Australian Women Preach

Tracy, Tricia and Louise reflect the origins of the Australian Women Preach and discuss what's next for the team behind the podcast. Tracy McEwan (PhD) is a theologian and sociologist of religion and gender at the University of Newcastle. Her writing and research interests include women in Catholicism; gendered violence; church participation, generations, and life stage. Tracy’s monograph Women an...

First Sunday of Lent - Luke 4:1-13 Andrea Dean is the current president of WATAC. She has been a keen supporter of women through her work in education, ministry and spirituality. She lives and works in Canberra, having spent more than 25 years as a Sister of St Joseph of Goulburn. Andrea grew up on Wiradjuri country, in the village of Adelong, NSW.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Luke 6:39-45 - You are the greatest project you will ever work on. Dr Josephine Armour is a retired Anglican priest and former Dominican Sister from Adelaide, where she has been a teacher for much of her working life. Jo has been the parish priest at St Chad’s Anglican church until her recent retirement. She lectures in systematic theology at St Barnabas College an...

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Luke 6:27-38 - Love your enemies be compassionate Mikali (they/them) is a candidate for ministry in the NSW/ACT Synod of the Uniting Church. They write for the sacred arts collective Marion St , which creates worship music centring voices from the margins of the church. As a trans-femme non-binary person, Mikali is passionate about inclusive spiritual community an...

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Luke 6:17, 20-26 Bei-En Zou studies theology at Catholic Theological College in Melbourne. She was nourished in the Protestant tradition, and serves as a licensed lay minister in an Anglican church called St. James' Old Cathedral, in West Melbourne. In the past she has worked in university student ministry, and in ministry in supporting Christian city workers. S...

Steph Jorna is a Brisbane based singer-songwriter, youth leader and teacher now working for the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane as Synod Coordinator and Project Officer-Inclusion. Prior to this, she designed and implemented Brisbane Catholic Education’s system approach to student formation and youth ministry. Steph is passionate about shaping and facilitating effective, empowering and psychologic...

The Presentation of the Lord - Luke 2:22-40 - Holding Hope Laura Tharion is the women’s minister at Macquarie Anglican Eastwood. Here she is passionate about discipleship, pastoral care, justice seeking, and nurturing flourishing community. She studied history and anthropology at Sydney University, and theology at Sydney Mission and Bible College. She is a writer, preacher, story coach, bibliophil...

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Luke: 1:1-4, 4:14-21 Revd Canon Professor Dorothy Lee AM FAHA is a biblical scholar and Anglican priest with many years experience in lecturing in New Testament, including the Gospel of John. She has written and taught in feminist theology and women's ministry in the New Testament. Born in Scotland she was educated at the Universities of Newcastle and Sydney. She li...

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - John 2:1-11 - A Joyous Sign Rev Dr Christine Redwood is the pastor at Seaforth Baptist Church in Sydney. She recently completed her PhD in preaching, the Old Testament and feminist hermeneutics. Her first book draws on her thesis and is titled ‘Hear Her Voice’. It was published in 2024. Christine loves being creative and is passionate about films, theatre, writing, an...

Baptism of the Lord - Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 Geraldine (Gerry) Vytilingam has over 10 years of experience in ministry, spanning across rural, regional and metropolitan areas of Queensland and Victoria. Her dynamic skill set has developed over the last seven years working in Catholic education, through facilitating liturgies, social justice advocacy, staff formation, music ministry and student leaders...

The Epiphany of the Lord - Matthew 2:1-12 Rev. Radhika Sukumar-White (she/her) has been a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia since 2016. A second-generation Sri Lankan Tamil Australian, she grew up in Canberra before moving to Sydney to study Physiotherapy, Music and then Theology. Radhika is interested in leading dynamic and sacred worship, preaching, teaching and walking alo...

Christmastide - John 1:1-18 - Weaving the Word. In this time of Christmas tide we have decided to revisit a stunning sermon from 3 years ago. I invite you to take this moment: breathe, relax and immerse yourself in the poetics of palawa woman Alison Overeem as she reflects upon the Gospel of John, weaving stories into the flight of butterflies. Alison Overeem is a proud palawa woman from South-Eas...

