Vicars Letter 30th january 2026

Rev Guy Benton

Kia ora All Saints. 

Happy New Year. I hope this letter reaches you and your family well. Our family, as many of you know, spent the Christmas-New Year period in America with Summer's family, which was a great joy and a great privilege. Alongside some deep, joyful times with family, Summer and I enjoyed a few nights away traveling together, some family adventures, and we also experienced some abnormally hot weather! 28 degrees over Christmas, in the middle of winter. We were not prepared for the weather as we had packed for colder weather. We have heard that the weather was a bit fickle over the Dec Jan period here, which wasn't surprising to us. We are thankful to see that there have been some warmer days recently. 

As I was in America, I had this overwhelming sense in the middle of my lack of preparedness for the warmer weather about us as a Parish, as people, as Jesus followers. What is our preparedness? 

It's one thing to plan a trip, go away, do many wonderful things, but if you don't have the right foundations (gear or supplies etc), it's a bit all over the place. Summer and I went to New York for a few nights and, naturally, packed really warm clothing, but in the end, due to warmer weather, we hardly needed it. 

What about us in our faith? Have we set ourselves well? Is our foundation laid? 

This year, as a parish, we are going to work on strengthening our Spiritual Formation pathways as a church and as people. drawing from Colossians 2:6-7  "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

As a Parish, we will unpack this more as we go on in the year, with a specific focus at our Welcome Back Sunday on the 15th Feb, 10 am.

In short. Whether you have been following the Lord for decades, years, months, days, or not at all, there are things that help us to know, understand, and live into the freedom we have been given by God. Some of us have a really good handle on this, some of us kinda know, and some of us have no idea. There are also Spiritual disciplines that help us to live into who God has created us to be. Again, some of us know, some kinda, and some not at all. 

Our heart this year is that whether you have followed for a long time or a short time, or you are seeking, we want to create clear and powerful ways to deepen and strengthen our spiritual formation and rhythms of disciplines together. 

It is a great joy to be back amongst you all after several weeks away. I am deeply proud of you all for holding a space of worship all the way through the year, continuing to call on the name of God, read scripture, and pray together. 

I look forward to seeing some of you over the next 2 weeks as we round off our summer series together and look to all join back in the room on 15th Feb for our 

Excited to see you all Sunday, 

Much love,