A very
warm welcome to you all this morning. Please come through to the Lounge after the
service for a cuppa and a time to talk.
Foot
Clinic TOMORROW 1-4pm in the lounge.
All the congregation are welcome: Learn to make flax flowers – which will give a
New Zealand touch to our Christmas services – at the Fireside meeting on Tuesday 29th October in the church lounge. The meeting will be
at 7.45pm, allowing the meditation group who meet earlier some peace and quiet before we arrive.
Allison has arranged for Peg Riley to teach us and she will
explain custom as well as flax purpose. She
said “We will need a flax leaf – long
if possible, cut just the day before, the fresher the better!!, at least one
per person, but we can have two or more if you like!
Sharp scissors are helpful, (but you only need one
good pair as we can share,) for cutting to length as we start.”
Please come and join us.
Assisted Dying….local churches are offering an opportunity to learn more about this important
legislation at 7.00pm on Sunday 10th November at Opawa Baptist Church. More details
coming.
Singing Group…. meets 9.15am sharp on the first
and third Sundays. Today’s song is
“God’s Kingdom It Will Come”.
Articles are now required for the next ‘Messenger’.
Please email any contributions to
anneke.howie@gmail.com Deadline: Friday 14th November.
Wednesday Walkers
23rd Oct: Meet 9.30am Meet
in Brookford Pl, off Cashmere Rd, Westmorland. Gerard and Thea
will lead us on our walk around the area. Coffee at Alice in Wonderland Café, Oderings Cashmere Rd. All welcome. Sonya 027 253 3397.
Dis-Ability – an evening with Roland Walter. Tuesday 12 November 7pm at Cashmere Presbyterian Church. Koha entry. Supper provided. Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to meet Roland and hear his story.
Roland Walter is spastically paralyzed.
He doesn’t allow this to impede him in any way. By
expressing his thoughts through art, dance and
assisted speech he shares
his message with the world:
Nothing is impossible.
No matter who you are, life is a gift which should be
embraced
Meditation
Group: Tuesdays
7.00-7.45pm in the church. You’re welcome
to ‘come and try’.
Crafty Crafters: Meets on Thursdays in the Church
lounge 10am-12noon. $3 per session.
For Your Diaries: Next Parish
Breakfast is on Sunday 3rd November 8.45am,
hosted by the Worship Committee.
On Sunday 27th October you are
invited to bike to church
as part of Biketober. No
longer able to bike safely? Walk or ride share.
Presbyterian Support Upper South Island – Notice of 110th Annual Meeting Thursday 24 October
2019 at 5pm, 44 Bealey Ave. Drinks and canapés between 5pm
and 6pm, during which time
staff will be available to take guests on a short
tour of our new home, Te
Korowai. The Annual Meeting will commence at 6pm.
Board of Managers Report:
Landscaping… A fence with gates will shortly be installed
between the church and the Menzshed
community room. The new grass is
growing well…. Thanks to Cyril.
Shelving … a plan for more
storage shelving in the upstairs store and shed one
is being worked on.
Table storage in lounge and foyer… Simple racks have been installed and seem to be
working well.
Menzshed… The classroom
block has been transported on site to be used as a
woodworking workshop. Currently we are gathering the
data to make a consent application. This
involves structural design of pile foundations, and a fire engineers
report. We hope to have a consent
application into the council by the end of the month,
which if successful would allow work to begin in
December to place the building on piles and do the needed fire improvements.
This work will be funded by a grant from the Alpine
Mission fund for $22,000.
Working Bee…..next working bee
on Saturday 30th November, 9.00am. There will be
clearing work around the section, window washing, and
other matters to be attended to.
Corrugated
roof over the kitchen and toilets…. Will be replaced over the Christmas period.
Grass Bins….the old 44gal
drums will be removed and grass clippings will now be put in the council green bin.
Accounts for payment…. Our expenses over the last 2 months included paying insurance of
$7,800, electricity $1300, and amounted to $26,000. Our income for the
period was $29,300, but this included our grant from
Manchester Unity Trust of $11,000 to support the work of our Elder Care Programme.
Financial Situation…. A small task group has been set up to look at how we might lift our
giving and general income to allow us to seek a full
time ministry position. If we restricted ongoing maintenance to
absolute essentials we believe we would need to find
another $40,000 per annum. If the
congregation were to accept this challenge it would mean increased giving, an emphasis on inviting others to join us, and some creative fundraising in the wider community.
Prayer is a vital part of our lives as Christians. In our own
time it has become a neglected spiritual practice. Often it has been
reduced to a ‘what can God do for me” practice. We often fail to take
spiritual formation seriously in our lives.
Prayer is “keeping company with God”. In our time what
is needed is recognising that prayer is about transformation – transformation
of our very beings. Instead of sending words off out there somewhere to
get God to do things, we need to recapture prayer as a time God connects with
us deep to deep and changes us. This is why Jesus so often stressed the
need to find a quiet place to pray. He talked of going into the inner
room which I see as the deeper place of my being. Practices like
mediation can help us do this.
Prayer, like all spiritual practices, is about becoming more
centred in God. Centring in God changes us. It produces what Paul called
the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. These fruits are
many but the most important are compassion, authenticity, courage, and
gratitude.
We all know the institutional church is dying. People say we
need to do more in our community, or we need to change the way we do things to
be more relevant as a church. If there one thing we need it is a more
persistent and active practice of prayer.
