Kia ora koutou katua Members
Back in February 2023, as an Executive Committee feeling led by the Holy Spirit, we made a decision to be intentional in our commitment to increasing our knowledge and understanding of Te Tiriti, our relationships with Tangata Whenua and what it means for NZCCA.
This decision led us to serve with Karuwha Trust on Te Tii Marae in Waitangi over a number of days and attend the Waitangi celebrations in Paihia on 6th February this year. As an Executive Committee, we then stayed on in Paihia for a few days retreat to process through reflection, prayer and discussion, our experiences and the impact of our time serving at Waitangi, both personally and in our capacity as members of the NZCCA Executive Committee.
As a result, the journey God has led us into, has challenged us to make further decisions in order to continue our hikoi of learning, strengthening and growing in our commitment and support of honouring Te Tiriti and our Treaty Relations. One of the culminations of this decision over the last 3 months has been working toward the possibility of moving our annual conference this year from September in Auckland, to early March next year in Paihia, Bay of Islands.
As the doors opened and we have prayerfully continued to move as God has led, the strategic possibilities of changing our Conference from Auckland to Waitangi and moving it to align close to Waitangi Day 2025 became a reality.
We’re now able to confirm that our next NZCCA Conference will be held at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort in Waitangi from 6-8 March 2025.
Copthorne Hotel and Resort Bay of Islands | Hotel in Waitangi (millenniumhotels.com)
This means that we will no longer be holding a conference in September this year. We acknowledge and sincerely apologise that this may cause a problem for those that have possibly already made arrangements to be in Auckland in September. We also had no idea that this change would occur until God's leading in February this year, and it's taken until this week to confirm the rearrangement of venue and dates for Waitangi.
We would love for you to join us on this journey and between now and then, we’ll be releasing further updates and providing online webinars to help us all continue to learn and grow as we explore God’s call to understand more about how we, as NZCCA, can support and honour the founding document of our country in both our individual and collective relationships with God and Te Tiriti.
Kia hora te marino
Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
Hei huarahi mā tātou i te rangi nei
Aroha atu, aroha mai
Tātou i ā tātou katoa
Hui e, taiki e!
May peace be widespread
May the sea be like greenstone
A pathway for us all this day
Let us show respect for each other
For one another
Bind us together.
Blessings
Sylvia & Donna (Co Chairs), and Executive Committee