St Chad’s

We bowled up to St Chad’s on Sunday – I think it’s our closest church, and it helpfully has a service time of 0930 -this we like – means you can stay for coffee and still get home for lunch at a sensible time!

We were welcomed as soon as we arrived at the church, and when we sat down, lots of our neighbours introduced themselves to us – great start!

There were plenty of kids around, and a special programme was run for them in a separate hall after the joint worship session at the beginning. Aidan and Megan were obviously very comfortable as they were more than happy to be left; and they didn’t want to leave when we went to pick them up at the end! Yay!

The sermon was very apt – the term “resident alien” and how that applies to us as Christians living in the world today; but obviously had deeper personal significance for me – living as I am as a resident alien (although not in the legal sense, it is what I am at present) in NZ. There will probably be more on this topic as this blog progresses, but my thoughts aren’t really at a publishable stage!

Coffee after the service was lovely – outside in the church grounds in the beautiful sunshine, and no shortage of people wanting to talk to us.

Score!

That said, we determined that we would not stay at the church we visited on our first day (which is what we did at Brightons!), but that we would take the opportunity to check out several of our local churches before deciding where to go. So don’t be surprised when my next report comes from a different place… but the bar has been set pretty high!!