chocolate petiton online

for those who would like to they can sign our chocolate petition on line at online petition

If you do decide to print of the petition then please send it to the following address:
60 Minutes
Private Bag 92624
Symonds Street,
Auckland

or you can fax it to:
09 366-5904

on August 23rd, 2007 which is UNESCO day for the remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

If you do not have clue what the petition is about then read this...


"We are doing this because the only guilt we want to feel about our chocolate consumption is that we have eaten far too much...”

Blood Chocolate

Here in our Region we are working on a petition that we want to send to the producers of 60 minutes in the hope that we can get them to investigate the source of the coco beans that are used in the manufacture of Chocolate here in NZ.
The reason we are doing this is because we want to do something that will (1) help people focus on the issue of modern slavery (2) we want people to be more ethical and thoughtful in what they consume (3) because we want to eat chocolate with a 'relatively clean' conscience knowing that it is slave free chocolate and the only guilt we feel is knowing we have eaten far too much.

If you're reading this we would love you to join us, and set up and distribute your own petition,
you can download the petition here
And if you want to read more or watch some video's as to why we might want Slave Free Chocolate then follow this link.

Hope you will join us in this, if you would like to post a link to the petition we would love you to do that too, just leave a comment to let us know.

Thanks

Late Late Mothers Day, and justice....

On Sunday we ran another of our services for boarders at Nelson College, with about 250 in attendance it is quite a lot of fun, especialy because most of them don't wnat to be there. The idea of a captive audience is very appealing. However we are aware to that the worst thing we can do is bang them across the head with a bible - they may be captive but we do not have to torture them...
So this Sunday we picked up on the theme of 'Mothers' a week late for mothers day but then I am always a week late for mothers day - sorry mum if you read this- I love you though.
So we played some music by typical boys college mums favourite bands - U2 and Boys 2 men, ran a quiz on famous mums and talked about the power of a 'nagging' mum...
Apparently Abraham Lincoln said on his mother that her prayers have been with him all his life .- While my mother prayers may not have always followed me certainly her advice has. Though it often seems like she is 'nagging me' and chewing my ear, the fact of the matter is more often than not she is right. In fact the origins of Mother Day can be found in Mother’s 'nagging'.
The first Mother’s Day was established in 1914 by US President Woodrow Wilson. Now it wasn’t due to pressure from the Florists' Association; nor by the telephone company or Hallmark cards or any of the other companies that make half their annual takings on Mothers Day. The idea of Mothers' Day was invented by a mother protesting the killing of World War I – a nagging mother in an anti war protest worried about the fate of her son in what seemed like a senseless war.
This caring, 'nagging' mum got other mothers to protest, too, and pretty soon Congress gave into the pressure – amazing what a ‘nagging’ mother can do.
So in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson dedicated the second Sunday in May as Mothers' Day, It wasn’t just a day to honour Mothers – which is a cool thing to, but a day to honoring their wishes -- that the killing be stopped.
Mums can change the world, and they are worth honouring, not just on Mothers day but every day.
We followed this by looking at some contemporary 'nagging' mums the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, mums whose plight and struggle were captured in the U2 song Mothers of the Disapeared, a group of mums who 'nag' the government about human rites issues in an attempt to reunite families with their stolen children who were kidnapped for speaking out against a the government. A 'nagging' mum is a very powerful force for making the world right.

Bono on God, Michael on Catholicism

Bruce from Manna In Christchurch just sent me Bono's "book" that contains a speech he made to a prayer breakfast in Washington. It's great, should be on the required reading for any one. While there were many things that struck me I think the following lines echoed my story, with the parenting roles changed;

"I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays… and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.
For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land… and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash… in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment…
I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.
Even though I was a believer.
Perhaps because I was a believer.
I was cynical… not about God, but about God’s politics."

For me growing up the son of an Irish Catholic father and an English Salvation Army Mother caused much confusion. I always felt that my mother was never accepted by our local Catholic Church, the priest was great he knew that my parents believed in the same God, but many of the congregation were not so accepting. I guess that shaped my decision to wander away from church as a teen (only to eventualy return), but it has also shaped my faith now, I am not so interested in denomination as people's heart commitments, in the words of Bono I am still cynical... "not about God, but about God's politics."