Dave Mullan

Half a century on...

2012-02-13T21:25:00.002+13:00

I’ve been to a few Golden Wedding events, including my own, but last weekend’s dinner was a bit special. Heather and Bill Barnett and their family and friends were celebrating the wedding that I conducted for them fifty years ago. We’ve met them only two or three times in the five decades since, but it was a great occasion as we renewed acquaintance with family members we’d known in our first parish.

It was particularly satisfying to me that the function was held in the local church where the Barnetts have been valued and active members for most of their married life. I didn’t ever demand that couples I was marrying should join the church or make commitments that they didn’t really mean to keep. And working in very small and ageing congregations did not bring a lot of encouraging rewards to this minister.

But every now and then there are little bonus experiences. Last Saturday night was one of them.

How will we manage without them?

2012-02-06T16:54:00.001+13:00

At the end of this month Helen and Terry Brew have to return to England. They will not be returning for their usual six months in our parish later in the year.
They do a tremendous amount in our little parish so their moving caused a mild panic for a while. But also it’s created a serendipitous moment for us to return to an earlier proposal to review our parish structure.

So last week there was an informal meeting of parish council and other interested members. It was held in a home instead of the church, and with the aid of fabulous desserts and coffee and some fun community-building around our understanding of small churches, we achieved a strong consensus to re-start the review process.

We also brainstormed the various chores that will have to be done after the Brews leave. As we later went around the group of sixteen, volunteers came forward to cover all the vital chores while the review is taking place.

Church housekeeping thus attended to, Vanessa told us of the family that was burned out of a house just over the road from the church. Immediately, members voted $200 and suggested a quick appeal in Church. Gifts started coming in yesterday, and these will probably be subsidised $1 for $1 from Parish Council’s emergency outreach reserves.

It was a great couple of hours as some mild panic about how we would manage without these two wonderful people gradually turned into purposeful planning and generous service. That’s the small church in action.

On Income Inequality

2012-01-28T10:00:00.000+13:00

   I was really encouraged to see Brian Gaynor's Herald piece on the doubling of income inequality in New Zealand in the last twenty or so years. I was fascinated to see his lucid explanation of how rocketing salaries and bonuses for the top people have insidiously spread themselves around the global community.
   But, like a lot of sermons in which we clergy have castigated the congregation for some failing or other, I suppose, this interpretation left me wondering what I can do about it. I just am left with a feeling of helplessness.
   Having lived through a lot of tax changes over half a century, I recall the days when even clergy paid 48c on the top dollars of the stipend. So what about returning to a more progressive tax regime, so that the rich make a greater contribution to the public good?
   Brian’s answer is that shareholder vigilance will work better. The problem is, as I see it, those who are the worst victims of income inequality have no voice for change.
   They don’t vote at shareholders’ meetings.

Fishers of all ...

2012-01-24T21:57:00.001+13:00

We snuck off for a couple of nights at Hihi Beach on Sunday afternoon. Our mini satellite dish couldn't pick up any TV for the trees so there was quite a lot of reading and walking.

We watched our camp neighbours pull in a flapping stingray and get it safely back into the water - no skate steaks for them. I wasn't much interested in fishing; but at one point I did become aware that there was a tumult of seabirds over the beach.

I stepped out from behind the hedge and saw the biggest and noisiest flock of white-fronted terns I'd ever observed. The water was steaming white with spray as the birds dived and splashed to the surface with sprats. But big fish were also throwing themselves all over the place competing for the same prey. Yellow-eyed mullet were the targets of both groups and they were so close inshore that the big kahawai were running aground and stirring the water into a muddy cloudy mess.

At times the whole eruption was only two or three metres from the shore, totally undisturbed by our wonder and curiosity. A couple of much more experienced fishers than I said they had never seen anything like it so close to the beach.

From the shore, a young lad cast a lure through all this turmoil of feathers and scales and splashes and pulled in two or three very nice fish. By the time three or four boats were hastily launched and a few more surfcasters set up around the beach the big camp smoker would be filled to capacity.
Home tonight, we dined on an excellent smoked kahawai and potato pie. The experience seemed a serenditpitous follow-up to Sunday's account of the calling of the fisher-disciples.

A snail for Christmas

2012-01-17T07:01:00.001+13:00

Special friends Shirley and Joan sent me a very small book at Christmas: “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating”.
It’s Elisabeth Tova Bailey’s reflections on a snail that came to share a year of her life as she lay completely bed-ridden.

Poetic insights into the meaning of life for this tiny creature beside her bed, and voluminous scientific and literary research on the family of gastropods have been distilled into a tiny book with a huge heart.

I read it slowly and pondered my own life. I marvelled at the incredible life of the common woodland snail. I absorbed something of the author's passion for the incidental, the almost invisible.

As I came to understand that if humans totally annihilate their species on this planet, snails may well outlive them, I felt my self-importance diminishing and shrinking.

Better reviewers than I have written about this wonderful little book. Suffice it to say that I—increasingly discovering the limitations of ageing and medication—found it totally uplifting and inspiring. It’s given me a new perspective on my own existence.

What more could a Christmas gift bring?

Give a Goat?

2012-01-17T06:26:00.000+13:00

It was Fran’s idea. She pointed out that there are gift cards for all kinds of overseas aid; you give your friends a gift card instead of a present and the money goes to buy a goat or feed a child or share in digging a well.
But, said Fran, “My family don’t need Christmas presents—I want to do something for our own country’s people who won’t get a decent Christmas.”
So we printed some special cards and mentioned them to the congregation one Sunday just before Christmas.
It wasn’t a project authorised by the Parish Council, just a low-key, informal suggestion. But others asked for cards and we eventually sent off around $600 to provide Christmas cheer for some needy Kiwis.
At Christmas, a dozen family and friends got our little red and green printed cards instead of the presents they hardly needed anyway.
And we were all reminded of a central reality of Christmas.

Windows 7?

2012-01-17T06:08:00.000+13:00

I’ve joined the ranks of those who are struggling to convert their minds from to Windows 7 from XP. With the latter being about to lose the Maternalistic Microsoft’s support, and a dying computer, I've had the change forced on me. And, like many, I am having a lot of trouble with it.

I see one W-7 complainant was admonished to remember that a Model T did a great job for its day but we all have to move on. He was told to consider the advantages of, say, a Prius.

Well, I’m not impressed with that argument. My Model T will still do about a dozen different things that I need now and then. But after three weeks the Prius can still do only three of them.

I don’t need this new Prius; I just need a Model T—or perhaps, I concede, a Falcon—that works…

There must be a moral for small churches in there some place…

The Innocent Man - and the Small Church

2011-12-19T20:58:00.001+13:00

I’ve been somewhat absorbed in John Grisham’s The Innocent Man in my spare moments during the last few days.
A true story, it records the astonishing series of seriously unjust events in the investigation, arrest and trials of Ron Williamson of the small town of Ada, Oklahoma, between 1987 and 1999. The catalogue of errors of omission and comission by Police and the justice system has to be studied to be believed. Williamson was reprieved only five days before his execution was to be carried out. I find myself boiling with indignation that so many one-sided processes were applied to this man.

But I’m not sure we’ve always done a lot better in the church. When things go awry in the small congregation and outside help is sought, there can also be problems of blinkered vision. Even the wider church can make mistakes of judgment and lose its grip on natural justice. I can think of at least three conflicts in small churches with which I’ve been connected, when those who were asked to investigate allegations of improper behaviour listened with compassion and sensitivity only to the complainants. In both cases, the other side was not invited to make any response. Rather, those whose stories were never told were advised that the matter was now “all in the past” and they should “move on”.

Forty years ago our denomination conducted excellent “Lay-Clergy Dialogues” a few months after the arrival of a new minister. Sometimes, a crucial function of those events was “exorcising the ghosts” of the previous ministry. It was a conscientious attempt to air and lay to rest any resentments or grievances arising from the former ministry or the discomforts resulting from its winding up. There was at least an attempt to recognise the effect of lingering issues of the past upon the present and the future.

I guess the church doesn’t offer this excellent programme these days. Certainly, the way in which the national jurisdiction sometimes relates to local problems doesn’t seem to suggest that kind of understanding.

A Happy Beneficiary Christmas!

2011-12-07T17:26:00.001+13:00

I'm one of those dinosaurs who was in Christian Social Services at the time of the Woodhouse Report and the Social Welfare reforms that followed it in the early 1970s.

Hearing of the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots this morning reminded me of the innovative principle behind those reforms. It was that people on benefits and their children should be able to enjoy a "reasonable quality of life" not just a meagre existence.

One of the "reforms" was the institution of an extra two weeks' benefit, paid in mid-December, to provide a contribution towards the cost of Christmas celebrations and holidays. It wasn't a fortune but it was an imaginative and compassionate way of emphasising that the little extras that most of us take for granted should be available to people who have to be supported by the State.

Alas, all that compassion went out in later "reforms" and now the word is taking on a quite different meaning that suggests further savaging of the standard of living of people and their children at the bottom of the heap.
It's really gratifying to hear that the OECD has drawn attention to the widening gap in Godzone. But will those newly installed in power hear the message, never mind understand the issues and do something about them...?

Last Past the Post

2011-12-07T09:10:00.000+13:00

My two bits’ worth in the Mixed Member Proportional debate would have been that it MMP isn’t perfect and needs some adjusting in obvious areas. But I am gratified that there is no strong support for the suggestion of returning to First Past the Post.

Up until MMP came in, I never cast a meaningful vote in my life. I was always in electorates where there was no way that my vote was going to change anything. In rural electorates my vote would never have got my candidate past the post and in urban electorates my vote would have contributed only to the overweening sense of importance that some high-majority partliamentarians displayed.

It was on such a nominal event that I took Paul, aged ten, into the booth with me, and let him vote; he’d studied the issues at school and his vote didn’t change anything more than mine would have.

In those days it only mattered to vote if you were in a marginal electorate. Those were the voters who swept governments in and out. Sometimes a swing of a handful of percentage points in key electorates across the country made a huge change in the balance of parliament. Often we lost skilled and experienced politicians in the carnage.

In the 1970s I proposed on radio a reform which turned out to be almost exactly what we got in MMP a good few years later. I still think mine was better, but then - and now - anything would be better than going back to FFP.

Over the Tasman

2011-12-05T09:05:00.002+13:00

I’m all out of blog at the moment. We had a great three weeks in Australia and our three Murder Mystery Evenings were a great hit and raised nearly $5000 for various charities, thanks to a huge amount of effort by the locals in Canberra and Sydney As well, we had an interesting and relaxing time doing some very different things from home. It was good to spend time with the Aussie rellies and to see some new parts of the countryside in NSW.

Coming home was bound to return us to the problems with our old No 1 computer. Its replacement was almost ready for duty. But Windows 7 was not happy with the most important programs I use and getting printers to run with them has been a nightmare. Lots of my most commonly used applications and systems have died. Not surprisingly, it will be some time before everything is running reasonably well. So things are a bit stressful around here at present. However, as the fellow said after accidentally swallowing a peach stone, This, too, will pass. It’s just an uncomfortable process.

And by the way, if anyone still hankers after getting NZ wages up to Aussie levels, they had better price a few local commodities and look at basic wages in that country before making a commitment. We expected things to be dearer but, in some supermarket areas, costs were well above what we might have expected. And the price of prosperity in tearing resources out of the ground has yet to be calculated. The grass, or what is left of it after droughts and floods and fires, is not all that greener on the other side of the Tasman fence.

Flying the Flag

2011-11-02T07:12:00.004+13:00

In the last few weeks of seeing flags of twenty nations all over the place – even permanently painted onto the pavement in our town! – I have been reflecting again on our country’s aspirations about a national flag.

The fact that Australia blatantly copied ours a century ago doesn’t mean that both nations should hang onto a dated design forever. It’s time for a change, and this 2005 competition winner by Kyle Lockwood still seems to me to be one that we could have proudly waved alongside the others. It has just the right balance of the traditional and the imaginative.

There were two embarrassing moments at a Jetboat Sprint competition in Idaho a few years ago. The Australians won and had to do a winners' circuit with their big flag and there was quite a lot of discussion between Kiwis and Aussies as to which flag was which. The selection was eventually agreed and off went the winners for the victory lap. However, halfway round, the flag caught on their hot exhaust and burst into flame. As if this weren’t embarrassment enough in USA, where burning the flag is a real no-no, it was later discovered that everyone was wrong. The Australians had flown – and set alight – the New Zealand flag.

I know it's not the most important issue in the country today. But let’s at least keep the discussion going.

MMP and all that...

2011-10-31T20:09:00.000+13:00

In thirty years of “Fixed Past the Post” parliamentary elections I never failed to vote. But none of my votes ever had the slightest chance of making any difference. It just happened that I always voted in an overwhelmed minority or an outright majority. Indeed, I felt that my contribution could make so little difference that one time when Paul was studying the election at Intermediate School I took him into the booth and he did it.

