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.

The Newsletter of the Student Christian Movement of Aotearoa

November 1999

No. 45

The Summer Edition

The National Coordinating Group is having its annual in-person meeting in Christchurch, 14-16 December. The NCG is Roger Pym, Emmeline Taptiklis, Anne-Marie Donnelly, Sonia Petrie, Michael Perkins, Andrew Harvey and Katherine Hardisty. The Movement Animator, Marie McMillan, will also be attending as a resource person. The business agenda so far includes: ratifying the minutes of the AGM, establishing the process for the Administrator's performance review, discussing Leadership Training Conference and the Women's Retreat. Brainstorming sessions will include better resourcing by SCMA of local units for Movement Building around Orientation, ideas for Akonga and the SCM website. Further business or ideas for brainstorming should be sent to your local representative, or the Convenor of the NCG, ASAP.

NCG Convenor appointed. Andrew Harvey, recently returned global ecumenical playboy, was appointed by the last meeting to be the Convenor of the NCG. Andrew can do the job in the short-term, but may have to resign later when he gets a job. To get in touch with Andrew, email ajh100@student.canterbury. ac.nz or call 03 365 2620.
Please keep looking for willing volunteers among current SCM'ers, recent Senior Friends and even less recent Senior Friends to fill this important position. The job description is in the SCMA Handbook.

Australian SCM's National Conference is taking registrations now! It is at Eagle's Nest, near Perth, WA, from 7 to 13 January 2000. The theme is The Kingdom of God is Among you (Luke 17: 21). Full details can be found on the ASCM webpage http://www.ascm.org.au and the conference webpage http://www.gu.uwa.edu.au/clubs/scm/conference.html
Registrations are due by 7 December. SCMA allocates some money towards ASCM travel. Contact the National Office for details.

Shaping ecumenical thought through intercultural and interconfessional encounter: The World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at the Chateau de Bossey, Switzerland, holds the Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies every year, for four months. For more information about the WSCF-AP scholarship, and for an application form contact the National Office, and see www.wcc-coe.org/Bossey/ Applications for the NCG to consider due at the Office December 9.

Has your Unit sent an updated membership list to the Office?

The WSCF Asia-Pacific Regional Secretary, Rev Shin Seung Min, has had his appointment renewed for a further two years.

Ecumenically-minded stewards are needed for the Christian Conference of Asia's 11th Annual Assembly 23 May-6 June 2000. This is a funded trip to Indonesia, followed by work in an international team of stewards. Application forms available from the Office and due at CCA Youth Hong Kong before 18 February 2000.

Job! SCM Otago is looking for someone to manage our book exchange in late February to early March 2000. Accommodation and therapy provided. Honorarium of $1000. Contact SCM Otago with expressions of interest for further information.

IF YOU MOVE please send a change of address card or email to the National Office.

Looking for a summer project? Do you need some ways to help fill those spare hours between loathsomely underpaid part-time jobs? SCM Update is here to help! Here are some things that SCM¹ers can do over the summer break - when you may, or may not, have less work pressure than usual.

• Visual art work
  SCM has in the past had members producing visual material related to SCM themes. It would be great for this tradition to continue, as it is often a powerful and complex way of expressing who we are, individually and as a group. Possible uses for these include posters, pamphlets, graphics on the website, tattoos, earrings (or other piercings...), SCM stationery, Update, Akonga, postcards.
• New logo
  The idea of creating a new logo for SCMA was floated recently. As far as we can tell the current logo (as featured at the top of SCM Update) dates from approximately the 1960's, a period of considerable change and revolution for SCM. Perhaps the next millenium will be another such period? If you have ideas or drafts for a new or adapted logo then let's see them!
• Writing
  How far do your ideas and spirituality influence your academic and/or personal writing? Perhaps with a bit of reworking or analysis some essay or other piece of writing could become a reflection or a commentary or a set of questions about your spirituality. If every SCM'er wrote one thing over summer, or reworked some writing, then we could have material ready to fill at least the next two editions of Akonga. What is your vision for SCMA? The Ecumenical Movement? Church? Aotearoa? The Asia-Pacific region? What were your reactions to reading the Centennial History booklet? Have you been to a particularly scary or creepy worship recently, why did it affect you? Was there a forum at your local unit that should have a wider audience?
• Tidy and decorate the National Office
  SCM¹ers in Canterbury/Lincoln or passing through Christchurch are invited to help tidy up the National Office and perhaps to do some decorating! There are quite a few boxes of unidentifiable SCM effluvia that need sorting out, plus a few splashes of colour on the walls would not go amiss.
• Ideas/text for pamphlets and posters
  If you have suggestions for new SCMA publicity material or new places to send it, contact the Office or Movement Animator
• Ideas for SF networking
  Senior Friends are our most important helpers. SCMA will be sending copies of the Centennial History booklet to all Senior Friends shortly, and inviting their comments on it. What other good ways are there of improving our relationship with Senior Friends?
• Ideas for movement building
  SCMA needs to think about Movement Building in the very near future. What have we got to offer young Christians and spiritual people, and how do we let them know?
• Conferences and Programmes
  SCMA will be running another Joint Theological Conference with CCANZ in December 2000.
  The next CCANZ Annual Forum (9-11 June 2000 in Wellington) will include an Ecumenical Youth Programme event. Further details later.
  Leadership Training Conference: The NCG will be looking at options for this URGENTLY needed programme. If you can be a resource, have some ideas or time, contact the Office.
  Women's Retreat: Similarly the NCG needs to know if there are plans for this programme being hatched anywhere.
• Travel around visiting
  And last of all, the favourite SCM summer activity is going visiting, and receiving visits from, other SCM'ers around the country!

It's not too late to enrol to vote. You can still cast a special vote if you enrol this week. Have all your friends enrolled to vote? Enrolment figures amongst younger and more nomadic people, in particular students, are very low. Education is a major issue in this election, so get out and get people signed up so that everyone has their say.

Health,
education, power, ACC,
superannuation, welfare, roading,
Police, Fire Service, employment
contracts, driver licences.
The faster they go, the bigger the mess... (From a poster by Agenda99, PO Box 16088 Wellington)

SCM UPDATE is produced by SCM¹ers and compiled monthly by the National Administrator.

Back to Update archive