Did you see that tweet from Franklin Graham on our inclusive sign outside our church? Here is the link:
Franklin Graham on Twitter: “I saw this sign at a church in Wellington, NZ, yesterday. God’s love & the Gospel have always been inclusive. Jesus Christ came to offer salvation to all. But we have to come to Him on His terms, believing in Him, repenting of our sins, & accepting Him as the Savior of our lives.” https://t.co/yeWBqI7OQo / Twitter
I hope you are able to open the above tweet, if not it just shows a photo of our inclusive sign with the words printed above. At the end of the day, it confirms my decision not to advertise or support his speaking tour. He is homophobic and Islamophobic. I’m thinking I might reply and say “thanks for the great publicity” since he has over 2 million followers, but the jury is still out on that at the moment.
The PCANZ One Conference has begun at St. John’s, Willis Street and runs until Saturday afternoon. Its theme is Te Whakakotahitanga – Gathering as one people under Christ. 260 participants in attendance. The worship is a slight improvement from previous PCANZ gatherings, the language is still exclusive with Father and Him, still evangelical in nature but most of the songs so far are bilingual in Te Reo and English and the Maori Synod Te Aka Puaho has had an equal role to play in worship and leading. Most of the non-Maori speakers and organisers begin with a Maori greeting and introduction. It feels as if our church is finally getting the bi-cultural relationship right but slowly, it is an improvement.
They are not very punctual in terms of time keeping, we seem to spend more time worshipping and the key note speakers start late and everything seems crammed. I sat with Gillian Southey at morning tea this morning and we reminisced about her and Jim’s days at St. Andrews, it was lovely.
On 4th December we will be celebrating St. Andrew’s Day which falls on the 30th of November. It will be the 2nd Sunday in Advent. I have proposed to the Finance and Facilities Management Group that we use St. Andrew’s Day to have a special offering for the work of our church. We will supply special envelopes with St. Andrew’s Day stamped on them and everyone will have the opportunity to put a free-will donation in the envelope different to your normal weekly offering. This will be an annual one off donation specifically targeted towards our fund-raising goals of the church. It is entirely free-will. You will need to write your name on your envelope for tax refund purposes. My previous church at St. Andrew’s in Henderson did this every year and St. Andrew’s Day became our main fund-raising day for the year which is why I’m proposing it for us to trial this year.
This is a massive weekend for Samoa with the Rugby League World Cup final taking place on Sunday morning around 4am NZ time. If I had a Samoan flag, I might fly one from my car lol. It’s a great opportunity for the Pacific countries to get behind Samoa support them in this finals game. Win or lose, they have already won to get this far so it’s a remarkable achievement and historic at that. Well, I hope you all have wonderful weekend and that the weather is kind to us. Faafetai, Fei
You can read the full E-News here: https://mailchi.mp/9ce0484d8c97/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-9209647
