Southland Church ejects tai chi group

Tuesday, May 5th, 2015

A tai chi class made up of elderly women and arthritis sufferers has been booted out of a church hall over fears they are a threat to the church’s “spiritual wellbeing”.

The group’s leader said the 20 women had been practising tai chi in the Central Southland Presbyterian Parish hall without issue for five years, but were approached by parish council clerk John Willis and told to leave last month.

Willis said while the council understood the programme did not include any religious content, it believed tai chi conflicted with the church’s teachings and threatened the church’s spiritual wellbeing. Continue reading

Additional reading

News category: New Zealand, News Shorts.

Tags: Presbyterian, tai chi

The optimism of Timothy Radcliffe

Fr Timothy Radcliffe, the Dominican friar, was chosen by Pope Francis to lead the three-day retreat for all participants prior to the first assembly last October of the Synod on Synodality. This was a position of great trust given the Read more

Theologian: The future of the church is local

In Europe, the number of church members is declining – but Christianity remains strong worldwide. However, the structures do not remain stable, but are constantly changing. Thomas Schlag is Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Zurich, where he Read more

The perils and necessities of saying ‘I don’t know’

When I was studying political science in graduate school, I was surrounded by students who were much smarter than me. Most of my fellow students at the University of California Berkeley went to Ivy League schools as undergraduates. They were Read more

Survey: New priests are young and involved in their community

The incoming class of seminarians who will be ordained in 2024 is young and involved in their community, an annual survey released April 15 found. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned the Center for Applied Research (CARA) at Georgetown Read more

CathNews New Zealand