We welcome Dr Csilla Saysell (pronounced Chee-lah) as our guest preacher across all our morning services this Sunday 16th. Csilla has taught Old Testament and Hebrew at Cranmer Hall, Durham University; St John’s College, Nottingham; and Carey Baptist College and is now freelance. She studied with Professor Walter Moberly, who wrote the textbook of the Old Testament course Jo and I recently completed through Otago University! You can find out more about Csilla at her website: https://labradoritemoments.com/

I was given the NRSV Bible I still use 30 years ago at my baptism; it’s full of bits of paper and underlining! You might have Bibles like that at home, too, that might mark significant events in your life or your family that you’re remembering today.

On Tuesday night I attended my first class for ‘God, Ethics and the Modern World’, through Otago University. I was delighted to see that it is structured as: whakapapa (tracing the genealogy of ideas), whakapono (Christian faith and ethics) and Ngā Mahi of te Aroha (Applications of Christian Ethics). Our Zoom discussion delved into Plato, Socrates and Aristotle as well as Hebrew thought and Te Ao Māori, linking together, in a timely way, Bible Sunday to this Matariki weekend and to what it means to learn and live out our Christian faith in this place of Aotearoa New Zealand.

My encouragement is to find ways both these parts of this Sunday resonate in a way that is meaningful to you.

Arohanui, Andrew