10 June 1886
Tarawera (eruption)
25 April 1915
Gallipoli (war)
2 February 1931
Napier (earthquake)
24 December 1953
Tangiwai (lahar)
10 April 1968
Wahine (cyclone)
28 November 1979
Erebus (plane crash)
19 November 2010
Pike River (mine explosion)
Every decade or two New Zealand is hit with a deep sadness that adds to our self-understanding as a people. Our story can be retold in a minor key – and another sad stanza has just been added. There are more – but this is more than enough just for now…
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
Football helps me train preachers. See, when you speak to me about football—or, ‘footie’—I need to know where your feet are before I can understand what you mean. Are your feet in Ireland, or Brazil, or the USA, or NZ—or in crazy Australia? It must be the most fanatical sporting nation in the world. Within…
Having been born in 1959, I don’t remember much about the 1960s. But I have heard a lot. Hippies. Drugs. Rock ‘n Roll. Assassinations. Moon-walking. A quick trip across to ChatGPT informs me immediately that it was ‘a transformative decade across the world’—marked by the civil rights and feminist movements, Cold War tensions, consumerism and…
Wahine! oh Tangiwai!
the skies that fall
the seas assault
the children cry
did you hear there’s been a fire down the mine?
Wahine e! oh Tangiwai!
we’ll land with our battalions at gallipoli
we’ll fly above the mountains in the storm
as the fire erupts on every side
we hold onto each other tight
for we will be the first to see the dawn
so here's to tragedies!
long live the casualties!
as we dry our eyes
and write our lives
in minor keys
tighten the tourniquets
oh god is it over yet
here’s to the ones we lost before
before our watching eyes
and here's to the beautiful
bruised and broken
left behind
over the mountains, seas
and weary trees they came
but Mahuika still had one more flame
can you hear the sound of old Mawhera cryin’?
oh rock of ages cleft for twenty-nine
may they ride with our battalions from gallipoli
may they fly above the mountains and the storm
high above this land that quakes
and trembles with each heart that breaks
for we will be the first to carry on
so here's to tragedies!
long live the casualties!
as we dry our eyes
and write our lives
in minor keys
tighten the tourniquets
oh god is it over yet?
here’s to the ones we lost before
before our watching eyes
and here’s to the beautiful
bruised and broken
left behind
did you here there’s been a fire down the mine?
oh rock of ages cleft for twenty-nine