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From the Moderator
From the Assembly Executive Secretary
Te Kāhui Whanaungatanga Workgroup
Global Mission
Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership
Presbyterian Church Schools
Presbyterian Research Centre
Presbyterian Youth Ministry
CWS Notices
Church Register
Notices
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From the Moderator
Meeting
This last month has involved quite a bit of travel and lots of interaction with people - both things that I enjoy! It was very good to join with the Church Property Trustees for their strategy day in late February and share with them the things I have observed as I have travelled around the country. They have a wide-reaching and complex workload, and it was helpful to spend time looking at the big picture and directions forward.
There has also been a Council of Assembly meeting in Auckland, the second of our sexuality dialogues - this one for the Southern Presbytery held in Balclutha – and the Northern Presbytery ministers retreat at Vaughan Park, Long Bay.
Retreat
The theme for this retreat was ‘Reflecting the light of Christ with authenticity and hope’. In our first session we talked of the light that we share and worked out that between all of us there, we had over 662 years of experience in ordained ministry. There are, of course, also many years of experience in ministry before ordination. What a rich resource this is. We had a stimulating and enriching time as we reflected on our ministries, worshipped and prayed together, learnt some new songs in different languages, had lots of great conversations and shared much laughter.
School
I was also pleased to go to Columba College in Dunedin for the centennial celebration of the Constance Hall and the Columba Old Girls’ Association, and to meet up with our colleague the Rev Charissa Nicol, Principal/Tumuaki there. It is always an encouragement to hear of the life of the schools and the great opportunities and experiences for our young people.
Easter
I am grateful that I will be ‘home’ for Easter, and able to lead the ecumenical Good Friday service, our sunrise service from the lookout over Oamaru, and our Easter service at St Paul’s. It is such a significant time of our church year and for our personal journey of faith.
The gospel passage that was preached on today, John 4: 5-42 contains the wonderful words ‘Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life’. As we continue our journey through Lent, may these words encourage and inspire us.
Ka kite ano
Rose
Right Rev Rose Luxford
Moderator
From the Assembly Executive Secretary
Radical Hope
If you are old enough, I suspect you can tell me where you were on the evening of 28 November 1979. Across the radio and television that evening came the news that Air New Zealand flight TE901 was missing. Events filled our news in the days and weeks and months that followed. It marked us.
In her 2019 book Towards the Mountain, Sarah Myles shared her, and her family’s story, of her grandfather who was one of the 257 people killed when the plane they were on crashed into Mt Erebus, Antarctica, instantly killing all people on board. The book picks up the story of those at the heart of the tragedy – families who lost someone and those who worked so hard to bring loved-ones home. Sarah shares from the heart, names the struggles, and numerous times speaks of the need for radical hope. That phrase sticks. It is hard to have radical hope in these moments.
Radical Hope. Maybe something we are looking for these days in relation to events in our own lives, in our life together in Aotearoa New Zealand, in the world.
Radical Hope. The message of the Gospel; Jesus Has Risen. Luke writes: On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words.
When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Radical Hope. I like what N.T Wright (Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church) writes:
"...left to ourselves we lapse into a kind of collusion with entrophy, acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse but that there's nothing much we can do about them. And we are wrong. Our task in the present...is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.”
Let’s live everyday as resurrection people…
First round of voting for Moderator-designate
All parishes have information concerning the first round of voting for Moderator-designate. There are changes to this process as a result of decisions made at Assembly 2018. It is important parish councils read the background information paper as they prayerfully consider the matter. Names have to be submitted to presbytery clerks by 5pm, 4 April 2025. To assist those who are being asked to prayerfully consider offering themselves for this role, a background paper is included with the information sent.
General Assembly 2025
The 2025 General Assembly will be held from 20-23 October at St Pauls Trinity Pacific Church, Christchurch. Assembly will start with a powhiri and Opening Service from 1pm on Monday 20 October and conclude following the closing service on Thursday 23 October around 1pm.
Information about the number of commissioners available to each presbytery has been forwarded to presbytery executive officers. Presbyteries will be engaging in their process to determine those who will be commissioners. In addition, each presbytery may commission up to six (6) young adult commissioners.
Deadline for reports, proposals and recommendations to be considered by General Assembly 2025
Following consultation with the Assembly Business Work Group convener, a deadline has been set for receiving all reports and proposals that will be considered by this year's General Assembly. All material must be received by the Assembly Executive Secretary 5pm, Friday 6 June 2025. Please note – your presbytery will set a date prior to this to ensure that they can comply with this deadline. This timeframe will enable us to facilitate a consultative process with presbyteries prior to Assembly. In this way, we will be able to fulfil the 2012 Assembly’s decision supporting presbyteries’ participation in the setting of the Assembly agenda.
