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Use the Force
The force of email is being tested by a New Zealand group attempting to get Jedi recognised as an official religion.
(5 March 2001)
    

Millennial change
Canon Paul Oestreicher "embodies the Church of the 20th century and its struggles". Converted during his schooldays in New Zealand, Canon Oestreicher held controversial views on pacifism, Marxism and the ordination of women.
(28 November 2000) 

NZ preacher battles US atheists
Christchurch-born evangelist Ray Comfort fronted a controversial debate over the existence of God on US TV this month. Comfort (pictured left) and his preaching partner, child actor Kirk Cameron, squared off against two members of the atheist Rational Response Squad for the heated 90-minute argument, which aired on ABC's Nightline. According to the debate's moderator, Nightline journalist Martin Bashir, the "no-holds barred debate ... was well worth watching", and generated a massive response from viewers. Comfort, 57, was born Jewish and his no theological training. He has written more than 40 books on religion and co-hosts an evangelical TV show - The Way of the Master - with Cameron. 
(2 May 2007)

A task of Biblical proportions
David Norton, associate professor at Wellington’s Victoria University, recently completed the decade-long task of re-editing the English speaking world’s most important religious text: the King James Bible. The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible is accompanied by a volume written by Norton, which details the historical background to his project, explains its editorial principles and provides extensive lists of alternative readings. Guardian: “[The] new text is guaranteed to become one of the century's enduring works of NZ-based scholarship … For Norton, it will be reward enough to learn that the classic's old readers are finding their interest rekindled by his new work and newcomers to the Bible are finding it accessible and pleasurable for the first time.”
(14 December 2004)
   

Force to be reckoned with
The Jedi email, begun in honour of the New Zealand census, manifests itself as "other" in the UK and cost $500 a pop in Australia.
(11 April 2001)

Outspoken views cost scholar job
Former Canterbury University lecturer Ghazala Anwar has been sent back to NZ from Pakistan because of her non-conformist teachings. A professor of philosophy and religious studies, Anwar was hired by Pakistan's International Islamic University (IIU) in September last year. Her contract with the IIU was reportedly terminated "because of her views on sexual orientation, which were found objectionable by some students and a section of the media." A US national of Pakistani origin, Anwar has previously linked the suffering and oppression of Muslims in sexual minorities to that of Muslim women and non-Muslim minorities in Islamic countries. In one of her most controversial IIU lectures she stated that "hatred or denigration of those whom God made different whether in gender, sexual orientation or religious belief and practice ensues from putting other than God at the centre of ones' heart and worship ... The larger Muslim community has to come to the recognition that homophobia and not homosexuality is the sin." 
(3 February 2007)

Mr President
Dr George Barton QC of Wellington was elected President of the United Bible Societies (UBS) at its World Assembly in Newport, Wales. Barton led the NZ Bible Society from 1966 to 1998, and was vice-president of the UBS prior to assuming the presidency last month. It is the first time a NZ native has ever been elected to head the global organization. He will serve as president for six years.
(14 September 2004)
   

Awards of Merit
Controversial clergyman and academic Lloyd Geering carried off the highest honour in the New Years' list, Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Colin "Pinetree" Meads, All Black 1957-71 and all-time greatest AB, is one of five Distinguished Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
(31 December 2001)

Holy Boy! From Nintendo to Nepal
A Kiwi kid is giving up his game-boy, chicken nuggets, cricket, pokemon, and other typical Kiwi 7year-old delights to study Buddhist philosophy and rituals at a monastry in India for the next 15 years. Karma Kunzang Thubten Dorje has officially been declared the reincarnation of a venerated high Tibetan lama who died in the 1950s. "He's pure Kiwi" his Dad says.
(28 July 2000)

Rev Cardy on breaking the language barrier 
The Rev Glynn Cardy of Auckland's progressive Anglican church, St Matthew-in-the-City, recommends an overhaul of traditional liturgy in an opinion piece for the Guardian. Cardy believes that the gendered language and sometimes archaic metaphors used in the Book of Common Prayer and the more contemporary Common Worship risk alienating new worshippers, and are in drastic need of an update. He uses the NZ Prayer Book, produced in the 1980s, as an example of positive change: "Despite initial fears that it would stifle creativity, this has not proved to be the case. Rather the book has inspired people to become more liturgically imaginative … The motivation behind such liturgical change is primarily to communicate truths about God in a form that people who are regular attendees, strangers, or who have been estranged from the Christian faith can recognise and respond to." 
(19 August 2006)

Year of Tibet 
2006 is officially the Year of Tibet in NZ and Australia. The Dalai Lama launched the year-long festivities at the Woodford Festival in Queensland on January 1. "On behalf of Tibetans, both in and outside Tibet, I wish to express my appreciation to you all for your continuing interest and support in our non-violent efforts for freedom and justice," he said before the 100,000+ strong crowd. The Dalai Lama will tour Australia and NZ in 2007. 
(25 January 2006)

Sister Joyce
James Joyce was the pre-eminent modernist prose stylist; his sister was a devout Catholic nun who spent her life praying for his soul and  "witnessing at the ends of the earth" - New Zealand.
(16 June 2001)