The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas this year, I don’t think any of us could have envisaged the sort of regulatory environment and continuing pandemic response that we are all necessarily navigating. It is a long-haul journey for our globe.

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:12-13, NSRV)

Over this past week or so both of us have been reflecting on the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) and what it could mean in our present season. I (+Justin) have been revisiting social anthropologist Malcolm Gladwell’s book David and Goliath (he does a great TEDtalk summary here).

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:1)

Dear whānau

Greetings to you all as you settle in to our latest lockdown, and as we all wait to see what the next few days will hold.

‘…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Phil 1:6)

Over the recent weekends at our Diocesan Training Days in Wellington and Palmerston North, we have all been humble learners together, exploring what it means to be part of the Missio Dei in each of our contexts. As we gathered together to worship, pray, and learn, we were struck once again by the variety of expressions and needs, longings and anxieties that are represented across our Movement.

Dear whānau in Christ,

Many of you will have seen the article in this weekend’s news in which a person spoke of their experience of abuse from a member of our church who was subsequently ordained.

We want to affirm how grateful we are to the complainant in sharing their story, and indeed to all who share their experience, and are committed to learning as much as we can from it. Nobody should have such a story to tell.

But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:24-26)

We feel like we always say this, but it is true: our hearts are full of gratitude. This weekend over 500 mission and ministry teams from almost all of our local parishes, chaplaincies and other arms of God’s church in this Diocese gathered at El Rancho for Ministry Leaders Family Camp. Our theme was Renewing, Rebuilding, and we gathered to be refreshed after the 12 months that it has been. Huge thanks to the many people who made this all happen. It was so good to be together and we are so mindful of our privilege in doing so.

We encourage all of our Diocesan whānau to continue to pray for the work of the Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care.  This week, representatives of the Salvation Army, Anglican Church and Catholic Church will be present at the Commission for Redress Hearings relating to cases within faith-based institutions. We again offer the following prayers for you to use this week as you spend time before God.

Dear Whānau

We greet you in the name of Jesus; the one who makes all things new and the first-born of God’s new creation. As our season of Lent begins this week, we are reminded of the need to allow ourselves to be deeply moulded by the renewing work of the Holy Spirit so that Christ, who builds the church, may use us as he wills for his good purposes.

We encourage all of our Diocesan whanau to continue to pray for the work of the Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care, as outlined in last week’s Bishops’ News. This week, there will be Redress Hearings relating to cases within the Anglican Church. Archbishop Philip Richardson and Archbishop Don Tamihere have released the attached statement on behalf of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand, and we encourage you to read this. We also offer the following prayers…

No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl or hides it under a bed. A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house. For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all. (Luke 8:16-17)

In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:25-27)

We have all lived through so many different layers of disorientation and distress in 2020. For each one of us it will be different. We need to grieve and intercede for the world made strange. Both individually and collectively we have been walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

Last weekend was our Diocesan Synod, and it was without a doubt the strangest one yet. What is usually a raucous good time of gathering together in person, sharing stories, worship, prayer, laughter and hospitality (and making decisions about our common life) was curtailed into three and a bit hours of Zoom conversation.