Fr Kevin Jones' Blog

I'm back

2007-09-25T21:41:00.000+01:00

Sr Anne making her appeal

Sr Marie and myself in Oxford.

Srs Marie, Anne and Jennifer at Bowdon

Hello everyone. (My new e-mail address is mailto:frkjones(@)btinternet.com)

I am so sorry that I have left it so long to up date my blog. Since I have been back I havn't really stopped. I have had a lot of visitors and I have been trying unsuccessfully to re-connect with a lot of old friends. I think it is a sign of old age when there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do all I want, and yet at the same time think that I havn't really done much at all. I remember in my young days getting up at half past four in the morning for work and being out of the house by 4.45 am and by that time I would have had a wash, cup of coffee and a biscuit. Now it takes me half an hour just to get out of bed.The last three months has been a busy time. Soon after the three fathers from Australia left at the end of July two sisters from Myanmar arrived on my door step. They were expected so my two old Burmese friends came over to my place to look after them and feed them while I decamped to the Sandhurst house which was and still is under renovation. (I am assured that it will be finished in two to three weeks. I wait in anticipation though it is starting to look good.)

The two sisters are from the order of St Joseph of the Apparition. A teaching order that was specifically for the poor and for orphans. It was started by a St Emily of France in the 19th century and spread all over the world. The sisters made a foundation in Myanmar in the late 19th century and were doing a lot of good work and vocations to the order were very good. But as we know the military Junta took over in the sixties and expelled all westerners and their dependants. All the western sisters had to leave and it was left to the Burmese sisters to carry on St Emily’s vision. The Military Junta confiscated all the sister’s schools and left them with no money or income. They were allowed to keep their living quarters and the chapels they had but nothing more. Yet even out of this loss the sisters regrouped and again began to look after the poor and orphans and educate them. Our Parish in Sandhurst and Crowthorne have adopted them and we support them with money so that they can feed, clothe and educate the children under their care. At the moment we are sponsoring and collecting to build and orphanage in Hmauby an extremely poor area just outside Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon). We hope to raise £25,000 and I have just sent the sisters £10,000 that our parish in Crowthorne and Sandhurst have just raised. so only £15,000 to go. If you would like to help in this parish project any cheques would be welcomed made payable to the Burma Orphanage Appeal c/o Immaculate Conception Church 63/67 York Town Rd Sandhurst Berks GU74 9BS.

Sr Marie and Sr Anne came to our parish to make an appeal and they were very well received and enjoyed their stay. They met the Burma Orphanage Appeal committee and thanked them for all they were doing and how much they appreciated all their hard work. I ask you all to keep them in your prayers at this present time as their community house is very near The Shwedagon Pagoda where all the trouble is. It must be a very worrying time for them as it is for all their friends here in the Uk. We are all keeping them in our prayers here in Sandhurst and Crowthorne. Sisters I know they have blocked your e-mail but you maybe able to see the blog if so we are all thinking of you and praying hard that peace will come to your country soon and that you will be able to get on with the good work that you are doing in the Lord's vineyard

During my stay in Burma I was sadden and angry at the mis-use of power there. You have the extremely rich who are mainly the ruling Junta and the very very poor. The ruling Army chiefs have no concern for the majority of the people and all they are worried about is keeping control of the reins of power so that they and their families can live privileged lives on the riches that belong to all the people. Hopefully their mis-rule will come to an end quickly, but I am afraid history tells us a different story as they will hang on to it as long as they can. However history also tells us that these despots rules always come to an end as we have seen in Russia in our modern times. All we pray for that it will soon be over for the people of Myanmar and that this peaceful and lovely people will have the peace and justice that they deserve.

Summer Time!!

2007-07-13T07:55:00.000+01:00

A little blue sky at the London Eye!!

The Place where they seem to make a mess of our country.

Martin with an old Alexandre Harmonium in fairly good condition.
If any one wants it they can take it away free.

Hello everyone, bit late as ever. It has been one of those months which has been all go and no stop. I have had no time to read or catch up with friends that I have not seen for over a year. I thought the summer months would give me a little space, but no such luck. Next week here in England it is the start of the school holidays so things might slacken off a little. I wouldn't mind if I was busy doing priestly work for that is my vocation but all I seem to be doing is running after tradesmen getting quotes for plumbers, electricians, tilers, plasterers, decorators, kitchen fitter and so on. Finally after six weeks I have got all the quotes in and selected what I feel is the best. Now I have to co-ordinate them all to work together. This however has been put on hold because of the summer holidays. So it looks like I will not be moving in here until October at the earliest. But Christmas time looks a better day.

This week in England we have been confronted with the stark reality of how lucky many people were, that the would be suicide bombers failed in their attempt to kill and maim. Yet the lasting impression for me was a brave fireman who stood in front of the woman and her baby to protect her from the blast that passengers in the carriage thought was imminent. His heroic action of standing in front of the mother and child was the complete opposite of the bomber who actually turned round to face the mother and child to detonate the bomb. (It is beyond normal human beings to comprehend such hate that would blow up innocent children.) Two men thrown together in history, in time and space. One a religious fanatic, the other an ordinary man. One intent on killing and maiming in the name of God, the other just going about his ordinary life and ends up being a Good Samaritan. A man who puts his own life on the line to save others rather than put his life on the line to kill others as the fanatic did. We know which one would have been the real martyr and would have been truly welcomed into the Kingdom.

Its not all bad here the other day we actually had two hours of sunshine with no rain. It didn't last long. As I look out of the window now it is drizzling, so much for global warming here in England. On one or two days I have had to put on the central heating and even the birds have stopped singing. Yet saying all that I am glad to be home and working in the vineyard of the Lord. The parish is moving along quite well and I have notice the people have more involvement in the running of their Church. This gives me hope for the future as it will mean that even if they do not have a regular parish priest like myself they will be able to survive as a parish. Therefore I can honestly say that my sabbatical has not only refreshed me it has taught the parish to stand on its own two feet.

Looking forward to Fr Thi from Perth coming to stay with me for a few days with two other priests. Heres me going on to the parishioners about the shortage of priests and there will be four of us staying in the parish in a couple of weeks. Fr Thi was the priest in Perth who was very kind to me so his stay here will give me a chance to repay his kindness. I do hope the weather changes for the better. There is nothing better in the world than to see the English countryside in glorious sunshine after a long spat of rain.

Thats all from me at the moment will write again in a few weeks.

Settling in

2007-06-06T08:04:00.000+01:00

Winnie Ripley Evelyn Quin and Elaine in an English country Garden

Hello every one on this Trinity Sunday. Just a few lines about the Trinity. As we Christians know the Trinity is a very hard subject to preach about. Many preachers use props to try and explain the great mystery of the Three distinct persons, but one God. I myself have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to explain This mystery so I stopped using such props, as three bottles of wine that are a third full, then pouring them in one bottle so that the three become one. Not only did it confuse my parishioners it confused me! Another priest friend of my divided three in to 100 on the computer and and the result was 33.3333… and he printed it out and showed the results to the congregation with reams and reams of paper. At the time I thought it was a waste of paper as it didn’t make much sense to me. I think the point he was trying to make was that no matter how hard you try, you cannot actually explain the Trinity.

The reason why I am going on about the Trinity is because on Saturday night I watched a programme on the TV we have over here called Gavin and Stacy. The couple are getting married and they went to the local Anglican Church for a service. It so happened that it was Trinity Sunday and the Anglican priest was trying to explain it by the different sandwiches people liked. Eventually it got so ludicrous and the vicar got himself into such a mess, that he completely losses his cool. It was very funny but it did make my mind up that I would never again try to explain the Trinity by using analogies.

Well I have been back for a month now and I have not stopped. There was so much to catch up with. On top of that I am in the process of moving from Crowthorne to Sandhurst. When I got back my lodger in Sandhurst, who was very helpful in keeping a presence there, had decided that he had to move. We then came to the decision that it would be easier to rent the flat in Crowthorne which is quiet compared to Sandhurst, so I offered to move. The only trouble is that the house in Sandhurst really needs decorating and refurbishing. So it is paint brush in hands again I’m afraid.

Every late May bank holiday we have a fund raising event called the Donkey Derby so I and a lot of the parishioners had been preparing for that. The weather before the bank holiday had been dry and sunny. That, however changed on the Saturday the heavens opened and it rained for three days solid so that the field we use was flooded. There was nothing we could do but postpone it until the 24th June. Since that postponement there has been nothing but good June weather. Its what you would call sods law. Well we will try again.

I phoned uncle Arnett and he said that they have had the most glorious beginning of winter in Christchurch NZ that he can ever remember. It has been wall to wall sunshine with the temp up in the twenties. I think the rain is following me around the globe. Maybe I have the wrong vocation and I should really be a rain ambassador. When I started my sabbatical it flooded in Thailand and Myanmar. In New Zealand they had the worse summer for years. When I went to Sydney it rained as it did in Melbourne when I got there. In Perth I was only there for a day before the heavens opened. I think you get my drift.

At the weekend I took my old friends down to a place called Old Alsford in Hampshire to see Elaine who was the wife of their nephew who died last year. Elaine has a lovely English garden which I have photographed and put on the blog. Thats all for now God Bless.

Arriving home

2007-05-08T22:06:00.000+01:00

Immaculate Conception Church Sandhurst.
(New Zealanders see no music screen)

The Holy Ghost Church in Crowthorne

Uncle Arnett

Hello everyone, after a long flight from Perth I am now at home in Crowthorne and Sandhurst. I have been here a week and I must say that I am really glad to be home. I think any more than six months and I would have got really home sick. That is not to say that New Zealand is not a nice place because I did enjoy my time there but I am getting to that age where home is sweet. I think one can only live out of a suitcase for so long then it becomes tiring. I want to thank all those who have befriended me during my time in New Zealand especially Fr Bill and the parishioners of Christ the King.

I will miss seeing my uncle Arnett every week and spending quality time with him. He is a great man who is very funny at times we had many laughs. I have included my favourite photo of him. Though in one sense it is not very flattering to him in another it sums him up as he is, a very natural man who is quick to see the funny side of life and laugh about it. A man who cares about others and doesn’t hold grudges against people. Everyone who met him said what a delightful person he was and how easy it was to get on with him. The only advice I will give to him is that before I come again to see him that he must get a new mattress for the old bed that I slept in. The mattresses that he has got now are the same ones that he got when he first got married in 1952. They are as nearly old as me. The one that I slept on, its sides had given up the ghost, so one was always sliding off the bed. Arnett’s mattress always reminds me of the one in the Hitchcock film Psycho. Here if you have seen the film the mattress bears the imprint of the dead mother of Bates. But as Arnett says he is happy with it so why should he get another one. There is not much argument against that. Any way I shall miss him and his sense of humour. Thanks Arnett for a lovely and great time. May God bless you.

