The fearsome chief Te Rauparaha is particularly well known for the frequent armed expeditions he led to the South Island. These enabled him to control some of the northern parts of the South Island and exact loot from and revenge on Ngāi Tahu. He was taken into custody by British Troops in 1846 and returned…

To address the needs of communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle the Anglican Church has established the Anglican Cyclone Gabrielle Response Group ‘Hāpaitia’. As part of that response the St John’s College Trust Board has released $250,000 in emergency funds for immediate deployment. Some would see this as a minimum response given the wealth of the…

FloodingWe are shocked at the pictures we see of the flooding in the North Island. While scenes of flooding from around the world and New Zealand seem to have flashed across our screen more often in recent years, this is still of a magnitude that we haven’t seen often in New Zealand. The utter helplessness…

I do grocery shopping the manly way: I know exactly what I want, what shop I will get it in and where in the shop I’ll find it. I’ve got the in-and-out mentality, rather than browsing. I do compare the ingredients and do research on companies, though, but try to keep my time in the…

During our holiday travels we also stopped briefly in Lawrence, Otago. As we were coming into the townI told the children about the association of this town with New Zealand’s national anthem. For here inLawrence, John Joseph Woods wrote the tune for “God defend New Zealand”. As you will probably know, the poem was written…

As we are looking forward in this year, I want to highlight some events and initiatives that we have planned to connect to the community, to strengthen our own sense of community and to aim at spiritual and missional growth. There are occasions that we have long planned, such as Brass on the Grass on…

In this time between Epiphany (the revelation of God in Jesus, in particular the manifestation to the Gentiles) and Lent, the Lectionary suggests a series of readings of the first three chapters of Paul’s first (preserved) letter to the Corinthians as the Epistle reading. I thought we could follow that suggestion and have readings from…

As we enter into the new year it is a good time to look back and reflect what this year has brought us and to look forward to the next year. The past year was still dominated by COVID-19 with various restrictionson gatherings. Most of us have been infected with the virus during the year.…

Vestry has decided to support in principle the concept presented by Te Papanui Trust to refurbish the hall complex, integrating St Paul’s Hall more closely with the youth centre LOOP.An architectural concept design has been completed, which would allow greater integration andincorporating the Parish Office and Vicar’s Office as part of the overall redevelopment. The…

The origins of the Christmas tree seem to be shrouded somewhat in mystery. It seems that there were old pagan customs in Europe of decorating houses with evergreen plants in mid-winter. There are chronicled mentions from the 15th and 16th centuries of public Christmas trees in Baltic towns, for example in Riga, today in Latvia.…