Vicar's Letter - 26th August 2022

Kia ora All Saints Whānau
 
This week we have our last week in our “A Kingdom of” series and is also a Central Gathering Sunday which will be an awesome opportunity for us all to gather in the room to celebrate, worship, pray and fellowship together.

During this series we have gone on a journey of unpacking the beatitudes and who is Jesus saying the Kingdom of God is for. Asking ourselves how can we live into these blessings and what does this all mean for our community here at All Saints Hataitai. Andy is going to be bringing us the final week in this series so I would really encourage you to come along and dig into that together. Remember that all our messages from this series are on our YouTube channel here.  

There has been a lot happening in the life of the parish over the last couple of months with our sermon series, Go Sundays and our MAP afternoons each Sunday where we have been looking at what is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it. It has been wonderful to see so many people engaging in this process and we are excited to see, once we pull all the data together, what is being said.

I (Guy) had a zoom call this week with Bree Mills who is part of Micro Churches Australia and is speaking at Wellington Dio Family Camp coming up this year, we were talking about what it looks like here at All Saints to solidify and grow our house church network, I found myself getting really excited by what we are seeing in the parish with regard to the missional DNA that is being established within our church family. There are a bunch of ideas that are being kicked around with ways to meet people in the community and build teams around reaching out to them. This is hugely exciting as we journey together as a parish and what makes up our DNA and who we are. Over the last few weeks during our MAP sessions we have looked at the early church in Acts, I think there is an incredible overlay with who and what we are in our present life of the parish. As we gather like we do both in homes and centrally, as we break bread together, as we share things in common together and seeing the Lord add to our numbers. What does it look like as an authentic community of Jesus centred people to go out to where our friends, family and neighbours are to build relationship and share the good news seeing them come to know Christ! Lets be bold for Jesus.

Just a reminder that this week there are a few things on the cards you can get involved in.
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Saturday is Bishop Ellies farewell at the cathedral from 3-5pm
Sunday morning is our Central Gatherings 9 and 10:30am
Sunday afternoon is our final MAP session 3-5pm
 
There is also a bunch of things for you to scroll through in our sections throughout this newsletter so jump in and have a look.

We look forward to spending time with you and are so proud of each and everyone of you and the way that you represent the kingdom.

Much love and blessings,
Guy

PS as an aside we had our first afterschool hangs back this term after battling with winter bugs and I was again surprised at the way word gets around between friends as a place to hang out and be connected. Keep praying!