Fourth Sunday of Advent - Luke 1:39-45 - Leaping with Joy: Celebrating Divine Energies Embodied. Rena MacLeod is a biblical scholar who researches and writes in the areas of violent biblical narratives, mimetic theory, and feminist theory. Her research draws out the shared space between women’s contemporary experience of men’s violence, and those experiences reflected in biblical texts of female v...

Third Sunday of Advent - Luke 3:10-18 Robyn Whitaker is Associate Professor of New Testament at Pilgrim Theological College in the University of Divinity, and Director of The Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy.  She is also an ordained Uniting Church minister. Robyn specialises in the Book of Revelation and the Synoptic Gospels, writing for both academic and popular audiences. H...

Second Sunday of Advent -Luke 3:1-6 Keren Terpstra is the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, Sale in the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. Before coming to Sale, Keren had appointments in Melbourne, and before that in Brisbane, where she trained and was ordained. She is a passionate Trekkie, loses herself in Chinese dramas, engages in imaginative worlds by writing fanfiction and playing PS4, enjoys walking...

First Sunday of Advent - Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Gillian writes: I am the Chaplain and Head of Religious and Values Education at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School in Brisbane, a position I have held for the past 10 years. Prior to that I have been a parish priest, worked in a cathedral, assisted a Primate and most importantly, been mum to 4 amazing children.  I am an Anglican priest with tertiary qua...

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe - John 18:33-37 The Right Rev’d Sarah Plowman is Assistant Bishop in the Anglican Church Southern Queensland. She has spent most of her life in SE Qld, growing up on the Sunshine Coast. She began her career as a Physics and Maths teacher, during which time she explored a vocational call into youth ministry. After serving in parish and Diocesan roles in y...

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Psalm 91 Dr Robyn Ober is a Mamu/Djirribal woman from Far North Queensland. She is a Lead Researcher at Batchelor Institute in the Northern Territory spanning three decades. She is well renowned for her expertise of both-ways pedagogy, working to combine Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing, being and learning in teaching practice and research. She s...

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 12: 38-44 - How can we be more generous with what we have? Bernadette has had a long career as a secondary school RE teacher, retiring last year from a Catholic girls’ school in Melbourne. She currently teaches Religious Education to both primary and secondary pre-service teachers at Australian Catholic University. She graduated with her Doctor of Philo...

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 12:28-34 Di writes: I am a Buandik First Nations woman. I am Reverend Canon Auntie Di Langham, Director of Reconciliation in Newcastle Anglican. I am mother of four, grandmother of 14 and great grandmother of 7. My ministry has included Juvenile Justice Chaplin and 20 years as a gaol chaplain. I am secretary of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islan...

30th Sunday Ordinary Time - Mark 10:46-52 Helen Cunningham OP is a member of the Dominican sisters of Eastern Australia and The Solomon Islands. She has a teaching background in various areas of education including adult education. She has a Masters in pastoral ministry (USA) and a Masters in Applied Christian Spirituality (Dublin). Both of these degrees were completed after she retired from teach...

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10:35-45 Ann Rennie is a Melbourne writer and teacher.  She has a regular column in Australian Catholics and has contributed to The Sunday Age Faith column for the past 25 years.  She has been published in The Age, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, WA Today, Brisbane Times and Madonna . Ann is a former REC and is currently teaching English and R...

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10:17-30 Angela works as a Pastoral Associate for the Passionist led St Joseph's Parish in Hobart, and is the Administrative Assistant for WATAC (Women and the Australian Church). She is passionate about the silenced female voice in the lectionary and finds the presence of God in the gift of the Australian Women Preach team, her theological studies, and...

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 10: 2-16 Penny Jones Penny is an Anglican priest and spiritual companion, who has been offering spiritual guidance and inspiration for more than thirty five years.  As a dancer, labyrinth and InterPlay facilitator, and yoga practitioner, she is especially drawn to the interface of spirituality and the body, and to the ways in which physical movement ca...

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 Dr Mayrah Yarraga Dreise says... I am a proud Yuwalaraay and Gamilaraay Woman from Southwest Queensland Northwest New South Wales. I speak and teach our languages in our community and lead local dance (yulagi) ceremonies. I am also a visual artist considering Australian History, stolen generations, intergenerational trauma and the impa...