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Come and join us this Sunday....

When thrown into the sea the stone said,

‘After all, this is also a home’

UGANDAN

From the Minister’s Desk

The death and resurrection of Jesus are at the heart of the Christian Gospel and Good Friday and Easter are 2 of the most significant days in the Christian year. Currently we are in the season of Lent, a time of preparation and awareness of our weaknesses and our need of God – preparation for the agony and pain of Good Friday and the celebration of Easter. Just as we carefully prepare for important events in our personal lives, like a wedding or a special birthday or anniversary, Lent invites us to make our hearts ready for remembering Jesus’ crucifixion and rejoicing in his resurrection.

The practice of a 40 day preparation dates back to the 3rd or 4th century; before then Easter preparation was only for 2 or 3 days. The Lenten fast was strictly observed in the early centuries, with only one meal a day allowed, a meal that did not include meat or dairy products.

The number 40 carries biblical significance based on the 40 days Noah spent on the ark before the dove returned with a leaf, the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, and the 40 days of Jesus’ fast in the wilderness, facing serious temptation.

The 40 days of Lent began, as we recognised on Ash Wednesday, which this year (and for the only time in the 21st century) coincided with Waitangi Day. We held a moving Ecumenical service at KPC that day with our Anglican and Catholic neighbours, and I was sorry that there were so few KPC members present for what is a very significant occasion in the Church calendar. Lent ends on Easter Day, and the week preceding this, beginning on Palm Sunday, is known as Holy Week. This year we will be celebrating Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem with a Family Service (which includes a Baptism) on Palm Sunday. We will follow this on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week with meditation times in the Chapel. The meditations will include readings, Celtic music and reflections, and times of silence – please feel free to join us for one, two or all three of these meditations. On the Thursday night we will hold our Tenebrae service, commencing in the Hall with Communion, then moving through to the church. This commemorates Jesus’ last meal with his disciples before he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our Good Friday service at 10.00am recalls the day of Jesus’ crucifixion: the most sombre day of the Christian year. Then on Easter day we join in a Family Service to praise God for the most important day of all, the day of Jesus’ resurrection; the day that brings us together, with Christians all over the world, 2000 years after the event.

An important time, Lent, Holy Week and Easter. Take time to reflect, time to pray, time to praise.

One of my favourite songs has the recurring phrase `And I think to myself, what a wonderful world!’ Listening to it always makes me feel good. Recently it has come to mind often.

During the past few weeks I have been `out of circulation’; ie not involved in my usual eclectic range of activities. This is not to say that I have been inactive; just that life has been very different. Vive la difference!!

When you’re not very mobile you have `time to stand and stare’ and I so enjoyed the views from other windows. From Bowen I could see the Wadestown Presbyterian Church, where my Bible Class days began, and the Ngaio hills, virtually open country in those days and a popular venue for Scout and Guide hikes. Oh, the memories!

Once at Malvina Major I could again `lift up my eyes to the hills’, keeping watch for the two goats that Gay Mackay pointed out to me, and also soak up the view of our beautiful harbour. Nearer at hand, my room overlooked the carefully tended gardens with their mixture of native and introduced plants, growing side by side in a structured pattern that is redolent of the formal English gardens of the Middle Ages.

Beside the gardens there is a bowling green which is often in use. One of the male residents, recently introduced to the game, spent many hours alone on the green, rolling the bowls up and down. I often watched from above and, unbeknownst to him, shared his satisfaction as his rising skill level reflected the efforts he had made.

Regardless of the setting, it’s the people who make the difference. At Bowen I was very conscious of the way the various practitioners worked as a team, always encouraging and giving the message `you and your progress are important to me’. A bonus for me was the camaraderie that exists between all nurses, and the way that hospital trained nurses bond with another of their own vintage; especially if they came from the same training school. Yes; I did find another New Plymouth graduate!

