«Back to Photo Gallery

Wellington Formation 2009 - Waikanae 1st May & Connolly Hall 2nd May

Kapiti
For the last three years, we have split the parishes into two regions. One being the Kapiti Coast which consists of Waikanae, Paraparaumu, Otaki and Levin. This region gathered in the foyer of Our Lady of Fatima in Waikanae. Fr Brian spoke about St Paul and the communities in St Paul’s travels. We had a shared lunch and followed with small discussion groups as to what the communities of St Paul and PFG groups of today have in common. As always a very positive afternoon with about 70 participants and lots of wonderful feedback.

Wellington (Johnsonville, Johnsonville Uniting, Onslow, Tawa, Plimmerton, Lower Hutt, Stokes Valley, Upper Hutt)
This year being the year of St Paul, parishes were asked to study one of the communities that Paul visited. Fr Brian suggested some readings and provided other information on these communities. When we arrived each parish gathered into the community they were assigned and display any symbols that helped reflect their community. Some parishes had put a lot of thought into this and had brought along Turkish rugs, apple tea to give to visitors from other communities, display boards and a couple even dressed in robes.

We were asked to bring along a list of differences/similarities between the communities we were assigned and our Wellington region. For example Ephesus had an amphitheatre that could hold 25,000 people – Wellington has the stadium. Ephesus was a thriving port city as is Wellington. Once everyone shared what they knew about their community they then visited other communities to learn about them and exchange information. This exercise was to give us an understanding of what it was like for the early missionaries when they were asked by Paul to visit these towns.

We shared a meal together and concluded with discussing the similar issues faced by the communities of St Paul and the Passionist Family Groups of today.