David Burke

I am writing this on ANZAC day 2026. Like many Australians, I have relatives who served and suffered in past wars, and it is natural and right to remember them with gratitude. Wars linger and continue. There was a widespread view that WW1 would end by Christmas 1914. When it ended in November 1918, the […]

For many Australians Easter is just another public holiday with a few twists. Depending on your taste, chocolate Easter eggs, bunnies or bilbies are on sale, along with Easter buns.  School holidays come and go with the related pleasures and challenges. Winter sports are well-underway and it’s time to light the first fire in cold

Maybe you’ve stumbled across this page on the internet or have only been to church for a wedding or funeral. Or maybe you have a colleague or neighbour who goes to church, and you’ve wondered what it’s all about. Here is what you will usually find. Christians usually gather on Sunday, because we believe that

Division seems characteristic of modern Australia and the wider world, I am writing this from another country on January 26th, 2026. Even writing ‘January 26th’ can be seen as divisive while the debate over the naming and timing of Australia Day continues. The recent Bondi killings of Jewish people sharpen that sense of division. Which

It is that time of year when hope springs eternal. Australian political and community leaders greeted the new year with words of hope. A common sentiment went like this: ‘There are stormy waters ahead, but there is also great hope for this great nation of ours’. Really? The signs are of increasing pessimism in Australia.

Summer in Australia means Christmas and, for many, heading to the beach. Our beaches see summer tragedies on a too regular basis. Perhaps a family group of inexperienced swimmers is chilling out on a sandbank which gives way and exposes them to a  deadly rip. Once in the grip of a rip, it is a

Jesus famously prayed for his followers in these words: ‘ … that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me’ (Jn 17:21). Historically this has proved challenging. The

Much of the world, was recently transfixed by an Australian murder case. A Sunday lunch resulted in three deaths and one near-death. The sole survivor was the husband of one of the victims and a local church pastor. He gave a victim impact statement at sentencing and offered forgiveness to the murderer of his wife

The scene was a gathering of church leaders and trainee leaders in another country. A trainee leader had publicly confessed to a significant sin. He rightly stepped back from church roles while related matters were addressed. What would the senior leaders do? What could they do? The easy, and perhaps more natural, thing was to

The Christian church has long insisted that every human life matters.

This teaching goes back to the creation account in Genesis where we read: God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Gen 1:26)