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February 2017 5 February Worship with Rev Sue Brown .......................................................... 9.30am

12 February Worship with Rev Reg Weeks ......................................................... 9.30am

19 February Worship with Rev Diane Gilliam-Weeks ............................................ 9.30am

26 February Worship with TBA ......................................................................... 9.30am

In this issue

Kids Friendly? .............................................................................................................. 2

Clerk’s Corner ........................................................................................................... 3 Creation, faith & evolution ............................................................................................. 4 Kindness, a New Year’s resolution .................................................................................. 6

To give with love .......................................................................................................... 7 Phil’s Photo – Red sun at night ....................................................................................... 8 Rood Screen – New Phase, Same God ............................................................................ 10 Children’s Power Hour; Giving Hope this Christmas .......................................................... 11

Power Hour – Sundays 9.30am; Bible Study – Sundays 11.15am

Breakfast Prayer - Tuesdays 7.30am

Mainly Music – Thursdays 9.30am

St Ronan’s Pastoral Care

For pastoral care needs, please contact our Pastoral Care Co-ordinators,

Colin Dalziel 562 7238 or Mary Williams 568 3216

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Kids Friendly?

We hope soon to become registered as a ‘Kids Friendly’ congregation, and it’s not

hard to find passages from scripture that make clear that certainly Jesus was kids

friendly.

Just recently I came across this poem by a Christian writer, Edie Askew, reflecting on

what he calls the picnic on the grass where Jesus took a couple of loaves and several fish to make a picnic meal (John 6:9).

Lord, not much to build on

a picnic lunch for one young boy

who you might think

would have been better off at school

than following a crowd

around the countryside.

So easy to ignore a boy,

his head below your eyes.

Not old enough

to have opinions of his own,

and much too insignificant

to affect the outcome.

Easy to talk over him

as they discuss the situation

with all the gravity that comes with age.

Although if wisdom came with beards

we’d honour goats.

Sometimes I think we do

but that’s another story.

Yet he’s the one, the boy

whose gift you used

beyond all reasonable expectations.

While they were working out the odds

and figuring the angles

he was opening his hands to give.

It wasn’t much

and yet it was enough

to start a feast.

Lord, take the little I can give.

Sometimes I hesitate

to offer it at all

my talent seems so small.

But if my loaves and fish can be of use

I offer them with joy.

Please take them,

And in your creative love

transform both them and me.

Reg Weeks

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Clerk’s Corner

MSB: �It’s worth recording here for posterity that at its last

meeting of 2016, St Ronan’s ministry settlement

board (MSB) agreed that St Ronan’s would be

best served by a Local Ministry Team (LMT) rather than by a part-time minister. �The MSB presented

its proposal to parish council on 8/12/16. Parish

council agreed to this proposal. �Parish council presented the LMT proposal to the church on 14/12/16. The

church agreed to this proposal. �As I write this at the end of

January, we are awaiting a decision from Presbytery Central. Initial contact has been made but we have been asked for more detail before

they will make a decision. We are working on providing this.

Meditation group: At their last meeting of 2016, members of St Ronan’s meditation group decided

not to resume meeting in 2017. Their numbers

had been in decline for some time.

The meditation group was started by Elizabeth

Herriot in her home about 25 years ago. Later, it

moved to San Antonio’s, and about 10 years ago it moved to St Ronan’s. All things have their seasons and

25 years is a long enough season, you’ll agree. Nevertheless, it’s sad to see a

group with such a long history come to an end. But perhaps a better way to think of this is to remember that for 25 years this group has sustained very

many people in their Christian walks and all those individual ‘faith’

contributions are eternal. Also remember the members of this group were drawn from among Eastbourne’s three sister churches, so the group has

sustained a significant inter-church link over many years. Well done Elizabeth.

Well done all those who’ve supported the meditation group through the years.

PC report: A brief early December PC meeting was held.