I received the same high level of caring support at Malvina Major, from people whose input far exceeded what was required. There was a lovely warm atmosphere at both places, created and maintained by their staff in every area.

I was privileged to experience a third dimension that pervaded the whole period. This was the wonderful support I received from my friends and family, especially from the KPC family. My admission, with the assistance of the friend who provided the transport, was enhanced by the flowers already placed in my room with a note from another. These kindnesses were an indication of what was to come! Phone calls, letters and cards and smiling visitors, (often bearing sinful goodies) became the order of the day. To put it succinctly, wherever I was, I was spoiled rotten!!

I arrived home to be greeted by a small ginger cat, who tried to tell me what a terrible time she had endured during my absence! In fact, she had been fed and cosseted by my caring neighbours, who had also cleared and delivered my mail, watered the garden, and aired and kept an eye on my unit.

When I reflect on all these things, I thank God for all He has done for me, through the many people that showed me such loving care over the past month……..`and I think to myself what a wonderful world!’

This summary, of the report presented to and adopted by Session at its February meeting, was prepared by Miles Middlemass, a member of the Strategic Planning Group. Thank you, Miles.

Readers may recall that a Strategic Planning Group was set up in 2006 to develop a Strategic Plan for Khandallah Presbyterian Church.

The Group reported to last month’s Session meeting. The following is a summary of the Strategic Plan proposals.

The goal of the Strategic Plan recommended to Session is to regenerate and grow KPC, with a major aim of attracting families. This would not mean that other groups should be neglected but, to achieve the goal of regenerating and growing the Church, a primary focus would be to attract new families into KPC. Building on what we are doing, three strategies were proposed:

The Group concluded that traditional worship will not generally attract new people into KPC, either non-Churchgoers in our community or Church-going people who move into our area (unless they come from another traditional Church which are increasingly in the minority). We need to offer a more contemporary style of worship if we want to attract new people, particularly families, in order to achieve our goal of regenerating and growing the Church.

Both these models have been trialled in other Churches. Where blended services have been adopted, the general pattern has been for these services to become increasingly contemporary in style. In Churches where there is a strong desire to retain traditional worship it has generally been necessary to introduce a separate contemporary service.

The provision of community activities by the Church creates an opportunity for members to establish contact with people in the community, and attract them to become part of the Church

Martin Baker, Assembly Secretary, has emphasised to us that, to be effective in attracting people from the community who participate in such activities to become part of the Church, such community activities need to be run by the Church. This ensures firstly that people from the community who participate in such activities can get to know the minister and other Church people, and secondly that the Church can introduce a ‘Christian dimension”, as appropriate, to community activities.

There are numerous activities which could be provided and only a few can be selected. The primary criteria for selecting the community activities to be provided are:

These activities may be for adults, or for children who need to be accompanied by a parent/guardian so that a relationship can also be established between the Church and the parents/guardians of the children. An example of a community activity which may meet the criteria is “Mainly Music” for pre-school children who are accompanied by a parent/guardian. Some Church people would need to have an involvement to form a relationship with the parents/guardians of the children who attend.

The needs of other groups in the community should not be overlooked. For example, KPC already provides an embroidery group which is generally attended by older women. St Barnabas’ provides a ‘Nursing Service’, primarily for members of the congregation but also for the wider community, and a similar service could be provided at KPC. A wider service could also be provided for older people both within the congregation and wider community.

Many Churches provide a wide range of community activities. It is suggested that we start with just one or two activities that meet the criteria set out above and let these activities grow.

Each activity needs to be assessed against the criteria referred to above, ie, the needs of the community, the resources of KPC and the likely effectiveness of each activity in attracting people, especially families into the Church.

Support for people on their individual faith journeys has been identified as a particular need and interest of people in the Church.

In Adult Education in 2007, Lloyd Geering and Alan Jamieson each commented that a key challenge for the Church is to support people on their faith journeys. Lloyd Geering noted that, in the post-modern age, people tend to have individual faith journeys while Alan Jamieson emphasised that many people left the Church because of disappointment that the Church had not supported them in their faith journey, particularly during times when they were experiencing faith doubts.

