The Messenger The Messenger
PARISH OF SAINT MARK REMUERA PARISH SAINT MARK August 2019 OF Parish website: www.stmarks.org.nz Editor: Debra Hall REMUERA Warm Greetings, Haere Mai, Mālō e lelei, Bula Vinaka, Neih hou, Marhaba! As I write we have just celebrated our Patronal Festival (11 August) which culminated in the Patronal Lunch organised by the Parish Life Committee. We have a festival like this every year at St Mark’s Church, to remember and give thanks for our namesake, St Mark the Evangelist, and to pay tribute to the countless souls who built up this Parish since the first church was opened here on 30 May 1847. The date we choose for this commemoration varies from year to year. Sometimes it coincides with an historic event in the life of the parish – such as the opening of the first church or the second church (2 September 1860) – but that doesn’t always work out well with other things happening in the parish or diocese. Very often Patronal Festivals occur on the known or supposed date of the death of the saintly patron concerned. This doesn’t tend to work very well for us in Australasia, because the traditional date of St Mark’s martyrdom in Western Christianity is 25 April – ANZAC Day. So, in very pragmatic, Kiwi fashion, we choose a day that works well for us. The vision of the Parish Life Committee that recommended 11 August 2019 to Vestry as the appropriate time to hold our Patronal Festival was that it would bring warmth, vibrancy and companionship to parishioners in the coolest part of the year. From the feedback I’ve received about the event, it achieved that aim very well. Thanks be to God.
Time for dessert at the Patronal Lunch, 2019
Putting it down on Paper a Sermon for St Mark’s Patronal Feast, 11 August 2019 The first church built on this site, opened its doors to the faithful for the first time on 30 May 1847. The land it was built on belonged to George Graham, an engineer who had travelled to New Zealand with William Hobson in 1840 for the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. In 1844 Graham entered into negotiations with Maori to buy a large tract of land (some 73 acres) which included the land we are now on. A contract was drawn up and money appears to have changed hands (£68 10s), but it was not until 1847 that George Graham was granted the land by the Crown. By that stage, the church was already on it! You could, perhaps, make the argument, then, that George Graham was this parish’s first Patron – continuing a pattern that was common in England of wealthy land owners founding a chapel on their property, but in reality, it was another George (Bishop George Selwyn) who had this site earmarked for a chapel before George Graham had his government grant in hand. I suspect that there was a gentleman’s agreement between them for Graham to convey some land surrounding the chapel to the church at the nearest opportunity. That duly happened on 2 September 1848 when an acre or so of land, with the church on it, was conveyed to Bishop Selwyn for the princely sum of £2. Selwyn had ordered the building of a church on this site because he realised it had excellent connectivity to other parts of Auckland (and perhaps he could foresee the construction of New Zealand’s biggest shopping mall just down the road!) He also considered it to be within easy walking distance of St John’s College, so his lecturers there could serve as ministers here. Selwyn was an incredibly fit man who travelled huge distances around this country – always on the go it would seem, never late for meetings (no matter how remote the destination), and in favour of standing up to do his writing rather than sitting down. He was a model of muscular Christianity and is certainly a patron of this parish and many others around Auckland. 2
The eastern boundary of the land that Bishop Selwyn bought off George Graham ran parallel to the church side of the parish hall and along what is now the western fence line of the vicarage. The other boundaries (at least the road boundary and western boundary) are as one finds them today. The lawns to the north and south of the church were designated as graveyard. Over the course of the 19th century, the graveyard filled up apace with the faithfully departed. There are well over 800 individuals buried in the graveyard – some even beneath the church (the sanctuary at least) – and I think on this Patronal Festival, when we give thanks for St Mark, our ‘big’ spiritual patron, we also have to be mindful of those hundreds of ‘smaller’ patrons who sat in the same pews we are now, and whose passion for Christ and the Kingdom of God have had some influence (possibly a lot more than we will ever know) on us being here today. On 7 July 1848, George Graham sold a large chunk of his land (just over 59 acres) to the east of the Church to James Dilworth for £800. And so began a long association between James and Isabella Dilworth, this Parish and the wider Anglican Church through their legacy, the Dilworth Trust.
