Kia ora All Saints 

Guy here this week; I'm super excited to gather for our Central Gatherings at 9am and 10:30am. It feels as though it has been a slow entry to the year with all the public holidays and where they have been placed. I initially felt a bit stressed by where they landed and what that meant for the calendar here at All Saints, but after some time with the Lord, I found myself leaning into the slower rhythm of it all, turning up on Sunday of Waitangi weekend prepared for a significant amount of us to be away, only to be in absolute awe of a full room with not a lot of space to extras. Praise God! 

This Sunday is our annual Launch Sunday, which is always an exciting time for us as a parish as we look towards what gives us foundation, why we do what we do, and where we are hoping to go this year. I will be preaching from Ezekiel 37, so feel free to read it beforehand and come prepared to see what God might be saying to you and what you are going to do about it. 

I have spent this week praying for you all following our gathering last Sunday as we went out with the challenge to share our faith with someone during the week. May God reveal someone to share the good news with. 

Lent is fast approaching us; we have a number of Lent groups that will be starting up on the 5th of March; it's not too late to register your interest in one. Please fill out the form in our newsletter or click here to let us know if you want to be in one. 

Make sure you check out our newsletter for things that are coming down the line.

Love in Christ,

Kia ora All Saints 

Guy here this week; this week is our final summer series together at 10 am it has been a joy to see our community continue to gather over the summer for regular services of liturgy, worship, prayer, and teaching. I love that our parish has enough energy, leadership, and passion to make this happen. I look forward to bringing the final message for our summer in the sand series; we will be unpacking the text from Acts 9:1-9 focusing on how the road that leads to God passes through the gateway of Christ. 

Next Sunday - Feb 16th - is our Launch Sunday for the year, each year we start the year with our first regular Central Gatherings, with a particular focus on what we feel like God is saying to us here at All Saints and where we feel like we are going, it is our hope that through this as we journey throughout the year, we have a depth and understanding of why we do what we do. 

Here at All Saints, we have a deeper rhythm of discipleship through our house churches and missional communities, but for some of you, this isn't a touch point; with that being said, we are looking to establish a couple of Lent study groups during the season of Lent. The diocese has put out a Lent study guide for us to use in these groups. If you are interested in joining a Lent study group during the season of Lent, please let us know by filling out this form or from our newsletter; this will help us to know how many groups we will need; we have a number of people who have stuck their hands up to lead these. 

As we set out this year in what I hope will be an exciting year full of surprising God moments, the scripture that continues to prod is from Romans 12:4-5. We are all members of one body, but we come with different skills and talents. Let us lean into what God has called us to be and where we have skills and talents to offer; let us consider where God might be calling us to strengthen or try new things and how we can support one another in this. 

God is at work amongst us; remain faithful to the gospel, and let us see what surprising things happen when we call on the name of Jesus!

Love in Christ,

Kia ora All Saints 

Welcome to our first newsletter of the new year. What a joy to email you all this week. It surprised me over the summer, but I missed our weekly connection. 

I have spent the summer with some of our family from America here; what a time to connect with distant family and explore our beautiful patch of God's kingdom, Summer and I hope that you were able to find some goodness amongst the weather, life trials, and strains and our own ability to calm down. 

During the summer, I found myself being drawn back to the prophetic image of the dry bones in the book of Ezekiah 37; I am drawn to the image and power of calling on the spirit of God that breathes life into the corpses. I sense that for us here at All Saints, this is a year of calling on the spirit of God to breathe life into the corpses, it's one thing to watch dry bones turn to corpses, but it's another thing to see them come to life. 

As we continue to lean into our core values of Jesus-centered, Missional Living, and Authentic Community, this year, we focus on being Jesus-centered, with a real focus on prayer as we walk this out together. My heart pounds at the hope and dream of learning to pray together, struggling to pray together, seeing God move through prayer together, hearing the stories of praying for others, and being surprised by what God is doing through our prayers. 

Let us also continue to live missionary and strive to be an authentic, Christ-centered community day after day together. 

I will share more about where we hope to head on our Launch on Sunday, Feb 16th, 2025. 

By way of a few updates for you as we begin the year, We still have two more summer series services together, the 2nd and 9th of Feb; partly, this has to do with when Waitangi Day falls and our hope to gather everyone back together post the holidays. 

Our house church leaders are excited to be gathering our deeper discipleship groups together this year as we look to start our rhythm of gathering together for Central Gatherings and pushing out into our house churches for deeper discipleship. Alongside that, we have a number of missional communities that are catching wind and strengthening and continuing to pray for their leaders, teams, and people they are connecting with. 

We have some exciting news: our dear friend Martha Meister, whom some of you will remember from years gone by when her family lived here, is going to be starting with us in the office for 6 months; she will pick up an adjusted admin role as well as spearheading or children's coordinator role which we have been fortunate to have regular givers give towards, it's not too late to chip in regularly for the Childrens Coordinator role wages if you are keen. We will have an introduction email come out in the not-too-distant future. 

Youth groups are starting soon. Again, we are working closely with the team, and we are excited to announce the team shortly. 

Don't forget that Lent is coming up fast. We plan on creating space for people who aren't already in discipleship groups to gather together and work through the Lenten study together. Watch this space for an opportunity to join. 

I look forward to gathering with you and sharing the word of God this Sunday. 

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,