Poor St Thomas, Apostle, whose feast we celebrated recently, can never live down that time he wasn’t in the room where it happened, when the risen Jesus first appeared to his disciples. The room was locked, concealing the fearful followers after Jesus’ crucifixion, so we may wonder, where was Thomas? Why wasn’t he there, hiding Read more
If there’s one patient I’ll always remember with special fondness, it’s Ron. Ron was in his late 80s, a bushman who valued his independence. He wouldn’t let Hospice visit him at home because he didn’t want the neighbours to know he was sick. But he did agree to me visiting him at the pub, so Read more
Pope Francis, who has a knack for dropping bombshells in July when his predecessors would normally leave town for a summer holiday. He has again started off the month with a bang by naming Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández of La Plata (Argentina) as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Read more
Recently the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal de-registered a teacher, making it impossible for them to work in this country. We know very little about the individual, except that he has a strong Christian faith, teaches maths and is a man. Why was he de-registered? A student had decided to transition from female to male, and the Read more
It has been a little more than a year since I started brushing up on my Italian. An unlikely invitation had landed in my Whatsapp messages, and yet again, my plans to spend a few months writing a new book were interrupted. This time the invitation was to help with the work toward the Synod Read more
I didn’t grow up knowing much about saints. In the Episcopal Church in which I was raised, my knowledge was largely formed by stained-glass windows and a hymn that declared: “One was a doctor, and one was a queen,/ And one was a shepherdess on the green:/ They were all of them saints of God, Read more
In 2019 the New Zealand government committed an unprecedented NZ$1.9 billion to improving mental health services. This announcement brought hope to a sector that had been treated like the second-class citizen of the health service for decades. But four years later, it is clear these high hopes have not been realised. It’s easy to find Read more
Our collective noses have been crinkling at the distinct whiff of something not quite right in the press for some time now, but recent days have been a particular corker for unveiling some fishy elements of the NZ media. RNZ has unwittingly acted as a Kiwi branch of the Russian propaganda machine, Stuff reporting has Read more
Green hydrogen could be critical to achieving a zero-carbon world by 2050 as the global economy moves away from fossil fuels. Green hydrogen offers a solution to decarbonising “hard-to-abate” industries such as steel and fertiliser production, heavy-duty transport and shipping. Recent announcements by high-emitting countries suggest the switch to green hydrogen might be greater and Read more
Most Americans understand the Bible as a rulebook for how to live your life, but fewer think of it as a hymnal. Yet the long history of American—mostly Protestant—hymnody, set to the cadence of the King James Bible, is embedded in our collective religious consciousness. (Think Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” or Read more