Highfields Anglicans

innerVIVID 7.3 Are higher powers just a way for humans to avoid responsibility for bad things?

innerVIVID 7.3 Are higher powers just a way for humans to avoid responsibility for bad things? innerVIVID 7.3 Some say believing in a higher power is just a way f...

Australian faith leaders have unfurled banners at places of worship across the country, including at St John’s Anglican Cathedral, advocating for “sinking” Pacific neighbours and a just transition to renewables as the Pacific Pre-COP continue.

Banners unfurled at places of worship nation-wide as Australian faith leaders stand in solidarity with Pacific Church leaders during Pre-COP Australian faith leaders have unfurled banners at places of worship across the country, including at St John’s Anglican Cathedral, advocating for “sinking” Pacific neighbours and a just transition to renewables as the Pacific Pre-COP continues

“As I prepare for the completion of my Warwick curacy towards the end of this year, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on what I have contributed to the local community and how the Warwick community has enriched my life,” says The Rev’d Richard Butler.

A year of firsts in my second year of curacy: A photo essay “As I prepare for the completion of my Warwick curacy towards the end of this year, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on what I have contributed to the local community and how the Warwick community has enriched my life,” says The Rev’d Richard Butler

The following announcement was made at our services on Sunday:

The Archbishop is pleased to announce the appointment of the Reverend Melissa Conway as Priest-in-Charge of the Parish of Nundah.

Melissa is currently the Associate Priest in the Parish of St James’, Toowoomba, with particular responsibility for St Anne’s, Highfield. Her final Sunday there will be 3 January 2027. A commissioning service will be held on Saturday 30 January and Melissa’s first Sunday in her new parish will be Sunday 31 January. I know that Melissa will serve the people of the Parish of Nundah faithfully and well, as she has done for the people of St James’ and St Anne’s for the last five years. We give thanks to God for Melissa’s ministry and look forward to many blessings in this new season.

Melissa also provided a statement; an extract is below:
I know that the news you heard today is unexpected and disappointing for some of you, and I feel I need to explain a little of what has happened for me. I’ll start with a story.

After Mark’s retirement function, I began the process of thinking through whether I would apply for the position of priest in charge at St James’ parish or return to Brisbane. My answer would change from one day to the next, sometimes multiple times a day. But then around Easter my brother had a heart attack and open-heart surgery to replace one of his heart valves with a mechanical valve. I was able to visit him while he was still in intensive care in the Prince Charles Hospital, and very weak, barely able to communicate as he had no breath and no strength in his chest. I prayed with him there, even though he is not religious, and I know in my heart that that prayer impacted both of us. Leaving the hospital, I knew clearly that my ministry to my own family is part of my ministry to the people of God.

In this season of life in my family, being two hours away from all of them just feels too far away. There are other factors, but this is by far the most pressing reason for my decision not to apply to stay here.

Please be assured that it was a decision with which wrenched my heart, and still does. It came with many tears and doubts, but I know that this is a call from God towards a new season of ministry, to the people in my new parish at Nundah and to my family. I do not want to leave and I wish that I could take St James’ and St Anne’s with me, but I cannot stay. I am truly grateful for all I have learned in my time here, the friendships I have made and the ways in which you have all graced and enriched my life. God bless you and you will always be part of my life, my journey and my heart.

Celebrating the witness of St. Francis should be an opportunity to see creation as a providential reality ordered toward the glory of God and the sanctification of the Church. - Trent Pettit

The Cross of Creation’s Praise - On the Feast of St. Francis - The Living Church Have we made St. Francis, a disciple who was focused unflinchingly on Jesus, into a kind of spiritual Dr. Dolittle?

When Francis preached love to the birds
They listened, fluttered, throttled up
Into the blue like a flock of words

Released for fun from his holy lips.
Then wheeled back, whirred about his head,
Pirouetted on brothers’ capes.

Danced on the wing, for sheer joy played
And sang, like images took flight.
Which was the best poem Francis made,

His argument true, his tone light.

- Seamus Heaney

"Saint Francis and the Birds," by Seamus Heaney Heaney's classic meditation on Francis' sermon to the birds...

Meet our happy pets who came for a blessing at St Anne’s and St James’. Reverend Melissa with Wicket and Chloe, Ashley with Skiter and Emily with Snowflake, and Reuben the fighting fish.

The vineyard is a symbol for us of God’s kingdom, and God’s gift to all people, but it does need tending and care, it does need labourers and people to treat it with the respect and reverence due; and as the creator and owner of the vineyard, God also deserves respect and reverence, and expects a harvest of fruit. - Melissa

Three Vineyards Sermon for 4 October 2026. We strive to be humble, obedient and grateful in response to the vineyard owner’s call on our lives.

Francis lived in the spirit of humility and poverty by following the poor and humble Christ…. Just as God reached out to embrace Francis in the compassionate love of the cross, so, too, that same God was now present in the distorted figure of the l***r…. The l***r became a source of God’s loving embrace and thus someone to whom Francis realized he was intimately related…. - Ilia Delio

We celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi tomorrow.

Incarnation: The Humility of God Franciscan mysticism is at heart incarnational mysticism. Theologian Ilia Delio highlights how Francis of Assisi was transformed by the radical

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Reminders and Updates 5 October: Blessing of Pets and Wildlife at the 10 am service at St James’, 8.30 am service at St Anne’s and after the service at St Anne’s (outdoords) at 10 am.