Update your office bearer contacts
We use electronic communication to share information, update on important matters and pass on other news. Our office’s ability to do this is dependent on church councils advising updates to key contact people, changes in email etc. Please pass on any changes to Nani from our office, so that we can ensure we are communicating with the appropriate office bearers.
Noho ora mai
Wayne Matheson
Assembly Executive Secretary
Te Kāhui Whanaungatanga Workgroup
What are we suggesting for our Church?
Our workgroup has been asked to lead a discernment of a strategic direction for the Church, reflecting on our national structures. Our name Te Kāhui Whanaungatanga was given by Te Aka Puahou, and identifies that we are being led forward as whanau/family, developing strong relationships through sharing life together and working alongside one another. To put it simply: Bringing People Together.
This reflects the approach we are choosing to take in exploring the way forward for our Church. In recent history, there have been excellent solutions put forward, and approved by the General Assembly*.
We honour those who have work diligently on these strategic solutions, and recognise these have not been widely adopted, and have therefore not addressed the many challenges the Church faces. And in the meantime, there has been a big shift in our Church with the consolidating of presbyteries. What could be a new way to discern the strategic direction of the PCANZ? Rather than offering a conventional prescriptive strategy, could we discover an aspirational enabling approach that resonates helpfully in all the corners of our Church and invites us all to find our place and join in?
The Journey of Discovery Together
We recognise the rich blessings of meaningful consultation with all parts of our Church, for anyone who wants to be part of the discussion and discernment of the way forward. Our workgroup has been proactively engaging with presbyteries, synods, staff, and teams serving our Church. Perhaps you’ve been part of a discussion already through your presbytery, or, with a representative at the Council of Assembly hui last year?
We have strongly sensed God’s Spirit at work in our Church, with strategic issues of relationality resonating with people’s interest and experience. We celebrate the importance of ‘being ourselves’ in the strength and beauty of diversity of who we are – Asian, Māori, Pacific, young, women, men – different people listening, talking, sharing, journeying together with Jesus.
How are you part of the discernment?
We would love to talk with as many as possible in our Church as we prepare our report for the General Assembly later this year.
Look out for opportunities for group discernment with our ‘roadshows’ at gatherings of the presbyteries.
You are warmly invited to be part of an online Zoom discussion about this discernment on Thursday 24 April at 7pm, here is the link.
Please let us know if you would like to engage with this work. You can email me here.
Your prayers mean a lot for our workgroup, for God to continue to guide us as we serve.
*‘Strategic Directions,’ 2012. ‘Bringing Clarity to our Mission,’ 2014.
Grace and peace
Rev Allister Lane
Convenor
Te Kāhui Whanaungatanga Workgroup
Global Mission
I Love Taiwan 2025 Applications are open
I Love Taiwan is a two-week programme hosted by Presbyterian Church in Taiwan in July each year. Participants meet with young adults from Asia and around the world, learn about life in Taiwan and share in youth outreaches in both urban and rural settings. Age range is 18-35 years. Global Mission supports the participation of PCANZ applicants in this programme, including a travel subsidy of $500 per person. Find information and application form here. Please Note: send applications to acting Global Mission Director Rev Dr Jaco Reyneke to access the subsidy.
Structural Engineers to Port Vila
Structural engineers Allen Spring and Kim Wealleans spent time in Port Vila, with Global Mission volunteer Neville Jones, from March 1-8, assessing the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu’s buildings following December’s earthquake. They found one of PCV’s commercial buildings in Port Vila CBD needs to be demolished. While other buildings had sustained some cracking, they advise that no further demolition is required. They recommended repair and maintenance work on multiple buildings, a process the PCV will need to work on going forward. Our earthquake appeal funds will contribute towards this work. They were also able to visit some PCV schools and recommended that a pastor’s house and kindergarten be demolished. Saint Kentigern School and College will work on projects at these schools this year.
Vanuatu Partnership Video
Check out this video sharing information about our mission partnership with the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu. It’s short enough to show in church to highlight the earthquake appeal.
Bereavement
We acknowledge the death of Margaret Bear of Auckland, in March. Margaret served as a missionary nurse in India from 1959 until 1979. Margaret was a tutor sister at Christian Hospital in Jagadhri, and then at Philadelphia Hospital in Ambala. We give thanks for her dedicated service.
