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• The Sum of All Five Senses: A Meditation for Monday of Holy Week

  The Very Rev. Dr. John Chalmers 26 March 2018

  Try experiencing this Holy Week with all five of your senses... more»

  
  Holy Week, Meditation

• Joseph

  The Rev. Joy MacCormick 21 December 2017

  Dare I trust her protestation
  that no man had fathered
  the child she carries? more»

  
  Advent Meditation

• Quantum Theology

  The Rev. Joy MacCormick 18 October 2017

  It is difficult, and often frightening, to let go of what has been received as truth... more»

  
  Meditation

• Cain and Abel - Through Another Lens

  The Rev. Joy MacCormick 6 August 2017

  I now wonder whether the biblical account of Cain and Abel might also be a folk memory... more»

  
  Bible Meditation, Alternative viewpoint

• The Knee Replacement (Improv. on Phillipians 2)

  The Rev. Maren Tirabassi 21 June 2016

  It's been a long time
  since this knee could bend... more»
  Poetry, Meditation, Philippians, Pentecost

• To be, or not to be...

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 26 April 2016

  The sun is setting on Assynt, in the North West corner of Scotland. Orange light warms a cold April... more»
  Reflection, Meditation, April, Anzac, Worship, Shakespeare

• Living the Sustainable Life!

  The Rev. Iain Gow 25 February 2016

  Now I am not a believer that the Sabbath principle means it has to be Sunday, but I do believe it is an important principle to leading a sustainable life. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Sabbath

• From Glastonbury to Iona

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 18 September 2015

  This is Camelot, the Isle of Avalon, a place of disappeared kingdoms, myth, intentional well-being, religious and New Age pilgrimage. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Glastonbury, Iona, Mysticism, Rainbow

• Northern Lights in April

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 26 June 2015

  Travelling is in the DNA of most New Zealanders. Over a million of them live overseas and thousands holiday around the world each year. Families love nothing better than packing up the tent, caravan or camper van and hitting the road to enjoy some R and R. If you've got an iconic V Dub, all the better. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Poets, April

• Northern Lights in June

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 26 June 2015

  A visitor from New Zealand comes to call and eggs are cooked on a makeshift stove... more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Solstice, Love, Travel

• Spero: I Hope

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 26 May 2015

  The heavy cries of the swooping seagulls fell silent and a chill crept into the air as the Moon came between us and the Sun. The deep shadow, which formed first in the North Atlantic, swept up into the Arctic and at the North Pole became no more. As the recent solar eclipse reached totality and the irridescent crown of the corona surrounded the sun, words from Pádraig Ó Tuama's poem, In-between the sun and moon came to mind... more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Hope, Spring

• Northern Lights in May

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 26 May 2015

  Hilary finds an antidote to unpredictable weather... more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, May, Ascension, Anzac, Remembrance

• Ground for Justice

  The Rev. John Fairbrother 26 March 2015

  New Zealand has a history of criminal trials and subsequent resolutions exposing miscarriages of justice. more»

  
  Meditation, Reflection, Justice, Reconciliation

• Wonder

  The Rev. John Fairbrother 26 January 2015

  Contemplative experience is profoundly personal. The practice is about entering an inner vulnerability that may, mysteriously, reveal a sense of transcendent wholeness. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Peace, Wonder

• The 13.30 from Inverness

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 24 October 2014

  There is something blissfully solitary about train journeys unless you feel minded to share stories with the traveller seated opposite who is, like you, bored with paperback melodramas, texting the world and fleeting fields. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Travel, Faith, St. Paul, St. Luke

• Beyond the Gloom

  The Rev. John Fairbrother 19 September 2014

  The record of post-colonial deconstruction across Asia, Africa and the Middle East has illustrated the ultimate futility of military might and associated political advantage being a conveyor of cultural values and technology. more»
  Meditation, Reflection, War, Conflict

• Sport

  Susan Smith 16 June 2014

  I have just read a headline in the New Zealand Herald (6 June 2014) in which All Black coach Steve Hansen describes Jerome Kaino as "a caged animal" who will be doing all that he can to prove that he is at home among the big beasts of the international game. more»
  Meditation, Reflection, Sport, St. Paul

• To be silent is to be unfaithful

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 12 May 2014

  World leaders and the media are speaking and writing much about 276 schoolgirls kidnapped over a month ago by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria. more»

  
  Meditation, Reflection, Freedom, Slavery

• On ANZAC Day

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 25 April 2014

  It is decent and honourable to commit ourselves anew to creating a world in which all that is good and precious and shining will grow and flourish. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, ANZAC, Peace, Church

• Passion

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 10 April 2014

   The spider webs glisten in the soft slanting light of a gilded Autumn in Aotearoa. The long white cloud has given way, for the moment, to golden luminosity. The intricate patterns and more»
  Meditation, Reflection, Autumn, Light, Song, Lent

• Solomon's Eden

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 10 April 2014

  Children, teenagers, adults are exposed on a daily basis, overtly and subliminally, to a diversity of sexual messages and behaviour on the internet, in printed media, film, television, in the lyrics and performance of popular music, in the fashion industry, in our exhibitionist celebrity culture. more»

  
  Meditation, Reflection, Sexuality, Young People, Song of Songs

• Fearless Inclusivity

  The Rev. John Fairbrother 21 February 2014

  Can one hold a Christian Faith without a supernatural belief? To say 'no' confronts a prominent dimension of Christian orthodoxy. To say 'yes' engages growing numbers asking unconditional questions about Biblical interpretation in the light of current scientific, historical and philosophical research. more»
  Reflection, Meditation, Supernaturaism

• Spacious Spirituality

  The Rev. John Fairbrother 10 February 2014

   You will not have to travel far to appreciate the multi-cultural character of Auckland and much else of New Zealand. The diversity of cultures is obvious at work places, parks, beaches, more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Church, Marginalisation, Multiculturalism, Diversity

• The wake-up call to beat them all

  The Rev. John Fairbrother 3 February 2014

  A spacecraft millions of kilometres from earth, ten years after launch, being brought out of induced hibernation by mission control. The signals took something like forty five minutes to travel the distance one way. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Imagination, Miracle, Beauty

• A Salty Reverie

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 1 February 2014

  It's a warm day. A day to do nothing except think or not think. more»

  
  Reflection, Meditation, Summer, Book of Hours, Contemplation
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Topics

• Poetry [72]
• Reflection [32]
• Meditation [28]
• Advent [16]
• Love [10]
• Church [9]
• Christmastide [8]
• Lent [6]
• Pentecost [6]
• Advent Poetry [5]
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Authors

• The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith [48]
• The Rev. John Fairbrother [26]
• The Rev. Canon Dr. James M. McPherson [21]
• Tess Ashton [15]
• The Rev. Maren Tirabassi [12]
• Ana Lisa de Jong [12]
• The Rev. Gayanne Frater [9]
• Susan Smith [8]
• Jan Richardson [5]
• Dr. Julie Thorpe [5]
• All authors »