Vicars Letter 5th february 2026

Rev Guy Benton

Kia ora All Saints.

We are truly into the "summer" months at this point! And depending on the day, it can feel like the year has flown by already. Something I always treasure here at All Saints is the last few weeks of our summer series, when many of us are back at work and the dregs of those summer days linger, and we are all starting to prepare ourselves for the year ahead while taking a few deep breaths together.

2026 may hold many things for you; some of great joy, new life, romance, new beginnings, fun projects, new friends; it may also hold for you things you are dreading, continued anxiety, impending job loss, health problems, lack of friends or family, loneliness. One thing that never changes is the Faithfulness and Mercy of the Lord! Regardless of the space we find ourselves in, if we lean not on our own understanding, but trust in him, He will make our paths straight. As a community, are we prepared to go there together? show up for each other? Pray for each other? Challenge each other? Or are we content to just say hi in passing and hope for the best?

Lent is fast approaching us, which is a time of preparation as we walk towards the cross with Jesus, who went all the way for us.

This year we will be forming and developing Parish-wide "Lent Groups"; some of these will be made up of people who are already in "House Churches", "Bible Studies", and "Prayer Groups", but for those who are not in any of those things, we want to get you involved in a Lent Group. A Lent group will be a small half-dozen or so group that will aim to meet weekly throughout Lent and work our way through a 6-week course called Practicing the Way. This study walks us through 6 foundational Christian Spiritual Disciplines, aiming to help us put tools in our tool belt as individuals and communities to push and pull each other closer to Jesus daily.

"Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did"

We will get more information out about this in the next week or so. We are shoulder-tapping more people to lead groups. We are looking at ways of creating on-ramps for people into groups. It's a lot of fun, and the team feels super excited about creating ways for people to journey deeper with each other in Christ through Scripture.

We are doing our best to create and develop groups for us all, but if you have a group of 6 or so people you want to form a Lent Group with, go for it! Flick us an email and let us know.

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.

Summer, the kids, and I, alongside the Pettigrew family, are away tramping this weekend as we seek to pray into and ideate our young families ministry and missional opportunities in our community. Please pray alongside us.

A reminder that this week is our final summer series Sunday gathering together at 10 am.

Sunday the 15th is our Welcome Back Combined gathering at 10 am as we launch the year well as a combined parish, and then from the 22nd of Feb we have our regular preferred worship gatherings of 9 am and 10:30 am.

As always if you feel like you need information about something or you want to connect feel free to reach out via the vicars email.  

Much love,