Editorial: Life and Death

Rev. Peter Overton | Saltbush Regional Minister for the Far North Coast

The past years have been a time of uncertainty and exile. Like the first testament people of God, we have been exiled from a place where life was comfortable and certain into a wilderness where there are no maps. A death in many different ways that calls us to rely on God for the “Mana and the quail.” It is no longer relying upon what we have done before, rather navigating without a map into an uncertain future.

We have all experienced this in different ways.

We are living in a different world, a world that will keep changing and morphing. It has placed us in a season of wilderness, exile and death of what once was. This is true for all the corners of our world, communities and as families and individuals.

How do we learn to live in this land, a world that has moved on and is not going back?

How do we lead in this season of uncertainly where we have had the death of what was known to us as a Church?

What should we leave behind, keep, and embrace in this transition?

This brings us to our theme for this edition of Ruminations – Death!

The Saltbush Team have chosen the theme of “Death” for this edition of Ruminations because it is always a theme that touches life, church, community, faith and humanity.

In this edition we are thankful for our contributors who have helped us all reflect on diverse aspects of our theme: Natasha He, Rev. Dr Sarah Agnew, Rev. Alexandra Sangster, Margaret Reeson, Rose Broadstock and Rev. Dr Peter Walker. Each have responded to the invitation to write in different ways and we invite you, through them, to ponder life, death and faith together.