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.…

Last week I went to the induction of a vicar into his new parish. As usual when travelling around Christchurch I went by bus. At the end of the event I had just missed the bus that provided the quicker connection back to Papanui, so took the long, slow bus ride home. As I entered…

Over a year ago I wrote about the hole along the bike path that we encountered on our way to school every school day. We had to look out for the hole, so that we would not end up having an accident. One of the parishioners contacted me shortly after the newsletter was published and…

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.Do nothing out of selfish ambition or…

Last week we finally got our washing machine back after more than three months. It had a defect, but was still under warranty. For just over a month we had no washing machine at all. We had to resort to quite a bit of hand washing and I occasionally went to the laundromat to get…