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Showing posts from November, 2013

Come To The Quiet

St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin. Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 28-200 lens A minimal amount of post processing - levels tweaked, desaturation and a couple of small objects removed. Nothing to do with what follows but I quite like the picture. I spent much of last week conducting a five day Centering Prayer retreat. I have taught meditation before, and I've led retreats but I've never done both at the same time. We held it at Holy Cross where the food is superb and the bedrooms adequate and the old chapel is lovely. There weren't a lot of people. I gave nine addresses over the 4 1/2 days, led worship and had some fairly significant conversations. The development of spirituality is central to all we are trying to do here in the South. About a year ago, I wrote to the diocese telling them of the fragile state we are in. Since then, things have changed. It's not that there has been a radical revival of our fortunes but rather a growing determination to change and grow,

Week's end

I've just got back from a meeting in Wellington where the best bit was the chance to catch up with friends. We met at the Sisters of Compassion in Island Bay and every morning I walked for an hour under a dull heavy Wellington sky through unfamiliar streets. I'm walking more and more now, as I get my body sorted for my walk through the Diocese early next year. Over the weekend I had been in Invercargill. On Saturday, Richard Johnson and Richard Aitken had laid on a day for vestry members and I was invited to speak. We met at the Ascot Hotel, in an impressive room laid on for us by the Invercargill licensing trust, and ate a very good lunch also courtesy of the trust. I'm not sure why other towns in New Zealand don't have a licensing trust, but I guess they just don't know about the astonishing benefits it brings to Invercargill. On Sunday I preached at the patronal festival of All Saints Gladstone to a comfortably large congregation and in between events attend