New Zealand is now a secular, pluralist country with citizens who hold all kinds of views. Many people worship Jesus Christ, and practise restraint at Easter time as part of their beliefs. Many more do not. Christianity still has a powerful place in the culture – it underpins our ethics and our judicial system, much of Read more
I was working on a standard-of-living case and was shown figures prepared by an approved budget advisory service for Meg and her daughter Stacey (I have simplified some detail and changed their names). Meg’s chronic health condition ruled out paid employment, so she was on a benefit. The budget recorded the family’s 2012 weekly income Read more
I never knew my maternal grandmother’s father, but my mother told me three stories that shaped my view of him. One involved his being mugged by a hitchhiker to whom he had offered a ride. I think my mom related this tale as a warning against good-natured but borderline foolish benevolence. The second dealt with Read more
I arrived at Challenge 2000 in Johnsonville, a night with friends in a cosy cardboard box beneath a starlit sky was too good to pass by. The Wellington wind had fled; stillness paired with the embers crackling, huddled closer, marshmallows devoured in flame as stories swept us elsewhere and nothing mattered anymore save each other, Read more
As I have mentioned in a previous posting, there are many different sorts of martyrdom–in the broad sense of bearing witness, at a high or ultimate cost, to an awkward truth or passionately embraced cause. Independence movements, environmental campaigns, investigative journalism, humanitarian missions to war zones. They all draw inspiration from sons and daughters who perished in Read more
Do you recall The Great Jubilee Year 2000? For a few years before the turn of the century, almost every statement by a bishop or other church leader or organization contained some paean to the jubilee. The pope had called for it, and so all sorts of people either sincerely or for show acted as Read more
I first became involved in Rwanda in July 1994, some two or three months after the start of the horrific events in that landlocked country, the full scale of which had not, by that time, reached the wider world. My lasting memory of that time is the chaos of the situation. There was a camp that was Read more
First impressions aren’t always accurate. But in my first days here I have been struck by the extent of trauma people have experienced – and real worries that the violence that has rocked South Sudan since mid-December may not be over. The capital of Juba is calm, but it is only “outwardly” so, one of Read more
You could be forgiven for not knowing where the buck stops in the Catholic Church these days. In any society, organization or Church community, it is important to know who is ultimately responsible in decision making; otherwise, chaos or worse would prevail. In an unprecedented (for a cardinal) cross examination in court last week, Cardinal Read more
The fourth Sunday in Lent, Laetare Sunday, is my favourite Sunday in Lent, and not just because of the pink vestments that insecure clergy sometimes attempt to convince you are “rose.” So many of the rich images, words, and themes that will recur at the Easter Vigil are hinted in the day’s readings and prayers — the Read more