Kia ora All Saints Whānau, 

​It’s hard to believe it’s already the end of 2024! I was talking with somebody the other day and mentioned that I couldn’t believe we had already been at All Saints for 3 years and then I realised we are coming to the end of our 4th year with you! In some ways it feels like there’s no way it could be that long since we arrived and in other ways it feels like we have been with you forever. You are truly family to us and our kids, and we love you all so deeply. As with any family, at the end of the year we naturally find ourselves reflecting back on all that has been and all that God has done in this past year. 

2024 has brought big changes to our leadership at All Saints; going from 4 vicars down to 2, and farewelling Ginny and Rebecca from their roles. This change has also brought a sense of new beginnings. We talked about new beginnings on Sunday quite a lot and as I looked around the room God gave me a sense of excitement for all that he is doing in and amongst us. Guy and I can see the ways that God is stirring many of you and drawing you into ministry and leadership opportunities that he’s put before you. 

As a community as well, it’s not hard to see what God is doing at All Saints. This year He has drawn us together as a family and He continues to draw us closer to Him. 

Next year we are focusing on prayer as a church. When we pray we align our hearts and our will to God and doing that as a church aligns all that we do as a community with what God is doing and seeking to do among us. I’m so excited to see what next year brings and how God might use us. 

Guy and I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour. As we celebrate, our prayer for each of you is that God would meet you and bring you deeply into an awareness of just what an incredible gift Jesus is to us all. 

Ngā mihi nui, 

Summer

Kia ora All Saints. 

Guy here this week. We are walking into week three of Advent this year. I don't know about you, but I have been personally impacted by the journey we have been on together so far this Advent season. Unpacking the hope of God's second coming amidst the carnage of the world in week one set a place for us to acknowledge our shortfalls that keep us from God in week two. I was incredibly proud of how Trisha led us into a place of repentance before God last weekend. It is no small feat acknowledging our failings and the need for a savior, but the hope, freedom, and liberation that comes with being set free really is Good News. 

This week, our friend Tony Hill is opening the word of God with us. He will be exploring the gospel reading Luke 3:7-18, which follows from last week's reading. Let us continue to prepare ourselves for what God is doing amongst us. I am continuously reminded of Pslam 66:5; "Come and see what God has done!" Such power is in remembering just what God did for us. 

We launch our Christmas season this Sunday evening with our Nine Lessons and Carols event, Sunday  15th, at 7 pm at All Saints. This event is a choir-led carols service. 

Make sure you get the Christmas service times into your calendar and don't forget that over the summer, we are into our summer series as we combine for weekly 10 am services. 

Excited to see you all Sunday, 

Much love, 

Kia ora All Saints. 

Guy here this week. What a fantastic start to our Advent season. Nothing like an apocalyptic reading from Luke, but as we spoke of on Sunday, the power of Hope in God during chaotic times is what sets us apart, the looking and longing for the second coming of God to redeem the world and the power of seeing the kingdom breakthrough amidst turmoil. Come, Lord Jesus. 

Let us come to the second week of Advent with a heart full of hope and expectancy to meet with God, who desperately loves us. 

I have spent the week chatting with several people about our hopes and dreams for 2025, and the excitement is building as we look towards a year focused on prayer, the Spirit of God, and the power of God amongst us through prayer. We hope to look at why and how we pray, how to pray when we don't feel like it, whether God moves through prayer, and whether healing happens today. One challenge I would put out there is to take the prophetic image of the valley of dry bones from Ezekial 37 and meditate over it for the summer, asking what God is saying to me and what I am going to do about it. I find the Bible Project a great resource when looking at scripture. Find a helpful resource here 

This Sunday, Trisha Hendry will be preaching to us. We have both 9 am and 10:30am Gatherings again; come along let's worship, pray, open scripture, and gather around God's Holy table together. 

Check out the newsletter for all the Christmas happenings; there is a lot going on. 

Excited to see you all Sunday, 

Much love, 

Kia ora All Saints Whanau. 

Guy here this week. 

This Sunday marks the start of a new church year. One that begins with a daunting reading from Luke but offers us a phenomenal perspective of Hope. Every Advent, we typically look at four themes: Hope, Joy, Love, and Peace; these are all major pieces in the story and the power of God coming in Jesus to earth. 

Summer and I have been talking, praying, and hoping that as a community this Advent, we would find ourselves in and embrace a season of hopeful expectation. Those few weeks at the start of a new church year, we ponder the coming of God in Jesus and the impact that has, and is having on, the world and all of God's people. 

I look forward to unpacking the first week of Advent with you all this week at our Central Gatherings. We will be exploring the Gospel reading from Luke 21:25-36. 

This is a reminder that we are in the room each week for 9am and 10:30am gatherings until Christmas. 

After Christmas, we will switch to combined Gatherings at 10am over the Summer for a shortened, more stripped-back service. 

Pop the Christmas service times in your calendar, and invite your family and friends. Pop your name into the Christmas serving roster if you are here. 

 Kia ora All Saints Whānau,
 
I have felt so proud of All Saints this past week. Led by Ian, Ginny, and Diana we put our hands up to respond to a need for love and hospitality for people coming into Wellington for the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti.
 
We didn’t know how many people we might need to accommodate, who they would be, or even if they would come. Nonetheless, we gathered mattresses, prepared our space, discussed how to be loving hosts, and we waited. At one point it seemed some people might come in quite late Monday night and need a place to sleep, but we still didn’t know for sure. Diana gathered food just in case (for an unknown number of people) and we waited. We thought maybe somebody would need to open up the church in the middle of the night but we still weren’t sure. We said yes, and we waited. In the end nobody ended up sleeping at All Saints. Yet that lack of certainty and absence of a clear plan didn’t stop us from preparing and waiting.
 
This Sunday is what’s celebrated in the church calendar as the Feast of Christ the King. This is a day where we remember that Jesus lived, not by brute force like the rulers of his day, but by gentleness, peace, and in caring for those who needed him. The following Sunday marks the beginning of Advent, where we enter into a season of waiting for Jesus, that gentle ruler of the world who came to be with us as a tiny and vulnerable baby, born in the humblest of circumstances.
 
As God’s people, we are asked to live much of our lives in a season of waiting on the Lord. We wait in the small moments of our individual lives. We wait collectively as a people yearning for the return of our King and Saviour to bring about a new heaven and a new earth in the final moment of redemption for our broken world. As a church we are also called to wait. We must live together in a hopeful waiting for the moments the Holy Spirit stirs us to act, to love, to share the hope of the gospel with our hurt and broken world.
 
Family, we are not meant to boast in the things that we do for the Lord, but I want to draw our attention to what I witnessed happening among us this past week so that we can learn together how to exist in this space of waiting; ready to love, care and serve even when we don’t know when or how or even if we will be called upon. So well done whānau. There is a culture of readiness for the gospel that God is bringing about at All Saints. Let us keep praying that God would use us in any way necessary for the Glory of the Kingdom God.
 
Ngā mihi nui,
Summer