Some quick notes on the previous few weeks

The biggest single event over the last three weeks has been being on holiday in Cairns for 9 days. We went for a wedding, and managed to squeeze in two other family birthdays, a wedding anniversary, a tiny bit of shopping, and a little bit of sightseeing. It was so nice being with Bonnie’s family, and being somewhere warm for a while.

Before we went I had a full day taking services at Fraser Manor, and meeting with Huikakahu Kawe, the Chairman of the Ngati Ranginui Iwi Society Inc. I asked for this to being a conversation with Ngati Ranginui now that they have settled. The Kaupapa was the upcoming 150th remembrance of the Battle of Gate Pa, and an invitation to Ngati Ranginui to consider how they might make more use of our facilities. It was low key, but a good start. I hope we can build on it.

The first Sunday back Cliff Simons preached, we farewelled our Parish Administrator, and held a missional mapping workshop, thinking about how we might engage with our wider community. I will blog about this separately. It was a good afternoon.

Last week I met with two couples preparing to get married, wrote a sermon on who let the dogs out, had a meeting to sort our music for the next month, had a meeting with the Wardens about life in general, and then a communication committee meeting to being to work on our parish magazine, and how we might promote the upcoming Pet Sunday and Parish Market Day. Later in the week I met with one of the priests who live in the parish, and another meeting with the new chaplain at our Aged Care facility.  I also had a meeting with AAW and Kahui Wahine to organise an interdenominational service for Christian women in this area. And we had preschool music. A busy week.

On Sunday we had a new youth intern start. I might blog about this separately as well. She is with us for 3 months. So instead of having Monday off (because this w2eekend is all about our Diocesan Synod) I spent the day with her, showing her around, organising a programme for her, helping her settle in. Tuesday we had our usual mid-week service, and the interdenominational service for Christian women. So quite a lot of time was spent getting ready for that, including doing a wee talk on the Good Samaritan. Wednesday morning we went visiting, and then I spent time doing admin. Thursday morning I did have off, (I am enjoying Game of Thrones) and then went visiting and wedding preparation for the afternoon. Tomorrow is preschool music and going to Synod.

My question in the midst of all this is what am I trying to achieve? What is my objective in all this? Where do others see us going as a parish and what is my role in all that. I need to do a lot more work on this. A key part of that is developing a sense of who I am in this place and time. Hmmmmm.