Helping People to Meet God • Make Friends • Grow in Faith

Posts from May 2022

Thinking of Heritage: the Good Ship St Paul’s  

Those who have been to Queenstown will be familiar with the venerable TSS (twin-screw steamer) Earnslaw, built in 1912 with a fundamental requirement being that she should ‘last forever’. Analogies with ships have long been built into church designs. The word ‘nave’, for example, is derived from the Latin ‘navis’ or ‘ship’, symbolising how the…

World Famous on Radio New Zealand…

Public and community-run cemeteries around the country are struggling to recruit staff and volunteers.  One volunteer at a Christchurch cemetery is holding the fort alone, and he, like many others, are crying out for help. Plans are in the works by the national organisation to prop up a recruitment campaign for burial places managed by…

Necessary for a good society?  

I recently watched an interview with the American philosopher Michael Sandel. In that interview he discussed inequality and our definition of success. He argued that in a good society a broad equality of condition is required.He said that required civil society to be designed in such a way that there are public places and common…

Times of rest

At our recent minister’s meeting Eddie O’Connor from the Sister Eveleen Retreat House came to speak to us. He spoke about the importance of taking a time of rest and reflection. He compared retreats to regular dentistry appointments. Just as we require regular health check-ups, so our spiritual health requires regular attention. While we do…