Vicars Letter - 5th May 2023

Kia Ora All Saints’ Whānau, 

It’s the end of the week and I’m still buzzing from Go Sunday. I have heard so many great stories and even just the conversations I had myself with people about what we do on 5th Sundays and how we operate as a church, have been so faith building. People are curious, they’re surprised, and they want to know more. 

I had a conversation recently with somebody who was identifying that in their own community (another ministry unit in the Diocese of Wellington) there seems to be so many people who are beginning to ask questions about faith. And he noted that he has heard many others from various other communities and ministry units say the same. This same thing is happening around us at All Saints as well, and our clergy team aren’t the only ones who are finding themselves in God conversations or conversations about big life things that will likely turn into God conversations as the relationship grows. 

This is quite significant. There is a hunger around us that is real, and God has positioned us among the people in our lives to bring the love of Jesus. If we acknowledge that this is true, the very relevant question that follows is “what do I say to people who ask?”. How do we respond to the things people bring to us? How do we as a church continue to place ourselves in spaces where people know that we love them, we care about them and that we welcome their emotions, their griefs, and their hard questions? 

We are launching into a journey in the next few months where we will have an opportunity to explore the answers to those questions. May is Giving Month and in the next few weeks we will journey together to explore how we use the resources God has given us for the Kingdom. My prayer is that we will wonder together what God might be inviting us into both as individuals, as house churches, and as a wider congregation. 

At the end of this month is Thy Kingdom Come when we commit to praying for 5 people around us to come to know the Lord. Together we will pause to ask the Holy Spirit who he has brought into our lives with an invitation to share more about him. 

Then in June we will launch into a sermon series on the Gospel. What exactly is the Good News? How do we share it? How do we share it in a way today, in 2023, where people won’t put up barriers to truly understanding who Jesus is? 

This is such an exciting journey and one that I feel privileged to go on with each of you. The longer we journey together as a family, the more clearly we are all able to see the ways in which we are on mission together, working to bring about God’s Kingdom around us. 


In Love, 
Summer