Only people who lived in marginal electorates could change anything. And the Electoral Commission, which set the electorate boundaries, sometimes had more to do with the outcome of subsequent elections than the voters. Tiny swings in voting made for enormous changes in the parliament and some outstanding leaders on both major sides lost their seats to much less competent aspirants. I hope that we don’t ever go back to “First Past the Post”.

My two bits’ worth is that we don’t need to abandon the Mixed Member Proportional system. It obviously needs some fine tuning. But basically it ensures that every voter can cast a vote that counts for something.

Any voting process which requires people to sort the candidates in order of preference asks a great deal more than some voters can hande. Indeed, about .5% of those who vote in Australia, where voting is compulsory, just go for the “donkey” vote, numbering the candidate list down from the top in numerical order.

Let’s tidy up MMP and give it a few more parliaments before we tinker with the whole system all over again. If you want to confuse yourself with all five options, they’re well laid out in http://www.referendum.org.nz/

The Margin of Error?

2011-10-31T20:01:00.002+13:00

I’ve just had my fourth phone call for a political poll. All of them in the dinner hour. One I just refused to handle and two I put on hold while I answered the door and when I got back they’d gone. Funny, that.

This last call I answered as well as I could about how I’d voted last time and various things. Then I found myself saying No to a series of questions about voting in Taranaki. I asked why was I expected to know about Taranaki and, after a lengthy pause—oh, dear, I’m sorry, we’ve made a mistake.

I was more than slightly concerned about this kind of “mistake” so I asked for a chat with the duty supervisor. Again, an apology was forthcoming and then I was assured that my responses would be discarded. That didn’t impress me too much, either.

What reliance can we place on results when the interviewers pick up the wrong question sheet or don’t know where their respondents live and then discard certain results on a cavalier basis?

You saw it here first!

2011-10-23T17:29:00.002+13:00

The short news piece on the Chapel of our Lady of Rugby the other night was no great surprise to members of our congregation.

Our parish’s last monthly newsletter featured the chapel in an editorial that asked whether God has favourites in the Rugby World Cup. Helen, who wrote it and found the lovely photos of the stained glass windows, did some more research by last Sunday when she was rostered to lead worship.

So we learned that the chapel was established in 1964 as a memorial to team members who died in an accident. It has become a shrine for visitors and has attracted gifts of mementoes of the game.

For those players whose Christian faith is a serious part of their life there must be some sense of satisfaction about their sport being honoured in this little building. It’s pleasing that it has not been overlooked in the current celebrations.

Go the ABs!

2011-10-21T16:56:00.002+13:00

Yes, by all means. It’s about time we had our turn with the Rugby World Thingie.

But let’s not go overboard if we do manage to grab it. Let’s be sure that our celebrations do not detract from the achievement by resulting in discourtesy, damage, injury, or death.

And if the unthinkable happens and our team goes slightly down at the end, let’s remember that winning and losing are facts of life. For every winner, there’s at least one loser. If that happens to us, the national psyche doesn’t need to be permanently racked.

We are already winners, just living in this great little country. We excel at all kinds of human endeavours. If this particular trophy isn’t ours just at this moment, let’s get on with doing those things which we do so well.

Rena and the beach

2011-10-16T15:27:00.000+13:00

It's been heartening to see the response of local people and officialdom to the disaster being strewn on the Bay of Plenty beaches.

I was disappointed to hear that, at first, volunteers were banned from the beaches, and then not called up after they registered their offers to help. So I'm really chuffed to hear that there's a big turnout of locals being actually used in the wretched task of scraping oil off their pristine coastline.

I think there's no end to the capacity of people to volunteer to meet a need. And, most of the time, I think we do pretty well in taking up their availability. Well done, everyone.

A load of rubbish

2011-09-29T08:39:00.000+13:00

The news that the Auditor General is not too happy with the way Regional Councils are carrying out their anti-pollution duties doesn’t surprise me.

But adding Government representatives and a whole lot more bureaucracy isn’t the answer. Just do away with the Regional Councils. And the District Councils. And all the regulatory bodies that we have to put in place to keep them on some sort of common track. The whole system is an out of date hangover from the mid-19th century when communication was a little more difficult than it is today.

Let the national government manage water and sewage and pollution and all those things that affect everyone wherever they live in the country. Clean water is clean water, and sewage is sewage: there isn’t one version for Northland another for Wellington. Well, actually sometimes there is, but my point is there shouldn’t be - a national administration would be more consistent.

To Dunedin again

2011-09-22T07:52:00.000+12:00

In a month crammed with trips away from home we fitted in another week in Dunedin.

Of course it was great to be there for the 70th birthday of our friend Shirley. But the timing of this visit was around another show by the passionate Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust. Year by year they are working through the complete suite of G&S operas and this year is Utopia Limited.

We didn’t know much about this one, but we knew it would be well done As Gilbert’s sharp satire introduced controversial issues of the 1880s through the medium of Sullivan’s great music, we laughed and hummed along. But Gilbert’s swipes at big business, insolvency, the legal system and so on had an all too familiar ring about them.

My own particular interest was that one of his “Flowers of Progress” that were eventually found to be wanting was the introduction of County Councils - I couldn’t agree more! And the way that party politics can frustrate progress of every kind is a subtle 1880s joke that is illustrated daily in our nation’s life.

The opera was born of an uneasy relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan after the “carpet affair”. But its presentation last week demonstrated excellent cooperation between all involved. The Southern Sinfonia was rounded and robust but beautifully restrained when required by the totally competent and wonderfully costumed characters on stage. The result was a satisfying, amusing and thoughtful evening.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you, Michael Dymond

2011-08-29T15:20:00.007+12:00

Congratulations, Michael, on winning Letter of the Week in the NZ Herald last Saturday. I don't often repeat others' stuff but, with others, I have been so impressed with your carefully thought out and well presented statement I'm doing that this time:

MICHAEL'S LETTER:
New Zealand has been likened to Norway in areas of tolerance, human rights, near absence of corruption and so on. There is, however, one glaring difference, and that is income equality. Comparing the income of the richest 20 per cent with the poorest 20 per cent, the ratio is 3.9 in Norway and 4 in Sweden. In New Zealand it is 6.8, in Australia 7, and in the United States 8.5.

Inequality of incomes has a major influence on rates of social disease such as infant mortality, imprisonment rates, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and so on. Norway has a low index of health and social problems, while New Zealand is among the highest. Now, we are focusing on our embarrassing child abuse record.

New Zealand has failed for too many years to live up to the ideal of a good place to bring up children. We only try to tinker with the symptoms. It is time to address the underlying factor, inequality of income. Everything else flows from there.

Michael is a member of the NZ Methodist Liberal Society and is imokurok2@igrin.co.nz

The Ca Pros Report

2011-08-23T10:17:00.004+12:00

Some friends who have been following my adventures with prostate cancer will know that I haven't had a measurable PSA test for three years. That is, until three months ago, when it re-appeared at 0.2, the lowest measurable reading you can get.

We didn't broadcast that a whole lot at the time. We thought it best to wait and see for another three months. But. given my two previous lively resurgences, we had some reason to expect that this might be the beginning of another steady rise.

However, this week's reading is exactly the same: 0.2. It seems that the combined therapy of Zoladex inplants and daily Casodex tabs are continuing to starve the cancer. When you're ticking off your life by three-monthly tests, this is pretty encouraging.

But, of course, we actually should be ticking off our lives day by day, not quarter by quarter. We should be making the most of every day, every moment, For we never know what lies around the corner.

Today we will live for today. Well, perhaps we had better live for next Sunday, since I have one of my infrequent appearances as worship leader... And there is the parish newsletter... And Bev keeps reminding me about the shabby state of the garden... And... oh, heck, let's get out in the sunshine with a book...

Thinking Ahead

2011-08-22T06:32:00.018+12:00

Bev and I have been using the Thinking Ahead workbook.

We were prompted by the excellent article "Going Gentle into that Good Night" in the LISTENER a few weeks ago. That put us in touch with the publishers of Thinking Ahead.

We found it really stimulating and helpful.

So far, we have completed a three page statement about questions that may come up after I have gone. With my history of prostate cancer we think that perhaps I am a bit more temporary than Bev. But who knows? So we will do a statement for her, too. And these statements will be handed to family members and professional carers and anyone else involved or interested in our end of life issues.
Over the years I have seen many bereaved families arguing about "What X would have wanted" when they were arranging X's funeral. My view is that the funeral is for the mourners, not the person who has died. So I like the fact that Thinking Ahead does not produce a binding, legal document that must be obeyed. But I found it very helpful to think on issues such as :-

Do I want life support just for the sake of extending life?

In my last days would I prefer to be at home or in professional care?

Do I have issues of faith and spirituality which I would like taken into account?

What would I prefer to happen to my body?

Who do I want to be my end-of-life advocate, to speak for me after I have gone?

Of couse, we have given each other Enduring Power of Attorney over the legal matters of health and welfare and property. But these will operate only while we are alive. Thinking Ahead went further and prompted us on a range of more personal issues. And it helped us have good conversations on what will be life and death issues for us both.

We recommend it warmly, if only for that reason.

Whew!

2011-08-13T08:18:00.003+12:00

We’ve been all over the place the last few weeks. The reappearance of my PSA a couple of months ago has not greatly influenced our priorities but this last month we have done some things we’ve been talking about for years.
We have –
-presented our Murder Mystery “Death by Cooperation” at St Austell’s Cooperating Parish in New Lynn…
- attended grand-daughter Lauren’s 21st - she just back from six weeks in Scotland and Europe…
- travelled on the Overlander train to Wellington – absolutely loved it…
- relocated a Wellington rental motorhome back up to Auckland via Taranaki. Only $5 a day plus fuel but the diesel cost more than the train tickets!
- flown to Christchurch and entered into a little of that lovely city’s earthquake tragedy – stayed with grandson Tim and grand-daughter-in –law-elect Casey in their cosy flat…
- travelled on the Tranzscenic train to Greymouth and back to Christchurch – fantastic golden-blue day with snow on the ground at Arthur’s Pass…
- been out on the glass-bottomed boat at Goat Island – fascinating, and a great advertisement for marine sanctuaries…

The problem with all of these trips is that each one involves four hours’ driving each way to Auckland before we actually start anything else. It’s the price of living in such a stunning part of the world, I guess… We won’t be able to stay forever. But, then, nothing is forever, is it?

Free Trade and the Small Church

2011-07-19T16:53:00.004+12:00

I was astonished to hear last week that within a few years NZ could have a free trade relationship with half the world’s markets– in terms of Gross Domestic Product. We are already signed up to more than a quarter. No other nation enjoys such wide access to other countries’ markets.

The superficial reason wasn’t spelled out but it is pretty obvious: we are such a small part of the international market that free trade with us is unlikely to do great damage to any larger partner. When Australia entered into Closer Economic Relations with NZ 25 years ago they thought they had not much to lose. The same is no doubt the case with China, with whom we have signed, and India, with whom we seem to be about to do a deal. Trade with us will always be an unbalanced affair.

But hearing the complaints of the US beef barons and the Queensland apple growers reminds us that even our modest market carries some weight. Happily, the evident threat is matched by the skills of our negotiators and our economy will benefit greatly from increasing free trade around the world.

I think there’s some encouragement here for the small church. Again and again I find that the small church punches above its weight. I believe we should encourage more of them to develop structures that meet their unique situations instead of conforming to traditional expectations of church.

Hullo to our Canterbury Friends

2011-07-15T10:57:00.007+12:00

You may know that I am not a slave to the latest craze but "chipping in for Christchurch on 15th" seems a good idea, so here I am in red shirt and black trousers (No, Bev insists they are dark navy - I'm sorry if that means I've failed a basic criterion) saying hello to our friends in Christchurch.
Our Bay of Islands Parish membership of a couple of dozen has now contributed nearly $6000 to Earthquake Appeals - mainly to the church social service missions. We received two or three large gifts from individuals and a lot of smaller ones. Some of you know that last year we had a benefit show of Dave's murder mystery dinner DEATH IN THE BAY. This raised about $1500 with free dessert and coffee provided by Paihia Pacific Resort Hotel, our friendly church neighbours.

There is much ongoing concern in our little community. We think our people will have more to send yet. But we know that, although most of our personal friends have not been greatly affected themselves, the ongoing stress for the whole of Canterbury is huge. We don't have words that will make it easier for you who are closer to it and may have to carry some of the heat of others' discomfort. But we do think of you and your friends and neighbours and the enormous challenges ahead of you. And we send you all our very best love.

Bev and Dave

Heart of the small church

2011-07-15T09:48:00.008+12:00

Bev and I attended an unaccustomed presentation from a chief economic advisor to a major bank yesterday.

As he listed the half dozen shocks that the NZ economy has taken in recent years he said that what was needed was not some tinkering with the bits and pieces of the economy. What was required, he said, was a completely new DNA.

