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Lilly Pilly Sorbet

There’s a Lilly Pilly tree in the rectory yard. This year it fruited twice, and from the smaller second crop I decided to make sorbet. Warren on TikTok came up with a great way to take the seeds out of the fruit, and I’ve adapted that to the sorbet recipe. Ingredients Lilly Pilly fruit (this recipe will scale to however much you have; I had around 500g) sugar juice of half a lemon Give the fruit a rinse and remove stems. Drop it into a pot with about a cup of water, and simmer for a couple of minutes, stirring, until the fruit is blanched - it will lose most of its red colour. Remove from the heat and leave to cool until the mixture can be safely handled. Gently squeeze the fruit to remove seeds and discard them. Keep the pulp in the saucepan along with the liquid. Then sieve the deseeded pulp and liquid into a saucepan. Reserve the pulp. Measure the volume of the liquid and add an equal volume of sugar. Bring to a simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves forming a syrup. Add pulp, lilly pilly syrup, and lemon juice to a blender and run until smooth. Pour the mixture into a metal container and freeze. Every 30 minutes, stir with a fork to break up any ice crystals. After a couple of hours, it should be ready to serve. I must say it is absolutely delicious. It has a rich, deep flavour, almost like a more complex cherry sorbet. The colour really surprised me, a visceral pink!

The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

This sermon was preached on the 23rd of February 2025, The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany. Texts: Luke 6.:27-38 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Sometimes in Christianity you hear slogans, slogans which are carried around, maybe even bandied about. And one that I have a particular difficulty with is this: “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” You’ve probably heard that phrase – you may have said those words, and you may yourself have been hurt by them as well.

Film Review: Conclave

Conclave is, at its heart, a letter of love and hope addressed to the Church. This doesn’t mean that it is uncritical of the Church, or its leadership. The film takes as its subject the Roman Catholic Church – specifically, a meeting of the College of Cardinals to elect a new Pope. The cardinals gather in conclave: a private meeting. They are supposed to be isolated, walled off from the world so that they might prayerfully discern and then cast their ballots.

The Third Sunday after Epiphany (also: Australia Day, or Survival Day)

This sermon was preached on the 26th of January 2025, The Third Sunday after Epiphany, in the civil calendar known as Australia Day (or as Survival Day.) Texts: 1 Corinthians 12.12-31 Luke 4.14-21 I don’t know about everyone else here, but lately I find myself sick and tired of division. It seems to me that year by year, even day by day, the world gets meaner and angrier. People seem to be drifting apart from each another, and our civic society is getting smaller and smaller.