Soul Pilates with a Spirited Crone
‘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…
Euthanasia is a hot political topic in New Zealand as David Seymour’s voluntary euthanasia bill has been drawn from the ballot forcing politicians to confront this important issue. I support euthanasia and have done for many years. For me it is the…
Waru is powerful and uncomfortable. Eight stories all linked by the death of a boy. On the surface it’s about child abuse, confirmed by the co-producer Kerry Warkia who said the project was, ‘born out of heartache, love and passion to…
Kiwis are losing their in record numbers but they’re leaning into life in diverse ways, which would make complete sense to the late theologian James Fowler. After interviewing nearly 600 people, not a bad sample for any research, Folwer reckoned faith is…
Research is all very well, but what if the results force you to rethink existing beliefs and behaviours? I’ve just been challenged like that about a compassion course I co-tutor. The course emerged out of hospital corridor conversations where staff…
Pregnant, yet deep within I knew I couldn’t give this baby life. The decision was made to abort and way back then I was unaware of how this experience would influence my spiritual development. Now, as a much older woman,…
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…
The conversation had rippled and sparkled. My doctor friend and I juggled theological ideas as they tumbled out and into the space between us. But as he got up to leave my heart sank. ‘Oh no’, I thought, ‘after all…
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…
Reading Divine Dance: the Trinity and Your Transformation reconnected me with the insightful 20th century Trinity of The Matrix movie when she announced to the chosen, but reluctant Neo that ‘it’s the question driving us’. Like, everyone, he faced the…