Dr Mark Tronson 2000 in Hamilton NZ
A Minister of Religion gets asked many questions. He is supposed to be modest in response and not be outrageous or volatile, and so when asked a question, the answer should seemingly be sensible and even galvanising.
However, that was somewhat an implausible situation, when as my youngest daughter some years ago now, came home from school, telling us that her friend said that all ministers are fuddy duddies .
I have thought about that image a great deal, so when writing this article all these years later, I thought it provident to check what fuddy duddy actually meant.
Photo - Submarine art Clandestine Submarine landing party a painting by Tronson du Coudray“ the missionary painter - is the basis of my first Anzac reflections.
The art work was specifically painted for Anzac Day and is a portrayal of the Japanese landing party that, according to the Moruya Examiner Newspaper, silently slipped onto Australian soil near Browlee, Moruya on the south coast of New South Wales in 1942.
We lived in Moruya between 1992 and 2006. During those years the local newspaper ran the story of the alleged landing on two occasions, although it acknowledged that this event has no official recognition, only local oral history to back it up.
Rev Dr Rowland Croucher the Pastor’s Pastor writes
Being an itinerant (‘hit-run’) preacher has some advantages. I remember a Sunday evening service in a conservative church in rural Victoria, Australia. They had big black Bibles and severe expressions… And they knew their Bibles, and were proud of that.
It was a smallish group, so I decided to engage them in dialogue:
‘Who knows who the Pharisees were?’ They did. ‘The Pharisees got a pretty nasty press in the New Testament – particularly Matthew.’
‘Now tell me all the good things you can think of about the Pharisees.’
I wrote them up on a blackboard:
A few years back it was announced that the Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld had called it quits after 10 years at the helm of the world s number one fashion magazine. Her years as the top editor were marked by constant growth both in terms of circulation and advertising.
Photo - Tronson du Coudray art “Burnout”
Like those high profile people within the more visible fashion industry, many other areas of necessary, but not so public, high pressure top of the tree positions have huge demands upon the people who work in those specific areas.
British Vogue said that Roitfeld had decided to concentrate on personal projects while the New York Vogue said she had told them she had decided to do something different .
Photo - Airlie Beach, Whitsundays, a play ground
A grieving mother s plea is another desperate cry in the wilderness for young people not to binge drink, as it can lead to dangerous road accidents. In some quarters this cry is being heard.
A few years ago Rachael Hutchesson s teenage son died in a fiery smash near Bathurst when he was a passenger in what is alleged to have been a stolen car driven by an unsupervised learner driver. Having been experiencing waves and waves of grief , she was able to speaks out about a toxic cycle of boredom, booze and drugs which is destroying young people in country towns.