E NEWS 23RD AUGUST 2024
The year is running away very quickly, summer is around the corner. This Sunday the Season of Creation begins and each Sunday different people from our church will reflect on Humanity, the Mountains, Animals, the Ocean and the Planet. I am very much looking forward to sharing these worship services with them.
Central Presbytery last weekend was pretty full on. Rohan Prasad the minister at Khandallah reported back on his study leave looking at the next 30 years with the PCUSA and the UCA Uniting church of Australia and what their priorities were for the next 30 years. It was interesting how the UCA made as one of their priorities, the first third generations over the 2nd and 3rd generations. A copy of his report may be available from central presbytery if you are interested. I was privileged to have dinner with our national moderator Right Rev. Rose Luxford and our regional moderator Rev Leanne Munro compliments of Rev’s Dianne and Reg Weeks at the Copthorne Hotel. There was also a large group of Maori Anglicans dining beside us and we were able to introduce ourselves and chat for a short time.
Valerie Rhodes funeral was wonderful, the church was full and it was great to hear how full her life has been over the last 92 years. The Trombone Quartet was superb. Everything happened just as Valerie had planned. It was good see so many from our church present. Thankyou to everyone for providing food and also to those who helped out in the kitchen and with setting up and setting down. Thank you Pam Fuller for co-ordinating everything.
My very expensive phone has broken and for a few days I will not have instant access to my email, Bank Accounts, Facebook, you tube to name a few. I have charged up my old iPhone to receive phone calls and text messages. It is way too old to be upgraded as there is not enough memory or space to compete with the latest models. But hey, at least I didn’t throw it away and it has become quite useful as I wait for mine to be repaired. Please bear with me if you do not get replies to your emails as instantly as you used to. I am totally lost without my calendar, my old phone still has all my old appointments and text messages, well out of date.
Y group was well attended on Sunday and it was good to see Laura, Melissa and little Louis. On the 5th Sunday of September ‘Our Planet’, Y group will be leading the service along with Anna Smith and others. We look forward to their contribution. Y group is an important part of our church and I will continue to be a part of this group unless I am needed at Congregational Conversations.
On Wednesday I was invited as minister of SAOTT to the opening art exhibition of renowned NZ/Maori Artist Robyn Kahukiwa. As part of the exhibition there were also 3 boxed versions of some of her original paintings and the curator said “we have lost the fourth and do not know where it is”. I was sitting next to Dame Winnie Laban and she said “we’ve got it, we’ve had it on our wall for over 30 years!” The Art Gallery were thrilled they had located it. Unbeknown to Dame Winnie it was a one-off original. Well, you learn something new every day.
I’m continuing to meet with our exploited migrant workers (Vietnamese). Language is a barrier but we are managing via translation apps on the phone. If anyone would like to come on board and help out, your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I went to the movie “We were dangerous” last night at the Lighthouse Petone. Based in the 1950’s in NZ, a group of “incorrigible and delinquent” teenagers are shipped off to an ex-leper colony to learn to become good Christian ladies. They become experiments and guinea pigs for the practice of how to make troublemakers infertile as a favour to society. No one knows what went on in the First Aid shed, one can only imagine. Director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s father is a survivor of state care in schools in New Zealand having attended Owairaka Boys Home. “As a result, I have seen the impacts of these schools in my own family, and with my personal relationship to my cultural identity,” she said. The release of the film is timely as in late July, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state and faith-based care in New Zealand was released. The report found the abuse affected around 250,000 people. The commissioner admitted there was clear evidence of Māori being overrepresented in state and faith-based care as victims of the abuse. Pasifika and disabled people were also overrepresented in these numbers. Important viewing.
Well, the weather is up and own, wet and dry, warm and cold. Hope you have a relaxing weekend. Hei ko nei ra. Fei
You can read the full E-news here: https://mailchi.mp/0ea185f0bec1/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-9469336