The rest of his talk was full of statistics and details, some of them frightening, some encouraging, but the gist of it was that recovery for this country will be a long, slow haul and will need some serious commitment from people at every level.

Throughout his recounting of our wayward financial affairs the elephant in the room was the word greed. He didn't use it once, but it was there.

We are still thinking about the implications of his talk for our personal financial affairs. But those three insights come back to me when I think about our small congregation.

The small church needs a different kind of DNA from any other church; it has to be wired differently, to develop a distinctive character. It is not a small church pretending to be a big church. It is what it is, with the people is has.

The small church needs to be in it for the long haul; there is not quick fix that will change its situation or suddenly grow its membership.

The small church member needs to remember that the church is not there to fill one's own needs, but to serve the needs of others both inside and outside the membership.

Usually, we in the church like to tell society how it should be. Today, I learned something from the secular world of economics that told me something about how the small church might be.

Tobacco Advertising

2011-07-15T09:45:00.002+12:00

Well, it’s great to see that we are now taking tobacco issues seriously. No visible retail displays is a good step. Increased taxes make sense. Encouraging people to quit is creative. Denying smoking in prison will be a challenge. But, with these steps, we will all be better off in the long run.

But when will Government take a similar stance on the most costly and damaging recreational drug of all? When will we raise the taxes on alcohol to begin to cover some of its unbelievable costs? When will we package alcohol to make people think before buying it? When will we limit the sales of alcohol to times and places and purchasers that are more appropriate than at present?

The time will come when the community will say “We’ve had enough”. Apparently, that time is not yet. But who knows when “the tipping point” will be reached?

Tai Tokerau - or?

2011-06-21T07:50:00.008+12:00

It's the Tai Tokerau by-election this weekend so the name comes up quite a bit. In a few minutes of TV this morning I heard the Maori name of the region where I live seriously mis-pronounced on every occasion it was spoken by five different people.
I guess I don't want to join a protest march over it, and I realise we don't pronounce Paris the way the French do. And Tai Tokerau isn't in the list of 100 Maori words every Kiwi should know.
But we live in the land of Te Reo. Is it too much trouble for broadcasters and Parliamentarians to get to grips with the very simple rules of pronunciation of an important Maori noun in the context of a Maori election?
Language is part of what makes a people what they are. Language can be a way of respecting what other people are. That didn't happen this morning...

A day in the rain forest

2011-06-17T10:44:00.007+12:00

A few days ago we rode the Rainforest Express through part of the Waitakere Ranges. Fenton was our guide, shoulder-length dreadlocks and all, and he and the driver gave us an amazing experience.

This 24 inch guage track was a remnant of 19th Century logging tramways and was re-established about 1923 to build the Upper Nihotupu dam for Auckland’s water supply. In 1998 it was rebuilt a second time to provide a small tourist trip into the ranges. There are ten tunnels, nine bridges and the very impressive Quinn’s viaduct. We saw cave wetas at arm’s length and a great display of glow-worms. At the 7km terminus we had a picnic under the shelter and climbed 160 steps up the face of the dam, returning back down the much easier footpath.

The Rainforest Express is a greatly under-rated half-day excursion, probably bested in this country only by the unique Driving Creek railway near Coromandel. We support the Bay of Islands Vintage rail because that, too, is a great visitor trip, imbued with history.

In these days when the great steam trains are no longer common, these tiny trains give us the opportunity of experiencing a different kind of mobility, different views of the environment, and more intimate relationships with our fellow travelers.

In a way they’re a kind of metaphor for the small church. It runs on a different scale, it has a different style, and its people develop close relationships in their common journey.

Charitable Churches?

2011-05-31T08:32:00.003+12:00

When I saw Nick Smith’s piece in the Business Herald last Friday my immediate thought was to dash off my own answer to the question Should Churches be Charities? I’d have said, No they shouldn’t. Nor should they get relief from property rates and charges.

Then I read the rest of his intemperate, prejudiced and ill-informed article and I posted a reply saying he’d lost my sympathy for his cause. Perhaps I was a bit intemperate myself, as my post hasn’t appeared.

But Nick has put his finger on an issue: if only he had separated charitable works from worship. If churches are active in charitable works they might well earn tax and rates privileges from a grateful State for their contribution to society. The Charities Commission still thinks so. But, should these privileges extend also to the facilities for public worship for a very small minority of the community? As a general rule, I think not. I can’t see why the State should support the religious choices of individuals.

Of course, rebuilding Christchurch cathedral will command wide public support. It is a public facility and should again become a focus for tourism and local sentiment as well as a place of worship for a few dozen. But perhaps our little congregation in Paihia should one day have to learn to live without subsidies from the public purse...

Fantastic?

2011-05-24T08:51:00.004+12:00

This morning’s Business News on Breakfast reported significant falls in share market indices all over the world. Economic collapses in various European countries were noted as factors in the sudden lack of confidence.

The report went on to talk of falling prices for commodities and ended with the words “even New Zealand is coming under attack”.

Ever-smiling Petra immediately responded from the anchor armchair: “Fantastic!”

Yeah, well, we probably know what she meant - but we heard what she said...

Earthquake Tax?

2011-05-24T08:41:00.004+12:00

Thank you, Brian Easton, for spelling out so clearly that the government intends that the cost of the Christchurch rebuild be carried more by the “poor, weak and vulnerable” than the more fortunate. (NZ LISTENER May 14 2011)

I’m no economist, but even I can understand that paying for the Christchurch rebuild out of a specially raised tax would come hardest upon those who pay most tax. And paying for it out of the consolidated fund while at the same time reducing “Working for Families, benefit entitlements, support for students and the Kiwisaver subsidy will eventually reduce the incomes” of the most vulnerable in our communities.

Brian Easton says: “I leave it to you to decide whether that is a good thing.”

Thanks, Brian; I have decided and I am not happy with the Government's decision.

Meet Brian Easton

What price our carbon footprint?

2011-05-07T17:30:00.002+12:00

This week we have had four trees taken down. One was a wildling that had gone mad on our fragile terrace, one was encroaching on our driveway and the other two had got far too big for the places they’d been planted. Two absolutely dominated the street as you drove down towards our place.

I had it done with a heavy heart. I had supposed that they absorbed enough C02 to compensate for some part of our human lifestyle. But I went to the internet to check on the facts. One calculator suggests that our home creates about 25 tonnes of C02 a year and that would need 120 trees. Taking out four didn’t make our situation a whole lot better.

But down the bank we have got another few dozen which we regard with a new respect.

All soft and furry…

2011-05-07T17:28:00.004+12:00

We’ve been enjoying watching some of our 1997 trip video while transferring it to DVD.

Yesterday we recalled captivating sequence of a squirrel building a stash of winter food in Canada. He was bounding backwards and forwards about eight metres from a small source of good stuff to a hole in the ground. He seemed to carry just one item at a time and carefully nibbled at each one to check it was OK. He then spread leaves over the cache and tamped them down. It was irresistible viewing for Kiwis who never see a squirrel at home, especially as the action was just outside Doug’s window.

The same day I opened our compost bin and right on top was another soft, furry creature about the same size but lacking the bold bushy tail. Bright eyes. Twitchy nose, I think, but I hardly noticed I slammed the lid down again so quickly.

I’ve heard squirrels described as vermin in their home countries but they seemed really cute to us. Perhaps someone can see beauty in the large swamp rat that has taken up residence in our compost bin. But we will set a trap…

Singing a new song? Oh, dear, no...

2011-04-30T17:01:00.002+12:00

I’m taking a service tomorrow and we are going to read a hymn. The words are just right but the tune will be completely unknown and too difficult even for the music readers among us. The sense of the words will be lost in the struggle with the music.

It's a shame. Hymns are to be sung. Singing is one of the distinctive things about worship. If I made the decision to read this one tomorrow with a heavy heart, my frustration has been somewhat lifted by the memory of a service I attended in a sister church in Australia recently. There was not one thing I could sing in the entire 75 minutes. Everything was quite foreign to me.

I remember our Principal at Trinity College, in reflecting on the possibility that heaven and hell are what you make them yourself, once told us whimsically, “An angel would take something of heaven if she were sent to hell. And the worst reprobate would hate being transferred to heaven – he wouldn’t know the tunes!”

I think I can sympathise. I hope our worship tomorrow will match up some vigorous and tuneful singing with some thoughtful and inspiring words. We may not be quite good enough for heaven – or bad enough for hell, perhaps – but we will try to uplift each other in our singing.

Head and Hands in the LSM congregation

2011-04-18T07:44:00.004+12:00

Recent tensions in our small parish have highlighted for me the issue of the relationship between the Parish Council and the Local Shared Ministry Team. I've always argued for separation. It has seemed to me that the Council (the head) discusses policy and makes a decision; the Team (the hands) take the lead in carrying it out. Of course, one or two team members might be on the Council but, generally, the roles of the two bodies are separate and distinct. It's a good distinction. Our own difficulties were made worse some time ago when one Team passed a "resolution" opposing a management decision that was being made. They were seen by some to be intruding on others’ business. However, when the parish membership is very small, it is simply not practicable to have two or three separate bodies making decisions around the same mission and ministry. Perhaps the very small congregation could have a Calling for a team which would also exercise the powers of the Council. I wonder if this has been tried and found effective anywhere else in the LSM setting?

Misdirected enthusiasm

2011-04-02T07:51:00.007+13:00

In Orewa recently we saw at least a thousand godwits flying south along the beach, presumably to assemble at Miranda prior to their autumn migration to the northern hemisphere. I am always filled with wonder that they know how to do it.
In the Australian National Botanic Garden last week I encountered some other birds who knew what they had to do and were diligently doing it. There was a galah industriously hollowing out a nest site in a tree; a red-browed firetail finch carrying a feather as big as himself; and an immature male bower bird dancing among blue bottle tops and little bunches of twigs in the makings of a bower.
They were all quite magical encounters. All three birdswere doing what their instincts told them to do for courtship and mating, nesting and raising young. But they were all doing it at the wrong time. Somehow, their internal clocks told them that after long heavy rains, the bright sunshine must mean it was that time of the year when all thoughts turn to love. However, Spring is months away and there will be a hard Canberra winter to endure before it comes.
It’s just as well that the godwits have a more reliable sense of the day when they must head out on their long ocean migration. I suppose the lesson for me is that, for some things, there is a season that is right. It is important for me to be living in that moment and not in some other time, no matter how much I am enjoying what I’m doing.

RTDs

2011-03-16T11:48:00.003+13:00

Three really enthusiastic people offered impressive testimony at the Select Committee Hearing on the Alcohol Reform Bill I attended recently. They spoke with passion about a high-morale new company they are responsible for. It employs 200 keen workers in South Auckland – may of them Maori or Pasifika – and is marketing a whole range of new products that are commending themselves in the market. It all sounded like great news.
But, ah! These people are turning out the new RTDs (Ready to Drink) products which are designed to make alcoholic products more palatable (“No, they don’t have more sugar than other drinks” – Yeah, right!) and sold in all kinds of brightly coloured packaging. From “alco-pops” such as Cola mixed with quite substantial amounts of alcohol to sophisticated ready-mixed cocktails, these drinks are designed to make alcohol more interesting, more varied and more “more”. Indeed, the cynical among their critics are convinced that these products are deliberately targeted at people too young to be permitted to purchase them.
The proud manufacturers noted that many critics felt that such drinks should be banned, or at least more clearly marked, or sold in less persuasive packaging, or more heavily taxed to raise funds for the damage they caused. But, “Don’t pick on our niche in the market,” they protested, “Apply the same limitations to all alcohol products.”
Well, I hope that the government does that much at least. And I’m sad that such a live-wire group of executives are finding new ways of promoting sales of what, if it were just invented, would be a Class B drug.

Time for Lunch in the Select Committee Hearing

2011-03-16T11:40:00.002+13:00

Over recent years I have attended a number of local sessions of the Environment Court or the Liquor Licensing Authority. These events usually convened at about 10am and sometimes adjourned for a half hour tea break and later took lunch around the middle of the day, even if a late schedule meant that some of us had to wait around during the lunch hour which once or twice extended to more than two hours.
The Hearing on the Alcohol Reform Bill worked in a different style. It convened at 9am and worked through without a stop until well into the afternoon. Every fifteen minutes or so a different individual or group had the full attention of the five Members of Parliament.
Continuous tea and coffee were provided and people helped themselves. But the schedule ran over an hour late and after my contribution the lunch break was taken around 2pm. I wondered if they were finished for the day. It seemed late to be taking a major lunch break.
But lunch break it was, though not like anything I’d experienced before. “Can everyone be back here in fifteen minutes?” asked the Chair. Some opened packed lunches on the desks where they sat.
I have heard about our “hard-working” Members of Parliament. It was instructive to see the level of discipline which people from various parties put themselves under yesterday so that people like myself could have our say.
They may not accept my earnest suggestions but I am grateful that the “System” put in so much effort to listen.

