Dear Friends,
Last Friday’s news about the Government not funding the Cathedral Reinstatement Project (communicated in a Special e-Life on Friday morning, 9 August) is giving me much to think about, along with my fellow CCRL board members. In due course we will have something to communicate to CPT, the owners of CCRL, to the Dean and Chapter, to the Diocese, and to the wider world. I ask for your patience as we pause, reflect, and come to decisions. I also covet your prayers, and I thank you for many messages this past week assuring us of your prayerful support.
Recommendations from the Biblical Literacy Task Group were submitted to Synod last year and were received warmly. One significant recommendation was that parishes “prioritise the formation of new, and the sustaining of existing, small groups for the purpose of Bible Study and discipleship”. I fully support this because it contributes so clearly to the first priority of the DMAP which is ‘making disciples’. I understand that some parishes are beginning new, short term Bible Study groups now that Spring is just around the corner. I commend this wholeheartedly. It is worth considering drawing newcomers into a short-term group in your parish to help them grow in faith?
Preparations continue for a significant event in our continuing Diocesan response to abuse in the church, as highlighted by the work of the Royal Commission on Abuse, and now by their report. A formal Service of Lament at 7pm, Thursday 5 September 2024 will be held in the Transitional Cathedral. This service is open to all. It is important that a Diocesan service of this nature is representative of us as a whole Diocese. We hope for a widespread attendance from across our Diocese and your presence is encouraged. The liturgy is being published in advance so that we are transparent about what this service will look like, and so people can prepare for the service. Synod members: we encourage your attendance so that we stand together as the corporate body of Christ, but please know that you are not compelled to be there.
Registrations for the Living Faith Diocesan Conference are growing! A big thank you to those clergy who have appointed a Conference Champion to help with promotion, help people sign up, answer questions and possibly arrange transport. If you haven’t yet nominated a parish champion, please do so soon and email their name and email address to Mark Chamberlain. Our vision is to see 500 people at the conference who will come away blessed and inspired. The best way to promote the conference is to register yourself and then say to others, “I’m registered. It’s going to great. Would you like to come too?” Register here.
In the past two Sundays it has been a joy and a privilege to participate in worship at St John’s Cheviot (4 August) and, this past Sunday, at St Augustine’s, Waimate. On Sunday afternoon, along with Archdeacon Ben Randall, I was a guest at a special afternoon tea in St James Church/Hall, hosted by the community at Maungati, South Canterbury. It is encouraging to me as bishop to see the liveliness of the people of God in places on the geographical edges of our Diocese!
This Sunday, 18 August is Ordinary 20, and the Gospel is John 6:51-58. Jesus presses on his disciples that participation in the eucharist is vital to our spiritual life. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (53). But how does talk of “flesh” relate to the major theme of “bread” in this chapter? In John’s Gospel, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36), and his death occurs when lambs are being sacrificed for the Passover feast (John 19:14, 31). Jesus is our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) as well as the bread of heaven. In the eucharistic feast, all such imagery and symbolism is fused into an encounter with the real body and blood of Jesus.
Arohanui,
+Peter.