Welcome to St Augustine's Anglican Church
Hi and welcome to St. Augustine’s.
We are delighted to share this place of worship with you. We hope you enjoy the beauty of the architecture, which is built to honour God. Feel free to look around, sit, pray and soak up the tranquility of this beautiful place.
Even more, we hope that you will get to know us and join in the life of this church family. We love to welcome and include people and to offer something for people of all ages. This includes worship services of various styles, small groups that provide friendship and teaching, and many other activities.
Most of all, we hope that you may grow closer to our Lord Jesus Christ – building your knowledge of God and being open to all that the Holy Spirit wants to do in you and through you.
As a church, we are excited about the mission that God calls all Christians to – to be agents of God’s love and truth to a needy world. We believe that this is what the church exists for. We would love you to become part of that with us.
May the Lord bless you with his peace and grace.
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From the Vicar, August 1st |
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Tania Gardiner has been on our Staff Team as Youth Intern for about 3 years, working alongside our Youth Pastor in various capacities and having a mentoring role with young people at Cashmere Primary School.
Tania has recently made the decision to step down from her role on our Staff and focus on completing her studies towards a Bachelor of Ministry. Therefore Tania will be finishing as Youth Intern in a couple of weeks time. A big thank you to Tania for all that she has contributed to our young people. I am very pleased that Tania will continue to be an active member of our church family. Today marks the end of Maori Language Week. In our 9.15am and 11am services today we will have some elements of our worship in Maori language. These are included in a separate handout this morning. Kia tau tonu te rangimarie o te Ariki ki a koutou.
(The peace of Christ be always with you) Philip |
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From the Vicar, July 25th |
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We give a big welcome to our friends who serve the Lord in Central Asia who are joining us today to give us an update on their work. It is great to have the opportunity today to share together and encourage one another. Today is also the day when churches throughout the country are supporting the work of CBA (Christian Broadcasting Association). CBA encourages Christian input in the mass media in New Zealand. We are asked to pray today for: - Christians who work in the mainstream mass media – in TV, Radio & Print.
- Those who prepare Christian input for use in the mass media.
- Those who have influence and power in the media.
- The decision makers who decide or influence how Christianity is portrayed in
the mass media. - The specifically Christian providers of TV, Radio & Print media.
As we pray for Christians working in these areas, we can be aware of the powerful effect that the mass media has in shaping the views of people and also the opportunity that the mass media gives for making Christ known.
Yours in Christ,
Philip |
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From the Vicar, July 18th |
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We welcome Ron & Liz Hay back today following their few weeks of ministering in other places. Ron will be sharing in Sunday ministry with me for the next 3 months while Kevin is away on Study Leave. It is great to have Ron back on the team. Ron will be preaching today on the theme ‘God is Personal’, the first in a series on The Character God, which will continue through the Sundays of August. Next week we will have a break in that series as we have our friends whom we support in their work for Christ in Central Asia visiting to speak in all our services. It will be a great inspiration to have them join us, and I hope that we will also be an encouragement and blessing to them. Yours in Christ, Philip |
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From the Vicar, July 11th |
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I am writing this part way through the Diocesan Conference on 'Fresh Expressions' led by visiting Bishop Graham Cray. The conference is a helpful reminder of the priority of mission in the life of the church.
Over recent decades there has been massive change in our culture; we have moved from a time when the church had a clear place in the world to a time when the church cannot assume that it has any head start in people's interest or experience. Because of that, the way we go about our mission has been in constant change.
Mission is no longer a case of simply doing the basic ministries better and then people will come; rather our mission now requires building bridges into the community around us so that people may then begin to see, hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
'Fresh Expressions' encourages churches to be diverse in approach and innovative in ministries in order to be effective for Christ in the local community and in the networks of people that we are in contact with.
At St. Augustine's we are already varied in our approach to being church. We can continue to build on that as we seek ways to effectively carry out our mission of bringing people into wholeness in Christ. Yours in Christ, Philip |
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This coming Thursday to Saturday I will be attending a conference run by the diocese on Fresh Expressions, which explores how the church may continue to develop its mission in fresh ways in order to better reach people in our culture who are currently not connected with the church. The keynote speaker at the conference will be Bishop Graham Cray who leads the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Fresh Expressions team in the UK. It will be good to be challenged and inspired again with the priority of mission. Our Youth Group finish the term today with their special ‘Connect’ Youth Service, rounding off a full term of activities.
Next Sunday at 7pm is our monthly Healing Service, held in the Hannan Centre. I do encourage you to come along to that opportunity for peaceful, prayerful ministry. Looking ahead, on 25th July we have joining with us to share in all our services the mission family that we support, who will soon be returning to their work in Central Asia. It will be an inspiration to hear from them and I hope that we may be an encouragement to them. All of these events are examples of the calling that we share in, to be part of God’s work of bringing wholeness to people of all ages and in all places. Yours in Christ,
Philip |
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