November 26th 2008
Rev Jill van de Geer
President
Methodist Church of New Zealand
Te Haahi Weteriana O Aotearoa
PO Box 931
Christchurch 8140
Dear President Jill,
Please accept the thanks and appreciation of everyone at LIFEWISE for the generosity shown to our work during the recent Conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand.
A total of $868.11 was raised for the work of LIFEWISE which was made up of
• $727.91 during the concert and
• $140.20 in fines during conference sessions
The funds from the concert included $517.51 from the Samoan group and $121.40 from the Tongan group.
We would like to acknowledge the Manuakau District Synod for nominating LIFEWISE as the recipient of these funds and their efforts in collecting the fines. A special thanks to Prince Devanandan.
With sincere thanks and kindest regards,
John Murray John McCarthy
Superintendent General Manager – Community Services
cc Rev Setaita Kinahoi Veikune and Rev Prince Devanandan
Methodist Enable 2009: Advance notification
The Local Shared Ministry workgroup are pleased to announce that Methodist Enable 2009 will be held in Northland. The venue is still to be clarified. The Northland Synod / Churches Together in Northland will be hosting the event, which will be held from Sunday March 22 to Wednesday March 25, 2009. There may also be a further day event for enablers if there is sufficient interest.
As in previous years, an invitation is therefore extended to the church to send participants. Participants are asked to seek the support of their synods for attendance. Synods are also encouraged to send people who they would like trained for Enabler ministry, or informed about Local Shared Ministry or the ministry of enabling.
Topics/ workshops are still to be confirmed, but at this stage include Creative Mission, Supervision, Worship, Building Christian faith, and expectations of enablers. As usual there will also be significant time to share each others stories and swap resources.
Details of cost, venue and final program will be announced as they become available.
Keep an eye out on http://methodistenable.blogspot.com/ for updates and conversation topics.
Nigel Hanscamp
Director Mission Resourcing
for the Local Shared Ministry Workgroup
Charities Commission – Change in Officers
When “Officers” change in a registered charitable entity, the Charities Act requires that entity to inform the Commission of the Change. If the officers do NOT change, then you do not need to worry about completing any forms at all.
Two forms are required to be completed when officers do change.
If you have a new “officer” who is new, you will be required to fill in Form 2 which is the Officer certification Form.
Form 3 is the form that needs to be completed and sent back to the Commission. Form 3 is a ‘catch all’ form for any changes regarding the registered entity so it is a lengthy form. When completing the form for a change of officer you will need to complete only a small part of the form (entity name, registration number, etc).
We will be putting both forms on the Methodist Church web site with instructions on how to complete them. These forms and instructions should be online during the week beginning 1 December 2008.
If you have any questions, direct them to Peter van Hout in the Connexional Office.
WALK FOR THE PLANET
Since Walk for the Planet was conceived at the Southern School of Theology in Queenstown in March it has grown from a few people to many, from Methodist to ecumenical, and from just Christchurch to Stewart Island and the whole of eastern South Island. As we move towards the birth/launch of the walk on Stewart Island on Ash Wednesday there is still much to be done.
The walk before the walk is in many ways the most challenging so please pray for the steering committee and regional groups doing a lot of the slog at the moment.
Many parishes and individuals will by now have received some kind of publicity about the walk and how they can support it. If not, we encourage people to visit our website at www.walk4theplanet.org.nz.
In life we all learn how to walk on the planet. There is an emerging awareness however of our need to learn how to walk with the planet. We believe that it is a core aspect of our Christian walk to do just this. Care of creation is one of the core principles in the Methodist church's Mission statement.
Lent is about allowing God to change our lives and our direction as individuals and as faith communities. Our relationship with the earth is one area of our lives today that needs to fundamentally change. We hope that this Lenten walk from Stewart Island to Wellington can be a catalyst for this kind of change for those who support the walk and for Aotearoa New Zealand.
As February draws closer we need to know in what ways parishes in the connexion intend supporting the walk, and even more importantly the names and contact details of people wanting to physically make the foot journey, and for how far, and on which legs. Some may want to make the whole journey of 950k and others as little as 1k. Further information can be sent to those who request it.
We would appreciate hearing from parishes by the end of January. Contact Mark Gibson at stmarks7@clear.net.nz or 7 Somerfield Street; or Gillian Southey at gillian.southey@cws.org.nz or P.O.Box 22652, Christchurch 8142
