Dear Friends,
It was a privilege to participate in three memorable events this past weekend.
The Abbey, a gathering of youth ministry leaders from across Tikanga Pakeha, took place at Living Springs from Friday to Sunday. Among the lead speakers were Matt and Zara Maslin (Bryndwr). The musical lead in our worship came from a musical team mostly drawn from local parishes and co-ordinated by Paul Hegglun (Diocesan Under 40s ministry). About 140 people gathered for this weekend from the seven dioceses of Tikanga Pakeha. Please read an excellent report on the conference published on Taonga. Thank you for praying for this conference.
On Sunday morning (a session at The Abbey), Sunday evening at the Transitional Cathedral and Monday morning at All Souls Church, Merivale, many were able to hear Palestinian Christian theologians, Dr Lamma Mansour and Dr Youssef Khoury speak with theological insight and reflection on the situation Palestinians experience in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank – with reference to both the experience of violence and suffering in recent times and the longer term experience of dispossession and severe constraints on usual freedoms for human beings through many decades since 1948. I took many notes but the most striking thing I heard was how the overall approach of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians is to de-humanise Palestinians, to treat fellow human beings as less than human. De-humanisation is inconsistent not only with Christian belief but also with Jewish belief: our common ground in Genesis 1 is that every person has been created in the image of God. A specifically Christian challenge in this situation is highlighted by something we may miss in the story of Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4). When Jesus announced that Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 61 was fulfilled that day, the congregation applauded him. When he went on to recall the healing of Naaman the Syrian and thus to proclaim that the kingdom of God was ethnically inclusive rather than exclusive, the congregation tried to kill Jesus. What is happening in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank today is incompatible with the reign of the God of Jesus Christ on earth.
Early Sunday afternoon we were able to share in lunch at the Hororata Community Hall as part of 150th anniversary celebrations of the First Church of Hororata (i.e. the wooden church on the opposite side of Hororata Road from St. John’s stone church). It was an excellent lunch which topped off a lot of hard work by local organisers for this important occasion. The First Church, incidentally, began its life as a church across the road from where it is now located. In order to make room for the then new stone church (built in 1910), it was moved from that site but only made it late on a Saturday to the middle of the road. The next morning a service was held in the church before it was further rolled off the road to its present location.
This Sunday at 5pm all are welcome to Evensong at the Transitional Cathedral during which Alan Robb will be installed as a new Lay Canon of the Cathedral. I will be the preacher.
Let’s keep praying for peace and justice in our world, and especially in the Middle East where we see conflicts failing to cease, and in the case of action on the Red Sea this week, broaden to the peril of the wider world. An important observation made by our visiting theologians (as mentioned above) is that justice is the cost of peace. While a ceasefire which lasts would be wonderful, a ceasefire is not a just peace. Let’s pray for both an immediate ceasefire and a lasting, just peace.
This coming Sunday, 26 July 2026 is Ordinary 17 and the Gospel is Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52. “The kingdom of heaven is like…”. Through a series of parables (or, a stricter definition, “similitudes” because the kingdom of heaven is illustrated by a series of “similar” things), Jesus teaches about the kingdom of heaven. What do we find helpful in this teaching? What moves us by this teaching? How might we experience life in God’s kingdom as “treasure” (v. 52) so that we are enriched by this way of life?
Arohanui,
+Peter.