Go to any event these days and your are sure to find some one dressed up as 1950s nun or sporting gear based on some kind of religious attire. No self respecting party hire business can afford to not have a big stock of false nun’s habits for hire . So, “What’s the fuss about Dame Read more
Katherine Collier a student visitor from Loyola University New Orleans says she was struck by the lack of religion in every day life. “The biggest shock I encountered while studying abroad was the lack of religion in every day life.” “Although New Zealand natives, or ‘Kiwis’, do celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter, emphasis is Read more
Doctors will try to save the lives of 10 patients with knife or gunshot wounds by placing them in suspended animation, buying time to fix their injuries Neither dead or alive, knife-wound or gunshot victims will be cooled down and placed in suspended animation later this month, as a groundbreaking emergency technique is tested out for Read more
The Vanuatu Christian Council of Churches says it does not welcome the recent establishment of a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT ) association in Vanuatu. The chairman of Vanuatu Council of Churches Bishop James Ligo, says the constitution is based on Christian and Melanesian values. Ligo says he intends to discuss the issue Read more
Ashburton is the most Christian place in Canterbury, while Lyttelton is one of the least religious, according to new census data. Growing Filipino and Pacific Island communities have swelled congregations in the Mid-Canterbury town, which has the biggest proportion of Christian people in the district. About 71 per cent of the 1500 people that live Read more
While New Zealand is becoming less religious overall, there’s greater diversity to the country’s religious make-up, according to the latest census. Most people who consider themselves religious identify as being Christian, however other religions are growing. The three that saw the biggest increase in followers between 2006 and 2013 are Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism. Meanwhile, the Read more
The world’s richest man, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, says it makes sense to believe in God. In a wide-ranging interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Mr Gates said there is no scientific explanation for how the mystery and beauty of the world came about. His children have been raised in a religious way, by him and Read more
As part of the New Zealand festival last Saturday’s third Embassy session was a public conversation between Diarmaid MacCulloch Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University and the award-winning author of A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, and Peter Biggs, the chair of the New Zealand Book Council, “Having Faith in 21 Century. In his review Listener columnist Read more
New Zealand Catholic Bishops welcomed the Census 2013 figures on religious affiliation published today and noted that the majority of New Zealanders identify with a diverse range of religions, although the number that don’t have a religious affiliation is increasing. “The number of Catholics is fairly similar to the number published in 2006, with about Read more
Christianity has shed hundreds of thousand of devotees in the past seven years, while the number of non-religious has risen strongly. Victoria University professor Paul Morris, who specialises in religious studies, said the country was in “new territory”, with Christianity losing its central position in society. “For the first time since 1901, Christians are not Read more