By Lloyd Ashton, Taonga News
Archdeacon Robin Kingston, the man who’s leading the organising of Thursday’s National Remembrance Service for the 29 Pike River miners, began his Saturday evening sermon at Holy Trinity Greymouth by saying how the tragedy was affecting him.
By Tim Mora, Chairperson, Greymouth Ministers’ Association
"Firstly thank you for your prayers over the last few days. They have truly made a difference. Many have asked how I personally am holding up and I have genuinely been able to say very well, I'm fine and then it dawned on me. There are probably tens of thousands, if not more, people praying for myself and the pastors and clergy of this town. I am fine because I am being upheld by your prayers so please keep on praying. God is at work.
Around 3.30pm last Friday, a gas explosion tore through the Pike River coal mine on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Nothing’s been heard from any of the 29 men trapped underground by that blast, and officials say volatile toxic gases mean it’s still too dangerous for rescue teams to enter the mine. The church in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is praying and waiting.
International Anglican Family Network Oceania Consultation on ‘Violence and the Family’
Lower Hutt, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand - 27 October to Sunday 31 October 2010
“Tonight the conch is blown to signal the ending of violence.” These words were spoken by Archbishop Winston Halapua, co-presiding Bishop in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, as he welcomed participants to a Consultation for Oceania on ‘Violence and the Family’.
By Brian Thomas, Communications Officer of The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia
Anglicans in quake-ravaged Canterbury have given $120,000 for the relief effort in Haiti. This gift – an expression of “thanks and praise” – was announced by Bishop Victoria Matthews midway through the Diocesan Synod at Riccarton Park yesterday (October 30)
By Lloyd Ashton, Media Officer Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
Last Sunday, when Archbishop Brown Turei preached at the service to mark the 25th anniversary of Te Wairua Tapu, home to the Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship, he began by recalling a baptism he’d conducted in Sydney more than 40 years earlier.
By Lloyd Ashton - Media Officer to the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
Frontline Anglican family workers from throughout the South Pacific will soon gather in Lower Hutt with other church movers and shakers to plan new ways to counter family violence in our region.
Frontline Anglican family workers from throughout the South Pacific will soon gather in Lower Hutt with movers and shakers within the Church to plan new ways to counter family violence in our region.
Extracts from the sermon by Sepiuta Hala'api'api', youth coordinator for the Diocese of Polynesia, at Bishop Winston Halapua's service of installation held at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Suva, Fiji, early August.
Representatives from throughout the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia will gather this Saturday for the ordination and installation of the Very Rev Ross Bay as the 11th Bishop of Auckland. The service begins at 1pm in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Parnell, Auckland.
In terms of numbers, the Anglican Church isn’t a very big player in Samoa.
But the scale of the tsunami disaster is such that no-one with any Pacific connections has been left untouched by it – including some leading figures in the Diocese of Polynesia.
Take Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Leota, for example.
Archdeacon Tai, as she’s known to hundreds in this church is a Samoan living in Auckland. She has served as the Anglican Observer at the United Nations, on the Anglican Consultative Council, as a Diocese of Polynesia representative to the General Synod, and earlier this year she was priested.
Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Leota opened a new chapter in her colourful life on Sunday afternoon.
Archdeacon Tai – as she’s known to hundreds of church folk – was ordained to the priesthood at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Ordained, moreover, by Bishop Winston Halapua, the man who had brought her into the embrace of the Anglican Church in the first place, and by Bishops John Paterson and Kito Pikaahu.
Situation Overview
As a result of the flooding, as of this afternoon a total of 8,475 evacuees are residing in 130 evacuation centres, mostly in the Western Division. People are moving back to their houses for clean up and repair, although especially in Western Division the number of evacuees is still high, due to damage to water and food supply.
The people of Fiji are beginning to count the cost of the severe floods which have laid waste to large swathes of both of the country’s main islands.
Eleven people have died; at least 8000 people are still huddled in emergency shelters; roads and bridges have been washed away; and water supplies, electricity and communications have been disrupted.
When last Saturday afternoon’s installation service for Bishop Victoria Matthews as the eighth Bishop of Christchurch was finished, the woman who’s taken her place as the new Bishop of Edmonton reflected on Canada’s loss and Christchurch’s gain.
New Zealand’s two Anglican Archbishops have asked for mercy for Ali Panah who is now in the 35th day of a fast he began in a last-ditch bid to avoid deportation to Iran.
And the Archbishops, Brown Turei and David Moxon, have endorsed the work of Anthony Dancer, the Anglican Church’s Social Justice Commissioner, and others who are campaigning on Mr Panah’s behalf.
New Zealand’s Anglican Bishops have declared their support for the repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act.
They say the proposed changes to Section 59 are ‘a further important step down the road towards transforming the disproportionately high rates of violence in our country.’
The Bishops say that Section 59 - which allows the use of reasonable force in the discipline of children - had been used to justify the use of excessive force against them.
The repeal of Section 59 will therefore remove a legal loophole, and will ‘reinforce the total unacceptability of violence against children.’
The Bishops acknowledge that their stand does not poll well, and that there is some debate among Christians about the use of corporal punishment.
The Diocese of Nelson is celebrating its new Bishop, Richard Ellena - ordained in Nelson’s Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday before a crowd of hundreds of clergy, civic dignitaries and well-wishers.
But just 24 hours before that there was real doubt that someone considered rather pivotal to the proceedings - the Bishop-elect himself - would show up.
Not because he had cold feet, but because he couldn’t get to his feet.
Archbishop Jabez Bryce urges prayer for a peaceful, democratic resolution to his country's crisis
Archbishop Jabez Bryce, the long-serving Suva-based bishop who shares the leadership of the Anglican Church in this province, has spoken out in the Fiji press of his support for Fiji's elected government - and his dismay at its overthrow by the military. In a personally signed statement delivered to Fiji's media last night, Archbishop Bryce publicly reaffirms his support 'for the duly elected government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase' and says that it is 'regrettable that the Commander hijacked a process of dialogue that was moving, albeit slowly.'
