NETWORK NEWS
ST PETER’S ANGLICAN CHURCH
MERCURY BAY MISSION DISTRICT
JANUARY 2018
OUR MISSION STATEMENT:
“TO KNOW AND MAKE KNOWN THE LOVE OF GOD”
JANUARY WORSHIP SERVICES AT ST PETER’S
Sunday 7th JanuaryPresider:Gillian Reid
Gospel and Reflection / HOLY COMMUNION
Liturgist: Maxwell Reid
(Barbara Brown Taylor) – Nicky Hewlett
Sunday 14th January
Presider: Gillian Reid
Gospel and Reflection / HOLY COMMUNION
Liturgist: Robin Rainbow
(Barbara Brown Taylor)–Edith Thompson
Sunday 21st January
Presider: Gillian Reid
Gospel and Reflection: / HOLY COMMUNION
Liturgist: Dawn Schibli
(Barbara Brown-Taylor) – Gillian Reid
Sunday 28th January
Presider: Gillian Reid
Gospel and Reflection: / HOLY COMMUNION
Liturgist: Jenny Rainbow
(Barbara Brown Taylor) – Jennie Rainbow
Weekly Service Roster
If you swap a duty with someone else – reading, chalice bearer, prayers etc, as well as changing it on the roster by the door please would you let the Liturgist for that Sunday know as they may not check the alterations during the week. This will make it much easier for them when putting the service together. Many thanks.
As always if you have travel plans please let Maxwell know before the rosters are finalized. Once the roster is finalized you must organize your own swaps if you can’t do a duty you are rostered for.
GILLIAN’S MONTHLY MUSINGS
While we are already four weeks (Advent) into our new Christian year, we are now at Christmas and almost at the beginning of a new calendar year. Although many of the Christmas traditions we have inherited are from the Northern Hemisphere Winter, it is very clear that the probable season of Jesus Christ’s birth was more like our Summer. There is no way Caesar would have called for a census, nor shepherds been on the hillsides minding their sheep, nor anyone been travelling long distances to find the new-born Messiah, if the place had been covered in snow with temperatures down around zero. I confess I do have a small sense of satisfaction, that once again we have probably got it right, upside down at the bottom of the world as we are.
When Samuel Marsden stood on a makeshift pulpit on the beach at Oihi Bay in the Bay of Islands, and told the local Maori the story of the birth of Christ, he began a story retelling tradition that happens on Christmas Day in every Christian church throughout New Zealand. By that one simple act, we are joined with every other Christian in this country, and also, are the first in the world to proclaim the joy and hope that comes with this baby’s birth.
However, we also know that Jesus was born into a time of gross injustice and danger, with a panic-stricken refugee exodus from Bethlehem when his, and many other baby’s lives, were threatened. His coming was, and is, celebrated as the birth of the Prince of Peace, yet 2,000 years later we still have refugees fleeing their homelands, living in harsh conditions in detention camps, and ego-driven leaders whose words and behavior put us all at peril.
Still, in all the challenges of our circumstances, both here in New Zealand and in many other parts of the world, Christmas is the powerful reminder that we have been given this precious gift of a possible peaceful future. It is up to each of us, with what we say and do on the other 364 days of the year that will determine whether this amazing gift from God really can come true.
May you all have a truly loving, hope-filled, joyful, and peaceful Christmas that lasts right through 2018.
FOOD BASKET – don’t forget your donation to the Social Services Food Basket. This is a very worthy cause, and there are people in Whitianga who are really struggling.
FUND RAISING STALL
The ladies who ran the cake stall on the 16th did a great job and raised over $500 to go towards St Peter’s Restoration. Well done Jennie, Janet, Dawn and Suzie and of course a huge thank you to all of you who supplied items for sale not only for 16th but also for the previous stalls.
WHO SHOULD MAKE THE COFFEE???
A man and a wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.
The wife said, “You should do it dear, because you get up first and then we don’t have to wait so long for the first cup”.
