Mid-Week Prayer & Discussion Groups

The Good Shepherd is pleased to present a range of mid-week prayer and discussion groups for the growth and development of Christians in the life of Christ.

All mid-week prayer and discussion groups are conducted online using Zoom. To learn how to join, subscribe to the weekly newsletter (see below).

Patristics Reading Group

Mondays - 8:00pm-9:00pm online

Immersing ourselves in the words of the Fathers and the mind of the Church and coming together for discussion.

Orthodox Christian Fellowship

Tuesdays - 7:30pm-9:00pm online

Reading, listening, watching and discussing various topics together through the year.

Prayer Group

Wednesdays - 8:00-9:00pm online

The Prayer Group prays Small Compline and intercessory prayers together online.

Book Club

Thursdays (fortnightly) - 8:00-9:00pm online with Fr. Geoff

Join the book club sessions for just the book(s) you want to read!

Blog

Take Up Your Cross: Giving Without Calculation

Daniel McInnes

September 20, 2026 10:00 AM

On the Sunday after the Elevation of the Cross, Daniel McInnes asks what it actually means to take up your cross and follow Christ. Our whole life — not just the Sunday part of it — is the cross we are given to bear, and bearing it well means giving to the people around us without calculating the cost or the return. Drawing on his work as a mathematician and on his days at the Defence Academy, he shows how the modern instinct to optimise everything fails in the places that matter most, and how even involuntary suffering trains us to give with our whole heart.

The Tree of Life: Why We Glory in the Cross

Fr. Nicholas Frazer

September 13, 2026 10:00 AM

Ahead of the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, Fr. Nicholas Frazer preaches on why the cross stands at the very centre of the Orthodox faith. Drawing on Christ's words to Nicodemus and on Ss. John Chrysostom, Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, he traces the pattern of salvation history: death came through a tree in paradise, and life comes through the tree of the cross. The cross is shown as the revelation of God's love, the throne of the King and the defeat of death — and each of us is called to take it up daily in forgiveness, humility and repentance.

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