Val writes...
How has this year been for you? I look back and remember lovely celebrations when families have come to be baptised and link in with Sunday worship. Alongside that I have enjoyed meeting new people as they come to our church (and sometimes to our town) Alongside this we have held funerals for lovely people from our church. They will be missed. And we hold their families in our prayers as they adjust.
October ends with the Light party followed closely by our fair—hopefully I will see you there. It is also the time of the year when we acknowledge the “saints” who have gone before us—all our loved ones. Over the last three years we have held a remembrance service at this. This will become a biannual event. This year Sadliers are holding one in Hamilton and they will support one in Morrinsville next year. There is opportunity during our 10am Sunday service to light a candle for the loved ones who have died.
There are no events planned in the parish for January - I hope you may find this time opportunity to invite someone for a cuppa or BBQ. We will be around the first half of the month. I have an Equine Workshop and a Clinical Pastoral AGM and Conference at the end of January.
The vestry have decided to split the AGM into two parts—the elections will happen in February and the reports will come in April. In this way the vestry can serve for a full calendar year each year
I hope you are not too over taken by the commercialism of the Christmas season. Advent to me is such an important time of reflecting on hope, peace, joy and love … and what they mean in everyday life. I’m aware that it can also be quite a sad time for people if families are away or the wallet does not stretch to all the things you want to do for Christmas. Maybe meditation is the free gift we can claim this Christmas. As I listened to a horse trainer on Sunday afternoon at Equidays he promoted meditation and even got us all to try it. Our churches should be leading the way—however we can be open to learn from those from “a different country” as the wise men who came from afar were also an intricate part of the Christmas event.
Let us be open and responsive to the coming of Christ in the ordinary and earthiness of life.
Val
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How has this year been for you? I look back and remember lovely celebrations when families have come to be baptised and link in with Sunday worship. Alongside that I have enjoyed meeting new people as they come to our church (and sometimes to our town) Alongside this we have held funerals for lovely people from our church. They will be missed. And we hold their families in our prayers as they adjust.
October ends with the Light party followed closely by our fair—hopefully I will see you there. It is also the time of the year when we acknowledge the “saints” who have gone before us—all our loved ones. Over the last three years we have held a remembrance service at this. This will become a biannual event. This year Sadliers are holding one in Hamilton and they will support one in Morrinsville next year. There is opportunity during our 10am Sunday service to light a candle for the loved ones who have died.
There are no events planned in the parish for January - I hope you may find this time opportunity to invite someone for a cuppa or BBQ. We will be around the first half of the month. I have an Equine Workshop and a Clinical Pastoral AGM and Conference at the end of January.
The vestry have decided to split the AGM into two parts—the elections will happen in February and the reports will come in April. In this way the vestry can serve for a full calendar year each year
I hope you are not too over taken by the commercialism of the Christmas season. Advent to me is such an important time of reflecting on hope, peace, joy and love … and what they mean in everyday life. I’m aware that it can also be quite a sad time for people if families are away or the wallet does not stretch to all the things you want to do for Christmas. Maybe meditation is the free gift we can claim this Christmas. As I listened to a horse trainer on Sunday afternoon at Equidays he promoted meditation and even got us all to try it. Our churches should be leading the way—however we can be open to learn from those from “a different country” as the wise men who came from afar were also an intricate part of the Christmas event.
Let us be open and responsive to the coming of Christ in the ordinary and earthiness of life.
