Kia ora koutou,
This week is a busy time in governance across the Diocese with each of our boards meeting. We find it’s helpful to have WBDT (Waiapu Board of Diocesan Trustees), WASSTB (Waiapu Anglican Social Services Trust Board) and SC (Standing Committee) all meet across the same week so that we can align our business where appropriate.
WASSTB
On Monday board members from WASSTB met to conduct our second round of interviews for the appointment of our new Kaihautu/CEO role. This is significant work and has absorbed extra time from each of the board members, rightly so as the appointment of a CEO is arguably the most important responsibility for any board. I’ve been pleased with the calibre of candidates, and we look forward to being able to announce an appointment in the coming weeks as the process continues. Later in the day the board met for our regular meeting. I appreciate the care and professionalism that our Senior Leadership Team from ACW brings to all their work. They are entrusted with the responsibility for many clients and staff, and it is very encouraging to hear of their enthusiasm for their work and ministry and their support for the alignment of ACW within the Diocese and strategic vision.
WBDT
On Tuesday our WBDT board members and senior staff from the Shared Services finance team met over lunch to acknowledge the retirement of John Palairet as a trustee. John had retired from the board in April this year and we had waited to offer a farewell and acknowledgement for John to be at a time when he could be joined by Louisa who has been so supportive of John’s time with our boards. John has served on WBDT over the past seven years playing an important role between WASSTB and WBDT following the sale of the retirement villages. John’s involvement with Waiapu in a variety of governance positions extends over nearly 40 years through involvement with Te Aute Trust Board, the Webb Foundation, WASSTB and WBDT to name a few. We acknowledged with deep gratitude the significant contribution that John has made to our life in Waiapu.
The board then continued with their regular meeting attending to their normal responsibilities including among many topics the monitoring of performance of our investments through Craig’s Investment Partners, and considering issues of insurance, property.
Over the past month I and Peter Seligman, one of our trustees have attended the Institute of Directors Company Directors course. Peter and I attended the course during different weeks and have begun to share and compare our notes from the experience. We are both grateful for this investment in us and in governance as board members and look forward to continuing to share our experience through our roles.
Christian Savings
On Wednesday Jo Morris (CEO for ACW) and I attended the Shareholders’ hui for Christian Savings in Auckland. This was an opportunity to meet with their board and representatives of all the shareholders in Christian Savings to hear how the board is looking at the climate they are operating in and how their work can add to the mission of the church as a whole. The work of Christian Savings is very interesting and provides a Christian ethos and voice into the world of non-bank deposit takers, a subset of the finance world. Networking with other shareholders was helpful as well across a mixture of denominations. One topic of conversation was around the theological frameworks that help guide trustees and boards in their consideration of finance and investment. There was much interest in the Oranga Ake framework we have received from Te Pīhopatanga and how that is making a difference to how our boards are working.
Standing Committee
Today our Standing Committee has met, this time by ZOOM. We tend to mix our meeting schedule between in-person and ZOOM to reduce travel commitments for members. We notice how different those types of meetings can feel, and I know we value the time to be together in-person to make connections between members.
Our work today included preparations for Synod which I am looking forward to this year in October. Synod will meet in Gisborne from 18-20 October and we look forward to seeing representative members from each parish and from our boards over that weekend. I appreciate that not all of our members are Synod are able to gather each year, but it is important for our collective governance that members make every effort to prioritise the meeting with the support of their parish to cover costs.
Today we also discussed the whole of church response to the recommendations from the Royal Commission. I commissioned an internal audit of our policies and procedures across parish and services as they relate to our response to the recommendations. I’m pleased that we are already compliant on most recommendations and well on our way to be positioned ready to respond to the remaining recommendations. The whole church response will be led by the Archbishops on our behalf and I’ll be attending a meeting to support their response in Auckland this Friday. We continue to uphold the importance of our Diocese to provide a safe environment for every person who enters into our care in parishes, schools, workplaces and services.
Strategic Vision
As I noted in last week’s e-News I have found the reflective conversations I’ve held with many people following the Ministry Conference useful in terms of refining the language of the Strategic Vision. This week I want to share a simplification of the Vision statement. We had worked in the draft vision with ‘Faith giving life, life giving faith’. I recognised through many conversations that we could simplify that even further to speak with more clarity and wider application across parishes, schools and services. The vision will now be Faith giving life.
It is simple, memorable and contains a profound declaration of the theology that underpins our lives as those who follow Jesus and claim and faith in the trinitarian God who gives us life. It speaks of the flourishing of life which we find reflected in the theological framework of Oranga Ake o Te Iwi o Te Ao which draws on rongo, hari and aroha as expressions of God’s life within us. We may also find a resonance in this simple vision as we reflect on the recent Sunday lectionary readings from the Gospel of John following the themes of Jesus as the bread of life. Jesus invites us to participate fully receiving the life that Jesus offers us, to abide in him as he abides in God, participate in eternal life in the here and now and bear fruit of that life of faith into the world.
I encourage you to continue to hold the five priorities in mind as we work on developing the Interim Oversight Group who will help me develop the implementation plan across the Diocese. And thank you to those who have written to express their support for this vision and the priorities. It’s great to hear from you.
Discipleship (Nurturing people of faith in our Anglican Christian Communities)
Whakapapa (Understanding and living into our whakapapa as the Diocese of Waiapu in relation with Te Pīhopatanga)
Vocation (Discerning, training and forming people for lay and ordained ministry)
Koru (Developing ministry with families, children and youth)
Connection (Building strong connections across all aspects of our life as a Diocese)
St Mary’s ECE, Mt Maunganui
Last week ACW made the difficult and necessary decision to temporarily close the St Mary’s ECE at Mt Maunganui due to having received notification that the building presented some health and safety risks to the children and staff. The ACW team, ECE centre manager Ani supported by our Diocesan Property Manager, Diocesan Registrar and me coordinated a response with the help and support of the Parish Wardens to receive agreement from the Ministry of Education to temporarily rehome the ECE in St Mary’s Church and Hall. The ECE team and the Parish made monumental efforts from Friday through to Monday to recreate the ECE environment in the Church and Hall and have made it possible for the children and families to only miss two unexpected days of closure of the centre. The engineers will be working on solutions and there will be more progress made on that this week and next. I want to pay special tribute to Ani and her team of staff at the ECE, the Parish Wardens James and John and the Vestry members for their commitment to keeping the centre services functioning during these unexpected and exceptional circumstances. My thanks also to the parishioners for their understanding and flexibility in receiving the news that their services would all be move to St Peters-by-the-sea at the Mount end of their parish.
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