The "Paihia Migration"

2011-03-03T16:43:00.003+13:00

In the middle of our national tragedy, life goes on. For me, tomorrow, it’s a rushed trip to Auckland to speak to my submission on the government's proposed Alcohol Reform Bill. From memory I think I ended my lengthy document with the comment that what needed to be reformed was the Bill itself. I think it is woefully inadequate to meet its own declared objectives.

My spoken submission will be just about the Paihia Migration of four years ago. At one end of town we have over 1000 visitor beds in one block, 450 of them in just one short street of backpacker accommodation. In that street there are no less than six licensed drinking establishments, presumably targeting the backpacker community. Not a bad idea, you might think, to keep them all together in one place.

However, in the CBD, some 750 metres away was a large party bar in which over 200 were known to have crowded at once. It enjoyed extended hours to 3am. But the Kings Rd bars all had to close at 1am. So about 12.45am in the high season we might see as many as 350 people, straggling along the beachfront road to another two hours of licensed alcoholic enjoyment. And then after 3am most of them stumbled back again to their beds. More slowly. That’s what I dubbed the Paihia Migration.

The noise, the fights, the accidents, a death or two, the rubbish – including human wastes of three different kinds – eventually so sickened the locals that 55 of them turned up unexpectedly at the Hearing to renew the 3am extension for the party bar. They didn’t say a thing; they just sat and watched – after the Hearing was shifted to another venue to make room for the extended public gallery. Months later, the extension was withdrawn.

The point of my submission tomorrow is that local neighbourhoods should have more say in the numbers and kinds of licences that are issued for their communities. No two communities are exactly alike and some have very special, almost unique, circumstances which require special provisions. Also, thought it may surprise some of the lawmakers, quite a few local people have some ideas about how to manage their local situations. Let’s give them more room to contribute.

Our small church and the big disaster

2011-02-26T09:31:00.007+13:00

Of all the terrible images that have been appearing on TV while I have been trying to put together our parish newsletter this week, this one has made a huge impression on me. I know this Christchurch city landscape well, both viewed like this from the Port Hills and from the many times I flew myself over it in the 1970s.
The rising cloud of dust almost completely obscures the business centre of our country's second largest city, with its fascinating blend of buildings Victorian and modern, utilitarian and graceful, sacred and secular. All kinds of structures have suffered indiscriminate damage in the moments before this photo was taken.
And while this awful cloud was rising over the dying CBD, all kinds of people died: young and old, white collar and blue collar, wonderful and ordinary. Some were snuffed out in a moment; others lingered for hours and perhaps even days before rescue or merciful death relieved them.
In view of the immense losses of life and property it seems obscene to be preoccupied with news about the bits and pieces of life in our little parish. But the people of Christchurch know they have to pick themselves up out of the rubble and move on. And we in the Bay, who are more vulnerable to tsunami, landslips and fire than we care to admit, also have to get on with the everyday stuff.

So the newsletter went out last night. Even in appalling death and disaster, life goes on.

Live yours well, friends.

Earthquake in Christchurch

2011-02-25T17:30:00.003+13:00

The disaster in Christchurch beggars belief.

All New Zealand has known that there would be a Big One one day. If we were trying to predict which major city in NZ would get it we wouldn’t have put Christchurch far up on the list. Until last September.

Then, we told ourselves, well, it was a once in a hundred years event so perhaps that was the one we have waiting for since Napier in 1931. And we gave thanks that the losses in Christchurch were almost only of property and possessions. A devastating blow to the city, but at least no major loss of life.

Now, Christchurch has been hit again. At the worst possible time of day and with a ferocity out of all proportion to the technical size of the shake. And it will probably be weeks before around 200 worldwide families hear the worst possible news.

Such are the ways of inscrutable Nature. We all live under the shadow of the end. Right now I am rejoicing in a report indicating my prostate cancer has been unmeasurable for another three months. That’s very encouraging - but it's kind of temporary. Another three months it may be different.

However, my life could also be changed in an instant by a tsunami, a hillside slip or a bushfire on our lovely hills. After this week, I am again reminded that I am a temporary citizen on this fragile planet.

Ah, Nostalgia!

2011-02-21T09:20:00.006+13:00

After church on Sunday we celebrated Tui’s 80th birthday and viewed a set of slides she’d put together on her life.

One shot was of her and two of her family on their favourite rock at a remote waterfall. She told us that she went back after 50 years to re-live that moment. The access was much more difficult than she remembered and, while the waterfall was still there, it wasn’t as impressive as it had seemed in memory. Worst of all, the sunny slope where three teens used to meet and share their intimacies was completely covered by a huge overgrown log that had jammed itself in the rocks.

People in small congregations know well that once the decision is made for Local Shared Ministry instead of the luxury of a paid minister, nothing will be exactly the same again. To try to revisit or recapture the past can be a discouraging and pointless exercise.

Variety Bash 2011

2011-02-19T10:29:00.004+13:00

Variety – the fun way to help Kiwi kids – is coming to Northland. A whole bunch of madcap crews will drive an assortment of old vehicles from Bay of Plenty to Bay of Islands in seven days. There will be competitive driving – of a sort!, a lot of waterfighting, and plenty of shaking of cans for donations. Along their uproarious route, Bashers will present cheques to children and children’s organisations.

For their dinner/overnight stop at Omapere on 9th March, 160 Bashers are going to participate in our new Murder Mystery Death in the Bay. This will be the largest show we’ve ever managed. And they’ll probably sit down to dinner in a different mood than most of the rather sedate church groups who’ve enjoyed Death by Cooperation.

Some Bash “characters” are lined up as suspects and the show promises to be a riotous event for all concerned. After half a century leading public worship and other rather formal affairs, I’m finding there’s a totally different feel about taking up the role of entertainer as Det Chief Supt Holmes and making people cudgel their brains or laugh their heads off.

It’s going to be a fun way for Bev and me to say Thank You to the Bashers who do so much to help Kiwi kids.

NOTE: Since 1989 Variety Club has distributed $12 million to children’s charities in New Zealand.

Goodbye, Iris Gray

2011-02-09T18:43:00.003+13:00

We've just heard that Iris has died in Melbourne in her 90th year. Respected and loved by our Paihia congregation for ten years, she was recently persuaded that she should return to Australia to be closer to her family. It wasn't an easy move, but she settled in quickly and didn't look back.

A private person, she neverthless held very firm views on many matters but never gave offence in offering them. She played a full role in our church's life, as she had in other congregations. She left at least one church because she disagreed strongly with their beliefs but, somehow, our diverse viewpoints were not as powerful as the warmth of our fellowship and she just stayed.

She declined to play our organ or to sing a solo but she loved our congregational singing. Some of us discovered that, while having three small children in the mid-1950s, she was professional organist and soloist with Auckland's Civic Theatre and later head-hunted to go to the State Theatre in Melbourne. Here she performed for the movies eighteen times a week until TV brought about the end of that cinema. She was one of only two women in the world who performed in this way. The family remained in Australia and she came back to NZ only for her last years.

Iris gave pleasure to countless thousands during her professional life at the great Wurlitzers. And in her later years among us she brought charm and inspiration to our little congregation in an insignificant corner of the world. Under the spotlight or in the pew, you were true to yourself and to your faith. We salute you.

Iris's own interesting account of her professional life is on http://www.civictheatre.co.nz/

We were blessed indeed...

2011-01-30T13:33:00.004+13:00

When we were thinking about our last worship roster, we found that one of our regulars had obtained work involving weekends and another was taking a few months’ “time out”, There was some panic for a moment. Then Heather held up her hand.
Heather is one of our “godwits” – a retiree who visits us for about half of each year from Scotland where she’s a long-time member and elder in her local church but never led worship. Today she took her first service. She shared a little of her distinctive church tradition with us, she gave us some strong hymns of worship – and, of course, a metrical psalm – and she confided her delight that the lectionary for today led her into some meditation on three of the Beatitudes.
These were, she said, not so much challenges for our future life as expressions of our present life in Christ. We were invited to relate them to our experience and simply embrace them. Trusting in God, sorrowing over the world’s shortcomings and producing right relationships were all relevant themes for us.
It was a thoughtful and worshipful service. Of course, Heather brings a lifetime of experience of worship under other leaders. She has a sense of what is or is not appropriate. But more than that, her relaxed and confident style was a comfort to those of us who were having butterflies on her behalf - we didn’t need to bother. A good congregation of locals and a couple of visitors lingered for an hour after she left for Russell. All commented favourably on what her first service had left us.
This is what Local Shared Ministry is all about. Members of the congregation take responsibility for the work. It’s not a matter of “helping the minister” as one of our UK visitors seemed to describe it to me this morning. The issue is that if there is to be a congregation here it will be because we who turn up on Sundays will see to it. Nobody owes us a service; nobody has to create theology for us; nobody needs to daily check that we haven’t gone off the rails; certainly nobody has to send us some funds to keep the show going.
The mission is ours, and we will do it.

He mahi na Uetahi, e hokia - The work is Uetahi's and he will do it (he can be relied on to complete it).

The Yellow Sea and the Mangroves

2011-01-29T14:01:00.005+13:00

There was a sea of yellow mud between us and Russell yesterday. Flash floods in the hills always bring down some mud but in twenty hours we had 250mm of rain and the run-off fouled the whole of the inner Bay. I have never seen it as extensive as that.

Even if it weren’t for all the discharge from septic tanks and farmland around the Bay there would always be some colouring of the sea after such a deluge. In time past, the mangroves would have filtered and greatly reduced the run-off and gently separated the contending forces of sea and land. These days, the mangroves are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the problem.

I have suggested that the church in the north is rather like the mangroves – standing between two different spheres and trying to moderate their interaction. Sometimes, it, too, gets overwhelmed by circumstances or the sheer size of the task.

Well, I know that the view outside my window will turn from yellow-brown to blue over the coming hours and days. The winds will bring brighter days and the tides will eventually flush the suspended mud from the sea. I have to believe that the same cleansing actions of the Spirit will be active in regularly refreshing the life of the church.

"Freedom" Camping?

2011-01-29T13:22:00.008+13:00

I’m on both sides of the mobile home park debate.

As an on and off caravanner of half a century I have many times wanted to find a cheap, secure overnight site for a few hours. It is expensive and frustrating to have to pay $40 for a parking place for an overnight sleep-stop of just a few hours. But as a ratepayer in a tourist centre, I am well aware of the problem for local communities and businesses when choice public land on our beaches and forests is turned into private campgrounds.

Given the horrific mess created by some “freedom” campers I am now deciding that it should be banned. I suggest that the Department of Conservation, in cooperation with District Councils and the camping industry should be given a mandate to devise a complete chain of minimal facilities on enclosed sites involving -
• Overnight stops available from not before 8pm and to be vacated by 10am
• Cold water showers, toilets and dump stations but no other facilities.
• Security camera coverage, where possible.
• A country-wide standard fee of about $8 for two people, only available by self-booking.
• A consistent marketing image throughout the country.

Such sites could be adjacent to existing holiday parks and camp sites or created on completely separate premises. There should be no requirement for residential supervision. Some existing operators might find this concept a useful extension to their present service. Access to fully equipped facilities, where available, should be only by way of additional entry fees.

On Teamwork

2011-01-21T07:01:00.003+13:00

I am just about the shut down the computer. In ten minutes we leave for Whangarei Base Hospital where am to have a “half-knee” replacement.

Last time I was impressed by the sense of teamwork in the theatre block, from receptionist through to the last nurse who counted the bits and pieces afterwards. Each person had a specific job to do yet they worked together to complement and support each other.

Apparently, though, there has been an exception. A survey last year reported that one in ten operations in this country hosts some kind of mistake, many involving the wrong operation or the wrong part of the body.

The solution, it was suggested, was for more of the theatre team members to take responsibility for the whole drama and to challenge the surgeons if a mistake seemed to be likely to be made.

Since I’ve already had one knee done, I guess I run no risk of coming out with the wrong knee operation today: “Hullo, the saw has jammed on a piece of titanium; what’s that doing in here?”

But it gives me confidence that my overall welfare in the next three or so days is in many hands and, generally, they are taking responsibility to work together towards a common goal.

That’s how Local Shared Ministry works in the small church.

More on leaders

2011-01-16T20:13:00.005+13:00

Some time ago I reported the loss, in a storm, of the central stem in our young kauri tree. I made the point that the tree’s chances of growing normally were greatly reduced.

I also wondered if the tree would compensate by allowing one or more of the adjacent stems to take the central place. So it might have been a metaphor for Local Shared Ministry, where a small team of lay volunteers give a lead instead of an ordained and stipended minister.

Today I checked the tree again and found that a bright green single stem is reclaiming the central position. The surrounding stems from the season before last are still in position but the new stem is already sprouting new sub stems.

