2006

If you have a really good memory, and if you were here on the equivalent Sunday in 2003 when Joshua Egen was baptised, you will have noticed that, including the hymns, the service today when his sister Lucy is baptised is exactly the same. It is today the same prayers, same readings, same hymns. The organ voluntaries and this sermon, as well as the name of the child baptised, are the only things that are different. But, maybe (probably) your memories are not that good. more»

I've been preaching sermons on Christmas Day since 1973. That's a third of a century of Christmas sermons. Well, almost. Actually, thirty years because there was the Christmas I had bronchitis and had to stay in bed, another when I was studying in England, and another when I was on long service leave and spent Christmas at our project in Thailand. more»

?¢‚Ǩ?ìJoseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child?¢‚Ǩ¬¶?¢‚Ǩ¬ù (Luke 2: 4-5)
Well, one thing's certain - neither Mary nor Joseph would have been eligible to become a Presbyterian elder or minister. They weren't married, and she was expecting a child! How improper! How lax! How far short of the church's ethical standards could you fall!
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Having, a week and a half ago, found myself in the unusual situation of standing thigh-deep in a pool of water in northern Thailand, and baptising 17 Thai young people by total immersion, I suddenly feel an affinity with this John the Baptiser character. We've both done mass baptisms. more»

In the churches of the West (as distinct from the Eastern Orthodox Churches), those who use different colours to mark the seasons of the church year assign purple, or violet, to both Advent and Lent. Purple was the colour of penance. Each season was a time of fasting and penance in the earlier and medieval churches, times of reflection prior to one or the other of the major festivals in the Church's calendar. Advent, like Lent, was a time of serious fasting, which made the feast of Christmas, when it came, a literal feast, for twelve days. more»

He turned up on our doorstep only because he had promised he would. He was a Catholic seminarian who had been sent from New Zealand to study at the Gregorian University in Rome because he showed such promise. That paid off, when many years later he was Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Otago. He was back home during his holidays, doing the family thing. He had been visiting his twin brother whose wife was a member of our parish. She had said, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìOh, you must pop in and meet David and Jenny on your way home, you'd really enjoy them.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù more»

Blindness is not only a physical condition. On first appearances, the story from Mark's gospel is a straight-forward narrative about the physical healing of a blind beggar. more»

What an exciting image from the book of Revelation: The God who is and who was and who is to come. The beginning to end of time - not just at the beginning and end, but who is beginning and end. And despite those metaphysics, still a 'who' rather than a 'that'. The 'who' that has a throne, described later in the book like this: more»

Sermon preached following the baptisms of Felix Armstrong, Charles Nash, and Fraser Wright

Twenty-two years ago when I was about to embark on a scary new stage in my life, someone looked into my eyes, and said, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìAlways remember who you are.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù more»

One of the church communities in the United States that Antony, our community director, has spent time with during his soon-to-be-completed study leave is the Church of the Saviour in Washington DC... more»

One of the more amusing news items over the past week has been the little saga of the Australian Rugby League player who reckoned he was eligible to play for the New Zealand league team on the strength of having a great-grandmother who was born in New Zealand. more»

Children are our investment in the future. The birth of a child, and a ritual such as baptism, are occasions for celebrating a new beginning in a family, a new generation, and at a deep gut level an expression of both confidence that there will be a future and confidence in that future. more»

Over the last two Sundays I have been unpacking what contemporary biblical scholar and theologian Marcus Borg calls the —three macro-stories— of the Hebrew Scriptures which are also more»

SUNDAY 9th JULY 2006 20th Anniversary of Homosexual Law Reform in NZ 2 Samuel 5: 1-5, 9-10;  Mark 6: 1-13             At 5.30pm on more»

SUNDAY 16TH JULY 2006 READINGS.  The first reading and the psalm each in some way take up the theme of joy. 2 Samuel 6: 1 - 5, 12b - 19  is the account of David dancing in utter more»

SUNDAY 6th AUGUST 2006 : Peace Sunday Micah 4: 1-5; Psalm 117; Matthew 5: 43-48 With the current conflict in the Middle East grabbing the headlines and sending disturbing images through our more»

SUNDAY 23rd JULY 2006 : Social Justice Sunday Amos 5: 14-15, 21-24; Mark 10: 42-52             Each week, Sunday by Sunday, year in and year more»

SUNDAY 18th JUNE 2006 1 Samuel 15: 34- 16: 13;   Mark 4: 26-34             I??m not sure where I read this question recently, but it more»

SUNDAY 25th JUNE 2006 : ?´Response?? Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15; Matthew 5: 1-16             Whenever we have these Sundays that in former times more»

SUNDAY 30th JULY 2006 Ephesians 3: 14-21               In some churches, baptism services are private, family occasions which take more»

SUNDAY 8 JANUARY 2006 : The Baptism of Jesus Genesis 1: 1-5; Mark 1: 4-11 When did Jesus realise he was not just any old Galilean peasant worker with wood, but someone who had ?± as we would say more»

SUNDAY 14th MAY 2006 : Confirmation             A slightly unusual feature of today??s service is that each of the four being confirmed are not more»

SUNDAY 21st MAY 2006 : Sixth Sunday of Easter   Acts 10: 44-48; Psalm 98; John 15: 9-17               Back in the late more»

SUNDAY 2ND JULY 2006 2 Samuel 2: 1: 17-27; Psalm 130; Mark 15: 21-43             ?¨Have you noticed,?Æ a much older and much wiser retired more»