Cathedral Life Newsletter May 2026

Cathedral Life

May - July 2026

OFFICE HOURS

Monday-Friday 9 am - 3 pm

THE CATHEDRAL SHOP

Monday-Friday 10 am - 2 pm

Sunday 11 am - 12 pm

CONTACT

PO Box 338, Hamilton 3240

51 Victoria Street, Hamilton, New Zealand

P: 07 839 4683

E: admin@stpeter.org.nz

Our Vision

Inside this Issue

P2 Cathedral Diary

P4 Mission - Waikato Hospital Chaplaincy

P5 The Man Behind the Model

P6 Compline

P7 Autumn Gala

A world where we live in harmony with creation and all people, and where every person is treasured as a beloved child of God and a reflection of God’s good creation.

Our Mission

A transformative community of love and service; Christ centred, we seek fullness of life for creation, society, and individuals, as we journey together in faith.

For more information visit stpeter.org.nz

To my surprise, in a recent supervision meeting, a member of our team who was not at the service where I spoke about chaplaincy, reflected on her own changing understanding of what a journey of faith looks like and what mission looks like in her life. What she spoke of was the chaplaincy role, which I suggested as a model for the calling of every Christian. We are all pilgrims on the journey, and our mission is simply to accompany others.

This requires a willingness to listen and to be there with an open heart. If we can do this, we will find that God has a habit of putting people in our paths whom we are able to help. Our own life experiences, which may have been painful at the time, are often of great value to others, particularly when they can see that we have survived the experience and appear quite normal.

Ewan Kelly, a Scottish hospital chaplain, explores this in ‘Personhood and Presence.’ Fundamentally, we need to understand ourselves so that we know the ways in which our own story may get in the way of hearing another’s story. And, if we feel that it might be appropriate to share something of our own journey, learning to do so gently and cautiously, exploring whether it connects with and is useful to the other person, and without being offended if it doesn’t or isn’t.

This act of giving of ourselves is, in often unexpected ways, a blessing to us. It creates a connection, however fleeting, that reminds us that we are all connected and all have far more in common than that which separates us.

God has created us for such love.

The Very Rev’d Julian Perkins

Cathedral Prayer Chain

Cathedral Diary

Weekly Events & Services

Sun Breakfast Youth Church 8:00 am (term time)

Sun Said Eucharist (Holy Communion) 8:00 am

Sun Choral Eucharist (Holy Communion) 10:00 am

Sun Junior Church 10:00 am (term time)

Mon – Fri Morning Prayer 9:00 am (online)

Tues Young Adults’ Group 6:00 pm

Wed Said Eucharist (Holy Communion) 10:00 am

Thurs Little Fishes 10:00 am (term time)

Fri Eucharist in Te Reo Māori 12:10 pm

Fri Junior Choir 3:30 pm (term time)

NEW

Contact Fr Ben via ben@stpeter.org.nz or call 027 627 3217

In addition to the Sunday prayer list, if you would like members of the ministry team to remember you, or someone you know, in their daily prayers, please let a member of the ministry team know. For confidentiality, only the first name of the person will be passed around the prayer chain.

What’s On - May to July

Service Sheets

Our service sheets can be accessed online and you can use your phone to read them in church.

We need to save on paper and costs. Within the cathedral, you can access the “CathedralFree” Wi-Fi without a password.

New Website

We will soon be switching to a redesigned website, or may already have done so by the time you read this. The web address will remain the same.

Here are some key points you may find helpful:

• Service sheets can still be accessed from the home page. On mobile or desktop, head to “SERVICE SHEETS” and click on the relevant sheet. The PDF will then open.

• Weekly notices and Cathedral Life are also available from the home page, as well as under the “News and Events” tab.

Following the change, if you have any feedback, please contact Rachael, Cathedral Comms

Mission

As a church we are engaged in the work of Christ. We call this work, ‘Mission’.

Evelyn

Masoko and Vivianne Flintoff

In the context of Mission, as well as seeking to care for one another within the congregation, we are called by Christ to face outwards into our local communities and further afield; called to love and serve our neighbours, both locally and internationally.

Each year your vestry looks at the Mission agencies we as a church support prayerfully and financially. In previous issues of the Cathedral Life, we have considered two missions we regularly support: Tear Fund and Anglican Missions. In this edition we are looking closer to home: Waikato Hospital Chaplaincy.

Some of us may have been the grateful recipients of a visit from a hospital chaplain at a time in our lives – or in the life of someone we love – when encouragement, support, prayer, and comfort have been needed within a hospital setting. Hospital chaplains come along side patients and/or their families, as well as hospital staff, when a confidential, caring, pastoral ‘other’ ear and voice are needed. Spiritual care, including prayer and sacramental ministry, are available when requested. Chaplains, specialists in pastoral and spiritual care, have been theologically and clinically trained. While chaplains are

People with faith, including people of differing faith perspectives to their own, or who have no particular faith. Chaplains work from an ethic of care with a non-judgemental and nonpartisan stance.

