Opoho Presbyterian Church

What's on in July and August

1 July ~ Thursday 7.30 p.m.: Bible Book of the Month: Jude, 129 Signal

   Hill Road

4 July ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, the Rev. Graeme Munro, Communion

8 July ~ Thursday 7 p.m.: Service of induction of the Rev. Clare Lind as

  our new minister

11 July ~ Sunday 9.45 a.m.: People-moving for chapel service at  

  Dunedin Hospital

11 July ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship at Opoho, Support Sunday, the Rev.

  Clare Lind with Tim Mepham from Presbyterian Support

15 July ~ Thursday 2 p.m.: Fellowship Group, Morrison Lounge

18 July ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, the Rev. Clare Lind

24 July  ~ Tuesday 5 p.m.: Parish pot-luck meal and poetry evening in

  the hall

25 July ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, the Rev. Clare Lind

1 August ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, the Rev. Clare Lind, Communion

5 August ~ Thursday 7.30 p.m.: Bible Book of the Month: Revelation, 129

  Signal Hill Road

8 August ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, Abby Smith

12 August ~ Thursday 2 p.m.: Fellowship Group, Morrison Lounge

15 August ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, the Rev. Clare Lind

22 August ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, the Rev. Clare Lind, followed by

  potluck lunch

29 August ~ Sunday 10 a.m.: Worship, Gregor Macaulay, Hymns by

  Sydney Carter and Fred Kaan

Psalm writing at Opoho

Up to 2020 a small group of us met every two or three months to encourage each other with our with our psalm writing.

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Available for download are a collection of psalms from the first two years, and psalms and other writings from around the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

'We Survived Lockdown'

Thanksgiving and Celebration Display

Read about some of the things Opoho parishioners did during the 2020 lockdown, which we shared in our 'We Survived Lockdown' thanksgiving and celebration display in the church hall. A 56-page booklet in PDF download.

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'Slow Down', a prayer by Abby Smith

Lord we pray to you from a world in trouble:

Where forests and birds, mountains and tigers, seas and fish, grasslands and bugs are being

   destroyed or are already gone.

Where monoculture and pesticides and urban sprawl and exotic plantations make a new

   landscape, replacing yours, O Lord.

And we don’t know how to stop, or even slow down.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer.

Lord we pray to you from a people who have lost their hearts:

Who do not know each other, and do not understand themselves.

Where sharing and kindness are seen as weakness.

A people divided.  On the one hand, slaves and the abjectly poor: with no resources, no

   prospects, no education and no hope.

And on the other hand, people who seem to have everything but no idea how to live: sick and

   unhappy, heavy and weighed down with meetings and markets, possessions and paranoia.

And we don’t know how to stop, or even slow down.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer.

Lord we pray to you from a planet finding a new equilibrium.

Surrounded with consequences we can neither stop nor explain, we choose “business as usual,”

Despite all the evidence that we are killing ourselves and each other, destroying nature on which

   we rely, and changing everything forever.

And we don’t know how to stop, or even slow down.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer.

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We struggle to find words, Lord. 

Help us.  Guide us.  Challenge us.  Comfort us.

Out of the depths of fear, madness, division, loss, sickness, and sorrow, we call to you.  We reach

   towards you.

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Lord of all, hear our voice.  Christ, listen to us.  Spirit, come to us.

Let there be light, warmth and shelter.

Let there be kindness, healing, and community.

Let there be reason and hope and love.

Help us to stop, or at least to slow down.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer.

Lord, return to us like the sun does, every time.

Christ, lead us in the darkness.

Spirit, shine like the stars of midwinter.

Show us the way.

Teach us to stop, or at least to slow down.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer.