Latest Updates

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  Openness and hospitality

  Today, January 6, is the 12th day of Christmas in the traditional church calendar, the official end to Christmastide and the start of Epiphany, which lasts through to the day before Lent. 

  4 min read

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  When Jesus himself was a refugee from the holy land

  As we have watched the news over the last few years, we have seen many stories of refugees fleeing strife or persecution in the Middle East, from Iraq, from Syria, and now Gaza. Some are displaced and seek sanctuary in safer parts of their own countries, and others flee their own country for other lands. At Christmas time, we also remember that after the birth of Jesus, he too was a refugee from Bethlehem to another land. The story is recorded in Matthew 2:13-23.

  7 min read

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  God chose to come into this world without status or power

  As the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus approaches, friends and I have been thinking about Jesus’ words recorded in Mark 10:13-16. For years, I thought that ‘receiving the Kingdom of God like a little child’ referred to innocence – or to being trusting. Maybe it does include that. I, for one, feel I have a lot to learn about genuinely trusting God, in our deeply disturbed world. But someone recently pointed out to me that the main defining characteristic of children in first century Palestin

  2 min read

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  No Christmas in Bethlehem

  Five hundred hushed participants at the European Parliament Prayer Breakfast in Brussels last Wednesday listened intently as Palestinian Christian leader, Dr Jack Sara, told of the sense of hopelessness and wanton destruction that followed in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. 

  4 min read

• Antichrist

  It should come as no surprise that Māori whakataukī or proverbs tend to be aspirational, even if they also contain a warning. After all, Māori are guided by a strongly collectivist values set. That which is treasured in this world is that which strengthens our relationship bonds—to one another, to our habitats, to the unseen spiritual world around us. There is no greater threat to collectivist values than that which would seek to separate or divide the group.

  11 min read