Weekly Bulletin: Staying connected as a church - 25 September 2022

Kia ora St John’s whānau,

This Sunday our Youth Group are leading the worship service at 10am.

The Thrive Youth Band will play, and there will be a skit as part of the worship time together.

All ages will remain together for the whole service, so no youth and kids peer groups this Sunday morning.

If you can’t gather in the city, and you want to join the worship service via Zoom, here are the details to access the live-stream:
 
Zoom Meeting ID: 370 260 759
Passcode: worship
 
The link to join the Zoom worship service is below.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/370260759?pwd=b2ZkajZ5d28rTy9EN1VKZDJUM3N4dz09 
 

If using your phone: dial 04 886 0026 (Meeting ID: 370 260 759#, Passcode: 1560107#)

This is the link to the printable Service Sheet 

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT...

RAISING THE STANDARD OF GIVING

We are invited to reflect on how our giving is an important part of living out our faith. ‘Raising our standard of giving’ – describes the thoughtful re-examination of our giving as an important expression for our faith. Together we are thinking about our values, re-examining our giving habits accordingly, making carefully thought-out decisions, and re-arranging our priorities in using money to enable us to carry out these decisions. We give meaningfully, not because the Church needs it (it does, of course) but because as Christians we need to give for our own sake spiritually.
More information will be provided in the coming weeks to help us re-examine our giving.

FAITH THINKING EVENT

This weekend we have the first Faith Thinking event in Wellington: Living Faithfully in the Anthropocene: Theological Imagination and Ecological Practices for the Church
Surrounded and daily reminded of the ‘ecological wounds’ of our current reality, how might the Church live faithfully? This short Faith Thinking course explores how the Christian tradition might awaken our imagination and nourish new (ancient) ways of inhabiting the world – offering theologies and practices (beyond ‘activism’) that respond to the ecological challenges we face.

Dr Andrew Shepherd – Lecturer in Theology and Public Issues.
Friday Sept 23rd (7.00pm -9.00pm)
Saturday Sept 24th (9.00am -12.30pm)
St John's in the City Presbyterian Church
170 Willis Street, Wellington
Cost: $20 per person
To register, go to: https://www.otago.ac.nz/continuingeducation/index.html

FREE GAMELAN CONCERT

This Saturday at 2pm you are invited to the Gamelan Concert: Eternal Glory by Padhang Moncar. This is part of making connections with others in our neighbourhood.
Gamelan Padhang Moncar is a group of New Zealand musicians dedicated to the study and performance of Javanese music and based at the New Zealand School of Music (Victoria University campus) in Wellington.
Afterwards, there will be some refreshments over at the St John’s Centre. We would like to encourage you to come and invite your friends and family to this free concert.

FELLOWSHIP GROUP

Tuesday 27th September, 11am in the St John’s Centre Hall.
“Seeing the Invisible: Black Holes, the Universe and our place in it” This was the title of a presentation given last month at a Science & Faith seminar at St John’s by Prof Jeff Tallon.
At this month’s Fellowship Group you can hear this presentation again, along with the wondrous images from the deepest parts of space.

“As a Christian I hold to the view that there is more to life than what we see in the physical realm. Truth is not confined to physical reality but reaches deep into the unseen from which we derive moral sensibility, and a profound sense of place and meaning. And if indeed the physical universe is Created then ultimate truth surely is to be found in the search for our Creator. We as humans build our lives around the as-yet unseen and it is only natural that we should reach out to the ultimate Unseen.” Jeff Tallon, Professor of Physics at Victoria University of Wellington, and concurrently an Emeritus Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and nanotechnology.

VISION TO ACTION

Our Vision: We explore and share the gospel with our dynamic neighbourhood. We create safe spaces to be, to belong, and to navigate the tough stuff. Getting to know God is a team sport – that’s why we do this together, not alone.

How to get involved… Join a project team – everyone is welcome!!

Site and Space – Get involved in exploring how the St John’s site can be used in an outreach capacity. This could involve physical changes, projects, use of the Centre.
Current Project: Christmas in the Courtyard - a celebration with food, music and carols
Contact Rob Anderson or Judi Ferguson      
 
Community Rebuild – Help re-establish and build back internal relationships and friendship in the St John’s community post COVID.
Current Project: Supporting Attendance at Church Camp and Talent Show (this was achieved with great success!)
Contact: Margaret Gilkison or Jemma August
 
Caring for Specific Groups of Need in the St John’s Community – Help us intentionally build connections between generations and serve specific groups of need e.g. young, elderly, youth.
Contact: TBC
 
Whānau Night Extension – Get involved in building on the success of Whānau Night. Held each month during school terms in the St John’s Centre or in homes. Food, fun, faith and focus.
Current Project: Youth Lead Code Breaker Night, 20 November 2022
Coordinator contacts for 20 November Whanau Night: Antonia Milkop and Bronwyn Wood with St John’s Youth Group
What we need:  In order for the church to carry on running Whanau Nights from 2023 onwards, we will need to find a committed leader to help orchestrate and organise teams to run future Whanau nights.  Does this sound like you?
 
Vision Communication and Connections – Ensuring St John’s is communicating our Vision with the wider community and supporting the project teams.
Current Project: Improving Signage and Billboards
Contact: Elizabeth Gibbs
 
Getting to Know our Neighbours /Understanding Our - Eco System/Community – Building direct relationships with our immediate neighbourhood i.e. business and organisations, Victoria University of Wellington and Massey University, Kaianga Ora, building developers, WCC, neighbouring Churches, schools.
Current Projects: Follow-up event from Art Installation and Connecting with local property developers to understand future populations.
Contact: Pamela Cohen        

The St John’s Vision is a key focus for Session Leaders so feel free to contact any one of them about this. In particular you can contact the Session Clerk, Rob Anderson.

NAME TAGS

As we turn our Vision into action, one very easy and practical way we can build community is to wear a name tag.
Please keep your name tag on when you come over for Morning Tea in the Centre, and there will be a receptacle to drop your name tag into before you leave.

ONE CONFERENCE

This leadership training conference for the Presbyterian Church is being hosted at St John’s in November (2pm 17th of November - 2:30pm Saturday the 19th of November).
We will have many folks travelling from out of town and many have asked if there any possibility of being billeted. Would you like to consider billeting out-of-town attendees to the conference?
Conference attendees will have all meals provided at the conference except breakfast. If you can offer billeting please fill in this form One Conference Billet Host Form or email grace@presbyterian.org.nz

NEW WINE FESTIVAL

At this all age festival many voices worship the One. 19th-23rd January 2023 (Wellington Anniversary Weekend) at Wairarapa College in Masterton.
For more details and to register to go (along with others from St John’s): https://newwine.org.nz/

WEEKLY ONLINE DEVOTION

We have Online Devotions every Thursday at 11am. You are welcome to join with others for fifteen minutes of spiritual reflection together.
The link to join via Zoom is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/150457018?pwd=OU55OXhDY2YvZFlIWmNNZkxVaVN2UT09
If using your phone, dial 04 886 0026 (Meeting ID: 150 457 018, Passcode: 333)

The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Allister