Pastoral care by the Minister is traditionally the primary means within the Church of ministering to the individual spiritual needs of members of the Church. It is envisaged that this should continue to be a primary focus for Fraser.

Other programmes and activities for meeting the spiritual needs of individuals and supporting people of their faith journeys are:

Session has asked Fraser to convene a team to look at how contemporary worship might be introduced, to investigate the formation of a `Mainly Music’ group and to further investigate other community activities with the aim of establishing one or two activities in 2008. The question of supporting people on their faith journeys was referred to the Adult Education Committee.

Session is keen to know what views other members of KPC may have on the Strategic Plan proposals. You are invited to consider the proposals and perhaps identify areas of particular interest in which you would like to actively participate.

Please pass your comments and suggestions to Peter Nichols (Session Clerk) or any other Session member; perhaps your designated Elder.

that there really is another way, if only he has enemies in all those who profit

think about it’. A A Milne defenders in all those who would profit by the new.’

`There is no greater disloyalty to the pioneers of human progress than to refuse to budge an inch from where they stood.’

`Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.’

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STORIES FROM SLOTH

Some of you may think you have not been introduced to Laura. She is much loved by politicians and usually as a general election approaches. The shout goes up ‘Something must be done to restrain those anti-social elements that steal our property, mug us, kill people etc, etc’. One side will suddenly produce new policies to combat crime in the name of Laura Norder. They conveniently forget they have had a decade to do something about it. The other side, who have had no power apart from the luxury of criticism without accountability also call upon Laura. Mysteriously, after the election Laura seems to vanish on vacation.

What is it that puts up our backs when Laura struts her stuff? Perhaps we all feel our gentle life style is threatened and deep down are frightened. Maybe, when the crims are young we have an extra layer of disapproval because they have something we will never have again, their youth. We hate them for wasting it. They do not play by our rules so must be punished. The thought of making them stay in school would give legions of struggling teachers cardiac arrest. They would probably play truant any way.

Send them to boot camps. Mr S is none to sure how they work, but assumes the participants are not booted in the literal sense. Whatever goes on is pretty tough no doubt. Success rates are not high apparently when it comes to re-offending. But that’s not the point is it? It makes us feel good to think that the little brutes are having a rough time. Note public outrage when the luxuries of prisons are revealed. TV’s, computers, courses and the rest bring immediate calls for the re-introduction of the treadmill and chain gang.

Firstly 100% increase in the number of police. They would be given a set time to bring the real crime figures under control. The real figures do not have the slightest relation to the official stats, as huge numbers of citizens do not bother to report minor thefts because they know it is a totally fruitless exercise.

Mr Sloth’s police would be told to lay off revenue collecting harassment of motorists and concentrate on real crime. To that end they would be banned from appearing on Television, which seems to take up a lot of their time. The Police are not good at Television. They would be backed by tougher sentencing. For a while we would need more custodial places, until the message got through. Old Army Camps would seem to be available as we do not have many soldiers now. We could build an Alcatraz on Soames Island. When it was de-commissioned it would become a tourist attraction. It would be ideal for the Wellington Council to spend its bonding weekends. You never know, if a Southerly blew up they could be marooned for the duration; a delicious thought. To aid Mr Sloth’s battle on Laura Norder, the government would be banned from passing hair brained legislation that can not be enforced. Simplification would reign i.e. ’Car Conversion’ would become once again ‘Car Theft’, and the thief would be responsible for the value of the car stolen. The fancy language of political correctness would go. ‘Domestic Violence’ would be simply `Assault’ and would carry a high tariff. To be under the influence of alcohol or narcotics would no longer have any value in mitigation. Personal responsibility would be the watch cry. Rock on!

