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American Addendum

On the way back to my USA home, I spent a few days in San Francisco, California. It so happened that my flight had me landing in San Francisco the day before a meeting of the Board of the Center for Swedenborgian Studies (CSS), located nearby in Berkeley, CA. The CSS is the theological school for the Swedenborgian Church of North America, and is affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley. I had received a Certificate of Swedenborgian Studies from CSS in 2019 as the last step in my very long path to ordination as a Swedenborgian/New Church minister. But I had never set foot on the campus, as I had studied online with CSS.

The Board very graciously invited me to join them as a guest. I stayed with them at the Mercy Center Burlingame, a ministry of the Sisters of Mercy, where most of the meetings were held. The gardens and buildings were serene, and contributed to the mission of helping people to become “more attentive to the Divine.” During the business meetings for Board members only, I walked the hand-laid labyrinth and soaked in the tranquility.

The CSS is physically housed in the Pacific School of Religion, one of the member schools in the GTU. Dean Rebecca Esterson gave me a tour of the CSS during one of the board’s executive sessions, and I explored the campus as well. It felt so good to have finally visited the Center for Swedenborgian Studies!

A view of the San Francisco Bay just steps away from the CSS offices and classrooms.
The Holbrook Building in which the CSS is housed

A brief stay in San Francisco would not be complete without walking across the Golden Gate Bridge! So I did exactly that, on the morning before the CSS Board members started arriving at the Mercy Center. It wasn’t very crowded, as I’ve heard it can be, and the weather was a bit foggy and windy. The walk across and back was a very comfortable 3 1/2 miles, with people walking, running and riding bikes at all different speeds. From the bridge (pictured, from the south side) we could see Alcatraz (to the left in the foggy photo), the San Francisco Bridge, the city of San Francisco (bottom, left photo) and the Marina District (in the large photo) at the north end of the bridge.

The path back to the Mercy Center included a tour by my friend Jennifer through some notable parts of the Bay area, including the longest, steepest and most curvy street in San Francisco – and it’s not the famous Lombard St. Quite a challenge for someone who is prone to motion sickness! The next day, I began my path home, with a stop in Denver to see family, and then on to my USA home in Bryn Athyn, PA.

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Sightseeing in Australia

While ministering to the Swedenborgian/New Church groups in Canberra and Perth, attending events at the Swedenborg Centre in Sydney, and spending time with family and church friends in Adelaide and Melbourne, I managed to fit in time for being a tourist as well.

The Big Merino, a statue in sheep country in Goulburn, NSW, on my way to Canberra
“The Travellers” art on the Sandridge Bridge in Melbourne
A friendly black swan said hello on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne
Finally I got to the famous St. Kilda beach in Victoria…
…while visiting with my colleague …
Rev. Martin Pennington, with Melbourne in the distance.

The next sight-seeing opportunity was in Adelaide and South Australia. Henley Beach (left) and Glenelg Beach (below) are near downtown Adelaide. Some schoolboys had a fishing class at the end of this jetty when I was there. My brother Stephen and I hiked in the Waite Conservation Reserve that has views overlooking the city. Then a few days in Tintinara with family who own a small farm. You might remember the view from my favourite cafe along the way, now with the floodwaters receded back to normal.

My cousin Simon in Tintinara had converted a 100-year old wool sorting table into a unique dining room table. The shearers would have thrown the newly shorn fleece onto the sorting table for it to be graded for sale. The slats were for dirt and debris on the fleece to fall through – the sheep live outside year round. I loved seeing how the farming heritage of the family has worked its way into elegant living indoors!

Next up was seeing some sights in Perth, which I had time to do because there was not such a need for pastoral visiting this time. Kings Park is a botanical garden and bushland preserve right on the waterfront in Perth’s CBD (central business district). My friend Ros also took me to Bayview Park, on the other side of the CBD. Another highlight was fish and chips on the waterfront in Fremantle, near Perth, with my host and church group leader, Mary. And of course, a beach day a bit north of Perth’s CBD, at Scarborough beach.

