E NEWS 16TH JUNE 2023
I’m writing E News while watching Late News on News Hub and saw a quick glimpse of myself on TV albeit very briefly. The Loafers Lodge Memorial Service was really beautiful. I had the honour of doing the prayers with three other Faith leaders from the Wellington Faith Community. The prayer we used was Jim Cotter’s prayer that we say each Sunday. During the service everyone was invited to come forward and place a stone on the altar next to the photos of the five victims and pick up a kawakawa leaf as a symbol of healing on our way back to our seats.
Paul Barber and I attended the Living Wage Greater Wellington gathering outside of Council Offices on Cuba Street at lunchtime on Thursday. It was a good turnout of supporters. To quote from Finn Cordwell the Living Wage Advocate Living Wage Greater Wellington! “Today was a big win as we secured a commitment from Daran Ponter, in front of his staff and other councillors, that a living wage motion will be on the table in the August meeting!” I was wearing my clerical collar in preparation for the Memorial Service at the Cathedral, but got the attention of the media and I got to hold the Living Wage Banner as a photo opportunity!
Tony Pears and I went to Circa Theatre on Wednesday night and watched a play written by a Samoan writer and his Cambodian wife Natano Keni and Sarita So. It was called O le Pepelo, le gaoi ma pala’ai. The Liar, the thief and the coward. It was based in a Samoan village and had all the contemporary issues to do with Matai (chief) titles and family namely a brother and sister competing for the high chief title on the death of their father, he almost died but then he came back to life and saw what was happening under his nose with his children. The sister lives overseas and so she was out of contention for the title because she does not live in the village, however she changed her circumstances by getting engaged to one of the village outsiders who was working on the family chicken farm. The father set a test for everyone that the first one to bring him the sacred fish (turtle) and prepare it for his consumption would win the title. The village found out that he breached the village sacred rule by eating the sacred turtle and this resulted in him and his family being banished from the village. I thoroughly enjoyed it as I could relate to so much of it and I remember preaching on the sacred fish not so long ago.
This Sunday our lectionary from the Hebrew Bible Genesis 18 is about Sarah laughing when she was told she would conceive. Abraham was already 100 years old so Sarah would have been quite close behind him in age. My theme is “God and Barrenness”. The Gospel reading is about the sending out of the disciples “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”. Given that I preached on the Nazareth Manifesto and the Great Commission recently I decided to preach from the Hebrew scripture instead this week.
The following poem was read by Lucy Hockings (who is a BBC news presenter) the sister of Liam Hockings, one of the victims at the Loafers Lodge Memorial Service. I thought I would share it with you. It’s called “The Dash”.
Look forward to seeing you on Sunday. Have a blessed weekend, Fei.
You can read the full E-news here: https://mailchi.mp/6446251e5b98/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-9361459
