Kia ora e te whanau
Charities Commission Requirements
I’ve been asked a question. It goes like this: With the necessity of all groups with charity status to update their constitutions we wonder if U.C.A.N.Z had a basic draft constitution that might save Co-operating and Union Parishes from spending hours redrafting their individual documents and one that would meet the requirements of the new legislation.
I’ve sought advice. Do nothing. Co-operating ventures are all under the umbrella of the ‘Procedures for Co-operative Ventures’. It’s believed that given these and the covering of the Partner Churches, this will be sufficient. We will be looking at ‘tweaking’ the Procedures in the near future. In the mean time, relax, breath, and carry on with life as usual.
Forum 2025 – Our Future Together
Another reminder – please, put the dates in your diary, and plan to be there.
This will be an opportunity for real engagement across the partners – Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian, at all levels. We’re hoping to have significant representation of both regional and national leaders engaged in our korero. We’re planning for the talking to be both horizontal and vertical, where we all get to hear and be heard.
If you’re not present, you stand to miss out on what we hope will be a once-in-a-generation event which helps set a life-giving course for the Church in Aotearoa for the years to come.
The forum is set down for Auckland (Onehunga Co-operating Parish) at Kings Birthday weekend starting at 9am on Saturday the 31st of May, and concluding around noon on Monday the 2nd of June.
Personal and Leadership Resources
100s of Studies (and Adam Grant) describe the Best Leadership Style
Jessica Stillman offers some useful insights. It even spills over into parenting advice – which happens to be very different from the church milieu I grew up in. Yet I believe it to be correct. And, I’m a big fan of Adam Grant (Organisational Psychologist at Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania) – I’ve just started reading his latest book Hidden Potential – a must read for all who would reach for the ‘more’. Stillman’s article can be accessed here: https://www.inc-aus.com/jessica-stillman/what-is-best-leadership-style-100s-studies-adam-grant-give-exact-same-answer.html
New Research Confirms Adam Grant Is Right: To Be Smarter and More Successful, Think More Like a Scientist
In for a penny, in for a pound. While I’m extolling the virtues of Adam Grant, here’s an even better article from Jessica Stillman on how we can all be smarter. It starts with curiosity, accepting that we might be wrong, and being willing to hold our certainties a little more lightly – not something as Christians that tend to come easily to us. The article lays out a strategy on how to proceed. It can be accessed here: https://www.inc-aus.com/jessica-stillman/new-research-confirms-adam-grant-right-be-smarter-more-successful-think-like-scientist.html
20 Life (Not Business) Lessons For Leaders
Finally, from Forbes. As the title suggests this stretches well beyond the business realm. This list may be one we could all Blu-tack to the wall in front of our desks. It can be accessed here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/eliamdur/2024/09/14/20-life-not-business-lessons-for-leaders/
Homilies & Preaching Resources
Trevor Hoggard’s sermon considers the origins of evil, and offers a thoughtful reflection on the lectionary texts Job 1:1, 2:1-10; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12, and Mark 10:2-16. His sermon can be engaged with here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMIhanBSreg
My response to the Gospel text of Mark 10:2-16 focuses on the issue of divorce, and the hardline way Jesus responds to it. My homily is titled ‘Divorce? That’s an option?’ It can be experienced here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kPE6vYGVeQ
Michael Godfrey (out of the Dunedin Anglican Diocese) hosts a conversation of Theologians and Practitioners at the beginning of each week around the Gospel lectionary text for the coming Sunday. The site with all its options can be accessed here: https://www.calledsouth.org.nz/gospel-conversations/ The conversation for this coming Sunday based on the gospel of Mark 10:2-16 and can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q46M5a_eBQ
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Ngā manaakitanga
Andrew Doubleday
UCANZ Ministry Facilitator