Covid lockdown has prevented the auction of a rare 19th century portrait in oils of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pompallier. The portrait was due to be sold on September 11. Due to the current Delta variant of Covid and the resulting lockdowns the auction is postponed until Saturday October 9th. The portrait image went online on September Read more
Christmas cheer will be spread in Russell once again this year at the annual Carols @ Pompallier concert. The show is at Pompallier Mission, the Heritage New Zealand property in the Bay of Islands. Continue reading
Christmas cheer will be coming to Russell once again this year at the annual Carols @ Pompallier concert at Pompallier Mission, the Heritage New Zealand property in Russell, Bay of Islands. Local groups and soloists will perform traditional festive favourites as well as modern Christmas songs as part of the show, which takes place on Read more
Yesterday I had the honour to say a few words of farewell to Ralph Hotere as he spent his last few hours in Otago before heading back to his birth home of Mitimiti. Many have already commented on the man, his life and his works and I have read reflections and tributes online that tell Read more
Last week the Australian Catholic Media Congress took place in Sydney. Monsignor Paul Tighe, a media adviser from the Vatican, told the assembly that new media technologies “enable the forming of community, they have extraordinary potential for the wellbeing of the church”. In his CathBlog Michael Visontay points out that over 150 years ago, under Read more
A new book on the work of Bishop Pompallier,“The French Place in the Bay of Islands”, was launched recently by the Ambassador of France to New Zealand, Francis Etienne. The ceremony was attended by Church, Marists and other dignitaries from around the country, The book is a series of essays by a number of eminent authors, including Fr Read more
The book is a series of essays by a number of eminent authors, including Anne Salmond, Henare Tate, Jessie Munro, Peter Lineham and more. It presents very human stories of conflict, ambition, struggle, success and failure, shedding new light on Māori-Pakeha relations at the time of Treaty-making at Waitangi and of the founding of the New Zealand we know today
These are stories centered on the enduring French and Catholic influence in Kororāreka Russell and the Bay of Islands, specifically the work of Bishop Pompallier and of the Marist missionaries whose South Seas headquarters and printery were then here.
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