Thought for the week
Thought For The Week 4 December 2022
This week I had the privilege of helping Andrea, Joy & Jo begin to decorate the windows of the St. Stephens foyer for Advent. At first, I admit, I was a trifle curmudgeonly. “Why bother making all of this effort, when we’ll just have to put it away again in a few weeks?” But, pretty soon, […]
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Thought For The Week 27 November 2022
Last week Rory and I attended the One Conference in Wellington, held at the beautiful and historic St Johns in Willis St. The conference brought together ministers and leaders from across our PCANZ family for encouragement, networking and resourcing. Unlike General assembly, there were no business sessions, motions to pass or policies to approve. This […]
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Thought For The Week 20 November 2022
Is Jesus the help we are looking for? There is a poignant segment in the Advent readings for this year that finds John the Baptist languishing in Herod’s dungeon and doubting whether Jesus is the promised Messiah. Despite his earlier calls to prepare the way for the Messiah, events have turned for the worse. So, […]
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Thought For The Week 13 November 2022
Last week we took a diversion from reading Luke for our AGM service but this week we are back with a fascinating reading from chapter 21 about the signs of the end times. It’s a passage full of prediction about what is to come and it’s also very relatable; we have seen many of the […]
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Thought for the Week 23 October 2022
Spring has well and truly sprung! Along with the flowers and the green buds, there are a number of fresh shoots beginning in our church life too: Rhythm Kids began for the term last Tuesday, and as well as our loyal regulars it was wonderful to sing and play with some new families and a group […]
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THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK 16 OCTOBER 2022
Welcome to our services today. If you are at the St Stephen’s site, you may notice some new faces around. We are hosting a group of Afrikaans speaking South Africans who will be using the lounge to access a live streamed service in their native tongue. We are trialling this for the next few weeks […]
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THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK 9 OCTOBER 2022
Welcome to our special combined service today and especially welcome to our Boys and Girls Brigade families. This year on the 4 October marked 139 years since the Boys brigade was founded by William Alexander Smith in Glasgow, making it the oldest uniformed organisation for youth in the world. We are very proud of the […]
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Thought For The week 2nd October 2022
We welcome to our services today Luke Blackbeard, his wife Teresa and children Sophie and Jonathan. The Blackbeard’s will be relocating from Gore in the new year as Luke commences his training towards National Ordination and are here this weekend to explore Timaru and get familiar with our church. The Parish Council and ministry team […]
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Thought For The Week 25 September 2022
Parish Council elections Like all Presbyterian churches, our Parish is governed by a church council made up of leaders and elders from the parish. In our case, the Parish Council is made of up to 9 members. These members are the trustees of the organisation, and have voting rights. In addition to this, the ministers […]
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Thought For The Week 18.11.2022
Last Monday we received the wonderful news that our country entered a new phase in our long battle with Covid 19 when the government scraped the traffic light system that governed our public health measures. Masks are no longer required except when visiting hospitals, pharmacies and rest homes to protect the most vulnerable. The dangers […]
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