Ashes to ashes, dust to dust makes real sense at the end of someone’s life. People get it. Somehow, without saying much, the words shout out the truth of mortality. It’s a popular phrase at funerals, especially when separated out…
This Shrove Tuesday I’m gathering up the leftovers from three years in the spiritual wilderness and seeing what I can begin to make of them. To be honest, it was a strange feeling when my role as an Anglican priest…
Two women on a road trip. Hardly Thelma and Louise, although it did feel a bit like driving off a cliff as we headed towards a dream retreat. I’d been in, and loved, Jungian dream analysis but the idea of…
Welcome today to guest blogger Karen B Kaplan who talks about her role as being a midwife to rebirthing what has already occurred as she listens to people recount their lives as they move towards death. Juliet, the wife of…
By 9am on Boxing Day thousands of Kiwis were touting their unwanted pressies on Trade Me or searching for bargains amongst someone else’s discards. Practical, but a tad tragic given that gift giving can be an art form full of…
Over the past few weeks a number of friends and colleagues have experienced the death of someone close to them. Whether the person is famous or a solitary unknown, whether the room is crowded at death or the person dies alone,…
You’ve got to hand it to the blokes in the church, for their ability to keep mansplaining Godde for our own good. Recently, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a theological slap to Ariana Grande, she of the God is a Woman…
No matter how hard I trydespite the theology I’ve doneI can’t separate God from the bloke in the skysomewhat disinterestedremoved and impenetrablein league with earthly patriarchy. If I say Goddeis it different?Sometimes, but not always. What I mean is thatat…
Standing up to speak I felt tentative, but it wasn’t the slight stomach turning before a speaking gig or worry about whether the technological wizardry would work. Instead, it was an awareness that the ground of my being was shifting,…
Spirituality may include (a search for) one’s ultimate beliefs and values; a sense of meaning and a purpose in life; a sense of connectedness; identity and awareness; and for some people, religion. It may be understood at an individual or…