The Parish Annual General Meeting is planned for 28 April 2024. We fall under the Charities Regulations, as well as Church Statutes. Therefore, such an AGM has to satisfy a whole host of requirements. We will review the past year and also consider a motion on the property. If you want to bring any other…

Some of the most famous music written by Johann Sebastian Bach are the St. John’s Passion and the St. Matthew’s Passion, which recount in detail the trial and crucifixion of Jesus in musical form. They continue to be frequently performed and set the tone for Good Friday. It is known that Bach also composed a…

Recently I read an article on road safety online and decided to also read the comments under it. Most of these had one message: “If we didn’t have all these bad drivers on the road, there would be no problem.” Clearly, it was always the fault of others. That reminded me of the statistic that…

The other day I was taking the bus to the Port Hills as I often do. On the way I usually read a book and enjoy the trip. But this time it was not possible. There were too many distractions. A young woman loudly discussed her circle of friends on her phone, analysing the tensions…

Last year we went to the Dominican Republic to visit my wife’s friends and family. The return journey back to New Zealand took us via the United States. In total, we had four flights to catch, making our way from Santiago (Dominican Republic) to Christchurch. The journey turned out to be difficult with several delays…

It is time to give you a progress report on the sale of the tennis court land. We are continuing the process with the Christchurch Methodist Mission on the sale of the land. At the moment we are discussing the exact dimensions of the land that would be retained by CPT on behalf of the…

Just as in many other European countries there are currently many protests in Germany: farmer protests against cessation of subsidies and the increased cost of living; and protests against far-right groups. All these protests are enlarged by online rhetoric, so that it really appears a crisis on many fronts. I recently read an article that…

As part of a questionnaire on Biblical Literacy, I looked at the Biblical books I preached on since I have come to St Paul’s. Among the books that I had not preached on was the book of Lamentations. “Something has to be done about that,” I thought. But when could I preach about Lamentations? The…

Lent has come upon us very early and quickly this year. As in most Anglican Parishes, we normally have a specific Lenten Study during this time. While the Diocese does produce a booklet each year for a Lenten Study, participants have felt that these are not always helpful. Nevertheless, I thought we could comply with…

We spent most of our recent holidays in St Arnaud, Nelson Lakes. We decided not to take a holiday from church and went to the local chapel on the Sunday morning. The view through the sanctuary windows to the lake and mountains beyond is probably even more dramatic than the views from the Church of…