Mid-winter Christmas: June 21-July 2
12 Days of Light in the Darkness

Dear Friends,

Now is a great time to promote the hope, peace, joy and love of Christ in our neighbourhood. In the coming weeks we, as a parish, will begin promoting Mid-winter Christmas: 12 Days of Light in the Darkness. 

What is it?

Mid-winter Christmas will involve two simple things:

1. Encourage everyone to put a Christmas tree in the front window of their home and light it up each night from June 21 - July 2.

2. Participate in 12 days of love and hospitality for neighbours, in keeping with the themes of the traditional 12 feast days during Christmas. You will receive a resource for this in the coming weeks.

More information will follow, but in the meantime, consider keeping some evenings free for hosting neighbours during that time, and start unearthing your Christmas trees and lights! Our prayer is to use this time as a parish to be connecting with our neighbours, praying for them, and sharing the good news of Jesus in word and deed.

If you would like to join the organising team, please reach out to me. Salvation Army Miramar is onboard already and looking forward to partnering with us.

Thy Kingdom Come

Tomorrow is Ascension Day. It is the day the church celebrates the ascension of the risen Jesus as the world’s true King - victorious over the powers of darkness. It also begins 10 days of prayer in the lead up to Pentecost. During these 10 days, the Church remembers Jesus telling the disciples to wait and pray for the sending of the Holy Spirit. During this time millions of Christians will participate in a global prayer movement called Thy Kingdom Come.

As a parish, we are going to extend this 10 days of prayer out to a whole month, during which we will pray for God’s Kingdom to come in our neighbourhood as we prepare for Mid-Winter Christmas. This prayer will be based on the traditional Advent themes of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. We will reflect on one of these each week.

Every one of us is encouraged to write down the names of 5 friends and to pray for them each day that they would hear and respond to the good news of Jesus. Take time now to do this and begin a rhythm of prayer for your friends.

Church in Small Groups

Because we can’t yet return to our fully gathered Sunday worship, our priority is to enable all parishioners who want to, the opportunity to meet in person with others, for prayer, communion and fellowship at some stage during the week. As I shared last week, this will be done through small groups. Some of these exist already, others will need to be formed. We are gathering leaders at the moment and someone will reach out to you in the next week to help you connect with a group. 

For this Sunday, while the maximum gathering number is 10, please take the opportunity to invite a few others into your homes for a communion service. I will send through a liturgy booklet, readings, teaching and reflection questions in a separate email prior to Sunday. Keep an eye out for this in your inbox. 

This week we will look at the theme of Hope, and how we can bear witness to the hope of Jesus and his Kingdom in our neighbourhood in the season ahead.

New Website

Have you noticed we have a brand new website?! It gives us a welcoming online front door through which to invite people into the life of the parish. https://www.peninsulaparish.nz. Have a browse.

Speaking of online presence. Are you on Facebook? If so, could I encourage you to take a minute and “like” the parish facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/staidan.stgeorge I’m personally not a big Facebook user, but many of our neighbours are, and it’s an important vehicle for us to show an “open front door” into parish life. Can I also recommend you join the local neighbourhood Facebook groups, which are very active and give real insight into what’s happening in the neighbourhood.