What: Amadeus: music by Mozart; the Orpheus Choir conducted by Michael Fulcher; Vector Wellington Orchestra. Where: Wellington Town Hall. Reviewed by: Lindis Taylor

For the first time I can remember, no performance of Handel’s Messiah by a major choir will take place this year in Wellington. I believe one reason is the cost of hiring the Wellington Orchestra, in the face of a possible less-than-full house.

The days when the pre-Christmas Messiah was a sellout seem past. However, the choir will perform Messiah next Easter.

The Mozart potpourri that conducted Michael Fulcher devised attracted a good house, with the help of sponsors, Spicers, and their guests.

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It’s a curious thing to be fearfully made. Wonderfully made I understand. Fearfully sounds, well, fearful really. Reflecting on this recently, I’ve come to see fearfully made in a couple of ways.

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Fare Thee Well? Five Years On from ‘A Churchless Faith’ - my review of Alan Jamieson et al’s latest book on church leavers has just been published in Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice 14, 4: 44-46 and is also available on their website www.stimulus.org.nz

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On occasion, I have attended functions with Government Ministers and Ambassadors. Given my new job, this is likely to increase. While there is something a little disarming about meeting someone in the flesh that you’ve only ever seen on television, there is also something that can remarkably seductive about it all. It’s called power. To shake the hands of someone who can make friends and influence people can have the effect of bathing you in the light of power’s pulling force.

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Listen to Andrew being interviewed on New Zealand’s Radio Rhema about the Younger Leaders’ Gathering this Tuesday 14 November at 3.30pm. You can listen online at www.rhema.co.nz

On Radio, Younger Leaders Gathering | No Comments »

When I started studying theology people looked at me askance. ‘Why study theology’ they would ask ‘if you’re not going to use it vocationally?’ For many evangelical Christians in particular, I would suggest, the notion of studying theology seems both irrelevant and unnecessary. Scripture, such a view would suggest, has all we need to know about God. Theology, this view would continue, might very well be faith-destroying. Therefore, marked ‘dangerous to your health’, theology is left to those in academic institutions or theological colleges seemingly removed from the real-world real-life existence of following Christ.

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Prayer is a seditious act. The very act of prayer is a breach of authority – our own authority. In praying we are saying to God ‘you are in control’, ‘you are Lord’, ‘your will be done’. It really is quite an extraordinary act. Someone described prayer as ‘practicing the presence of God’. More recently, author Philip Yancey has referred to prayer as a hug and a stranglehold at the same time. Reading through Scriptures, Yancey reminds us, we find those who bargain (Abraham) and argue (Moses) and share intimacy (David) with God. There is something profoundly real about prayer.

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