One of the biggest criticisms of the church reformer Martin Luther is his attitude towards Jews. Some of his later writings were clearly anti-Semitic and quite vicious. However, he did not always have that attitude. Initially, he felt that Jews may even be his allies in their knowledge of the Scriptures. In any case, he…

The Diocese of Christchurch has employed a safeguarding officer this year to bring “safeguarding practices” up to speed. As a result, we as a parish were encouraged to adopt policies and procedures that reflect what is required of a charitable organisation in today’s world. While the Diocese provided some of the templates for this, Ruth…

Our 1-year-old son doesn’t really talk, but he does make various noises that we, as his parents, have learned to understand, particularly because he also uses quite expressive hand signals. Bi-lingual children normally start to talk significantly later than those growing up with only one language. That’s why we enjoy his communication style at the…

In recent years the number of Anglicans has steadily declined in New Zealand. In contrast, the number of Catholics has slowly grown. That is partly due to immigration: more people from dominantly Catholic countries arrive in New Zealand than from dominantly Anglican countries (such as some parts of Africa).With its worldwide coherence and clear rules…

This week, in a brief moment of quiet, I looked through a book on New Zealand Heritage buildings, which I had bought from Dove Bookshop. I noticed that there were quite a few churches among the heritage buildings. That is not unique to New Zealand. In Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East…