JOSEPH SMITH reports from the heart of the Shire to see how Christians are dealing with a changed suburb.

Michael Orpwood, Chancellor of Sydney Diocese, lived selflessly in the sure knowledge of life eternal with Christ.

Read this month's letters to the editor.

Alcohol was and remains the Shire’s and the nation’s number one problem. Travel through the Shire on a Friday or Saturday night and you will see the behaviour. This is a story which doesn’t make the headlines. It’s what the Cronulla Chamber of Commerce speaks about in hushed tones until their shopfronts are damaged.

Anglican SuperFund Sydney is celebrating its first year with insurance giant AMP. Since moving to AMP in 2005 more than $650,000 has been saved by outsourcing administration costs and insurance premiums for members have been reduced by 25 per cent

Read the letters to the editor from the December 2005 edition of Southern Cross.

It’s ‘all about equality’ according to the Rev Bart Vanden Hengel, the Rector of St John’s, Penshurst. The English and Mandarin congregations at St John’s have services running concurrently at 10:30am on Sundays. They share morning tea, have combined Sunday School classes and even share usage of the main church building.

AGNES WILSON finds out from local Anglicans what motivates them to knock on thousands of doors each Christmas.

How can The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe help us to talk about the gospel with friends and family? GREG CLARKE, Director of New College’s apologetics centre, CASE, offers a few starters.

The war in Iraq has created more harm than good, according to a key church leader in the Middle East.

Jessica Bales prays daily that her fiancé, Shani, will be safe as he works in the earthquake ravaged districts of northern Pakistan. Zeeshan Laal Din, or Shani as he is known to his friends, is working with Serving in Mission (SIM) as an aid worker in a team of about 14 medics.

St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne attracted a flurry of media attention last month amidst reports that it had been in negotiation with an advertising agency to sell advertising space on the newly erected scaffolding surrounding the Moorhouse Spire.

In a special tribute to Southern Cross’s long-time editor GEORGE FISHER who died last month, we are publishing his last major piece prepared as he endured a long battle with cancer.

On September 3, 300 men met at Tyndale Christian School, Blacktown for the inaugural ‘Men Meeting the Challenge’ conference. The organisers were Men for Christ Ministries, a group drawn mainly from Toongabbie Anglican Church.

Michael Robinson is relishing the opportunity to minister in the diverse and large city parish of Blacktown. As well as healthy Anglo ministries run by a great team of lay leaders, both Chinese and Sudanese congregations have been planted.

It’s hard to believe it has happened again in Bali. Just when things were as close to back to normal as they could be. Just when the hotels were full and the flights booked out. And the streets were packed with tourists. But that is terrorism for you. This isn’t like the old war when you knew your enemy. This one doesn’t wear a black hat or serve ‘the Hun’. These soldiers know no boundaries, serve no government and respect no life.

So, John Sandeman in a recent Southern Cross suggests we are defensive about failure, that there should be more stories of failure and more on how not to do things… No problemo there, John. The only question is… how much time have you got?

What church hasn’t been adversely affected by Sunday sport and Sunday trading? But these are so entrenched, that talk of resisting the Government’s new industrial relations (IR) laws on the basis that Sunday is sacred just seems like rehashing an argument we lost years ago.

Sydney Anglicans looked to the future in founding colleges at local universities, writes IAN WALKER.

Letters to the Editor from the September 2005 edition of Southern Cross.

Newtown is a small church with big plans to reach a community apathetic towards Christians but keen on social justice.

The much-needed rain that fell during a recent week of mission at St Nicholas’, North Goulburn coincided with 3000 bottles of water donated by their fellow team members, St Mark’s, West Wollongong.

Jonathan Lilley, an Indigenous student at Moore College, has the hopes of a community on his shoulders, writes MADELEINE COLLINS.