From the Vicar…
Dear Friends,
Again it is a great pleasure for all of us at S. Michael’s Church to welcome all the members of the S. Michael’s Church School community to worship with us this morning. Together we mark the 157th anniversary of the founding of our School, on 20 July 1851. Again we celebrate the long commitment of this community of faith to its ministry through the School, and pray that this ministry may bear fruit in the quality of the citizens it helps to produce.
Behind all this is our longing and praying and working for the ‘kingdom’ of God, whose ways Jesus proclaims in the parables that we hear in the Gospel today. The mustard seed and the yeast tell of the quiet, even hidden, beginnings of the kingdom among us, and then the joyous profusion of its eventual fulfilment. The discovered treasure and the pearl of great price capture the essence of Christian spirituality: the glimpse of a vision of God’s love and God’s future that transforms the value of every other thing in our lives, and gives us great hope and joy.
It is a pleasure to welcome the Revd Mandy Neil as our preacher this morning. After seven months away from S. Michael’s she is now well established as Vicar of S. Paul’s, Papanui. We are grateful that she has been able to arrange for someone to cover for her so that she could return to be with us today. We also thank Mishelle Lee (Year 8) who has provided the special drawing which appears on the cover of this Trumpet.
John De la Bere has just returned from a visit to his family in England. We welcome him back, and thank Dorothy Perkins, Ron Fussell and Judy Tait who have managed the Trumpet in his absence, and all those others who have taken up some of his other responsibilities over recent weeks.
Please remember the Parish Consultation event on the morning of Saturday 16 August, finishing about 1:00 pm. This will be part of the Parish Review to be conducted by the Revd Paul Dyer for the Diocese, and the input of all of you would be welcomed.
The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews, who is at present meeting with most of the Anglican bishops of the world at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, will be installed as our new Bishop of Christchurch on Saturday 30 August, in the Cathedral. Unfortunately seating will be limited, but a few days later, on Thursday 4 September at 7:00 pm, she will preside and preach at the Diocesan Synod Opening Eucharist, to which all are invited.
May God bless you all.
Peter Williams
Objectives of St Michael’s Church School
(taken from the School Constitution)
1. To be a community of worship, learning, and ministry, within the Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, in which the Christian faith as proclaimed in and through the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, may be nurtured.
2. To provide an environment in which true Christian values are sought and fostered, and taken into account in decisions, actions and methods.
3. To provide education in a school of special character, which welcomes, and is open to a wide range of pupils from all social, economic, religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds within the community.
