Open Icon Baptist Church

07/06/2026

"Faith is not a mental exercise — it's the reaching, grasping, hoping of beggars who trust that God's grace will prevail."
This week's sermon from our visiting preacher, Aksel Lund, who joined us live from Stavanger, Norway.

Faith is not a mental exercise — it's the reaching, grasping, hoping of beggars who trust that God's grace will prevail.

02/06/2026

An ancient icon of the Trinity shows us a table of radical hospitality — and calls us not just to sit at it, but to become it.
This week's sermon - Our Invitation into the Trinity

An ancient icon of the Trinity shows us a table of radical hospitality — and calls us not just to sit at it, but to become it.

24/05/2026

"Jesus offers living water to a world sold counterfeit spirits — but bad experiences with cheap substitutes needn't put us off the real thing."
Our Pentecost Sunday sermon.

Jesus offers living water to a world sold counterfeit spirits — but bad experiences with cheap substitutes needn't put us off the real thing.

15/05/2026

When everything familiar has gone and the new thing hasn't arrived yet, the disciples' upper room is closer to home than we might think.
Our sermon for the Feast of the Ascension
https://openicon.church/sermons/still-staring-at-the-sky/

10/05/2026

The Apostle Paul, a Muslim Uber driver, and a Georgian bishop walk into the one sermon — and together reframe what Christian interfaith encounter could look like.
https://openicon.church/sermons/findable-faith-across-traditions/

04/05/2026

What God actually looks like.
Philip asked Jesus to show him God. The answer dismantles centuries of angry-God theology — and exposes the retributive impulse hiding in all of us.
This week's sermon from open icon baptist church.
https://openicon.church/sermons/what-god-actually-looks-like/

27/04/2026

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/26/pope-leo-trump-hegseth-christianity

With his stand against Trump, the pope has shown the far right doesn’t have a monopoly on Christianity. If people of good faith push hard, the future could be redefined

26/04/2026

https://openicon.church/sermons/the-gate-that-stands-open/

Jesus came that we might have life in abundance — but abundant life can't be hoarded. If we try to secure it at others' expense, it stops being life at all.

19/04/2026

Earlier this evening, the members and congregation of the South Yarra Community Baptist Church voted to formally change their name to Open Icon Baptist Church.
Our new name was chosen through nearly two years of congregational discernment — a process that took seriously both our history and our new reality. The need for a new name arose simply: without even the building, we had no remaining connection to the South Yarra neighbourhood. But the naming process became something more than a practical exercise. It became an opportunity to ask who we are and what we are called to be.
The name Open Icon holds together two layers of meaning. In the Christian tradition, an icon is not simply an image to be observed but a window — something through which the gaze is drawn beyond itself toward the living reality of God. In digital culture, an icon is similarly a symbol through which one enters a larger space. For an online congregation, both meanings describe exactly what we are called to be: a point of entry into something that exceeds us. The word ‘open’ speaks of our intentional stance — toward God, toward one another, toward the stranger. To speak of an open icon is to hold together reverence and hospitality: depth without exclusion, contemplation without distance, beauty without possession.
But the name reaches further still. The Christian tradition has always understood human beings as icons — bearers of the image of God. We are not merely people who use icons in prayer; we are called to become icons ourselves: open windows through which something of the life of God becomes visible and accessible to the world. Individually and together, our call is to live that image openly — not claiming to have arrived at it, but remaining oriented toward it, allowing the light of God's love and justice and welcome to show through us, however imperfectly. This is what we mean when we say we seek to be a living open icon. It is less a description of what we are than a direction we continue to travel.

19/04/2026

What Were You Expecting?

When the executed one comes back, everyone expects retribution. The shock of resurrection is that he doesn't....

When the executed one comes back, everyone expects retribution. The shock of resurrection is that he doesn't.