The number of people marrying in New Zealand is falling, says Statistics New Zealand. It says in 1992 the marriage rate was 18.3 couples per 1000 people eligible to marry. That includes those who formed a civil union from 2005. This rate dropped to 10.9 couples in 2017. Statistics New Zealand says the highest number Read more
High quality canvas tents from America have created a novel, temporary home for a Canterbury church left homeless by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. One tent seats up to 500 people, and the other up to 120, at the Living Waters Christian Centre in the Christchurch suburb of Halswell on the southern outskirts of the Read more
There is a battle going on for the souls of the people of Gloriavale – a battle that is taking place night after night at the fundamentalist Christian community Religious groups are undertaking night-time raids to drop off material that presents a different view of God. Read more
In Northland, where many young people leave school before 17 and one in four are not in education, employment or training, a group of young people has taken action. In 2012, a group of 10 young people talked to the local Whangarei District Council staff. They said they were sick of hearing bad stories about Read more
The bells in Manila Archdiocese will toll eight o’clock every evening to protest against continued killings in the Philippines. A Catholic priest and a broadcast journalist are the most recent assassins’ victims. Cardinal Tagle of Manila intensified his condemnation of the killings following the shooting of Catholic priest, Mark Ventura, in the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao. Read more
Family First has made another bid to retain its charitable status. The hearing at the High Court in Wellington this week is the second appeal after the Charities Board ruled in 2013 and again in 2017 that Family First be removed from the charities register. When Family First appealed the 2013 decision, the High Court ordered the Read more
An urban vegetable garden next to the Compassion Soup Kitchen in Haining Street, Wellington, was opened and blessed on Tuesday. The ceremony took place at 7am on a cool Wellington morning and was attended by about 100 people. The space for te māra (the garden) was gifted to guests of the Soup Kitchen by the Sisters of Read more
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says there are precedents for church land to be returned to Maori. Taurangamoana iwi have been talking to the Anglican Church about the return of land under council buildings in the central city that was supposed to have been part of a Maori reserve. The former Tauranga MP says Read more
New Zealand Sign Language Week 2018 is occurring from the 7th to the 13th of May. There are many ways to engage with New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. A great way to connect NZSL with prayer would be to learn the Lord’s prayer in NZSL. Watch this video (turn the subtitles on!) from the Deaf Read more
In his latest newsletter Cardinal John Dew writes: Dear Friends Today we finish our meeting of the Bishops Conference in Auckland and I fly out of New Zealand for five weeks. As many of you know I walked the Camino eight years ago, leaving St Jen Pied de Port in France, up over the Pyrenees and Read more