Acting Global Mission Director
I will be on study leave until mid-June. Cover for Global Mission in my absence will be provided by AES Rev Wayne Matheson, until April 8; and from April 9, Rev Dr Jaco Reyneke, 0273259003.
Phil King
Global Mission Director
Presbyterian Research Centre
We were proud and happy to have hosted the Dunedin book launch for Rev Dr Stuart Vogel’s new book, ‘Rich Treasures in Alien Soil.’ This speaking event was held in Hewitson Library on the evening of 20 March. It was co-sponsored by the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, who were the publishers of the book. This book tells the stories of Chinese immigrants to New Zealand during the period 1865-1960, and in particular discusses the role of Chinese churches in their settlement here. Stuart presented a copy of the book to the Library.
Over 30 people attending the launch, filling the available space in the Library. Stuart’s talk was excellent, and he stayed after to provide the book for sale and for book-signing. Many friends old and new caught up during the refreshment times before and after the talk, and they were then able to also peruse a book display from the Hewitson’s England Collection on Asian Theology and Culture, and a display of archival materials including many photos of early Chinese in New Zealand.
PRC’s next speaking event will be Rev Dr Murray Rae talking about Theology and Architecture, to be held in the Frank Nichol Room just downstairs from Hewitson Library, at 5:15 pm on Thursday 10 April. This talk will be a ‘taster session’ leading up to Murray’s course on the same topic at the University of Otago in July. The event will also serve to highlight the Hewitson’s Chrysalis Seed Collection on Christianity and the Arts. Refreshments will be served, and the event is free and open to the public.
PRC is organising several speakers in 2025, in part to help revive the Presbyterian Research Network and its predecessor organisation, the Presbyterian Historical Society, which had dropped away in its activity during the years of Covid restrictions. Anyone interested in speaking or in helping to organise speakers, as well as to offer general support to PRC, is welcome to please contact me noting your interest, as we get organised in this effort.
In Christ
Jay Robinson
Director
Presbyterian Research Centre
Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership
Presbytery and Amorangi Events
In the next few weeks, we are involved in a few presbytery-based events, including an Alpine workshop in Blenheim on ‘Building Healthy Teams’, online training with Te Aka Puahou on the Lord’s Supper for Amorangi trainees, facilitating a Kaimai Leader’s Retreat, and having a conversation with preachers in Northland around forming a Community of Practise centred on preaching.
Online training
In addition to our work with the presbyteries, we are also facilitating a reading group exploring Murray Rae’s book Resurrection and Renewal. This group has provided rich and engaging conversation.
We are also putting together some opportunities for online training and education for the second half of this year. This will be open for people around Aotearoa to join. We are finalising details around what this online training will look like and what the topics will be, so keep an eye out for details when they are advertised.
Forge Aotearoa
Registrations are open for the next hui in Auckland, May 16-18, with guest Andrew Root. Based on previous huis, this will be an excellent and thoughtful weekend that will be both encouraging and challenging. For more information on the hui or to register see here.
Forge Aotearoa is also facilitating a new monthly online community which will explore various topics of mission, ministry, and faith formation. All are welcome, please pass this on if there’s someone in your church who you think would flourish through this initiative. Click here for more information.
KCML principal, Rev Dr Geoff New, is on study leave until mid-June. While Geoff is away, Rev Dr Darryl Tempero is acting principal.
On behalf of the KCML team
Sebastian Murrihy
Lecturer/Ministry Formation Co-ordinator
Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership
Presbyterian Youth Ministry
Year 11-13 students Bicultural Discipleship Camp Te Rangatahi Noho Marae, 31 May-2nd June
King’s Birthday Weekend @ Ohope Marae. We invite Year 11–13 students to join us for two days of fun, food, faith, and leadership development. This marae stay offers an immersive learning experience exploring: Tikanga Maori; The emergence of Christianity among Maori and how Te Ao Maori (the Maori worldview) and Christianity can be woven together; The partnership between the Presbyterian Church and Te Aka Puaho; The Treaty of Waitangi; Leadership principles from Te Ao Maori.
This camp had a profound impact on the faith of the students who attended last year, please consider encouraging your young people to this event.
Registrations open for Connect Youth Leaders and Young Adult Conference, Auckland, 15-17 August
To be held at Willow Park Conference Centre, Eastern Beach Auckland. Please encourage your youth leadership teams, young adults and senior high school students to attend. The conference provides the opportunity for attendees to connect, worship and learn with their peers and colleagues. See the Connect website for more information.