Hospital chaplains are members of the hospital staff. They are available daily and are also on-call for urgent situations. The team at Waikato hospital includes Ecumenical, Māori, and Roman Catholic chaplains. The team is assisted by volunteer chaplains who are trained and then supervised by the chaplains. The volunteers assist with visiting patients on most wards.

There is a chapel and a Quiet Room which are open to all people as places of peace, prayer, and reflection. An Ecumenical communion service is held every Sunday morning. Patients are informed about the service via a notice on their evening dinner tray on Saturdays. Volunteers are available to assist patients to get to the Chapel for the service.

The chaplaincy team have been working to establish stronger and closer working relationships with other health care professionals. As the other health professionals’ understanding of chaplaincy work has grown, referrals from the other health professionals on behalf of patients, has increased. The closer working relationships has also created more opportunities for chaplains to contribute to discussions on hospital policy including at managerial level1

Remember: ”If you or someone you know is in hospital and needs a visit from a chaplain let a nurse know and the nurse will let the chaplaincy team know.” 2

1 The Chaplains of Waikato, Report to Anglican Synod 2024 2 Rev Heather Major personal communication April 1, 2026.

The Man Behind the Model

Have you admired the LEGO model of the strengthening works for the Waikato Cathedral Church of St Peter?

It was built by Darren Bryan, a teacher and LEGO enthusiast who is the Dean of Year 6 at Southwell School.

The idea of building the Cathedral was sparked by a previous project inspired by LEGO’s annual Christmas Village. Darren designed a church himself to add to the village collection. As the model developed, he realised it closely resembled Southwell Chapel. He adapted it further and eventually gifted it to Southwell School, where it is on display.

In August 2024, he was approached about building a LEGO version of the Cathedral to showcase proposed updates and support the strengthening appeal.

When asked where to start with a project of this scale, Darren said he began, “By coming up to the Cathedral and taking a lot of photos, just looking to see how it would be done.” He then reviewed the building plans, enlarged the floor plan to the size of the model, laid LEGO bricks over the top, and began to build a draft.

“It was a big, bright, colourful LEGO model with multicoloured bricks. I used whatever I could find,” Darren said. The draft was designed to test scale, shape, size and structure.

While building the draft, Darren also used software to create a digital version. “This creates a much more accurate model,” he said. The program allowed him to build a precise version on screen and generate a complete list of required bricks.

The first LEGO brick was laid on Saturday, 4 January 2025. He tracked every hour and spent 206 hours over 13 months to complete what is now his largest original LEGO build.

“One of the biggest challenges was geometry.” Many parts of the Cathedral are based on 135-degree angles, which had to fit together seamlessly.

Darren also added small details to make the model accurate. “Accuracy is very important,” he said. In addition, some images were printed directly onto LEGO pieces, and internal lighting was built in stages. He started from the altar end, including the large stainedglass windows, and worked through the rest of the building, adding proposed additional structures last.

He hopes the model helps people appreciate the Cathedral, sparks conversation, and inspires interest in the strengthening appeal.

To find out more about the appeal, head to stpeter.org.nz/fundraising

Hamilton Men’s Shed

Thank you to Dave, Robbie, and Arie from the Hamilton Community Men’s Shed, who so generously gave their time and expertise to thoughtfully review, engineer, and create a removable bar for the Cathedral altar. Beautifully repurposing a piece of oak from the Cathedral itself.

Compline

A service held in St Peter’s Cathedral Church on Sunday, 15 March 2026.

Sam Edwards

Each Sunday (most, anyway) people who will be reading this head off to the Cathedral. Most of them, but not all, are Anglicans, one of many denominations in our world.

The word religion comes from a Latin term which contains concepts like obligation, bond, and reverence. In many religious groups those concepts suggest a lifestyle which includes common ways of expressing and confirming commonly held beliefs through carefully ordered ways of doing things.

The most obvious examples are those religious orders which live their lives in highly ordered convents or monasteries, but that sense of order also filters down into our more modern everyday lives.

The history underlying today’s liturgy uses prayer and music in worship and supplication, offers thanks for the past, and asks for protection for the future. It goes back as far as the 4th century, but in the 6th century was refined and stabilised by Benedictine monks. Their day began with Lauds, at dawn, was followed by six other “Hours” and ended with Compline, a service which is rarely experienced in modern churches.

Between Compline and Lauds, i.e. overnight, is the period called The Great Silence during which humans rest while God is understood to be remaining active and continuing his protection of humankind.

In March this year, the Waikato Branch of the Royal Schools of Church Music held its AGM at St Peter’s. Because the purpose of the organisation is to encourage the development and support the performance of sacred music, AGMs always finish the day with a public performance of a choral work prepared during the day.

On this occasion, the work for the combined choirs was selected by and prepared for performance by St Peter’s Cathedral Director of Music, Canon Doctor Rachael GriffithsHughes, musicologist and historian at the University of Waikato.

