Dear Friends,
I am delighted to announce that Mrs Rosalind Black has been appointed to be the Bishop’s Executive Assistant, beginning Thursday, 10 September 2026. Rosalind will bring very strong experience in executive assistance and other administration roles through work here in Christchurch, Invercargill and more recently back in Christchurch where she has been working for the Waimakariri District Council. Rosalind will take over from Ms Sarah Dunning, our Interim Bishop’s EA, and Sarah will continue her work with as the Theology House Librarian.
Kevin O’Brien, the husband of the Reverend Felicity O’Brien (Vicar of Oxford-Cust), died on Saturday following a period of illness. Kevin’s funeral will be at St. Andrew’s Church, Oxford, at 2pm on Saturday 22 August 2026. All welcome. Please pray for Felicity and their family as they prepare for this service and mourn the loss of Kevin. Kevin was a man of deep faith in Christ, a strong intercessor and a wonderful support to Felicity in her ordained ministry. He will be much missed.
Last Friday morning, it was good to be with Mother Alena, Sister Keleni and Sister Anne of the Community of the Sacred Name, along with their companions and supporters as we celebrated the Holy Name of Jesus feast at St. Peter’s, Upper Riccarton-Yaldhurst, with the Reverend Dr Geoff Haworth, Warden of the Community presiding at our Eucharist.
On 31 August 1926, St. Mark’s Church, Marshland was opened by Bishop Campbell West-Watson – a new concrete church to replace the previous wooden church on Prestons Road, which had burnt down in 1925. On Sunday morning it was a privilege to join with other visitors and regular worshippers to celebrate the centenary of the present building.
Thank you for praying for the next meeting of General Synod – Te Hinota Whanui (GSTHW) for the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is in Tonga from Saturday 15 August to Thursday 20 August, and for a prior meeting of Pakeha representatives of the seven New Zealand dioceses in Auckland on Friday 14 August. Our representatives are Bishop Peter, Clergy: Toby Behan, Kofe Havea, Ben Truman; Lay: Jo Bean, Toupili Pamatangi , Jack Hollis, Vivienne Jackson. Rachelle Mathews, our Diocesan Manager will also be there, sharing in the administration of the synod. Papers for GSTHW 2026 are available online.
Your prayers are also coveted for our annual Synod which will be held Thursday evening 3 September to late Saturday afternoon 5 September 2026. On Thursday 3 September, at 7pm, we begin Synod with our Synod Eucharist in the Transitional Cathedral. Dean Ben Truman will be our preacher. All are welcome to this service, whether members of Synod or not.
Our Synod business sessions take place through the Friday and Saturday at St. Christopher’s, Avonhead. Papers to date for the Synod are publicly available on our Diocesan website.
This coming Sunday, 16 August 2026 is Ordinary 20 and the Gospel is Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28. If both parts of the passage are read, then it is a passage of two distinct halves. The first making the point that God is concerned about what actually defiles us. In the context of a religious culture which attended to great details about foods which defiled and foods that didn’t defile, Jesus dismisses the thought that any food defiles and attends to the bad words which come out of our mouths and the bad actions that flow out of evil in our hearts: such things are what actually defile us. In verses 21-28, Jesus encounters a Canaanite woman, effectively a “defiled” person from the perspective of the religious, cultural context of Jesus’ Israel. Her plea for help, even if only “crumbs under the table”, persuades Jesus that she has faith. Centuries later that phrase remains in the liturgical life of our church in the Prayer of Humble Access (e.g. NZPB, p. 425-26).
Arohanui,
+Peter.