The next PC meeting will be in late February or March. A few notes follow to update you:

1. CWS: It’s been our tradition to seek donations for Christian World Service

(CWS) during December, this effort concluding with the collection at the

Christmas Day service. I am pleased to report that total donations to CWS

this year amounted to $1,563. If you donated via credit card, you will

receive a receipt from CWS shortly. If you donated via St Ronan’s (cheque

or cash), you will receive your receipt in April (at the end of the financial

year).

2. Lawn: �Upgrade of the lawn area of the church progresses – planting

irrigation. �Reg has been busier than you might imagine over the holiday

period painting fence palings. Perhaps more work than he realised it would

be! Nearly finished. Thanks Reg. �In the last Record we reported the

Presbytery Foundation had turned us down for funding for play equipment.

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We have since approached (1) the Lions, (2) Rotary and (3) Lower Hutt City

(the Community Engagement Fund). I’m delighted to be able to report we’ve

had a positive response from each. Altogether we’ve received almost exactly

the total we were initially seeking for this venture - $5000.

Thanks so much Lions, Rotary and LHCC!

3. Restarts: The holidays are over for most of us and the new year of work

and learning etc has restarted. So, we’re back to our routines and work and

Eastbourne’s kids are back to school. Although we still await the arrival of

summer, as the days are drawing in (shorter by about 15 minutes per week)

we thought we really should restart things at St Ronan’s too:

Toy Library 30 Jan Pop in and Play playgroup 3 Feb

Power Hour 5 Feb

Mainly Music 9 Feb Messy church 19 Feb

e: slang@xtra.co.nz t:562 8752 m:021 222 0383 Sandy Lang

http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/about-us/general-assembly/general-assembly-2016

Messy Church

Next MC will be at 4.30pm:

*** 19 February at St Ronan’s

*** 19 March at San Antonio’s

Sandy Lang

Creation, faith and evolution…

Are these compatible and does it matter?

Some of us think evolution is relatively new, an idea proposed by Darwin and promoted by his assistant, Huxley. Many, especially scientists, have expounded

evolution and today it is taught in education institutes as fact. It now forms the

basis of many fields of scholarship – geology, biology, physics, geography and even theology – the list goes on.

Recently, I heard someone say they

believed in evolution and it was part of God’s plan. This led me to search the

Scriptures and I did not have to look too

far. Often, we seriously underestimate God’s Word and His infinite power; that He

can do anything He wants and this is fully

illustrated in the first verse in Scripture: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1).

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A fundamental premise of evolution is that all species, including humans,

change over time. An upward path of adaptation and change, always getting better, healthier, stronger etc, as only the fittest survive. This takes place over

millions of years.

This, I conclude, is no more than a dressing up of the old lie Satan spoke to Eve. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the

garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and

evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen 2:16).

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord

God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We

may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which

is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not

surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes

shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Gen 3:1-5)

First, Satan questioned the Word of God and, second, he gave Eve a false

narrative of what God had commanded. This was a subtle trap to get a

response and to gauge her knowledge and understanding of God’s word.

Eve’s reply showed Satan her knowledge and understanding were faulty (there

were two trees in the midst of the garden with specific names. Eve also added

the part about touching the fruit).

Satan quickly took advantage, by saying they would not surely die. This was

right in one sense, as touching the fruit did not lead to death. It seems Adam,

who first received the Word, did a poor job communicating exactly what God had said and/or he didn’t ensure Eve understood correctly. Satan’s third

statement suggested that God did not want them to have the knowledge of

good and evil, for then they would be ‘as gods’ – in other words they would evolve for the better. Adam and Eve should have believed God. Mankind

through sin and unbelief is now on a slippery slope downwards to hell and destruction.

What is the solution to our predicament? A new creation in Christ Jesus.

King David knew this more than most, and cried out to God for forgiveness of his many sins and asked God to: Create in me a clean heart and renew a right

spirit in me (Ps 51:10).

