Weekly Bulletin: Staying connected as a church -30 July 2023
Kia ora St John’s whānau,
This Sunday we start our four-week exploration of the faith practice ‘Following Jesus’.
What does it mean to live this faith practice every day? We will be using special resources to consider this together, sharing the insights from all ages and stages of our St John’s whanau.
Much of our regular rhythms will continue, with the usual peer group times for our young people, starting part-way through the service.
If you can’t gather in the city, and you want to join the worship service via Zoom, here are the details to access the live-stream:
Zoom Meeting ID: 370 260 759
Passcode: worship
The link to join the Zoom worship service is below.
If using your phone: dial 04 886 0026 (Meeting ID: 370 260 759#, Passcode: 1560107#)
This is the link to the printable Service Sheet
OTHER THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT...
FOLLOW ME
Over four Sundays, starting 30th July, we will be focusing on the faith practice Following Jesus at St John’s in the City.
We are using a new resource called Follow Me, from the Presbyterian Church in USA. Rather than starting with a Bible story, this resource starts with a faith practice, and explores that biblically, theologically and socially. This allows us to follow the practice for four weeks and reflect more deeply together using resources designed for different age groups.
This means we will all suspend our usual approaches (e.g. following the Lectionary Bible readings) and resources in favour of all exploring this faith practice for four consecutive weeks: 30th July, 6th, 13th, 20th August. We will still have peer group time, as the resource is designed for exploring the same faith practice with the various age groups.
We will look at biblical stories illustrating this practice and how the Christian community has understood this through more than two thousand years. We will use this resource each week with our Sunday services, St J’s Kids and Youth Group peer groups, and an intergenerational event. We will be encouraging one another to activate this practice – both individually and in community.
By using this resource to all explore a faith practice together over the same four weeks, we will look forward to opportunities to talk about this and do it together.
We also have a resource for Practicing the Practice at home, and we strongly encourage you to use this with others in your household or networks.
SOUPER SUNDAYS
You are warmly invited to share in a bowl of hot soup after church this Sunday 30th July 30 (the next and final Souper Sunday is Sunday 27th August)
Just bring a small plate of something sweet to share with your tea or coffee. Come and share in the warm fellowship, we’d love to see you.
Ice cream and the large yoghurt containers are useful for leftovers. If you can donate some, please leave these in the Centre kitchen pantry.
TAONGA WORD CLOUD
As part of our service at Matariki we gave thanks for the taonga (treasure) of St John’s in the City. All the personal notes stuck up on the cross have been collated into a combined word cloud – with the taonga identified multiple times in larger letters. We have much to be thankful to God for!
SERMON ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
Last Sunday we sought to bring some clarity to what AI is (and isn’t), and consider what it might mean for our future.
To help us, I interviewed a Professor of Computer Graphics, Neil Dodgson, as we assessed together this latest technology with the resources of faith that guide us in what it is to be human.
You can read the notes of this Sermon here:
You can watch the video of the Sermon here:
MENS BREAKFAST
This is an informal time for men exploring faith over a hearty breakfast. We meet in the St John’s Centre and finish promptly to get on with the day!
7:30-8:30 am on Thursdays, fortnightly. The next breakfast is Thursday 10th August. See the St John’s website for more details and who to contact to let them know you are coming.
FLOURISHING FUTURES: THEOLOGICAL CONVERSATIONS
Many of the established realities our society has been built upon are being destabilised. We live in a moment in which the prevailing way of life faces significant challenges: the growing reality of climate change and ecological degradation; the emergence of new digital technologies and their potential positive and negative effects; increasing living-costs and housing shortages; threats to the quality of education.
What is the nature of these challenges we face – their origins? their potential impact on society? How might the richness of faith, cultural, and philosophical traditions deepen our depth of analysis and understanding of these challenges and potentially guide how we respond?
“The Truth will Set us Free?”: Disinformation, Misinformation, Surveillance and Sociality
Tuesday August 22nd 5.30pm–6.30pm
“It’s the End of the World as we Know it”: Climate Crisis and Civilisation Collapse? or A Post-Carbon Sustainable Future?
Tuesday August 29th 5.30pm–6.30pm
“We don’t need no education?” Education, Citizenship, and the Common Good
Tuesday Sept 12th 5.30pm–6.30pm
This series of public discussions with a panel of experts offering their insights on these issues is organised by the University of Otago.
Venue: Wellington Cathedral of Saint Paul, 2 Hill Street.
NEW WINE
Each year families from St John’s have gone to the New Wine Festival in January. It is a very uplifting time and a great way to start a new year.
Here is a video showing some of the festival highlights:
The way of Christ is perfect; we can always trust that walking with our Saviour is good for us.
Allister