The last time I wrote to you I had just landed in Perth. I liked Perth a lot and found it was my favourite place in Australia. It was a clean and laid-back city with a good city centre that was easy to access. The people were friendly and there was a good ethnic mix of people, which I feel always gives a city an extra ingredient. But saying that it was also good because of the great host I was with Fr Thi. He actually went beyond the call of duty with me taking me everywhere I wanted to go and showing me all the good things of Perth. And on top of that he would not let me pay a penny towards anything. Through him I saw all that was good in Perth. Charles and Moira friends of Winnie and Evelyn’s also were very good to me and had me for dinner. (not literally because I am still here). Fr Thi took me to the airport and saw me off and after twenty one hours I landed in England and was met by Bill my sacristan.

It was really lovely to get back and to top it all it was a lovely spring morning and everything was shinning. After the dryness of Australia it was lovely to see the lush green countryside of home with the May blossom blooming in so many different colours. It was good to be home. Before we went to Crowthorne for a Mass of thanksgiving to Our Lady for my safe return we stopped off at Winnie and Evelyn’s place for a quick hello and breakfast. Then it has been all go from there; business as usual.

I want to thank you all for calling into my blog. I will keep on writing it but not so often maybe once a month for my overseas friends and visitors so that they can keep up with what I am doing even though it will be the mundane things of life. May God bless you all Fr Kevin.

Perth Australia

2007-04-29T03:30:00.000+01:00

A Quokka on Rottnest Island Freemantle

Dinner with Charles, Moira and friends

Perth City

Fr Thi ( pronounced Tee) my host in Perth

Hi everyone I am on the last day of my journey and I will be returning home on Tuesday morning the 1st of May a bit jet lagged but hopefully awake enough to celebrate Mass at 9.30 in the Holy Ghost Church in Crowthorne, in thanks giving to Our Lady for bringing me home safely. It has been a long time and I have learnt quite a lot about myself and my vocation, but more about that later when I have had time to settle back home and reflect on my seven months away form the parish.

I have found Perth a lovely city and if I was to emigrate to Australasia it would be here I would settle. The city is very clean and they have made a good job of integrating the old with the new. As usual the worst offenders of integrating new and old buildings are the banks and the government building. However now there is a good control on all building and a heritage committee intent of preserving the lovely old buildings they have in Perth.

I went to New Norcia to see the monastery that I had heard about at Quarr Abbey but they were not really interested in me and I had to take a guided tour with everyone else. Listening to the guide you could see that really it was a big business with a wage bill of over a million dollars. There were only seven monks residing and two of them were over eighty. What did surprise me was the amount of women who worked there. I think they out numbered the monks by two to one. The abbot even had his own personal PA. How things have changed since my days in the monastery. And how they must have changed since the days of the founder who in the middle of the 1800s came to start a mission to teach and preach the Aboriginals and help them. It was an interesting day. One little aside that made me laugh was in the local hotel which is owned by the monks. Charles, Moira and myself went for coffee there but we could only have it black as there was no milk. The abbey owns 32,000 sq acres with lots of cattle, sheep and dairy herds, but no milk for their local hotel, not even long life or powered milk. It just reminded me of the other world that monks and those who work for them live in. It was the same at Quarr. There is always tomorrow and does it really matter?

Saw other parts of Perth and Freemantle Fr Thi has been a great host while I have been here taking me here there and everywhere, as far as Margaret river which at the time of our visit was a little creek. On the way we went to a place called Mannapuh which was lovely and part of it has been built on a canal system. Mind you according to Fr Thi it cost you an arm and a leg to live there.

Well thats all from me until I arrive home God Bless and thanks for all your support and prayers Fr Kevin

Reflections in Melbourne and Perth

2007-04-23T12:42:00.000+01:00

Margie, Mark, Connor and myself and Ryan

The extended Family in Melbourne

The beautiful Victorian Baths in Melbourne.

Hello everyone I am now in Perth which is a lovely city. I am staying in St Joseph's Church in Subiaco which is a suburb of Perth. A strange thing happened at Perth's Airport. I was under the wrong impression that I was being met there. I waited half an hour and there was no sign of anybody meeting me. There was a man there with a St Francis cross on so I went over to him and asked if he was meeting a Fr Kevin. No he said I have just dropped somebody off. I told him my situation and he said that he belonged to a catholic order and would take me to St Joseph's. The night before I left however I had no idea what the address was or even the telephone number. Margy who I was staying with in Melbourne said it was a very bad move to go to an airport with no address or contact number, so she went onto the internet and got them both. I am so glad that she did otherwise I would have been in the mire knowing no one and not having a clue where to stay. But as the saying goes the Spirit moves in mysterious ways.

I have left New Zealand for over a week now and have had time to reflect on my time there. I have been shown many kindnesses and have been let into peoples lives and been accepted into their homes in New Zealand. I have been impressed with a lot of people there especially in the Church. Many people here have asked me to stay or would I consisder moving over here. First and foremost I think it would be a bit crass of me to ask my Bishop to let me leave his diocese after he has generously gave me time away. Another thing is my age if I was twentyfive years younger I may have consisder it but now it would be too much of an upheaval, having to make new friends and contacts and to live life a little different than what it is in England. I think I am too much a european as well. To be so far from all that cultral mix could be demanding. New Zealand is very beautiful but once you have seen it you have seen it. I have politely refused their invitation to stay there on a permanant basis but obviously return there in a few years to see uncle Arnett. I phoned him up the other day and he is doing fine. I think he is having a little rest after all the comings and goings of the last few weeks. A few of the parishioners are going to stay in touch with him and take him out for lunch have a chat with him. We will make a catholic out of him yet.

After leaving New Zealand I was met in Melbourne by Mark and his son Connor and whisked off to their place in Berwick an outer suburb of Melbourne. There I met Margie and the new baby Ryan who I Baptised the next. There I met the rest of the family who I had heard of from AuntNellie and seen their photographs. We had a good time at the baptism and the following party. On the Monday I went to stay with Ian in Richmond Melbourne for a few nights. Ian was working all day so I went an explored Melbourne. I felt that it had changed a lot since I last visited it in 1989 a lot of the lovel victorian buildings had gone and the ones that had remained seem to be over powered by the big new glass buildings that are sprouting up everywhere. I went and saw the cathedrals of the religion of sport, the MCG, the Rod Laver arena and the big footie stadiums that seem to be all over the place. The one thing you have to say about Melbourne is the amount of independant clothes shops there are. If you are a woman and you like shopping then this is the place for you but don't take your husband as it will bore him to death as it did to me. There are literally thousands of small fasion shops how on earth they survive I don't know. Mind you try and find a specialised food store and you will find it hard. It is so different than England, where you fall over bakeries and food stores everywhere you look.

(to be continued)

Goodbye to New Zealand

2007-04-20T06:38:00.000+01:00

Arnett, Sylvia and Joan at the airport

Arnett and myself

Goodbye from Christ the King

Good day to you all, I am in Australia. The weather is nearly as hot as it is in the UK. Everyone is telling me over here what a lovely spring I am missing.

Well I left the cathedral on the Thursday before I left NZ and spent the rest of my time with Arnett. It was quite sad as you can imagine. It didn't seem like six months ago that Arnett with his blue blazer and Joan, met me at Christchurch Airport to welcome me and here we are getting ready to say goodbye. The two days Arnett and myself spent with each other was great and we did nothing but talk. I actually finished the tapes that I started about his life. The last part was about his emigration to N.Z. which was interesting but Arnett wasn't really very enthusiastic and I had to give him a lot of encouragement. We did, however, talked a lot about my time in N.Z. and how much we had both enjoyed it. On the Thursday we went and had a meal with Sylvia, Jim and Megan at the Water Shed near Sumner. We had a great time and the food was good.

Friday started the day with Mass at Christ the King which was apt as it was the place where I celebrated Mass when I first came to N.Z. There was a lot of people there who wished me a good trip home and I thanked them all for all their kindness while I have been in N.Z. I told them that they were a very welcoming parish and that was because their parish priest, Fr Bill, was a very welcoming priest. After Mass myself and Arnett were invited in for morning coffee with a few parishioners that I have become friendly with. After the morning coffee I returned Arnett home and then took the car back to the cathedral had lunch with the bishop and said my good byes to everyone there then spent the rest of the day with Arnett.

On Saturday morning it was packing and trying to keep the weight down with very little success. Still it wasn't as much as I went out with as I was down to 30 kilos which was a lot better than 45 that I came out with. At the airport I had to take my books out of the luggage and put them in my hand luggage which got me down to 25 kilos which was passed. Sylvia, Jim, Megan, Michael, Shelly, Joan, Siobhan and Arnett came to wish me Bon Voyage. As you can imagine it was sad, but not as bad as I expected as I promised I would return in a few years but not for so long. Then I said good bye to New Zealand and thanked God for the wonderful time that I had there.

My time in New Zealand has been very fruitful not only in spending time with my uncle but also refreshing my vocation to the priesthood. Here because I have had no responsibility in running a parish and all that goes with it I realise how much I like the ministry of priesthood. Practising my ministry in a parish and meeting all types of people and being open to their needs has been fulfilling. The hospital ministry, though I feel wouldn't be my first choice, showed me how important the hospital chaplaincy is. I think in this very material world we forget that there is a spiritual side that also needs addressing and a lot of the time needs healing, because of the church, or rather their perception of the Church. I always thank the Lord when someone takes up their faith again after years of mis-understanding what belonging to the Church really means. What I have also found is how consoling the faith is to people, especially when death is near at hand. The sacraments that they receive always seems to give them courage and helps them to accept what is happening to them. I have had many moving experiences with the sick and have been greatly assisted in my ministry by them. Their Faith has been an inspiration to me and I thank them for that. Hopefully I will come back to my ministry in Sandhurst and Crowthorne renewed and refreshed and ready to carry out God's work to all I meet. I want to thank all who have helped me during the last six months.

Easter and the Last days in New Zealand

2007-04-11T22:36:00.000+01:00

Sisters of Carmel in the Palour.

Arnett, Sylvia, Margaret and myself at the Cathedral

The Sister's seating place in the Carmel Church

Carmel Monastry and Church Christchurch.

Happy Easter Everyone. The Lord has truly Risen indeed Alleluia Alleluia.

I had a wonderful celebration of the Easter Triduum with the Sisters of Carmel in Christchurch. It was quite different from my usual parish celebration. There are only Ten sisters in the monastery and they are totally enclosed and they main work is the prayer of the church and the celebration of the Mass. I have been privileged this year to celebrate the Easter mysteries with them. There was a small congregation who also celebrated these mysteries with us and they were made up of mainly Samoans. The Choir was made up of Samoans who sang beautifully, so beautifully that I asked them to move over to our parish, they declined saying that they were quite happy where they were.

