Drainage
The scheduled drainage work is now underway, so try and avoid parking over by LOOP and the church office in June if you can.  Sunday morning parking nearer the church will be fine as usual.

Community Outreach 
14th July is the new public holiday Matariki and many are looking for ways to celebrate this event (Māori New Year). We’ll be holding a special night time ‘service’ event in the church that Friday night as an outreach to our neighbourhood. Details will follow. 
Also as an outreach to the community, we are looking to perhaps run a week night Hymns & Beers event in a local pub. This is successful in the UK amongst Anglican churches and we intend to trial one or two and see if that works to help connect with locals in a meaningful way.  Un-churched people
often enjoy these events as everyone likes to sing and they reconnect with well-known hymns from their past.

Concepts for ‘Tennis Courts’ land
After much prayer, discussion, and a retreat, Vestry isolated three ‘concepts’ for the use of the ‘tennis court land’ as an ongoing income stream for the church (as requested by the Diocese). One of these is to create a boutique special-character Anglican school. Currently there is an Anglican primary school (St Mark’s) but there are no options for families wanting children to go to an Anglican high school (other than going private). As well as an educational option (potential school) there is an option to sell the land to a developer or on the open market; another option to work with the Methodist mission on a social housing option. Three costed concepts have gone to the Bishop and the Church Property Trustees for discussion.

Missional and Ecclesiastical Outcome
As well as a commitment to mission and an ecclesiastical outcome consistent with the intent of the original donation of our land for a church, a key verse informing our thoughts is Zechariah 8:4,5. “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.” 

John – People’s Warden; Lindsay – Vicar’s Warden.