Sometimes Laura brings out the worst in us. We want to hurt. We feel the need for revenge. We forget about rehabilitation. Whatever our politics, we get silly and rather Old Testament. If the Jews stepped out of time they soon got it in the neck; usually from the Egyptian’s, Philistines, Assyrians or Babylonians, whom, we are assured, were working on Jehovah’s behalf. Mind you Mr S sometimes wonders how he would have reacted to the prophets, who, let’s face it, were a pretty spaced out bunch! It all seemed simple then!

Every now and again one hears of a piece of retribution that must be divine. An elderly lady took her large dog for a walk in the park. Being conscientious she cleaned up her mutt’s copious efforts with her pooper-scooper and filled the paper bag she was carrying for the purpose. As she left the park a young mugger pushed her over on the grass, grabbed the bag and ran off. Praise be! There must be a God!

· Session numbers have increased. Having welcomed the return in January of Miles Middlemass, from his leave of absence, at the February meeting Session celebrated the presence of its newest member, Bill Ward who was ordained and inducted on February 22^nd.

· The implementation of KPC’s Strategic Plan, received and adopted by Session in January, is now under way. A summary of the plan, prepared on behalf of the team by Miles Middlemass, appears in this issue..

· Our Property Manager, Morris Robertson, updated members on the options that he is preparing for the upgrading of the church foyer in memory of Alma McKay.

· The Presbytery of Wellington has elected its present Moderator, the Rev Lyn Russell, for a second term.

· Presbytery’s 150^th Anniversary publication, `Our Church in our Communities’, for which the KPC chapter was written by Maureen Garing, is now available for sale. Pam Southey has copies, priced at $15.

· The Retiring Offering following the March Communion Service will be used to support the Rotary initiative which enables disabled and disadvantaged children to attend the (non-animal) `Circus Quirkus’.

EVELYN ARCUS 1918 – 2008

Evelyn Arcus lived in Khandallah from 1972, in the same house on the Burma Road, until she moved to be nearer her family a few years ago; then spent the remainder of her life in the Harbour View Rest Home

Growing up in a strong Christian family, Evelyn was introduced to the life of the Church at an early age. In her youth she was a Sunday School Teacher. Her years attending Khandallah Presbyterian Church saw her involved in many aspects of this Church’s life and work, including membership of the APW and Embroidery Group. She served as an Elder from 1986 to 1993 when, upon her retirement, she was awarded the status of Elder Emerita.

Evelyn had a natural flair for art in many forms. In particular, she excelled in porcelain painting and many members of this parish own pieces of her work. She enjoyed oil painting and the special Communion wall hanging which has been given to our Church is a reminder of her artistry. Gardening was another of her interests and many of her paintings and drawings included flowers from her own garden. Her desire for writing was evident in the Psalm she wrote after attending a Session Retreat while she was an Elder, which showed her love and thankfulness for all she had received during her long life from the Lord whom she loved.

The programme is about the work of the Families Commission and the Campaign for Action on Family Violence. If you would like to come, please ring one of the Committee

Hutt Valley Meeting on Saturday, 19^th April, Joy Cowley will be at St Margaret’s Presbyterian Church, Silverstream. We hope a group will go from Khandallah.

With the Christmas break only a distant memory and schools having reopened we are now well into the New Year.

Since our last report we have had some vandalism to our church notice boards which have now been repaired once again. Unfortunately this is not the first time this has occurred and it seems to be an ongoing risk for us.

We have also had a break in to the church office. Nothing was lost but we had to repair some damaged windows which have now been made secure.

If you are passing the church keep an eye out for anything that looks suspicious and let someone know if you see anything that concerns you.

We now have authorisation to proceed with stage 1, which is the upgrade of the church audio system. This should be completed by the 31^st March 08 and we look forward to the benefits this will bring to the congregation.

Due to the generosity of the late Alma McKay we have received a considerable sum for a church project. Session has decided an appropriate application of these funds would be to remember Alma by using them to upgrade the church lobby and rename it The Alma MacKay foyer. This area badly needs upgrading and the project will provide a bright, pleasant and welcoming environment for the first point of contact into the church.