It is God, and God alone, who creates, and the scriptures tell us that all who have faith in Jesus Christ are a new creation in Him. So, if we are indeed a new

creation in Christ Jesus, let us live our new life as such, looking unto Jesus the

author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2). Let us seek to know and understand God’s Word and to obey Him. Let us not add to, nor take away

from, His Word and let us leave behind the baggage of unbelief and doubt –

aka evolution.

Paul Batchelor

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Kindness, a New Year’s Resolution

If your new resolution touches on building a better world, Ian Harris has a

suggestion that’s simple, practical and ready to hand.

I have a problem with new year resolutions. It's easy enough to make them. They're always super well-intentioned. The problem is that by the middle of February I've

forgotten what they were. Even jotting them down somewhere doesn't help, because the "somewhere" has a way of quickly losing itself amid a paper miscellany. So what's

the point?

This year, however, I am surprised by a resolve to revive the custom. Just one

resolution, mind, but growing as it does from a couple of cameos in the news late last year, it seems one worth sharing.

First was a comment on television in October by former trades union leader Helen Kelly, broadcast a fortnight before she died. The interviewer raised the question of

leadership and, switching the focus to values, she drew on the Trump phenomenon in the United States election to make her point.

What she hated about Donald Trump, she said, "is that he's so unkind. I want him just to be kind."

It left me wondering what incidents in her life of championing those at the bottom of

the pay scales lay behind such a remark. Disputes where safety was the issue? Or exploitation? Or fairness? Or respect? In a healthy workplace those issues place

demands both ways, employer to employee and vice versa. They're to do with personal decency, where questions of what is humane, what is responsible, what is

just, what is kind are not only relevant but central.

The second cameo comes from the very different circumstances of November's

Kaikoura earthquake. Residents were well and truly shaken, visitors stranded, businesses disrupted. How to respond?

Jeff Reardon, who moved to Kaikoura after experiencing the Christchurch earthquakes and had stored crayfish to celebrate his wife’s birthday, thawed them, cooked them,

and handed them out to tourists whom the quake had prevented from moving on. Asked why, he said simply: "It's not hard to be kind, eh!"

The phrase flashed around the world, and was quickly given pride of place on local T-shirts.

Kindness again. How human relationships thrive on kindness, whether in families,

schools, workplaces, wherever! Spreading wider, kindness to pets, bobby calves, hens (free-range, please), porkers does something unique and positive for both the owners

and their charges.

Kindness to the environment does likewise – everyone who tends a garden knows

that. The natural world has an intrinsic value both in itself and for human sustenance, enjoyment and restful calm.

In her Christmas broadcast, the Queen echoed the theme, highlighting the myriad acts of kindness that are neither dramatic nor showy, but part and parcel of everyday

life. She praised the quiet dedication of ordinary people who do extraordinary things, adding: “The cumulative impact of thousands of small acts of goodness can be bigger

than we imagine.”

So can neglecting to do them, since that opens the way to unleashing a range of

more malignant impulses. Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth presents that murky alternative most graphically when she worries that Macbeth is “too full of the milk of

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human kindness”, lacking the steely resolve to sweep others aside in his desire to be

king. And she saw to it that the milk of human kindness curdled in his being.

A pity neither had the chance to ponder the line from Tennyson that “kind hearts are

more than coronets”. But they would have ignored it. They were already caught in the quicksands of ambition, greed, and the lust for status and power.

Nor would wise words attributed to French-born American Quaker Stephen Grellet early in the 19th century have moved them. He wrote: “I expect to pass through this

world but once. Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it; for I

shall not pass this way again.”

As with the Macbeths, cynical moderns might sneer at such a sentiment. That would

be as damaging as it is sad, because failure to nurture it, or worse, a determination to get ahead by foul means if fair won’t serve, corrodes character and corrupts

relationships.

