Around the world there has been a noticeable decline in reading in recent years. This has been the case across all age groups. At the same time, there has been a noticeable increase in video viewing and scrolling. It is particularly reading for pleasure and reading long books and articles that has reduced. People arestill…
Recently we walked the new Ashley Gorge Skyline Track, which climbs out of the gorge to the open tops above. The new track was completed in March 2026 by the volunteer Ashley Gorge Tracks Group and involves a short section across private property. From the river at about 220 m above sea level, the track…
Ever since I began here at St Paul’s, my days off were Saturday and Monday. After all, those are traditionally the days off for clergy. My supervisor has suggested that I might want to look at changing that to Friday and Saturday to give me something like a weekend. International research has shown that this…
During the family holidays we also had a short stay in Moana on the West Coast. As there were some good children’s fares on offer, we went by train. As soon as we walked to the village from the train station one of the locals shouted: “Welcome to Moana!” With typical West Coast weather closing…
The 2026 Men’s Football World Cup has just concluded. I normally don’t watch much sport, but I have watched world cup games ever since the 1986 event. I have watched games on the TVs of neighbours, in the university student union, on a borrowed 5.5 inch TV in a student flat, in my parents’ living…
One of the things that parents of growing children experience is getting to know what music is popular among teenagers. At the moment, Taylor Swift is of course on everybody’s lips, but there are many others. One of the songs that mad me stop was “I’m sorry Mom” by Marino. I have no motivation, I…
Recently, I went to buy some over-the-counter medicines from Chemist Warehouse, ordering them online, so that they were ready to collect when I got there. I was told to look at the instructions, but otherwise was not given any advice. As I walked back home I reflected on how impersonal that shopping experience was in…
A few weeks ago I was tramping in the upper Waimakariri Valley with my children. We came to the hut early in the afternoon and gathered firewood from the nearby riverbed, where floods had deposited plenty of branches that had now dried out. As evening set, the valley became still. Not a breath of wind…
It seems that the internet knows that I have been looking at pictures of churches recently. As part of leading the study on church architecture and history, I was searching for pictures of a few churches that represented the point I was trying to make about architecture a bit better. I did find a few…
As a prominent church at a highly visible location and with bells ringing, St Paul’s regularly gets visitors. Some of them are in the country just briefly, others live here and may be looking for a church. Overall, I think that regular parishioners are quite welcoming towards those visitors. One of the ways of doing…