It must be hard for the sisters to control what is going on as the are totally enclosed, yet they manage quite well though when the altar servers turn up with only a few minutes to go it made it a little scary. However we managed. The sister are seated at the side of the altar and behind a grill. This makes it a little awkward when reading and preaching as one is always aware of them but somehow not being able to talk to them directly without turning away from the congregation in the front. The celebrations went really well and was prayerful and meaningful. It reminded me of my days as a monk in Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. There is something peaceful about people who devote themselves to a life of prayer. There is also a sense of serenity and joy in their habitat which draws people to them. It is not an easy life for the sisters but it is one they embrace with the love of God which sustains them in the dark night of the soul.

After the Easter liturgy had finished I met the sisters in their parlour and had a good and at times amusing talk with them. It was here that I learnt that some of the sisters had been in there for over sixty years and had never been out of the enclosure. It is amazing to our society that there are people who are still willing to give themselves totally to God. They survive by making altar breads, Mass vestments and raising a few cattle. They are totally vegetarian and grow many of their own vegetables and fruit themselves. So in one sense one could call them very eco friendly.

They were very interested in what I was doing in New Zealand. However like all enclosed orders they knew what was happening in the local Church. It is amazing how much information they seem to glean from everyone. The sisters sat in front of me behind a grill the prioress first and the sub prioress at the front then in seniority going back to the most junior. We had a good laugh about the end of the service when I made all the congregation and them as well shout at the top of their voices with joy, That Christ has truly Risen indeed Alleluia Alleluia. We had to do it four time before we got the desired affect. So all in all fairly different from my usual parish celebration but just as moving as Easter always is for devoted Christians. Alleluia Alleluia.

After the 8.00am Sunday Morning Mass with the sisters I moved on towards the cathedral where I concelebrated the High Easter Mass with two bishops and the Cathedral Administrator. There was a small orchestra and a big choir who sang and played Mozart’s Mass for Easter Sunday. (Totally different from my warbling efforts.) It was magnificent and all carried out with great dignity, pomp and ceremony. It was a great occasion and the cathedral was pack to the gunnels. But saying all that I liked the celebration at Carmel for all its musical imperfections as it was homely. When one thinks of it one can not really compare the two. What it does say is that the Church is very broad and can encompass all forms of worship as long as it is done with reverence to God.

At the moment I am very busy saying goodbye to people who have befriended me in the parishes and packing up but I will tell you more of that in the next blog. Suffice to say that it is a sad time for Arnett and myself. We have spent a lot of time together and enjoyed each others company. It has been good for me to spend time with my only living close relation, which has helped us both to get to know each other very well and I will miss him. On Saturday I am off to Melbourne to Baptise a second cousin’s baby which I think makes Ryan my third cousin so will write to you all from there. God Bless you all. Alleluia Alleluia.

Leaving the Hospital and Preparing for Easter

2007-04-04T09:19:00.000+01:00

Palm Sunday Vestments Of the Cathedral

Ecumenical Prayer meeting in Christchurch Hospital

Sr Mary The New Pastoral Chaplain

Hello every one I want to send my Easter greetings and blessings to you all. I will offer my Easter Sunday High Mass for all your spiritual well beings. Easter is a wonderful and Spiritual time. A time for rejoicing because our Saviour Jesus Christ has truly risen from the dead and has won for us the gift of eternal life. Out of the darkness of Good Friday comes the light of Easter. A light that leads us to the eternal light of heaven. No wonder we sing our Alleluias with great gusto. Though this Easter I will not be with you, you will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Over the last few months I have been reading the lives and works of St Therese and St Benedicta of the Cross of the Carmelite order so it is very fitting that I will celebrate the Easter Liturgy with the Carmelite order here in Christchurch. When I was asked to do this some how I felt there was a guiding hand at the back of it. I feel it will be a fitting way to finish my sabbatical here in New Zealand and prepare me to come home to my parish in Crowthorne and Sandhurst, and in my small way carry out the little way of St Therese and St Benedicta. The little way of accepting and loving.

I am looking forward to coming home and in one way I am very glad that it wasn't a year. The six months was quite enough. I will miss the company and friendship of my Uncle and his family and all those who I have made friends with here, but I will be compensated by having your company again and catching up with old friends..

So once again have a joyful and prayerful Easter keep me in your prayers as I will keep you in mine. God Bless you all Fr Kevin.

Leaving Christchurch Hospital Preparing for Holy Week

On Monday I signed off as the acting Priest Chaplain at the hospital. My time there has been a source of spiritual blessing. Saying that if it was a full time ministry I would have found it quite draining. It was good to have contact with the cathedral parish and its parishioners, which helped to put things into perspective. I feel that you have a certain blessing to be a full time Chaplain otherwise it could wear you down quite quickly. I always remember a chaplain advising me about my ministry in Broadmoor, he said; ‘When you shut the gates as you are leaving Broadmoor, remember to shut the gates of your mind to what has gone on there.’ In other words don’t take the worries and cares of the institution away with you, leave them at the gate. In one sense that is fairly easy to do at Broadmoor but much harder in a public hospital as people are suffering in so many different ways. How can you forget the dying baby or child and the suffering parents; the people who have just been told they have a terminal illness. The answer is you can’t you can only place that suffering before the Lord in prayer and ask for his help, and the prayers and help of your parishioners or community. I think three to five years as a chaplain would be enough and then I feel I would need to move on.

I must say that the staff at the hospital were excellent who had a much better understanding of the spiritual needs of their patients than their counterparts in England. Here they seem to have a better holistic approach to nursing especially top management. The Chaplaincy team here in Christchurch is large mainly volunteers, but there are eight paid chaplains catering for all beliefs and ethnic origins. I went for a goodbye meal with a group of them and had a good time. Sister Mary and Fr Peter now have taken over the catholic arm of the chaplaincy and I think it is in good hands and may the Lord bless their ministry.

Well Holy Week is upon us and I started it by celebrating the 7.30am Mass of Palm Sunday which went very well. Though here they don’t use palms; I suppose it is to far to ship them. As this is the land of the silver fern it seems more appropriate to use them. Another thing that is different is the weather. Now it is getting on to late autumn and already the trees are changing colour and losing their leaves, the opposite to Europe, where everything is starting to have new life, which Easter signifies. I believe there are people who say over here that Easter should be around the beginning of October which is the start of spring. Don’t know what Rome would say to that?

On Monday we had the Chrism Mass, this was a beautiful ceremony. It started with just the priest meeting together in the cathedral for a penitential service with the three bishops that reside in this diocese. We had hymns, readings, homily and an examination of conscience especially for priest. Then a bishop and six priests, which I was one, were dotted around the sanctuary and all the priest go for individual confession. It was moving to see the brotherhood of the presbytrate together acknowledging their weaknesses. After that we had a meal together and this gave time for priest to catch up with each other and have a good old chat. After the meal we had the solemn Mass of Chrism which was a wonderful and very prayerful occasion. They had it at 7.30pm which gave a chance for the parishioners of all parishes to attend and the cathedral was full. I was asked to bring the Oil of the Sick up with Sister Mary and Kerry Haines a nurse. It was all very moving and celebrated with much dignity and gravetas. There was a nice touch at the end when parishioners from each parish of the diocese were called up to come and collect the oils to take back to their parishes.

Camper Van Part 11

2007-03-26T09:51:00.000+01:00

The Sacred Heart in Reefton

A day at the races in Greymouth

Anett and Camper Van

The weather during our trip was very varied, mostly all sunshine but we did have two days of heavy rain. When it rains here it rains.

Our first stop was Kaikoura. This brought many memories to Arnett as he and auntie Evelyn came here often as it was the route to the top of the South Island and Wellington. This is the place where you can go and whale watch for a $150 dollars. Arnett said you get a better view on the telly and it is a few miles out to sea and if its rough it is not worth the money to get sea sick. As I love the sea only to look at rather than being on it or in it, I quite agree. The beach itself is all pebbles and is very hard to walk on but while trying to we manage to catch a school of dolphins playing just 300 yards away. The campsite though near the beach was near the train lines. During the night Arnett woke up and said that there was an earthquake happening as the van shook from side to side. I told him to go back to sleep as it was only the goods train passing through. Why are campsites invariable near train lines and motor ways?

Our next stop was Blenheim which used to be a lovely little town with a good train station. I am afraid that the only good thing in Blenheim, was the train station. Because of development the town has actually become very ugly. Whereas before there was a typical old worldly New Zealand rural town there is now a hotchpotch of ugly warehouse buildings all linked together with unkempt and treacherous footpaths. I am afraid to say it was here that we met the most impolite drivers towards pedestrians. I actually remonstrated with one young girl for not being polite to an old person trying to dodge the rain. I was answered back in a tirade of bad language, which seems to be a trait of the young white drivers in the South Island. There seems to be no sense of respect or helpfulness, for other road users. As for giving way to anyone forget it. We were quite happy to get out of Blenheim and felt it was a big mistake even stopping there, though the country side out of the town is fine, though even that is being spoilt as miles and miles of vineyards are quickly appearing and usurping the local terrain and fauna.

The weather spoilt our day in Picton. Picton is a lovely little town and is really the port where the Wellington ferry goes from. However before the ferry crosses the Cook Straits it has to go slowly through the Marlborough sounds. On a sunny day there wouldn't be anything nicer to do at Picton than to get on the mail boat and cruise along to all the little islands, coves and inlets that the boat takes the mail to. It is very relaxing and picturesque but on a wet and drizzly day it would be awful. We sat in the camper van for an hour and watched the big ferry come in then made are way to Nelson taking the scenic route on Queens Charlotte Drive. Though very scenic it was a hard drive because of the wind and rain, though there were some bright spots now and again. Very beautiful in parts despite the weather and it is superb in the Sunshine.

Reached Nelson and the weather cheered up. Nelson again used to be a lovely town but yet again is being spoilt with the random building policy that seems to be everywhere in New Zealand, though thankfully they have not touched the core centre of the town, but slowly the centre is being circled by the warehouse mindset that is over here. They have a beautiful cathedral square here with the cathedral dominating as it sits on a small hill. There are some traditional colonial building that thankfully have been restore and they enhance the town. I have been to Nelson before and we only stopped here to catch up with some people I knew from Guernsey but they were away and we missed each other.

After spending a night in the campsite watching the rain, in the morning we went to Rabbit Island, Molueka and Kaiteriteri. Kaiteriteri was outstanding with the campsite just next to the beach which had golden sand. The day was beautiful with hot sunny weather and we spent the day on the beach just relaxing and talking. If you ever come over here this is a must place to visit as it is relaxing, the campsite is good and the people friendly, there are good walks and you can take a cruise for $50 around all the little bays that surround the area which takes eight hours. We didn't know this until it was too late otherwise we would have done it. I watched a beautiful sunrise here at six in the morning which was stunning. After breakfast we went touring up to the top of the island through Takata and the last village Collingwood. The drive was spectacular and we went up Takata mountain which here they only call a big hill. On the top there were stunning views of the whole Takata valley, which need to be seen. Takata was a one street town in many senses and has managed to keep it identity. it reminds me of the New Zealand township that places like Blenheim and Nelson used to be like. Well worth a visit more so than Nelson and Richmond which are losing their identity.

