Dear Friends

I have the privilege of preaching in one of our churches on Easter Sunday this year – quite some time since I have had this joy on Easter Day. But it is quite a different deal to be preparing when you have little knowledge of the congregation culture and sense of mission. Sure there are plenty of truths to base things on, however Easter is central to our faith communities and I found when pastoring it was an amazing opportunity to be exploratively creative, interactive, and take people out of their comfort zones a little while challenging us to live “in the power of the resurrection”. Sunday can of course readily be linked with the Good Friday celebration / meditation in the local church community but this is hard to do in a one off scenario.

Mary and I will be in the South Island when you read this, for a mixture of work and pleasure. We will meet a new grandson and have some other new experiences such as 3 nights on Stewart Island and Warbirds over Wanaka. So Jill will attend to most things for me as she usually does very well.