For our Service on Sunday 31st May, we shall have visiting us Kent and Gretchen Ward, from Seminole, Florida, who are readers of St George's News on the Internet, and will be visiting us at Waterlooville during their holiday in the UK.
Here is the email received from Picton, New Zealand, when Tony and Jane Rice-Oxley visited Picton last month.
Visitors at our service
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Greetings from the Parish of Pictor NZ.
At our morning service on Sunday we had visitors with us from your parish and they asked to be remembered to you. We send greetings in Christ from Jane and Tony Rice-Oxley.
Picton is the ferry terminal for Cook Straight Ferries that come across from Wellington. Situated in the Marlborough Sounds with its enclosed waterways I do some of my ministry by launch. (Plus a little fishing following the Biblical precedent already set). The Parish is part of the Nelson Diocese which is one of three Diocese in the South Island of New Zealand. We cover the top of the South Island and part of the West Coast. Our Bishop is Derek Eaton, one time Provost (Dean) of Cairo Cathedral in Egypt. He is a New Zealander who spent 20 years working in North Africa. He is a great preacher and teacher, stays out of administration, and makes a point of getting to a Sunday service in each of the 23 parishes in the Diocese at least once a year.
We are part of the wider Church of the province of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia which extend across most of the S.Eastern Pacific. Our province is split into 3 Tikanga (Cultural groups), Maori, Polynesian and Pakeha (European + all non Maori and Polynesian). Each operate within their own culture overlapping Diocesan boundaries. We come together at General Synod to debate issues affecting the wider church. I will be attending our bi-annual General Synod in Auckland in May.
We are about to start our fifth "Alpha" Experience in Picton, and we are grateful to our brothers and sisters in the UK and especially those at H.T.B. for developing this course. I am Regional Adviser for Alpha for Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast.
I am also actively involved as Archdeacon for Rural Ministry in our Diocese and have been a Police Chaplain for the past 12 years. I co-ordinate the Police Chaplaincy now for the whole of the country and the Police pay a month of my stipend per year to the parish to allow me time to do this work. As you can see I live a fairly busy life and my wife, four children, and 8 grandchildren fill up what little spare time there is.
written by David Hastings, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Picton, New Zealand
Return to the May 1998 Features page
return to Home page and main index
page last updated 1 MAY 1998