James Dilworth was Irish, as were a number of early parishioners, including at least one vicar. The Church of Ireland has tended to be a rather austere expression of Anglicanism – no embellishments; no candles even, and I think that explains why St Marks, even though it has become quite ornate, is somewhat restrained at the same time. The 1847 church of St Mark was a prefab – a very tasteful, half-timbered prefab with a Gothic look to it – fabricated at St John’s College up the
3
road and assembled on site to serve as both a church and a school room for the growing neighbourhood. By the late 1850s the church was clearly too small, so the old church was packed up and moved to the corner of Bassett road and a new church was built (1860) – which is the one that is here today – but it has continued to grow in stages, with almost every generation leaving their mark on it; each being sensitive to what has gone before. In the early 1870s transepts were built on the eastern end of the nave to give more seating, and these were extended again only a few years later. In the early 1880s the Bell Tower was built. It was built primarily to house the large new organ. All this was a costly business that had to be paid for at a time when New Zealand was in the grip of a long-running economic depression. A significant portion of the cost for the building work was met by entrepreneurial women in the parish who organised very profitable ‘bazaars’ in the city to raise funds. The stained glass began to go in from the latter part of the nineteenth – there are some very fine pieces, each of which are photographed and described in the book, ‘Windows of Saint Mark’s, Remuera,’ available from the Parish Office. The last change to the footprint of the church occurred in the mid-1950s when the east end of the church – the sanctuary – was extended (and the porch too I believe). But in the 1980s there was quite a rejigging of the internal layout, with the choir moving down into the south transept, and the creation of a side chapel called the Kinder Chapel after the first priest of St Mark’s to lead worship in the new church (1860), the Rev’d (later Dr) John Kinder.
4
What I have given you is a potted history of a parish about which much more could be said. I’ve been able to give you this account because we are fortunate, as a parish to have a written history – written by Hilary Reid – which preserves some of the key elements of our parish’s story (again, available from the Parish Office). In it, the joys and challenges, the everyday and the extraordinary are reported on as accurately as possible, according to proper historical standards. But because it’s written by a person of faith it is attentive to the way in which the Christian Spirit or the Christian ethic was operating at different times and seasons of this parish’s life (a Marxist-Leninist Materialist historian would have written a different sort of history). Because of the focus that Hilary’s history of St Mark’s has, it serves not only to inform us with facts and figures but to encourage us by reminding us of the people whose conviction and character enabled this parish to grow, in good times and bad. Very similar things can be said about the Gospel of St Mark. It is almost certainly the earliest written account of Jesus’ public ministry. It is based on a series of recollections of Jesus, precious to the first generation of Christians, stories which were passed on by word of mouth. Tradition has it that the recollections were predominantly from St Peter and that St Mark, Peter’s travel companion during the latter stage of Peter’s life, recorded the stories that Peter told of his time with Jesus. A major impetus for Mark to put all these stories together into one extended account was the fact that the original witnesses to Jesus’ ministry were coming to the end of their lives. He needed to write this life-changing material down so it could continue to be a vital force for good in the world, influencing future generations to take the narrow road that leads to life rather than the wide and easy road that leads to death. The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 102 – from which we heard at the Patronal Service - emphasises the importance of writing down the things that really matter, most important of which is the truth that God is a redeemer, who is determined to rescue us from the mess we get ourselves in when left to our own devices, or the mess that other people’s shortcomings cause us: 5
Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord: that he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die (Psalm 102:18-20); The same redemptive message is coming through, loud and clear, in the gospel read at the Patronal Eucharist (John 20:19-23). As far as the disciples (apart from Mary Magdalene) were concerned, the ‘wheels’ had completely come off the metaphorical bus that Jesus had been driving them through the Promised Land in. He was, so they thought, dead and buried, and they knew that if they didn’t take care, they might well suffer the same fate very quickly. So they locked themselves away in a house in Jerusalem. An old tradition, held by the Coptic Churches in North Africa who claim St Mark as their founder, is that the house the disciples were in was St Mark’s family home. It is quite plausible.
