Nicky and John have been in New Zealand, staying with her daughter Ruth and visiting Nicky's grandchildren and her great grandchild Cody.

                            They helped out on Ruth's homestead, doing many of the interesting jobs!

 They celebrated their first wedding anniversary with their hosts in the restaurant of the Auckland Skytower, currently the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.

 They also visited Wellington when Cardinal Dew, the Archbishop of New Zealand, was in Rome, and John snapped Nicky giving her support to the Cathedral.    (It is right next to the Anglican one, and the two Cathedrals combined to celebrate a joint service of Ashes on Ash Wednesday.)

These are some photo's from the Women's World Day of Prayer on Friday 1st March 2013 hosted at Our Lady of Mercy and St Joseph

 

 

Women from local churches attended, and the speaker was the Chaplain from Oakhaven Hospice, the Rev'd Kate Wilson.

She gave a talk on welcoming people to our community and our homes - 

as Jesus said  "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." 

 

The service was written by the women of France and was very moving and spiritual, and included a hymn from Taize.  

There was a table set with small items from France and a map.  

After the service everybody had tea and cake in the hospitality suite and commented on how much they had enjoyed the experience.