All of which may be great news for our little Kauri which seems likely to resume its normal shape. But is not a good metaphor for Local Shared Ministry. It is a reminder that there are always some members of a Local Shared Ministry congregation who would like the single central paid expert to return and prevail over the efforts of a team of volunteers.

It’s not easy being a young Kauri in a challenging storm. Nor a Lay Ministry Team.

The Dining Room and the Small Church

2011-01-14T21:08:00.004+13:00

We stopped at a small country hotel for our meal a few weeks ago. The meal wasn’t bad but the service was. We waited half an hour for the only waitress, who was also managing the bar and attending to a few other dinner orders. Then we waited rather more than another hour for our meal although the place was not exceptionally busy.

Raised voices from the vicinity of the kitchen hinted at some kind of communication problem. Then some shouting was followed by the dramatic departure of the person who was apparently in charge. With warm apologies the waitress confirmed that there were some relationships difficulties. But our meal still took some time to turn up.

In a small establishment where only three or four people are doing everything there’s not much room for the luxury of storming off into the night if you get upset. Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and hang in there.

It’s the same in the small church, especially where leadership is diffused among a team of equals instead of residing in a paid professional. We all have people we warm to instinctively and others about whom we feel less comfortable. But in the team setting of the Local Shared Ministry congregation, personal feelings and even antagonisms are a luxury that we cannot afford to indulge in if the work is to be done.

That’s how it is in the real world. That’s how it has to be in the small church.

Uploaded!

2011-01-14T09:02:00.002+13:00

This morning, before anything else, I uploaded my submission on the so-called Alcohol Reform Bill.

But not before the parliamentary website told me that the document I was trying up upload was entitled Hon Simon Power and authored by Doug Sellman, the ultimate protagonist for serious reform of our liquor legislation.

I went off-line smartly and prospected around in the “properties” for my document. Sure enough, those details were there. So my submission would have had written all over it that I had borrowed something from Doug – or even been led by the nose to state his particular views. As if the 202 minutes I spent writing it weren’t enough evidence of my own efforts.

Well, we learn something new every day. You can write and edit a document, but it apparently isn’t yours until you have dug around in Properties and written in your own name as its author.

Or, perhaps, you could put in someone else’s. Is there a moral there, someplace?

Reform the Reform Bill!

2011-01-06T12:09:00.003+13:00

One of the last-minute priorities before I go into surgery in a couple of weeks is finalising a submission to the Parlimentary Select Committee on the Alcohol Reform Bill.

I think they should change the name. This Bill will reform nothing, certainly not the unreformed drinking habits of our people. I am urging ten or so changes that are urgently needed if the Bill is to make much difference. You can see my submission on my home pages. But the important thing is, write your own. The government will have to listen to the voice of the people if it is loud enough. At the end of the day it is people who elect Parliament.

Here’s how you can make your contribution. Send a letter or postcard with wording something like this:

I support an end to -
 Ultra cheap alcohol, beginning with a standard price for a standard drink
 Highly visible alcohol, by restoring supermarkets to alcohol-free
 All alcohol advertising and sponsorship except objective product information
 Legal drunk driving, by reducing the adult blood alcohol level to at least .05

Send your submission post-free to:
Select Committee on Alcohol Reform,
Private Bag 18888, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

Watching for the Signs

2010-12-28T20:56:00.003+13:00

We’re used to it. We drive regularly across the Te Haumi bridge and know that, from the driver's seat, the bridge parapet covers part of the 50kph speed limit sign. The bit that's not visible says "In 400 m".

Because we're local, we know that we don’t have to slow down to 50kph for another 400metres. But strangers coming down the hill in front of us see only the top part of the sign and slow down, holding up everyone behind them. It’s very frustrating.

But it’s a bit like life. We not only have to watch for the signs. We also need to be sure that the signs we see are complete and that we are not missing some important piece of information.

I guess part of the business of the church is to help people look for the signs and interpret them. And if we don’t see them very clearly ourselves, our capacity for helping others is greatly reduced. Keeping our eyes open and interpreting the signs,
Congregations using Local Shared Ministry may have to work particularly hard at this. It can be too easy for them to be Ok on the practical stuff but sometimes a little hard to work at the visionary and prophetic elements of ministry.

Sleep it off!

2010-12-17T17:11:00.008+13:00

The tree ferns may be doing badly but around here the birds are loving the prolific natives flowering extravagantly in the early summer.

We found this Northland woodpigeon or Kukupa just outside our bedroom window one afternoon. I couldn’t have got the photo if he hadn’t been sleeping off a bit of a bender and oblivious to everything around him.

Local bird rescue people are now warning us to watch out for tui and kukupa that have become intoxicated with fermented nectar. I remember that workmates in the native bush in the 1950s used to tell me they could hit a wood pigeon over the head with a stick when it was really sozzled. Old-time Maori certainly put out nectar troughs to attract tui with the same intention.

It’s also the time of the year in which many people celebrate by overindulging in their own chosen nectars. Tonight Bev and I are taking the Community Patrol car out in support of the Aust-NZ all-night drink-driving blitz. It will go well tonight if revellers take a tip from our boozy pigeon and stay home and sleep it off!

Put your shirt on it!

2010-12-17T17:05:00.002+13:00

The men's suit seems to be “IN”. As fast as many countries are adopting our most difficult language, their men are adopting the suit. Traditional national dress for men all over the world seems to convert to the “western” suit when they appear on international television.

I don’t think common dress does as much for international understanding as common language so I don’t care much for this sartorial trend.

And I have a quarrel with the suit anyway. Suits seem to be wedded to shirts that were made for ties. If you’re not wearing a tie, for the sake of being less formal – or because of the frequent hot flushes afflicting those of us on medications for prostate cancer – there’s no way you can make the shirt collar look tidy inside a smart suit jacket.

I’m all for a note of informality for the suit shirt. But, for goodness’ sake, can’t some of those fashion designers who produce so much unbelievable variety in women’s dress, produce some economical but stylish shirts that won’t choke suit-wearers to death before lunch time.

Dry times for the ferns?

2010-12-07T09:14:00.005+13:00

Already Northland is moving into conditions that we might expect towards the end of summer.
The grass is still green but another few days of really hot dry conditions will bring on a major water shortage in the district. This will impact all of us over the holiday season as holidaymakers flock into our camps and motels and shower themselves without thought. It will also impact, of course, on farming and the many horticultural enterprises of our region.

But it won’t impact on many of the wonderful giant tree ferns or Mamaku that we see most often. On roadsides in the North, hundreds have already died. Obscene stark trunks mark gullies and fringes where their luxuriant fronds once made a wonderful picture. Weeds are taking over the hot ground that was formerly sheltered by these majestic ferns.

As I've said before, nobody seems to have noticed this event right on the side of our roads. A desultory reply or two from the Dept of Conservation suggests that perhaps some kind of virus plus the droughts of the last two summers have caused the massive die-off…

But nobody seems to be tracking the scale of the disaster. I have read or heard nothing of it in the news media. I think that’s a little sad.

Tears for the Pike River 29

2010-12-02T16:59:00.002+13:00

When you’re doped up on two hefty drugs that wipe out your testosterone, tears come easily. But it wasn’t the drugs in this last couple of hours…

The remembrance service from the Grey District was brilliantly conceived and very well planned and carried out. If there were any glitches they didn’t show in the sympathetic presentation by TVNZ. The speeches were of a uniformly high order, the poetry more insightful than many a sermon. And the music, if one piece was not quite to my taste, would have seemed appropriate to just about everyone.

Anyone following my views of Anzac Day services will know I usually feel the church doesn’t do very well in these very public situations. But this afternoon I really appreciated the sensitivity, frankness and relevance of Tim Mora’s address. If the church’s contribution was, as it inevitably had to be, a sort of religious icing on the secular cake, it was well prepared icing and it did the cake proud.

It was a moving experience to eavesdrop on this wonderful occasion.

PS Zoladex and Bicalutamide are still doing their stuff - last week’s quarterly PSA test was fine.

Lay MInistry and Pike River Mine tragedy

2010-12-01T11:31:00.003+13:00

Our hearts have gone out to people in the Grey District over recent days. We have caught just something of their frustration and pain over the terrible disaster at the Pike River Mine.

But we’ve also caught something of the resilience of the people and the imaginative ways in which they are reacting to this challenge. From the sensitive media management to the schoolgirls who tied yellow ribbons on poles in the streets, this event has touched us all. Our congregation has carried this concern in their hearts each time we have met.

For me, a high moment was when, on the day it became clear that all 29 must have died, the nightly vigil was to be conducted by two lay women. Thelma and Lyn have been acting in place of an ordained professional minister in the Union Parish in Greymouth for some years. And the night the awful news broke in the town they were the people who were rostered to minister to the shocked, distressed, hurting people of the region in the way that only the church can do.

That is the spirit of Local Shared Ministry.

New era for Churches Together in Northland?

2010-11-22T20:04:00.003+13:00

The Council of Churches Together in Northland has accepted that the Presbyterian Church has merged Northland Presbytery into the new, huge “Northern” Presbytery (South Auckland to the Cape). But it seems that the move which was pessimistically heralded as “the end of CTN” a year or two ago might not be as threatening as it appeared.
Three Northland representatives have been appointed to attend Northern Presbytery meetings but these gatherings will be only twice a year. Those representatives will also contribute to work groups and committees. Our district’s two Presbyterian Parishes will link with the new grouping for governance matters and some other parishes may also elect to do this.
However, probably most of Northland’s parishes will continue to find their “district” affiliation with Northland rather than with the new Super-Presbytery. A careful analysis of the formal constitution of CTN suggests that very few significant changes will have to be made to accommodate the duplicate structure.
Of course, the devil may yet be in the detail, but the signs are that some of the best elements of CTN can continue. And some of the Presbyterians who have to work with the Super Presbytery have already indicated their interest in continuing fellowship links in Northland.
All in all, it seems possible that the meaningful "regional" body for Northland's scattered, small parishes may still be quite close to home. Let's hope so.

Who needs local government?

2010-10-26T07:55:00.003+13:00

It was so refreshing to hear a consultant (whose name escapes me now) suggesting recently how pointless it was that a country of a bit over 4 million people needed so many District Health Boards. He was advocating drastic reduction in the numbers of DHBs and wanted to reduce their roles to advisory rather than managerial.
All his arguments about communication, uniformity of stands and economies and so on were precisely the arguments I would use in reducing the numbers and the role of local government bodies around the country. We have far too much government, too much waste, and too much inconsistency from district to district.
Ban the lot, I say.

"Just Tinkering!"

2010-10-25T11:58:00.004+13:00

It’s been great to see the full coverage given by the news media in recent weeks. It seems the “trade” has been less successful in pleading its case but there’s no doubt they're doing some heavy lobbying around the corridors of Parliament.
What’s good about this coverage is that there are no cries for Temperance or Prohibition or “Down with the Demon Drink”. These days it’s not the anti-drink fanatics but community leaders, scientists, medical and social workers who are telling our politicians that we have a problem that is causing immense damage to the fabric of our society.
And, of course, at the end of the day, you might think that our elected representatives would listen to what 68% of the population is saying. But what they seem likely to do with the most important of the proposed changes is to “kick for touch” until after the Rugby World Cup.
Kiwi readers are encouraged to send for free submission postcards to raise these four issues again with our parliamentarians. Order from: coordinator@alcoholaction.co.nz
They are already printed with the urgent concerns:
1. Introduce minimum prices and progressive excise tax on alcohol
2. Restore supermarkets to alcohol-free status
3. Ban broadcast advertising and sport sponsorship - as for tobacco
4. Reduce blood alcohol level to .05 - as Aust, Canada, France, Germany etc

If we don’t deserve better liquor licensing laws now perhaps we deserve a better government next year.

Well done, NZ Herald for the Two Drinks Max campaign.

Fall From dis-Grace?

2010-10-13T14:20:00.005+13:00

I haven't made submissions to TVNZ about Paul Henry's resignation.

I think this is another of those times when the people responsible are best left to act out their responsibility as best they can without a lot of free advice from the public.

But, in this quiet corner where only a few souls are interested in what I write, I want to set down that Paul wasn't my cup of tea. "Breakfast" obviously had a strong following of people, either because they loved him or, possibly because they wanted an excuse to be outraged. All too often, he obliged the latter while titillating the former.

I suppose that's more or less OK, as long as we remember it's just entertainment. And as long as the nasty edges that inevitably will slip through that veneer of chat and charm don't hurt, ridicule or deeply offend anyone else. Alas, all too often, that's what happened.

However, it's not to the credit of his employers that Paul Henry lasted as long as he did and that international concern had to surface before they recognised they had a problem. How have they managed to so completely ignore the requirements of the TVNZ Charter under which they are expected to meet certain standards and deliver certain kinds of programming? And how can the Government hope for anything better by dismantling the Charter just because TVNZ has ignored it? How will it help to replace the Charter with the series of wet-bus-ticket guidelines proposed in the bill currently before Parliament?

