Vicars Letter - 16th February 2024

Kia ora All Saints whānau


Guy here this week. I have been thinking this week how mildly humorous it is that we are a long way through February, and we just feel like we are getting started for the year. What seems to be par for the course is that the start of the year comes pretty fast and no more than this year, with Lent starting this week. This week was filled with, a wonderful Pancake party with loads of community families attending alongside loads of the Parish, it is here that we celebrate Shrove Tuesday. We also had our Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday morning, which was well attended and had a great sense of reflection and penitence, followed by a time of fellowship. 


With this week marking the start of Lent we will use this time to prepare ourselves for Easter. It is also during this time that we will walk with the rest of the Diocese through our annual Lent study. There are two parts to this, there is a lent study guide which has videos attached with it from people from around our Diocese. There is also a Sunday morning series which we will be using on Sunday mornings. So for the next few weeks we will, by the power of technology, be hearing from a number of people from around the Diocese. 


Just a reminder that this week we are launching our House Churches back up again. So if you are in a House Church, make sure you connect in with your group. If you are not in a House Church please Email me me (Guy) here and let me know so that we can pop you in one. 


Something exciting that has been happening this week is that I found myself with different people in our Parish talking about starting and building teams around Missional Communities; this really leans into our mission action plan with regard to creating spaces for people who don't know God to find out more through relationship and conversation. 
Please continue to pray for them as they build teams and develop ways forward. If someone approaches you about possible involvement, I would encourage you to pray and discern if God is calling you to step out of your comfort zone and join a team with them. 


Last week marked the first week of our new newsletter format, Thank you to those of you who provided very helpful feedback; with anything new, we would love for each of us to give it a really good whirl and keep an open mind. we are still working things out at our end, so please continue to keep us up to date with things that work well or not. 


One thing about being a growing parish is that there are many ways to get involved and work alongside others to see the kingdom breakthrough, so feel free to look around the newsletter and all the different ways to get involved. Click Here to jump through to the weekly notices, and if you find you get through it and you still feel like God is calling you to build a team and try something different, please reach out! We are up for anything. 


It is one of life's greatest joys to journey with you all on this road!


With Love, Guy