After 17+ years, Chris Casey is leaving the team at the Anglican Centre. The main focus of Chris’s ministry has been with our young people, from intermediate age to young adults. We spoke to Chris about his time with us.

It’s official. Our global leaders have formally concluded their negotiations at COP26 and plan to keep the earth’s warming within 1.5°C. While it looks alright on paper, the road ahead is neither clear nor straightforward and is lacking real oomph. Many critics are slamming international leaders for their “watered-down” deal - the promises are there, but they are non-binding begging the question of when will the matching actions follow? Though we have yet to see the delivery of majorly effective solutions, we can still acknowledge some of the smaller progresses and glimpses of hope from COP26.

We have reached the home stretch of COP26: UN Climate talks and there has been no shortage of big promises. If you haven’t been keeping up with COP, allow me to draw your attention to what I think are some pretty significant highlights. Collected and written by Olivia Yates, a member of Karakia for our Climate (K4OC).

At our recent Synod, again as a Movement we committed to being a people who advocate for care for our climate. Here are some upcoming opportunities for us to learn, pray and take action as hopefully Jesus people.

One of our Synod priorities is to care for our climate; safeguarding all creation by actively reducing carbon emissions. And now we have an opportunity to put forward submissions on the Emissions Reduction Plan that our government has released for consultation.

Last Tuesday, we joined with our brothers and sisters in faith to formally present a Climate Change Statement to the Minister for the Climate Change, Hon. James Shaw.

2021 is a momentous year for climate change policy in New Zealand. The government has just announced a four-fold increase in climate finance to go to overseas communities most impacted by climate breakdown. This amounts to $1.3billion over four years! And right now, our government is in the process of finalising targets by which we hope to reduce our carbon emissions for the next 15 years. It’s important that we have our say.

Nine years ago, St John’s Johnsonville was in interregnum. Before it was ready to call for a new priest the Diocese did some discernment work with the parish around their sense of God's vision for their life together. The church had an older demographic and was declining in numbers so in response to this the parish discerned 3 key priorities for the 5 years ahead.

The invitation was given: Anglicans Ablaze! Global Conference open to all. Lynda Whitwell, Vicar’s Warden at Milson Combined Church reflects on her experience of the global conference held last week.

Next week is Health and Safety Week so we thought it would be good to interview Andrew Black, the Diocesan Safety Officer, to find out a bit more about him and his role.

The Anglican Movement website has recently become one of the many around New Zealand to become a shielded site. Shielded sites allow victims of domestic abuse to access a portal where they can find out ways to become safe, but without their abuser finding out about it in their browser history.

Have you heard about Soap for Society? This awesome charity works in partnership with Wellington City Mission and other mission agencies around New Zealand, to collect cleaning, hygiene and sanitation products to support those doing it tough. We had a chat to founder Lucy Revill - also a parishioner at St James, Lower Hutt - about their current collection drive, running from 4-18 October, and about how we as fellow Anglican whanau can help.

In the Cathedral, the week before last, we gathered and sorted household items, pantry packs and toys for former refugee families resettling in Wellington. Although, at this stage no houses have been found for them.

Do you want to be refreshed and resourced by phenomenal speakers from global Church leaders, and prayed for by members of our African church? Of course you do!

Next week, the Anglicans Ablaze Global Conference begins. This is an opportunity for anyone across our global communion to join in learning more about being disciples who make disciples, living a Jesus-shaped life.

The Low Carbon Challenge is still up and running, and open for all to take part in. This week, we bring you news from a group campaigning for equity in public transport for Wellington City. They’re advocating for free public transport for Community Services Card Holders and students, as both a justice issue for low income people as well as reducing climate emissions caused by transport.

After a year of Leadership Course lectures and huddles, I felt ready to embrace hosting a house church and we started last Sunday. In my local church huddle and home group we’ve been talking about mission, and I felt challenged to start sharing my faith more in a natural way. But where to start?

When Ralph Pyatt finally decided to retire from running the Waikanae Parish Foodbank in late 2020 Pippa was thrilled at the opportunity to take over. Ralph, and his late wife Ngaio, ran the foodbank for 22 years, delivering thousands of food parcels to those in need.