We returned to Nelson and Richmond but still failed to catch up with Louise, maybe next time! Stayed in a campsite that was very boring and the only thing that I can relate to you about it was a silly thing that I did. In the morning I had to fill the water tank in the van so I got in the cab and drove away only to observe that people trying to stop me and waving at me frantically. When I stopped I realised that I had left the electric lead plugged in and now it was tugged out and in bits. It was only the night before that I was saying I cannot understand how you could do that. Murphy's law! I was lucky as there was a young Bavarian electrician on the campsite who repaired everything for me.

Our tour today took us to Murchison and again it was raining. Arnie said we were heading for Reefton and the sun has always shone when he had been there. It rained and rained all the way there and when we arrived it stopped as though to prove Arnett right. The sun came out but only briefly and before long there was another deluge. Eventually it eased and we were able to call into the Church and meet Fr Philip and brother Martin who seemed to have been expecting us last week so were surprised to see us, but that didn't phase them out and they invited us for supper. Had a lovely evening with them talking about all and sundry until the rugby came on and then the first religion of New Zealand took over.

Reefton is a country town in the valley at the bottom of the Lewis pass. Again it is a one street township and if the sun was shining one would think that we were in a wild west town in America. All the buildings are one or two story high all different colours and shapes but unlike Blenhielm all blend in with each other to give a good period feel about the place. Surrounded by lush green hills and bush it makes for a pleasant oasis in the valley. The next day after celebrating Mass in the Sacred Heart Church we went to Greymouth for a day at the races of trotting. Did not pick one winner but enjoyed ourselves. A real country meeting far removed from Ascot, here everybody knew everyone and even somebody knew me from Ashburton. They gave me a tip Shamrock Girl but it went for a gallop and that was the end of my $4. (about £1.50) The weather here was lovely and sunny though the wind was a little bit bitting. Stayed in a quaint little campsite in Ikamatua then in the morning through Reefton which was ablaze with sunshine through the Lewis Pass and Hamner Springs and back to Christchurch. All in glorious Technicolour as it was a beautiful day. So our little holiday had finished. Though tiring at times for Arnett we both enjoyed it as it gave us great quality time together and enjoy each others company. Thank you Lord.

I'm back from Campervan Break

2007-03-22T02:05:00.000+00:00

Sunrise in Kaiteriteri

Quiet breakfast in Camper Van

Arnett overlooking Picton Harbour.

Hello everyone,

I'm back safe and sound from the Camper van Holiday. (sorry priests don't have holidays they have rests, that's what I was told. I always remember my Prior in Quarr Abbey saying that he loved to go away often because it was always nice to have happy returns. I digress) The whole Camper van experience was really great. I thoroughly enjoyed travelling that way. The van was much easier to drive than a car because one has a much better view of of the whole road and could anticipate potential dangers a lot more early than you could in a car, and here in New Zealand you need to. The driving though fairly sedate, (too sedate at times) can be dangerous. In England we are taught in driving lessons, mirror, signal mirror and manoeuvre, here they do the opposite without the mirrors. In other words they manoeuvre then if you are lucky they signal.

People very rarely stop behind the white lines at give ways signs, if they stop at all. They very rarely stop and let you through, there is very little courtesy, and they would rather block you in then let you out. If you try to overtake on a narrow stretch of road, instead of slowing down to assist you they invariably put their foot down to make it harder. There are so many head on crashes in this part of the world and that is one of the reasons. Another trait of the New Zealand motorist is to eyeball you especially if you are a pedestrian. One day the devil got into me and as somebody was eyeballing me I pulled out my tongue and shook my head. The good thing about it was that it was before Lent.

One of the main sources of accidents or as the new PC word is collisions (Hot Fuzz) are the young people. Here in New Zealand the driving age is 15, yes that is right 15. Can you imagine a 15 year old in charge of a supped up motor car, its a lethal combination. One hears so much about the deaths of young people or the accidents that they cause. Another added incentive for the young to be wild is because the laws in New Zealand makes it virtually impossible for them to be touched by the police. There is a great problem here with boy racers with cars that sound as if they have blown a gasket. After twelve o'clock the boy racers come out fueled up with alchol and let rip. The early planners of the town unknowingly made a race track for them and the police seem to have no ability to stop them. The roads are full of doughnuts and skid marks. There is a streach in Moorhouse Avenue where the gutter is full of broken beer bottles which are thrown out of the boy racers windows.

The reason for this outburst by me is just to warn people that this lovely country is not all sweetness and light. There are many dangers lurking in the background. After saying all that, because one is aware of the dangers one can avoid them. It is best not to drive too far at night and if at all possible do your driving during school hours when most of the young drivers are at school. Once you get out of the main centers driving is much easier and can be enjoyed as there is not too much traffic on the road.

Back to the Camper van break. It was great and we saw lots of places. I took Uncle Arnett to many of the places that he and Aunty Evelyn travelled to when she was alive. Kaikoura, Blenheim, Picton, , Havelock, Nelson, Rabbit Island, Molueka, Kaiteriteri, Takata, Collingwood, Murchison, Reefton, Greymouth, Hamner Springs and back to ChristChurch. We did well over a thousand miles in eight days, which wasn't too bad. Each time we saw the old places uncle had been too he would tell me stories of what happened to him and Aunty Evelyn. Usually about how his old Morris with the side valve got him everywhere. It would chug along slowly but with purpose getting over one hill after another and through one scenic reserve after another, prompting the girls to keep saying 'Not another scenic reserve.' It was good to see uncle smile and laugh as he remembered all the things that happened to him and aunty. Getting flooded out in Greymouth; the car being hit by falling rocks, being held up by landslides, the car boiling over as it went over hills which in England we would call mountians.

They main thing that comes across with all these stories is how much they enjoyed all these holidays and the adventures that came through them. Arnetts eyes sparkle with happiness as he relives them in his mind's eye. Most of the places have changed and not for the best as they have grown modern. The one thing Arnett was most impressed with was the modern campsites which had great washing, toilets, (which he told me was just a hole in the ground in the old days) and cooking facilities. He felt that they were a joy to be in and made the break a lot more enjoyable than in his day. (to be continued)

Going up in the world

2007-03-08T09:44:00.000+00:00

Bathroom after painting

Blue doesn't look all that bad but believe me it was

Fr Bill, Teresa, Paul and Arnett enjoying the company

Hello everyone.

I just want to say how sorry I was to hear of the death of Shirley Haydon. Many of you in the parish will know Shirley as she was always larger than life and full of fun. I know she will be missed by many people especially those who are connected to Our Lady’s school. We thank the Lord for all the gifts Shirley gave to us and shared with us. For the last few years Shirley has headed the team that has been going out to our housebound parishioners and keeping them in touch with what is happening in our parish. On top of that she has been a good member of the parish pastoral council and helped enormously in the amalgamation of the two parishes. Shirley will be greatly missed by all, and may the Lord grant her rest and peace in His Heavenly Kingdom. Our condolences go out to her Husband Ted who has always supported her in everyway he can in all Shirley’s endeavours.

This week has been another busy week with one thing and another. Much the same as last week. This week I finished decorating Arnett’s bathroom and toilet so now his house has changed from predominantly turquoise colour to a pale daffodil. I did tone the bathroom down a bit by putting half a can of white paint into the mixture. While I was painting the toilet I was overcome with the smell of the paint being in such a small space. It was awful and how anyone can sniff glue I don’t know. However Arnett is really pleased with the decorating. When I first started he said to me, ‘No matter what you say I’m going to give you some money for what you are doing, I’m going to give you a thousand dollars. Obviously I said I don’t want anything and that it was my birthday present to him. The day after the conversation started again but this time it had gone down to only $500 dollars. I said to him if we go another day it will only be $250!! He started to laugh. It is not that Arnett is mean with his money he is just extra careful with it, which is a sign of the hard times he had when he was a child. One learnt to be thrifty in those days because there was no such thing as a credit card or bankers cards. If you had no money then you went without, so one had to be thrifty.

This week I have moved up in the world as I am the administrator of the Cathedral as well as being the hospital chaplain. The administrator Fr John has gone to Auckland for a few days, and Fr Dennis is still on his monthly holiday so I am left on my own holding the fort. Today I entertained three bishops for lunch a fourth couldn’t make it, Bishops John, Barry and Owen. I said to the bishops afterwards that when priests get together they talk about the news of the diocese and what other priest’s are doing. You notice I didn’t say gossip, as if we would. However what the bishops talked about was what was happening to other bishops and what committees they were on, and reminiscing about how other bishops had acted in the pass, who was on the verge of retiring and who was taking over. So they are just human like us. Thanks be to God.

Well there will be no blog next week as Arnett and myself are off in a campervan touring the top of the South Island, seeing the whales in Kaikoura, the people of Blenhiem, the Marlebrough Sounds in Picton, the beautiful sands of Nelson and the lovely country village of Reefton. It will be the first time that I have driven a campervan so say a little prayer for me, though saying that they are not as big as the post office vans I used to drive. Yet I have to admit that was over thirty years ago when the vans had ‘double de clutch.’ I bet there is not many people who will know what I am writing about. It will be good to spend some quality time with Arnett. I am taking a tape recorder and I am going to get down all his memories of our family and his experiences during his army days especially the D-Day landing and the aftermath. He is now one of the few surviving ex-soldiers of his regiment and so it will be good to get his account of those horrendous days. He was in the St Albans regiment and if he had been able to come to England he wanted to go to St Albans to see it for one last time and to remember all his pals who did not make it back to base. God Bless

Ps I have just noticed that last week I said I would mention something about Genesis it’s a good read is the best I can say at the moment. A great insight to human nature and all its foibles and yet God still loves us, blessed be God for ever. Amen

A Busy Week

2007-03-03T10:25:00.000+00:00

Sue and Margery with Arnett beore leaving for Aussie

Arnett's Kitchen before the make over

Me in Arnett's kitchen after the make over.
Arnett said I am the spitting image of my granddad

Hello everyone, I’m a bit late this week on account of the work load I have had this week. I can hear you all saying tell us another one. It has been fairly hot this week and the summer has arrived here in Christchurch three months late. One day it reached 32 degrees very nice. But I hear you are having a very mild winter on the whole.

On Sunday we said goodbye to Sue and Margery who were heading home to Sydney after a lovely week touring the south Island. But before they went trying to get a snack after two on a Sunday in Christchurch is very difficult. Some times I wonder if they want tourist to come. They seem to have the attitude that they are doing a big favour by letting tourists into the country. The towns do not seem to cater for the everyday needs of tourist. I wont go on.

