I have previously lived in a house which has a grape vine. That was some years ago. And now I do so again. I had memories of ruthless pruning, but I had to read up (and watch YouTube instructions). As I pruned, with southern-hemisphere Springtime just on the horizon, my mind drifted to John 15.
Pruning a Grapevine – John 15 Read More »
A recent comment quoted Episcopal bishop Charles Jenkins who said Before the storm [Hurricane Katrina], “I thought Christianity and priesthood were primarily about the cult,” Jenkins said. “And doing the actions correctly — holding my fingers correctly at Mass, not wearing brown shoes when celebrating the Mass. That it was getting all those right. “And
Holding ones Fingers Correctly at Mass? Read More »
The Anglican Church in Canada is working on collects for the three-year cycle of Sundays and Feast Days. It has put online a set of collects, for the Sundays and Feast Days in 2014 (Year A), providing two choices of alternate collects, based on the lectionary readings for the day. These, for example, are the
Canadian Anglican Collects Read More »
The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is quite clear that “the wine for the Eucharist should be a good quality wine.” (NZPB/HKMA page 515). Our church will not be unique. Other Anglican churches will have a rubric or canon expressing this. It is mentioned in the Lambeth Quadrilateral: “The two Sacraments ordained
A Good Quality Wine Read More »
I presumed that there are a variety of Christians from India in New Zealand, but I don’t think I knew, until Phillip Tovey told me, that there is at least one Mar Thoma Church parish in New Zealand. And there are possibly other communities – I am trying to find out. The St Thomas Mar
Mar Thoma in New Zealand Read More »
In many ways, in many places, this has been a bleak month. War, and more war…, suicide, riots,… How can we sing God’s song in this context… And we find people taunting us. We find our inner voices taunting us… So Psalm 137 articulates this reality. In its time, the incredible had happened: the Southern
I have opinions about how to grow Christian communities: Real, authentic worship – where people come and find a community intent on a journey of growing into their relationship with God; where there is a sense of the numinous; where it is clear people really care about this; beyond recitations of page numbers, pious poetry
Grow the Church – From Anecdote To Evidence Read More »
I was with a group of clergy recently where I mentioned the idea of changing the configuration of seating for different seasons of the Church Year, for example: semicircle around the altar for one season; straight lines facing each other in “choir formation”, altar at one end, ambo/lectern at the other (or similar to this
