Dear Friends,
This has been quite a week. I woke on Sunday with only half a voice, and by Sunday night I had the most terrible man-cold. Then on Tuesday we moved across town from the large rented vicarage to our own brand-new house, much smaller and warmer and sunnier. The pre-moving and post-moving work has kept us frantically busy, racing against time, and hampered by the incessant rain. The bad weather has prevented the laying of our drive and forecourt, which should have been finished three weeks ago. There were wet cartons and puddles and mud everywhere. I am consoled by remembering the first Vicar of S. Michael’s, who in the winter of 1851 wrote that in the endless rain their tiny house leaked so much that he and his wife and new-born child had to have a tarpaulin over their bed, and that when they got up, the water poured all through the room. For us, the clear frosty Wednesday was a delightful relief.
Our hearts are with Bosco and Helen and Jonathan Peters in the weeks ahead as they face the difficult days of the trial.
On Thursday I went to Auckland to represent S. Michael’s at the funeral of the Revd Jenny Harrison, who was our curate in the late nineties. I am writing this as I wait to go to S. Peter’s, Onehunga, for the service. On Saturday we are to hold a memorial service for Jenny at S. Michael’s. Our first woman curate, Jenny was an outstanding pastor and priest in both Parish and School. Our love and prayers are with John McAlpine, her husband and co-vicar at S. Peter’s.
John De la Bere has gone away for a few weeks to visit his family in Hong Kong and St Albans, England. We shall miss him greatly. Dorothy Perkins and Dorothy Burrows are producing the Trumpet, for which we are very grateful.
Next Saturday our Vestry members will spend a few hours together at S. James, Harewood, planning and praying and getting to know each other better.
This weekend, we are delighted to celebrate his 80th birthday with Fr Bob Peck. When he came to S. Michael’s a dozen years ago after a career in the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, and in the Diocese of Wellington, and then terms as Mayor of Ohakune, he brought his passion for social justice, warm and expert pastoral care, and his gift for brief and fitting words. God bless you, Fr Bob.
I leave you with some wise words from The Human Condition, by Thomas Keating:
God has not promised to take away our trials,
but to help us change our attitude toward them.
That is what holiness really is.
In this life, happiness is rooted in our basic attitude toward reality.
May God bless you all. Fr Peter Williams
