New Pastor Installed in Auckland

June 21 marked a major milestone for the Auckland congregation as Anthony Dady was installed as the new pastor. Anthony takes the baton from Rex Morgan who has pastored the congregation since July 2000. Regional Director Dennis Richards presided over the installation ceremony, asking Anthony to commit to faithfully uphold his new responsibilities and for the congregation to solemnly promise to support him.

Rex thanked the congregation for their support over his 25 years of pastoral service and presented a gift to David and Marilyn Wong in appreciation for their many years of faithful ministry, assisting in Auckland since the 1980s, and pastoring the Hamilton congregation since 2007.  Anthony will pastor the Auckland and Hamilton congregations going forward, with Rex, David and Marilyn assisting him.

Thank You, David and Marilyn!

Dennis gave a sermon entitled “Lights in the Darkness”, encouraging the members to go out and be a blessing to others, and Anthony began his pastorate by leading a communion service. The day finished with plenty of animated fellowship over a sumptuous afternoon tea. 

Board Retreat: The NZ Board is holding a retreat at the Titoki Healing Centre, near Whakatane, on the weekend of 4-6 July.  This is the first time the board has held such a retreat. Those attending will be seeking God's will for the future of GCI in New Zealand and seeking a Holy Spirit-inspired plan for growing GCI. Prayers for God’s blessing on all aspects of this important retreat would be greatly appreciated.

Masterton: Anthony, Alison and Tabitha Dady will be in Masterton this weekend. On Saturday Alison will be conducting some children’s church training and discussion on Saturday afternoon, and running a children’s church activity session during Anthony’s sermon on Sunday.

NZ Update: This is the final New Zealand Update newsletter that I will be putting together. I have very much enjoyed sending out these letters on a regular basis since the 1970s, covering around 50 years of news events in WCG/GCI NZ!  My files of past copies fill up two large cartons. In fact, I have just opened up the files to check on when I sent my first newsletter, and found it was back on 19 November 1975.

It may be of interest to quote from that letter here.  At that time, and right down until very recent years, the letters were only sent to the ministers, who used them for announcements at church. They were typed up and mailed out every Wednesday so there would be time for them to arrive before the weekend services. This was long before email had been invented, which now makes it possible to quickly and easily send the material to all of the membership. Here is the complete newsletter I sent to the ministry on 19 Nov 1975, cited verbatim: 

“Greetings, everyone! This is just a short note to let you know the latest happenings in Auckland.

“The major news is that Mr. Marshall has successfully managed to sell his house. This frees him to leave NZ almost as soon as he likes, and it seems that he will probably depart from Auckland on December 10. That gives him only three more sabbaths here.

“Plans are well under way for a farewell dance/social to be held at the Mount Albert War Memorial Hall on December 4. A special presentation will be made to Mr. Marshall at the dance.

“Meanwhile, we have received a telex from Mr. Morton detailing his flight plans from Pasadena. His wife and children will fly to Melbourne to visit relatives, while Mr. Morton will come directly to Auckland, arriving December 24. Early in January he will go to Melbourne for five days to pick up his family and return to New Zealand.

“The December 'Good News' magazine is being printed early next week. We were very pleased with the November issue, which was the first 'Good News' ever to be printed in Auckland.

“Well, there's not much other news to speak of, so I will end here. Regards, Rex”

That is a nostalgic glimpse into the past for those of us who have been around since those days!  It is now time for me to pass on the baton to a younger runner, so from now on Anthony will be sending out the regular newsletters. Now is a good time for you to add Anthony to your list of contacts, if you haven’t already done so.  His email address is anthony@gci.org.nz, and his mobile phone number is: 022 360 7784.

If you would like to continue receiving the news and announcements from GCI NZ, could I ask you to please e-mail anthony@gci.org.nz to let him know? He will then be able to include your e-mail address in his mailing list for the updates.

Thank you very much to all who have sent notes of appreciation for the updates over the time that I have been writing them and thanks to all for participation in the continuing work of GCI NZ.

Marilyn and I will be away on an overseas trip during July. We'll be back in early August and I will continue to look after the Church's financial administration, so please be sure to be in contact with me if you have any questions in that regard. I'll continue to send out the monthly receipts, administer the accounts and prepare monthly financial reports for the board.

Remember, in order to continue to receive these regular GCI news updates, please click on this link to e-mail anthony@gci.org.nz. Do it right now before you forget!

Warm regards,

Rex