Join us for Take 15 Prayer
Pray with us for 15 minutes each week as we pray for the 1.6 million children and young people of Aotearoa New Zealand. Join us each Thursday from 1:00pm-1:15pm. Sign up for the zoom link here.
Peace
Matt Chamberlin
National Youth Director
Presbyterian Church Schools
Radical support for women & girls
This year, 2025, is a special year for women in the Presbyterian movement. It is 60 years since the first woman minister, Dr Margaret Reid-Martin, was ordained and 70 years since General Assembly approved the ordination of women elders. Coincidentally it is also the concluding year of the fifth woman Moderator, Rt Rev Rose Luxford. Today women in leadership seems normal but at the time it was radical.
Our Presbyterian schools also demonstrate this radical support for women and girls. Iona Girls was the first school opened under the Presbyterian umbrella. Until Turakina Māori Girls’ College closed, eight of the 13 schools throughout Aotearoa New Zealand were girls’ schools. But even with its closure, girls’ schools still out-number boys’ schools. In fact, with several boys’ schools becoming co-ed, only two are now solely boys’ schools (Lindisfarne and John McGlashan).
Iona, (in Havelock North) opened in 1914. In 1915 St Cuthbert’s (Auckland) and Columba (Dunedin), both girls’ schools, began. In 1916 the first boys’ school started – Scots, swiftly followed by its sister school, Queen Margaret College in 1918, both in Wellington. In the same year Scots was opened, Solway Girls opened in Masterton, with John McGlashan (boys’) opening in 1918. So even from the beginning, the ratio of girls’ to boys’ schools in the Presbyterian network was skewed towards girls.
The extraordinary proportion of girls’ schools opened in this 1914-1918 period came from the strong desire of their founders to provide opportunities to educate girls to a high level. This feminine focus was strengthened by the leadership from Presbyterian headmistresses who were able to model the importance of education for girls. (eg. Solway, Iona, and St Cuthbert’s).
Later staff and Board members continue to ensure girls are given every opportunity to become leaders in every field they aspire to, thus fulfilling the hopes of their founders and the Presbyterian drive to build up the communities they belong to.
Stephanie Wells (Rev)
Director of Presbyterian Church Schools Resource Office
CWS Notices
The Metric of Smiles
In our latest Autumn donor appeal, CWS is emphasising the positive in a world saturated with the negative. So, we start by counting the smiles of those who your donations go to support.
Street theatre in Gaza undertaken by our partner in Jordan, DSPR (Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees, which is part of the Middle Eastern Council of Churches). The street theatre is much needed psychosocial support to children who are otherwise surrounded by a war that produces psychological trauma. In the face of this, if DSPR can increase the occasions when affected children can be helped to smile – or better, to laugh – then they are undertaking a small but vital improvement in the quality of life of both the child and their family. As is when the child is able to drink clean water, have fun in a playground between school lessons, is adequately feed and whose home is safe at night. It’s the metric of smiles at work.
It’s been almost 80 years since Christian World Service was formed to represent the combined Christian love of New Zealand churches to help fund recovery from the horrors of World War II. Today, CWS represents Anglicans, Christian Churches, Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Uniting churches to work with trusted partners across the globe, helping empower them to reduce the ravages of poverty and injustice in the lives of the most vulnerable.
Alongside the improvements we aspire to see made in the lives of the world’s most vulnerable, we want to suggest adding the “metric of smiles”. We perceive Jesus appreciated the importance of that metric as did the biblical writers of old
Notices
South Island Ministry Conference, Mosgiel, 2025 - May 13 & 14
This year’s theme, Against All Odds– Lessons from the past… Hope for the future, promises to inspire and equip you with profound insights and practical tools for ministry. Keynote Speaker: Chris Marshall, a renowned scholar and captivating speaker. Engaging Workshops, Connection and Worship. East Taieri Church, Mosgiel. Read more here.
Burns Lectures 2025, Theology Programme University of Otago, May 19–29 - zoom & in person
The Theology Programme at the University of Otago warmly invites you to the Burns Lectures for 2025, May 19–29. These will be given by Professor Brad Gregory and are entitled: "Christians, Consumption, and Climate Change: Christianity between the Last Ice Age and the Anthropocene". Livestreamed and in-person at Archway 4, University of Otago, 5.15pm–6.30pm. Also a free public lecture in Wellington at St John's in the City Presbyterian, 22 May at 6:30pm on “How the Reformation Era (Indirectly) Led Us into Our Global Environmental Predicament”. See more here.
