With the increasing spread of the coronavirus, there is some concern about how this may affect us as church. The Bishop has published the following guidelines: “We should always follow good public health and hygiene habits. For public worship, the Bishop advises: 1. Wash hands, particularly celebrants (I am doing this). 2. Use hand sanitizers. (As soon as we can get some…
Helping People to Meet God • Make Friends • Grow in Faith
Helping People to Meet God • Make Friends • Grow in Faith
Vicar’s Blog (Page 23)
Moving house is always a great time for a clean-out. I have moved frequently through my life and so had many opportunities for a clean-out. Nevertheless, it is always amazing how much stuff we have amassed in a relatively short span of time. As I go through the belongings I always weigh up whether we might use an item in future or…
Breaking Bread Jesus frequently ate with his disciples and the crowds, breaking bread and sharing it with those around him. At the last supper Jesus “took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them …” (Luke 20:19). Similarly, the first church met together to break bread and remember the Lord’s death, resurrection and coming. Breaking bread together meant sharing…
CHURCH BELLS We lived in Switzerland for 2½ years, where I studied for my doctorate at the University of Bern. We lived in Thun, a city by a lake. We decided to come back to New Zealand, where I would complete my studies at St John’s College in Auckland. New Zealand is a beautiful country, but so is Switzerland and it was…
You may have noticed that I use the pulpit when I preach. That is not so that I can shout at the congregation, but rather because of the symbolism of the pulpit and the heritage it represents. Some preachers prefer not to use the pulpit because they seem to talk down to people. And yet, the pulpit is actually a symbol that…
We all experience change in our lives, don’t we, in fact it’s unavoidable and seems to come at set points in our lives. Having recently become ‘empty nesters’ my wife and I are experiencing no small amount of change in our lives right now! Earlier in the year our son moved to Wellington for work, and last month our daughter moved to…
Hillary and I were sitting in a café the other day when she spotted this quote on a TV screen: “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” I thought that was quite profound. It’s actually a quote from business management guru, Stephen Covey. It kind of goes with that old saying that we have…
When I was a young lad growing up in England I had many dreams about what I wanted to be when I grew up. First I wanted to be an astronaut, after all, the Apollo missions were in full swing, Neil Armstrong had walked on the moon, and Star Wars was a huge hit in the cinemas, all of which had set…
During the early 1990’s I had the misfortune to be made redundant from my Job, I was a service manager at a motorcycle dealer at the time. I loved that Job as it combined my passion for motorcycles and the necessity of gainful employment. This lead to a prolonged period where over the next four years I was made redundant three times…