We need a decent public service broadcasting system. And we could do it by drawing together the best qualities of Radio NZ and the technical capability of TV6 and TV7.

Three Minute Thesis Whizzes

2010-10-13T14:17:00.002+13:00

I was fascinated with the “Three Minute Thesis" competition on Cue TV last night.
Ph D students gave three-minute talks on their theses and were judged on the quality of their communication, comprehension and engagement. The audience was introduced to the most complex concepts with just one slide on the screen and a three minute talk. Clearly, many of the critics “got it” and many of the students found it constructive to distill their findings into a three minute presentation that would catch attention and convey real meaning.
It was exciting to be invited into the minds of these students. They reminded me of the voluntary worship leaders who weekly accept challenging roles in LSM congregations which do not have stipendiary ministers. They also lack some breadth of experience. They are also learners. But many of them show the same passion, the same enthusiasm, the same sincerity, the same belief in what they are doing.

This oldie salutes them all!

"And peace at the last"

2010-10-08T19:41:00.006+13:00

It was great that Dad got to cuddle his first great-great-grandchild a few days before he died. But I suppose the impression on his confused brain probably didn’t last. He had been increasingly falling into a world of his own reality and was less and less able to sustain a rational conversation. He couldn’t put his hearing aids in and that only made everything worse for him and those who tried to relate to him in the last couple of weeks.

Clearly, in his 102nd year, he was about ready to slip away three weeks ago. Whether we thought he would go “to be with his beloved Nell” or would simply release his atoms to a different form in creation didn’t make much difference: none of us wanted to prolong the distress and pain that daily living seemed to cause him.

If my sister’s much-loved little dog Toby in Canberra were suffering to that extent, she would have sought the vet’s hand in a mercy death. That kind of option was not available to us. Dad was not just an old dog and human life is valued highly in our society. As a general principle, that’s as it should be.

But the prolonged breakdown of ordinary bodily functions and his confusion, misery and pain got to the point where they merited some kind of intervention. With our blessing, his last few days were eased with regular doses of morphine. But of course the same drug also tended to depress the physiological drives that were stopping his tough old body from quietly giving up. So at last he was “managed” into a merciful unconsciousness and then quietly died.

Dad had been fiercely independent for over 100 years. But as he began to be unable to do everything for himself we became deeply grateful for the care and love given to him in the last failing months. We were doubly grateful that medical science and ethics helped him have a dignified and peaceful death at the last.

The Journey - and life and death

2010-10-03T06:32:00.009+13:00

Miranda is often our last stop before returning home from a trip south. Here we soak in the hot springs before our final four-hour leg for home. Last evening, we had a group of travellers make our home bay their last stop before they returned to Miranda.

The bells of Christchurch Cathedral rang at midday to welcome the godwits back from Alaska after their 11,000 km nonstop flight. We saw it on the TV news, but, unbelievably, at almost the same time, a flock of about 100 circled and wheeled over our mudflats for half an hour. We've never seen them here before.

The tide was right for them to stop for a feed. Alas, some unthinking campers spooked them and they moved away to the south, probably for Miranda. But for a magic quarter of an hour we enjoyed the spectacle of their convoluted and exuberant flight in the last of the sun.

Every autumn the flocks fly right up to Alaska to breed and every spring they return to New Zealand. Each year there are new young ones coming down from the breeding grounds full of life and vigour. And each year some of the old ones just get tired or diseased and drop out of the flock. But the journeying community continues. . .

A bit like the human community, I guess…

Dad and his first great-great-grandchild, taken a few days before he died.
(I wish I could say I took the Godwits photo: it's from Brian Chudleigh)

A Family Farewell

2010-10-03T06:20:00.003+13:00

We said Goodbye to Dad on 29th Sept.

There was a great turnout of family and friends from around the North Island and Australia. After a slide sequence covering Dad's life, Warren Blundell, who'd been Dad’s personal pastor in recent years, led local minister John Howell in a short liturgy with a brief but comprehensive tribute. The service culminated in a dramatic committal as the casket was carried by the grandchildren through the side door into the bright daylight beyond. I found this particularly moving, especially in the context of the Irish blessing.

The hearse was gone by the time the congregation came out so there was no great delay in getting everyone into the adjacent hall where light refreshments were available. Then we settled down to a feast of memories of Dad. There was time for anyone who wanted to say something.

We were especially proud of the speakers from the younger generation. They were articulate and confident and contributed humour and passion. If we had invited them to speak in the more formal setting of the church it might have been different.

I experienced the whole event as a satisfying blend of traditional funeral and truly informal sharing of memories.

Later. In a local conference room 32 family members sat round for another three or so hours. Siblings and cousins of three generations re-forged family ties that have survived the decades and the distances. Then 18 of us adjourned to the “Pub and Grub” for a massive meal. Later again, a remnant dozen moved on to a Karaoke Bar where, to the delight of all, Craig danced with his widowed mother.

Thanks, Dad. At the end you gave your scattered family a rare gift of time together. We made the most of it.

The Archbishop and the Funeral

2010-09-14T09:29:00.001+12:00

I’m having to do more thinking about funerals right now, of course. Dad’s demise is obviously imminent and while I won’t be taking a leading role I am certainly having to think about what it all means.
The Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne has prompted a few more thoughts: I think he’s so right and so wrong all at once.
Yes, “football club songs” may not always be appropriate. But celebrating the life of the deceased is a very important part of what we do at a funeral. The wishes of the family do need to be taken into account (They’re more important than the wishes of the deceased, actually).
Yes, the funeral should emphasise the “solemn nature of death”. I agree that many funerals treat the reality of death in a trivial fashion. However, I suspect that the Archbishop’s solution and mine would be considerably different.
Yes, for some people, the funeral should be “a sacred rite rather than a secular celebration”. Unfortunately, the Archbishop doesn’t seem to realise that his perceptions about the sacred and those of most people these days do not coincide.
Yes, there may be some situations in which political and romantic songs and nursery rhymes are not appropriate. But NOT because they might “intensify grief”. Grief, Archbishop, is a perfectly normal function of bereavement. So I feel any funeral should provide for grief to be expressed.
That’s why funerals I used to take always had two separate sections. In the first, we reflected on the reality of the death of this person whose life we celebrate. In the second, we looked to the gap that will now be in our lives as a result of this death and we attempted to establish a climate in which grief can be appropriately expressed and worked through.
I have the feeling that the Archbishop would prefer to do neither.

2010-09-09T16:41:00.004+12:00

Some of the news coming through from Canterbury after last weekend's earthquake reminds me of the fundamental principle of local shared ministry. Here are stories of people and communities getting on with looking after themselves... They know that the cavalry isn't going to solve all their problems for them.

Small churches, going through the earth-shaking business of finding that paid ministry is no longer available to them, have discovered the same reality. LSM is a way in which they can get on looking after themselves and their mission.

All the same there's a whole raft of responses to Canterbury's efforts as the rest of the country commits itself to support and reconstruction. And if Air NZ can offer a thousand free flights, our parish, which has got all its funds caught up in paid ministry, should be able to provide some free nights of accomodation for those who can get up to our airport.

We'll look into it...

See: The Cavalry Won't be Coming

http://www.centreforrecreation.org.nz/

From the gorblimey to the disastrous

2010-09-06T09:12:00.008+12:00

Friday night was huge. Our mystery dinner DEATH IN THE BAY was a terrific hit for the 90 or so dining in the Paihia Pacific Resort. The place rocked with laughter and applause as our amateur "suspects" entertained and challenged. Afterwards, Bev and I were absolutely exhausted. So we were still in bed next morning (watching a tape of THE VICAR OF DIBLEY!) when we were phoned about the Christchurch earthquake. How life's priorities are changed in a moment!

Like everyone else not in the quake zone, we watched TV on and off all day, wondering about the extensive damage and marvelling that there was no loss of life. Now we are told 500 buildings were damaged and restoring them and infrastructure will run to over two billion dollars.

As we are still wondering how much we should give for the Pakistan flood disaster it was heartening to hear Mayor Bob Parker saying that money was not the first priority for Christchurch. It seems that in this country we not only got our major earthquake in the middle of the night when people were not up and about but we have a national earthquake insurance scheme which will cover most household needs. Furthermore we have a sense of national responsibility which will stand by to help when the country's second largest city is so extensively damaged.

We're pleased to hear that there was virtually no damage in our grandson's flat in Sydenham. We think of those who are less fortunate and will be facing the consequences of this last weekend for months to come.

And we will do something significant for the desperate and neglected people of Pakistan...

In and Out of Sync

2010-08-27T14:43:00.006+12:00

It was never going to be a large print run, but a mere dozen copies of my "notes for my life story" is pretty modest. Even for a dedicated short-run publisher.

The title says it all: "In and Out of Sync". At least it does if you remember the days of movies in which the sound and the picture sometimes got out of kilter. It's a metaphor for my life: sometimes running smoothly, sometimes slipping into rough patches.

It's been great therapy putting it together. I wrote it primarily for the family - they will probably read the alternate chapters and skip the church bits ! But the latter also reflect my experience in a denomination which also has been "in and out of sync" over the fifty years since I commenced ministering in Hauraki Plains. I've tried to document some of the important aspects of those changes as I affected them and they affected me at different times.

When I started writing it seriously, the story looked like it might end sooner rather than later. Now, I may even have the opportunity of commencing a new book! There's another mystery dinner... Helping with bookings for our parish's outreach in "Time Out" (see Jun 12) ... Learning how to merge addresses in an unfamiliar program... Finding lost pages on our website...

Not exactly a "bucket list" but a life that just goes on. What could be better!

Another Warrant of Fitness - and some Fine-Tuning

2010-08-25T10:51:00.008+12:00

I phoned Penny at the medical centre a little while ago and my PSA is still "not measurable". That's a technical way of suggesting that my prostate cancer is continuing to be inactive - after eighteen months.

Of course on Tuesday I will be back there for my quarterly injection of Zoladex and every day I take the little white bicalutamide tablets. And every day I have a dozen to twenty hot flushes and - even at this time of the year - freezing chills afterwards. And noticeably, as a sort of endcrinological girl, I am much less able to stand up in public without emotional stress.

But nothing would have stopped me stepping in as DCI Holmes last Friday night, in my new mystery dinner show DEATH IN THE BAY. Our usual Holmes was out of town and I was delighted to play the role. It was great fun for everyone, not least of all for me after a couple of years' work in devising it. It needs a little fine-tuning but we will be doing it again on 3rd September.

To bring so much laughter to people is a rare privilege in these days. For all the slightly off-beat humour, it has been a ministry of a sort. And, in many ways, more satisfying than a lot of what has taken place in my career as a minister. Like the man, says - funny, that.

And this afternoon? Another Oh-so-serious Parish Council. I wouldn't for a moment play down the importance of the main issues. But I do hope that we can enjoy ourselves... Life is so short...

Subtle winds of change in LSM

2010-08-16T07:54:00.006+12:00

Our Local Shared Ministry Team doesn’t have any one coordinator personally responsible for parish administration at present. The work in this key role is being done very efficiently by a small team of people with responsibilities in clerical, property and financial matters but there isn’t just one person on the team who holds it all together.
It’s been suggested that the parish should “appoint” someone to join the team, attend team meetings, and look after this role. But this cuts across the fundamental principle that Team members are “called”, not “appointed”.
That may sound like a very small point. Well, take a look at our improvised satellite TV dish outside our bedroom. It’s not nailed down to the deck so it has been blown about in the wind a lot lately and we lose signal. It’s always blown to the same side. All we have to do is put a hand through the door and jiggle the stand and we’re back on air. Simple solution, eh?
But – what you don’t know is that the dish was originally a metre to the left. With the north-easterly winds nudging the stand to the left and our quick re-alignments kicking it back to the right, the entire outfit has crab-walked along the deck. In fact, it’s come so far that it now blocks the ranchslider door. We can’t use the door for its designed purpose any more. Sooner or later, the dish will have to go back to the place that was designated for it.
There are some principles in life and ministry teams that can't be re-aligned casually. They need to be thought through, planned carefully and changed cautiously. Otherwise something really important may be lost.

We are stuck with our families but we choose our enemies

2010-07-28T13:55:00.006+12:00

As John Key's government was explaining away their astonishing and callous rejection of the proposed lowered blood alcohol levels for all drivers I happened to catch a few TV minutes of Round Table on ABC's This Week.

The panellists were discussing President Obama's dilemma about an issue which required very strong leadership but which would probably reduce his popularity among the voters. Someone quoted FD Roosevelt's response to advisors who suggested that a certain course of action would win him enemies: he was quoted as saying, "Judge me by the enemies I have made."

It's not exactly as simple as that, of course. But this week was a time for leadership. John Key and his cabinet elected to displease the wrong enemies.

Thank you, John Proctor!

