Vestry are inviting all parishioners to meet together for soup and rolls, after the 10am service on Sunday 25th August 2024.

This is a meeting to talk and discuss. No decisions will be made.

Here we have an opportunity to ask and have answered questions about the 5 possible ways forward.

Please do ask your questions, it is almost certain someone else will have that same question. We will do our best to answer questions from the floor. If possible we would appreciate questions ahead of time, so vestry can talk about them and give a response; it may be that you ask a question vestry hasn’t thought about and considered, in which case we possibly will not be able to give an answer from the floor. Questions we have by 7pm Thursday 22nd August will be answered in writing and go out with the next email about this process on Friday 23rd August. Please take the opportunity to share your question so that others have the benefit of it.

You have 4 ways of asking questions:

1. using the online form link below
2. a paper form in the foyer to be placed in the ice-cream container
3. via a vestry member your are comfortable talking to
4. at the parish soup and roll meeting

At the bottom of this you will find the 5 ways forward that you were given at the last meeting to remind you what we will be discussing.

Vestry has put much time and effort into these five options, and by the time we meet we will have met four times to consider them.

Vestry meeting 1 – where our thoughts and feelings were shared about each option and the scale of the issues ahead of us

Vestry meeting 2 – a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of each option

Vestry meeting 3 – discussion about the SWOT

Vestry meeting 4 – (still to come 22 August) where the SWOT of the 5 options is finalisedd to present to the parish (via email Friday 23 August)

The way forward after the Parish soup and rolls and discussion, might look like this:

Vestry meet to discuss the feedback and questions from the parish, and weave this into the SWOT.

Vestry meet and find a preferred option (or preferred options) to move ahead and bring this/these to the parish to be discussed.

The parish heads into a time of prayer and discernment

A Special General Meeting is held to make a decision on the way ahead.

There well might be other steps required above. Or we might choose another way. If you have steps you think are important to be included, please submit them below. If you have ideas you think are important, please submit them below. You may have another way forward that hasn’t been considered, please let us know this.

The above outline is included to show that this is not a rushed process; rather it is considered and prayerful with checking in and opportunity for feedback from the parish as we go. Vestry are open to feedback, ideas and questions, so please be in touch via the form, via the ice cream box, or via a vestry member.

Journeying with you, Dion

Future options – 5 potential ways forward

Three directions, five options

1) a managed closure,

2) re-plant Anglican Mission,

3) expand our current mission and vision

Option 1 – lease/rent buildings

Sell all/most of our assets, the advantage is that we no longer have the burden of responsibility of being a landlord (taking care of the buildings entrusted to us); we instead rent. This enables us to instead focus on the core faith business for those who are left. We acknowledge that this will ultimately lead to closure or the replanting of Anglican Mission

Option 2 – combining parishes

Combine with another parish like St John’s Campbells Bay, who have just said that they can no longer afford a full-time priest. We likewise would go to a half-time priest. This means that we can re-direct money spent on a stipend/salary into maintenance and extend our closure date. We acknowledge that this will ultimately lead to closure.

Option 3 – Re-plant Anglican Mission

Close Takapuna-St Peter’s / Milford-St Paul’s / Cambell’s Bay-St Johns / Torbay-St Mary’s – sell all our assets, and replant a new mission for 2026 and beyond, looking at what is needed today and into the future, rather than being shaped by a past that no longer works. For example, all 4 venues have halls that were fantastic venues for community get-togethers, dances and the like, that simply don’t happen today.  We acknowledge that the volunteer pool is getting smaller and we need to radically redefine how mission and ministry will happen in this part of the North Shore.

Option 4 – Expand community shop & giving

We expand the community shop to cover our outgoings and see this as the way to meet our current vision/mission. We put in effort to maximise the community shop to stablise the faith community’s vision and mission. We make a drive for those currently giving to give more money to the mission/vision at least until the community shop can be expanded. And we continue to apply for grants and funding to expand our ministry in the community. Those of us present acknowledge that we need to do this ourselves and that this will not all be passed onto potential new people coming into the faith community.

Option 5 – Expand community shop + new venture

We expand the community shop to cover our outgoings, and we start a new enterprise/business/venture to meet our maintenance and day to day needs. We acknowledge in this that giving will continue to decline and that the way forward is to externally fund St Mary by the Sea. And we continue to apply for grants and funding to expand our ministry in the community. Those of us present acknowledge that we need to do this ourselves and that this will not all be passed onto potential new people coming into the faith community.

Option 6 – Status Quo – un-managed closure

We make no changes and head towards an unmanaged closure.

Questions form