03 April 2011 - Letter from the Vicar

Dear Friends,

Today is Mothering Sunday and we welcome many of the S. Michael’s School community as it joins with the Parish for the Mass this morning. As is the custom on this day, we bless flowers and give them to our mothers and caregivers, thanking them for their care and nurture of us. 

Mothering Sunday is half-way through the season of Lent, and so we are reminded that Holy Week and Easter are not far away. Ar that time we shall again gather to tell and live through the great story which defines us as Christians and in which we find the foundation of our faith—the story of our salvation. Bishop George Connor, formerly of Dunedin, will join us as our special preacher. He says that he is in touch with what we are all experiencing, through family members who live in severely damaged parts of Christchurch. We look forward to his sharing of God’s word with us.

There are only two weeks left of this school term. Because Holy Week is in the first week of the holidays, we shall mark its main events with short School services  next week. These will be in the church and all are welcome to join us.

This year we are unable to have the Solemn Stations of the Cross with Liszt’s music, as much of it is for the organ. Instead, at 7:00 pm on Palm Sunday we shall have Stations of the Cross, enriched with vocal music. The organ is badly damaged and, when the insurers are agreed, it will be taken away for repair.

We hear today two of Jesus’ three wonderful stories about joyful finding, as told by Luke. These are The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin, and the third is about the waiting father and his prodigal son. In these stories, the main characters (the shepherd and the householder) lose, search and find the lost object, and then celebrate with friends and neighbours. In both cases the character goes to very great lengths to find what is lost. Jesus presents an image of how God, like a shepherd or a householder, or a devoted parent, makes a very costly effort to bring back the lost. When we are lost or in some way estranged, God always offers us the gift of forgiveness and restoration to the community. Repentance, the turning around to new life, happens when we are able to accept this kind of God, to enter into the joy of being found, and then to live in this profound acceptance.

This is a good opportunity to remind School families that every year we offer school pupils the opportunity to be baptised. We certainly do not put pressure on anyone to be baptised. But while young people are at S. Michael’s and surrounded by the life of a Christian community of faith, they have a good setting in which to grow into their baptism and be prepared to consider their own commitment to Christian faith as young adults. A letter will go out to School families very soon. Candidates will be prepared in Term Two and baptised early in Term Three. Please think about this.

We now have a limited power supply to the church, and it is very expensive  to augment it. We shall do so in the depths of winter. But in the meantime, if you are coming to the church and it is cool, please bring very warm clothes.

May God bless you all.

Fr Peter Williams

Lent Readings: Week Four  
    
Monday  Isaiah 65: 17–21 John 4: 43–54
Tuesday  Ezekiel 47: 1–9, 12 John 5: 1–3, 5–16
Wednesday  Isaiah 49: 8–15  John 5: 17–30
Thursday  Exodus 32: 7–14 John 5: 31–47
Friday  Wisdom 2: 1, 12–22 John 7: 1–2, 10, 25–30
Saturday  Jeremiah 11: 18–20 John 7: 40–52

27th March 2011 - Letter from the Vicar

Dear Friends,

At the moment I think we are all finding that everything we try to do in Christchurch , takes more and more time and effort. Closed streets, damaged roads and bridges, and very slow traffic make our days more stressful and less productive than we would like. The patience and generosity of so many people is appreciated.

At S. Michael’s we are trying to restart the parish programme, but are aware that it is no easy matter for most of us to get to the church for Mass or for meetings of any kind. As the air becomes suddenly cooler we wonder how long we can go without power in the Church. We are working with our electricians and builders to get as many of our facilities working as soon as possible. If a power supply is not available when the winter comes in earnest, we may have to move into the Parish Hall. The School is well back now and coping bravely with the reduced space and the vagaries of the plumbing.  

Despite all this our Sundays have been lovely, with unaccompanied singing and gentle candlelight, and the same sense of community as usual.