Later on, when Evie had her autumn school holidays, we took a short trip to the Blue Mountains, which are west of Sydney, and stayed in an historic Victorian-era cottage. We met up with a friend of theirs who was doing an art residency in Katoomba, and of course hiked in the Blue Mountains National Park, sometimes with her and her daughter.

Artist Giulia took time off from painting to go to the Wentworth Falls with us and her daughter
One of many waterfalls in Wentworth that we walked under
It claimed to be an “easy walk” but these stairs were a bit scary
Look carefully for the rarely-seen Lyre bird building a nest
The iconic Three Sisters rock formation
We replicated a photo of my kids, from 20 years ago
Lunch with Giulia and Tessa, in a cafe with a spectacular mountain range view

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Hanging Out in Woonona and Sydney

As you can see from the photos, the first part of my visit in Australia was mainly about hanging out with my family in Woonona (pronounced Wunoona), a beach town south of Sydney, and with my friends in Hurstville, which is the suburb where the General Church congregation is located. Featured in the gallery above is a photo of a “flat white”, my favourite coffee beverage in Australia. Google says a flat white is “a coffee drink made with espresso and steamed milk, similar to a latte but with less milk and a thicker layer of microfoam on top”. Every day I walked on the beaches only 1 1/2 blocks away: Bulli Beach top right, and Woonona beach below it. Below that is the Bulli Beach rock pool, filled with ocean water. A feature of many beaches in the area is a human-made pool like this at the headland. A local high school was having PE class at the rock pool one day as I enjoyed my flat white at the beach-side cafe. The other photos show Evie having fun at her swimming lesson, and the llama there enjoying having a nibble on my hair! Also pictured is Evie celebrating her 7th birthday with family and friends at the river-side Audley park in the Royal National Park, and some friends from the Hurstville New Church having a memorable evening at a local Chinese restaurant.

Growing up on the south side of Sydney, I’d always heard that the “North Head” of Sydney Harbour (the headland on the north side of the ocean entrance to the harbour) was uninhabitable, wild, and difficult to access. “South-siders” typically have dismissive things to say about anything on the North shore, and likely vice-versa! I had been to the South Head several times, which had the reputation of being an interesting place to visit. So one day I decided to see for myself, and set off on an adventure to explore the allegedly disreputable North Head. In the photo, the North Head is the formidable headland on the left.

I took a ferry from Circular Quay in Sydney…
…past the Opera House…
…and looked back at the Sydney skyline.
The ferrry landed at the Manly Wharf, where I spent a little time on the beach on the Harbour side. The Ocean beach at Manly is the famous one, with its award winning Manly Life Saving Club. From there I took a bus to the North Head Sanctuary. How very civilised!

What a surprise to find how easy it was to get to the North Head Sanctuary, to enjoy the bushland while walking on easily traversible paths, and catch some amazing views of the dramatic harbour! I found remnants of the North Head Quarantine Station that was established in 1833, and of the North Fort that was built during WWII. There were roads and houses in well-established neighbourhoods. So much for the urban myths I had grown up with 😀 The North Head is definitely a place I want to return to with my family.

From left to right, top row to bottom:

  1. This scary looking spider safely up high in its web, as well as many of its relatives, greeted me as I walked through the bushland.
  2. A path through the more open parts of the headland
  3. Sometimes there were some steeper parts of the trail through “scrub” bushland (not tall trees)
  4. Some beautiful flannel flowers, an Aussie native, along the path
  5. A view to the south- east from the largest lookout, kindly taken by one of the many international and local visitors walking the trails. You can see Sydney’s Central Business District in the distance.
  6. A view more to the south from near the lookout, showing the South Head of Sydney Harbour.

Hanging out in Sydney and Woonona included an afternoon visit to the Symbio Wildlife Park, where as you can see the kangaroos had already finished hopping around, and had been fed by many visitors already. They were only interested in being petted while they rested. We ended up giving the animal feed to the insatiable goats in the petting farm area! The gallery below includes photos from several other fun outings and activities within easy travel range of Woonona.

