With much fanfare the New Zealand Herald announced Christian faiths losing out to other religions: “In the battle for believers, Christianity is losing out to religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. A Massey University study, Changing Patterns of Auckland Religion, has found that with the exception of Catholicism, membership of all mainstream Christian denominations
Christianity shrinking or growing? Read More »
Fifty years ago over two thousand bishops, experts, and ecumenical observers were at the start of the Second Vatican Council. They would meet during periods over four years, and produce remarkable decisions that have changed Christian history. They produced transforming documents such as Lumen Gentium (on ecclesiology), Sacrosanctum Concilium (on liturgy), and Dei Verbum (on
Vatican II 50 years on Read More »
[Update 20 October 2012: As well as commenting below, you can add your name to the hope that worship/liturgy is included in a revised mission statement here. I have now established that the two representatives to ACC from this province are Archdeacon Turi Hollis and Dr Tony Fitchett. Both have been sent the open letter
Open Letter to ACC15 Read More »
Our national Anglican seminary in Auckland (Aotearoa New Zealand) is advertising for the position of Principal/Manukura. It is extremely noticeable that neither in the seminary’s mission statement (below), nor in the particulars of the position, is there any mention of training and forming people for ordination. Astonishing! [That in spite of St John’s College Trust
Seminary forgets to train ordinands? Read More »
The Jewish Annotated New Testament Edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Z. Brettler This is awesome! Regulars here may remember when I tried to, week by week, give background to the Sunday, three-year-lectionary, readings. This volume goes a long way to providing that kind of information. It helps me, and other Christians, to get a
The Jewish Annotated New Testament Read More »
Should we eat and drink in church buildings? Why or why not? I recently saw plans of alterations to a church building which incorporated a kitchen that could (only) serve food into the nave. The Architectural Design Guidelines (PDF link) raise the issue “Considerations of Tapu and Noa of food in a sacred space” (3.1
Kelvin Holdsworth (Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow) writes about a weekly traditional Compline service at St Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle with around five hundred present. It starts each Sunday evening at 9.30pm and lasts half an hour. The hundreds are young. The majority are less than 25 years old. Kelvin writes: That service breaks
Mass is never used in the New Testament as a name for the Christian service with bread and wine. The word appears to derive from the Latin missa. Let’s first dismiss some theories about the origin and meaning of “Mass” that have little to no scholarly support. These include a Hebrew origin (missah Deuteronomy 16:10
A Mass by any other name 6 Read More »
