Author Archives: meganpdt

Australian Christian Book of the Year 2025 – excerpt from Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You by Stephen Driscoll

With gracious permission from the author Stephen Driscoll and the publisher Matthias Media, we are pleased to bring you an excerpt from the winning book of SparkLit’s Australian Christian Book of the Year Award for 2025. Our warmest congratulations to both! If you would like to buy the book, it is available from good bookshops and can be bought directly from the publisher here. The excerpt is from a chapter about how an understanding of sin relates to our understanding of AI.

World Humanitarian Day 2025: Dangerous Acts of Compassion by Theo Doraisamy

On 19 August 2003, 22 UN staff were killed by a suicide bombing attack, and every year since 2008, World Humanitarian Day has been observed on the 19 August to honour humanitarian workers who have been wounded or have lost their lives to violence – and served as a valuable opportunity to educate and inform people worldwide on the devastating casualties of war.

Why I Took Part in the March for Humanity by David Starling

On Sunday August 3, I took part in the March for Humanity, walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a protest with thousands of others. The March was organised by the Palestine Action Group. The official estimate of how many were in the protest was 90,000 people, but others suggest it may have been anywhere between 200,000 to 300,000 people. Here, in response to a request from the WADR team, are a few of the reasons I participated.

Her Voice Was Raised: The Evangelical Women in Academia Conference 2025 by Suzie Ray

This year’s “Evangelical Women in Academia” (EWA) conference, run by Ridley College, revealed the rising strength and lasting impact of this conference initiative. Its genesis was ten years ago when the late Dr Moyra Dale kicked off a piece of collaborative research into women’s participation rates in higher degree research in the Australian theological space. The research was published in 2018.One of those original collaborators, Rev Dr Jill Firth,* conceived in response an academic conference for evangelical women which would give them a platform, opportunities, experience and encouragement. This year, organised by Rev Dr Hannah Craven with the theme “Raising Her Voice,“ the conference drew nearly 100 women in person on each of the two days, drawn from around Australia, New Zealand and one woman from the Philippines, plus many more online. There were a range of denominations represented, with Anglican and Baptist women in the majority.

WADR Podcast Be Our Guest: The Compleat Set

In our ten seasons, we have been privileged to host 81 guest appearances on the With All Due Respect podcast. Here is the complete list, along with links to their episodes. We will update this list periodically. Listed alphabetically by surname. If you are wondering, we have done a gender count, as this is something we do keep an eye on. As of the end of our tenth season, 37 appearances have been by women, that’s 46%.

The Australian Anglican Primate Elect: In His Own Words

On 19 July 2025, the 18th Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia was elected. The Right Reverend Dr Mark Short, Bishop of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, will serve as Primate alongside his current role. He takes up his new duties on 1 November 2025. Bishop Short graciously took some time to answer questions put to him by the WADR team to help people gain some insight into the new Primate. These answers are printed as given.

Moving to a Five-Day Working Week for the Welfare of Clergy by Mark Calder

There has been a growing trend among Australian Anglican dioceses to move from the traditional six-day work week for clergy to a five-day work week. The dioceses of Grafton and the Riverina recently moved to this model, following the dioceses of Newcastle and Bathurst. We asked Bishop of Bathurst Mark Calder to write about the Bathurst experience. Bathurst made this change in 2023.

The 2025 Baptist World Congress Speaks Freedom by Megan Powell du Toit

This year‘s Baptist World Congress, held in Brisbane from 7-12 July, felt like a decisive moment for Baptists, giving a choice to take certain paths and not others. The Baptist World Alliance has held a world congress every five years in various countries since 1905.