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…
This Sunday I’m beginning a sermon series on St Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which will take us well into July. The Letter to the Romans is the Epistle reading in the Lectionary, but rather than following the exact passages in the Lectionary, I have decided to go through some of the key passages over these weeks. The Letter to the Romans…
On the 15th May Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical. Magnifica humanitas is about safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. It includes much wisdom and Christian insight. The encyclical is directed to the world at large, but from a distinct Christian viewpoint. “We wish to engage in dialogue with all…
This week the Christchurch City Council confirmed $15 million of funding towards the reopening of the Christchurch Cathedral, contingent on the government matching that funding and Christchurch Cathedral Reinstatement Limited showing a clear path to completion. What I noticed the most were all the negative comments around that funding—by newspapers, radio hosts and politicians, as…
From Monday to Wednesday I was at the clergy conference in Ashburton. Many of the clergy were billeted with parishioners, who also came to the church complex to help with meals, particularly doing the dishes. We had several presentations. One of them was by Crossway Church in Melbourne, which has successfully implemented the Bible Discovery…
Recently I read through a brief history of the Diocese of Waikato published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 1976. This now forms the major part of the Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki. The history also gives an overview of the church in the Waikato in the time prior to 1926. Two major themes ran through the booklet. One was…
Mother’s Day Recently one of our sons played his violin in a concert for the first time. Of course he played only very basic pieces of music, but it is a significant step from playing a few pieces with a piano to playing in an orchestra. When my mother saw the photos of her grandson…