Woman, know thy place!

While the world deals with war, famine, and flood, the Church of England asserted its grasp on relevance by announcing that it will remove several powers to woman bishops.  The rationale behind the decision was to keep the embittered organization alive through its current internal conflicts. That’s a relief — if they attempted to persuade [...]

All the news that’s fit to stink

There is nothing gained in the miles of columns written about Fritzel.  There is unanimous reaction that his acts were evil.  Newspapers are wasting their front pages in what is now the coverage of a spectacle. But if this is the case, why are they continuing to give this so much press?

A new day yawns

Yes, yes I know.  Yes it’s been ages, too long in fact.  Yes I also realise that of the world’s bloggers I’ve been thoroughly reticent.   I had in mind the idea of travelling, but one thing led to another and that led to yet a few more things, which in turn led to a [...]

Reviving the beast

You could say that it’s been on the cards for the last couple of months or so.  Since leaving NZ this little site has been my regular jaunt for jotting tales of travels.  Regular readers then may have noticed a hiatus since, oh, April.  It’s not because I have a job that requires me be [...]

Offices and tubes

Mondays are a killer. I wake at six, and after a shower and forcing food down my nocturnal self, I float three minutes to the Northern Line and find a seat in the tube. The littered carriages and ad cards above the tube maps weave into my dreams. As my night wrestles with my day, [...]

Hello, goodbye, hello.

Tendai Biti cuts an unusual figure. His large black suit and bowler hat hangs a heavy frame around the secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change.
Outside it’s thirty degrees. Creature comforts such as air conditioning is only found in the upmarket hotels, and days later I would be making regular stops to [...]

Mind the (legal) gap

The times when people could know their place was shattered last Friday when none less than the Archbishop of Canterbury announced that Christian tradition be damned, England should take up Sharia law.
At least that’s what the media have been screaming. Since the bombshell was dropped on Friday the press have been like wolves to a [...]

Surviving London in winter: Part 2, Goodbye light

“Sure, there are a few things I like about London, but there are many more things I hate.”
Kiwi mate Steve and I are sitting in the kitchen of my old flat in North London. It’s dark outside but then again it’s no surprise. Around these parts it gets dark around half three. [...]

Not much mystery

The Metro ran a piece today about Ship of Fools, a critical Christian website, campaigning for mystery shoppers to visit and rate churches. A few papers, notably The Times ran the piece as well.

King of Kabwe

We pray for raises and bonuses!

We pray for jobs and promotions!

We pray for dividends and surpluses!

The congregation cheers after each line as the prayer in Ebenezer Tabernacle works to a frenzy. Elated, the choir spontaneously launches into a song of praise. A sea of bodies cry and dance in response. It’s a demonstration of a victory they claim over poverty, claimed in faith each week in the developing town of Kabwe. As the song finishes, buckets are distributed among the thousand-strong crowd to collect their offering.