Welcome, or Haere Mai, to the website of the Catholic Parish of the Good Shepherd, Hurunui, New Zealand.
We are part of the Diocese of Christchurch in New Zealand.
Our parish is made up of six church communities centred in six small towns of Amberley, Hawarden, Culverden, Hanmer Springs, Waiau and Cheviot. It was established in 2013 after the amalgamation of Hawarden, Hanmer Springs, and Cheviot parishes. Each of the six towns are Mass Centres.
The Presbytery and office is located in Amberley.
Catholic new to the parish? Not a Catholic but just want to explore? Drifted away Catholic and missing home?
Welcome! Come and find your home amongst us.
If you have just moved to the parish, help us to get you established. Start by making contact and make connections. We need your talents and contribution of your gifts to make the parish vibrant. Let us help each other be Catholics who sets the world ablaze with God’s love.
“I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!” (Luke 12;49)
If you are not (yet?!) a Catholic and just want to explore or are simply curious about the way we worship, there is also a place for you in our parish. You may slip in and out incognito, but when you find courage, please make contact with Fr Michael (he doesn’t bite!), who will help you find you way.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt:7:7)
And if you are a Catholic who have drifted away and missing home…. – when you pick up courage, come and tell Fr Michael your story. Catholics have stories to tell. The Church is home for both saints and sinners, and as such your story is part of a rich tapestry of stories of journey of the People of God. If you are already saintly, come and help others to be holy. If you struggle to be holy like most of us, come and support us in our struggle. Come home.
“It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners.’ (Mark 2:17)
Remember, even though our faith, and our journey in life is something personal, in the ordinary circumstances of life, the journey of faith is made with the local worshipping parish community. It is the parish community that helps us being part of the Church Universal and the parish needs you.
Help the Parish Priest to live up to the name of the Parish, and the Good Shepherd he serves.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ………… I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. … “ (John 10:…)
Parish Youtube Channel
