Sunday in Wellington

As she left us on Saturday night, Robyn (NZLocums liason) suggested that, if we were interested in church, the cathedral was just a few blocks away.  So Sunday morning we set out in the mist to find the church.  After a bit of walking we could hear the church bells which helped guide us to the Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul.  Completed in 1998, it is one of the newest Anglican cathedrals in the world.  It is a large, beautiful church, full of light and stained glass, and home to a world class organ (4 manuals, 81 stops, 3500 pipes).

We were truly blessed by the service and the friendly people--good prompts on following the prayer book, wonderful hymns with resounding organ, a meaningful message, and even an organ postlude by Handel.  I was so moved by the prayers that I had to jot a few down:
    So now we offer our thanks
         for the beauty of these islands;
         for the wild places and the bush,
         for the mountains, the coast, and the sea.
Our thanks for the marae (Maori meetinghouse) and the cities.....

And I have a new phrase for my daily prayers: Look with kindness on our homes and families. 

The sermon was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Eleanor Sanderson, a mother of two young ones who was just leaving the congregation to pursue further studies in Auckland for a time.  The Gospel lectionary reading for the day was from John 2, the story of Jesus' first miracle, the water into wine.  Apparently, the building of the new cathedral has been thought to be an unwarrented extravagance by some of the congregation .  However, the pastor suggested that sometimes God welcomes extravagance on our part just as He sometimes blesses us with extravagance--such as providing very good wine to people who are already a little drunk....or providing a year of sabbatical........  Even a world away in NZ, this congregation had a connection with the tragedy in Haiti--a niece of one of the members had lost her husband and two of her three children in earthquake.  Like so many worldwide, they said prayers and collected donations for  the people of Haiti.

The rest of our day was split between The Wellington Museum of City and Sea and the Wellington Botanic Garden.  Hopped a cable car up to the top of the hill for the garden and then walked down through the vast and varied gardens in the increasing rain--actually, a perfect way to see all the NZ vegetation, especially the many variety of ferns/tree ferns.  We checked out eateries on our way back and chuckled at one sign boasting, "Come in by the fire and get WARM."  However, one Irish pub advertised  roasted pork and veggies with applesauce--ooh, sounded like comfort food to us!