Coverage of GA21 business is on the GA News Thurs 30 Sept page.
Watch the sermon by our new Moderator at GA21 online
Watch on the Church vimeo the sermon by the new Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand Right Rev Hamish Galloway. The sermon was delivered at his installation, the opening service of the online 2021 General Assembly, 7pm 29 September.
Read or download the sermon by PCANZ Moderator Right Rev Hamish Galloway.
Download and view photos from the installation of Moderator Rt Rev Hamish Galloway
Download or view here official photos from the installation of new Moderator Right Rev Hamish Galloway at the online 2021 General Assembly, evening of 29 September. These images can be used in church newsletters. Pictured: Laying of hands by past Moderator Very Rev Bruce Hansen on Moderator Right Rev Hamish Galloway.
A new cloak for the Moderator
Pictured: Alan Simson, Jess Dreadon, Rt Rev Hamish Galloway.
The ceremony and service for installation of the Church's Moderator usually involves the transfer of a ceremonial cloak (Te Korowai Tapu) and the laying on of hands by past Moderators, before the gathered Commissioners of the Assembly. The installation is usually preceded by a powhiri. However, due to the online service some aspects were different.
While it was not possible for Te Aka Puaho and the past Moderator Very Rev Fakaofo Kaio to be present for the handing over of Te Korowai Tapu, it is something that can be looked forward to at a later date. Instead, Hamish had placed upon him a different cloak with great meaning to him...
“There is another cloak that is passed on tonight that acknowledges this Scottish heritage in our Church and my ancestry. I ask Alan Simson to bring that cloak forward. Alan is now well into his 90s. He is an elder at Cashmere Presbyterian. He has been in my life since I arrived as a 4 year-old at Hoon Hay Presbyterian church; he was there when I preached my first sermon at an evening service at Hoon Hay in the early 1970s, and was there when I was ordained as an elder, then as a minister! He represents a generation who have nurtured me.
"With him, Jess Dreadon, one of a wonderful group of young leaders in the PCANZ who I have had the privilege to get to know. They bring to me a cloak given to me by Dorothy Thawley. Her late husband, Michael, was a Moderator of this Church, and his mentor Bill Watt gave it to him. Bill was given it by a Moderator of the Church of Scotland! I look forward to the Te Korowai Tapu as a cloak to celebrate our bi-cultural journey and the place of Te Aka Puaho in our Church. In the meantime, may this cloak also capture something of our Scottish roots and connections with this increasingly culturally diverse Church of ours!
“To this cloak I add this stole, made by the people of my Cashmere parish for Michael Thawley when he became Moderator. I wear it as a reminder of the mountain and the river I identify with – that Cashmere Church nestled under Sugar Loaf, which has been a visible landmark from my homes, schooling, and life for much of life; and the Opawaho, Heathcote River, which has its origin very close to where we live in Aidanfield. A river where I went eeling as a youngster, and along which I bike to get to my office in Cashmere.
“And this stole, given by the people of Cashmere, reminds me of the people who have loved me and nurtured my ministry over nearly 40 years, the people of Hoon Hay Presbyterian where I grew up, St Stephen’s in Timaru, St Andrew’s College, Hope Presbyterian, and now Cashmere!”
Church invited to GA21 online for Worship
The opening Worship of the 2021 General Assembly, including Communion and installation of our new Moderator, will be streamed live on YouTube. For those not attending as Commissioners, you are warmly invited to share in this important event in the life of our Church.
Please view livestream by clicking here at 6.50pm for a 7pm start on Wednesday 29 September and have your Communion elements ready. Download or view the Order of Service.
YouTube links can also be found of the LAC GA21 website.
Church invited to view GA21 business via livestream - Thurs 30 Sept
Non-Commissioners can also share in the General Assembly online by viewing the Thursday 30 September YouTube livestream of GA21 business from 8.30am to approximately 5pm (devotion will begin at 8.30am). Please view by clicking this link.