The husband replied, You are in charge of the cooking around here so you should do it because it is part of your job and I am happy to wait.”
Wifie replied, “No dear, you should do it and besides it says in the Bible that the man should do the coffee.”
Hubby said, “I can’t believe that! Show me.” So she fetched the Bible, opened the New Testament and showed him that at the top of several pages, it indeed says
“HEBREWS”
THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS
I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good there-fore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again
++++++++++++++
How often do we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource. We go to Him because we have nowhere else togo. And then we learn that storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but unto the desired haven.
+++++++++++++++
Prayer for Joy
Help me oh God To listen to what it is that makes my heart glad, and to follow where it leads.
May joy, not guilt; your voice, not the voice of others; your will, not my wilfulness; be the guides that lead me to my vocation.
Help me to unearth the passions of my heart that lay buried in my youth, and help me go over that ground again and again, until I can hold it in my hands, hold and treasure your calling on my life.
+++++++++++++++
MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
The spiritual life depends upon the Unseen. To live the spiritual life, you must believe in the Unseen. Try not to lose the consciousness of God’s spirit in you and in others. As a child in its mother’s arms, stay sheltered in the understanding and love of God. God will relieve you of the weight of worry and care, misery and depression, want and woe, faintness and heartache, if you will let Him. Lift up your eyes from earth’s troubles and view the glory of the unseen God. Each day try to see more good people, more of the Unseen in the seen.
+++++++++++++++++
Why go to church
A church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. (or Saturday) “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.”
This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher.
“I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know thisThey all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!!”
When you are DOWN to nothing…. God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible! Thank God for the physical AND our spiritual nourishment!..
+++++++++++++++++++++++
I needed a fillerfor this spot so you get this tasty fritter recipe to try, and by the way these are yummy the next day cold on a sandwich or with a salad…..
In a bowl throw in
2 eggs (broken) and1 x Tbsp of flour with some salt and pepper and mix well…
Add 2 grated courgettes
1 large grated kumera
3 Chopped button mushrooms
Heat oil and 2 tsp butter and when nice and hot spoon the mixture in and gently, cook till golden brown (maybe 4 minutes on each side).
Serve with fresh steamed beans and broccoli from the garden.
If you want to add some grated cheese to the mix this is nice as well…..
OTHER EVENTS FOR ST PETER’S IN DECEMBER
Prayer Group / In recess for the time beingCombined Churches Evening Service / No more this year. Back in January
Combined Churches Prayer Meeting / In recess until next year
Knit for Purpose / Next meeting, Friday 2nd February, at St Patrick’s church, Campbell St. 10am to
12 noon.
Worship Team / Sunday January 28th after the service.
Church Council / Sunday 18th February 9.00 am at St Andrews
Anglican Service at the Continuing Care Unit / At 11.00am on Wednesday 17th January– Please come along and join in the singing or help hand out books.
WHO’S WHO AT ST PETER’S
Clergy: Priest in Charge / The Venerable Michael BerryPriest Assistant / Rev. Dr. Gillian Reid
Licensed Lay Minister: / Sharon Short
Vestry: People’s Warden and Synod Rep / Nicky Hewlett
Priest’s Warden / Prof. Kevin Pringle
Treasurer / Brenda Taylor
Vestry Secretary & NN Editor / Alison Goodlet
Webmaster & Safety Officer / Maxwell Reid
Pastoral Care Coordinator / Dawn Schibli
Outreach Coordinator / Jennie Rainbow
Worship Team: / Gillian Reid
(Roster Coordinator): / Maxwell Reid
Dawn Schibli
Nicky Hewlett
Jennie Rainbow
Robin Rainbow
Sharon Short
Pastoral Care Team: / Dawn Schibli
Gillian Reid
Nicky Hewlett
Muriel Pedersen
Sharon Short
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
website: wwwanglicanchurchwhitianga.org.nz
Mercury Bay Mission District contact person: Nicola Hewlett
Ph. 8665115 Email: