Richard Bonifant

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25 January 2026

Epiphany 3

Isaiah 9:1-4

Matthew 4:12-23

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One of the great joys of the post-Christmas season is finding a new calendar! I have a new calendar hanging in our home which includes a wide range of interesting facts. For example, earlier this week the fact for the day was that on that day in 1351 an English cook was sentenced to one day in the stocks for cooking a chicken pastry described by the magistrate as, “foul and stinking and an abomination to all humankind.” This is not the entry on this calendar that I’m going to speak about today, but I couldn’t resist sharing it because it made me laugh.

Susan Adams

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18 January 2026

Epiphany 2

Isaiah 49:1-7

John 1:29-42

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At the beginning of a new year, many of us make New Year resolutions! Some of them are big and potentially life changing, like this is the year when I join a housing project for the poor, or get a new job, and some are smaller like I’m going to look after a grandchild once a week. But big or small they reflect the hope we have for life in the new year. If we’re lucky, we’ve survived those hopeful days of resolutions without feeling we’ve failed before the year has really begun; survived that brief, hopeful period when we are convinced that this will be the year we become better people through cutting out sugar, counting steps, or colour-coding our calendars. By about now, most of us will have renegotiated those hopeful ambitions into something more realistic, like “being kinder to ourselves” or “not buying quite so many books we don’t read.” 

Cate Thorn

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11 January 2026

Baptism of Jesus

Isaiah 42:1-9

Matthew 3:13-17

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The season of Epiphany, is upon us, last week the Epiphany of the wise men, this week of Jesus - the heavens torn open at his baptism. All we hear from Matthew’s gospel is a seeming private interchange between John and Jesus then Jesus baptism and epiphany moment. It’s an abrupt shift from the turmoil of the preceding verses. Crowds streaming to John the Baptist who in full voice thunders words of warning and doom. In midst of such chaos wanders Jesus. He engages John in this quiet exchange, which seems to be missed by the crowds pushing and jostling by the river..

Grace Behm

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4 January 2026

The Epiphany

Isaiah 60:1-6

Matthew 2:1-12

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Every summer, many of us step outside after dark and look up. The air is warm, the days are long, and when the light finally fades, the sky opens wide. For some of us, it’s the only time all year we notice the stars properly- standing barefoot on the grass, or pausing at the beach while the tide comes in. We might recognise the Southern Cross, maybe Te Ika-o-te-rangi, or maybe Orion’s Belt and we remember that long before streetlights and screens, the night sky was not simply background scenery but a map, a story, a guide.