Dear Friends, A recent article informed me that the world’s clouds are shifting, but not in a good way. This set me thinking about clouds. I remember visiting a fascinating exhibition at Te Papa in Wellington, about ten years ago, of studies of clouds by the English artist John Constable (late eighteenth to early nineteenth … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Recently some bottles of beer with interesting names and labels turned up in the sacristy. They were provided by a good son of the Church and gifted to the clergy to mark International Buy a Priest a Beer Day. This Feast Day does not yet appear in the Church Calendar! In my days … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, A famous storyteller once wrote of an exceedingly clever cat that terrified all the mice, as she was always a step (or paw) ahead of them. Suddenly and unexpectedly she would surprise them, causing chaos and pain. So the mice appointed a committee to find a solution for the sake of their communal … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, The belief that prayer makes a difference, that it achieves marvelous results, is continually being verified by experience, however difficult it may be to explain how and why it does so. (Alec Vidler) Prayer is a significant aspect of Christian life. Jesus emphasised in his teaching the importance for persistence and perseverance in … [Read more…]
Dear S. Michael’s, Greetings to you all. Today (7 September) we have arrived at the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield for a two-week stay. Since we left home we have spent a lovely month in Canada with Kathryn’s family, based in Saskatchewan and including a short visit to the Rockies. On our first Sunday … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, I remember attending morning worship at an Episcopal (Anglican) Parish Church in Scotland a few years ago with my brother-in-law. There was a splendid sermon by a retired (woman) priest of diminutive size, on ‘Blessed are the pure in heart’. It engaged me from beginning to end and left interesting leads for my … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, During the past week, we kept the Feast Day for the Builders of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (1 September). My address at Mass that day was on the building-blocks of the Anglican Church, and on the foundations of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Strong and reliable foundations are … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Significant events in our lives stay in the memory, and sometimes even the dates of those events are locked in as well. Today, 28 August, is one of those for my family. It is the day on which we arrived in New Zealand, at the invitation of the Bishop of Wellington, thirty-five years … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of S. Bernard of Clairvaux and, at the end of the month, we keep the Feast of S. Aidan. These figures in Christian history have been influential on my own understanding of living one’s faith, and I was pleased when they were both included among a number of … [Read more…]
Dear Friends, When Alistair was sharing details of his recent walk on one of the routes of the Camino de Santiago, he made a comment about the prayer our Parish Choir offers in the vestry before entering for worship. He said it was so easy to say the familiar words without entering fully into their … [Read more…]
