Zero room for moral compromise

 "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we do not live out the truth." (1 John 1:5-6 NIV)

St. John’s Cathedral’s Sunday 27 September 2026 "Pride Choral Evensong" sermon champions a dangerous cultural pivot, framing the church's embrace of secular intersectionality and LGBTIQA+ identity politics as a triumphant evolution. Preacher Allana Wales lauds the parish for replacing biblical boundaries with the "god of diversity and inclusion," celebrating how the institution has seemingly merged its identity with the progress pride flag.

Scripture, however, offers a scathing critique of this syncretism. 

1 John 1:5-6 declares that God is absolute light and truth, leaving zero room for moral compromise or spiritual darkness. By asserting that the church has "always comprised" these ideologies and needs to transform its theology around human constructs, the sermon walks squarely in darkness while claiming fellowship with light.

Instead of calling sinners to repentance and holiness, this sermon bows to cultural pressure, trading divine truth for human validation. The true church abandons God whenever it replaces the unchanging standard of His Word with the shifting, secular altar of inclusivity.

This sermon serves as a poetic and ideological bookend to Dean Peter Catt’s eighteen-year tenure, which abruptly concluded following heavy public backlash over allowing the Cathedral to be used for filming an OnlyFans-focused reality television series involving adult-content creators. The controversy—sparked by a segment featuring a faux-religious reaffirmation ceremony inside the sacred space— precipitated Catt's retirement after critics argued it crossed the line from radical inclusivity into the secular commodification of the church. 

Was this sermon - last preached of Catt's tenure - a defiant double-down on the exact theological trajectory that defined his departure?. When progressive secular values and identity politics are framed synonymously with divine work there is a blurring of the lines between institutional orthodoxy and modern cultural movements.

Weep Brisbane for your Cathedral. 

Mourn and lament. 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

The sermon is available in full text at this link to the Cathedral's website.

The church is playing games.

Book review - Human Skills in the Age of AI: Insights for Local Government Leadership

Having just finished Andrea Iorio’s Between You and AI: Unlock the Power of Human Skills to Thrive in an AI-Driven World, I was struck by how directly its core thesis applies to public sector governance and workforce transformation.

Iorio presents a compelling blueprint for navigating digital transformation across three critical dimensions: cognitive, behavioural, and emotional. Rather than viewing artificial intelligence as an existential threat to human labour, the book argues that AI should be seen as a new tool, just as the printing press was a new tool. When the printing press emerged, it didn’t replace human thought or authority; it democratised information, expanded access to knowledge, and fundamentally shifted human effort toward synthesis, evaluation, and higher-order reasoning. AI represents an identical evolutionary leap.

For operational leaders, thriving alongside AI requires shifting our day-to-day behaviours in three vital ways:

1. Shift from Execution to Critical Evaluation

Instead of relying on AI to perform our thinking, workers must adopt the mindset of an editor and auditor of AI output. In local government—where compliance, fairness, and public trust are paramount—the key behaviour is rigorous verification: validating context, challenging algorithmic bias, and ensuring public policy decisions remain anchored in human judgment.

2. Embrace Experimentation over Friction Resistance

Rather than treating AI as a fixed solution, workers need to treat it as an interactive thought partner. Adapting effectively means building hybrid workflows—testing prompts, iterative refinement, and actively exploring how automated tools can absorb routine processing so staff can focus on high-touch community engagement.

3. Double Down on Uniquely Human Capabilities

AI can synthesise vast amounts of structured data, but it cannot navigate complex stakeholder politics, exercise empathy, or establish community trust. The behaviour workers must double down on is relational leadership—leveraging emotional intelligence, nuanced communication, and ethics where machines simply cannot add value.

The Bottom Line

AI won't replace professionals, but professionals who effectively leverage AI will replace those who don't. By adopting the right behavioural framework, we ensure technology serves as a powerful force multiplier for our teams and our communities.

