The pond retreats to Melbourne, besieged by Pell's burning bushes and the Sydney Calvinist Anglicans in full party sunnies and surf mode ...

(Above: now there's a burning bush. And no cheap ancient jokes, puh-lease).

The pond is off to Melbourne for the weekend, meaning intrepid voyagers and occasional readers will have the direct undiluted pleasure of the commentariat without any bonus commentary.

Alternatively, if you simply stop hitting your head with this kind of verbal hammer, you too might have a weekend full of relaxed leisure, pleasure and joy ... or perhaps have a series of bog Irish arguments around the kitchen table about the renewed role the DLP can play in Catholic political life ... or perhaps a few drinks celebrating the crucial role of the Irish in growing potatoes in Victoria.

Whatever your choice, you can always catch up with the week old thoughts of Cardinal Pell for the Sunday Terror, faithfully recycled at the Sydney Catholic site, and yes, it seems, according to God in Egypt, that while Cardinal Pell is a fully fledged climate science denialist - global warming, acidification of oceans, say what? - he's a firm believer in burning bushes:

Why did the one true God choose to reveal himself to Moses through the burning bush on this ugly and remote mountain?

While Elijah also found God in the gentle breeze, not the earthquake or tumult, on this mountain, God's choice of locale is still a mystery.

Indeed. How Pell can blather on about burning bushes, right out of the old testament, and at the same time conduct a war on the head of the Bureau of Meteorology (Pell row with climate scientist heats up), must remain a mystery.

It goes to show the power of literalism remains strong in the church, and anyone can be up for a good miracle from the old testament, whether Noah's ark or a burning bush.

Next thing you know Pell will be explaining how cannibalism is okay if it's just the actual body and blood of Christ ...

Meanwhile, over at the Sydney Anglicans, Phillip Jensen seems to be anticipating the census results and down-sizing its meaning, in The Heart of Growing Christianity:

The world takes a census, of our numbers, size and influence but it does not know what it is counting. For the institutional size of a Christian denomination or church tells you little about its growth or impact. We will not have greater effect in Australia by being in a bigger organization, but by being a more Christian one.

Yes indeed, a smaller organisation is by far the better way to go, as shown by the Communist party faithful in the antipodes. They've always followed the line that to have a greater effect in Australia, they don't need to be a bigger organisation, just one that gets rid of all the splitters, recalcitrants and heretics, so that what's left can be ever more purely Communist.

We look forward to the continuing downsizing of the Anglican church in Sydney.

Our thinking must be his thinking – of going into the world to voluntarily lay down our lives for the salvation of others.

Does this mean I can call on a Sydney Anglican to attend the family reunion in place of myself?

Uh huh. Thought not. The risk factor is too great ...

Come to think of it, I can't recollect any Sydney Anglican recently voluntarily laying down their lives for the salvation of others - the streets of Sydney are conspicuously absent of Anglican corpses - but I guess it's any rhetorical flourish in a storm.

And with that we wish you a happy weekend, full in the Sydney Anglican way of sunnies and surf.

If male, likely as not there'll be chicks under your arm every which way, and if female, a handsome sunny-wearing stud with a suitably Christian demeanour.

Oh yes, Sydney, where even the Cavlinist Anglicans are sensual hedonists, it's time to retreat to the chastity and purity of Melbourne ...

(Below: no link, just a screen cap to evoke how you can best lay down your life for the salvation of others, Sydney Calvinist Anglican style. Oh it's lascivious fun for all ... and apologies to the models if indeed they aren't Calvinists or Anglicans).