Evie is now taller than an Emperor penguin, measured at Symbio
A crocodile at Symbio’s Reptile Show, right after an audience member held it briefly
Feeding time for the koalas
Catching up with a friend from high school.
Two hikes, one with Carolyn, one with Caldwells to…
…Curracurrong Cove, seen from the trail in the Royal National Park
The Pacific Ocean pounding the coastline
Caldwells and me hiking on our way through the bush
A little tree dragon greeted us at the Cove…
…where we had a picnic lunch and paddled (waded) in the water.
Finally, a swim at Wattamolla
Angela, Evie and I had a spa afternoon, thanks to a birthday gift from Evie’s party.
We got to attend a mini concert by the Da Vinci Singers,
…in which Carolyn sings and plays 5 instruments (not at once!)
Breakfast in the Southern Gateway Centre…
…with a stunning panoramic view from our table of Dharawal country, now known as New South Wales’ South Coast. Jon, Angela, Evie (and I for 3-4 months per year) live in about the middle of the photo.
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Ministry in Aus

A significant purpose for my annual trips to Australia is to “give back” to the New Church in Australia (NCIA). Most of my training as a minister was through the Australian New Church College, and my family on my mother’s side goes back many generations in the NCIA and the General Conference of the New Church in the UK. Two Australian congregations do not have a minister, so I’m a visiting minister for them while I’m there. And I like to be supportive in other ways to the congregations that do have a minister.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll probably recognise the location and the people. This is the group in Canberra, Australia’s capital city, which gathers for worship every other Sunday here in Philip and Eleanor Richards’ sunroom. I visit there monthly when I’m in Aus, giving a spiritual growth class on Saturday and leading worship on Sunday. Not pictured here are two couples who had taken a break, but have rejoined the group quite regularly.

Above is the group in Perth, on the western coast of Western Australia. Like the Canberra group, there are people affiliated with both the New Church in Australia and the more conservative General Church of the New Jerusalem. Sometimes they gather separately, but whenever a minister is visiting from either Swedenborgian/New Church branch, they come together for a long weekend of activities. We had a discussion class about “Spiritual Judgement vs. Assesment” in the home of David and Ros Walker (seated in the centre of the photo on the left) The next day I gave a more formal presentation about “Tools for Healing the Pain of Polarisation” in a conference room at a restaurant, where we stayed for lunch afterwards (the photo on the right.)

Sunday’s worship service, including Communion/Holy Supper, was a combined event as well, at the hall where the group usually worships. They had sold their church building several years ago. Afterwards we enjoyed the fellowship of a shared (potluck) lunch, and then a few of us continued our conversations over coffee at a nearby cafe. In addition, during my five-day visit, I was able to have some individual visits with three of the members of the group.

In addition to ministering to the groups in Canberra and Perth, I made my usual tour around the country visiting relatives, and my friends and colleagues in other Swedenborgian/New Church congregations. In the south side of Sydney, I played the piano twice for a church service in the Hurstville New Church, including Easter Sunday (pictured). After attending one session of their series of spiritual growth classes about Joseph in the Hebrew scriptures, I joined the group for a fun movie night, watching the Disney film “Joseph: King of Dreams,” and snacks afterwards (pictured.) On the “north shore” I attended the Roseville New Church once, and interesting discussion sessions at their Swedenborg Centre three times. During one session I received some very helpful feedback on the presentation about “Tools for Healing the Pain of Polarisation” which I ended up giving in both the Hurstville church and in Perth.

In my rather whirlwind travels outside of Sydney, I stopped briefly in Melbourne where the Swedenborg Community Victoria is based. As I was only there during the weekdays, I was unable to attend a worship service, but I was able to Zoom in to an online Connect discussion. Rev. David Moffat, the spiritual leader of the Melbourne-based group and also the President of the NCIA, and I took a whole day to visit my friends/his parishioners Suzanne Coutanceau in Trentham (pictured), and Barrie and Edith Rabone in Majorca. We covered a lot of territory, both physically and in discussions about the Swedenborg Social Media Network that he had initiated in September 2024. We also had a wonderful “clergy gathering” with Rev. John Teed who was a good friend of my parents, and a vibrant minister in the NCIA when I was growing up. While in Melbourne, I also connected with another colleague, Rev. Martin Pennington, over lunch at the famous St Kilda Beach where we indulged in our usual far-ranging theological discussion.