 

Silence at the Dairy

Sitting at the Pyengana Dairy Farmgate Café in Tasmania’s lush north-east, I was captivated by the surroundings—the rolling green pastures, happy cows wandering past the scenic deck, and the rich, earthy aroma of traditional cloth-matured cheddar ripening in the cellar below. Yet, my attention was drawn toward the adjacent table.

A couple sat in heavy silence. The man, in his early thirties, quietly ate his gourmet paddock-to-plate lunch, while his partner, in her late twenties, stared down at her manicured nails. Silent tears streamed down her cheeks. They had clearly reached an impasse—a sharp argument on the road, perhaps born from accumulated exhaustion or unspoken fears that spilled over mid-journey. Encapsulated in their grief, they were entirely oblivious to the idyllic country paradise wrapping around them.

It made me reflect on how easily love can be derailed by moments of miscommunication. Travel, though romantic, often lays bare raw vulnerabilities. They had arrived here bruised and distant, separated by an invisible wall.

Yet, there was reason for hope. Fittingly, Pyengana is an Indigenous word meaning "the meeting of two rivers". Much like two turbulent streams that clash before merging into a calmer, unified flow, relationship storms often clear the path for deeper understanding. The woman did not walk away, and he chose to stay at the table. Even in silent grief, they remained together.

As I finished my cheese tasting board, I hoped that the serene magic of Pyengana—watching the cheesemakers at work or sharing a quiet moment over local ice cream—might eventually soften the tension. Sometimes, taking a breath in a peaceful place is all it takes for two diverging paths to meet once again.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Vegan sausages - Bunnings

The advertisement on a Fcaebook page checked out as being fair dinkum. I'll report back after attending this Sunday.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Review of a novel, 'Sound Mind Dead body' by Dave Warner – a collection of editing comments part 1

Sound Mind Dead Body was a novel that offered up some curious text. The peak point of amusement comes when the author offers his readers the dimensions of a gardener’s shed. 

To understand this text, you need first understand that a valuable item of jewellery has been lost from the property. A male character named Willets is in search of the jewellery.

“It [a door] creaked slowly inwards, revealing a space no more than six foot high, about eight feet deep and the width of one and a half Willets” (Chapter 7, page 74)

Can someone tell me? What is the equivalent in feet of a Willet? Does one recognise a Willet as being the distance between the gentleman’s shoulders (as would befitting to the width of a shed). Or is a Willet identified to the gentleman’s height? 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Other humour: 

-              Chapter 4 opens with some of the characters at a town “Shagwell”. In reality, there is no Shagwell; only Shadwell. The author may have had Austin Powers on his mind!

-              In Chapter 10 Willets arrives at a pharmacy with an open soup pail full of tea. He asks the pharmacist to test the tea for evidence of poison, Willets had done well to travel to the pharmacy, with an open soup pail, on his motorbike.

Review of a novel, 'Sound Mind Dead body' by Dave Warner – a collection of editing comments part 3

Sound Mind Dead Body was a novel that offered up some curious text. The curious text first arises in Chapter 1, page 14 (see part 2 of this blog) and then arises again in Chapter 2. Indeed, the first page of Chapter 2 includes:

•  The opening sentence with its personification of the sun: “The sun beat down out of the blue sky as if it had not a care in the world”
• The oddity of the sun being said to not have a care in the world when that is quite logical -  that it is suspended in space quite separate from the world,
• And, that opening sentence is long, assaulting the reader with too many nouns to digest: in turn: the sun, a woman, the lawn, Watkins the grocer, and the buiding’s name Harcrofts.

And then there is also:

• The positioning statement of the location of a beach as “only a couple of hundred yards” back over a character’s shoulder where the author had not first established where the character was standing.
•  And, a reference to a “usually private beach” where beaches tend to be considered private even where the occasional adventurer finds their way onto the beach. 

Opening sentences that are packed with many nouns can work. Some are marvellous (think for instance of the opening sentence of Chapter 1 of Pride and Prejudice). Yet, a reader will recognise a long opening sentence as gimmicky if it is not solid.

Shalom,

Ozhamada