Building Community with the Hope of Jesus
Last weekend at St Matthew’s in Masterton, the vision of “Building Community with the hope of Jesus” was evident in a few awesome events.
The parish have partnered with the local community centre who received some funding to overhaul the existing church gardens into a community garden. Each plot is looked after by a local organisation or charity who then have people who grow the food. It never falls on one individual, so continuity is achievable.
Reflecting on the launch of this project, the Wairarapa Community Centre said, “The Food Garden has a mission to GROW = Garden for Resilience and Optimal Wellbeing. This was put into practice on Saturday when over 60 people attended our garden launch and workshop. Sharing, conversing and working on the preparation of garden beds for spring planting using the lasagne compost system. It was great to see so many people passionate in wanting to assist us. Rev Pete blessed the garden and our local MP Kieran McAnulty planted the first fruit tree, a meyer lemon. Thank you to everyone who has supported this GROW project. May we plant the seeds of your dreams and weed all the objections out.”
That evening there was a music night held in the old church hall; the first of many planned informal and alternative gospel music with bands and artists from near and far. The next morning we had a lamb (named “snowball” by the kids in church) who helped bring to the gospel reading of the day to life, he was lost and now is found and luckily didn’t affect the church carpet in any way! He may grow and come back to be a key part in a future shared lunch. We then ended the weekend with the sombre ringing of the church bell 96 times to honour the Queen.
All this simply brings life and vitality to the church site, enabling us to be a village without walls. As people pass by, we hope they see the vision of “Building Community with the hope of Jesus” and see that what we do matches who we say we are; living out what it means to be family, to be disciples together on spring weekend in rural Masterton.
