Recently a friend from St John’s College days died in Fiji. We were invited to watch the funeral service on-line. We did not do it live, and later on only watched the highlights. The full funeral service was 4 ½ hours long. I think such a long funeral service would normally not be accepted in…

One of the biggest criticisms of the church reformer Martin Luther is his attitude towards Jews. Some of his later writings were clearly anti-Semitic and quite vicious. However, he did not always have that attitude. Initially, he felt that Jews may even be his allies in their knowledge of the Scriptures. In any case, he…

The Diocese of Christchurch has employed a safeguarding officer this year to bring “safeguarding practices” up to speed. As a result, we as a parish were encouraged to adopt policies and procedures that reflect what is required of a charitable organisation in today’s world. While the Diocese provided some of the templates for this, Ruth…

Our 1-year-old son doesn’t really talk, but he does make various noises that we, as his parents, have learned to understand, particularly because he also uses quite expressive hand signals. Bi-lingual children normally start to talk significantly later than those growing up with only one language. That’s why we enjoy his communication style at the…

In recent years the number of Anglicans has steadily declined in New Zealand. In contrast, the number of Catholics has slowly grown. That is partly due to immigration: more people from dominantly Catholic countries arrive in New Zealand than from dominantly Anglican countries (such as some parts of Africa).With its worldwide coherence and clear rules…

This week, in a brief moment of quiet, I looked through a book on New Zealand Heritage buildings, which I had bought from Dove Bookshop. I noticed that there were quite a few churches among the heritage buildings. That is not unique to New Zealand. In Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East…

Government requirements have not substantially changed regarding church services, except that the limit for gatherings is now 100 people, rather than 50. However, there have been several changes made to the way the government guidelines are to be implemented in the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch. This is in part due to a letter from the…

From the Middle Ages onwards in some churches there have been rented pews. These gave the family who owned the title to particular pews sole access to the pews in the Church, certainly during service times. This allowed the wealthy and office holders to sit in the most prestigious places, enjoying the service and their…

We might be in lockdown, but work on some projects still continues. That also includes consideration of what will happen to the tennis court lands. Before lockdown the wardens and I met a developer who is working with the Heathcote – Mt Pleasant Anglican Parish to develop land adjacent to St Mary’s in Heathcote. As…

The beautiful weather we had these last days of the extended lockdown reminds me of the sunny days during lockdown last year. Then we were in autumn; now it seems spring has arrived. Maybe apart from the sunny days it is also that we’ve got a bit more time to experience the sunny days, even…