The NZMWF National Council met in Auckland from 14 to 16 October for their first face-to-face meeting since the last National Council held at Kings College in 2019.

During the weekend we rekindled relationships with Districts we hadn’t seen in a while and we formed new relationships with members who represented their Districts for the first time.

We would like to acknowledge PAC committee funding, together with the kind donation given from a member of conference immediately after MCNZ Conference 2021 (in recognition of their mother’s work with MWF for Auckland District as a Treasurer). These funds enabled us to subsidise the registration fees for our members to attend National Council.

Over the years NZMWF has seen a decline in our membership numbers for various reasons. As a result, fellowships and Districts are finding it hard to gather as groups and to get members to attend our AGMs. Funding helps with subsidising registrations, enabling more to attend.

It was a weekend full of laughter, banter, and serious business. Overall, it just felt good to be together again rather than looking at each other virtually through a computer monitor.

At National Council we elect the President elect for 2023-2025 and this year we only had one nomination from Feohi’anga Vahefonua ‘a Fafine Metotisi Tonga i Nu’u Sila. It gives me great pleasure to announce our new President elect Lesieli Tiulupe Pope who will now prepare nine women to be part of her National Executive when she takes over after Convention 2023. We wish her well in her selection of her executive and may she continue to have God as her pilot during the process. Congratulations Lesieli!

Special Project Grants

At our opening service we presented funds to our 2021-2022 Special Projects. We collected a total of $23,587.35 and this was then split between our projects; $9,434.94 to Shay Twomey from the Anglican Trust for our NZ project for Women and Children (ATWC) and $14,152.41 to Murray Overton from CWS for our Overseas project for the Pacific and impacts from Covid, predominantly in Fiji.

Next year’s Special Project 2022-2023 for NZ will be the Living Wage movement, Aotearoa NZ and our Overseas project is for the Tongan Community Development Trust (TCDT) in response to the volcano eruption, tsunami and Covid interruptions that have affected Tonga. We pray that Districts will support the causes and that Connexional members will support our women as we fundraise for our outreach projects.

We would also like to acknowledge our South Pacific Area President Olive Amani Tanielu who was able to join our National Council and talk about her role and the vision she has with her committee for the next four years. We look forward to seeing the outcome of their plans and hearing about the preparations for the next area seminar hosted by Solomon Islands in 2024.

I am looking forward to my final year as NZMWF President as we start preparations for Convention. I wish our President elect Lesieli Tiulupe Pope all the best and to our members, I pray that God continues to watch over you all as you continue the fine work in making Him known by reaching out to those in need.

Blessings to you all.