Newsletter 179

SOFiA

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SOFiA Newsletter 179 August 2025

Exploring Values, Meaning and Spirituality Image of dover beach

Limestone cliffs like those at Dover, scene of the poem “Dover Beach”

2025 AGM

SOFiA AGM will be held on Saturday the 27th September at 2pm via Zoom
Click on JOIN and enter Meeting ID: 223 135 8426 then the Passcode: sofia

Or phone in by your location:
• +64 3 659 0603 South Island
• +64 4 886 0026 Lower North Island
• +64 9 884 6780 Upper North island

Speaker: Dr David Gwynn.Dr Gwynn is an expert historian on the Council of Nicaea, responsible for the Nicene creed, still recited in churches around the world. 2025 is the 1700th anniversary of that Council.Dr Gwynn will speak on the debates surrounding that council and on its legacy for modern Christians.There will be a short Q & A afterwards. More…Click HERE for all of the AGM documents in one PDF file

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin

The marketing poster for the movie (in America, not in Germany) showed Bonhoeffer holding a gun, suggesting that he was potentially a violent activist. People have consequently seen parallels between Bonhoeffer’s opposition to Hitler and evangelical Americans’ opposition to ‘woke’ or liberal causes. As a result, open letters have been written protesting any similarity between the two. Not only Bonhoeffer scholars but also descendants of the wider Bonhoeffer family and even the actors in the movie itself were motivated to warn in this way. The author of a popular recent biography of Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxis, turns out to be pro-Trump, anti-abortion and in agreement with Trump that the election was rigged. and to have been propagating a similar (mis)interpretation of Bonhoeffer’s life and work after the publication of his book, which has a similar title to the movie. More...

Living on the fault line by John Bluck

As life shaking as any earthquake, colliding harder than tectonic plates, the fault line of ethnic divide shapes everyone who lives here in Aotearoa New Zealand… Though earlier conversations have been restrained, they have been cranked up to alarming levels since the arrival of the 2023 coalition government. Led by Act’s David Seymour with New Zealand First singing along, a chorus of protest swells against ‘Maorification’, unfair privilege, reviews of te tiriti and a counter-protest from Maori and sympathetic Pakeha. From Becoming Pakeha to Living on the fault line, the Reverend John Bluck issues a prophetic call that Aotearoa faces a tipping point. More...

Our future is in our own hands. Article by Rev Dr Clive Yates

My original thesis was that ‘Theology’ always has undergone change and adaption in the past and it will do so in the future. Today, it simply requires defining which direction and how it will continue to change, and thus flourish. More...

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