2010-07-21T20:57:00.002+12:00

Dr John Proctor’s appeal concerning euthanasia is timely and wins my immediate support.

Any change in the law may not come quickly enough for him and me. But it is somewhat understandable that our lawmakers are reluctant to change a statute that honours the sanctity of human life – even to the point where it becomes damaging and abusive.

It would be one thing to change the law to permit shortening the pain of a dying person and the misery of his or her family. Dr Proctor and I would both like to have that privilege. And my father, failing now as he comes up to 102, says he wishes every day that his life was over.

But it would be something else if I and my sisters had been lawfully able to decide that it would have been a good thing for Dad to pop off ten years ago and were able to persuade a doctor to bring his life to an end.

The right of the individual to choose must be paramount. And, somehow, a way must be found for that right to be actioned at the point where the individual may no longer able to rationally make the decision.

Life and Death

2010-07-14T22:45:00.004+12:00

Andre le Roux died yesterday, sooner than anyone expected. His last “10 Minutes on a Tuesday” arrived this afternoon, replete with the flair and imagination that have marked these weekly offerings for worship leaders in congregations like ours.
Bev and I met Andre only once. We were at the School of Theology in Queenstown. We were to do our Murder Mystery Dinner and Andre was taking sessions on leadership. I don’t know that I made much of a contribution to the event. But to sense Andre’s vigorous, enthusiastic and spirited leadership was to be reminded of something of my own exciting first years in ministry in the 1960s.
I think we had only one private conversation at Queenstown but I know that my hopes for ongoing remission of my prostate cancer were discussed and found warm support.
Barely weeks later I heard that Andre had been diagnosed with terminal cancer himself and within a short time he had to retire from parish ministry. Now, suddenly, he, a young man with a young family and decades of life and ministry before him is gone and, I, feeling a little old if not quite decrepit at 75, am still here....
We watched “The Proposition” tonight and a closing speech was memorable:
“Although the paths of our lives may turn unexpectedly and end all too soon, I can only believe that the journey is never in vain, and perhaps it is this very journey which gives life hope and meaning.”
Andre, we salute your short journey. We, who, by a strange and mysterious providence, survive you, will try to live out our journeys in your spirit.

Who’d be a Ref?

2010-07-04T17:16:00.003+12:00

I’m not a special fan of football. But I did stay up to watch NZ doing itself well at the FIFA World Cup Games. And I’m partly watching a semi-final right now. But, on balance, since being turned into an edocrinological girl by Zoladex, I think I’d rather watch netball. At least the scores are usually higher.
In both sports, the role of the referee or umpire is critical. That’s to say, everyone is critical. The players don’t like your decisions. The crowd always have a better view than you. And FIFA itself will drum you out of the Brownies if you make a real idiot of yourself. It must be a thankless task to make instant judgments and award a penalty or hold up a yellow card. Especially since, if you didn’t see anything naughty then, apparently, it never happened.
I’m glad that there isn’t a ref looking over my shoulder moment by moment and day by day. I’m glad that my fumbles, stumbles and trip-ups are not under summary judgment the instant they happen.
But, hey, wait a minute. What am I saying? Of course everything I say and do is under judgment. All the time.
How well have I educated the ref that is in me?

The Ca Pros Report

2010-07-04T17:13:00.002+12:00

I did my three month test recently and my PSA is still down. That’s a year since the combination of Zoladex implants and daily Casodex pills made it unreadable.
So my specialist has returned me to the care of my local doctor until there’s some change in the reading. That usually happens when the expert says “There’s nothing more I can do for you,” so this is a much more hopeful situation.
I’m also doing pretty well on the half-knee replacement and thinking seriously about having the second done. With all those things going for me the sky will be the limit.
The sky? Well, it’s thirty years since I gave up my Private Pilot Licence. Perhaps I should enquire about taking it up again.

Light-up BAD -- Drink-up GOOD?

2010-07-04T16:23:00.005+12:00

The recent sharp increase in the excise tax on tobacco wouldn’t ordinarily have interested me much. But I was intrigued and concerned that it was announced at almost the same time that the Prime Minister was saying that the government was not inclined to increase the price of alcohol. He said it wouldn’t have much effect on drinking.
Experts opposed to the ready sale of both drugs have advocated price increases to try to limit the amount of damage they do. But evidently this present government believes that strategy will only work on smokers and not on drinkers. There’s a connecting piece of logic here that seems to have slipped past me.
It’s disappointing that the coming review of the Sale of Liquor Act may not take absolutely seriously the possibility that the cost of liquor may have some bearing on the amount of damage it does. And the need for more financial resources to mitigate the social cost of families affected by 700,000 heavy drinkers surely suggests that we must consider increasing taxes on something.
If drug damage is severe enough to make smokers pay, why not drinkers?

This is the year there will be changes. Let’s make sure they are the best we can do for everyone. Visit http://www.talklaw.co.nz/ http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/ http://ourturn2shout.blogspot.com/

Making the most of winter

2010-06-24T07:31:00.003+12:00

This afternoon three Royal Sovereign Spoonbills are on our beach at Te Haumi. These majestic creatures are not common in this country, a few having straggled across from Australia ages ago. But a small colony breeds at Okarito along with our own rare Kotuku or White Heron. And at this time of the year they move around the country a little but mainly in the south.

We don’t need these majestic visitors to remind ourselves that it is winter. Our little town is very quiet. Motels and restaurants are putting out bargain signs and the early evenings are coaxing us indoors to watch more television or read more books than usual.
It’s Matariki, of course, the beginning of the Maori year. It’s time in which skills are celebrated and generous meals shared from the last of the autumn harvests. The Gen-I Summit here last weekend shared such a meal last weekend and, by all accounts, was a great demonstration of the people preparing and presenting it.
Matariki is also a time for consolidating experience, a kind of “retreat” from the everyday with time to reflect and learn. Retreats are a universal tradition and deeply rooted in the bible. We have heard recently of Elijah’s 40 days and we know how retreat times were important for Jesus.
We should take these examples into our own lives and make the most of this precious time of the year. Its different demands on our lives and energies are a gift in our busy times, a time for re-Creation and refreshment.
Make the most of it!

"Affordable Accommodation in Paradise"

2010-06-12T08:07:00.006+12:00

Having posted this morning about our exciting DIY management programme I realise that our facilities in this parish have never been mentioned in this blog. I guess I, too, have "left it to the Manager..."
Suffice it to say that when the parish opted for Local Shared Ministry and sold the minister's house a fund was created which enabled the erection of a couple of two-bedroom holiday flats on the rear of the church property. The name would be Centre for Re-Creation. The vision was to provide free short breaks for people under stress.
To bring this about, we recognised a number of social service organisations; they send us their own clients for whom a few days' Time Out would be an advantage. These sponsors are asked to contribute a small fee as part of their commitment to the programme.
A modest number of paying guests provides the income stream that enables the programme to break even. But, in the last couple of years we have not enjoyed a good level of paid bookings. With that downturn and the cost of paid management, the losses are beginning to mount up.
So, like many a small congregation, whose financial commitments rise beyond their resources, we have to develop a new strategy. And, for the moment, that involves volunteers...
So that explains today's other post!

Visit the Centre

LSM in a different setting

2010-06-12T07:35:00.004+12:00

After some years of paid management, our parish's holiday flats are currently being managed by a group of volunteers. Our manager resigned to take up a full-time position and, to carry it over the "low" season, Parish Council has taken over the operation itself.

Three or four of us are taking responsibility for specific aspects of day to day management
Members of out congregation are having to identify their own sense of mission in trying to provide free short breaks for stressed people in need of Time Out...
Members who have been standing back and leaving everything to the manager are coming forward and asking what they can do to help...
The sense of teamwork that existed between the Manager and the small management committee is being extended to a much wider group...
There's some controversy about exactly what to do in the changing economic circumstances but there's also lively and informed discussion as people get involved in the issues..

It's fascinating to see the parallels between this situation and that of a congregation exploring Local Shared Ministry as an alternative to paying a minister. In either case, there's an air of uncertainty about the future but, together, people put their energies and their faith to the test.

Winter in the North

2010-05-31T18:49:00.008+12:00

3pm 28th May - Paihia Beach enjoying 18 degrees of sunshine while South Otago drenched and the South Island is blanketed in snow.

It ain't always so but we really need to tell church people about our parish's two-bedroom flats at winter rates of only $70. Every "paid" guest-night subsidises a free night of "time out" for a family under stress.

This innovative mission project was made possible in 1998 with the sale of the church house when we decided for Local Shared Ministry instead of a paid minister.

Preach on the Trinity? Who? Me?

2010-05-31T17:14:00.004+12:00

When Ann, one of the lay worship leaders in our Local Shared Ministry congregation, happened to mention that she was having trouble preparing her sermon for Trinity Sunday my immediate response was “Much better you than me…” I encouraged her not to feel bound to deal with so difficult a topic in the context of our little congregation.

In the event she tackled the Trinity. She blew us away us with the depth of her research, yet without boring or confusing us. She introduced us to the issues that gave rise to the Nicene Creed – and then got us to recite it! She pointed out the difficulties for present-day Christians – and she did it all in the context of our own lives which themselves are full of mystery and need tolerance in relationships.

The liturgy was themed around names of God. Prayers and really apposite hymns helped us reflect on what we understood of God and two short discussion periods sharpened our involvement in the topic.

I am sure she had some help from Andre Le Roux’s brilliant on-line resource “Ten Minutes on a Tuesday” but she integrated his material into her own life experience. She infused the service – and her congregation - with that mystery that is God. It was a sacred hour. Thank you, Ann.

Back to work?

2010-05-25T20:35:00.002+12:00

It’s more than seven weeks since my “half-knee” replacement and I’m much more cheerful than I was a month ago.
The recovery process has been slow and quite uncomfortable sometimes. And it’s involved a lot of simple medication. But it’s been helped by a few days on Waiheke Island, a visit from our friend Joan Carter from Dunedin, and the last ten days with Bev’s sister Joyce in Upper Hutt. And we had a great time with our Murder Mystery Dinner in our old family church at Waiwhetu.
Back home this week, one of the first things I had better do is get in touch with the local Hospital Physio Dept and get a clearance to do some normal things including driving. Actually, over the two thousand kilometres, I’ve found that driving is more comfortable than most other things involving my right knee…
Even in the terrible weather of the last couple of days the trip back up-country has been a pleasure. We are fortunate to live in such a beautiful land. And especially to be back home in this part of it.
Now, tomorrow, back to work!

Licensed to Swill?

2010-04-27T21:13:00.001+12:00

I am really intrigued by Chris Ogilvie’s letter to the LISTENER Apr 24 2010. In the context of all the publicity about the Law Commission’s recommendations to Parliament, he suggested that if we wished to engage in consuming the “Class B Drug” alcohol, we should have to meet certain conditions to obtain a licence to drink. Fully ID’d, the licence could have conditions attached it and it could be withdrawn if used inappropriately. It seems to make quite a lot of sense.
But perhaps my enthusiasm for the idea is affected by my current drug-induced journey through post knee replacement surgery. The knee has been coming along but the brain is turning to mush. Television seems to have deteriorated, old videos look really worn, beautifully prepared food seems less interesting than usual. Even the physio nurse – who’s hardly seen me – said I’m probably pretty grumpy. And Bev didn’t deny it.
All that because a few days ago I became aware of some internal resistance to the ingenious little metal and plastic bits in my knee. It’s enough to make you want to pop down to the bread section in the supermarket and pick up a bottle or two of a Class B drug…

Our Last Tree Fern – RIP

2010-04-02T17:24:00.003+13:00

The last of our eight tree ferns died while I was away for surgery. Happily, the smaller Silver Ferns are not affected, but all our big ones have now gone.

A response from the Department of Conservation suggests that the dying-off of Northland’s Mamaku tree ferns may be related to the disease that killed most of Northland’s mature Cabbage Trees about twenty years ago. Some people are researching reports on that event to see what can be learned.

Evidently both species are susceptible to some kind of deadly virus, especially when they are under stress. That’s why the great valleys of Mamaku are surviving but the small groups on the forest fringe and along the roads are dying off at a horrific rate in the current drought. You can see them everywhere.

It would seem that nothing can be done but it’s really sad to see these magnificent specimens reduced to bare trunks. I suppose what’s most interesting to me is that nobody seems to have noticed the wholesale change taking place along the roads we travel day by day.

I wonder if I also fail to see the death and dis-ease in the human presence among which I move daily? Has my own indisposition due to surgery made me more sensitive about the condition of others or has it merely concentrated my attention even more on myself? H’m…

A week of it!

2010-03-30T21:17:00.002+13:00

Update on the surgery:

It was a busy week. We spent most of Wednesday at Whangarei for pre-op procedures and "joint camp" and returned to stay at the staff hostel (Maunu Hilton") on Thursday night for a 7am report to surgical admissions. I was taken through to theatre by about 9am and, having only a spinal tap anaesthetic, was able to take in most of what was going on. Back in Recovery at 10.30 and up to the ward by afternoon. All very smoothly managed.

