Kia ora whānau,

Go Sunday is upon us and we are super excited by the opportunties this brings us to meet our neighbours, invite friends to serve with us and to have God conversations in amongst it all. We have Food for Thought, the knitting group and our Trick or Treat Party as options and there are still more places to help if you would like or just come along to either of the last two on the day.

Sunday is also a day to celebrate All Saints Day. The readings for the day include Luke 6:20-31 or Luke's retelling of the Beatitudes. It is well worth a read as we head outside our walls this week.  This reading ends with these words:

"But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you ... Do to others as you would have them do to you."

I think this is such a poignant message on All Saints day. We as the saints are sent out to bless others - even those we may not like or who treat us badly. Ultimately do to others what you would have them do to you. 

• What do you need to hear from this reading this week?
• Who are we called to go a bless or love?
• How would you like to be treated at this time?

May this be a reminder to us that as All Saints, and as we are all saints, may we be a people who love, bless and pray for all - even those hard to do that to. because God is calling us to be that light to the community.

May you be blessed as you serve, may you be blessed in your relationships, may you continue to shine your light into peoples lives and may your Go Sunday activities be full of love, blessing and prayer!

In Gods name!
Andrew Spence
on behalf of the Co-Vicars.

Kia ora All Saints
 
It is so great to be joining back together again this week for our Central Gatherings. A large group of us over the weekend attended Wellington Diocese Ministry Leaders Family Camp, this was in the past the old clergy conference, it has now become a place where Diocesan ministry leaders and their families gather for a time of worship, teaching and input, prayer, and of course loads of food and fellowship! This year the theme was all around multiplying churches, who are we apprenticing? Hospitality in our churches and a chunky focus on the work that God is doing in us so that God can do a work through us.

It was Powerful! There was a good amount of excitement, imagination, and creativity flowing through our All Saints Hataitai group! Many felt that God had highlighted some really key points for them and there had been some really powerful times of prayer and receiving from the Holy Spirit.

I’m sure that those who were there would love to tell you more about it on Sunday so please find someone who went and ask them about it!

I (Guy) am in Tauranga for a church planting multiplication conference with others from the Wellington Diocese with Bishop Justin. The focus across the two days is a mixture of what I looks like to plant churches and multiply and stories of people who have been planting and starting new things. From traditional church plants, missional communities, and one bloke to Tirau who started a gathering around mountain biking, food and a short message of Jesus. It is really exciting to think about what it looks like for us as a community when we prepare for the years ahead in regard to who it is that God has put on our hearts to reach out to and bring into a faith community, whether a traditional space as we see it, or if we are being called with a group of others to explore some creative ways of engaging our community. Pray for me today as this is the last day of the conference and we drive back this evening (Friday)

A couple of quick reminders about things to check out in the newsletter.  

October 30th is out final Go Sunday for the year and is also the day that we are holding out annual Light Party here at All Saints. We are encouraging you all to gather your House Churches and your friends from the community to participate in some of the Go Sunday offerings.

Click HERE to sign up for a spot on one of the groups that is doing an activity.

Remember that on our Go Sundays we do not have any traditional gatherings happening on this day. We use this time as a time for us to push out into the community.

New Wine is an amazing summer christian festival that we would love to invite you to join us (co-vicars) at in 2023 over Wellington Anniversary Weekend. We will tent or caravan (or off site accommodation if you prefer) alongside 1000 others, eat together, and enjoy the phenomenal program for all ages of worship and discipleship. This is an amazing opportunity for us as a parish to gather together for a shared experience and set the year off together. 
Click here for more information and sign up. 
If you have any questions please feel free to email us or call us. 

So much love to you all! 

​Guy 

Parish council met on the 19 October and discussed several important things heading into the AGM:

1. Mission Action Plan - the Co-Vicar's brought a draft Mission Action Plan to Parish Council and this was refined and discussed at length. We want as a leadership group to be clear where the church is heading next so we want to have a coherant message. This was an important step in that process before it comes to the AGM in November. We have some more work still to do to refine it further before presenting it.
2. Budget for 2023. Parish council agin had a first look at next years budget and have agreed on presenting what came to us last night to the AGM,
3. We also sert the AGM dates - 13 November and 26 March and agreed to replace the leaking Zip in the kitchen and get a paywave like device for giving and donations.

If you would like to know more then please feel free to talk to one of the Parish Council members:
- The Co-Vicars
- Chris Worsley (Vicar's Warden)
- Marietta Flaws (People's Warden)
- David Butterfield
- Corinna Lines
- Heather Miller
- Karen Moreau
- Wheldon Curzon-Hobson

Kia ora All Saints,
​
We are about to begin the 3rd week of our SENT series where we journey through the book of Acts and wonder together what being disciples and sharing Jesus with the world looks like today.

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to share on Acts chapters 2-7. This part of Luke’s book talks about the contrast of the two different temples referenced in the bible - the physical temple that God’s people built to hold God’s powerful presence, and the new temple of God’s messianic kingdom which is the people of God.

Understanding God’s people as temples of God is a beautiful image of church and one that we at All Saints want to be emulating more and more. This is the divine plan for filling the earth with God’s presence so that he can reign over all creation.

For some reason, over the centuries since Luke’s writing of the book of Acts, we have found ourselves once again with the dominant image of church being a place of worship – a building. But this is not the image given to us in scripture. The image given to us in scripture is of church being God’s people, spreading out throughout the earth sharing the good news.

I showed a video last Sunday that I want to offer you again here in case you missed it or just want to watch it again. In this video there are beautiful visual depictions of these concepts that I think can help us understand things more deeply. (Link below)

Bible Project - Temple

On Sunday, I also challenged us all to have discussions with one another about what this vision of church looks like today, in our time and space. I wanted to use this opportunity to bring this up again because of how important I think it is.

Who in our church family have you talked to about what this looks like at All Saints?

How have you brought God out into the world this week?

What might God be challenging you to push out into?

You are all such important parts of God’s church and I pray you are all strengthened daily in your walk with Jesus so that you can bring his light into the world.

Blessings upon you all,
Summer

“You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up to be a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus.”
-1 Peter 2:5

Kia ora All Saints whānau,
​
This week I've been reflecting on what God's blessing has looked like in my life. It seems that God has been incredibly faithful but this faithfulness has barely ever looked how I expected it would. I have numerous examples of this but the most recent is a transformation from crying out to God for the blessing of being a parent for many years with little hope, to now wondering how I will handle the extra blessing God has provided! Sometimes living into God's plan has required more sacrifice than I expected, and sometimes it has provided more blessing than expected. Either way, I have learnt that God is good, though not predictable. It reminds me of the quote from CS Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

"Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

As things continue to change in our country, our response to Covid, our ability to socialise, changes in our world climate, environmental concerns, political divides, we can confidently know that our God is good. God listens, God weeps with us, God rejoices with us. As we heard last week, we are sent with the message that a king has been enthroned - a good king, the true king. May we find ways to share this good news with those around us in whatever way God prompts us, and remember that the Spirit goes with us as we do. God is not safe, but He is good.

Ngā mihi nui,
Emily Spence