I have spent three weeks at the South Pole Station with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which is looking to detect tiny particles called neutrinos which come from cosmic events in deep space and help us learn more about our universe!

The South Pole Station is like a larger International Space Station.

There are only about 150 people here in a single, two-story building, which means you can get to know pretty much everyone and form an awesome community.

The downside is that there is less infrastructure, such as organised religious gatherings.

Holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrated with fancy dinners from the galley staff, but there aren't religious services, unless you organize them yourself.

McMurdo Station, on the other hand, is more like a small town.

Located on the Ross Sea, McMurdo, or "Mactown", is the largest of the U.S. stations and hosts up to 1,000 people during the summer months.

McMurdo Station boasts more "real-world" amenities like a coffee house, recreation department, multiple bars, and even a chapel.

I got to spend about 10 days in McMurdo Station on my way to and from the South Pole and experience the religious offerings of the station.

On my first trip through McMurdo, I was first struck by the beauty of the continent, and the second was how every high point on station was designated with a cross.

Each cross was a memorial to those who had died on the continent.

The crosses were sobering reminders of the extreme conditions people have and still face here and how lucky I am to be here.

But they were also comforting reminders of faith as I adjusted to my new life for the next month, thousands of miles away from home and anything familiar.

Even from town, I can see the silhouette of crosses against the constantly lit sky and know that someone is looking out for me.

My absolute favourite place on Station is the Mary Shrine on the Hut Point Ridge Trail, affectionately nicknamed "Rollcage Mary" due to the roll cage that attempts to protect her from the harsh winds and weather that unexpectedly sweep across the peninsula she sits on.

It was a beautiful place to chat and pray with my heavenly friends.

One night, I felt overwhelmed and needed to escape the bustling McMurdo Station and my cramped isolation quarters.

I walked up to Mary and just sat in her shelter, cocooned in my parka, watching the skuas float on the windy air streams.

The very first place I went after arriving at the station was the Chapel of the Snows.

It sits prominently at the end of the road overlooking the Ross Sea, with the Royal Society Mountain Range peeking behind on a clear day.

You can't miss it.

Anyone going to or from the dorms, galley, or science lab pass by the unique white and blue building.

The current Chapel of the Snows was dedicated in 1989 after the previous building burnt down.

It is a non-denominational building that serves as a gathering and worship space for all residents of McMurdo Station, as well as the nearby New Zealand Scott Base.

My favourite part of the chapel is the stained-glass window, which features the continent's outline, a chalice, bread, and a penguin!

There are also two cute painted penguins saying goodbye as you exit.

There are chairs, cushions, and lots of books for use by all faith groups residing on station.

Each summer season, the religious communities of McMurdo Station are supported by chaplains provided by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. National Air Guard, or the Diocese of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Usually, the chaplains work out of the Chapel of the Snows, but we had a rare visit from Chaplain Donny Chamberlin when I was at the South Pole Station.

It was amazing to connect and talk faith over a meal, who was passionate about connecting with people.

Each week, residents of McMurdo Station will organize religious gatherings.

There's Shabbat on Friday nights, an interfaith worship service on Sunday mornings, followed by a Catholic service afterwards.

I got to spend one Sunday on station and I was thrilled to attend service.

There were about ten of us gathered, including two volunteers who led us in a lay service since there was not currently a priest on station.

We said the prayers, read the readings and even had a communion service with hosts consecrated by a visiting priest from earlier this season.

Mass has always been a tricky part of my Catholic faith.

It was one of the things I was forced to do as a kid growing up, and it's the main thing other Catholics will tell you you have to do to be a "good Catholic."

Mass often feels mundane, boring, and disconnected from my spirituality, and the parish community tends to drive my will to attend each Sunday.

However, this time, it was AMAZING to reconnect with something so familiar in a faraway place and unfamiliar in every way.

Ten strangers became an instant community in our shared bond of faith.

Staring past the stained-glass window to the Royal Society Mountains behind the Ross Sea, I felt full of peace; I felt at home on this distant continent.

It was definitely one of the most meaningful services of my life and I was grateful for the experience.

• Elaine Krebs is a Roman Catholic Christian currently living in Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master's Degree in Marine and Environmental Biology, and now works as both a science teacher at a local museum, as well as Confirmation Coordinator at her local parish. Elaine was first introduced to interfaith work as a member of USC's Interfaith Council, and continues to be involved, especially surrounding the intersection of science and religion. She also enjoys studying and experiencing diversity within religions, especially the different rites within Catholicism.
• First published in Interfaith America.

• Unlike Germany, there is no state support for the churches here.
• Unlike the US, piety is not worn on one's sleeve.
• Attend a funeral or a wedding in New Zealand these days and what springs to mind is the incredible variety of what is on offer.
• Celebrants, or even MCs, are more common than priests or ministers.
• Grief at funerals is not encouraged.
• Ritual is remarkable for its absence.
• Recently I attended a pub where Jesus Christ was very much present, but of course in rollicking, unselfconscious expletive form!
• These days life in New Zealand feels very secular indeed.
• Pakeha Kiwis are uneasy about the term religion.

One often hears: "I'm not religious", meaning I'm not, or no longer, a member or adherent of any church.

In comparison with the 1950s, institutional religion has moved to the margins, become a niche interest.

This does not necessarily mean a lack of interest in spirituality. Spirituality, however, is such a vague term.

How far can we stretch it?

Would it include, for example, the Santa parade, which is the nearest we come to a traditional religious procession? Thin gruel, indeed!

The old "main line" religions — Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist — all tend to be tarred these days with a neocolonial brush, as having their cultural roots elsewhere.

This may partly explain the willingness to accept Maori rituals on community occasions, even when their content is largely Christian.

Maori now seems to function, as Latin once did, as the acceptable language for the numinous.

One suspects that the widespread loss of the churches' mana derives not only from recent revelations about sexual abuse, but from lingering, sometimes traumatic memories of religious bigotry and puritanism and narrowness. (Never apologised for, either.)

Interestingly, too, that the once vibrant liberal streams in Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Methodism and Roman Catholicism have virtually dried up as well.

Yet one cannot speak simply of decline.

The evidence points every which way.

• The social analysis and input of the Salvation Army continues to carry conviction.
• Kiwi hymn-writers such as Colin Gibson and Sheila Murray rank internationally in the premier division.
• The religious poetry of James K. Baxter or the art of Colin McCahon remain powerfully resonant.
• Religious music is an integral part of the offerings of choirs and orchestras and folk concerts.
• At the University of Otago, the theology programme is part of the nuts and bolts of the place, unthinkable a few decades ago.
• Congregations which offer pastoral warmth, liturgical colour, and an openness to the tough issues of the day continue to flourish.

In his Nobel Lecture, Seamus Heaney famously described humanity as "hunters and gatherers of values".

Kiwis very much resonate to that quest, as seen in the remarkable response to Jacinda Ardern's evocation of "kindness".

Traditional Christian virtues seem to re-emerge in new dress.

For many Kiwis, however, the loss of traditional church authority and control has proved immensely liberating, not least in the area of gender issues, and in the rejection of the secondary values of respectability and social conformity.

Yet is it not the case that for many the new household gods of career and consumerism and individualism which have elbowed out Christianity have led to a dramatic narrowing of horizons?

The banality of daily life tends then to be mirrored in the soulless weddings and funerals which one encounters so often.

Swept clean of religion, the culture is inundated with secular kitsch. Continue reading

• Peter Matheson is a Dunedin historian.