Weekly Notices - 14 July 2024
A week after returning from my brother in law’s funeral in Fiji, I am blessed to once again, turn our focus to prayer. In the busy-ness of all our lives, it is good to sit in the shadows of God’s Love and bring ourselves back to Him in contemplation and reverence.
Last Sunday, Rev Christine de Senna and Jenny Marshall gave us a wonderful taster of what it means to embrace prayer as a way of life.
Be assured that there are endless ways to pray and each of us are encouraged to embrace whichever is most comfortable for us as individuals; are few ways could be:
Lectio Divina or Lectio 365 - ancient forms of prayer, called “divine reading”. It’s a powerful way to pray and listen for God’s voice through the scriptures.
Gospel Contemplation is also an ancient contemplative form of prayer, but more focused on listening to God through passages in the Gospel.
Taize-style Prayer incorporates music into a time of scripture and prayer, using music to enhance and deepen the prayers.
Praying With Art or Praying through Prayer Doodles
Taking a Prayer Walk is a great way to pray for others in your community. Take a physical walk through your neighbourhood or through a part of town that desperately needs prayer, or take a virtual prayer walk from within your own house.
God bless St Aug’s as we walk together in prayer!
Your Friend and Vicar, Kofe.
Vicar Kofe
Today’s service
Theme: Our Life of Prayer: The Journey to God’s Kingdom
Sentence: ‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. Mark 6:2
Collect: Father God, what I know of You will only ever be a fraction of who You are. Jesus, open my mind to see You, and to understand the Scriptures, and what it teaches us about prayer Spirit, move my heart from familiar to fascinated as I discover more of who you are, and my heart is set ablaze with Your unfailing love for me and the people in my world. Amen.
Readings: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28 & Luke 11:1-13
Monthly Prayer Focus: The strengthening of our Prayer Ministry Team
Parish News
Diocesan Prayer Community
Continuing with our Theme of Prayer this week, I think its appropriate to be reminding ourselves of the Diocesan Prayer Community that has been operating since March this year. This Community identifies the issues which challenge our Diocese (and parish!) and join each other in praying for those issues.
At the Special Synod a few weeks ago, I discovered that other parishes have embraced this concept, and parishioners have enthusiastically signed up to be part of this Community. Some parishes have 20; some, 15; others more than 30, sadly, St Aug’s comes up with three people who are part of the Diocesan Prayer.
I urge us all to deeply consider signing up to pray with others from other parishes! We receive regular updates and forms of encouragement from our Archdeacon of Regeneration & Mission, and it only takes a few minutes of our time each day or week.
Please see the information insert, and let the Vicar know if you’re interested. There is a scan option that is not difficult to use at all.
Our People, Our Place
A few weeks ago, we all received forms to fill out as part of our “Our People, Our Place” drive. Several of you have responded, and these stories are now displayed at the back of the church. Several interesting reads if you are keen to get to know someone more intimately. We look forward to receiving more of your stories!
Vestry Members
We need urgent action in securing photos of yourselves for our Parish Leadership Team block on our church noticeboard. Please make arrangements with Newell Grenfell to have a snap taken of yourselves at your earliest convenience. I too, need an update of mine, so don’t feel too bad about it all; get it done soon though, please.
New Parish Directory
The Parish Directory for 2024-2025 is now available (in booklet and A4 form) at the back of the Church
St Aug’s & Beyond…
Ellel Ministries event - Friday 26 and Saturday 27 July
Ellel Ministries: are very excited to announce an upcoming Explore event, focusing on Healing from Accident and Trauma, at Hope Presbyterian Church.
Please refer to the flyer on the noticeboard at the back of the church for more details.
Living Faith Conference
PRAY DISCIPLE INSPIRE - Bring your parish team and join us for the 2024 Living Faith Diocesan Conference! With Guest Speakers: Elanor SANDERSON, Dallas HAREMA, Grant NORSTWORTHY
This will be a great opportunity for spiritual growth and encouragement as we hear from inspirational leaders who canhelp us grow in confidence in our faith and get better at making new disciples. There will also be a Q & A discussion panel to address your questions.
This conference is for everyone - younger, older, exploring faith, new to faith and the seasoned Christian.
So bring a friend, join a group and register!
Tickets $40/pp, see Jo Ashton Martyn for these, or, scan the bar code on the poster below for this event at the back of the Church, or visit www.bit.ly/LivingFaithConference
Cathedral Reinstatement Project Update
(Summary) post Synod 22/06/2024
Subject to a funding pathway to completion of the reinstated Cathedral we have agreed to contribute a further $16.2m of Diocesan funds to the Project. Since a significant portion of this amount would come from the sale of the Transitional Cathedral site, any such sale will need to be on the basis of that pathway being established (since otherwise we need to remain on that site) and on the condition that we have continued use of the site until we return to the Square. We also resolved to support CPT accepting recommendations to descope the Project such as reducing the seismic strength of the building from 100% New Building Standard to 67% of that standard, and deferring construction of the proposed Visitors' Centre and Cathedral Centre to an unknown future date. Accepting such recommendations will reduce the overall cost of completion of construction from $248m (as announced on 6 April 2024) to $219m or lower.
City Mission
Check out the latest City Mission newsletter Reach Out featuring our very own Carlie Jones!
https://www.citymission.org.nz/reach-out-winter-2024
Helpful info
Giving
Online Giving - “Green” Tokens (trial) for the Offertory Plate
Hey lovely people, now that the majority of you donate ‘on-line’ we have created green tokens for you to place (if you wish) into the offertory plate. These tokens will then be blessed at the front of the Church along with any other cash/envelopes. If you would like to join those who give regularly online, you can find all the details you’ll need on the Giving Page.
Groups
It’s easy to connect and get involved with some great social and faith-focused groups that meet regularly across the parish. You can find out about all our regular groups on our Groups page. If you have any questions, just click the contact button to connect with the group’s organiser.
Need prayer?
We’d love to pray for you. See the ‘Prayer Support’ section on the Help & Support page for more information on how we can help with your prayer needs. There are confidential and anonymous options available.