E News 24th February 2023
Last Saturday I invited members of our Parish Council and FFMG Facilities and Financial Management Group to my place for a lunchtime barbecue. Everything went to plan except the BBQ wouldn’t fire up and so my cousin Dame Winnie Laban’s husband Peter quickly took the meat over to their place 3 minutes away to cook on their BBQ. It was a great time of fellowship and an opportunity for some members of our church to see where I live and put everything of the last 6 months into context. Next month will complete my first year as minister of St. Andrew’s on the Terrace. I don’t know about you but time seems to have flown by and a lot has happened in this time sadly including 8 funerals.
As I write the carpet people are shampooing the carpets in our church community offices and rooms and I think of the hundreds of people who walk through our doors on a daily basis, people from all walks of life who come here for different reasons, corporate, training, exercise, concerts, spiritual and pastoral. We wouldn’t be able to exist without the rental income that our community centre generates and we are very grateful that unlike some churches we are still afloat and operational.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will be holding a fundraising evening here at St. Andrew’s tonight, there will be refreshments, opera singers and will conclude with Ian Fraser interviewing Dame Kiri. I’m lucky to get a complimentary invitation to attend.
On Maundy Thursday 6th April 2023 at 6.30pm we will be having a Passover/Last supper feast upstairs in the “Upper Room” conference rooms 1 & 2. Everyone is invited to bring roast lamb, unleavened bread, green salad (bitter herbs), and wine or grape juice. I hope you will be able to come. Please rsvp to the office so we can get an idea of the numbers attending.
Have camper van will travel. I am enjoying galivanting around the outskirts of Wellington with Peanut and Snoopy discovering all the dog friendly beaches and cafes and some of the local walkways up at the Rimutaka Catchpool forest for example and Eastbourne beaches close to where I live in Wainuiomata. I have yet to do an overnight camp but that is not faraway hopefully before the end of summer.
During this Lenten Season we hold all those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle in our thoughts and prayers. Many have lost everything, family members, their homes, their livelihoods and the clothes off their back. This will feel like a wilderness experience for them, wandering not knowing how to begin the process of clearing up the silt and rubble, not knowing whether to rebuild or re-establish. Many unable to continue rent or mortgage payments on properties that have been completely destroyed. Unless we live in those affected areas we have no way of knowing how they feel and the daily impact of hopelessness and loss that they are experiencing. This will be their Lenten experience but not through choice
St. Andrew’s will be making a donation to the Red Cross and if you would like to add to our contribution please donate your gift to our usual bank account number and specify that this is for the cyclone relief to Red Cross. . Let’s continue to keep them in our prayers and thoughts.
Tomorrow at 9.00am those who are able will be having a directed Retreat at the Home of Compassion Island Bay this will be an opportunity for personal as well as collective meditation and reflection. Hope to see many of you there. Fei
You can read the full E-news here: https://mailchi.mp/968bff561410/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-9306487
