St Giles Presbyterian Church - Christchurch, New Zealand

Papanui, Christchurch

Page Button Notices General

General Notices

Pastoral Care
If you or someone you know needs the care of a minister, please phone Rev Anne Stewart on 351 4945.

On Sitting and Standing
Please, if you are finding it difficult to stand during the worship, feel free to remain seated as/when you need.

Community Building
Trelise Cooper on returning to the workforce. Take courage this week on www.presbyteriantv.net.

Accommodation Wanted
Newly married couple in fulltime missionary work at the University of Canterbury (full time Student Life staff) are seeking a 1 or 2 bedroom flat to rent close to the university. We would love your help to find a suitable home for us, where we could also show hospitality to students. If you know of anything coming available in the next month please contact Ben (ben.marston@studentlife.org.nz) or Alan Hayes (alan.hayes@studentlife.org.nz).

Church Office
The office is now located in the portable cabin at the front of the church on Papanui Road. Pop in and say hello and have a look.

On the Notice Board
Course at Theology House – Distinguished theologian Richard Burridge will be in Christchurch on 6 March at 7.30pm at St Barnabas’ Church Hall.
Zolo Youth – A letter from the Zolo Youth leadership team regarding term 1 activities and dates. The first day of the term starts on Sunday, 5 February.
Need Work – The Stepping Stone Trust is looking for Housekeepers, Support Workers, Sleepover Staff, Casual Relievers and also a Gardener. Further details on the notice board or contact Christine at 338 6390 or email payroll@stepstone.org.nz.
“Taking the First Step” is a free employment focused course for women beginning 15 February 2012, Wednesdays and Thursdays for 4 weeks, 9.15am – 2.30pm.
Would you like to help the lost, the poor & hurting? Kingdom Resources seeks to set the captives free (financially and spiritually) through budget advice. Full training given. Next programme starts on 11 February.

New Metro Bus Service
From Metro about the new Comet service going from Northlands to Bishopdale Mall, Antarctic Centre and all the way to The Hub, Hornby. More information from the Metro Office in Papanui or the Library.

Engineers Recommendation on future of St Giles Church Building

9 October 2011

This week the engineers and assessors met with The Presbyterian Earthquake Steering Committee (PESC) and gave their recommendation as to what needs to happen with the church building here at St Giles. Basically what many of us have suspected since June is now a reality, the church building is not going to make it.

This is what came from the PESC people: “The recommendation from Aurecon (engineers) is that the St Giles church building be demolished. The repairs required are to significant parts of three walls. The kind of work needed to repair them, they believe, is so complicated and expensive that it will come to more than the sum insured. One of the requirements, but not the determining factor, in the fix would have been to take the roof structure off, moving the concrete slates is one thing, but they would have wanted to remove the roof itself and lie it on some adjacent ground while they dismantled and rebuilt the walls. But there is nowhere to lay the roof. The recommendation is to demolish – but this has yet to go to the insurers for approval. The engineer’s report came to us with this note: “As you can see this effectively required the replacement of all the badly damaged masonry walls. Due to the likely cost of this work combined with the site restrictions and health and safety issues we feel it will be more economical to completely demolish the church and rebuild.”

I imagine that this news will come as a shock to many, it is clear that prior to June we were working on a different scenario altogether, but the damage in June proved to be the quake too much. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the people of St Giles.
Martin Stewart

So there it is, we have been searching for some clarity and now we have it. But we need to recognise that this is a recommendation and more detail about how that conclusion has been reached will be offered in the next few weeks.

At this stage this is as much information as we have so any further details about timing, etc, still have to be nutted out by Gordon and Christine, PESC and the Assessors but please be assured you will be kept informed as we go through the process.

Rev Anne Stewart (Interim Moderator)

Indoor Bowls
This finished on 7th October for the year. It is planned to resume again in early March 2012.

Used Stamps
Any postage stamps donated to church are utilised in fundraising for Presbyterial. The stamps are welcomed whether on torn paper, trimmed to 6mm or attached to envelopes, and tea coupons and cereal cards are also collected. Please leave them on the table in the lounge.

Stacking of Chairs
A reminder please to stack the wooden chairs in the corner by the door to Frank Street. Please do not stack the vinyl chairs.

Name Tags
In the months ahead we are going to have visitors taking the services at St Giles. Thus, we are highly recommending that name tags be worn. They are also useful for those of us who are not so good at remembering names. The use of name tags can encourage a more welcoming environment. New name tags have been printed and are on the stand in the Lounge. If there is not one there for you or you have an old one and would like a new label please put your name on the list provided in the Lounge.
You may talk to Christine Arnold about this.

People Who Use Hearing Aids
Would it be helpful to you if we set up the ‘loop system’ in the hall? Have a word to Gordon Shields.

From the Board Meeting: Concerning worship in the hall
- The chairs will be arranged by the Welcoming Team.
- If a group would like to set up earlier, please let the Team leader know.
- Please don’t stack the vinyl chairs: stacking damages the vinyl.
- If you have any ideas concerning enhancing the hall for worship please speak to Gordon.
- The Bible and offering bags will be stored in the flower vestry.
- Sound equipment will be stored under the left end of the stage.

St Giles Web Site Individual Group Pages
At the moment, there is a single index page listing all of the various groups with brief details of when and where they meet and who the current contact is.
We would like to expand that section of the web site so that each group has its own page:
– With information that promotes the group, encouraging people to give it a go.
– So there is a page users can be taken to when they click on the group’s activities in the various calendar pages and quickly find out more information about the group in a larger more readable font.
That means...
We will be asking each of the groups to provide information like:
– When and where the group meets (this should hopefully just confirm existing details).
– Name of the contact person (phone number will always be St Giles office number).
– Brief description of the group and its activities. This is not the same as the group’s information in the annual report, as that often looks back over the previous year and can appear out of date very quickly. It should be more marketing oriented and future looking. We will help you with this, but if you want to start early, don’t hesitate to ask us.
– Photos are optional but encouraged. We may be able to improve photos, so don’t hold back.
– 1 or 2 quotes from group members that we can publish about how much the person enjoys the activities of the group.
Can a representative from each of the St Giles groups please come and speak with me re information/images for your group. You’ll find me each Sunday morning operating the Power Point.
Alan Maxwell

	Welcome Rev. Anne Stewart We welcome Rev. Anne Stewart leading our worship. The Presbytery has appointed Anne as Interim Moderator on Rev. John Hunt’s retirement.