Which brings us back to new year resolutions. Last week, as revellers around the

world counted in the new year, many joined in singing Robert Burns’ turn-of-year

chorus:

We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet for auld lang syne.

Capital! All they need do now is project that intention into the everyday circumstances of the year ahead. It’s not hard to be kind, eh!

Ian Harris

To give with love

What is our motive when we give? Are we doing the right deed for the wrong reason? Do we want to be out there telling all what we are doing, exercising

our egos to achieve immortal fame with our names on a plaque in a wall? Or to

get a tax refund for our donations?

Or do we do it in secret as a gift from the heart?

So how can we handle our efforts to give public benefaction? We have to

change our attitudes to money, as money itself is neutral. It can be used wisely and beneficially, by being a benefactor. It’s our attitude especially the

love of money that messes up our use of it, and what it does to us in return.

If we can give money away with love and with love for the receiver we realise we don’t need that money, we will still get by. And we loosen the grip money

has on us, and will worry less about it. If we stop worrying about it we will be

free in a sense.

However this maybe easier for us to ponder over and act on if we do have

enough money for the basics of life, if we can pay the bills (and IRD), and we

do have a roof over our heads.

Giving can be also a collective action when it becomes the right thing to do and

we accept that that’s the way to act. We do it because the others do too, and

we come to accept that the act of giving is a public good.

To be meaningful when giving money and gifts, we need to love the act of

giving and of helping.

Jan Heine

Based loosely on an address by the Chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge

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Phil’s photo – Red sun at night…

Red sun at night,

sailors' delight.

Red sun at morning, sailors take warning.

This ancient rhyme was

known to Jesus (Matthew 16:2-3). It is

a rule of thumb that’s

been used by mariners (and shepherds) for

weather forecasting for

well over two millennia. It actually works to

some extent (apologies

to Jim Hickey and see Wikipedia for some

explanations).

But,whatever happened to summer? There’s no doubt we all cheer up on a beautiful summer day. Who’s sad summer’s short-changed us this year? Now

the kids are back at school, will the weather settle? Will the sun come out to

play? Will the wind just give us some peace?

A summer of contrasts to be sure. Some fine days (you walked on the beach),

some very windy days (you couldn’t stand up), some very cold days (you lit the fire).

Let’s look on the bright side. Some have enjoyed themselves.

Enjoying our calm

Enjoying our wind

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Is this weather unusual? Well, not really. After his return to New Zealand at the end of WWII, my father wrote in his diary that they were war-weary after

years of inadequate food and high stress in London. From January to April

1945 Eastbourne suffered some really bad weather that helped delay Dad’s recovery.

Phil Benge

Rood Screen – New phase, Same God…

I was pottering in the garden the other day and was much amused at the preparations of my neighbours. They were going out for no more than half a

day – but they happen to have two small children.

The amount of ‘stuff’ Dad had to cart out to the car was mind-blowing! Eventually the children came out, followed by Mum with bags of clothes. I have

children, so I have been there, done that, and got the T-shirt.

The moment you are round the corner, somebody is hungry or thirsty. Also, if there’s even a thimble-full of water somewhere, little children will get

themselves soaked to the skin and need a complete set of warm, dry clothes.

Going out with little people is a major logistical exercise that requires appropriate planning and execution.

I helpfully asked if they still remembered how easy ‘going out’ was when it was

just the two of them. Then they could just hop in the car and drive off. I was about to add that one day it would be that way again – but I realised I would

be giving them false hope.

Sure, now my children are grown up, I can just hop in the car and drive off.

But if I could have a dollar for each time I have gotten as far as the corner (or

Day’s Bay or further) and realised I had left behind my wallet, or my spectacles, or something else critical, and I have had to go all the way back to

get it.

Enjoying our beach (a banded dotterel)

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The truth is I have moved into another phase of life and I will never be as I

was when younger.

