The 22nd Eucharistic Convention held in Auckland has featured strong Jewish themes. Guest speakers included Jewish born American Roy Schoeman whose parents survived the Holocaust. Initially, Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher was to speak this year, but due to an unforeseen event she couldn’t’ make it. Auckland residents Bob and Freda Narev accepted the invitation to Read more
New Zealand
TV2’s tele-evangelist says Pokemon turns people gay
Friday, April 17th, 2015A US mega church whose leader’s preaching appears regularly on New Zealand television claims Pokemon was designed to “turn” youths gay. Creflo Dollar’s preaching is on TV2 in New Zealand early every weekday morning. Televangelist Pastor Creflo Dollar says the close relationship between Ash and Brock was a sign of the cartoon’s “gay agenda”. He Read more
Erskine College declared a special housing area
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
Wellington City Council has declared the heritage complex Erskine College, in Island Bay, a Special Housing Area. Many councillors were unhappy about the recommendation but it was finally approved by a vote of 9 to 6. The move is part of the Wellington Housing Accord signed with the Government last year. Special housing areas will have Read more
NZ bucks religiosity trend
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
New Zealand is one of only three countries in which religiosity is predicted to decline between now and 2050. The other two are France and the Netherlands. These are some of the predictions made by Washington-based think-tank, Pew Research Centre, in a recently published report. The report predicted that by 2050 In the Asia Pacific Read more
The Ned Flanders effect – religious people unattractive?
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
A collaborative study carried out by a number of universities around the world, including the The University of Otago in New Zealand, has found evidence for the existence of the Ned Flanders effect. Nedward “Ned” Flanders, is a character in the long running TV series The Simpsons. He is the Simpson family’s extremely religious next “diddly-door” Read more
Miles Warren cathedral plan ‘a ray of hope’
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015A scheme by one of New Zealand’s most celebrated architects to rebuild the earthquake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral appears to have the backing of Canterbury Anglicans. Architect Miles Warren believes his scheme will get the go ahead and it appears to have been embraced by Anglicans, with 95 per cent of the 74 feedback emails received Read more
Push to lift restrictions on the pill
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015Pharmacists have asked health authorities to allow the pill to be bought over the counter without prescription. But GPs are warning the pill is not safe for all women, and that medical oversight is still needed. At present, only the emergency morning-after pill can be bought at a pharmacy without a prescription from the patient’s Read more
Call to crack down on ‘chuggers’- paid street fundraisers
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015There’s a call for charities to stop putting people out on the street to collect money. Wellington city councillor Iona Pannett says “chuggers” profit from a form of mild harassment. Chuggers ie. charity muggers, are paid street fundraisers who approach passers-by to persuade them to donate money to the charitable cause he/she is promoting. Pannett Read more
Bishop Dunn has serious concerns about Hato Petera College
Friday, April 10th, 2015
The Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn, has called for a full scale review of Maori education. When approached by the New Zealand Herald about the future of Hato Petera College, he said the church had serious concerns about the falling roll at the college – which is now below 100 – and wanted to do Read more
Caritas worker in Vanuatu impressed by people’s resilience
Friday, April 10th, 2015
What struck me most about the situation was the resilience of the people”, says Mark Mitchell. Mitchell is the Humanitarian Programmes Coordinator for Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand. “Despite all they have gone through they are simply getting on with the business of rebuilding their homes and livelihoods.” Mitchell has been in Vanuatu, as part of Read more