Did you know? There’s another “St Marks” in Auckland?
Whoever’s house it was, it was to be witness to the redeeming, reconciling power of Christ when our Lord, in his resurrected state appeared among his disciples and greeted them, very graciously in the way he must have greeted them many times before – ‘Peace be with you.’ He doesn’t upbraid them for their desertion of him or for the fact that they are hiding themselves away from the world. Instead he commissions them to be ministers of the good news, giving them the same authority to forgive sins that the Father had given him. That’s truly remarkable, but it is consistent with the pattern of God’s gracious 6
redeeming action that we see throughout scripture but nowhere more clearly than this. If this magnanimous act had happened in your home, when you were a young person – as we believe Mark would have been at the time of Jesus’ resurrection – the memory of that event would be etched into your memory, and, because it was your home, you might feel all the more compelled to preserve that story and the memory of the person at the centre of it. Whatever the precise reason was, Mark did choose to put pen to parchment and record the story of Jesus’ redeeming life for the benefit of future generations. Thanks be to God for that good work.
May it encourage us all to think about our journey with Christ and put down on paper some of the most salient parts of that pilgrimage (a sort of spiritual memoir), for the benefit of ourselves, our families and – who knows – perhaps thousands of people whom one is unlikely to ever know this side of heaven. Yes, set it down, ‘record it for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord.’ Tony Surman, Vicar of St Mark’s
SAVE THE DATE! Parish Quiz Night Friday 27th September 7pm for 7.30pm start. Teams of up to 8 people, or come along and join one of our Friends table teams. Our quizmasters are planning a fun and fascinating range of questions! Ticket price is $15 for adults, $5 for students and gold coin donation for children under 12. This includes a catered supper, tea and coffee. BYO drinks. Tickets are available at the office. Support Loud Shirt Day, the annual appeal for deaf kids needing cochlear implants, by wearing your brightest shirt. We'll have a prize for the best loud shirt, as well as our usual prize baskets for winning quiz team to share. 7
Music Miscellany… Brian Millar, Director of Music As I write this, the end is in sight of the themed services we’ve enjoyed over previous weeks; and it’s back to “hymns as usual.” On a “normal” Sunday (is there such a thing?) I use as a guide a quarterly publication from RSCM called ‘Sunday by Sunday,’ where the lectionary readings and psalm for each Sunday are listed, along with suggested appropriate hymns and choir anthems. So I don’t in fact choose any of my favourite hymns, alas, much as I’d like to! If the words have been unfamiliar in recent weeks (and I’m sure many of them have been), I’ve tried to use more well-known hymn tunes; and a symbolical pat on the back to our congregation for giving these words and music a go, even when the tunes are sometimes not as well known. The choir enjoyed the hospitality of St. Thomas’ Anglican Church in Kohimarama in late June, when we sang Evensong; a good number in the congregation was a real encouragement. We have one more “away day” for 2019 – we sing Evensong on Sept. 22nd at St Chad’s, Huapai (why not come out west and join us??? Passports to cross the Whau Creek into Westie territory are no longer required!). St Chad’s has had a major renovation after a somewhat chequered history; and was reopened and blessed by Bishop Ross in March this year. In mid July I attended a National convention on choral conducting in Wellington – four 12-hour days of learning, listening, singing, practising and being critiqued. There’s a saying about old dogs and new tricks, but I did in fact learn a lot. Perhaps the best advice I brought back was ‘conduct the text.’ We (congregations too!) have to be very much aware of the words we’re singing, as well as the notes.
8
Two choirs-in-residence provided some inspiring listening – the Toronto Children’s Choir from Canada (world renowned; and their conductor for the last 12 years has been New Zealander Elise Bradley); and the NZ Secondary Schools choir. I also sang in a concert on the Saturday night as part of a combined choir, in the Catholic church of St Mary of the Angels – Bob Chilcott’s lovely ‘Canticles of Light.’ On Sunday morning, after the convention, I attended St, Mary’s Anglican church, Karori, which has a similar choral set up to St. Marks. I got a last-minute invitation to sing with their (somewhat depleted) choir, several members were away; and I’d been in touch previously with the D.o.M., who’d asked if I’d play the recessional (which I did, on a good two-manual pipe organ). Finally – Christmas is coming! We have a choir workshop planned for early October, where we’ll go over all of December’s music, then continue to refine and rehearse in the weeks leading up to Advent and Christmas Day.
