| Current mood: |  contemplative |
In the news
1. Yesterday morning, Barney's (St Barnabas Church on Broadway) burnt down. The building was nearly 150 years old, and I think it's predominantly a student population, being so close to the uni. I'd never been to a service there, although I've been there a couple of times with the uni Christian group, but I know so many people who go to Barney's, or have gone there in the past. There was a lovely, detailed article in the SMH today, which remembered the history of the church. The tone of the ministers who are or have been involved at Barney's is one of sadness and reflection, but ultimately positivity - no one was injured, and it was just a building, after all.
All the same, when I drove past the site on my way home yesterday, there were a few groups of people standing just outside the gate, staring in and holding each other tightly.
Some of the people I know who are connected with Barney's have blog entries about this:
Jodi
Justin
2. In news that might be more familiar to non-Australians, two miners who were trapped in a rock fall in Tasmania for two weeks were rescued - relatively unscathed - this week. This was a heartwarming story, even though one man died earlier. People are complaining about the media making the most of it, but really, it's the sort of thing we love to hear about - survival against the odds, people working together for something so unarguably good. Apparently when the men were rescued, a nearby church rang its bell - a bell that hasn't been rung since the end of WWII.
But what I really wanted to say was that listening to ABC radio on the way home yesterday, I heard the song Colin Buchanan wrote about the saga. I've googled and there's no trace of it online yet, but if even the lyrics show up, I'll post a link. It's just simple story-telling in a song, and it brought tears to my eyes. "There's two alive in Beaconsfield..."
Incidentally, this was the same drive home I mentioned above. The song was playing as I passed Barney's. 
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mylla) wrote,
