• Hikoi from Vaughan Park to The Bay of Islands

  4th-6th December 2018

  We are hoping to offer another walking adventure in December. If you would like to know more and want to register your interest, please contact Iain Gow, more»

  

• From the director

  I hope that you will enjoy reading our new magazine named after NgaÌ„puhi Chief, Ruatara. As a mark of good friendship, Chief Ruatara invited the Rev. Samuel Marsden to Rangihoua, in the more»

  

• A creative prophet disturbing the security of the status quo: John Alexander

  John has recently retired as Diocesan Representative on the Governance Board of Vaughan Park. The Rev. John Fairbrother, former Director (2003 – 2013) offers an appreciation of John’s more»

  

• Major fund-raising appeal launched to create an International Garden of Significance

  An appeal has been launched to create an International Garden of Significance at Vaughan Park which will bring meaning, beauty, invite community engagement and be accessible to all.At the centre of more»

  

• International Scholars come to Vaughan Park

  Our annual Residential Scholarship Programme offers people the unique opportunity to take some time out to study and work on a particular research or writing project for a period of one month or two more»

  

• Fun in the sun at Summer Adventure Weekend

  Grace Bower went along to the Summer Adventure Weekend at Vaughan Park. It changed her life.As a friend of the Vaughan Park Retreat Centre from the first year of its operation, I take every more»

  

• New sculpture brings a story of hope

  It all started a year ago, when Linda Sines from America, who was Worship Curator at a retreat at Vaughan Park, asked participants to take some pieces of coloured glass and chip away at them, as a more»

  

• May even the darkness become light to us

  Prayer Vol.02, 2020, pg.71

  Strahan Coleman 4 June 2021

  Strahan is a musician, writer, speaker, psalmist, storyteller and songwriter. He is the creator of Commoners Communion, a blog, podcast, and conversational look at how poetry and revelation kiss in the life of Spirit-filled humanity. He writes daily prayers and devotions on Instagram and published Prayer Vol.01, and more recently Prayer Vol.02. Strahan helps to teach others how to hear God’s voice and grow in closeness with him through retreats and seminars and is passionate about helping the church find a new language in prayer. www.commonerscommunion.com more»

  

• Moments: What God did for Jesus

  Zac Poonen 28 October 2020

  Zac Poonen has been serving the Lord in India for over 50 years as a Bible-teacher. He is co-founder of the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC) Bangalore, www.cfcindia.com, and has responsibility for a number of churches in India and abroad. He has written more than 25 books and numerous articles in English – which have been translated into many Indian and foreign languages. He wrote the hymn, "What God did for Jesus" in 1977. more»

  

• Moments: The Disappeared

  Lincoln Jaques 16 September 2020

  A poem from our September scholar Lincoln Jaques. The Disappeared is a personal poem, written during my last trip to Zagreb, in October 2018. I wrote the poem after wandering one afternoon through the old part of the city. The Zagreb cathedral sits in Gornji Grad, the Upper Town, and the poem came to me after dwelling on the deeply catholic roots of Croatia, and the effects of the Patriotic War that raged in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. There is still a sense of loss that pervades in all corners of the region; the poem was my response to that loss, to all the family members who went missing during that time, and for those who wait for perhaps someday for answers, for closure. The poem is part of a wider sequence, part of which I’m working on now. It was first published in the Australian literary magazine The Blue Nib, issue #42 more»

  

• Moments: Last Word

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 13 August 2020

  “Gratitude is the memory of the heart”, wrote the French bishop, Jean Baptiste Massieu. My heart’s memories of Vaughan Park include... more»

  

• Moments: Reflections post lockdown

  Pip Nicholls 6 August 2020

  Prior to the 25th March 2020, the largest retreat I’d ever been on was possibly about 60 people. Imagine my surprise when it was 5 million New Zealanders, 25 million Australians and untold millions in the northern hemisphere… more»

  
  Covid 19, pandemic, retreat, prayer

• Grief's Shadowed Path: Poems of Loss and Healing

  The Rev. Dr. Hilary Oxford Smith 21 June 2018

  When someone we love dies, our lives are changed forever. Many of us grieve alone. Sometimes we find it hard to express how we really feel with family and friends, to find the space and freedom to more»

  

• The Gravity of Odd

  Jim McPherson 21 June 2018

  This latest book of poetry from the Rev. Dr. Canon Jim McPherson (Distinguished Academic Visitor at Vaughan Park, 2008), explores life, suffering, death, hope and faith.From hatchlings to humpbacks, more»

  

• Pathways to Healing

  Pat Marsh 21 June 2018

  Pat was a Vaughan Park Scholar in 2010. Her meditative recording based on St. Mark 2: 1-12, combines narrative poetry and guided meditation with prayerful questioning and relaxing ambient music. It more»

  

• Not All The Leaves Are Falling

  Kathryn Overall 21 June 2018

  This album offers a folk-pop collection of melodic, story-telling songs infused with depth, beauty and contemplative spirituality. more»

  

• Aquinas Academy 1945 – 2015 A Very Personal Australian Story

  Julie Thorpe 21 June 2018

  Dr. Julie Thorpe, Australia, (Scholar in Residence 2014) has written a deeply touching book about the people of the Aquinas Academy, Sydney, a centre of adult education founded in 1945 by Marist more»

  

• A Child Laughs, Prayers of Justice and Hope

  Maren C. Tirabassi and Maria Mankin 21 June 2018

  The Rev. Maren Tirabassi, a pastor in the United Church of Christ, USA has been awarded a Vaughan Park Scholarship for October.In A Child Laughs, Prayers of Justice and Hope, Maren and Maria Mankin, more»

  

Vaughan Park Anglican Retreat Centre, to be discovered just above Long Bay Beach, is a place of rolling hills, crashing waves and soaring gulls.  It is an oasis of peace and grace that is open to all people of all backgrounds.