Ordination of Peter Carrell: Peter Carrell is to be ordained bishop on Saturday 9 February. Tickets to the service at Boys’ High are very limited – only 15 seats were allocated to our parish, most have been distributed to members of Vestry and Staff. We have 4 still available, contact the Parish Office if you’d like to attend. However Peter’s installation as Bishop of Christchurch will take place at 3pm on the same day in Cathedral Square and all parishes are being invited to come in large numbers. I hope we can form a large St Barnabas contingent and walk into the square together along with hundreds of other Anglicans. More info. to come.

Refugee Family: At our last Vestry meeting we agreed in principle to support a refugee family coming to Christchurch early next year. We will need to form a support team and Olive Lawson has kindly offered to coordinate this. Members of the team will need to go through the Police vetting process and attend a training session with the Red Cross. This is a marvellous opportunity to extend God’s love to a family coming from a country where there is conflict. It also reminds us that our Lord Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate, was once a refugee fleeing from danger. Contact Olive on 021 067 6587 or 388 6882 if you are interested in joining the team.

Confirmation: Confirmation is a way of expressing commitment – by a person baptised as an infant or by a person returning to faith after a time of absence or by a person wanting to strengthen their faith through careful preparation and public declaration. There is to be a confirmation service with our new Bishop Peter on Sunday 3 March. If you would like to be confirmed, please see me.

Arohanui, Mark