E NEWS 14TH MARCH 2025
Kia ora tātou
Our Minister, Rev Dr Fei, is taking some well-deserved leave this week. I hope she is getting lots of rest and relaxation before she gears up for the busy time of Easter.
I have had an interesting week and like many weeks, quite a big part of it was spent on St Andrew’s business. Richard Owen and I have been busy over the past couple of months working on the application to the Lottery Environment and Heritage Fund for the disability access project. These applications are not for the faint-hearted. We submitted 11 well-prepared pages of text in response to their questions plus 20 attachments, some of them pages long. When the Department of Internal Affairs staff reviewed the application to ensure it was complete (it was) they suggested that we transfer it to the Lottery Community Facilities Fund because they thought it was better suited to that Fund’s particular brief. We did a quick review of the relevant criteria to determine what we had not already covered and composed an email to fill the gaps. This included an emphasis on our connections with the wider community especially the Māori and Pacific Island communities and how we support their aspirations.
It goes without saying that Fei is deeply connected with the Pasifika community, about which she writes in Enews from time to time. You’ll recall that Fei attended Kingi Tuheitia’s tangihanga last September as a member of the National Pacific Assembly and on our behalf. A number of us including Fei participated in the Hikoi o Te Tiriti; others prepared and served lunch to marchers who walked to Parliament from Waitangi Park. Cam Smart recently made an oral presentation on behalf of St Andrew’s on The Terrace to the Parliamentary Select Committee considering the (so-called) Treaty Principles Bill. It was good to be able to record our involvement in the application and I reflected afterwards that our Parish is mirroring the changes that are happening in the community around us. That feels good. Fei especially, as well as others who take such initiatives, deserve our full support.
Here are some other notable facts from our application. In the period 1 July to 31 December 2024:
- St Andrew’s ‘hosted’ 212 ‘events’ in the church including Sunday gatherings, concerts, and other activities – around 35 per month
- Between 2,600 and 3,500 people enter the church each month i.e. cross the threshold
- 18% of the NZ population aged 15 and over have a physical impairment.
- In the same period, we had 50 different external community groups on our books, many of whom used the church all or some of the time.
I note that concerts draw more people than church services, a fact that Rt Hon John Murray also observed 50 years ago when he began the lunchtime concert series, now weekly but in the early days held from time to time. People experience spirituality in different ways, but it is apparent that the ambience of peace and tranquillity in our beautiful church, not to mention the wonderful acoustics, appeals to many in Wellington City.
Rev Dr Jim Cunningham is leading the service on Sunday in Fei’s absence. In preparation for Easter he is going to focus on our particular version of the Stations of the Cross – the drum paintings by Robert Gauldie and their impact on us as individuals. Yes, it is the turn of the ‘drums’. Do join us.
Lynne Dovey
You can read the full E-news here: https://mailchi.mp/f7af171e561c/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-10133642?e=[UNIQID]