Online series of conversations into the growing mental health crisis & faith – April & May
Join ISCAST and NZCIS, in collaboration with the Centre for Theology and Psychology at Melbourne School of Theology, for an online Zoom 9-week series exploring Christian perspectives on some of the greatest mental health challenges of our time, Thursdays at 8.30pm. Dr Danny Cheah, 3 April: Understanding Mental Health Issues in Children, Young People and Families from a Christian Perspective; Dr Brett Mann, 10 April: Mental Health, Faith and Medical Practice; Dr Mel Fung, 24 April: Understanding and Responding to Gender Dysphoria: Research and Clinical Experience; Dr Christa McKirland, 1 May: Authority and Power Structures in the Church Which Undermine Individual Agency. Details and registration info here.
Podcast series: The Church and the Climate Crisis
A 5-part podcast series where New Zealand Baptist pastor Steve Worsley interviews World Vision's Eliala Fihaki from Tuvalu, and recently retired Peter Harris, who co-founded A Rocha International. Steve asks, how do A Rocha workers maintain hope when we are losing the world's animal and bird life at such a catastrophic rate? How can you know what and who to trust when it comes to climate science? How might climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and science lecturer Wesley Webb respond to often-heard objections to climate science? Details here.
Boyle Lecture: Most Rev Antje Jackelén, “Science, Technology, Theology and Spirituality — A Necessary Partnership?” May 7, Maclaurin Chapel
The Most Rev. Antje Jackelén, primate emerita of Sweden, gave the Boyle Lecture in London this year on “Science, Technology, Theology and Spirituality — A Necessary Partnership?” Jackelén argues that all four are needed to face the crises of our times. A replay of this lecture and discussion. Pizza at 6pm, Maclaurin Chapel, Auckland.
General Assembly Review Workgroup seeks feedback on future shape of Assemblies draft proposal
The General Assembly review workgroup is seeking feedback on a draft proposal regarding the future shape of Assemblies. The proposal can be found in full on our website along with a form to provide feedback. We are also providing an opportunity for kōrero (conversation) and questions on the proposal in March and April. More information on this can also be found on the website. We look forward to hearing from the wider body of the Church and to the sharing of whakaaro (ideas) so that we can craft an expression of our life together that is more representative of the context that we find ourselves in. You can view the full draft proposal here.
Apply for PressGo funding - closes 14 May
The cut-off for the next round of applications is 1 May 2025. For guidelines on applying to the various funds - Presbyterian Foundation, the Aroha Fund, and the Mission Enterprise Fund - or to request an application form, email PressGo.
Glen Innis Holiday Homes – Maud Hooper house video
Watch video of Maud Hooper house! There are two holiday houses at Glen Innis Station, Central Hawke’s Bay, available at no cost (other than refundable bond) for National Ordained Ministers for a re-creational holiday one week each year. One of the houses, Maud Hooper, is now also available for use by Local Ordained Ministers, Amorangi, and Local Shared Ministry team members - outside school holiday periods - at a cost of $200 per week (plus a refundable $100 bond). It's self-contained accommodation for up to seven adults and one baby, with modern facilities (including Wifi and dishwasher) as well as access to a range of onsite recreational facilities (games room, swimming pool, tennis court) in beautiful country surroundings. Info and video here.
Church Register
For any queries concerning the Church register, contact Kate Wilson.
Retirements
Rev Lee Kearon, local ordained minister Kurow Presbyterian Parish to Minister Emerita, Southern Presbytery, 10 February 2025.
Rev Luisa Fruean, minister Tokomairiro Cooperating Parish to Minister Emerita, Southern Presbytery, 28 February 2025
Ordination and Inductions
Rev John Setu, ordained and inducted national ordained minister Otahuhu – St Andrew’s Community Presbyterian Church.
Rev Lynne Hall, ordained and inducted local ordained minister, Knapdale/Waikaka Presbyterian Church, Southern Presbytery, 4 March 2025
Removals from Roll
Rev Kyle Provan, Kaimai Presbytery, 19 March 2025.
Deaths
Rev David Jack, Minister Emeritus, Southern Presbytery, 26 June 2024.
Rev Brian Williscroft QSM, Minister Emeritus, Southern Presbytery, 12 February 2025.
Jobs
Check out our job vacancies page and the ministerial vacancies table and featured ministerial vacancies for the latest vacancies available in Aotearoa and around the globe.
Events
Check out details about upcoming events including training workshops, opportunities to serve and more. Learn more
Social Media
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