News feeds

A string of attacks on churches in northern and eastern Burkina Faso in recent months - including one last Sunday that left 24 people dead and 18 wounded – has triggered fears the militants are also trying to create a religious divide in the country.

Patricia Huon. The New Humanitarian. 20 February 2020

A group of 76 pilgrims have walked the final journey of Archbishop Janani Luwum to commemorate his martyrdom. The pilgrimage began at the place of Archbishop Janani’s arrest, Namirembe, on 29 January and ended in Mucwini in Kitgum, where he is buried, on 14 February. The journey was 500km long (approximately 310 miles).

ACNS 18 February 2020

Article written by 2019 Better World Participant, Anna Smart.

On February 6 people of various communities gathered at Ramsey House (Anglican Chaplaincy at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington) to launch the Better World gap year for its second year, 2020. 

The atmosphere in the room was palpable. Looking around there were life-time supporters of NZCMS, there were clergy members, coordinators of Better World, participants from 2019, friends, family and the team committing to Better World 2020. The youngest in the room was but a few months old, and the eldest belonging to a group of people that have been praying for more than fifty years for the mission of NZCMS. It was a truly intergenerational event, which spoke to the kaupapa of inclusion and community that Better World holds. 

This year the team is made up of Sam Tovey, Luca Duckworth (leaders), David Prendergast, Olivia Simes and Mercy Mutio (participants). Individually they have faithfully said yes to a radical adventure with Jesus and we were all there to celebrate with them as they made this commitment to God, each other and the gap year, on Waitangi Day.  

Better World participants following in the legacy CMS missionaries

On February 6, 1840, Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, a symbol of the coming together of two peoples. The treaty was translated into Te Reo Māori by the then leader of CMS in New Zealand, Henry Williams. Without his commitment to making the treaty accessible to tangata whenua, the relationship between colonisers and indigenous people may have looked very different.

The Better World Gap Year and its aim to equip young people with cross cultural skills, missional worldviews and a righteous anger at social injustice, is the carrying on of a legacy. The legacy of justice written into this land by the CMS missionaries who pushed for a treaty between British colonisers and tangata whenua. This year that legacy is going to be carried forward by Mercy, Olivia and David as they delve into the depths of social injustice in the world and at home in Aotearoa. In their introductions each of the participants spoke of how excited they were to be going on this adventure, and that they’re looking forward to all they will learn throughout the year. 

The 2020 launch event was special. Commissioning the participants on Waitangi Day, a day so significant for Aotearoa and NZCMS, was a reminder of all that has been and all that is to come in this land. Young people laying their lives in the hands of God, and saying yes to a journey of growing, learning, being challenged and convicted, and ultimately being changed.

Better World 2020

These three incredible young people are intentionally moving into the uncomfortable places so that they are stretched and challenged, and that they might gain new perspectives. The journey begins at Ngatiawa River Monastery, where training and orientation is already underway, and throughout the year the team will spend time in Northland, Wellington, Fiji and Cambodia. In each place the team will be digging into where God is moving there, how they might be able to partner with God in those spaces and learn from those they walk alongside. 

Please pray for the 2020 Better World team and all the learning and growing they have to do this year. Also, we invite you to pray with us for Mercy Mutio, our 2020 participant from Nairobi, Kenya. She is awaiting confirmation of her visa applications and was unable to attend our launch event in Wellington. We are praying she will be able to join us soon and that the process will be smooth. We await you with great excitement, Mercy! 

Guy Benton (a Better World Program Coordinator) asked the 2019 Better World participants at the launch event if they felt their lives had been transformed over the course of the gap year. The answer was a resounding yes. We are praying for the same response at the end of the year from our Better World 2020 team.

Photo by John Setter

NZCMS is delighted to introduce to you the Wheelers, who have recently been accepted as Mission Partners to Papua New Guinea. Scott and Nikki, along with their children Isaac, Abby and Levi, plan to start serving in Kapuna in the middle of this year.

Kapuna is nestled in the dense jungle of the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea – one of the most unique and isolated places in the world. Built in 1949, the Kapuna Hospital has recently started undergoing a rebuild which the Wheelers will be a part of. Go here if you’d like to learn more about Kapuna.

Scott will be working as a Projects Officer initially, providing administrative and management support to the Project Manager. He will move into preparing an application for funding for a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project for the surrounding villages. He will also act as an adviser to the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) team.

Nikki, a trained physiotherapist, will be involved in helping set up a Physiotherapy Department at Kapuna, which is a training hospital.

Isaac, Abby and Levi will attend the local school at Kapuna and are looking forward to learning ‘Tok Pisin’ (Pidigin English) and exploring in the bush.

