Trying to write about trusting my dreams reminded of the book, Like Catching Water in a Net. Val Webb, Australian theologian, and author, points out that the search for the Real is no simple matter. ‘The more we succeed in…
At 21 years old, on a sunny December day in Auckland, I was facing one of the biggest challenges of my life. Dad had rung to tell me that Mum had just a few months to live. She could come…
‘I just want to believe’, she said. The group went quiet. ‘Believe what’, I asked. ‘That the organisation will live up to its values’. There it was laid bare. The human desire for organisations to fix the world. To be…
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was hot news as I wandered into my favourite bookstore. Colleagues were offering opinions about President Putin’s actions, but other than thinking war is futile my understanding of the situation was limited. However, I was interested…
The funeral had been everything hoped for, and more. The person honoured; hospitality shown. Words and music flowed. The one technical hitch wasn’t worth worrying about. But I felt done in. Ready to drop them from my repertoire. After 20…
Kali the Labrador came into my life when she was ten months old. Appealing, exuberant, and unruly. We developed an inexplicable bond, living in silence but inter-dependent. When she left me nine years later, I felt untethered, adrift, grief stricken.…
When Meghan and Harry headlined on Oprah about their struggles in the royal enclosure, it was like stepping into the Garden of Eden. The never-ending story of needing to grow into a new reality. Although the furore around the Duke…
Many of us live in a world without recourse to a god who bounces in and out of history at will or on demand. We have to take it straight, with no hope of eventual paradise. And salvation, if indeed…
Going the extra mile was mandatory when I was an over-helper. It made me feel good. No longer. Years in pastoral care have trained me to do less rather than more. To encourage people to be experts in their own…
Until I met Niki Harré I’d never heard of a secular priest. I was intrigued but also felt confused. The two terms, secular and priest, didn’t seem to fit. How could someone be a priest if there was no sacred…