Just because your life’s fallen down doesn’t mean there’s nothing left I thought as I gazed at the skeleton of Knox Presbyterian Church in Christchurch. Instead of being desolate, this space had a stark kind of beauty. On the whole,…
Category: Church
The man in the window seat smiled and nodded in that nonchalant, introverted way we Kiwis cultivate as I sat down and buckled my seat belt. Minutes later he turned extrovert as he launched into the saga of his house…
Professor Sir Mason Durie is a seasoned presenter. One slide with three points and he had the standing room only crowd in his hand at Vaughan Park Anglican Retreat Centre. We were a willing audience having gathered to hear his…
Cathedral high holy days are like magnificent theatrical productions but you need to be able to see the action to appreciate them. Squashed in just beyond the choir and slightly short of the sanctuary, my view of the ordination of…
Christchurch’s interim cardboard cathedral is not all cardboard and may well last over 50 years but that’s not the point. It’s the sense of impermanence that has promise. Cathedrals tend to play down impermanence, opting instead for solid and imposing,…
Emilie Selden has an appealing naïvety. She’s educated in the art and philosophy of alchemy but has no clue about more mundane matters like the predatory bloke who’s after her fortune. She intrigued me when I met her on the…
I’ve been thinking about the most wonderful keyhole in the world as debates about public prayer have been on the agenda of city council meetings in Bideford, England, and Whanganui, New Zealand. To look through this keyhole you have to…