Scott and Nikki are members of St Mary’s Anglican Church in Karori, Wellington, and looking for churches in the Wellington region to support them.

On Waitangi Day, I was honoured to speak on behalf of NZCMS at a picnic in Ōtaki, jointly hosted by All Saints and Rangiātea Anglican Churches. This was an opportunity for the Church, both Māori and Pākehā, to gather together and share stories about Te Tiriti o Waitangi from the Kāpiti Coast. There was a challenge for us as the Church to face our legacy from the past: to continue to live into the good, and repent of and leave behind what was not right or just.

I shared that as NZCMS now, we step into the legacy of the CMS missionaries who came to New Zealand in the nineteenth century. Although NZCMS is not the same legal identity, we were formed out of the parent agency in 1892 and they are part of our whakapapa. Like our forebears, NZCMS continues to have confidence that the Gospel is good news for all people. NZCMS sends out Mission Partners around the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ in partnership with local churches. We also support two Māori missionaries from te Takiwa o Manukau (a group of Māori Anglican Churches in south Auckland) who are called to share the Gospel with their own people.

As we step into the legacy from history, we also repent of actions made in the past which did not honour Te Tiriti. NZCMS was involved as witnesses in presenting an official apology, and later signing an agreement to make practical steps forward to restore a measure of justice over the lands lost to Tauranga Moana iwi in the nineteenth century. When I attended a hui in Tauranga in December, I was moved to hear the stories from the tangata whenua, and to see the Church stepping into this space in a powerful way. See more here.

There is a well-known Māori whakataukī (proverb) which says: Ka mua, ka muri. We walk backwards into the future. As we walk, we seek to walk with the twin footsteps of repentance and belief.

The time has come. The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news (Mark 1:15).

The Programme and Communication Manager for the Anglican Alliance, Dr Elizabeth Perry, sets out the importance of work on the climate emergency and how Anglicans all around the world are responding by taking action.

ACNS 14 February 2020

Archbishop Melter Jiki Tais was installed as the primate of the Church of the Province of South East Asia last week (Sunday 9 February) in a service at All Saints Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. He succeeds Archbishop Moon Hing, who will continue to serve as Bishop of West Malaysia until his retirement in November.

ACNS. 18 February 2020

Claims that senior academics bandied together to mount a covert vendetta against the dean of the college, the Very Rev Martyn Percy, and were hell-bent on forcing him out, are set to be heard at an employment tribunal.

David Rose for the Mail on Sunday. 16 February 2020

A Christian convert whose bid for asylum has already been rejected twice is pleading with the Home Office not to send him back to his native Iran. Reza Karkah, 38, lives in Bradford with his wife Leigh Riley and their four-year-old daughter, Rosie.

Christian Today 16 February 2020

As Igrejas Anglicana e Católica Romana no México uniram forças para apoiar as famílias que estão em campanha pelo retorno de cerca de 60.000 pessoas desaparecidas.

Um grupo de 76 peregrinos percorreu a última viagem do Arcebispo Janani Luwum ​​para comemorar seu martírio.

No domingo, 9 de fevereiro, o Arcebispo Melter Jiki Tais foi instalado como o Primaz da Igreja da Província do Sudeste Asiático, em um culto na Catedral de Todos os Santos, em Sabah, Bornéu.

Las iglesias anglicanas y católicas romanas en México han unido fuerzas para apoyar a las familias que están haciendo campaña por el regreso de unas 60.000 personas desaparecidas.

Un grupo de 76 peregrinos ha recorrido a pie el último viaje del arzobispo Janani Luwum para conmemorar su martirio.

El domingo 9 de febrero, el arzobispo Melter Jiki Tais fue nombrado primado de la Iglesia de la provincia del sudeste asiático en un servicio en la catedral de Todos los Santos en Sabah, Borneo.

Les églises anglicane et catholique romaine du Mexique ont uni leurs forces pour soutenir les familles qui font campagne pour le retour de quelque 60 000 personnes disparues.

Un groupe de 76 pèlerins a parcouru le dernier trajet suivi par l’archevêque Janani Luwum pour commémorer son martyre.

Le dimanche 9 février, l’archevêque Melter Jiki Tais a été intronisé primat de l’Église de la province de l’Asie du Sud-Est lors d’un service à la cathédrale All Saints à Sabah, Bornéo.

The Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches in Mexico have joined forces to support families who are campaigning for the return of some 60,000 missing people.

A group of 76 pilgrims have walked the final journey of Archbishop Janani Luwum to commemorate his martyrdom.