Feature Nikki Phillips Araukuku based in Hawera hosted the 2013 Hui Aranga over Easter at the TSB Hub and neighbouring Hawera High School hall and classrooms became marae-style dormitories for the four days. Whanganui club St Peter Chanel-Kaiwhaiki ‘marched off’ the overall winners. Hui Aranga is an annual national Easter gathering celebrating the resurrection of […]
Feature Derek Johnson Author Joy Cowley captivated over 70 attendees at a Catholic Men’s Breakfast on 23 March with her thoughts on male and female spirituality. Hosted by Ss Peter and Paul parish Lower Hutt at the Angus Inn, Joy started with her take on religion versus spirituality: ‘Religion is something we choose. Spiritual is […]
Schools Cecily McNeill Bullying by texting and social media has overtaken drugs as the biggest challenge for schools in today’s world, says retiring St Mary’s College principal Mary Cook. She has faced many challenges in her 18 years, not least as the first lay principal. These included one of the students being murdered just after […]
Schools Nick Wilson Some 40 senior students from five colleges came together for the first Faith and Chips session on Friday 12 April. The session gave students from St Patrick’s College Silverstream, St Mary’s, St Catherine’s, Sacred Heart and hosts St Bernard’s College a chance to discuss over hot chips what their various schools are […]
Archdiocesan News Cecily McNeill Two Kapiti Coast parishes have already responded to Archbishop John’s call to form one parish, asking his permission for an existing process to realise this goal. St Patrick’s Paraparaumu and Our Lady of Fatima Waikanae have been working together on a number of levels since pastoral areas were introduced 10 years […]
Church History Sr Catherine Jones Bishop Philippe Viard sailed into Wellington Harbour on the Clara on 1 May 1850 with a diverse team of pastoral assistants: Marist priests and brothers, Peata Hoki and several Maori catechists, and four young teachers, sometimes known as ‘Viard’s sisters’. These young women had trained as teachers in Auckland or […]
Palmerston North Gwen Mardle Gratitude to God ‘for choosing me,’ overflowed in Sr Mary Graham when she celebrated her 50th jubilee of profession as a Sister of Compassion on 16 March in Hastings. Family, friends and religious sisters gathered at St Peter Chanel Church to recognise Sr Mary’s 50 years of service to the congregation […]
Archdiocesan News Elisabeth Popplewell Sr Marie Roche RSJ has spent the last 16 years as a prison chaplain at Rimutaka prison. At the Cathedral’s Social Justice Group inaugural meeting in April, Sr Marie spoke about her chaplaincy and her role in promoting well-being. She started her talk by reading from Isaiah 61: ‘The Lord has […]
News The 70th anniversary of the heroic death of New Zealand Columban missionary Francis Vernon Douglas occurs in late July and his former parish, Johnsonville, is planning to celebrate the occasion in June with a series of discussions on his life and mission. The Columban Mission Society is also marking the occasion with an address […]
Reflection Veronica Lawson RSM John 14:23-29 Keeping one’s word is a mark of honour in any society. To be asked to keep someone else’s word, as in today’s gospel reading, calls for a shift in our usual patterns of thinking and acting. Jesus is the Word, the word of God in human form, the embodiment […]