Next Sunday is Mothering Sunday again, and as many as possible of the Church and School communities will gather here together for the Sung Mass. This will include the blessing and distribution of flowers to mothers and caregivers. It would be appreciated if those so gifted could make and bring some small posies of flowers and greenery to add to the supply that will be distributed at the Mass.

I leave you with some words from Henri Nouwen:

We often wonder what we can do for others, especially for those in great need. It is not a sign of powerlessness when we say;  we must pray for one another. To pray for one another is, first of all, to acknowledge, in the presence of God, that we belong to each other as children of the same God. Without this acknowledgement of human solidarity, what we do for one another does not flow from who we truly are. We are brothers and sisters, not competitors or rivals. We are children of one God, not partisans of different gods.

To pray, that is to listen to the voice of the One who calls us the  eloved  is to learn that that voice excludes no one. Where I dwell, God dwells with me, and where God dwells with me I find all my sisters and brothers. And so intimacy with God and solidarity with all people are two aspects of dwelling in the present moment that can never be separated.

God bless you all.

Fr Peter Williams

Lent Readings: Week Three
Monday 2 Kings 5: 1–15 Luke 4: 24–30
Tuesday Daniel 2: 20–23 Matthew 18: 21–35
Wednesday Deuteronomy 4: 1, 5–9  Matthew 5: 17–19
Thursday  Jeremiah 7: 23–28 Luke 11: 14–23
Friday Hosea 14: 2–10 Mark 12: 28–34
Saturday Hosea 5: 15–6:6 Luke 18: 9–14 

20th March 2011 - Letter from the Vicar

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I had a call from one of my cousins, who has had to postpone his wedding which I was to conduct next weekend. His bride is Japanese and comes from Northeast Japan where the terrible devastation has occurred. Though they eventually found that all the family have survived, none of them can consider coming to Christchurch at this time. This is only one of many personal connections between our disaster and theirs. The world is a small place and we are wise to see how closely joined together we all are, in trouble and in joy. Our suffering God is present with them and with us in our trauma.

The Transfiguration of Jesus, of which we read on this Sunday, is a mystical experience in which he and his disciples are reminded that God’s holy presence is active in the events of their life, even events that become more and more testing and even terrible, as Jesus approaches the stronghold of his opponents in Jerusalem. God’s Holy Spirit is active in our lives too, even in our ‘time of trial’. It is good if we can trust that, even though it may take us time to see it. 

It was good to be back in S. Michael’s Church last Sunday, and to be here again today. We still have no power and that may be the case for some time, but we have managed with daylight and candlelight. We now have a water supply and that is an improvement. The Revd Lynne Horwood and others have kept the church open for some hours each day. Despite the cordon across the road, people are still about, and some welcome the opportunity to come into this place of prayer. 

The School has reopened and we hope that the roll will fill up as word gets around. The staff have been wonderful in getting the School ready and coping with all the uncertainties. Please support them in your prayers.

As you will see, the stone building has had much of the high-up stonework removed for safety’s sake. The walls up to the height of the eaves have stood up well, strengthened by the work we did a few years ago. While the School has had to move out of this area, it still has plenty of classroom space in the new building. The stone building will, I am sure, be looked at very critically by the safety inspectors, when they have finished elsewhere.

In the week ahead we shall celebrate most of our usual daily Masses at S. Michael’s. Please look at the schedule for this week to check the times. The only change is that on Wednesday we shall not have the 7:00 am Mass here, but instead a 10:00 am Mass at S. John’s, Bishopdale.   

 

May God bless you all.