It has been a busy week in the hospital as I have been showing Sister Mary around the hospital and introducing her to the ward staff. When I first went there I was just shown the hospital, where the chapel and office were, the lifts to the floor and then was left to get on with it. So I thought it would be a good idea to take sister around so that she wouldn’t have to go in to the job cold. It worked out very well, even though it took us three mornings to get round all the wards as well as see the patients.

Sister Mary was the principle of a big Catholic girl’s school in Christchurch called Villa Maria. It was amazing just ho many people knew her and this was a great asset in breaking down barriers. On our first trip round the wards we were stopped by three people who recognised her, and wanted our prayers and the sacrament of the Eucharist and Anointing. They would have slipped through the net only for sister as they were not down on our list as RCs. I personally feel sister Mary will be an excellent chaplain as she knows so many people and has a lovely sympathetic and homely way about her and is also a woman of the world.

I had a very sad but enriching experience this week. I was called up to one of the wards to see a young person who was suffering from an eating disorder. Before I went into the ward I was warned to be prepared for a shock as the poor person had been suffering from the disease for many years. I was glad as the poor sight before me if I had not been warned would have drew a gasp of pity from me. The person before me was just a skeleton with skin on, hardly breathing at all. I anointed the person and the minute I had finished celebrating the sacrament with her and her family than she stopped breathing and died. It was all very peaceful but sad. I felt so sad for the parents who had lived with this illness of their child for so many years. But as the father said their child now wasn’t suffering any more at was at peace with the Lord.

On a lighter note, when I first came to New Zealand I said to my uncle that I would decorate his kitchen. The reason for this was when uncle Arnett decorated it over twenty years ago his eye sight was not at is best to say the least. He could not see the patchwork quilt he had made with the colours. To him one coat of paint was enough but the fact was it wasn’t as you could see the dark pink patches shinning through the turquoise blue that was on top. He still swears that the paint he put on was green! By all accounts the whole kitchen was that colour until he wanted to lighten it up with a couple of the walls painted white. But by the time he was doing this his eye sight was even worse so he could distinguish what he had painted first so the thing was a bit of a mess. When I asked him what Evelyn thought about it all he said she just said “That’s lovely love.” Which was just what aunty Evelyn was like. Everything was lovely and nice. Therefore this last Tuesday and Wednesday I painted the kitchen a lovely pale daffodil colour. I let him pick the colour as he has to live with it. It wouldn’t have been my choice but as he said with only one eye truly working and that only at half speed, it needs a sharp colour for him to notice it. It was hard work but I did manage it and uncle watched me all the time. At first I thought it was too much but after a few days it has toned down. Now for the toilet and the bathroom and then thats it.

Well that’s all for this week I am still trying to get through Genesis but more about that next week.

Lenten Service

2007-02-23T09:05:00.000+00:00

Ash Wednesday Service at Anglican Cathedral

Catholic Cathedral Christchurch NZ

Arnett Trying to pick out winners no success!

On Ash Wednesday we began our Lenten journey again travelling along the troublesome and hard road to Calvary with Jesus. We know however, that this road will eventually lead us to the glory of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is the knowledge of the glory at the end of the road that should help us see that Lent far from being a time of guilt and self flagellation is a time for joy: a time to prepare our selves by prayer, fasting and almsgiving, so that we too can have some share in that glory.

It always amazes me that as Christians we have been given a great privileged, and that is, we know the end of the story of the ‘Road to Calvary.’ We know the hard road to Calvary doesn’t end in the destruction of our hero Jesus Christ, but exactly the opposite his complete victory over sin and death; a victory we to can share. How blessed and graced are we to have this knowledge and believe it. It something the disciples didn’t have at first, or understand when Jesus first told them. This is why Peter denied that he ever knew Christ, for what he first saw at Calvary with his own eyes, was the death and destruction of Jesus on a cross. If Judas would have fully understood who Jesus was and what he had told him would he have betrayed him?

However even with this knowledge, because of our human frailties, we wander off the straight and hard road to Calvary. Lent, therefore is a time when we remind ourselves of the great privilege Jesus has given us and try to get back on the straight and narrow road that leads to the Kingdom that Christ has won for us.

On Wednesday we had Mass with Ashes in the morning and in the evening there was an ecumenical service of Ashes in the Anglican Cathedral which I found very moving. Both the Anglican and Catholic Bishops jointly presided, helped by the clergy of both Cathedral. The music was performed by both choirs, each doing a solo. There were readings and hymns, then both bishops came down and shared in distributing the ashes. The Cathedral was nearly full with about 200 people there. I thought it might be good for our Churches together in Crowthorne and Sandhurst to do something similar next year.

It has been quite a busy week with one thing and another and I have not really had a day off because one of the priest here in the cathedral is on holiday so I have been back and forth to the hospital and cathedral celebrating Masses. On Wednesday Arnett and myself went to Oxford which is north of Christchurch and is a lovely little place at the foothills of the Alps.

Sue and her mother Margery, who I stayed with in Sydney came over on Sunday to do a seven day tour of the South Island. So we met up with them and I took them round Christchurch and its surrounds. It was a lovely sunny evening and we enjoyed ourselves, except for the meal. We ordered Pizzas but it took nearly an hour for them to appear, then they were rushing us because they wanted to close. On the menu it had the times of opening which was from 6.30am to late. Late to them was 9.00pm I said anywhere else in the world that is the time things start to happen but not here. Meeting Sue and Margery on Saturday when they return.

I was telling Sue about a news Item that they had on the main six o’clock news. When I saw it I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. It in a way typifies New Zealand for me as a quaint out of the way place. The news item was about a young girl who had hiccups for over two weeks. It was so funny to see because it was treated as such a serious new item. The young girl duly hiccupped every few moments to re-iterate the seriousness of her complaint. There was nothing about the war in Iraq and the awful train bomb in India. One can understand the insular character of the country as it is so far from anywhere, except the Antatic!

I have only seven more weeks in New Zealand and I have no idea what is going on in the larger world out there and whats more I am not sure if I want to know. As they say ignorance is bliss or is it?

Cathedral High Mass

2007-02-16T08:16:00.000+00:00

The Blue Pub at 6.00pm, yes 6.00pm in Methven.

The Rakaia Bridge getting ready for a bungie Jump?

An interesting view of the Cathedral Sanctuary

Good day to you all. Well last Sunday I celebrated a Sunday High Mass with a choir and small orchestra for the first time in my life, at the cathedral here in Christchurch. Though I didn’t presume to sit on the bishop’s imposing Chair. It made me understand why the bishops in the old days were treated as the princes of the Church. One can imagine all the solemnity and the other priests all around the bishops with deacons, sub deacons and a vast army of altar servers, all fussing around him. Bobbing up and down and bowing and scraping as they used to do; no wonder the bishops were seen as the royalty of the Church. However, there I was alone with just two altar servers in the vast sanctuary, I looked just like an insignificant blob on the landscape. Actually it was quite humbling and made one feel how great God is and how small we are as human beings. Yet for all that God treats us as his children. The choir and the orchestra sang and played very well and everything went well with no hitches, and I even got to sing a solo and let New Zealand here my dulcet tones.

Afterwards while reflecting on the proceedings I just felt that there was something missing. At first I could not put my finger on it and then it came to me. The whole Mass in some way was more of a performance rather than a celebration. When I celebrate Mass in a smaller parish Church, even if it is one that I do not know the congregation, there is an intimacy that some how gets lost in a big cathedral,. There is an eye contact with people even a small smile now and then, especially when things go a bit off key. In the cathedral, for the priest anyway, the people are in the distance there is no eye-contact and there is very little inter-action. There is a feeling of them and me. Though there is nothing wrong in celebrating Mass in this way I would not want to be doing it every week for the rest of my ministry. So I have decided I don’t want to be a bishop and I am very happy to be a little priest in a parish where I know everyone and they know me and that we can celebrate the Mass together as friends with Jesus, just as He did at the Last Supper.

On Saturday 18th I will have only ten weeks before I come home and only eight more weeks here in New Zealand. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. It seems to have flown by. Though saying that I will be glad to get home to Crowthorne and Sandhurst. I was talking to a priest about this who has been on a sabbatical for a year and is the same age as me. He said that we are getting to an age where we want things to be stable and regular in our lives. We want and need the familiar things around us. I understood exactly what he said and meant

Because my time is short here Uncle and myself are going to have a weeks holiday touring around the north of the south Island. I have hired a motor home for eight days so that we can spend some time alone together and also to write down his war time experiences of the build up to D-Day and the aftermath of those day and his trip to Australia and New Zealand. (Does anyone know of a good speech to text programme for the computer?) Hopefully the weather will be a little better than it has been over the summer and the autumn will be as nice as it was in the UK last year.

Uncle is looking forward to the holiday and eight days will be enough for him. He and aunty Evelyn were great campers in their day. He told me they would get in their old Morris with three gears, with all the camping stuff piled high on top and off they would go for three weeks with the two girls. Happy days. So we are doing it a bit more relaxed and in comfort which he deserves. Uncle said something very nice to me. He said that one of his cobbers told him that since I have been here Arnett looks a lot more healthier, happy and bright. And as it is so do I. Its been really good for us both to spend a lot of time getting to know each other and enjoying ourselves and company.

Hope you are all ready for the beginning of Lent on Wednesday and that you have your spiritual reading prepared. This year I am going to make an effort of reading the whole bible. I did it once before when I was in the monastery and I found it helpful and spiritual, though Leviticus and Numbers were heavy going. Well that is all for this week.

St Valentine's Day

2007-02-10T10:04:00.000+00:00

The Crucifix in the Cathedral

St Valentine

First Station of the Cross Jesus is condemned

Fr Ramiel

Hello every one and a happy St Valentine’s day to you all. I wonder if you know that there are nine saints who are called Valentine. The Valentine we celebrate on the 14th February was a priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith in effectual, commended him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270. Valentine really existed because archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to Saint Valentine and in that church was a woodcut portrait of him. Alongside text states that Valentinus was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II. He was caught marrying Christian couples and aiding any Christians who were being persecuted Valentinus was arrested and imprisoned and Claudius took a liking to him until Valentine tried to convert him. Eventually being beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate.

As we know saints are not supposed to rest in peace; they're expected to keep busy: to perform miracles, to intercede. Being in jail or dead is no excuse for non-performance of the supernatural. One legend says, while awaiting his execution, Valentine restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. Another legend says, on the eve of his death, he penned a farewell note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine." From those beginnings we now have Valentine Day. St. Valentine is not only the Patron Saint of lovers but also, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, plague, travellers, young people. He is represented in pictures with birds and roses. A busy saint!