Val
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Morrinsville Christmas Music Festival
St. Matthew’s Church will be hosting our 2019 Morrinsville Christmas Music Festival on Sunday, 1st December, commencing at 4pm. Choirs and music groups from Morrinsville will be presenting Christmas themed items alternating with familiar congregational carols. At the conclusion St. Matthew’s will provide a cuppa and biscuits. A retiring collection will be made for the Community Christmas Lunch for Men who live alone. Please save the date and come along to start out our Christmas season with our local community. Ariel McCracken 027 2945 139. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR YEARS AT MORRINSVILLE – ST MATTHEWS CHURCH 1970 - 1976
* Our family shifted to Morrinsville in 1970, with one son – 18 months old and I was pregnant with our second child. We had three children by the time we moved to Auckland in January 1976. Mike and Mandy were baptized at St Matts. Mike on the 14th February 1971 (Neville Smith put an extra note on his baptism certificate about him being baptized on St Valentine’s Day, which Mike has proudly put in his CV!). Mandy was baptized by the Bishop of Waikato – Rt Rev Allen Johnstone – it was his day to visit the parish! Just to prove what a small world we live in, particularly in N Z, one of my bosses at my last job before retiring was the son-in-law of Bishop Allen, who of course went on to be Archbishop of N Z. * I really believe that Dave and I were blessed to have a wonderful vicar during our time in Morrinsville – yes, none other than Gerry Hadlow and his lovely and yes, formidable wife Sheila. I think between Dave and Gerry, they certainly stirred things up at St Matts – musically. At that time contemporary music was being introduced to the church and some parishes embraced it enthusiastically. I’m thinking of St Paul’s in Symonds Street, Auckland – their singers came down to Morrinsville to lead the music at our services over a weekend, one of the group was a Morrinsville lad – Clyde Whitechurch who was a dab hand with the tambourine! Gerry and Dave went on to introduce the congregation to a Folk Mass with yours truly on the guitar. Believe me an organ and guitar do mix well together, as long as it’s all done properly! As a family we used to front up to the 10 o’clock service on a regular basis and Sheila was usually there to separate the boys if they got a tad bored or got themselves sick of having to sit together and started to attack each other (as 2 and 3 year old’s are prone to do). Of course they also used to sidle up to the organ to sit with their dad if they could get away with it without disrupting the music too much!! Oh, and talking about the organ – there was a concert where a parishioner, who was a pianist, had offered to assist with an item, had walked to the organ console and clambered over the foot pedals to get onto the organ stool, some pedal stops had been left open and we all were entertained with a crazy sound of feet on pedals, much to poor Ethel’s horror! * Another milestone was the visit of parishioners to Kai A Te Mata Marae for a weekend which was a real highlight for me, being my first visit to a marae and being introduced to Taha Maori. It was a wonderful time for me personally and though I was very pregnant with our daughter and only managed to cope with one night sleeping on the floor, I found the weekend totally enlightening. On the Saturday Gerry and the Marae people arranged to visit the neighbouring Rukumoana Marae on Walton Road – we were invited to a wedding – I rolled up in my preggy gear plus gumboots, the epitome of wedding fashion of the time NOT. The bridal party duly arrived – it was a juxtaposition of Maori custom and pakeha dress sense – the bride and her bridesmaids very splendent in their white and the groom and his attendants in their suits for us all to be welcomed into the whare kai to feast on a hangi wedding breakfast. Something I will never forget. Apparently the two marae had not had any meaningful connection for some time – due to the religious differences involved. I recall that Kai A Te Mata is Anglican aligned and Rukumoana is of another faith – which had apparently created a bit of a standoff over the years – I of course stand to be corrected on this piece of history and I have since learned that Rukumoana was an early parliament house of the Kingitanga Movement. * There was also a parish weekend held at a church camp which was really humming along until a few of us adults were contemplating a ride on the flying fox. I actually backed out of the ride, but Patricia Allen, who was standing in front of me in line got up to sally forth, only for the fox to bounce off the wire and Patricia fell heavily onto her back. It was a very scary episode and we were all very relieved when Patricia stood up and assured us she was OK. * Just some of my recollections of Morrinsville life for us between 1970 and 1976. I won’t go into details of a wake held at our home in Bank Street in 1975 after the General Election where one of our neighbours came over to gloat at the result and ended up punching the nose of one of the guys who was commiserating with us. He had no idea that one of our attendees was none other than Helen Clark, who was the candidate for the Piako seat and of course lost that one! Helen’s opponent who won quite handsomely was of course Jack Luxton. I have fond memories of Jack looking after us when we were travelling to Christchurch to visit friends. We had left Morrinsville early and driven to Wellington to catch the overnight ferry to Lyttleton. Having arrived quite early in the afternoon we decided to have a tour around Parliament House – this was in the days before the Beehive was built and we ran into Jack in the main foyer, after spending a short time in the debating chamber. Jack had great fun taking the boys up and down that very antiquated, open elevator in the foyer, then insisted of hosting us for afternoon tea at Bellamy’s. We were introduced to and sat with some well-known MPs – Frank Gill, Hugh Templeton and Ian Shearer. A very interesting and educational afternoon indeed. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
