Words from the streets of Kings Cross and Bondi Beach
About Jon Owen
“I am the Pastor and CEO of Wayside Chapel. I write with my heart wide open and my eyes looking at life. I am a philosopher, a dreamer, a tower of weakness, a leader and a follower, a husband and a father and I hope to give you a flavour of life by the wayside.”
About the Inner Circle Newsletter
The Inner Circle is a weekly letter with musings on humanity, acceptance, and love from the Pastor and CEO of Wayside Chapel. It often includes anecdotes of life at Wayside Chapel and speaks to anyone who wants to lean deeper into the question of what it means to be human.
Escape Rooms
Dear Inner Circle, Often we simplify morality into concepts of doing ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ – like the lolly we stole from a milk bar once
Love Over Hate
Dear Inner Circle, It isn’t every day that you have conversations with people that you know will be your last. Well yesterday I had three
Good Enough
Dear Inner Circle, Many people ask what this year has been like around here. Sometime around mid-August, someone walked into our building. There were no
The Weight of a Soul
Dear Inner Circle, Life often swings between the profane and the profound, presenting us with moments of levity amidst the gravest of times. I recall
Note to Self
Dear Inner Circle,It’s worth coming to Wayside just to experience the goodwill at the front desks of our Community Service Centres. Here, you will witness
The Spirit That Hovers
Dear Inner Circle, In 2007 we packed up our entire lives, including two toddlers into our Tarago to move from Melbourne to Sydney. We had
Hankies, Anchors and Guiding Lights
Dear Inner Circle, Under the chair in my office is a small box, it arrived about a year ago. Inside is a supply of handmade
Smoothed By Tides
Dear Inner Circle Yesterday a small group came together to scatter the ashes of a precious member of the Wayside Chapel community in Bondi. His
Echoes From The Alleyway
Dear Inner Circle, In our old neighbourhood, my wife Lisa and I once took in a bright young man, with life in his eyes and
Taking Time for Renewal
Dear Inner Circle, Human existence is fundamentally interpersonal. Human beings are not isolated, free-floating objects but rather, subjects entangled in perpetual, multiple, shifting relationships —