Talking about St Valentines day on Friday I was visiting a patient when my phone went off. I answered it and the receptionist said that there was a man in the lobby wanting to talk to the catholic chaplain about a problem he had with a member of his family. As a chaplain you are called on to advise on many things. And at times you need to be a big ear to listen to people’s problems. So I went to the lobby and sitting there was this man and woman. I thought I recognise the faces, so my mind was racing trying to put names to the faces. Were they from Burnside or Ashburton parishes nothing registered. This is going to be tricky I thought how am I going to blag this. Hello Fr Kevin nice to see you here the man said and my brain was racing and then I realised it was Don Breakspear and his wife, Sheila and Val (Valentine)’s son and daughter in law. They were out in New Zealand having a holiday and as they were in Christchurch they could not pass by without seeing me. I said how did you know I was at the hospital the reply came because we keep up with your blog. It transpires that Val and Sheila keep up with the blog through them so that they can keep an eye on what I am doing. So hello Val and Sheila I hope you are doing well and that you both have a great St Valentine’s feast day and we congratulate you both on being so much in love with each other after over seventy years of marriage. God bless you both.

Been working quite hard this week with one thing and another and I have had help in the hospital. Sr Patricia who has been working voluntary for over 23 years has come back for a few weeks, before she retires. She work closely with Fr Kevin O’Grady over those years who also was a great support for her. So when Fr Kevin died she lost a great friend. So working in the hospital must have been hard for her, yet she has carried on but I think she will retire soon because next birthday she is seventy-five. And as you know there comes a time when you have to say to your self enoughs enough.

Well that is enough for this week will include another picture of the stations and one of the Crucifix. I have not taken many photographs this week. I have included one of Fr Ramiel who is a priest from the Philippines who will be working here for a couple of years as the Catholic Chaplain to Christchurch university.

Hanmer Springs and Stations

2007-02-04T09:37:00.000+00:00

Looks like Jesus and Simon are out for a run

Oh what big hands you've got Veronica

Jesus loses weight

Arnett and myself at Hanmer Springs.

No I have loss no weight in fact........

(By the way if you double click on the pictures they treble in size)

Well a happy St Blaise day to you all and I hope all your throats are blessed by the patron saint of throats. The do not seem to follow it over here. I presume it is because it is the middle of summer and not many people get sore throats at this time.

Well it has been a very busy week in the hospital. It is suprising how quickly the turn over is in the people coming and going. In the good old days a patient could exspect to be in hospital at least two weeks and after an operation another three weeks to get over the trauma of the event. Now it is usually less than a week. Over the week I try and see all the Catholics that are known to me(Here unlike England they give you a list of all the Catholics who want to be seen) and give them the sacrament of the sick and Holy communion. Some of the patients not truly understanding the nature of the sacrament say, ‘I’m not ready to die yet father.’ Then I explain the sacrament of the sick and then they willingly receive the sacrament.

I always fnd it a bit difficult to ask a person if they are a practicing Catholic so I have devised a little cunning plan that gives me some idea how the land lies. I ask them what parish they are in and those who are practicing their faith usually know straight away and know the current parish priest. I do hear some stories about why they are not practicing and I must say once I hear some of the stories I am not surprised why they have stopped. In the end however we must not be put off loving God and our neighbour and practicing our faith by people or because the Mass is not in latin anymore. We practice our faith because we believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the founder of our Church. Once that fact is deep seated in our hearts it wont matter too much what people say and do, they will never put us off following our faith in Jesus. It never put Jesus off by having a motley bunch of characters around him, in fact he used them to spread his good news. (theme of my homily this week), therefore it shouldn’t surprise us to see in our church a great number of different characters. I digress yet again. The hospital gives the Lord a great chance for him to touch people with his welcoming and healing love, and let people know that he is also walking with them in their pain and suffering and that he would never abandon them.

On my days off this week I went to Hanmer Springs which is about 70 miles from Christchurch. It is a lovely place very quiet and quaint. It is in a valley north of Christchurch and surrounded by hills. It has hot springs there and people come to take the waters. I went in with uncle, even though the sulpha waters smelt like bad eggs. They say that the waters are good for your joints and help you to recover from some illnesses. I was talking to a lady and she told me that through the waters, which she bathes in every day, she has managed to get over the effects of a stroke she had over a year ago. Now she can walk and talk and do nearly all the things she could do before the stroke. However for my troubles in Hanmer I got sun burnt on my shoulders and chest and turned a beetroot colour. Got a sore shoulder, tired feet and a lot of nasty insect bites on my legs. So the moral of the trip for me is ‘If your well don’t go to bathing in the spa springs.’ Saying that I have committed myself to taking a Philippino priest there this Wednesday. I wont take the waters.

It was the Phillippino priest who actually alerted me to the stations of the cross in the Cathedral which were a great source of controversy when they were put up, to such an extent that there were demonstrations outside of the cathedral. The augument was that not only were they crude but one of them was phonographic. I will let you judge them yourselves. Personally I did feel that they were a bit like a ten year would do at school if they were drawing them. They would be all right in a modern church but in a classical building as the cathedral is they do not seem right. Mind you saying that until they were pointed out to me I never even noticed them, which also tells you something. Nearly every dipiction of Jesus is different which I also find off putting. Another anomally is the crucifix. I must say it is the most ugliest and not very well carved crucifix that I have ever seen and rather than meditating on it ones eyes tries to avoid it.

Life in New Zealand

2007-01-26T08:06:00.000+00:00

Akaroa from above

A sign post in Akaroa for the RCs and Disenters place of burial.

Uncle Arnett relaxing in the sunshine on the pier in Akaroa.

Hello again from rainy Christchurch. The weather forecast for the next few days is cloudy and drizzle followed by rain. In other words its Manchester weather without the freezing wind. Each week I hear from the people in Christchurch that the summer will start at the beginning of February. I wait in anticipation.

I am now living in the cathedral presbytery full time and I will be staying here until I leave on the 14th of April. It is a lovely big house with many rooms and flatlets. I have a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom all to my self which is good. Being in the cathedral house also puts me at the hub of the diocese and I get the oportunity of meeting lots of people who pass through. I also get to know fairly early what is going on in the diocese. Not that I am one for gossip.

Because of my chaplain’s job I very rarely eat at lunch time as I am usually at the hospital until 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I then come home and make myself something to eat. Being a vegemite it also makes it easy to cook my own food, then I can eat what I want and like.

Working in the hospital has given me a great insight into how people view priests. As I walk through the many corridoors of the hospitals I get many different reactions. Some people smile, some look away so that I don’t catch their eyes, others stare right through me as though I do not exist, some people do not know how to react and look uncomfortable and others acknowledge that I exist and greet me. One can nearly always tell who the Catholics are as they will greet me with ‘Hello Father’. There seems to be a deep seated knowledge that the Catholic priest is the one who wears a black shirt and dog collar, whereas the Anglican vicar wears a bright shirt and dog collar. That can range from a blue and white pin stripe shirt to a pink one. The whole idea of the black clothing of a priest was that the priest wouldn’t be bothered with wondering what he was going to wear. Now that the Anglicans have women priests there are even frilly shirts in all shades of colour. I must explore this area to see what best suits my complexion! I digress as usual.

It has been a busy week at the hospital which started with a few major road crashes with nine people being admitted all at once and people milling everywhere. It is only when one works in a busy hospital that you can understand just how hard the staff work especially in the emergency area. I have been called out a few times to the emergency area. Once I was called out because a patient would not allow the staff to do anything until they had seen the priest. I had to convince the patient that the doctors and nurses knew what they were doing and that it was in their best interest to let them proceed. They say that all life passes through a hospital and it sure does. It is certaintly an eye opener being a semi-full time chaplain.

I take my days off during the week Tuesday and Wednesday and this gives me a break and also time that I can spend with uncle. This week we went to a beautiful place called Akaroa and spent a couple of days there. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast there the Maples which was very nice. When I told the Lady running the place a Mrs Norman, that I was a Catholic priest she said that she was an RC which pleased me until she said that meant she was a Retired Catholic. It turned out that her three brothers actually worked in the same factory as uncle Arnett and he knew them, and that she went to school with Arnett’s step daughter. What a small world.

The weather was really hot and sunny the first day which made the place sparkle. The only cloudy issue was the New Zealanders attitude to customer relationships. The majority of them who work in shops and eating places seem to have the idea that the customer either takes it or leaves and it is too much hasle when they start asking questions or even worse complaining. They really take the hump if you challenge their attitude. It is rare to come across a helpful shop or eating assistant, unless they are Asian, who nearly always are extremely polite and helpful and never make you feel that you are a pain, even though you may be. To me that is the sign of a good sales person. I must say that not all New Zealanders are like that but they are many who are, which is such a shame as they have a beautiful country.

RC Chaplain at the Public Hospital.

2007-01-19T08:57:00.000+00:00

Christchurch Main Public Hospital

Cathedral Presbytery where I am staying

Uncle Arnett on a day out at Timaru.

Well since I have been back from Australia I have been on the go. Christchurch hospital is one of the bigest in Australiasia with over thirty wards and a yearly intake of 49,000 patients. Over 69,000 patients presented themselves to the emergency department last year, and over 200,000 outpatients visits. So you can see it is a very busy hospital.

Obviously because of patient confidentiality I cannot write about individuals but I can tell you about the work I am doing. I am the Catholic chaplain and my remit is to try and visit all those who put on their entry form that they are catholic. I would say that 60% who say they are catholic do not practice but I still talk to them if they want to. At times they feel a little guilty, so it is up to me to make them feel at ease. I never ask them why they do not go and in no surcumstances berate them. I am there to help them relax and be at ease not to make them tense and agitated. Though I sometimes feel that the collar does that.

The priest who was the chaplain before I came was a Fr Kevin O’Grady and he had worked at that post for well over twentyfive years or more. Everybody in the hospital knew him and he was part of the fixtures and fittings so his death was not only a blow to the hospital but also a great loss. He knew all the staff and as far as he was concerned all the patients were part of his ministry no matter what denomination. Though he has been dead for four months they still praise the work he had done over the years.

All members of the staff are important to the work of the chaplaincy for with out their help it can be a hard slog. If I was going to work their full time on a long term basis my first aim would be to get to know the staff and let the staff get to know me. Once you have got the confidence and the friendship of the staff you are more than halfway to being a good chaplain. Trevor Walt in Broadmoor hospital is a good example of this. But these relationships cannot be built in a few months they take years to build up. Another effect of a long term chaplain is that many of the patients also so know them and feel relaxed in their presence. So with me only being there for three months it is not possible to have the same influence as a long term chaplain has, which can make it quite sressful at times. But I am trying my best and that is all the Lord wants of me.

