WELCOME

St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is a multi-cultural, Christ Centred - Community Facing Church which has been serving the Lord Jesus Christ in the south city for over 120 years.

TAKE FIVE

Kia Orana, Talofa Lava and Welcome to our first edition of 'TAKE FIVE', where we invite you to take five minutes out of your busy schedule as we report back to you, our local community, on the events and happenings from the parish of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church.

For an interesting schedule of December and Christmas services please refer to the Activity page, especially the 'must–see' Christmas production: 'Christmas Alive.’ Coincidentally the Deacons Court has recently approved the lighting at night of the St Andrew’s Church Tower. Look out for this colourful spectacle over the Christmas period.

At our AGM back in September we launched our new Vision statement for 2012--2014: "A Beacon of Hope in the Community". The AGM report highlighted that in the year to the end of June 2011 St. Andrew's Church has added 16 new members and recorded a dozen baptisms.

COMMENTARY - Christian Ethics
An important issue for all people of good will to consider is the issue of decriminalising Euthanasia; especially given the aging of the large Baby Boomer generation (i.e. those born 1946 - 1964), this controversial issue will provoke discussion in the media for some time.

The last time the NZ Parliament took up the issue, it defeated New Zealand First MP Peter Brown's Death with dignity bill in 2003 by just three votes. Prime Minister John key has previously stated that he would support a Private Member's Bill on euthanasia being referred to a Select Committee for consideration.

One of the big problems in legalising Euthanasia is that it creates a slippery slope in which the criteria for so called “mercy killing” is broadened to include other vulnerable groups in society. For example, in Weimar Germany in the 1920's the original criteria of assisting injured war veterans was broadened to include other groups deemed to be a burden on society, such as the mentally ill. History shows that this culture of death grew under the Nazi Third Reich to eventually include some six million Gypsies and Jews.

As the NZ Catholic Archbishop John Dew said recently: “We don't want to see people pressurised-thinking that they are burden –costing families in terms of finances and time ... The vulnerable members of our society depend upon the protections that the legal and medical institutions currently provide and legalising euthanasia would undermine these ... Suffering is part of who we are as human beings and we can get a meaning to life through suffering ... Others in the family learn how to care – often there's time for people to reconcile, they forgive, and seeing life through to a natural end with all the assistance we can give, enables people the opportunity to find meaning in suffering rather than just saying: “we'll just end life.”