Arohanui
Thank you. Thank you so, so, so very much.
As I come to the end of my tenure as Vicar here, I am filled with an enormous sense of gratitude for this incredible community. The last six years have been some of the most formative, challenging, joyful, and exciting of my life.
I leave with a family
As I’ve said previously, the Vicarage was the first home that Johannah and I shared after marriage. It has been in this parish that we’ve welcomed 1, 2, then 3 children into the world. Their baptisms have been markers of the significant journey the parish has been on too: at St Anne’s Church, at St Mark’s School, and in the re-opened St Mark’s Church. I cannot imagine having a more gracious and supportive community to bring the boys into. Thank you so much for your care and support of them and your delight in them.
I leave with thanks
I leave this community with a great sense of loss. It is such an honour in ministry to be able to share life together. I’ve been enormously blessed to have presided over 28 baptisms, 6 confirmations, 2 weddings, 31 funerals, and many many many other services. Thank you for inviting me into your lives at times of sorrow, joy, and moments of everyday holiness.
I leave rejoicing
I also leave this community rejoicing, because I know I leave a healthy and thriving community. We have made it through our wilderness journey which has included a number of big decisions and big shifts. We’ve navigated building projects, and temporary homes and COVID. We’ve built a stunning chapel connected to a beautiful and functional church, with a repaired and mortgage free rental and a newly painted vicarage. But it’s the people inside the buildings that give me the greatest joy. Thank you for creating a welcoming space, for offering your various significant talents, for doing the foundational work of prayer that underpins everything that takes place.
I leave with hope
I leave full of hope for all that God has in store for St Mark’s in the years to come.
Arohanui ki a koutou
Much love to you all
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