JC's helper: Some photos from Waiheke Island

Monday, May 12, 2014

Some photos from Waiheke Island

We are at my son's house on Waiheke Island. It is a beautiful Island 30 minutes ferry ride from the down town wharf in Auckland, New Zealand. It is part of Auckland city. The bird life is fantastic and the weather a whole lot warmer than where we live in Dunedin. The temperatures have been like a Dunedin summer, yet in May we are well into autumn, verging on winter months. We are here to look after grand daughter number one at the time of delivery of another grandchild. I am enjoying regular walks, catching up on the family and the scenery. Many on the island commute to work in Auckland each day. There are a number of "rich and famous" New Zealanders with lifestyle blocks and palatial houses on the island. There are quite a number of vineyards, wineries and olive groves so it has a bit of a Mediterranean feel about it. I share some photos...

Sunrise from the village on our first day here.

The beach down the road near a local Maori Marae (meeting grounds)

Tree of native flowers with a Tui feasting on necter.

The passenger ferry from Auckland unloads at the terminal.

It is an island of idyllic bays.

A local beach/playground area

A Heron???

Kingfisher

My very pregnant daughter in law with my oldest grandchild.

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The Blog's title

I am a Workplace Chaplain to the NZ fireservice.

At the firestation every time one man sees me he yells, "Here comes JC's helper!". I guess I am happy to be called just that... "Jesus' helper". I am a follower of Jesus.
A a quote from Dave Andrews in his book, "Not Religion but Love".
"Being a devotee of Jesus is not a matter of subscribing to a certain set of dogmas, obeying rules and regulations, and getting others to subordinate themselves to them.

The essence of being a devotee of Jesus is to live in sympathy with God as Jesus did; feeling the throb of God's heartbeat, and teaching our hearts to learn to beat in sync with the love that sustains the universe.

It means developing our capacity to sense intuitively what causes love pleasure, and what causes love pain, and doing everything we can to enhance the pleasure, and diminish the pain."

I love this charter.

The Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.