Our history – now reprinted St Mark’s Church, Remuera 1947-1981. By Hilary Reid The reprinted and expanded volume of Hilary Reid’s history of St Mark’s Church, 1847-1981 is now available in the church office. It contains an expanded addendum, comprised of reminiscences from long-time parishioners and a transcript of the burial details recorded on the Memorial Wall in the Church. The price is a very modest $15. To have a copy set aside please call or email Diana, the Parish Administrator, or drop by during the week to purchase your copy – we always love to see you!
9
Social Services Sunday 28/7/2019 We marked Social Services Sunday with a challenging and insightful presentation from parishioner, Tracey Wakefield. Tracey runs the Tamaki Community Development Trust, a social service provider that delivers social work, mentoring, counselling and community development initiatives for families in Glen Innes, Point England and Panmure. She prefaced her talk with this provocation of what God requires of us: To do justice, and to love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Tracey expanded on her work at TCDC: “I’m also a trained counsellor and have a small counselling caseload working with adults and children. Prior to moving to Auckland from Wellington, I was a problem gambling counsellor and managed a small team of counsellors and public health workers. I’m also doing research on the relationship between espoused values and management practices in faith based social services. I have calculated that I have been working in social services for close to 15 years. I have to say I’m really appreciative of the opportunity to speak on this topic. I feel like I have a lot to say but I don’t get asked to speak very often. Even in my work environment, I try to push my team forward because my leadership style is all about building others up and giving them the opportunity to shine. Humility is something I strive for, but of course I still enjoy being acknowledged. So I started working for Tamaki Community Development Trust about two months after we first arrived in Auckland, which is getting close to four years ago. I had been looking for work before we arrived in Auckland but pretty soon after we arrived I found out my brother was admitted to hospital with a brain tumour so I was focused on him, then he moved to Japan for treatment and soon after I started applying for work and very quickly found I had this job. 10
God clearly had a plan, the Board of Trustees who hired me had advertised the role a couple of times and had been praying for the right person. The treatment my brother had in Japan helped and he is now doing a lot better and lives with his family in Timaru. Tamaki Community Development Trust (TCDT), is the social services arm of Tamaki Community Church. What attracted me most to the organisation was its tagline of “Partnership for Change” The organisation was founded in 1995 and was set up for two reasons, wanting to fill a need for families to have longer term support and responding to the damage caused when things are done to, rather than done with families in need. Partnership means we build relationships with our clients to work out what they want to achieve and walk alongside them to do that. The families are in charge of setting the goals and deciding what they need. This means the support we provide is varied and can include taking children to after school activities, helping adult family members find work, getting the family to hospital appointments, improving communication between the family and other organisations, providing food and clothing, advocacy and teaching life skills. We work really hard at engagement and building trust.
