Kia ora e te Whānau
It’s been so good to see more Ilamites each Sunday morning – faces that are so familiar, but do you find, too, that seeing people brings the realisation that it’s been several months since we’ve caught up? I think it’s going to take some time to get back to a stage of feeling up-to-date with what’s going on in each other’s lives – a lot of water has passed under all of our bridges in the intervening months! I was checking back the other day over the 2 years since the start of the first lockdown, and as a church we have only been able to meet together as a whole group around 60% of the time – which means that for roughly 10 of the last 24 months we have been meeting in our own households, or in small groups. That’s a long time – and we’re not through yet. Let’s make every effort to stay connected when we have the opportunity. J
We’re still proceeding with caution on Sundays – and haven’t got to the point where we feel comfortable offering tea and coffee, so that part of the Sunday roster is still blank! Thanks, though, especially to all our musicians and singers, sound and visual people who are back on the job, enabling a sense of ‘normality’ to return to our services. I hate to say it, though, but we are a little bit short of volunteers for setting up … not wanting to shout it out too loud, but WE ARE A LITTLE BIT SHORT OF VOLUNTEERS FOR SETTING UP! Any chance that you might sign up for one Sunday soon? Roster link in the newsletter.
It’s been great, too, to be able to start re-building the Kids Connection programme – thanks to Steph and the team for making this happen! As grown-ups we may be feeling a slight sense of disconnection – but that’s magnified many times for the younger generation for whom the disruption has lasted for a much greater proportion of their lives! Youth Alpha has also got off to a flying start on Thursday evenings this term – meeting at The Waiting Room, thanks to Chris and Miriam Martin for enabling this to happen! Callum has a good team of leaders and helpers – from the schedule it looks like there will be lots of sweet goodies to be consumed over these coming weeks!
So, along with Intermediates (IBI) each fortnight and Mainly Music each Tuesday morning, life is beginning to feel much more like the good old days of ‘normal’. It’s a nice place to be at – BUT this pandemic is in no way over, so staying safe and remaining flexible are our two key aims at present.
The staff team had lunch together this week with Andrea, to express our thanks and say farewell from the team, and with Margaret, to formally welcome her. The church has been so well served by Andrea for so many years – and the whole church will have the chance to say a proper thank you to her one Sunday very shortly. God has blessed us through her amazing oversight of all things administration. As a staff team, though, we also feeling very blessed to have Margaret now heading up the admin. We work together – and pull together – really well as a team, and Margaret has slotted in fantastically.
At the same time, I’m still scratching my head a bit about how to turn a full time role into a 0.6 (3 day a week) role! Counting hours is the easy bit; I just can’t seem to find any guidelines on how you cut the “worry” and responsibility side of a pastoral role down to 60%. I’m very grateful, though, for the opportunity to explore this!
Can you (provisionally) note that the service on Sunday May 29 will probably be in the form of an “Ilam Day” forum when we have a chance for some discussions around church stuff. More details will follow, but you may remember that at the start of spring last year we circulated a draft “Belonging Document” with the intention of opening up some wider discussion. The Call Committee also has some draft documentation about the church that they will use as part of the pastoral search process, and they may invite some feedback. So, I guess the focus of the service will be on taking stock of where we’re at and how we faithfully reflect that in our documentation.
So, that’s it for this week.
Please keep in touch – and let us know especially if you’re unwell / in isolation at home.
Peter
PS have you learned that first line of the Te Reo version of the Benediction yet?
He pononga koutou nā te Atua (You are God’s servants)