It seems a good time to reflect on the unchanging nature of God. God remains

the same no matter what we do or how we change. God is our anchor and our

guiding star.

John Harris

Well, the Christmas and New Year holidays are over now, the kids are back at

school, but summer has failed to arrive. Strictly, the summer will end on 28 February. That gives the MetService just four weeks to get their act together.

Now, is it the departure of Jim Hickey from the met news or is it global

warming to blame? With alternative facts abounding in the world’s greatest nation, we’re forced more to blame poor Jim.

Anyway, Community Garden meets next Sat 4 Feb at 11am to noon to see what we can do about it all. Maybe we grow broad beans next summer and

shallots and Brussels sprouts next winter – they both really like the cold. And

there’s things we can do about the blessed wind too.

Sandy Lang

St Ronan’s gave CWS some Hope this Christmas

A Nepalese father and

child are the faces of the 2016 Christmas

Appeal, “Give Us

Hope”. Like many others who have

survived a disaster,

the father wants to make sure his family

recovers quickly. With a little extra help, the family could be doing much

better. Christian World Service works with local partner groups in 20 countries to make hope happen for those who need it most. Your gift will give food,

education and healthcare to families determined to survive war, disaster and

poverty.

Thank you St Ronan’s for the contributions made at Christmas of $1,563.00.

Douglas Day, CWS Advocate at St Ronan’s

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Children’s Power Hour

Our children keep growing up, looking taller and taking on

more responsibilities with maturity. They are not the same as

last year. So we at St Ronan’s are so looking forward to our boys and girls returning from their summer holidays and

discovering how they are, like enjoying the read of a lovely new book! Church

is not the same without them. We feel so much more whole as a church family when we are together.

The GOOD NEWS is that our POWER HOUR will start this coming SUNDAY 5TH FEBRUARY 2017, Waitangi Weekend. We are going to go on some Jesus

adventures this term. And we won’t be sitting down! Ah, this is sounding

mysterious already. Just wait!

We shall also be taking time out to go to Messy Church, 4:30 pm, which will

be:

*** 19 February at St Ronan’s *** 19 March at San Antonio’s

Here’s a challenge for you. Who or what is MICAH? Is Micah in the Old or New

Testament of the Bible?

Micah is one of a group of prophets found in the Bible. A prophet was someone

who spoke up for God. There are 12 books in the Old Testament called Minor Prophets. Each one is named after a prophet and gives us his message. “Minor”

here means “short”.

Micah lived in the southern part of Israel called Judah and in a time when many

people had rebelled against God and worshipped idols. Micah had a strong

belief in God and was quite confident to speak his mind and to strangers. He would thunder to all the evildoers around him, “God is going to destroy all of

you”. Micah promised that there would be universal peace under God; that one

day a great King would be born in Bethlehem. He would lead his people to safety again like a shepherd. Micah summed up what is required of us:

Do what is just,

Show constant love, and,

Live humbly knowing that our God is always with us. Micah 6: 8.

And in other words, Jesus taught us the same.

Think of Micah when we say, “Peace” or “Go in peace.”

Blessings, Susan Connell 568 5747

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St Ronan’s Presbyterian Church,

234 Muritai Road, Eastbourne 5013

Interim Moderator Rev. Reg Weeks

Church (Tues & Thurs): 562 7583

Home: 027 491 5947

Email: reg@thirdage.co.nz

Parish Clerk Sandy Lang

Hall Bookings Sandy Lang

Home: 562 8753

Email: slang@xtra.co.nz

Church office (Tues mornings) 562 7583

Email: office@stronans.org.nz

Website www.stronans.org.nz

Contributions for the ‘Record’ are most welcome.

Please place them in the Church letterbox or email to

Helen.Withy@xtra.co.nz or janheine@xtra.co.nz

Your delivery person …………………………………………………………

Telephone ………………………………………………………………………….

The closing date for the March 2017 Record is Sunday 26th February 2017