Traditionally, spirituality was part of religious practice and the attempt to inhabit the original shape of things or live in the image of God.

In early Christianity, spirituality is related to living a life orientated by the Holy Spirit. This is later complicated with aesthetic practises like self-flagellation that missed the point.

In modern times, spirituality refers to many experiences and practices. Spirituality tends now to be about the individual on their personal quest for meaning.

Today, spirituality doesn't automatically include a religious or communal dimension.

Spirituality generally is about an encounter, whether it is a communal, spiritual, religious or individual experience.

The challenge of spirituality

The challenge with spirituality is to integrate various elements. For Christians, it is the pursuit of an interior life of meaning that is "hidden with God in Christ".

A healthy "daily" spirituality seeks the middle way between the temptation to do nothing on the one hand and to become a religious nutcase on the other.

Healthy daily spirituality is the spirituality of the ordinary, of daily living.

It is the spirituality, for example, of the working person, the grandparent, the beneficiary, the retired and the school pupil.

The person who lives in the real world and strives to hold competing demands in balance needs a spirituality that gives balance and meaning to life.

As we develop an interior spiritual life, we experience tensions and look for a spirit-frame of living to make the spiritual life happen.

The Tensions

The holy place and the ordinary place

Is God most easily found in the church, shrine, monastery, or at home in the kitchen, with the family, in a marriage or even on the sports ground?

Is the tension resolved when we remember that God is both transcendent and the immanent, incarnate God?

Sexuality, sexual passion and religious purity or celibacy

Is God part of your sexuality and sex life or opposed to it? Is your soul fulfilled by eros or awe, and can you have both, or are these mutually exclusive?

If you sublimate your sexuality and its desires, will you be holier or an unhealthy example of a human being?

Community and personal fulfilment

Is the higher call to serve God and others in the community using one's talents or to serve one's freedom?

The Covid experience has brought this question into stark relief. Should individual personal freedom be sacrificed for the common good?

How do we deal positively with the ache for personal love and achievement when acting on this is inappropriate?

This life and the next

Am I living for this life or for the next, and what perspective does this give me? Does the life Jesus promises begin now for me or does it begin at my death?

Is this life a "veil of tears" or the way God leads me to life?

Intellect and will

What rules my life, my heart or my head? Am I ruled by one more than the other and more a prey to one than the other?

Do my thoughts or my feelings reveal God's presence to me?

Personal conscience and Church moral teaching

When there's a conflict between how I need to live my life—to be authentic—how do I 'shape the conversation'? What parameters do I use?

Is a conflict an opportunity for a deeper adult conversation with God and a chance to perhaps better integrate my life as a Christian?

Daily spirituality

Daily spirituality is ‘ordinary life,' blessed by God.

This spirituality gives time to God, the family, the church, society, the soul and the world.

It is aware of colleagues and friends.

It is practical, straightforward, generous, and sensible.

When a person spends all day in front of the tabernacle and forgets to nurture their relationships, feed the hungry, clothe the naked or visit the prisoner, there is a significant problem.

A daily spirituality is not distracted by devotions when there are children to be fed, and marriages don't go bust because too little time has been given to the spouse.

Those that disagree might think they are better fitted for a monastery, but the monastery won't want them because there, too, the rule is Ora et Labora (prayer and work).

Daily spiritual life is not an abdication from living.

Daily spirituality takes time for contemplation, action, socialising and rest. It is a lifetime of gentle fidelity to God and neighbour and a healthy awareness of self.

It is easy for good people to get hooked into religion, private prayer and social service and social justice and forget that they have family members to serve. This is a crucial message of the scriptures. (Luke 1:39-45.)

Life and spirituality are not binary; they aren't intrinsically oppositional.

Ancient wisdom suggests that a healthy spiritual life and living a healthy human life is the key to happiness.

• Joe Grayland is a theologian and a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North. His latest book is: Liturgical Lockdown. Covid and the Absence of the Laity (Te Hepara Pai, 2020).

PPTA president Angela Roberts said the union is concerned about how surrounding schools might be affected, the New Zealand Herald reported.

The school is within Destiny Church's "City of God" complex in Manukau, and had a roll of 150 last year.

If approved for state integration, it would receive the same government funding for each student as state schools, but retain ownership of its buildings and land.

Integrated schools usually charge compulsory fees called attendance dues to meet property costs.

State-integrated schools teach the national curriculum but keep their own special character - usually a religious or philosophical belief - as part of their school programme.

Destiny Church, led by Bishop Brian Tamaki, has been controversial in the past with its political activities and tithing practices.

Ms Roberts said smaller schools such as Destiny's were relatively expensive to run, which would place more pressure on the wider public school network.

"It's not like they [the ministry] are building a new school because of roll growth - this is something that is going to have an impact on the surrounding schools," Ms Roberts said.

A Destiny spokesperson said integration "will enable us to offer [our] transformational model to more students in Years 0-13 in south Auckland".

Nearby schools are being consulted as part of the application process, an education ministry spokesperson said.

Factors to be taken into account include the impact on other schools in the area, education quality at the school, and the cost of integration, the spokesperson said.

A previous application to integrate the Destiny school in 2009 was rejected.

The school also failed in a bid to be a "charter" or "partnership" school.

It charges tuition fees from $65 to $85 a week and received a $266,000 operations grant from the Ministry of Education, according to its 2011 financial statement.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Newstalk ZB

Muslims make up just 1.1 per cent of the 4.5 million people in Ireland, but their ranks are swelling due to immigration, births and, in some cases, conversion.

The 2011 census recorded 49,204 Muslims, nearly a quarter of them school-aged children, but the number is projected to reach 125,000 by 2030.

The first Muslims in Ireland began arriving in the 1950s, most to study medicine. The stream of students continued for decades and some stayed, forged careers, married, and had children.

"When we talk about wider Irish society, there is not that much preoccupation within public discourse with the Muslim presence in Ireland," Oliver Scharbrodt, a professor at University College Cork and an expert on Ireland's Muslim population told The Atlantic.

He suggested this might be because the early immigrants integrated relatively easily.

"The articulation of a religious identity in the public arena is not seen to be that problematic," Scharbrodt said. "In Ireland, religion and politics have always been connected together."

In a 2012 European Commission survey on discrimination, 79 per cent of Irish respondents described discrimination based on religion or beliefs as "rare" or "non-existent" in Ireland. Meanwhile, 66 per cent of French respondents described religious discrimination in their country as "widespread".

"[In France], if you have a beard like this you would never find a job," said Riadh Mahmoudi, a 35-year-old Algerian immigrant, gesturing to his chin. "My wife, for example, wears the full niqab. If she wears the niqab [in France], she would be in trouble. She would be fined. You don't see these things happen here."

Other Muslims said they like the numerous single-sex schools offered by the Catholic-dominated education system, and said that school officials typically accommodate the needs of Muslim students, including dietary restrictions and uniform modifications.

Source:

The Atlantic

Image: Muslim Population