Acts 1

Kia ora whānau,

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus and also the day we celebrate, in a sense, the birth of the Church. We have decided not to do this at the school hall (or the chapel) until we can have services in a way that allows us to be family (probably at alert level 1). Families normally don't stay a metre away from each other like we would have to do at the school hall. We thought that real house church would be better than weird 'big church.' We want our first Sunday back together at the school hall to be a celebration not an exercise in restraint.

So this Sunday we will be using 309, 311 and 313 Mansfield Street as our house churches. You can come to any of those houses (and probably see everyone else). 309 will be a kid friendly service. We will meet at our regular time of 10:30am. If you have been gathering in other homes together over the last few weeks and would like to continue to do so, just let me know and I will make sure that you have some resources for the service. We are going to move away from doing all of the service on zoom to having just a few bits. This week, I happen to be doing the message for the diocesan Live stream service (which isn't actually live) so you can watch it here if you'd like.

In times of change and upheaval, like we have been going through globally, it is important have rhythms that hold us and continue to (re)form us. Throughout history, gathering together with other followers of Jesus has been one of those important rhythms. The size and location of those gathering do not matter all that much. Neither do the format or the 'brand.' When we come together in Jesus name, he is there with us. It will be fun to do so again this week.

Keep your eyes on Jesus

Mark