Resources for faith and life
Welcome to 'Conversations' ...

Worship, prayer, poetry, passion and inspiration

from Aotearoa New Zealand
 






Brought to you by Silvia Purdie

from Christchurch, New  Zealand

Silvia is current Minister at Cashmere Presbyterian Church.
​Check out their website.



​​Join the conversation!
Click here to visit the 'Conversations' Facebook page, and add your comments, suggestions, and your own writings:
... and you can always 'like' and 'share' ...

What's new??

With the 'Still Small Voice' reading in the Lectionary for this Sunday, you might find this useful:

Opening Prayer & Confession:
(based on 1 Kings 19:11-13)
 
Lord of all, we come to worship seeking your presence.
We come to worship seeking your peace.
Life gets busy, life gets loud.
Like Elijah in the cave up the mountain,
we often feel battered by strong winds.
We often feel broken and shaken.
We often feel bruised and burned.
Come, living God.
Still small voice, speak to us.
Like Elijah we look for somewhere to run and hide.
We confess to you that we retreat from the truth,
we hide from the needs of others
when the demands of the world overwhelm us.
We confess to you that we easily jump to blame others
instead of facing our own failures.
Come, living God.
Still small voice, speak to us.
Speak to us, like you did to Elijah;
call us out of our cave, out of our comfort zone,
into the world, into risk and adventure.
Go with us, God of the wind, the earthquake and the fire.
Stay with us, God of the silence.
Come, living God.
Still small voice, speak to us. Amen.
Who is God?? What is God like?
Exciting new sermons ...
God as CELTIC KNOT
God as LIGHT
God as MUSIC
God as SPARK

I have been thoroughly enjoying a preaching series looking at different aspects of God,
and how we can relate to God in various ways.
Take a look:  God sermons
Details at Cashmere Presbyterian Church

RECENT UPDATES:          (click on coloured text for link)

- new Night Prayers including a lovely informal sleepy one
- more Confession prayers, including a new one based on the 10 Commandments.
- stuff for Couples from a new series we're doing at Cashmere on strengthening marriages 
​
Also in 'Conversations.net.nz' is a presentation encouraging churches to promote themselves better, and engage with their local communities. Includes some of the stuff we did at Milson.

In 'Conversations.net.nz' you will find:

GOD ... resources for worship, especially 'Calls to worship' and confession
- prayers and home-grown 'psalms'
- sermons
- Communion liturgies
- all-age worship ideas & reflections for children's ministry

PSALMS ... reflections on Biblical Psalms
interpreted and reworked for prayer and for use in worship

LOVE ... poetry, discussions on marriage & intimacy
and dramatic explorations of Biblical love stories
... reflections on grief and death

... and lots of lovely photos!

In conversation ...

... chatting with friends over coffee

... finding words for the moments and movements 
of mind & body, 
my spirit alive with God-Spirit

... getting to know Jesus Christ, 
ever curious as to what he would say and do

... bringing every fibre and phrase into the eternal conversation of Father Spirit Son

... conversations with children and elders, 
with church as it is and as it might be

... with my people in my place and offered to everyplace

... with pain and with celebration, 
with beauty and with scars, 
with the sacred and the ordinary, 
with scripture, song and silence.



A practical word about this website:

I am in the process of changing all my file attachments over to PDF with a simple 'click' link format. Bear with me, might take me a while.

The menu bars work by you 'hovering' your mouse over the key word on the menu, then where there is an arrow moving over to the side and then down till you select the page you want.

(If you are using an old Safari browser you may find that the scrolling is a bit glitchy, and the menus freeze up; if so 'refresh' the page.)

All material here is copy-right free; you are free to copy and paste to your heart's content. I just ask that you acknowledge the source and help promote my website.

Sorry but the settings on the website automatically insert extra line spacing 'willynilly' so when you do copy and paste you'll have to take all the spare lines out again!
Because I believe ...

that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true!
that growing to maturity in Christ takes work
that courageous honesty of heart and soul is required
that worship is wonderful
that each person is a taonga, a treasure, 
no matter the age, assets or abilities
that the local church is the hope of the world.