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Item Factors associated with a sense of belonging in New Zealand churches(2022-08-08) McDonald BThis article uses data from the New Zealand Church Life Survey to explore attitudes and demographic factors connected with a strong (or weak) sense of belonging among church attenders. The strongest predictors of belonging were agreement that the church ‘is resourcing my spiritual journey well' and ‘How often do you feel encouraged after a worship service?’Item Some Results from the New Zealand Church Life Survey 2007 and 2011(2014-03-31) McDonald BItem Personal Spiritual Practices and Age among New Zealand Church Attenders(2022-09-11) McDonald BItem The saint, the béguine and the heretic : laywomen and authority in the late medieval church, c.1200-1400 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Barker, AmeliaAuthority in the late medieval Church was usually vested in clerical men, but it could also be acquired by women, even laywomen. This thesis considers the contrasting experiences of three laywomen who attempted to gain authority: Mechthild of Magdeburg (c.1207-c.1282), Marguerite Porete (c.1250-1310), and Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). One was ostracised, one burnt at the stake, and one was canonised. This thesis examines the factors that explain these divergent fates in order to offer more general insights into the problems associated with female authority. Scholarship on women and authority currently focuses predominantly on the nobility and religious, yet these case studies reveal how non-noble laywomen could utilise certain tools to legitimise themselves and achieve recognition that their words were God’s own. This thesis shifts away from the tendency of current historiography to generalise women’s experiences as universal, as a result of their common gender, and focuses instead on the individuality of their experiences. It therefore considers the impact of different political and geographical contexts on their lives, the importance to them of male support, but also the agency each woman had in utilising clerical authority and hagiographical topoi to prove their authority to late medieval audiences.