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…
Category: Religion
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…
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…
‘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…
like rainbows that never reach the pot of gold there’s a kind of beauty in the unrealised the unfinished, the chaotic omnipotent god (the one Prof Dawkins fights with good on him but it’s limited, like only seeing an elephant…
Absent God missing in action, always guardian of open space blankness in my life. Sad? Perhaps but more than this the blankness is for me a symbol of what God might be rather than what God is not. There’s never…
‘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…
All of them are dead. The bones of Jesus buried deep in Palestine and Kiwi soldiers in Turkey. Although we post-moderns might like to believe we don’t venerate relics, there’s an annual resurrection attempt every Easter and Anzac Day. Two…
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…
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.…