In a unique bid to tackle Auckland’s housing woes, a private school charitable trust is offering first-home buyers the chance to buy apartments in a proposed west Auckland complex for $550,000. The West Evangelical Schools Trust is offering 30 two-bedroom and six three-bedroom apartments for sale. The fixed price is at least $150,000 below market Read more
New Zealand
Antique vestments stolen from Wellington church
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016
Irreplaceable century-old vestments have been stolen from St Peter’s Anglican Church in Willis St, Wellington. The vestments were more than 100 years old and have significant meaning to the central city church. The items are very distinctive and would be of little value to anyone outside the church, police said. They include matched sets of Read more
Young New Zealanders gather In Christchurch to celebrate WYD
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016
Students from St Bede’s College carried a four metre cross down Barbadoes St last Friday afternoon. They were taking part weekend-long event to mark World Youth Day 2016 (WYD). 170 students from across the South Island attended the event. Organiser Abina Pope said WYD was “an opportunity for students of the same age to come Read more
Hato Petera College – Bishop Dunn initiates a consultation process
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016
The bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn, has announced a consultation process about the future of Hato Petera College. The Bishop said one of the options to be considered is the possible closure of the school. However he gave an assurance that the school will stay open for the rest of the year. Furthermore any decision Read more
Young Maori: Concern for homeless at kapa Haka competition
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016Last week’s national secondary schools’ kapa haka competitions in Hawke’s Bay have shown that rangatahi are deeply concerned with politics and social issues. Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox says she wishes more of her political colleagues understood te reo Maori so they could appreciate the korero coming from the stage about issues affecting their whanau, Read more
No place for pokies, the ‘P’ of gambling
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016In 2000 David Wilson QC (now District Court Judge Wilson QC) and I were the lawyers who represented the combined churches of Hamilton (the Catholic Church, Church of the Latter Day Saints, Anglican Diocese and the Islamic Centre) in opposing the granting of a casino licence for the Hamilton Casino. We lost the initial hearing Read more
Gloriavale doco obscures sinister truth
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016Every winter for the past three years we’ve been offered another rare glimpse inside the controversial West Coast Christian community, through a series of documentary specials which increasingly seem to be little more than a NZ On Air-funded PR exercise for one of the country’s richest churches. Wednesday night’s instalment, provocatively subtitled A Woman’s Place, Read more
Mission wine among the best in the world
Friday, July 29th, 2016
Mission’s 2013 Jewelstone continues to put New Zealand wine on the international map. The 2013 Syrah has been selected to appear at the WINE Explorers’ Grand Annual Tasting 2016. It is one of only 2 New Zealand wines and 35 wines selected from around the world. Jewelstone Syrah The WINE Explorers project is a four-year Read more
Two newly ordained priests in Auckland have very different stories
Friday, July 29th, 2016
Fr Marchellino Park realised his calling to priesthood after God granted him a second lease on life following a robbery and brutal beating several years ago that sent him into a coma. And a single Gospel passage about casting out nets was decisive for Fr Austin Fernandes in his vocational journey. Korean-born Fr Park and Read more
Pope’s Astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, to speak on Waiheke Island
Friday, July 29th, 2016
Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory, will be speaking at an event on Waiheke Island in mid September. Consolmagno is a Jesuit brother and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. He’ll discuss the interface between science and humanity, our place in the universe and what it means to us if life is found Read more