Tauranga ministers divided by gay marriage bill

Tauranga ministers divided by gay marriage bill is my first foray into the public arena since coming to St. Georges. As the National youth person I always had to be o so careful about what I said about some of these issues. But not now. I can say what I think. It is so refreshing. Freeing. I can be honest, and know that the parish will not get too upset about that. They are a liberal parish.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anglican Worship, a relic of the past?

One of my colleagues sent an email out today advertising the up coming Manu Rui training event in Christchurch. One of his youth pastors replied as below. I include it as it raises some important issues, and I also include my response. My kids would have no interest in this at all; their focus is simply not on denominational breakdowns and focii. As a church we need to focus on WHERE OUR KIDS ARE (ie not in Anglican churches) and visit there, rather than trying to get kids to visit us (worship wise or whatever). We've been around hundreds of years and kids have voted with their feet. Modern youth ministry is totally ecumenical (ie easter camp, 82 youth groups), so this is not something I would spend time on myself. I agree there are treasures, and I personally value aspects of Anglicanism, but not at a youth level. We struggle even having "readings" (even in modern version); our kids want increasing informality and less heritage. They collect the latter later in life,...
Read more

“Show us your credentials part three." Some thoughts for the readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time with some interesting stories.

Image
In our Gospel reading, Jesus keeps poking the bear and ramping up the tension with the privileged, landowning Jerusalem Temple elite. This tense conversation started when they demanded to know who gave him the authority to do all these things—teaching, healing, forgiving sins, and flipping over the money changers' tables. Jesus links his authority back to John the Baptist and then launches into a few stories about sons and vineyard tenants who don’t pay rent – they know what to do with them. And now an utterly absurd parable about a king and a wedding feast. Seriously, who turns down a weeklong party with the best food and wine? To get what's going on here, we have to keep the Sermon on the Mount in mind, along with the parables of the lost sheep and the vineyard workers. The Kingdom of Heaven is for the poor and vulnerable. Jesus is genuinely angry at leaders who use their religious authority to line their own pockets while completely neglecting their duties as stewards of ...
Read more

Youth Camp

I went on a youth camp over new years. ( This bit is new) It was overall a good camp. The young people who organised it did a really good job, and I had a good time all in all. While I will go on to question one of the speakers in particular, mostly the others were good. One used Nooma dvd's and another retold bible stories to great affect. But I want to make some comments about it that arise not only out of this event but also other events I have been on. They are observations of what we offer young people which arise out of the question, is what we offer young people at such events the best we can do? Original posting continues... I have to say the music wears me down. It is all about Jesus and me, hardly ever us. And when how to stay on the Christian journey is talked about it is in terms of my devotional life, and never about our life as a church, and even being part of a community. It is very individualistic, and is so deeply deeply flawed. And it is so not Anglican!!! Anglica...
Read more