The reverend Helen Jacob, Jacobi was inducted as the vicar of St Matthew in the City, Auckland New Zealand last week. She says St Matthew’s well known controversial billboards will continue. “What kind of message we have on them we will have to look at. It is such an interesting church.” Jacobi is the first Read more
The New Zealand Bishops, 12th – 16th May, will host the four-yearly Assembly of bishops of the Pacific Islands Conference (CEPAC), Papua New Guinea-Solomon Islands and the Australian Conference. Eighty six bishops are expected to attend, the largest number of Bishops ever to gather in Wellington. The Assembly begins at 5pm Monday 12 May with a Read more
A researcher has been shocked by the racist attitudes of the teachers she interviewed for a study looking at expectations for students’ success. Hana Turner conducted the survey for her thesis Teacher Expectations, Ethnicity and the Achievement Gap, part of a Master of Education degree at the University of Auckland. The responses from the 15 secondary Read more
New Zealand Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae will be visiting Pope Francis at the Vatican by the middle of May. While the official announcement is yet to be made,this could be the very first state visit made by a New Zealand governor general to the Pope.The governor general’s office said they had “consulted historian Gavin Read more
Hato Paora College, in Feilding, New Zealand, had a 100 per cent pass rate in NCEA levels 1, 2 and 3 last year – a first for the school. Principal Debra Marshall-Lobb said. “We take considerable pride in these results, but I’m not saying it happens all the time, it was an accumulation of five Read more
New Zealanders are marrying later than in the past. Statistics from the 2013 census released on 5 May show that in 2013, the median age at first marriage was 30.1 years for men and 28.6 years for women – up from 27.3 and 25.2 years in 1993. Although the median age at first marriage has Read more
Irishman David Quinn says the Irish have become intolerant about public manifestations of religion. But, he says, “We really shouldn’t complain too loudly. In New Zealand they have it much worse, if that’s the word.” “I was in New Zealand on Good Friday three years ago visiting a family member, and on Good Friday no Read more
A judge has reserved his decision in the latest legal wrangling over the Christchurch Cathedral. Cathedral owners, the Church Property Trustees were seeking to have a Court of Appeal judgement preventing the demolition of the building, removed. But Great Christchurch Buildings Trust spokesman Jim Anderton questions why the ruling should be lifted when the owners Read more
Bill Anderson, a Baptist Pastor in Pahia, a small town in the north of New Zealand, believes that Gay people people cannot be Christians. When asked why other churches accept Gay people, Mr Anderson said he did not know. Commenting on modern society, he said: “You can’t even go to a movie without getting slammed; Read more