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May 2014

Easter 7

Let There Be White

Updated Sunday 1 June: Every NZ Anglican that has contacted me publicly or privately has indicated that today’s liturgical colour used in their community is White. This includes my winning my bet (below) that even the lectionary editors are not following the lectionary colour suggestion. Whilst I am not being so bold as to suggest

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Ascension Walsingham

Ascension Day

I walk around the chapels following the Rosary’s mysteries at the Anglican Church in Walsingham and come into the Ascension Chapel. I cannot make out why it is called the Ascension Chapel. There is a painting of Mary… … And then I look up…. Two feet are protruding out of the ceiling… (image above). I

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Richard Giles

Richard Giles

I was delighted to hear The Very Rev. Richard Giles (left, image above) preach, and generously be invited to have lunch with him. Several of his books are on my shelves: Re-Pitching the Tent: Re-Ordering the Church Building for Worship and Mission is the one I would recommend most. It is about how to re-order

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committed to excellense

Revising Baptism

Another confused bill was passed at General Synod Te Hinota Whanui 2014 (GSTHW14). This one was attempting to see to it that, in the Eucharist, baptism and confirmation can no longer be placed between the New Testament Lesson and The Gospel. Contrary to the church’s reporting, this Bill has not now “passed into law“, but

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chart for Lent and Easter Seasons

Lent and Easter

I created the above chart to illustrate, simply, the counting of Lent and Easter. All days in my table are inclusive. The forty days of Lent is an approximate tenth or tithe of the year. The fifty days of the Easter Season is approximately a seventh of the year – it forms the great Sunday

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So that they may be one

Pope Francis in the Holy Land

Pope Francis’ visit to the Holy Land (24-26 May) – Jordan; Palestine; Israel. It has the motto “So that they may be one”. The centre of his pilgrimage is the meeting with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and the heads of the Churches in Jerusalem. The logo for the pilgrimage (image above) expresses this

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I Like Jesus

Church in a Facebook World

As most of you will know, there is a Liturgy Facebook Page associated with this website. But you do not “join” such a page, you “like” the page; you can also “follow” the page. Church has, in the past, tended to talk of a believe-belong-behave approach to being a Christian. But, in a world where

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clerical collar

Call no man “Father”

Earlier this year I promised a post on the selective biblical literalism that eschews addressing clergy as “Father”. Jesus says: “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9) Firstly, is Jesus forbidding calling our biological, adopting, or earthly father, “father”? For the God-as-rock metaphor to

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