About a third of you, Gentle Readers, are based in the Northern Hemisphere, where the church calendar was born and raised: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and so on, until Advent begins another church year again. That means that your wintry Advent is naturally an expectant, waiting time that builds to the celebration of Christmas […]
Perhaps, like me, you’ve been tagged in a Facebook chain asking you to list ten books that have stayed with you. Not necessarily your ‘Top Ten Books!’ in capital letters, but books that have lingered and been significant. Facebook is too ephemeral for something as important as books, so I thought, what’s the point of […]
Advent in Art is a project of World Vision New Zealand for the spiritual nurture of staff. Mark Pierson and Alison Squires curate and produce beautiful sets of cards with reproductions of paintings, Scripture readings, questions for reflection and a ritual to perform. This year Advent in Art features the art of Wayne Forte, reproduced […]
At Christian conferences and leadership events I go to and speak at, women up the front are always – always – in a small minority. (It’s the same on all of the governance boards I’m on.) Very often, when I mention this to organisers, they say with regret that they just couldn’t find more women […]
I wrote this a few weeks ago. It’s part of a long-running series on my experience of severe postnatal depression, which has been part of my life for over two years now. You can find the whole series here, and the first post here. One of the reasons I can’t sleep tonight is the […]
I didn’t get it before I had a baby. And now I really, really don’t get it. One of the ‘reasons’ women as a group, in all professions, all areas of paid work, are paid less (per hour) than men is that so many women ‘take time out of the workforce’ to raise children. This […]
In my favourite part of town, this blackboard has appeared. Thanks to Marvin and Chicoda for letting me snap them. What do you think? And what would you wish for? For some ideas on making your own list, check out Nicola’s guest post earlier this week on her ’30-olution.’
A warm welcome to Rochelle Gribble, here with an insightful analysis of the recently-introduced, highly controversial ‘National Standards‘ that New Zealand primary schools are now required to report on twice a year. Rochelle is a once-was, sometimes-is, may-be-again secondary teacher. She has a Masters degree in Education and sometimes even gets to use it! However, […]
I did not turn 30 recently. But my friend Nicola did! Nicola Burrows is a coffee-drinking, book-loving associate pastor, a group fitness instructor and dance enthusiast. She’s also the inventor of the 30-olution list, which she’s introducing us to today. Welcome, Nic! I don’t remember when it all started, but my friends and I have […]
Happy Advent, everyone! Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the four-ish-week period leading up to Christmas. Today was SBJ’s first appreciation of Advent. He’s almost two, so I wasn’t sure just how much would be appropriate for him, but lots of things surprised me about the day, so I thought I’d give a full […]