In 1859 Rev John James of Reading, England, granted ten acres of land adjacent to Papanui Road to the Church Property Trustees for Ecclesiastical purposes in the Province of Canterbury. He had purchased 100 acres in the Province of Canterbury, but it seems that he never actually made it to New Zealand. He did however…

Earlier in the year Gareth Bezett, the Director of Theology House, led a study series on church history and heresies. We talked about why some teachings have been rejected by the Church as heresy, as false teachings that are harmful to the true faith and led people astray. Many of the heretics were people that…

As decided in various Parish Meetings, we are looking at selling the tennis court land. Vestry and CPT have been working on options for a deadline sale, while keeping in communication with the Christchurch Methodist Mission. We were looking at going to market later in the year, if the Methodist Mission could not provide an…

On the weekend we went to Diamond Harbour to experience the brand new ferry, the Black Pearl. It is a really comfortable catamaran with large panoramic windows and plenty of seats. If you want an enjoyable, affordable trip I’d highly recommend it. It’s free for Super Gold Card holders! I also noticed a few other…

At the Special General Meeting on 18 August 2024, the parish accepted the proposed motion with minor amendments. This allows Vestry and Church Property Trustees to also consider other options, while still keeping the sale of the land to the Christchurch Methodist Mission open. On the suggestion of CPT, Vestry has agreed to an updated…

Earlier in the year I decided to take the opportunity to take the ferry to Diamond Harbour while children still travelled free on their MetroCard. We went to the remains of Godley House, looked at the art in Stoddart Cottage—trying to whisk them past some less-than-child-friendly paintings, played in the park, walked around the seashore…

The Olympic Games in Paris have just concluded and New Zealand athletes won an astonishing 20 medals, 10 of those gold medals. That is quite an achievement for such a small nation. It is also considerably more than New Zealand athletes had achieved in previous years. I particularly remember the games in Atlanta in 1996,…

Quite regularly on my day off I go for a walk in the Port Hills. The walking tracks I most often use are those close to a bus stop that enable me to get as high as possible quickly. I also like to walk along the tops. Some of these tracks are quite steep in…

Last year we had a sermon series about the Apostle’s Creed. During August this year I will look at a more recent confession, the Barmen Declaration of 1934. As many other confessions, it was the result of a crisis in the Church. In this case, the crisis was the attempted take-over of the German churches…

At the Annual General Meeting the Parish resolved to go ahead with the sale of most of the tennis court land to the Christchurch Methodist Mission (CMM) to provide housing for the elderly. I indicated then that the government direction on social housing was not yet known. There is some more clarity now. Funding has…