Dear Friends,
Congratulations to Archdeacon Susan Wallace who has been elected the next Pihopa o Te Hui Amorangi o Te Waipounamu. See further via news items on Taonga and Stuff respectively. The Episcopal ordination of Bishop-elect Susan Wallace will be on Saturday, 6 June 2026 at 11am at Tuahiwi Marae, Tuahiwi, following a Powhiri at 9am. I am looking forward to working with Bishop-elect Susan following her ordination.
It was a delight last Friday evening to participate in the Induction Service for the Reverend Dr Meg Harvey, Vicar-elect of Highfield, Kensington and Otipua (0.8 FTE) and the Priest-in-Charge-elect of the Parish of Marchwiel (0.2 FTE). Please pray for Meg as she settles into her new roles.
On Saturday the Cursillo movement—centred on provision of short courses in Christian discipleship—celebrated 30 years of life in the Diocese of Christchurch with a lunch and gathering for Cursillistas from around our Diocese. I am grateful to our Diocesan Lay Director, Heather Driessen for co-ordinating planning for this event, and to Justine Pilgrim for her superb and entertaining history of Cursillo in our Diocese. Prior to returning to life and ministry in Christchurch, Justine was part of the Wellington Diocese’s gifting of Cursillo to our Diocese in 1996.
Last Sunday it was a pleasure to be at St Mary’s, Addington in the morning for worship, and at the St George’s Hospital Chapel in the afternoon for their Patronal Festival service.
The memorial service for the late Reverend Diane McEvedy will be held at St Mary’s, Church Square, Addington at 1.30pm, Saturday 16 May 2026. All welcome.
This weekend is our annual Diocesan Discernment Weekend. Please pray for the three candidates for discernment and for the Bishop’s Advisory Committee on Ordination as we meet together on Friday and Saturday at Te Waiora, Hororata.
Archdeacon Nick Mountfort is promoting opportunities to learn how to pray through half-day workshops to encourage one another in the life of prayer. Different traditions and styles will be offered, and those styles of prayer will be practised them. This offering is a follow up to a resolution of our Synod in 2025. Please find further details further on in e-Life at “Connected to the Vine” prayer workshops.
The Cathedral Project has been in the news again. In Saturday’s Press there was a front page article titled “Anglican Sit on Half-Billion Property Empire“, which sought to make the argument that we shouldn’t be seeking public funds for the Cathedral with that amount of property on hand, and allegedly available to dispose of, per some unfortunate and misleading descriptions of various properties. Fortunately, today there is a balanced, more accurate article, in Q and A format, “Christ Church Cathedral: How on Heaven and Earth Did We Get Here?“. It is regrettable that for Saturday’s article no questions about specific properties were raised with me. My responses, cited in the article, were to general questions. I ask readers to always remember that for most properties, parishes are in control of their present and their future, not the Diocese, and that for some properties, specific terms of bequest and/or trust deed mean that even when sold, the funds are not available for any and every purpose the Diocese (or The Press) may wish them to be. To give one example, Sister Eveleen Retreat House is to be a retreat house for as long as there is need for retreats. If we ever exhaust that purpose and a future Bishop determines to sell it, the funds must be used for training for ordained ministry. Potential gifting of this asset to the Cathedral Project, per implication in Saturday’s Press, is not an option.
This coming Sunday, 10 May 2026, Easter 5, the Gospel reading is John 14:15-21. As with other Johannine passages, these verses are “dense” with theological truth. For me, three phrases stand out: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (15); “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate… the Spirit of truth” (16-17); and, “because I live, you also will live” (19).
Arohanui,
+Peter.