Vicar's Letter - 30 September 2022

Kia ora,
This past weekend we had the Anglican Diocesan Synod. It was held at St. Paul's in Kāpiti. It was a great weekend of catching up with mates and not many business items but we heard about the City Mission's new building, whakamaru. This is going to be our Advent appeal as a Diocese and we are aiming to raise $365,000 to build the chapel. If you want to find out more about it then click here.

At Synod we also set the Diocesan priorities for 2023:

1. Housing: seeking transformation for the most vulnerable within New Zealand’s worsening housing crisis 
2. Climate: safeguarding all creation by actively reducing carbon emissions.
3. Refugees: responding in compassionate and generous ways to the growing global humanitarian crisis (Recalling that this Diocese has collectively supported over 325 households comprising nearly 950 people through its partnership with Red Cross since 2016.)

The most challenging part for me of all of Synod was mentioned in Guy's sermon (you can watch that here), Bishop Justin's charge. Here he talked about churches in our Diocese doing two things:

1. Generosity - he talked about the gospel never being dependent on money and actually a spirit of generosity invading our Diocese would actually help those spaces where the gospel is thriving. I think back to our idea of 'there is enough' in the Kingdom.
2. Multiplication - secondly, there was a wero* laid down, that every church in our Diocese was once a church plant but we have lost that heart. So the challenge is to reclaim this heart. How do we multiply ourselves?

It was by no means planned like this but is hugely relevant to that challenge as this week we start a new series on Acts. Looking at how a small group becomes a force that the empire is nervous about. How they spread from one small group in Jerusalem to a group that invaded all parts of the Roman society. So as we go through this series and look at how God moved this community to multiply and grow may we pray that too for All Saints. This is a place that has always trained and sent (even if unintentionally) people to do new things. How can we continue to be that place?

I would love to hear what you feel God might be saying to you about multiplication and growth as you pray!

Mā te wā
Andrew Spence