Lindsay van Dijk, a humanist, has been appointed by the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust to lead a chaplaincy team that includes Christian, Buddhist, and Bahai members. As Lindsay told the Guardian, ‘A lot of people don’t have an organised faith, but still have spiritual and emotional needs at difficult times. Often people are trying to […]
Shame on you Dr Billy Graham
Dr Billy Graham, often called one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 21st Century, died on 21st February. He was a powerful influence on my life in the 1950’s and 60’s, and not in a good way. His evangelical preaching filled stadiums worldwide including New Zealand in 1959 but by the time of […]
No religion but still soulful
The moment arrived. I opened the New Zealand Census webpage, filled in my code and with one click of the mouse became a No Religion, one of the fastest growing groups in our community. To be honest, I didn’t feel that I had an option. Although I’ve tangled with what we mean by God for most […]
Jacinda, Episcopalians and El Shaddai
Jacinda Adern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, is having a baby. But you probably already know that unless you’ve been holidaying on Mars. Her partner Clarke is to be the main caregiver dealing with the general insanity a new addition brings along with getting baby to mum for feeds whether she’s running a caucus meeting, […]
Not Christian theology!
‘So,’ said my Jungian analyst, voice quiet but interested. ‘You didn’t put your ordination dates in this autobiography.’ I scrambled to find the page and chuckled when I realised that I hadn’t even noticed the omission. An inadvertent absence was pointing to something more. Two years have passed since I stepped out into the uncertain […]
Religion for atheists
‘Oh, I’m not religious’, is one of the first things people say to me when they know I’m a priest or chaplain. ‘That’s interesting’, seems the only reasonable response, which inevitably prompts a fascinating conversation about spirituality, the meaning of life and yes, even God, or more properly put, what on earth we mean by God. […]
Hooking up with Theo, again
Did you ever have a first love that you couldn’t leave behind? Whatever new friends you made, you just wanted that connection so much, even though it was hard to figure out what it was all about, exactly? Theo and I are like that. We formally got together in January of 2000. I’d travelled 1200 […]
Neville Duckmanton: the great encourager
Dear Neville I want to tell you, and anyone else in earshot, that you were one of the most encouraging people I’ve ever known. You were also generous, kind, clever and remarkably adept at making archaic systems work for good. You were the school principal of second and third chances, a teacher who’d seen it […]
Standing for Spiritual Independence Alongside Gretta the Heretic
In the old days, we used to burn heretics. Nowadays, there are more subtle approaches. The Reverend Gretta Vosper, a United Church of Canada minister has undergone the new methods by being deemed unsuitable for ordained ministry. Gretta doesn’t take the bible literally, nor does she go in for supernatural ideas about God. She even […]
Dirty laundry leads to Easter grave turning
My Mum always said we shouldn’t wash our dirty linen in public. Secrets, lies, and doubts about anything, particularly the godstuff, were for the privacy of our own kitchen and closed down before they got too heretical. What mattered was unquestioning faith, cleanliness, and order, evidenced by the clean washing fluttering on the line. No rotary […]