Where is God after murder in Bourke Street, or devastating fire or flood, after a senseless accident or a plane crash at Essendon? In these places I learnt the language of anger and doubt, betrayal and pain. As the late, great cartoonist and poet Michael Leunig once said to me: “When there are no words, the heart speaks to the heart.”

In 1989, I became a pastoral care chaplain, and over the last 36 years chaplaincy has reshaped my faith understanding. Fifteen years ago, I became a volunteer with Victorian Council of Churches Emergencies Ministry (VCCEM), whose mission is to offer “compassion in times of........

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