17 February 2005: The new SCMA website is being launched tonight. New and updated information will be available at http://www.scm.org.nz/home/ from this time. Please direct any questions to webmaster@scm.org.nz.
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17 February 2005: The new SCMA website is being launched tonight. New and updated information will be available at http://www.scm.org.nz/home/ from this time. Please direct any questions to webmaster@scm.org.nz. |
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The Newsletter of the Student Christian Movement of AotearoaSummer Holiday Edition: December 1998 - February 1999No. 39SCM OTAGO A happy 21st for Fiona McLaughlin for the 18th February! Michael Perkins has been visiting from Canterbury, and planning the national conference. They have made a banner for the book exchange, and are working on a manual. Fliers and posters are already up! Animator Marie McMillian will be visiting from Auckland from the 22-28 February. The plan for the semester is made, and started with a picnic in the gardens on the 17th Feb. Martin Dickson will be visiting to preach at the "orientation" queer service on 28th Feb. And further on there will be croquet lessons with a senior friend, T shirt screen printing, group facilitation workshop, and a retreat on 20 March. Anna Gilkison and Mary McLaughlin have been organising evening services at Roslyn Presbyterian Church over the holidays. And over the summer Otagoites have been glad to see old SCMers Tim Hurd, Julanne Morris, Michael Wallace and Kary Kubline. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- SCM CANTERBURY The year started with a barbecue at Martin's on the 22 January to get us all back into the SCM mode and hassle Arana to finish the booksale reports from the last two years. (Which have now been handed with cheques to the UCSA). A pot-luck dinner and planning meeting was had at Teresa Windle's on the 11th Feb. During the year they will be having forums with Native Forest Action, Jim Considine on Restorative Justice, Marion Hobbs on student issues, prayer with contrasting speakers and a joint forum on Iraq. Oh and somewhere in there they'll take in the movie Priest. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- WOMEN'S TALK A new issue of the SCMA women's newsletter Women's Talk has been produced by the women's coordinators Sonia Petrie and Fiona McLaughlin and is out now. It has been posted to all SCMA women, and is available from local SCM groups. Contributions have also been made to the next special women's issue of Praxis , the magazine of the Asia-Pacific region of the World Student Christian Federation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- NATIONAL CONFERENCE 27 June-3 July 1999 The National Conference planning is well under way, with people from both SCMs in Te Waipounamu/South Island participating. Two themes will be addressed; Human Rights, and The Environment. Both of these are seen as particularly relevant issues to address with gospel values in our present situation. Especially as the Presbyterian Special Assembly considering "diversity in the church" (i.e. whether queers are real people) will be meeting in Otautahi/Christchurch at the same time! There will be a Senior Friends evening on Tuesday 29th June, when the well respected Alan Brash will preach during worship. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- ASIA-PACIFIC REGION WOMEN SCM Aotearoa can nominate a woman for the World Student Christian Federation - Asia Pacific Region Women's Committee (RWC). The committee will be appointed by the women's caucus of the Regional Committee Meeting. Contact Sonia or Fiona or the national office for details or to make an offer. This committee organises women's programmes and supervises the regional coordinator Necta Montes. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- NATIONAL COORDINATING GROUP The NCG started work early with their first meeting of the year on the 24th January. With regret they accepted the resignation of Kiersten Larsen from the position of Convenor. She has done an incredible amount of work over the last year and a half of holding this position, making sure people were well prepared for meetings and involved in the decisions. She continues with her work on the Standing Committee of the WSCF region until the Regional Committee Meeting. The convenor position remains vacant at the moment. However, the meeting has added Emmeline Taptiklis to its numbers to represent the Manawatu. The NCG's next meeting is on Tuesday 23 February. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- REPORT ON THE LIVE-IN THEOLOGICAL EXPERIENCE 11-17 December 1998 Otautahi/ Christchurch. Organised jointly between SCMA, College House Institute of Theology, the Ecumenical Youth Programme of CCANZ and the Christchurch Methodist Mission. There were twenty-five participants; 11 full-time, 14 part-time, 11 SCMers and 14 not SCMers. The Aims were: To make the best available theological resources and people accessible to young people." and "To use credible Christian traditions to empower our lives." What participants said they gained:
€ New contacts and friends. A clearer sense of what is
important to me,
where I want to go, who to be.