For the occasion she chose An Order For Compline from among several slightly different Orders which are available, i.e. liturgical orders which are written for the last service at the end of the day.

She introduced it to the choristers in its centuries-old format which has strong affiliations in shape and content with two of our regular, monthly Cathedral services, Cantata Vespers, and Evensong.

The choral music was all to be sung a capella, and was. The group, which, like those 4th century monks, consisted of both performers and audience, all of whom were involved, was seated in a large circle in the Cathedral sanctuary.

The attendant priest was that experienced and expert chorister, the Rev Peter Lord Cowell. He provided genuine support for a choir prepared to take on the plainsong prayers but more than a little awed by the fact that they had been expected to participate in a presentation of this ancient liturgy on the same day as they had first heard of it.

The interactive liturgy was often surprisingly familiar - …Heavenly Father, We have sinned against you… came at the start, spoken, followed by the versicle* …O God make speed to save us… chanted to the medieval notation which was our only guide.

Then the Thomas Tallis sung score interpreting Psalm 134 came next, leading to short readings and a hymn before the versicle Into Thy Hands, O Lord; the Lord’s Prayer; collects; the antiphon† Guide us waking; Thomas Morley’s score for the Nunc Dimittis; a short interactive prayer; and then to the final line on the pew sheet reading…

The people depart in silence…

We did, and it was memorable in all the best senses of Christian liturgical beauty. It was an occasion which was a single lifetime experience.

It was a reminder similar to that experienced when I attended my first Cantata Vespers service over ten years ago and was hearing, producing, and completely enveloped in an experience which my 15 centuries-old ancestors would have recognised as their own.

It was a great day to be alive.

* A versicle is a short sentence said, chanted, or sung by the priest with the congregation responding vocally to each sentence.

† An antiphon is a short (ish) sentence sung or recited after a psalm. In our case it was, of course, sung in the ancient form known as plainsong and so is more appropriately called a canticle.

Autumn Gala

We hosted our second Gala at the Cathedral on 6–7 March, with a stunning evening concert and a lively market day.

The concert featured musical performances from talented artists with Cathedral connections, while stalls, entertainment, and activities created a welcoming atmosphere for all ages at the market.

Heartfelt thanks to our organisers, volunteers, performers, stallholders, and everyone who generously contributed their time and energy to make the Gala such a memorable occasion.

Installation of The Rev’d Sam Pullenger

Congratulations to The Rev’d Sam Pullenger on his installation as Vicar of Te Awamutu's St John’s Anglican parish.

We were fortunate to have Sam join us at the Cathedral for several weeks earlier this year, where he assisted with ministry and worship. We greatly appreciated his calm and joyful presence. We wish him every blessing in his new role at St John’s.

Cathedral Life

Ringing the Bells at the Cathedral

The ringing of the Cathedral’s bells is not automated. Rather there is a band of ringers, one per bell, who ring for church services and to mark special occasions in the life of the church, our city and our nation.

The eight bells are rung using the English style of ringing, with a bell rotating in a full circle between each dong it makes.

Cathedral Workshops

NEXT WORKSHOP DATES

Sat, 30 May

Sat, 20 June

Sat, 25 July

Breakfast at 8:30 am

There are all sorts of jobs including cleaning, maintenance, assembling, gardening, polishing, and painting.

Anybody can help, no effort is too little!

Contact Warren: 027 466 5507

Cathedral Shop

The Cathedral Shop has an exciting range of material both imported and local which is appropriate for church and personal use.

Open Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Feel free to contact us via shop@stpeter.org.nz

May - July 2026

Come and see how we ring the bells.

Sundays 9:15 am to 9:45 am Wednesdays 7:45 pm to 9:15 pm

CATHEDRAL MINISTRY TEAM

The Very Rev'd Julian Perkins 020 4124 6555 | deanjulian@stpeter.org.nz (Day off - Friday)

Fr Ben Ong (Mon & Thurs) 022 627 3217 | ben@stpeter.org.nz (Day off - Friday)

The Rev'd Robin Olds (07) 854 6713 | 027 441 9292 | pastoralcare@stpeter.org.nz

The Rev’d Wendy Tyrrell bells@stpeter.org.nz

CATHEDRAL CONTACTS

People’s Warden | Kay Neilson 021 1522 999 | peopleswarden@stpeter.org.nz

Dean’s Warden | Dianne Cameron 021 588 399 | deanswarden@stpeter.org.nz

Director of Music | Dr Rachael Griffiths-Hughes 027 286 8779 | music@stpeter.org.nz

Hospital Chaplain | Gabriel Jens (07) 839 8899

Cathedral Verger | Plex John 022 312 9523 | verger@stpeter.org.nz

Cathedral Administrator | Keri Wilson 07 839 4683 | admin@stpeter.org.nz

BANK DETAILS

The Cathedral Church of St Peter 02-0316-0268898-000