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Update

Grace Presbyterian Church of New Zealand

The Council of Assembly has decided not to pursue the obtaining of an injunction on the name Grace Presbyterian Church of New Zealand.

The decision was not straight forward. Legal advice was such that Council needed to consider enforcing the agreement the Church had with the group which left St Andrews Manurewa and in relation to the confusion around the name. Council was also conscious of the desire of the new group to distinguish itself from the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. The Moderator and the Assembly Executive Secretary met with representatives of the new denomination on two occasions. Both churches expressed their desire to work cooperatively where possible. The Council reaffirmed the need for devoting energies and resources to helping the Church move forward in mission. Both the churches expressed their desire to work cooperatively where possible.

General Secretaries Meeting

Every eighteen months the Secretary of the Methodist Church and I meet with the eight General Secretaries of the Uniting Church in Australia. These are our closest peers which enables us to talk about issues arising in our work. These included; how national and regional bodies go about planning, how they best help congregations in mission, how national church identity develops, how congregational resources can be applied where they are most needed, information technology, sexual misconduct and disciplinary proceedings, and theological education. Our paths for helping the Church be effective in mission and our challenges are very similar. A major difference is a greater will among UCA congregations to resource congregations through synods. In Victoria, for example, all property sale proceeds go into a combined pool from which congregations can apply for development funding (presently $16M).

Niuean Fono Motu and Cook Island Uapou Fellowship meetings

Every Queen's Birthday weekend the Niuean part of the Church meets for worship, reflection, and direction-setting. At the meeting just held a keynote speaker and workshop leader was Dr Colin Tukuitonga, Director-General of Health who is Niuean. His contribution reflected the group's desire to attend to the major issues of public health facing Niuean peoples. Also participating was the Rev. Falkland Liuvae, a minister of Ekalesia Niue, who has been stated supply in Wellington while on leave from his Niuean congregation. We hope to host more ministers of Ekalesia Niue in this way.
On the same weekend the Cook Island part of the Church meets for fellowship, music, and inspiration.

Planning

The Council of Assembly has initiated a planning process to review and take further the strategic framework developed by the Council through the nineties. It is an opportunity to consider how far the Church has moved in developing and encouraging healthy congregations, what the future might look like, and what the next steps need to be for the Council.

Our Statistics

Partnerships

An important part of the work of the Service Team involves the half-time Ecumenical Relations Secretary, Chris Nichol. Chris's work focuses on managing our relationship with the Council for World Mission - a partnership which stretches into many aspects of our church's life, our relationship with Pacific Churches which is an important part of our developing identity, and with ecumenical agencies in New Zealand. Chris's work is bearing fruit in that our involvement with CWM has become more positive and we are accessing more of its resources in partnership with other churches. One initiative, for example, uses CWM resources to help our congregation in Suva develop a sustainable future in partnership with other Pacific churches. CWM also funded the AC Nielsen research and will help fund new initiatives stemming from the research.

We are building a positive reputation through the Pacific which is leading to many opportunities for providing and receiving support. Another achievement is the progress in working with other churches in New Zealand to thinking about the ecumenical agencies we now need.

Doug Langford

The former Manager of Financial Services, now Secretary of the Church Property Trustees, Doug Langford, received a CNZM in the Queen's Birthday Honours. The award was for service to manufacturing and the community. Congratulations Doug.

Tutahi Tatou

Initiatives addressing AC Nielsen Research

Following on from the interesting research that AC Nielsen carried out for us, about connecting with children and parents, two new initiatives will be launched in the Auckland area this year. The first initiative aims to help the church re-discover how to connect with children and parents at times of transition such as births and marriages. This initiative, building on the discoveries of the research will involve a person appointed to work with several churches and parents in that 'interested in spirituality but cautious about the church' group. It is hoped that this appointment will develop the celebrant ministry of the church in a fresh way, while also building non-threatening bridges between the community and the church.

The second initiative is aimed at addressing the perception of the church in our communities. The aim is to spend some time developing a quality standard for children's programmes, and then helping a number of churches to meet that standard. Part of this initiative will be to conduct a marketing campaign to draw attention to these re-vitalised areas of our church life.

These initiatives are being funded by a grant from the Council for World Mission, which is available for innovative new approaches to mission relating to the programme outlined in 'Directions'. While these two initiatives will be Auckland based, part of their brief is to spread learning in the wider church.

Please watch Bush Telegraph and the church's website for ongoing developments.

Simon McLeay
MRT Northern