Then on to Adelaide, where the congregation meets twice a month, but not on the weekend that I was there. But I managed to visit with the lay leader, June Johnson, and three other members of the small but devoted group, who had been quite disrupted recently with major repairs to the church building due to white ant damage. The Saturday evening Vespers service that I attended at my brother Stephen’s Russian Orthodox church was absolutely beautiful and serene. Stephen chants and sings in the choir, and I really enjoyed hearing him sing his solo and picking out his voice at other times.

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Touring New Zealand

Thank you for joining me again on my ministry and travel path! My path in 2025 started near the end of January with some exploring, and venturing into new experiences. First up, visiting in New Zealand, but adventures further afield in the north island than in the past. Previously I’ve mostly stayed in the Auckland vicinity, focusing on the NCIA/General Church Swedenborgian congregation. But they have now sold their building, as have many small congregations around the world, and are meeting virtually with an occasional in-person event. I missed the in-person church gatherings in Auckland, and going to the familiar physical building. Before I began visiting there as an adult, my father used to visit the New Church in Auckland on a regular basis when I was growing up in Australia. This was in a way a personal loss for me. It is even more of an emotionally painful and challenging process to wind-up a church organisation legally and financially for the people who have worshiped together for decades, and worked hard to keep it going. And equally challenging to sustain relationships and maintain a sense of community. But they are doing just that, though, through social media and group video meetings.

The former home of the New Christian Church in New Zealand, built and maintained by members.

Denis and Lis Keal are very active in the group, and were my wonderful hosts. I’ve known Denis since I was 6 years old. First up, a trip to the active geothermal area around Rotorua, in the central region of the north island. The area has many hot springs as well as the Lady Knox Geyser, in the photo. We soaked in some hot mineral pools, and toured the Waiotapu Scenic Reserve, where we saw and smelled many hot mud and sulphur pools. We also walked through the mainly Redwood Whakarewarewa Forest, which is also home to native species like Golden Fern Tress

Our final stop in Rotorua was the Mitai Maori Village, for a celebration of the Maori culture. The original Maoris were a Polynesian people who traveled to New Zealand centuries ago. We saw warriors paddling a war canoe, enjoyed musical entertainment and traditional haka dances, had an authentic Hangi dinner, and walked through the old village site and the forest, lit up by glow worms.

My final few days in Auckland were spent touring Hobbiton, the movie set for the Hobbit movies, and visiting with church friends. In the photo gallery above, the tiki pole was actually at the Mitai Maori Village, as we descended down to the river where the warriors demonstrated traditional war canoe chanting. The rainy-day Hobbiton photos show part of the village in the hill, the “party tree” and tent, a fully built Hobbit home that we toured inside including my demonstration that I’m almost Hobbit-sized : ) and the bridge to the Green Dragon Inn.

Once we were back in Auckland, Denis and Lis hosted an extended family gathering, and a smaller gathering of church people. Rev. John Sutton is pictured here with his wife Jenny and their fur-baby. As I mentioned earlier, lovely as it is to catch up with some of the church members, I still felt the heaviness of grieving the loss of what-had-been. Though I do support the notion that old structures might need to fade away so that a vibrant new spirituality can emerge.

We also visited Hugh and Jenny Keal in their Retirement Village on two occasions. Hugh has continued his passion for garden railways by using his 3D printer to create an entertaining steam-powered miniature railway system – pictured above.

After almost a week of venturing further afield in summer-time New Zealand, with less of my usual emphasis on the church group, I was ready to fly 13 hours back into the wintery northern hemisphere, for my first visit to a country in the Asian continent.