Weekly musings (Page 2)

Kia ora e te whānau Carol and I headed down to Queenstown for a few days last week – we hadn’t been out of town over the summer, so wanted to “hit the road” and get some fresh air, and we reckoned that we had a small window of opportunity before the pandemic spread in that direction. That proved to be the case – Queenstown was still “open” for visitors (less so this week, we understand). We also arrived at…

As you may know, Carol and I ended up having COVID tests last Sunday morning – which, fortunately, were found to be negative! However, it was good learning for us in terms of preparing services – having the Service Sheet sorted ahead of time made it relatively easy for Helen to slot in and lead the whole service. As a test of our systems, it was effective!! So, what about this Sunday? With the likelihood of people being away, we…

Welcome to the New Year! I hope you’ve managed to get a good break and are feeling rested and refreshed – and energised for the year ahead! I’m looking forward to hearing more tales from Kaiteriteri, Te Araroa … or wherever! The holidays aren’t over yet, of course – we have around 9 of our intermediates and youth heading away this weekend to the Scripture Union summer ‘Wind ‘n Water’ camp out on Banks Peninsula, with Callum, Anna Christensen and…

As a youngster I always used to feel a sense of excitement and anticipation as the last few days before Christmas arrived. Even though I soon discovered that Christmas is only one day, and it’s soon over, the celebrations and traditions associated with Christmas are always planned, prepared for, and looked forward to. For me, growing up in England, it was always all about Christmas puddings and mince pies, and turkey stuffings…and going carol singing around the village with torches…

(Pastor Peter 16 Dec)Do you ever have the experience of constantly “tripping over’ the same thing again and again? I’ve had that experience this Advent season, where – in random contexts – I have found myself coming across the old Advent Hymn, Come thou long expected Jesus. It’s not a hymn that I can recall singing much in the past – but it seems to have become my song for the season. I’ve discovered that it was written in 1744…

 “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”I realised this week that I was in danger of letting the Advent season pass me by! This year is not like our normal Advent, is it? There are no weekly gatherings of the whole church in the school hall, with the lighting of Advent candles with a liturgy of prayers and readings, with the band leading us in…

This Sunday marks the start of Advent 2021 – the season of the church year when we turn our focus onto Christmas and all the meaning that flows from that. For many Christians, Christmas is as important as a celebration – if not more so – than Easter. It is the time we remember In the words of John’s Gospel 1:14  And the Word became flesh, and lived among us. We gazed upon his glory, glory like that of the…

Pastor Peter – 18 Nov 2021 With university exams over, the streets around the office here in Ilam Road are feeling summer-quiet! It’s that time of year, once again, when there’s a sense of Christmas not too far away… bringing a sense of anticipation (which is what the church season of Advent, beginning on Sunday 28 November) is all about! We’ll be introducing Advent 2021 to you over the next week, but we’re planning on including a couple of services…

It’s Show weekend – hence the slightly early Newsletter this week! Summer is definitely round the corner… This Sunday we’ll be meeting back at the school – with one home-based option across town, for those who feel more comfortable with a smaller group in this pandemic season. The present intention is to alternate meeting in groups with meeting at the school, week and week about. NB Meeting in groups does depend on us taking note of the request to RSVP!…

As I have mentioned previously, my brother in London died just over two weeks ago. His funeral will be taking place today, Thursday (UK time) in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints, which is the Russian Orthodox cathedral for the Diocese of Sourozh (Great Britain and Ireland), within the Patriarchate of Moscow. (What a mouthful!) As you will probably have noticed from what I’ve just written, when you enter the world of…

From Pastor PeterLast Sunday 74 of us gathered at Ilam school for an outdoors service where we did a lot of talking and catching up with people we hadn’t seen for a while, and also did some exploration of Daniel Chapter 6. I’ve heard lots of positive comments – we’re hoping to plan some similar events in coming weeks. However, I expect that many of you – like me – were holding your breath this morning after hearing the news…

It’s been a bit of an up and down week for me. The highpoint was spending time up at Hanmer last weekend for the Men’s retreat. It was a slightly smaller group this year (probably because of the timing in relation to school holidays) but there were plenty of quality conversations as well as the usual mountain biking expeditions and cricket etc. These weekend retreats are so valuable and seem to be locked into the annual Ilam calendar (although it…