Fr Peter Willaims

Lent Readings: Week Two

Monday Daniel 9: 4–10   Luke 6: 36–38

Tuesday Isaiah 1: 10, 16–20  Matthew 23: 1–12

Wednesday Jeremiah 18: 18–20   Matthew 20: 17–28

Thursday  Jeremiah 17: 5–10  Luke 16: 19–31

Lady Day Isaiah 7: 10–14    Luke 1: 26–28

or Friday Genesis 37: 3–4, 12–13, 17–28 Matthew 21: 33–46

Saturday Micah 7: 14–15, 18–20  Luke 15: 1–3, 11–32

13th March 2011 - Letter from the Vicar

Dear Friends,

It is good to be back in S. Michael’s Church today after a hard fortnight of exile. In the midst of the chaos, many of us have been fortunate to be able to gather at S. John’s Bishopdale for a Wednesday and a Sunday Mass, and then for the two Masses on Ash Wednesday. We have also been able to give Margaret Knights the liturgical farewell she deserved, despite the obvious difficulties. On those occasions it has been very clear to us that the Church is the community of people and the liturgy, not the building we are in.

S. Michael’s is still perched on the edge of a largely ruined city centre, where shops and offices and people and jobs have gone, and where many will be afraid to return even when permitted.

Some of you have lost houses altogether, or they have been severely damaged, and others of us wonder how long our buildings can continue to resist the wrenching and bucking of the ground beneath them. The emotional cost of all this is huge and painful. It is important for our health to share this with others, and the Revd Lynne Horwood and Claire Anstice and I are available if you need to unburden yourself. Some of us may need expert counselling, and we can help arrange that for you.

We are struggling to get everything lined up so that the School can return as soon as possible, but that may be much harder than we had thought.

Whatever happens we shall open S. Michael’s Church as often as possible, and keep it as a place of prayer for the city and for the broken world God loves so much.

Throughout Lent we are providing a list of the daily Mass readings so that when you cannot come to the altar, you can still listen with the Church to God’s word for us. Simple things, like praying the Our Father carefully every day, reading the Psalms for the day, or the Bible readings that are provided here, can be a refreshing discipline during Lent, and a strengthening thing for us in this hard time.

I hope that through Lent our Church community will be strengthened to face ‘the time of trial’, to be delivered from evil, and to give itself to God’s way wholly and joyfully.

May God bless you all.

Fr Peter Williams

Lent Readings: Week One

Monday Leviticus 19: 1–2, 11–18 Matthew 25: 31–46
Tuesday Isaiah 55: 10–11  Matthew 6: 7–15
Wednesday Jonah 3: 1–10    Luke 11: 29–32
Thursday  Esther 14: 1, 3–5, 12–14  Matthew 7: 7–12
Friday Ezekiel 18: 21–28  Matthew 5: 20–26
Saturday Deuteronomy 26: 16–19  Matthew 5: 43–48

Service datails for Sunday 13th March 2011

From Sunday 13th March the plan is for services to resume in our heritage Church on the corner of Oxford Terrace/ Durham Street at the following times:

• 8am Low Mass
• 10am Solemn Mass
• 5pm Evensong and Benediction (see note below from Robert MacLagon)

 Tim Hall

Please note that evening service this Sunday will be at 5:00 pm, not 7:00 pm as previously advertised.  All services will be at St Michael's

There is now  a fence around the Old Stone Building.  This means parking off Durham Street is limited.  Access to the lounge should be via the Church if possible.  Those who normally enter the church via the lounge can enter most easily via the North porch or will be assisted at the West door.

Robert Maclagan

Service Times/ Locations...

Ash Wednesday

10:00 am at St John's, Bishopdate

6:30 pm at St John's, Bishopdale

Sunday March 13 - Lent 1

Unless otherwise notified all services are planned to be at St Michael's

8:00 am    Low Mass
10:00 am  Solemn Mass
7:00 pm    Evensong and Benediction

Photos of the Church and School are to be fiound at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51343&id=100001363244932&l=e2e13d0f7d


Robert Maclagan

Christchurch Earthquake - Feb 22 2011

Some photos of SMAA taken after the Feb 22 earthquake:


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51343&id=100001363244932&l=e2e13d0f7d