My day in the hospital starts at ten when all the other chaplains meet for morning prayer and reflection. We then have a coffee and discuss any issues that need to be addressed. After that we go on our rounds. I have a list of usually about forty patients whom I try and see though not all in one day otherwise I would be there day and night. Each time with a patient would vary some only a few minutes others longer especially if the family are there because most times they want to talk as well. Obviously I would offer the sacrament of the sick and Holy communion and it is a delight and moving to see the faith of some people when they receive Our Blessed Lord in the Sacraments. It makes ones vocation worth while.

But the other side of the coin is those who do not attend Church on a regular basis see the sacrament of the sick as the last rite and usually cringe when they see me. So I try to explain that the sacrament of the sick is not only for those who are about to shed this mortal coil but for those who are ill and that it is asking the Lord to give spiritual health to body and soul; a spiritual health that gives courage to those who are suffering from the weakness of the body. Around about one I break off for lunch which is usually a coffee and an apple. Then I begin again walking the wards and answering my bleep which is forever going off. Then at four I break off for the day. But for five days I am on 24 hour call. We have one Mass in the hospital and that is at 3.30pm on a sunday which is quite packed with outside people who make use of it. Very few staff and patients attend.

As you can read I am gaining a lot from my time here. I wouldn’t out of choice want to be a chaplain to a big hospital I feel it would be too stressfull for me. It needs a special sort of person who loves that calling and who can do it long term. But what this placement is teaching me is how special a chaplain is. So please pray for all chaplains and give thanks for all the work that they do.

I will write next week to tell you how I am getting on and where I am living God bless you all.

Sydney Australia.

2007-01-12T10:13:00.000+00:00

Does any one know what the above is?

An Aboriginie playing the digeridoo

Sue Ian and Margery on a trip to national Park.

Hello everyone I am back from my visit to Australia.

Thank goodness after a few days of rain in Sydney the sun began to shine. I was beginning to think that I was some sort of Jinx as the rain keeps following me. The people in New Zealand tell me it is the worst start to their summer in ages. Though it is wet and drizzling it is not really too cold 18 during the day and 12-13 during the evening.

Well as you can imagine in Australia I got my leg pulled about the cricket. What a mess and what a shower of no hopers. The last excuse was that the Aussies bat with a wider bat than we do. I wanted to go to the fifth and final day as I thought I couldn’t come all the way here and not see a test. Everyone said that I was living in a dream world and they were right. They only just managed the fourth day and that was because of the rain on the first day! Anyway no more about cricket.

I had a lovely week in Cronulla with my friends Ian and Sue and their children Marianne and Sebastian. Sue’s mum Margery was there and I hadn’t seen her since the early eighties in Farnham. Ian was still on his Christmas Holiday so we spent a day in Sydney walking around and chatting which was enjoyable. Went through Darling harbour which has changed beyond all recognition to what I remember ten years ago. A good tourist attraction when the sun is shining.

It has been ten years since I was last here and there have been many changes especially to the docklands area. Here there has been a regeneration and there are now lots of very expensive apartments and docking areas for ones boat, if one has one. If one has not got one then one can look at other people’s through ones windows or on ones balcony. It is all very pretentious but interesting to see. But I must say there must be a lot of money swilling around this area.

Met Bin and Dan from the Burnside parish who were out here visiting their daughter and we went on the explorer bus which wasn’t bad but wasn’t a patch on the one in Florence (Firenze) We had a good day getting on and off seeing Sydney and for the first time in my life ate at the Subway. (Maybe my last time?)

I was in the parish of Crunulla and went to Mass every morning at seven o’clock and it was suprissing how many people came at that time. Very busy parish run by Fr Tom, they had over 4000 people for the Christmas Masses and over 2000 for the children’s Christmas Mass. They must have been hanging off the rafters.

I flew out of Sydney early on Monday morning and arrived in New Zealand three hours later on the eigth of January. I will now be staying at the cathedral and working as a chaplain to the main hospital for a few weeks. will tell you more on my next blogg.

Here are two notes I received from the sisters in Myanmar which might interest you. One of them is about little Emily whom you may remmeber from an earlier blogg.

Dear Fr Kevin, Thanks a lot for your Christmas card it arrived on the 26th Dec Sister Lydia is delighted that you are thinking of adopting little Emilie. The students are doing well and are no more anxious about their school fees. Please could you support 4 pupils 3 girls and 1 boy for the year 2007. These are really pooor I have e-mailed you about the raiding business. Once at night a thief came and stole all our petrol we saved in a can and another came stole all the washing on the line and the girls were so upset at loosing their clothes. I e-mailed you but it couldn’t get through because of the power cut we have here and also they cut off the internet and wont tell us when it is back on again.

The new superior in Zawgi died suddenly within less than 3 hours on the 26th Dec. She was alright before she went to bed at 10.30 and was dead in less than three hours. We brought her body to Mandalay. So it was a sad end to close the year 2006.

I was sure you were going to miss England at Christmas. Never mind every day is a day closer to home sweet home. The days and months fly by so fast, we don’t remember what happened yesterday. May your new year be a year of grace, joy and peace and may you be blessed with the gift of good health, goodness and happiness wherevere you are. Thanks for everything Sr Geraldine.

Dear Fr Kevin we wish you and all your parishioners the joy the Christmas season brings. You really outdid yourselves in doing so much for us and the children with the presents you gave them. It made it a joyous Christmas for them. Emilie is in good health and improving and keeping well. Union of prayers sisters and children of Amarapura.

Certaintly puts the cricket into perspective!

Christmas and New year with Uncle Arnett

2007-01-06T06:46:00.000+00:00

Uncle Arnett the night after New Year

Uncle Arnett with Megan and Michael

Brigitta Dennis and Arnett News Years Eve

Hello everyone and a Happy New Year to you all. At the moment I am in Sunny Sydney for a week staying with some friends. I have come here for a little rest after Christmas and New Year before I start a new assignment which is working as a chaplain to the main hospital. Though I did say I would rather not do this work when I applied to the bishop in Christchurch they are in a bit of a jam so I agreed to do it until the end of Febuary to help the diocese out. The Last chaplain died as I arrived and the new one suffered a slight stroke which made it imposwsible for him to carry on. A new chaplain has been appointed but will not be able to take up her position until the end of February that is where I come in.

Being here in Australia has been a penance for me not in a religious sense but rather in a cricket aspect. When I am asked about the team I say I have no interest in cricket or rugby infact any sport that England is bad in. So my only invovlement in sport is tiddley winks. I do think we are the world champions in that. I digress.

I spent Christmas with Uncle Arnett and we had a lovely time together. I think we were both moved by having our first Christmas and New year together. He is a lovely man very open and can get on with anyone no matter what background they come from.

After celebrating Christmas day Mass in Methven I hot footed it to uncle's and picked him up to take him to Sylvia and Jim's for Christmas meal. We had a traditional Christmas meal with all the trimmings, with mine minus all the meaty things. It seemed odd eating all these things in the mild weather of summer. After the meal I took Arnett to see an old friend in hospital who had just had his leg amputated. Then we went back to Sylvia and Jim's to finish our Christmas celebrations where more family came round. In the end there were about twelve of us and we had a great time talking and playing pool.

Brigitta a friend of mine from Windsor arrived from England on the 27th and we spent some time with her and a friend of hers called Dennis. Arnett and myself spent New Years eve with them at the Crown Plaza Hotel. We had a great night and Uncle Arnett had grand time. He was up and dancing with the girls he seemed to have more energy than I did. I think it is the first time in ages that he has been out to a doo like that. I think he had a bit too much to eat and drink for he had a hangover the next day. He wasn't a happy bunny and said the old saying I'm never doing that again. But eventually he came round and said how much he enjoyed it.

On New Years day I flew into Sydney and met my friends Ian and Sue will write more on this later.

Christmas in New Zealand Part One.

2006-12-28T03:05:00.000+00:00

The Famous Donkey of Rakaia

The Crib at Rakai

Myself and two Altar Servers at Methven

I hope you all had a lovely and prayerful Christmas. The New Zealand celebration is so different from the one in England. I don’t mean that in the liturgical sense but in the secular way it is celebrated. Though you get the inevitable adds on the TV, there wasn’t much sense that Christmas was coming. Though I had been in Ashburton for two months I only got three cards from parishioners. I told some one this and they said, here in New Zealand we only send them to those we will not see over Christmas, which I agree with on the whole. But there was no feeling of Christmas is coming. If and not worth writing home about, only the lack of them. When Christmas day had finished that was it, they had the Boxing day sales which I believe were packed and on the Wednesday the annual summer holiday begins so everyone is off to their favourite camping site or Australia for their hols.

I also think that because I am in a temporary situation that I didn’t have the involvement that I would normally have had. I just turned up and everything happened around me. That is what happened in St Ita’s Rakaia. You will be glad to hear that the Donkey behaved itself, but the baby Jesus was a bit noisy. The donkey, Joseph, Mary and the baby followed by lots of Angels and shepherds came in when the congregation started to sing, Little Donkey. After the hymn the donkey made a dignified exit but the mother and father of the baby, representing Mary and Joseph sat on the sanctuary with me all the way through Mass, which was different. All the angels and shepherds sat by the steps of the sanctuary. All the lights and activity woke the baby up and it started to cry and cry. I thought this is going to be fun! After five minutes of this I said to the mother you need to go into the sacristy and feed the baby which she did thanks goodness. She and Joseph then appeared after the homily with a sleeping baby, who was as good as gold for the rest of the Mass.

I called the Children up after the homily and they all sat around the crib, which was very nice and I asked them all about Christmas story and what for them. Nearly all of them said it was about presents and Jesus coming into the world. Then we sang Away in a manger and they all remained sitting at the sanctuary steps near the Advent and Christmas candle. During the presentation of the gifts sister Marie Rita rushed over to the Children for they had knocked down the Advent candles which had been precariously placed on a not too stable stand. Her quick action saved the day but because of her age she couldn’t get up so two people tried to lift her by the arms. They were pulling her arms out of their socket and I said you must put your arms round her and lift her up. Thankfully she got up none the worse for her brave action. I just wondered to myself, what else is going to happen on this Christmas night. Thank goodness everything went OK after that.

The next day I went to Methven to celebrate the nine o’clock Mass but I was a shade disappointed at the lack of Children there. What had happened was they had a Christmas service the night before with Holy Communion and most of the children had gone there. Some of the parishioners had pressurised the parish priest to do this because they could not have a Christmas Eve Mass in Methven. It is obvious to me that those parishioners have not got the understanding of what the celebration of the Eucharist is about. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they turned up for the Christmas Mass in the morning but the majority didn’t especially those who pressurised the parish priest. I would not have minded if they were not being served with the Eucharist, but they were. Its funny they most probably go the twenty miles to the supermarket down the road for their cheap shopping but wouldn’t for the Christmas Eve Mass that was being celebrated there. We all have our funny ways. A question that would be left hanging is, ‘Have they fulfilled their Christmas duty?’

