Pastor Allen Hince regularly visits the man who burned down his church and is offering him solace while he is in prison. The Bowen St Baptist Church community centre was torched in January 2011 by Feilding firebug Richard David Elliott, a security guard tasked with patrolling the town’s CBD between 9pm and 3am each night. Read more
When Grace L. Fabian forgave the man who murdered her husband, she was simply following her faith. She and her husband arrived in Papua New Guinea on the Fourth of July 1969 to work with Wycliff Bible Translators, producing literacy materials and translating the New Testament. They had four children, all born in Papua New Read more
The Uniting Church has asked for forgiveness for the divisions and pain it has caused Pacific communities in the past. In a submission presented to regional leaders at the Pacific Conference of Churches 10th General Assembly in Honiara, the Solomon Islands this week the Church acknowledged that it has had a part in damaging communities by Read more
A priest who was conceived in rape when his mother was only 13 years old is sharing the story of how he met, forgave and heard the confession of his father, who is now living a life of faith. “I could have ended up in a trash can, but I was allowed to live,” said Read more
This year, my summer reading included Carolyn Maull McKinstry’s memoir, While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement (Tyndale, 2011, 301 pp., with Denise George), which I picked up at the Civil Rights Institute on a recent visit to Birmingham, Ala. I was profoundly moved by her story about Read more
On Tuesday, at the High Court in Wellington New Zealand, Ewen Macdonald was found not guilty of murdering his brother-in-law, Scott Guy. Rural Dean of the Anglican parish of Oroua, David van Oeveren, is one of the church leaders who have been giving both the Guy and Macdonald families spiritual guidance and comfort during their long draw-out public ordeal. He Read more
Relationships are at the core of our beings. We are made for relationships. We are constituted in and through relationships. We thrive in relationships. This should not surprise us as we are made in the image and likeness of that Eternal Community of Life and Love we call God. All of us grow – or Read more
A couple of weeks ago I was caught up in a conversation with a group of people which left me wondering if they had really grasped the Good News of the Gospel at all. Their point of the conversation was all about sin and how dreadful the world is and what sinners we are. To Read more
The question is: What is the point of forgiveness? Listening to a programme on the radio about restorative justice a few years ago, I was reduced to sudden and copious tears by an exchange between a grieving mother and her daughter’s imprisoned killer. The mother, though well aware she would never get over the loss Read more
Penance or confession, is the sacrament of the forgiveness of sin. You can’t beat it for convenience. It’s available practically whenever. Tell a priest you want to go to confession and you’ll get his attention. Sr Mary Ann Walsh relates that a bishop was cornered on an airplane. Another passenger figured out what was going on and Read more