Dear Friends,
Thank you to everyone who attended our Liturgy of Lament, on Thursday 5 September, at 7 pm in the Transitional Cathedral, whether in person or online. Thank you to all who played a part in making the service happen—many people contributed to the words used, including a hymn composed for the occasion, to the shape of the service and to the delivery of the service on the night. The service may still be viewed online. The texts of the apologies given by me and by Archbishop Justin Duckworth are in the middle of the following webpage. While it is tempting to view this service as a conclusion to our work as a diocese on our history of abuse, it would be better if we think of it as a strong beginning to our work.
Thank you for praying for our Synod which was held last Friday and Saturday (details are on the Diocesan website). Following the Synod there have been many comments about the positive feel to our deliberations. Many people are interested in what we decided about the Cathedral Project: in summary, the Synod supports CCRL and CPT working together on ways forward from the present “pause in construction” and reporting back to Synod next year on progress. Our motion also referenced the need to consider ways in which we develop the Transitional Cathedral building and ancillary buildings as will be there for a few years longer than we had hoped to be.
All are welcome to the following Ordinations. The Reverend Jo Cotton will be ordained priest in St Barnabas’ church, Fendalton, at 7pm Friday 20 September 2024. The preacher at this service will be the Reverend Jeff Cotton. The Reverend Matt Maslin will be ordained priest in the Transitional Cathedral at 4pm, Sunday 22 September 2024. The preacher at this service will be the Reverend Joshua Taylor.
Our next major diocesan event will be the Living Faith Conference on 26 October 2024 in the Christchurch Boys High School auditorium. It is a good time now to register. We would love to see every one of our ministry units represented and ideally have an average of ten people from each unit. We are going to have a great time in worship and in hearing from our excellent speakers. If your ministry unit has not yet organised a team of people to come, now, in the middle of September, would be a great time to do this!
Last Sunday morning it was good to be at St Aidan’s, Bryndwr, to share in celebration of their patronal festival and to confirm Tim, Cassie, and Ruth. Late afternoon we were at St Margaret’s College for their Service of Blessing in which Chaplain Stephanie Clay and I anointed students in years 11-13 and prayed for a blessing of peace on them as they head towards end of year exams.
On Sunday, the Reverend Les Memory announced he is retiring from his role as Vicar of the Parish of Hornby, Templeton and West Melton. This retirement will take effect at the end of November this year. Please pray for Les and Margi as they prepare for the next chapter of their lives and ministries and for the parish as it looks ahead to future ministry leadership.
The Treaty principles bill, being advanced by the Act Party, continues to trouble many New Zealanders. Recently I joined with many other church leaders in signing a letter opposing this bill, a matter reported in public news earlier this week and clearly a matter of some annoyance to David Seymour! Alex Johnston and Kate Day, Common Grace Aotearoa, organisers of the letter, have observed “Many people have contacted us to say this action has given them hope. Among them are people outside the Christian faith to whom this action has provided a Christian witness about the role the church can play in speaking up for justice.” Archbishop Justin Duckworth has written a response in The Post to the criticism of church leaders uniting behind this letter – it can be found online.
Something I noted in the Anglican Care/City Mission presentation to Synod at the weekend is that our City Mission Op Shops are very keen to have donations of goods which they can sell. It is spring and a spring clean could yield some valued household items for the Op Shops to sell and for the Mission to benefit from the proceeds. Further details about how goods can be donated may be found online.
This Sunday 15 September, 2024 is Ordinary 24, and the Gospel is Mark 8:27-38. At the material centre of this gospel is the theological centre of the gospel: “Who is Jesus Christ?”, and “What does it mean to follow Jesus Christ?”.
Arohanui,
+Peter.