Bishop's letters
Bishop's letter: Intimacy
Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 February 2011 09:32 Wednesday, 23 February 2011 09:23
A recent letter to the Editor of the Dominion Post which was critical of the Prime Minister described ‘intimacy’ as having ‘silly fabric’. The sentence read:
“These things are doubtless very sweet and part of the necessarily silly fabric of intimacy”.
Intended or otherwise, the impression given was that intimacy is flawed – is somehow superficial, i.e., silly. What does that say about the relationships we each have which are special and greatly valued?
And now floods: Bishop writes
Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 January 2011 20:12 Wednesday, 19 January 2011 19:54
The death toll looks as if it is increasing as the post-flood clean-up proceeds and many people have been injured, while many others are traumatised by loss of family and belongings – in some cases whole homes have been ruined.
I am grateful that across the Diocese the people of Queensland are being remembered in prayers.
As you know the Diocese of Brisbane is a companion Diocese of the Diocese of Wellington and over the past seven years a strong bond has been built up between the two Dioceses, Clergy and Bishops. In keeping with that bond I have offered to Archbishop Phillip Aspinall and Regional Bishop Rob Nolan in the Inland region, to send [at this stage] up to four clergy to assist Parishes with the provision of spiritual and pastoral care.
We now have four clergy on stand-by and two of these are required immediately. We shall be taking responsibility to fund the fares of this first response group and the Diocese of Brisbane will look after them when there. We shall seek to respond as and when we can.
What else can we do?
Pray for the sufferers of course, and those who wish to donate can do so to the Appeal launched by the NZ Anglican Missions Board. If there are other clergy who wish to volunteer for the reserve response team please let us know and if there are Parishes who can contribute all or part of a fare to get people over there we would like to hear from you as well.
By responding in this way we can as members of the Diocese of Wellington compassionately serve our brothers and sisters in the Brisbane Diocese.
+Tom
Bishop of Wellington
Bishop's letter: Who will win the Australian election?
Last Updated on Friday, 20 August 2010 22:12 Friday, 20 August 2010 22:09
For the present it is a close run thing and we found it interesting to be in Queensland where the campaigning is white hot. Interesting because we felt sufficiently detached to note the way people will offer a policy [call it enticement if you like] only to be outdone the next day.
A re-write of the lyrics to ‘Anything you can do I can better’ from the Broadway hit “Annie Get your Gun” would
Read more: Bishop's letter: Who will win the Australian election?
Bishop's letter - June
Last Updated on Tuesday, 29 June 2010 10:50 Wednesday, 16 June 2010 22:18
What Does God Smell Like?
It is the sort of provocative question Barbara Brown Taylor encouraged 230 of us to consider at the workshop in the Cathedral, which was sponsored by the Wallis Trust. The point she wished to make was that we too often think of our Faith in abstract terms. For instance love, mercy and forgiveness are abstract terms. By way of contrast Barbara reminded us that Jesus tended to use language that contained images of substance: ‘I am the light for the world’, ‘You are the salt of the earth’ and ‘the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed’.