Colourful Dreamer

Yesterday we said farewell to someone who showed us what it means to be an ordianry New Zealander. Our church ran a memorial service last night. Here are the prayers I wrote for this service as a tribute to the man and his legacy. Creator of life and light, We praise you this day for the beauty of your world, for mountains stretching ever towards the sky, the vast reaches of ice and snow in Antarctica, rivers such as the Ganges with thread on into the hills, for the radiance of dawn and the last smouldering calm of the sunset. We thank you for the life of Sir Edmund Hillary a life well lived We thank you for his many achievements for his great love of adventure, for his passion for the Sherpa people for his humility A man who showed us what it means to be “an ordinary New Zealander” God, Creator of mountain and ice Creator of all Hear our prayer Gracious God, surround us and all who mourn this day with your continuing compassion. We especially pray for the family and friends of Sir Ed....

Two Choices, I know you'll make the right one. What would you do? You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice? At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?' The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people tr...

THIS BETHLEHEM SPOT Was Jesus born in this Bethlehem spot? Not a nice stable at the back of an inn, but the animal end of an ordinary house-cave among the dung and the feed? Did Mary breathe deep, hold and push in this underground smoke darkened shrine? Did Joseph stand helpless among the men safe away from the blood, pain and tears around a fire warmed against the winter chill? Did the whenua of God lie on this star shaped spot where millions have prayed? Is it here God inhaled that life giving breath, and exhaled that first joyful cry? I don’t know! And none of it matters… Unless Jesus is born in me this Christmas Unless I breathe life afresh with God Unless I leave the helpless men at the safe end of my cave and join the woman in the messy hand dirtying work of giving birth to God’s world today. May you have time to breathe life afresh this Christmas John Hebenton tssf Anglican Youth Network Facilitator: Tikanga Pakeha Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia 15 Farm ...

THIS BETHLEHEM SPOT Was Jesus born in this Bethlehem spot? Not a nice stable at the back of an inn, but the animal end of an ordinary house-cave among the dung and the feed? Did Mary breathe deep, hold and push in this underground smoke darkened shrine? Did Joseph stand helpless among the men safe away from the blood, pain and tears around a fire warmed against the winter chill? Did the whenua of God lie on this star shaped spot where millions have prayed? Is it here God inhaled that life giving breath, and exhaled that first joyful cry? I don’t know! And none of it matters… Unless Jesus is born in me this Christmas Unless I breathe life afresh with God Unless I leave the helpless men at the safe end of my cave and join the woman in the messy hand dirtying work of giving birth to God’s world today. May you have time to breathe life afresh this Christmas John Hebenton tssf Anglican Youth Network Facilitator: Tikanga Pakeha Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia 15 Farm ...

The Big E 2008 A conversation on “mission-shaped youth ministry” Vaughan Park, Long Bay, Auckland 9.30am on Tuesday 3rd to 4pm on Thursday 5th June 2008 Our world is changing. Young people are changing. The way we do youth ministry is changing. Or at least it needs to change. Don’t believe me? Here are some figures from the last census • Between 2001 and 2006 the percentage of New Zealanders who called themselves Christian dropped from 60.6% to 55.6% of the population • For nearly every age group under 40, between 40-50% answered “no religion” to the religious affiliation question. We are increasingly living in a country where young people in particular have no idea what the Christian story is, or who Jesus Christ is. It is time to ask some hard questions about what we are doing and why, find new ways forward, and redevelop some of our old ways. Some of the questions we need to address might include: • What are the issues you face in youth ministry? • What is Youth Ministry? • What i...

A couple of weeks ago I attended (and helped run) Raukura, a training event for run by Toru for the diocesan and regional youth staff in the Anglican church in Aotearoa-New Zealand within Tikanga Maori and Tikanga Pakeha. Each of those attending were asked to write a reflection on what leadership is for them based on the presentations (by Bishop Philip Richardson, and Rev Jemma Allen) and the discussions that ensued from these. This week I went to Fiji to run some of the Manu Rui module for the archdeaconry youth co-ordinators in Polynesia, and Don Tamihere was to run his biblical modules. Sadly, Don injured himself and was not able to go, and so to fill in the extra sessions (apart from sitting one out in Nadi airport when the flight was delayed for three hours) I reused some of the leadership material, and the draft reader that Don had prepared for Raukura. What is below is my reflection based on both these events, my earlier reflections on being a priest, and the course on Leadershi...

So, I did the ride. Seven hours, forty eight minutes. Bugger! I was hopoing for a lot faster than that. This was the first time I have done this ride confident I woudl do a good time, feeling fit and ready, and I did my second slowest time, but over an hour. I was gutted. But life is like that really. Some fo the things you feel most ready for, most prepared for just don;t work. And some of the things you feel least ready fro are the things that do work and come off. The good thing was that next year it will be easier to beat that time. One of the thing that really annoyed me was this women beat me as well. I guess that means there is hope for me yet.