Healthy belief

Book | The Art of Interfaith Spiritual Care: Integration of Spirituality in Health Care Regardless of Religion or Beliefs | Walter Blair Stratford

Review by TONI EREBOR

The pattern for this book is shaped on recognition that, while religious expressions differ markedly in their presentation, at the core of all religious expressions is a supposition of sacred presence.

Walter Blair Stratford ...

Digging for the truth

Movie | Goldstone | M

Review by PENNY MULVEY

There is something remarkably familiar about Ivan Sen’s latest cinematic masterpiece, Goldstone, and yet disturbingly strange.

Australian outback movies have been entertaining and horrifying audiences for many decades, but Sen brings a fresh perspective which presents the alien inhabitants, not the land itself, as the malevolent threat.

Like Sen’s predecessor movie Mystery ...

How to be

Book | Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer | Dr Rowan Williams

Review by CRAIG THOMPSON

Rowan Williams’ Being Christian is a great introduction to the basics, and the not-so-basics, of Christian faith.

Fundamental to Williams’ account of the Christian life is our being given a new human identity in the humanity of Jesus. Christian discipleship is a growing into Jesus’ own experience of ...

A well-worn path

Book | Quarterly Essay- Firing Line, Australia’s Path To War | James Brown

Review by GARTH JONES

Si vis pacem, para bellum.’ (‘If you want peace, prepare for war’).

As a pacifist, I came to former Australian Army Officer James Brown’s Quarterly Essay with some measure of apprehension.

Brown, a veteran of the second Iraq War and Afghanistan, applies ...

Where there’s a will

Film | God Willing (Subtitled) | (PG)

By PENNY MULVEY

Billed as ‘Italy’s #1 smash-hit comedy’ and titled God Willing, one can’t help but be a little curious.

In an era where the reputation of Catholic priests has been severely tarnished, this film provides an alternative narrative – priests can be cool, relevant, and offer a meaning to life ...

Words of wisdom

Book | Servants and Leaders | Graham Downie

Review by ALAN RAY

A senior federal minister was furious about a front page photograph on The Canberra Times newspaper where Graham Downie was the religion reporter. “Haven’t you seen the photo;  are you blind?”, demanded the politician. “Yes I am,” replied the author of Servants and Leaders – Eminent Christians in their own ...

Fun the second time around

Film | My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 | PG

Reviewed by BOB FASER

I never thought a sequel could ever be better than the original film. It’s particularly hard for a sequel to exceed the original when the first film set as high a bar as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but I believe My Big Fat Greek Wedding ...

Bridging cultures

Book | Building Bridges | Joe Reich

Review by EMMET O’CUANA

Building Bridges is the third book by Melbourne ophthalmologist Joe Reich. Launched to a packed room at the Melbourne Jewish Writers Festival in May, Reich’s mixture of ironic humour and wry commentary on Australian society continues to impress. The story, set in 1970 around the time of the Westgate ...

A colourful record     

BOOK | SURREY HILLS UNITING: A CHURCH HISTORY | GRAHAM BEANLAND

Review by Gwenda Smyth (SHUC Elder)

When Graham Beanland came to Surrey Hills Uniting Church some years ago, he discovered that, though there were documents by the dozen and considerable pride in the church’s origins, there was no recorded history of its life. With skill and scholarship, he set about ...

Kiwi adventure with heart

Hunt for the Wilderpeople | Film | PG

Review by GARTH JONES

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is New Zealand writer/director Taika Waititi’s (Eagle vs Shark) fourth feature film.

A family-oriented wilderness adventure comedy, Waititi’s latest is based on the 1996 book Wild Pork and Watercress, by eccentric Kiwi bushman-cum-author Barry Crump.

Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is a disgruntled tween ...

Family fun

Book | Angry Birds: The Movie | G

Reviewed by: JAMES NEL, 10 years old (with help from his mum).

Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in when everyone else around you seems to be happy? Then you know how Red feels. Red has been bullied because he’s different to the other birds on the island who ...

Songs for children

CD | I Am Loved: Community Songs for Children and Children’s Ministry

Review by ROB HANKS (Youth Worker)

I Am Loved is a crowd-funded children’s ministry music project produced by collaborators and friends, Heather Price and Alison Davies. The women were inspired by the desire for their children to know they are loved by God, valued and will always ...