A Ministry Formation Day last Saturday helped parishioners in their liturgical and pastoral ministries. A bonus was that parishioners from all five towns in the Wairarapa parish worked together for the first time since the parish was formed in 2015. Ministry formation is necessary because most of us think of our involvement in the Church Read more
Women deacons are in effect working well in the Church, except we do not call them deacons, and they are not ordained. This is the view of Dr Joe Grayland, theologian, author and parish priest of three parishes in Palmerston North, New Zealand. He questions whether we need another form of the clergy. Grayland made Read more
Anne-Marie Pelletier has been a papally appointed observer at the Synod of Bishops (2001), was the first woman to win the Ratzinger Prize for theology (2014) and authored the meditations used at the papal-led “Via Crucis” on Good Friday (2017) at Rome’s Colosseum. Pope Francis, just this past April, appointed the 74-year-old Paris native and Read more
The Anglican Church is facing a landmark case from a parishioner arguing it should be responsible for abusive priests – one of whom allegedly harassed her in counselling sessions after her baby’s death. It will be the first time a New Zealand church has been tested as an employer under human rights law, and if Read more
God writes straight with crooked lines. -Portuguese Proverb The question of the theology of ordination to the priesthood just isn’t going to go away. First, in a meeting with Italian priests in Rome in February, the Pope, they tell us, said that he is going to put the topic of the ordination of married men “into Read more
“Viewed overall, the state of the Church is not too encouraging. In the space of a single generation, the deepening dearth of priests will lead to the collapse of the entire structure of parish administration, and I cannot see sufficient courage or creativity among those who have assumed responsibility for running the Church as an institution Read more