On World Refugee Sunday (4th July in the Anglican calendar) we celebrate the contribution refugees make to our world and our responsibility to always welcome the stranger.

The people who get vaccines out to remote or difficult places are absolute superheroes. So our Café Church whānau decided to make a superhero cape.

Just by virtue of where you live and the language you speak, what you know can be life changing for a refugee family. It doesn’t feel like you are doing much, but it makes a big difference. Anyone can do it! If you have ever been to the supermarket or caught a bus, you can help.

This week is National Volunteer Week. Volunteers are the lifeblood that makes our Movement what it is. Without you, we wouldn’t get very far!

We are excited to announce that the International Friendship Club at Victoria University has been nominated for the Health and Wellbeing Category in the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards 2021.

The Lyall Bay Community Church decided to have their first ever Sunday morning service on Pentecost Sunday: a symbolic act to remember the powerful way the Spirit of God moved, and the many people who believed. Also as a reminder of where our hope lies – Christ is building the church and can move in radical ways.

COVID-19 put a pretty abrupt stop to short term, cross-cultural missions around the world. An opportunity for churches and other groups to come together, build community and relationships in a unique way and serve our God in a different environment.

The whānau at Milson Combined Church are fully behind the work that Milson School does in supporting kids and their families.

Lockdown gave a us all an opportunity to think differently about how we do church. Moving into Alert Level 2 presented even more challenges for our larger congregations about how we meet in person with the limitations that came with it. Café Church is one of the responses to that challenge, and they have just turned 1! 

The Get one. Give one. campaign, launched last week, encourages New Zealanders to contribute to a global initiative that funds vaccine equality in countries that may otherwise miss out. When you get your COVID-19 vaccine, give $10 so that one of the world’s most vulnerable can get theirs. Let’s pass our gratitude on. Because COVID-19 won’t be over until it’s over for everyone.

Hello from Papua New Guinea! Thank you to those of you who have reached out to check on how we are doing since our last update. Things have been a bit up and down and challenging to navigate with COVID-19 since its arrival here in Kapuna.

Rev. Sarah McMenamin spoke in Fielding recently about why she marched in the hīkoi to establish Māori wards in Manawatū. Since the hikoi and preaching this message, the council changed their vote in favour of the new wards. Sarah talks on the importance of being transformational.

The years of work we have invested in welcoming our newest Kiwis hit an unexpected hiatus when our borders closed last year, but the Red Cross advises that resettlement of former refugees is about to resume – and we are looking for willing volunteers to help us lay down the welcome mat.

“It felt like an impossible dream, but here we are, one year later!” Sharon Williams, and her colleagues dreamed big last year when lockdown hit the community in Shannon hard.

Last Tuesday we brought you an update on Al Ahli Hospital and the situation in Gaza. Now more than ever they require our support. Al-Ahli is calling for help to fund medical supplies, essential medicines, and fuel to keep the generators operating. And Anglican Missions has launched an emergency appeal so we can help.

Find out some of the different ways we have approached Thy Kingdom Come across our movement and get some inspiration for next year!

Last Thursday the Government announced Budget 2021. Our diocesan Advocacy Enabler, Kate Day, updates us on whether our calls for increased overseas aid was heeded. She told us: “This was the Government’s opportunity to stand with the world by raising overseas aid and climate finance for the next three years. Unfortunately, they did not.”

Rev. Dr Joe McGarry, who leads our Anglican Studies, together with Dr Andrew Shepherd from the University of Otago’s Centre for Theology and Public Issues, is co-organising this year’s Morph event. Many of you will remember previous Morph events as an evening of TED-style contributors presenting on topics of interest to our time. Joe tells us about the conviction that drives him to be a theologian in this season.

What are you doing in your community for Thy Kingdom Come? Many of us are hosting regular rhythms of prayer and prayer vigils as we pray for our five friends or family members to come to know the amazing love of God. In Wairarapa, Thy Kingdom Come will conclude with an ecumenical service at Wairarapa College where all the churches in the Wairarapa will come together as one.

The conflict in the Holy Land (Gaza), has been on many people’s minds these last couple of weeks. Anglican Missions have been checking in with their partners at Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City who provide free medical care to the poorest of the poor, with a particular focus on refugees, women and children.