Reflections

  Bridging the Divide

Nov 05, 2008
The mood in our country, USA, is certainly different from what we have grown accustomed to in previous years. Thanks to modern news media, millions of us were witnesses to indelible images that overwhelmed our capacity to make sense of what we saw as the World Trade Centre was destroyed. We are left…
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  The Loving Kindness of Our God

Oct 14, 2008
The woman’s face was bleak, drained of all emotion. For days she had cried and cried until now no more tears were left. Yet the question remained. Why? Why had her lovely young son got up from the table, this very table where she was now sitting, gone out to the barn and hanged himself? What had driven…
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  Spare a Thought IV

Oct 14, 2008
Something has been added to our local park at Avalon here in the Hutt Valley. It caught not only my eye but my imagination and my heart as well. It is a sculpture by Leon van den Eijkel that he calls “The Smiling Windmills”. He describes it as is a celebration of childhood, of a time when nature played…
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  Maybe Mass is Not so Boring After All

Oct 14, 2008
A Fijian priest demonstrates how the Eucharist can be used to sooth wounds of prejudice and mistrust.

“MASS is boring. Why should I go?” This has been a recent refrain in the Western world. Mass readings and homilies seem wordy. Organ music and Church hymns conjure up a past age, incomprehensible…


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  90 Years of Mission

Oct 14, 2008
Lord, we thank you for 90 years
Of crossing boundaries of country,
Culture and class to preach the Gospel
And for all the blessings our work
Has brought us.
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  Mission And Mindsets

Oct 14, 2008
October is the month dedicated to mission or ‘the missions’. People have many different understandings of ‘mission’. For some, especially in the Church, mission is about helping people in Third World countries or marginalised people in our own society. For others, mission is still seen as the work of…
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  Unjust Genes: life and death for sale

Sep 22, 2008
Unjust Genes raises faith based questions about problems with Genetically Modified (GM) crops and food. The Federal Agricultural Minister Tony Burke believes in GM on the promise of producing more food in an era of rapid climate change (ATSE Crawford Fund address 3 Sept 08). The Australian group Concerned…
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