We are currently working on specifications and hope to select a suitable plan which integrates with an overall grand plan we have for the church.

I would also like to take the opportunity to once again thank those of you who help with property items in and around the church. There are always things to attend to and repairs to be done and your cheerful help with these matters is greatly appreciated.

The Board of Managers recently agreed that we should support Fair Trade in practice, by way of only using Fair Trade certified tea and coffee at all our functions.

Fair trade is being promoted in NZ by Christian World Service (CWS), in conjunction with Trade Aid.

According to the CWS website, fair trade is a movement of people working to develop an alternative trading system that benefits small producers and those who work for them, protecting traditional lifestyles and the environment. At the same time it challenges the dominant free trade model which has forced down the price paid to those who grow commodities like cocoa, tea and coffee, and concentrated greater wealth in the hands of a few very large transnational corporations who control global trade.

The Fairtrade (one word) label is regulated through the International Fairtrade Labelling Organisation, which provides certification to small farmers working together in local associations. Farmers employing labour must meet standards that include the rights of workers to collective bargaining, and prohibit the use of child labour. Buyers in the Fairtrade system must pay producer organisations a minimum price that has been agreed for the specific commodity based on thorough research into the production and living costs of farmers. Furthermore they must agree to long term contracts of 1 to 10 years to provide the necessary security to farmers.

An extra premium is paid for certified organic crops. Most Fairtrade farmers do not use pesticides, relying on traditional techniques. Some of the extra money available to farmers has been used to train them in effective, sustainable and organic farming methods, leading to increased production and a better return.

Everyone who buys coffee, tea or cocoa for use at a Church function will need to ensure that the products are Fair Trade. This is easiest done by ensuring that the products show the Fairtrade label. Generally these products will cost a little more than similar non Fair Trade products. However as a Church we believe that it is an important principle to support Fair Trade, and worth the extra cost.

If you have any queries about applying the Fair Trade policy, please refer to myself, the Board of Managers, or through the Church office.

Choir Notes

able to sing something suitable for Easter. Maureen Garing has ably taken our first two practices and Soti Enari will lead us next. We are currently looking for a Conductor. If anyone knows of a suitable person please let us know.

We still need more singers in all sections. We know that there are people in the congregation who can sing well!! We would love to have you join us.

It is with regret that we have received the resignation from the choir of Gisela Parker, due to work and other commitments. (We know she and John are now the proud owners of two puppies - that in itself would keep you busy!) Thank you, Gisela, for your commitment during the past two years. We hope to see you in Church from time to time.

Easter Services

08.00 pm Tenebrae Service, commencing in the Lounge, proceeding through to Church

This month seems to be one of goings rather than comings. Sadly, we have to say Goodbye to Jude and Bart van Deurzen, who are returning to Australia with their boys. Happily, as Youp and wee brother Lars were both baptised at KPC we shall all remain firmly linked, despite the sea between us. We wish them all a very happy resettlement

At the end of February we celebrated the lives of two of our senior members, who died in the same week. Muriel Theiler, formerly of Villa 2, was 97 and Ian Fergusson, from Malvina Major Retirement Village was 87. Both will be warmly remembered for their strong support of KPC.

It was good to see Roy and Dawn Fergusson and Roy’s brother, Peter, again, albeit briefly. Despite the sad reason for their recall only days after their departure, everyone agreed that the month of wonderful family occasions shared with Ian had been one of the highlights of his long life.

There was more to Fraser’s brief trip south to attend Sarah’s Prizegiving at St Columba College in Dunedin than just marking a student milestone. As well as being the Dux of the College, Sarah has won not one but three scholarships! And, as if that wasn’t enough, this month she will be attending a MUNA (Model UN Assembly) in Mexico. Wow! Congratulations, Sarah. We look forward to Dad’s next update on your doings.

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