Nov
14
2011
Newsletter
November 2011
Dunedin
Kia Ora,
Our next meeting will be on
Thursday, November 24, 2011
in the Highgate Church buildings, Maori Hill
[corner of Drivers Road and Highgate]
Tea and Coffee/ will be available 5.15– 5.50 pm.
Bring your own food with you – OR Food will be available
[We ask for $5 for as much as you can eat plus rent
or $2 if you come for the meeting only]
[Kitchen volunteers: Ruth Morgan, Ted Turner]
The programme will start at 6 pm.
Programme:
Favourite Sayings
For our last meeting of the year we would like you to share 2 or 3 of your favourite sayings, with a brief comment on where you read or heard them and why they are favourites. You may speak for up to 4 minutes. Feel free to pass.
[If you bring your saying or quotation on paper, the Editor will aim [no promises] to collate them [anonymously] and circulate them in February.] Continue Reading »
Oct
18
2011
Newsletter
October 2011
Dunedin
Programme:
Professor Alan Musgrave discussed the question:
Are we free to choose what we believe?
He wrote:
Can we decide or choose what to believe? Many people talk as if we can. But this is problematic. We can decide how to go about acquiring beliefs, but not what beliefs to acquire. Yet people often blame other people for having chosen the ‘wrong’ beliefs. Down the ages, belief discrimination has caused more human misery than racial discrimination – and they are equally stupid. Continue Reading »
Sep
30
2011
The Rise and Fall of Fossil Fuels – Physical and Spiritual
The latest edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary published last month featured among its new entries “sexting” and “cyberbullying”. Cyberspace and the Internet, that began with great promise and positivity, have taken on a troublesome downside. Just one example of how good things can lose their lustre and become equivocal or worse.
Fossil fuels may be among the worst examples of all – beginning as the foundation of modern civilization but now perhaps the villain of the piece. I should probably deal with them alone, such is their significance, but later I want to raise a question on the spiritual side of things – whether it’s possible that some primal energy sources of Christianity might in some respects be likened to fossil fuels. But I begin with:
Part 1: Fossil fuels – the physical variety
Continue Reading »
Sep
11
2011
Newsletter
September 2011
Dunedin
David Kitchingman spoke on:
The Rise and fall of fossil fuels – physical and spiritual
He wrote:
Are members aware that 22 September, the very day of our next SoF meeting, is the official international “Car Free Day”? So there’s a challenge! To tell you the truth, I wasn’t aware of it either (if I may assume that you didn’t know). I only learned about it when I began to prepare my talk for the meeting. I actually had another day in mind, the Saturday following, 24 September – “Moving Planet Day – A Day to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels”. Don’t tell me you weren’t aware of that! Just kidding. While the day will be observed, even in Dunedin, there’s been little fanfare about it. Continue Reading »
Aug
18
2011
Newsletter
August 2011
Dunedin
Programme:
“How can anyone bring in theology
in talking with someone as self-consciously secular
as the average Kiwi?”
Professor Andrew Bradstock opened the evening by looking at this question. There was plenty of time for question and comment.
Andrew would also like to hear back from us about what we think the Centre for Theology and Public Issues has achieved in its short life so far.
Andrew Bradstock holds the Howard Paterson Chair in Theology and Public Issues and is Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues, which was set up when he arrived at Otago in January 2009. He studied Theology and Politics at the University of Bristol before completing his PhD in Political Theory at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He has extensive teaching experience and has been heavily involved in working with UK politicians to develop links between Parliament and the churches and other faith communities. Continue Reading »
Jul
18
2011
Newsletter
July 2011
Dunedin
Mai Tamimi spoke to us; the title of her presentation was:
From the Holy Land to New Zealand:
A Challenging but Exciting Journey.
About herself she said: I am currently a finalist PhD student at the Geography Department at the University of Otago. My PhD focus is on Young Palestinians and Contact with Nature. I am also a secretary for the Abrahamic Interfaith Group in Dunedin. I am a Palestinian and came to NZ with my family in late 2008 so as to carry on my studies. Before coming to NZ, I worked for more than 10 years in Palestine with different development international organisations such as Save the Children US and Save the Children Alliance, OXFAM GB, the World Vision and Seeds of Peace. During that time, I worked with children and women in particular being the most marginalised groups. I am married and have two daughters and one son.
Continue Reading »
