Dear Friends,
The latest e-edition of our Diocesan magazine, AnglicanLife, is available online and the PDF version for printing from our website with the theme of ‘Rooted in Christ’.
The Reverend Simon Green‘s Induction Service when he will become the next Vicar of the Parish of Opawa-St. Martins is at 3pm this Sunday 28 June 2026 in St. Mark’s Church, 101 Opawa Road, Christchurch. All are welcome to this service. Clergy robing, red stoles please.
Please pray for preparations for The Abbey, a national Anglican hui for people involved in youth work and young adult ministries, which this year is being held at Living Springs, Friday 17 to Sunday 19 July. In particular pray for our Diocesan staff, Paul Hegglun, Azaria Brooker and the Reverend Sammy Mould as they contribute local leadership to the event.
Last Friday the Cathedral Reinstatement Project was privileged to receive a gift of $250,000 from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (LDS). This is the second gift to the Project from inter-faith partners, the first being from NZ Buddhists. We are grateful for all support this Project receives, acknowledging that the Diocese of Christchurch cannot fund the ReOpening of the cathedral from its own resources. LDS leaders from Australia and New Zealand gathered with us last Friday, marking the fact that this gift comes from the whole of the South Pacific region of this church.
The Reverend Les Memory will be Interim Priest-in-Charge of the Parish of Addington from early August 2026.
The Venerable Ruihana Paenga, currently Archdeacon of Leadership for Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa and Archdeacon of Te Tairāwhiti, will be the next Dean of St. John’s Cathedral, Napier, in the Diocese of Waiapu. This cathedral hosts the cathedrae of both Te Pīhopa o Aotearoa and the Bishop of Waiapu, and the announcement of this appointment has been made jointly by Archbishop Don Tamihere and Bishop Andrew Hedge. Ruihana presided at the eucharist when Bishop Susan Wallace was ordained earlier this month in the Transitional Cathedral. Ruihana will be installed on 1 August 2026.
This year we can scarcely escape news that it is election year. There seems to be a new poll every week! To assist all citizens in understanding the importance of all voters making their voice as well as their vote count, a Christian social action organization, Common Grace, has arranged the following event in Christchurch, to which I encourage readers of e-Life to participate in:
Leave No Voice Uncounted: Common Grace’s invitation to churches for the 2026 general election
When: Thursday 9 July, 7pm – 9pm
Where: Christchurch Transitional Cathedral, 234 Hereford Street, Christchurch
For: Church leaders, home group / youth group leaders, and other people keen to respond to this challenge. Over dessert and hot drinks, come and hear from Common Grace Aotearoa Co-Director Kate Day about how we are organising to enrol people to vote and to remind them to follow through and vote this election, and how you and your faith community could be involved.
We won’t be telling you or your community which parties or candidates to vote for. Rather, together, we can help ensure that thousands of voices that might otherwise get shut out of our democracy, get heard this election.
I am pleased to announce some Christchurch details of an NZ speaking tour for widely-respected Palestinian Christian Theologians Dr Lamma Mansour and Dr Yousef Khoury in July! All are welcome to the following public events:
Christchurch Transitional Cathedral – 7pm, Sun 19 July
Oxford Terrace Baptist Church – 7pm, Mon 20 July
It is likely that one of the theologians will preach at St. Aidan’s, Bryndwr on Sunday morning 19 July, that both will likely speak at The Abbey, and there will be an opportunity for ministry leaders to meet with them over morning tea on Monday 20 July 2026 (invitations will be issued soon).
Later this week the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meets in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Among its agenda items is discussion of the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals which set out a possible new way forward for the organisation and leadership of the Anglican Communion. Rather than give you links to what these proposals are about and how they are being viewed in the run up to the meeting, I invite you to Google “Nairobi-Cairo Proposals.” You will not be short of articles to read!
This coming Sunday, 28 June 2026 is Ordinary 13 and the Gospel is Matthew 10:40-42. There is something profound in this short reading. Where we go as Christians has impact. We might be shunned and rejected. We might be accepted and welcomed. When people respond to us, they are responding (whether they understand or not) to Jesus within us and to the God who has sent Jesus into the world. That is a lot to ponder as we make our way through our daily lives as disciples of Jesus and encounter many people along the way.
Arohanui,
+Peter.