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Priya sahodaree sahodaranmaare Dear brothers and sisters, The English word "bishop" comes from the Greek episkopos, which has two meanings. The first is overseer and the second is visitor, the implication being that you can't do the first, oversee, unless...

We know the first Pentecost happened in Jerusalem, but no-one knows where exactly in the city the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. There's a tradition, however, that it happened in the same Upper Room, the Cenacle, where the Last Supper had been celebrated...

In my seventy-fifth year, as I move to the end of my working life as priest and bishop, I speak words of farewell to the man who more than any other led me to the priesthood; and I do so in this cathedral where I was ordained deacon, priest and bishop...

The Cathedral of St Stephen, Brisbane On a calm spring day many years ago I made my first visit to one of the great war cemeteries of northern France, near the city of Amiens. In so peaceful a setting, it was hard to imagine the horror of the battle that...

The Gospels are full of gaps and silences. There are so many things we would like to know but about which the evangelists say nothing. What did Jesus actually look like? What was he doing through all the years of his so called hidden life? And so on ad...

The Cathedral of St Stephen In the time of Jesus, foot-washing was the most menial of tasks, and it fell to the lowest ranking servant, the lowest of the low. No-one would choose to be a foot-washer; it would fall to them only by force of circumstance...

The Cathedral of St Stephen At times we call this celebration the Mass of the Oils; and it is about oil. But it's not just about oil, because if it were we'd be wasting our time. The words that ring out over this gathering come from the prophet Isaiah:...

HOMILY AT THE SOLEMN PONTIFICAL MASS FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOUL OF POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI The Cathedral of St Stephen 7 January 2023 Readings: 1 John 5:14-21; John 2:1-11 Joseph Ratzinger was Pope for not quite eight years, but he was influential...

The Cathedral of St Stephen Thirty years ago the poet and song-writer, Leonard Cohen, released a song called Anthem that became one of his best known. It contained a line which also became one of his best known: "Ring the bells that still can ring. /...

The Cathedral of St Stephen "Church bells pealed, long separated family members and friends fell into each other's arms and complete strangers embraced": so wrote the New York Times in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down, bringing the Cold War...