€ I met people of my own age who obviously thought a lot.
€ Spending time with other young people interested in
theology.
€ A renewed commitment to justice and peace.
€ Reaffirmed that it is good to ask questions and use your
brain. That
other people are out there who have the same questions.
€ Ideas were challenged, some previously held opinions
changed and
others more deeply entrenched!
€ A variety of new ideas - not offered as answers.
€ A time to give, receive and reflect on new ideas. The second "field-trip" was to community groups and agencies. First people learnt about theological reflection (Peter Williams and Jenny Harrison), then visited different organisations which respond to poverty from a Christian philosophy. These included a emergency response food- bank, an overseas aid agency and the local Catholic worker group who practice radical open-door hospitality. Many participants were both challenged and impressed by the faith-full responses people are making to their social contexts. Most groups took more than the allotted two hours for the visits! Theologians presented talks on ethics (Margaret Mayman), stories of meaning (Lucy D'Aeth and Jill Hawkey), society (Jane Higgins) and feminist theology (Ceridwyn Coles). These predictably appealed differently to each conference member depending on their particular interests and level of previous exposure to the area. Nevertheless, all participants have commented that they were extended. Some said that it would probably take them months to process all the new ideas they gained, and would get back to us then to let us know what they thought of them! The Experience ended with a huge cooked breakfast where most of the resource people formed a panel to answer questions put by the students. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- HUMAN RIGHTS AMENDMENT BILL SCM was a part of the campaign against this bill which was to largely exempt the government and legislation from the Human Rights Act. It was defeated in parliament, but the government intends to attempt to pass another bill this year. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- EAP GRANT SCMA has received a grant to cover a substantial part of our administration costs for the next financial year from the Ecumenical Assistance Programme of the World Student Christian Federation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- REGIONAL COMMITTEE MEETING - PHILIPPINES 19-26 July Three SCMers have offered to represent us at the World Student Christian Federation - Asia Pacific Regional Committee Meeting. Thank you all! A decision will be made by the NCG when they meet on the 23 February. SCMA can also nominate people for the regional Standing Committee. The NCG decided that there are three issues they particularly want raised at the RCM: It is time for gay and lesbian rights to be discussed in WSCF- AP. Questioning the aiming of leadership projects at people older than students. On-going gender issues in WSCF-AP. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- THE TRUST In December 1995 a special general meeting of SCMA decided to set up a trust to look after the capital assets which provide income for our national movement. It has been a long and arduous process, but in that time a great deal of consultation has occurred within the movement, and a trust deed setting forth the form of the trust has been completed and approved. A wee bit of further investigation with the Ministry of Commerce and Senior Friend Accountant Ron Cormack has revealed the following: SCMA is already registered as a charitable trust with the members being the trustees. All we need to do is provide in our constitution for trustees with a particular function (i.e. look after the capital assets of SCMA). We will appoint Senior Friends and one member each year to do this (and send a memorandum of appointment to the Ministry). Therefore the trust deed which has already been approved will be incorporated into the constitution with the further proviso that that particular part of the constitution cannot be easily changed. That and the appointment of the first trustees will be done at the Annual General Meeting at the end of June. We will not need to go through the expensive process of proving the charitable nature of a new trust to the IRD and Ministry of Commerce and the liability of the trustees will be covered by our present structure. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------------------- SCM UPDATE is compiled by the National Administrator of SCM Aotearoa. Your contributions, news and information are welcome! Submission date is the 25th of each month. IF YOU MOVE Please send a change of address card or email to the National Office. Check that your friends have sent one too, as we tend to get lots of returned newsletters in the first few months. If you would like to receive one and don't let Martin know at the national office. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- -------------------------------
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