While some of the most stringent restrictions of the Lockdown may end soon, the country will still be determined by the response to COVID-19 for some time. Public worship services will not recommence before we are at Level 2: the Bishop will issue further instructions when and how such services may be celebrated and to what extent we can open the church…
Helping People to Meet God • Make Friends • Grow in Faith
Helping People to Meet God • Make Friends • Grow in Faith
Posts by Rusty (Page 20)
There has been a silver lining to the terrible human tragedy of Coronavirus and that is the bouncing back of nature and the environment. You will have heard of the Venice canals running clear and the return of fish, for the first time in living memory. In Wellington a very rare leucistic tauhou (waxeye) was photographed by Holly Neil. In other places,…
The beach is my favourite place. Some people love going into the bush, some love climbing mountains, some love the canyons of cities. I love the beach. For ten years I lived and worked across the road from one of Australia’s most popular beaches. From my office I could see to the where the sea and sky met, and watch dolphins, whales,…
Anyone keeping “in touch” under lockdown via IT will be aware of the amount of humour loose on the …….whatever waves they are. Did you see the picture of one of our ‘guardians’ of the lockdown admonishing our Lord for the intention of breaking the rule of staying at home over the holiday? He was emerging from his tomb, slightly breathless after…
“Lead me Lord, lead me in thy righteousness, Make thy way known before my face, For it is thou, Lord, thou Lord only That maketh me dwell in safety.” More than sixty years ago, with only a mediocre alto voice, I was nevertheless accepted into St James’ Church Choir in Lower Hutt. We sang some wonderful choral music, and the words of…
As the Coronavirus hit us, I was reminded again how real God is when I received the same message from three separate sources disconnected from one another and on the same day. I often find the Trinity triangulates. Philippians 4:6. (I grew up on RSV so it’s here in that translation, although usually I’m an NIV guy). 6 Have no anxiety about…
It may seem like a distant memory now, but some of you may still be able to visualize the film we watched at our film night in early March. It was called “All Saints” and retold the real story of how the All Saints Church in Smyrna, Tennessee, avoided closure. The Episcopalian rector at the church knew that God told him to…
Heritage is a valuable thing. The Jews looked back to the Exodus, as well as the Mesopotamian man of Chaldean Ur, Abram, whose father was a pagan, for their sense of origin and being. Abraham was therefore an ‘Iraqi.’ “Hebrews” –descendants of Eber. We look back to 1852 when St Paul’s was built inside and from the timber stand that was Papanui…
There are lots of thoughts about what wellbeing is but let’s agree that it is when we feel contented and at peace with ourselves, others and our God. We can think about physical wellbeing, emotional, mental, family and spiritual wellbeing. The WHO (World Health Organization) has suggested five ways of achieving wellbeing. Giving. This can be giving of time, just being with…
Some of us are spending this lockdown time in getting ‘things sorted’. Having ‘sized down’ into our Ryman’s villa 5 years ago, I thought that we had jettisoned pretty well and it felt really good to be nicely lightened. As I use some of this time to check cupboards (and the garage!) I can almost hear The Teacher — Ecclesiastes — saying…