St James' Church

Vicar writes - 8 July 06

It is now Thursday (5/7) here in Christchurch, New Zealand. This beautiful city is on the east coast of the south island and I am sure a few fortunate ones in our congregation must have come here before.

We are here (with Pas William Chee), at the invitation of the Latimer Fellowship of NZ, an evangelical grouping in the Anglican Church here. The National Conference was held on Monday and Tuesday at a local Anglican parish.  Rev David Short is the main speaker. David is a vicar at a parish in Vancouver (Canada) and is a very gifted preacher and trainer. I recall attending a preaching conference almost 10 years ago at Regent College Vancouver, where he taught.  We were very blessed by his ministry and the moments of discussions and fellowship we had with him. 

I took two sessions. In the first, I shared about Global South work and various events happening at the Communion level. As Christchurch (and NZ) is ‘beyond Down Under’ (as one of them put it), these information and the Q&A which followed was helpful. On the second day, I did a bible exposition on 2 Corinthians. Ps William assisted in the research, which helped greatly.

Apart from the conference, there were also various meetings with clergy/leaders and the local bishop. The fellowship has been refreshing and we are glad that we could encourage them. Perhaps there could be some ministry exchanges in future.

There is of course much we can learn from them (and David from his situation in Canada). I am impressed particularly by the systematic efforts at training in the Word and the preparation of those called into ministry. There is much we can learn and implement as we strengthen our local ministry with the future in mind.

Liberal influences have of course made headway in a country like this. There was a bill passed recently on ‘anti-smacking.’ Smack a child and you could be taken to court for child abuse! There are also some TV programmes which openly advocate alternative lifestyles, like gay, lesbianism etc.  If your children watch this, they will grow up thinking that this is a good and valid alternative.  Of course what is not mentioned is the fact that this lifestyle has many dark and destructive consequences. When you don’t tell the whole truth, that is as good as a lie, isn’t it? There are many reasons to wonder about where Singapore could be headed in the years to come and the role the Church needs to play to stem such influences.