. Who ever considered his rights as a young boy? For there's no doubt, children do have rights.

Last month Anglican Media Sydney launched www.themission.com.au – a website devoted to the Archbishop's Mission for the Diocese of Sydney.

Archbishop Peter Jensen has announced the appointment of Deaconess Margaret Rodgers as his Media Officer, effective from 1 January, 2004.

Anglicare celebrated the 60th anniversary of its Chesalon Aged Services on November 1, with a special service in St Andrew's Cathedral. But the celebrations come with a sting in the tail.

When Doug and Judy Lawrence bought 400 acres of land on Sydney's south coast in 1973, they weren't dreaming of an idyllic country getaway for themselves. Rather, they hoped and prayed that God would use the land for children's and youth camping ministry, in their own lifetime and beyond.

Last month's plane disaster that claimed the lives of Sydney family Gerald and Carolyn Mall and their three young children, David, Amy, and Elysse, shocked and saddened the nation. But it is the church community at St Mark's, South Hurstville that has been among those hardest hit by the tragedy.

The care of migrant workers and the peaceful re-unification of North and South Korea were the main items on the agenda at the recent full assembly of the Council of Churches of East Asia (CCEA) meeting, hosted by the Anglican Diocese of Seoul. The seven-day conference, which occurs every four years, was last month held in the South Korean capital, and was attended by over 90 delegates.