Kia ora e te whānau,
Near our house there was a group of very large pine trees to which the local kākā used to swoop evening after evening, delighting the neighbourhood with their screeching ‘hellos’. Recently those trees have been cut down to make way for…not sure yet, maybe a new house. The kākā we noticed have been absent and now, weeks later, have begun returning in smaller numbers, and finding new places to gather. It made me realise how disruptive our human activity can be and how mindful we need to be of the various impacts we have on our natural world. Our neighbours complain about the lack of view from their house because of our trees, so we do our best to accommodate but enjoy too much the tūī and kākā that land in our trees and fight for supremacy over the nectar feeder we have installed to cut too many down!
I’ve been so enjoying this month’s ‘Season of Creation’ services – and very much appreciate the skills and energy of our worship leaders: Barrie, Andrew and Wendy, and Ellen. Thank you all. This coming Sunday is our final service for this month, and Niki will be leading on the theme of ‘land’.
On another note, despite being a time without a minister we are still working away behind the scenes trying to ever improve our parish life. One change decided has been to re-configure our post-church activities slightly. This came up at the latest Congregational Conversation: this group discussion was held on the same day as communion, so the first Sunday. This was leading to a long morning at times, with a longer service, followed by morning tea, and we’d noticed that people tended to leave rather than stay for the Conversation. So we‘ve decided to switch the Congregational Conversation to the third Sunday of the month, and the Exploring Faith group will now meet on the first Sunday instead, beginning in November. Thanks to Sue Hirst and the Exploring Faith group for accommodating this change. Hopefully this will mean more people staying for the Conversation which is a good time, especially during this year, to catch up on news from Parish Council and ask questions or bring up issues for discussion. The order of events is listed in the e-news each week, and the other Sunday activities remain the same, so brunch every second Sunday of the month, and the Social Justice Education group on the fourth Sunday.
See you on Sunday,
Aroha nui
Catriona
Daylight saving summer change
A reminder that the clocks will move forward one hour on Sunday 27 September at 2 am.
That means that we will lose one hour’s sleep and church will start at the new 10 am (which will be 9 am in New Zealand standard time. See you there!
To view the full e-news click on this link: https://mailchi.mp/ca32f8cdaab0/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-3897841
