I still have problems with the understanding that Christmas is over on Boxing Day. As a child for us Christmas lasted from Christmas Eve to Epiphany. In many countries these days, New Zealand included, Christmas seems to begin sometime in the middle of November, and certainly is here by the 1st of December until it…

Earlier this year the New Zealand Church Missionary Society (CMS) asked us whether St Paul’s Papanui would consider becoming a Link Church for Neill and Rebekah Dunbar. A Link Church is a church that has committed to supporting a Mission Partner through the CMS. Link Churches provide spiritual, financial, practical and relational support for Mission…

About three weeks ago we checked the hutch of our female rabbit and found some new arrivals there. Eight little rabbits had arrived. And this time they thrived. The female rabbit had already given birth earlier to some young some weeks earlier, but that being her first litter the little rabbits had not survived. This…

A few days ago I was wandering through a shopping precinct and looked at the many shop fronts that were decorated for the forthcoming festive season. One sign caught my eye. I thought it read “‘tis the season to be holy”. What a strange sign! As I stopped to read the sign more closely, I…

As part of the St Paul’s skill sharing initiative I decided to make use of Julie Abbott’s offer to do some research into English ancestry. While my mother’s continental ancestry is quite well documented, the family didn’t know that much about the English connection. That comes in the figure of William Lawton. Unfortunately, William Lawton…

Sometimes we never really think about what just seems natural to us. For me that happened about the symmetry in nature.My daughter asked me one of those child’s questions: “Why do we have two ears?” I explained to her that with two ears we can distinguish the direction a sound came from. “Is that why…

Recently a friend from St John’s College days died in Fiji. We were invited to watch the funeral service on-line. We did not do it live, and later on only watched the highlights. The full funeral service was 4 ½ hours long. I think such a long funeral service would normally not be accepted in…

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…