Looking back on some of our Commons articles and reflections from 2025.

I was reminded this week, once more, of the need to be alert to God’s agency. An unexpected, unplanned opportunity came our way on Sunday which saw my wife and I attend a wonderful concert performed by two very gifted musicians. Given the time of year it was a Celtish Christmas theme but it was in the throwaway comment that one of them happened to mention that they had written a whole musical score on the life of St Patrick. There was just something that I felt the Spirit was

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” - Philippians 3:10 Our church is in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Recently, while dwelling in the word in Acts 16, (Paul’s vision and subsequent change of direction, plans and strategy) I was in awe of the love he had for this Community of Hope he started in Philippi. He is also clear in his call to a higher level of commitment to a lif

There is a shift happening – and it is a good one. It is not complete, at least not in me. But it is underway, and I am ever so grateful for it.

Autumn provided a great opportunity for the core team of The Commons to be together. Having weekly meetings online has been a great way of maintaining contact, formulating plans, and hosting table conversations, but the gift and opportunity of being together in the same room was such a blessing.

I remember it like yesterday. Having just finished seminary, my wife and I had three options from which to decide what we would do next....

Roy and my book, Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling, is getting great responses from many parts of the world. Just this...

This is just one example, or rather a myriad host of examples, little stories of God who by the Spirit is at work in the world. The kingdom of God is being felt on the streets, among those whose lives have been marked by despair and hopelessness.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” 1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)...

This week, Roy and I have the honour of launching our new book, Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling  (Wipf and Stock,...

We need to create spaces and places where people encounter both the presence of God and the presence of others—spaces animated by God’s Spirit.

We bring with us into this new neighbourhood our dwelling with God. The monastic rhythm that has shaped my life for many years continues to be practised in the daily habit of Morning Office, Midday ‘pause for prayer’ and Evening Compline. Dwelling in scripture and practising a daily Examen keeps me rooted and alert to the work of the Spirit, embracing the sacrament of the present moment, awareness of God in the midst of ordinary, everyday life. 

It’s little wonder people are looking for places to cry out and lament. What we are experiencing across society and as God’s people are deep, pervasive and justifiable anxieties about how these cascading challenges are undermining our sense of the world.

We are waking up to the reality that we’re living in the wrong story. 

Among God’s people, in the Euro-tribal churches, there's discontent, a desire to embrace another way, without the need to have power...

We all want to get some bearings, some way of making sense of this moment, finding a pattern so we can, figure out how to navigate...

Indeed, as many of us continue to learn, our time is all about God’s agency, not our efforts to try harder, devise strategies, vision state

Perhaps the humble rapeseed plant, Brassica napus, to give it its official name, holds a modern-day parable for us.

In the Commons we are seeking to encourage those covenanted, companionable friendships.

Our sense in the Commons is that God is reweaving all things in Christ.