Xmasitis is an epidemic disease that hits our society once a year around the start of December. Strangely our health authorities offer no medical response or official warning even though Xmasitis causes the most stressful, dangerous time of the year. Therefore it’s vital that each one of us learns to recognize the symptoms and takes measures to minimize the effects. The first symptom is an increasing sense of pressure. At work you scramble to finish [...]

Every year Mick Duncan ( author, lecturer, prophet/stirrer and all round good guy) with a bunch of his friends holds a Red Letters event. In some Bibles the words of Jesus are printed in red, hence the name. The event – usually held over a Friday night and Saturday – offers an odd line up of speakers. For the most part these aren’t big names from the Christian speaking circuit; they are down to earth [...]

I’ve got an iPhone and an Apple mini-mac.  Have you ever unwrapped a new, glistening, dripping-with-hotness Apple product? But I’ve been worried by what I’m hearing about them (see Caleb’s recent post).  I’ve heard that the casing for the new iPads already have a space ready for rear-facing cameras in the slightly-higher-retail-priced models to be put before our lusting eyes in the near, perfectly-timed future… Evil. But it’s not just Apple or other huge, handcuffed-by-dividend-production-goals [...]

In the lead up to Easter we will be putting up a new lent devotion each week day. These devotions will also be available in the discussions section of our Facebook page and will be played on New Zealand’s Rhema. Yesterday we talked about our purchases and aiming to purchase ethically as much as we can as a reflection of God’s concern for all. Today the challenge is different. We live in a society of [...]

In the lead up to Easter we will be putting up a new lent devotion each week day. These devotions will also be available in the discussions section of our Facebook page and will be played on New Zealand’s Rhema. Do you ever give much thought to where the things you purchase come from? Have you ever wondered what the chain of people and production looks like from the very collection of the fabric in [...]

Since it’s the weekend, I thought it might be worth looking at taking the opportunity to repost some of the stuff that has appeared here on the Humanitarian Chronicle – HC Repeats. This blog has been running for well over a year and I think some of the past posts are worth having another look at now that the reading audience has grown a little. So here’s the first. There will be another tomorrow. This [...]

There’s a better way. Check out Advent Conspiracy. Worship Fully. Spend Less. Give More. Love All.

One of my favourite books is Thomas A. Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. It is a deeply moving work that has much to meditate on. I was reading through some of the writing where he reflects an inner conversation between Christ and the faithful soul and this struck me, I thought it was very relevant to the fasting aspect of Lent where often we deny ourselves of something:

Lent gives us the perfect opportunity to experiment with simple living. On an excellent website called Alternatives for Simple Living I found this list of seven compelling reasons why we should aim for this sort of simplicity. The Art of Simple Living Simple Living is:  “living in a way that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich. This way of life embraces frugality of consumption, a strong sense of environmental urgency, and a desire to return [...]

Archbishop of York Rev John Sentamu says the general populous of Great Britain think Christians are mad. The good news is that the Archbishop, who holds the second highest office with world Anglicanism, thinks the reason Christians are considered a bit on the loopy side is not because they are on the lunatic fringe of apocalyptic thinking or the latest fad out of Florida – but because Christians are not racing around in a mad [...]