A visit to Nieu Communities

Yesterday I visited Arthur Stewart at Nieu Communities in Pretoria North. Nieu Communities is a kind of commune-cum-training centre based in a delightful old stone house (one of the oldest in the area) at the foot of the Magaliesberg.
Over the last few months I’ve heard quite a bit about Nieu Communities, especially since Roger Saner, [...]

Who do you know?

It’s not what you know but who you know they say — well, who do you know?
My wife was watching a TV programme called Human Footprint the other day, which had all kinds of information about what we consume and produce from the cradle to the grave. For example, if all the farts the average [...]

Kitchen implement

There has been some discussion on the alt.usage.english newsgroup about the proper name for this kitchen implement.
I call it an “egg lifter”, but I haven’t always called it that, and don’t remember what I used to call it before.
I checked with my wife, and she said she also calls it an “egg lifter”, but [...]

Good Friday in Brixton

St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Brixton, Johannesburg looked almost like a cathedral on Good Friday, 25 April 2008, when there were three priests and three deacons serving.
For three months St Nicholas has had no priest of its own, since the previous priest, Fr Mircea Corpodean, left to concentrated on developing the new Romanian parish of [...]

Orthodoxy and heresy

This is a follow-up post to the synchroblog on “Emerging heresy”. After reading the other posts I realised that words like “heresy” and “cult” aren’t the only ones that cause misunderstandings. When it comes to “orthodoxy” we are not only not on the same page, we’re not in the same book, and perhaps not even [...]

Jews urge Christians to disinvest from companies benefiting from Israeli occupation

The organisation Jewish Voices for Peace is urging Jews to lobby delegates to church conferences in the USA urging selective divestment from firms that benefit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
They suggest that the following, or similar message be sent to delegates who will be attending the Methodist and Presbyterian general [...]

WordPress beats Blogger?

This comparison has nothing to do with usability or features of the blogging software, but rather which one is more popular with readers. Over the last six months the number of people reading my Khanya blog (on WordPress) has risen, while the number reading my Notes from Underground blog (on Blogger) has remained static, or [...]

Cult

“Cult” is one of the most frequently misused words in English. I get tired of hearing people say that this or that religious group is a “cult”. Used in that way, the word “cult” is almost meaningless. All it means is that the speaker disagrees with the beliefs or dislikes the activities of the [...]

Thoughts on Palm Sunday

Lent is now over, and Holy Week is about to begin.
Today we went to Tembisa for the Hours and Readers Service in a simple classroom, with ikons of Christ and the Theotokos propped on a table. We had no palms, but we did sing, many times, the Troparion:
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy [...]

How serious are we about fighting crime?

Arthur Goldstuck writes about the problems experienced by a schoolgirl whose Facebook account was hacked, and the reluctance of Facebook to deal with the problem.
However, when there is a clear violation of one user’s rights, surely the balance of rights tilts away from the perpetrator and towards the victim? If someone vandalises your car in [...]