That was the only sour note of Christmas but other wise it was nice but different I will tell you more of that in my next blog. Have a lovely New Year and have a wee dram for me. God Bless.

Christmas Greetings and news to you all.

2006-12-20T19:06:00.000+00:00

HAPPY AND BLESSED CHRISTMAS

FR KEVIN WITH SNOW BALL

Well I have come to the halfway point of my stay here in New Zealand and I have really enjoyed it. The two parishes that I have been in have been very different. Christ the King Burnside a city parish that is very lively with lots of things happening and a big mix of social classes. The Holy Name parish Ashburton a fairly quiet country parish with lots of farmers retired and active living in and around the town. Uncle Arnett came down and spent a few days with me in the parish and he was struck by how much Ashburton had changed in the building aspect of the town. But if you came for the night life and a good old knees up I am afraid you would be literally on your own. After six, sorry after 5.30, its deed(the New Zealand way of saying dead) On Saturday afternoon we took a stroll round the shops and most of them in the town centre were closed and there was only a handful of people around. When you think that it is only eight days before Christmas, you think the place would be teeming with people, not in Ashburton. They have their set way of doing things here and nothing will change them, not even Christmas. But that is country life all over the world not just here in Ashburton. We went to the RSA (Return Soldiers Association) and there were not many people there either. They were dancing to some country band. One of those bands that no matter what they sing it always sounds the same.

On the Monday I took Uncle Arnett home and went to the cathedral where there was a Christmas meal and get together for the clergy. But before the meal they had a Penitential Service just for the clergy. It was really good and very moving. The bishop presided and introduce the service and we sang hymns and heard the gospel and one of the priest gave the homily. Then four priests went to the four corners of the sanctuary and the rest of the priests went to receive the sacrament. We then finished with the Magnificate and a hymn. I found the whole experience spiritual and uplifting and a great way to start the Christmas celebrations. After that we had a meal and this gave all the clergy a time to catch up with each other. It was here that I learnt that after I come back from Sydney on the eighth of January I will be based in the Cathedral house. Here I will be the chaplain for the main hospital for a couple of months as the present chaplain is not well. I will also be helping within the cathedral parish itself. This should be interesting pastoral work which will not be unknown to me as I was the hospital Chaplain in Guernsey for four years. What I will need is a mobile phone. I have resisted up to now but I think it will be essential for the work.

I will be in Ashburton until Christmas day then after the nine o’clock Mass at Methven I will leave Ashburton, Methven and Rakaia to go and stay with uncle for Christmas week before flying to Sydney on the first of January. This will be great and quite moving for me as this will be the first time that I will have spent Christmas day with a blood member of my family. It is a strange thought. Arnett is looking forward to the day and also to the week I will be spending with him because since his wife Evelyn died it has been a bit lonely for him. Sylvia his step daughter always has him over for Christmas day but that will be the last he sees of anybody until the following week. I think he gets lonely at times. So during that week we will go to lots of places and hopefully the weather will be good. At the moment it is pouring down and has been for the last four hours and snow and hail is the forecast for tomorrow. Who said I have come here for the sun and surf?

It is good to hear that the parish in Crowthorne and Sandhurst are managing very well without me and that Fr Adrian is looking after your spiritual needs. I thank all those who have helped keep the parish running in my absence, especially Bill, and the two Sues in the office who are co-ordinating everything. I also want to mention John and Norah Kavangh who will be celebrating their Golden Anniversary on Boxing day. I know we all wish them well and that they have many more happy years together and we thank them for all they do in our parish. I will offer mass for them on that day, though saying that it will be at nine o’clock in the morning of the 26th but only eight o’clock in the evening of Christmas day for you. New Zealand is 13 hours ahead of the UK.

This Christmas I will be celebrating the Midnight Mass at 6.00pm (Now I understand why people ring up and say; ‘What time is Midnight Mass?) with a real donkey in the Church and a three week old baby as the baby Jesus. Should be interesting. Being the practical person I am I asked what happens if there is any mishaps. Oh you don’t have to worry about that, came the reply the donkey is not fed or watered that day. Poor donkey. I have heard that the donkey doesn’t stay long it leaves after the first hymn. Which will be a blessing especially if the singing is a bit out of tune and it upsets him and he starts braying. At least it will be authentic. I asked as there are 45 million sheep in New Zealand could we have a few sheep as well and a cow. Father if we had all those in as well there would be no room for the congregation, which is a different slant on having no room in the inn. It is a small church and the aisle is only a couple of feet wide and it only holds sixty people.

Anyway that’s all from me for the time being. I will write some time in Christmas week if I can get access to broadband. I wish you all a peaceful and prayerful Christmas and New Year. I will keep you all in my prayers at Mass on Christmas day and please say a pray for me. I hope you get lots of snow and more importantly lots of God’s blessing.

Yours in the love and peace of Christ Fr Kevin.

Fairlie, Pleasant Point, Tekapo, Twizel and Cave.

2006-12-18T19:41:00.000+00:00

Lupines at Lake Tekapo,

MountCook fromPukaki Lake

St Mary's Pleasant Point

Last week I spent a couple of days with Fr Michael Pui in the parish of Fairlie. This is another parish that covers a great area and includes five different churches. St Patrick’s Fairlie is where Fr Michael resides in a lovely house which he has had renovated with all mod cons and is quite comfortable. It was here that I caught up with all my e-mails and some renovating of the blog, because Fr Michael has got wireless broadband.

Fairlie is in the southern part of Canterbury and here there are a lot more hills and because of all the rain we have had in the last few weeks is green and lush. It is very similar to the Lake District, but with the added bonus of a lot fewer people. Fairlie is a town of eight hundred people incorporating many farms. Very quiet.

Forty-eight Kilometres to the East of Fairlie is Pleasant Point but on the way there we pass two small churches that Fr Michael looks after one in Cave and one in a little hamlet. Pleasant Point is a lovely pleasant spot. The Church of St Mary’s dominates the skyline because it is the tallest building in the town. The town itself is classical small New Zealand town/village. Very attractive to look at and walk around, but I do not think you could fill a whole day there. I helped Fr Michael with his Reconciliation service. We had about twelve penitents so obviously not a town full of sinners! While we were celebrating the sacrament the rain came down and was hitting the tin roof so hard we couldn’t hear ourselves singing which might have been a blessing not only for the Lord but for my ears also.

The next day Fr Michael was busy so I said I would go towards Twizel which is to the west of Fairlie, in fact 148 Kilometres and see the two big lakes, Tekapo and Pukaki, where there are great views of Mount Cook and the surrounding area. It seemed very overcast and damp and I thought it would not be a good day to go, but Fr said it would be alright because if its raining here it will be sun shining through the pass. It was and there was hardly a could in the sky once you had driven through the pass. The one thing that really stuck me was not the range of mountains the miles and miles of Lupines. Fr Michael when I told him said that the early settlers had brought them with them and they have just spread, so much so that they are considered as a weed here. But to me they looked very beautiful.

The two lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki were magnificent not because of their sizes but because of their colour. They were a very bright blue, which made a fantastic contrast to the snow capped mountains, especially Mount Cook, and the green of the trees. The ice blue comes from the grains of sand/earth that comes from the glacial sediments from the mountains. None of the pictures I have seen of these lakes ever does them full justice it can only truly be appreciated by ones own naked eyes. (That sounds like a plug for the New Zealand Tourist board)I didn’t make it to Twizel as I couldn’t stand another 48 ks of twist and turns. This gave me an understanding how hard and lonely it must be to be doing this every other week. It is no wonder also why Fr Michael’s answer phone message goes on for three minutes.

The Holy Family Parish Methven

2006-12-12T07:19:00.000+00:00

The Ladies of the Women's Catholic League

The Children of Our Lady of the Snow School.

The Holy Family parish in Methven is much larger than Rakaia as the town has a population over 1500. There is a school also attached to the parish called Our Lady of the Snows. Methven is a growing town as it is a ski town. It has a senior school of 500 pupils and they are garnered from a very wide area. The Mount Hut Ski Field is very near and you can literally drive up to it in an ordinary car during the summer, but during the winter you would need chains on your four wheel drive. I did drive nearly all the way but stopped near the top as it looked a bit precarious and a long way down. You get lovely views of the Canterbury plains on a lovely clear day. Its funny that when you go up mountains one always feels like praying because one suddenly feels so small and insignificant against the vast beauty and size of nature. Here one realises that a little bird has much more power than you do as it soars up and around on the thermals. But what gives me a different power is that I can understand that, the bird can’t.

Writing about birds what makes me smile here is how they play chicken with the traffic, just flying out of the way in time. But some don’t and mostly the bigger birds. When the early English settlers came here they brought many species of our birds with them. Sparrows, black birds thrushes chaffinches and magpies. It is so nice to wake up in the morning to the sound of the dawn chorus with hundreds of sparrows chirping away.

Methven has a lot of Motels and Backpackers hostels for the skiers and during the summer months the trampers. Over here the ramblers are called trampers as they trample through the bush. Over the right side of the mountain there is the Rakia Gorge and a most beautiful lake called Lake Collridge. The colour has to be seen to believed, it is a blue turquoise. The reason it is like this is because the Lake is so deep and that the melting ice that fills it up also has a blue tinge to it.

Though the Holy Family is a smallish parish with 60-80 people it has a very active Catholic Women’s League. (CWL) who do many things in the village and see that the sick and the house bound receive Holy Communion. They meet twice a week to pray the rosary and have a Holy Hour every week and pray for intentions that have been given to them. They have been praying for a priest and their prayers have been answered to a certain degree. A Father Kennedy who is retired wants to live in Methven and is willing to celebrate Mass everyday for them, but he doesn’t, understandably want to be the parish priest as he is over eight. At the moment they usually only have one Mass every fortnight. While I have been here they have Mass two or three times a week. What is lovely for them is that both Rakia and Methven will have a Christmas Mass because of my presence in the Pastoral Area of Mid Canterbury. The Holy Family Church is big and could hold at least three hundred. Though the normal congregation of 60-80 are lost on a Sunday, when they have a funeral it gets fairly packed. Because it is such a small community everyone knows everyone, so if someone dies there is a tradition that most of the community turn up.

Our Lady of the Snows’ school is a lovely little school, which was started by the Mercy sisters. However there is only 31 Children attending which is a worry. Here in New Zealand they allocate teachers by the number of pupils who attend. At the moment there are four teachers but if no new pupils start at the beginning of the school year they will lose a teacher, which then makes it harder to attract new children. This is a shame as they have lots of space to play and its right next to the Church. It is marvellous to see the children so relaxed and free and easy, playing mostly in their bare feet. There is a lovely homily feeling about the School. They come to the Mass on Tuesday morning when it is celebrated and I also gave the Children who had made their First Communion an Advent Reconciliation Service which I will start doing for Our Lady’s School when I get back.