On the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, 1,300 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle is the Svalbard Seed Vault. Built 150 metres deep into the rock of a mountain at a site with no seismic activity, kept at a constant -18 degrees Celsius, and aided by the permafrost, the massive concrete and steel structure is designed to withstand a nuclear strike, or any other global disaster in order to keep its contents safe for thousands of years and ensure the survival of the world’s crops.

If Jesus wanted to ensure the survival of the church you might have thought he’d come up with something like that. Instead, he chose Peter. Go figure.

~ Pastor John Strelan

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My maternal grandmother died of a heart attack when I was a teenager. She was the quintessential grandma: every morning she would have the wood stove stoked long before anyone else was up so the kitchen was snug and cosy. She was kind and patient. Best of all, as a late-night snack, she would whip up these delicious cheese sandwiches: soft, white bread cut into triangles (with the crusts cut off, of course!) She was married to my grandfather for 44 years. Several years after she died, I asked my grandfather how he was going. He answered: “The evenings are the worst. It’s too quiet. It’s the silence that kills me”.

Silence is not always profound, or welcome, or spiritual. Sometimes it just sucks!

Like when you’ve been to every specialist under the sun and there is no answer to your pain.

Like when your child is backpacking in South America and you haven’t heard from her in three weeks.

Like when you turn the key in the car’s ignition and nothing happens.

Or, like when you pray, you plead, you petition God and he answers not a word.

Sometimes silence is not golden.

~ Pastor John Strelan

Click here for a link to our new spotify podcast containing the latest sermon recordings.

If you are unable to access spotify, 2026 sermon recordings can be found here

Duthy Street.

Someone needs to teach Google Maps how to pronounce Duthy St. (it’s not Duh-thee, it’s Doo-thee!) But, that’s beside the point.

Duthy Street. Every workday between 8-8.30am and 5-5.30pm Doo-thee Street is transformed by the sound of progress, of productivity, of advancement, of achievement, of energy, of power, of modern life! I crack open my office window and hear it. Traffic noise. People busily, and importantly, going places. Often places so important that there is only one person in each car! Buses rumbling, motorcycles revving, the modified exhaust of that souped-up sports car popping, even electric cars aren’t silent, their tires hum on the asphalt. And, in all those vehicles radios are blaring, speaker phones are intruding, kids are arguing on the way to school, Google maps is pronouncing street names wrong. It’s the soundtrack of modern life as we all try to be somewhere.

But, Duthy Street at 10pm on any weeknight is a different story. I can stand in the middle of the road without a car in sight (and I occasionally do). I don’t have to be anywhere, I can just be. And, it’s quiet. So quiet. So quiet it’s profound. Even spiritual!

~ Pastor John Strelan

Click here for a link to our new spotify podcast containing the latest sermon recordings.

If you are unable to access spotify, 2026 sermon recordings can be found here