Since the Omicron outbreak began, the Wellington City Mission has experienced a 400% increase of demand for food support. They are spending $20,000 a week on groceries to ensure the shelves of the Social Supermarket are stocked to meet that need.

Some years ago there was a cartoon which caught my attention. It was of a naval vessel showing the power of its guns, with its commander leaning over the stern looking down at the tiny overcrowded boat below filled with migrants. “Where are you from?” He shouted. Back came the response, “Earth.”

With a vision focussed on youth and young whanau, All Saints Hataitai are reimagining how their church facilities might contribute to wellness in their community.

Building has begun on Te Korōria, a community social enterprise facility, developed by Karori Anglican to support whānau through a welcoming community space.

The old Plunket car seat hire rooms in Ranui, Porirua spent several years vacant, and quite derelict, until our Porirua whānau stepped in. The building was comprehensively renovated to become a new community resource after the Porirua Anglicans successfully tendered for it in May last year.

Anglicans in our diocese and throughout the country have been a driving force behind the Free Fares campaign, which is advocating for free public transport for Community Services Card Holders, under-25s, and students nationwide. On 17 March the campaign group will present their petition of nearly 10,000 to the Minister for Transport, asking that Free Fares will be funded in this year’s budget.

As the noise of protestors on Parliament’s lawns echo around Wellington’s Cathedral of St Paul, the Cathedral whānau are offering a peaceful presence and word to those dropping by.

We’ve had to get a bit creative in order to have fun as a church family and here is how some of our Masterton whānau are doing that at the same time as helping to fund much needed projects.

Almost every Thursday evening between July 2020 and June 2021, I could be found in front of a Zoom call with people from every part of our Diocese who were current or budding small group leaders.

It was a totally mind-blowing year that continues to influence and shape me even now, eight months after it finished.

Thanks to generous donations made to Anglican Missions’ Tonga Emergency appeal, our Tongan whānau can find some small respite in the relief packages currently on route to the disaster-ravaged nation. But, we still have a long way to go.

Lent begins on 2 March this year, and as we wait to see what the arrival of the Omicron variant in our communities will look like, we’re encouraging our Movement to think about how to use Lent Studies as a way to continue to gather safely, build teams, care for one another, and continue to learn together about who God is and who we are called to be at this time.

It’s the time of year when our finance team is busy with consolidating the accounts from across the diocese. Mark Chan is our Finance Manager so we thought it would be good to share a little bit more about him and what he does.

It began at the end of March, when a small group of us from Onslow Anglicans decided to sign up for the online course called “Holiness and Social Action”. I think we were particularly interested in exploring what it meant to be Christian but at the same time to be very much engaged with the world and its needs. One example that grabbed our attention was Saint Francis and how he made a point of going out into the community and getting alongside people – “the last, the lost and the least,” to quote a phrase!

Join us in 2022 for a range of courses designed to further your formation as a follower of Christ. We may be under the red traffic light setting for a while and if you are stuck for things to do, why not check out what we have on offer through our Christian Studies programme.