Bev motored off to Auckland for the weekend and enjoyed the gathering with Home and Family Counselling and an evening at Christine's. By the time she was thinking about getting out of bed on Monday morning I had the word that I could go home.

There are a lot of appointments and hurdles to get through, of course, but we seem to have made a good start. And my surgeon suggests that we should be thinking about doing the other knee sooner rather than later...

We send our love to all who have been in touch.

Dave & Bev

I Kneed This

2010-03-23T17:11:00.004+13:00

About a year ago I was accepted onto the urgent waiting list for a half-knee joint replacement. Last August I did the "pre-op" session at the Hospital, in expectation of an early admission.

A day or so ago I was phoned to ask if I could take up a cancelled spot on Friday. We were packed to leave for Auckland and Hamilton - where we were to direct our Murder Mystery Dinner - so I felt I had to decline.

On second thoughts I asked for half an hour to see if I could find someone to present the show with Bev. No such luck. But a call to the church office revealed that the ticket sales were poor and they were just about to suggest to me that we cancel.

It didn't take long to coordinate those cancellations and tomorrow I go down to do all the pre-op checks again. All being well, I'll be back in Whangarei for the "Right Knee Uncompartment" at 7am on Friday. (H'm, yes, must remember to mark the left one: "NOT THIS ONE!")

Bev will go on to our Auckland appointment and present our video of her reminiscences of her 1980s years with Home and Family Counselling and then, I am hoping, hurry back to wipe my feverish brow. As if we aren't enormously fortunate to get my surgery at public expense, we've just heard that Bev won the draw for her reminiscences and gets a free ticket to the celebrations.

The fragrance... filled the house...

2010-03-23T13:51:00.007+13:00

What a time Bev and I had with the "fragrance that filled the house" last Sunday. We took a look at Andre Le Roux's "Ten Minutes on a Tuesday" on the story of the anointing of Jesus' feet at the home of Mary and Martha. His notes really got the juices flowing. And the aroma.

We emailed the congregation inviting them bring some scent or after-shave to Sunday service. When they arrived we'd already been heating aromatherapy oil for half an hour. We were all seated in a hollow square. After a time of sharing images and words and ideas about Mary's extravagant and sacrificial honouring of Jesus, people were invited to move into the centre space and offer a dab or squirt of scent on the hand of any other person.

It was designed to be a fairly solemn moment - we have been feeling some strains in the fellowship lately - but it soon became a lively and warm exchange of greetings of all kinds. People found all sorts of ways of honouring one another. I think one or two probably took the hand of every person present. Later we repeated the exercise with four or five locals and three visitors over the water at Russell. In both places it was a very special few minutes which we couldn't possibly have experienced while seated in pews in a big church.

On a very much lighter note, Ann suggested to me afterwards that the reason Mary had the stuff and could be so liberal with it was that she had obtained it for Lazarus and when Jesus brought him back to life she didn't need it any more! Of course!

Giant tree ferns - an indicator species?

2010-03-19T09:55:00.002+13:00

In a recent dry hot summer two of our mature mamaku tree ferns died. The bank was bone dry so I piped grey water from the shower down to them but couldn’t save them. This summer three more of these 30-yr-olds are dying off, a frond at a time. I can’t seem to do anything for them.

For a couple of years I have become aware of tree ferns along the forest and road margins dying off in exactly the same way. Most had only a small head of green fronds to start with, and one by one these have died off. There are now hundreds of bare, dead trunks left standing like bizarre headstones throughout the north.

But the interesting thing is, nobody I speak to seems to have noticed the loss of these giant ferns. I have googled the problem and the only complainants seem to be people in the South Island who have garden specimens that are susceptible to frost.

Come on, DoC, what’s happening to our Northland Mamaku? What's happening to our world?

That Enabler Hat!

2010-03-15T13:57:00.003+13:00

We completed the handing over of the Enabler hat yesterday.
A warm congregation attended at 4pm as District Superintendent Peter officiated at a special induction service to launch Rosalie Gwilliam as our parish’s Ministry Enabler. The liturgy was crisp and thoughtful, the singing robust and the sermon – longer than his usual, Peter admitted – directed our attention firmly to issues which we know require attention at present.
The questions asked of Rosalie and of us all helped us to re-think our own commitment as we move into a time of reduced income from giving and some uncertainty about the future. The finger food tea that followed was more than the entire congregation could polish off – perhaps an omen for the future!
Rosalie brings a huge amount of experience in the Methodist and Uniting traditions at district and national level as well as a lot of practical know-how in parish consultations and reviews. Her skills as a worship leader and parish administrator and pastor are going to be of great value to our ministry team as they coordinate the ministry of us all in this 19th year of Local Shared Ministry. Welcome aboard, Rosalie! Nobody can be as glad to see you in place as your predecessor!

In and Out of Sync

2010-03-10T10:01:00.005+13:00

Along with the encouraging news on the prostate cancer front "The Book" has gone off for printing. It’s gone through a multitude of small revisions and is now in reasonable shape for a small run. Grand-daughter Lauren has designed a stunning cover and everything will be coming together in two or three weeks if the weather allows the printed pages to condition properly before binding.

If the weather doesn’t co-operate, I will have to resort to the technique described in my book on how to do your own book publishing. But you will have to buy the book to discover what that is. Bind your own Book
So people who asked for copies during the Great Golden Wedding Tour should hear from me soon – unless it turns out that I have lost all their names and addresses. Anyone else interested is invited to email me. I’ll be doing a dozen at a time as required. No huge financial outlay and no unsold stocks lying around - that’s the beauty of my “Eccent” ultra short-run binding system.

Prostate Cancer Report

2010-03-10T09:01:00.001+13:00

Since going onto a second medication for advanced prostate cancer I’ve had unmeasurable PSA for about a year. At the quarterly consultation with my specialist the other day I was speculating about how long this excellent state of affairs might go on and whether an indication of possible diabetes was really worth worrying about.
Then I said, "Of course, I can't ask you the real question, can I?"
She said, "Yes, you can."
So I said, "How long do you think I can plan on?"
Immediately she replied, "Definitely from six months to ten years."
Don’t you just love a specialist with a sense of humour…

It’s just eight years since I was enduring the rather unpleasant extracting of biopsies from my prostate. Cancer cells were found in four out of the six. And they were Gleason Grade 7 which, out of ten, indicated fairly strong and lively activity. After the surgery which followed I remember researching the odds and giving myself 80% chance of surviving three years and 30% chance of eight years.

Within a year the cancer was active again and since then I have had another unmeasurable year on Zoladex injections before it resumed. And climbed steadily for three years. Now Bicalutamide on top of Zoladex has given me an unmeasurable PSA for nearly all of the eighth year.

But life is always uncertain. If we had buses around here I should be careful not to step under one. Meanwhile, I’m grateful that today is going to be a great day. And maybe tomorrow, too…

The Chris and Gareth Show

2010-02-22T13:52:00.003+13:00

Bev and I have just re-run the My God TV episode where Chris Nichol interviewed Gareth Morgan. What a breath of fresh air! Chris does a great job with Praise Be and I love the music, but My God is literally, Something Else.

The intimate interview with Gareth was a most special moment in a special series. One whose ethics aspire to principles rather than rules; who wants to treat people, even in the rough and tumble of business and economics , as he would like them to treat him; who as a matter of principle distrusts the rulers and high priests of society; who, on receiving a huge windfall from the sale of Trademe, looked for ways of sharing what he didn’t need; who says we had better enjoy life’s journey to the full because we don’t know what’s at the end; such a person can only say he has no time for religion with a very specific definition of religion in mind.

Gareth, this Methodist salutes you. Chris, you and the team at Pacific Screen, are a gift to us all for your imaginative selection and sensitive handling of your guests. Thanks.

MMP and all that

2010-02-20T12:21:00.006+13:00

My two bits’ worth in the Mixed Member Proportional debate would be that MMP certainly isn’t perfect and needs some adjusting in obvious areas. But I would hate to think that there will be overwhelming support for the suggestion of returning to First Past the Post.
Up until MMP came in, I never cast a meaningful vote in my life. I was always in electorates where there was no way that my vote was going to change anything. In rural electorates my vote would never have got my candidate past the post and in urban electorates my vote would have contributed only to the overweening sense of importance that some high-majority partliamentarians displayed.
It was once such a nominal event that I took Paul, aged ten, into the voting booth with me, and let him vote. He’d studied the issues at school and knew what to do and did it thoughtfully. But his vote didn’t change anything more than mine would have.
In those days it only mattered to vote if you were in a marginal electorate. Those were the voters who swept governments in and out. Sometimes a swing of a handful of percentage points in key electorates across the country made a huge change in the balance of parliament. Often the parliament lost skilled and experienced politicians in the carnage.
In the 1970s I proposed on radio a reform which turned out to be almost exactly what we got in MMP a dozen years later. Mine didn't have the controversial threshold at all so it could have had practical problems. But then, as now, almost anything would have been better than FPP.

“Homework and Ministry Formation”

2010-02-17T13:50:00.002+13:00

My 1972 Diploma of Education, and its thesis about testing of candidates for the Methodist Ministry, hardly qualifies me to wade into the current school homework debate.
But I am impressed to hear of the objective of getting Primary age children to target and achieve their homework around topics that are real for them. They are to choose objectives, and their parents are to sign that the work has been done. Then they may report to class: I built this boat; I got dinner last night; I’ve kept my room tidy for a month.
In the 1970s I devised the “Teenage Budgeting Programme” which invited parents and teenagers to contract together for a realistic monthly allowance – not nominal “pocket” money. The amount was based to be on the actual cost of clothing, entertainment, school needs and so on. The teenagers had to do all their own decision-making and spending. And they had to account for it, on paper, once a month.
But when we offered the concept to secondary schools they preferred to teach budgeting of adult things like rent, housekeeping, insurance, electricity, property maintenance, mortgages, investments and so on. These, they felt, were preparing their students for the “real world”.
I still say Nonsense. The best learning takes place in the context of the learner’s own world. The new approach to homework sounds like a huge step in the right direction to me.
It’s the same with ministry formation in Local Shared Ministry. People who dedicate a few hours a week to voluntary ministry don’t need three years of a broad classical theological education. They need to be helped to prepare a first sermon, to draft a rounded liturgy, to demonstrate caring in a pastoral context, to think theologically.
And to find needed information on the www!

Getting away from it all

2010-02-17T12:10:00.004+13:00

After one of my rare Sunday service efforts – Paihia at 9am and Russell via car ferry at 11am, followed by lunch with the visiting congregation at the latter – we have escaped for a couple of nights. To get away for a bit.

And have we got away! There’s no one we should visit. There’s no cellphone coverage. We can’t even sight up the satellite for our little Freeview TV setup. And somehow, the thumbdrive with the two projects I’d planned to work on, got left at home. Come to think of it, I can’t even upload this post to my blog.
But the weather which promised to be very hot has turned out very pleasant so far. There’s a grand beach just down the road. And we have books. Everything else can wait until we go home in a couple of days.
The moral is: at our stage of life, you take it all as it comes. Today hasn’t turned out as we thought. But it's here. And we will wring every bit of enjoyment out of it that we can.

"Murder?" he said

2010-02-11T06:48:00.001+13:00

I’m working on another murder mystery. The theme is pretty close to home in our little community: the director of an ambitious waterfront development plan is blown up in his luxury motor launch at the town jetty. The dinner audience will have to work out who did it. I think it’s going to be fun.

Watching three murder cases being reported from the Courts tonight has reminded me that these tragedies and their solutions actually come with tremendous pain and angst for everyone. And justice in its purest form is often elusive.

I hope the fun I am planning doesn’t diminish the seriousness of the real thing. And perhaps this time, I should devise a murder that turns out to be only an accident…

The Big Cs

2010-02-11T06:24:00.005+13:00

There are two big Cs in my life. One is Prostate Cancer and the two life-changing medications which are keeping it more or less subdued. I have little control over what happens in the cells that are running riot inside me. I know that I have to simply get on with life and let it take its course as it will. I am grateful for every new day that Bev and I both wake in the morning.
The other Big C for me is the church. Not the denomination whose lifeblood still flows, but more faintly these days, in my veins. Not the national organisation that is now flailing around trying to find to solution to the countless problems that it faces. My other Big C is the little congregation in Kings Rd.
Here I am counted among a couple of dozen who find that they cannot do without what we offer each other on Sunday mornings. Here we live out a corporate life of worship and service in a context that has never been sympathetic and supportive. Here we struggle with our different beliefs and ways of doing things. But here, week by week, we are stimulated and inspired by gifts of imagination, art, music and word.
In this little Big C there is also no guarantee for our future. We know it isn't forever. We live a Sunday at a time. And as we meet together, we are grateful for each other and a God-shaped dream that bears us up.