We work with what our government contract calls “hard to reach families”- families who don’t trust easily and have experienced negative interactions with government and social service agencies. My role in particular is about supporting my team, empowering them, guiding them. Making sure everything happens, building relationships with other organisations as well as providing counselling for adults and children. When I tell people what I do I usually get one or both of the following: I couldn’t possibly do what you do or that must be so depressing. And sometimes, sadly, people might make a comment about poor people being ungrateful and just out for themselves. 11
That is not how it is for me. I don’t think you need to be some special type of person to do the work I do. Yes, there are certain aspects of my work that I have trained for like counselling and supervision of staff, but there are parts of the work I do that we all can and should do. As Christians, they are things that God requires of us; caring for others is an ordinary way of expressing our salvation. I admit there are some challenges, I do get stressed out and at times I get angry and frustrated with unjust systems I don’t have a huge amount of influence over. I do hear some horrific and sad stories. And yes. sometimes change is slow, sometimes people are not ready for help and sometimes people don’t express gratitude. But people don’t have to express gratitude to be worthy of our help. I think everyone is deserving of our love and care, and I certainly wouldn’t call what I do depressing. In fact, I see it as life giving. The positives I see outweigh the challenges. I get to see people start to see themselves as God sees them, beautiful and worthy of love. I get to see their resilience, courage and compassion for others. I get to see them grow, and give back to others. I don’t just see my work as caring for those in need, I see it as discipleship. It is not just about caring for their physical needs, it is about being in a relationship with them, getting to know who they are and what they can be. My team and I have had the privilege of being a part of their journey from feeling stuck, hopeless and lost, to now being leaders in the community. Some people we have worked with are now supporting other parents and in some cases on the way to becoming qualified social workers. There are a number of moments I remind myself of when I’m struggling. So often when I feel that what I’m doing isn’t making a difference, God reminds me that he is there. In my previous job, I used to do counselling with women in Arohata prison, and believe it or not, visiting a women’s prison became the highlight of my week. 12
I remember on the last day I went there, I walked out of the last gate of the prison and down to the path to the main road and started crying. I loved my work there because God’s presence was so strong. I got to see women let go of the huge weight of years and years of shame and know that they were loved and had a purpose. People will forever surprise me in their ability to change and heal. Caring for others isn’t an obligation; it Do you feel called to help? is living out what it means to be in relationship with God. For me, this is a To find out more, contact privilege, I get to witness what Tracey on amazing things God can do in people's Tracey@tcdt.net.nz or lives even in what can seem like 095704314 hopeless situations. Tracey will soon be asking for Our faith requires us to act. To not donations of games and toys only see those in need but to meet them, to walk with them. How we do for the Christmas boxes we this will differ from person to person. give out to families. I’m trained in certain specialised She is also currently looking aspects of helping but we can all give for volunteers to help with to others with love, care and packing and delivering food thoughtfulness. Doing so without the parcels on Tuesday goal of recognition or to feel good afternoons. about ourselves.
THANK YOU HARVEY NORMAN A few weeks back, our parish vacuum cleaner broke down. Despite our best efforts, it could not be revived. When a kind account manager at Harvey Norman heard of our predicament, she offered us a new vacuum cleaner, free of charge. She is happy to talk to any parishioner about generous discounts on appliances — see Diana in the office. She has fond memories of being married here by Ross Bay when he was Vicar. We’re sure the vacuum will be used to clean up after many weddings to come at St Mark’s!
13
Our Parish Community We celebrated birthdays and baptisms, with our Vicar, Tony, ticking over another year, while the fabulous Milly celebrated her 97th with a beautiful cake and a cuddle with our youngest parishioner, Catherine Morgan!
Lovely to see so many of our special people at the Parish Lunch, celebrating our Patronal Festival.
14
Fahima Saied (alongside one of her daughters), previously a doctor in Afghanistan and now a counselor to refugees coming into New Zealand, was our speaker in church this morning, Refugee Sunday. A sobering and informative insight into what refugees go through, on their journey from their past to a new future. Many thanks for being with us. We celebrated Te Pouhere Sunday, reflecting on our life as a Three Tikanga Church.
Margaret and John Kelly were married here 50 years ago and held their anniversary at the Parish Hall. Haven’t changed a bit, have they?
15
From the Registers May – July 2019 Baptised Adam Petrovski Harry Dale-Fuller Catherine Morgan Aden Smeath Joined in Holy Matrimony Janet & Ben Caston Committed to God’s Care Sandy Ferguson
Liz Somervaille
Judy Allen
Phillipa Bishop
David Gilbert
Kenneth Read
Parish Contact Details Vicar:
The Reverend Dr Tony Surman
Children & Families Minister Anne Driver
021 074 1138 09 849 3538
Director of Music:
Brian Millar
021 253 1437
Lay Minister:
Trevor Brooker
Parish Administrator: Diana Swarbrick
021 614 227 020 413 04668
The Anglican Parish of Saint Mark, Remuera. Email: office@stmarks.org.nz Website: www.stmarks.org.nz @StMarksRemuera 16