Over this past weekend, the Diocese was honoured to be host to the first Anglican Schools' Leadership Conference, for students in years 12 and 13.  The gathering took place in St Mary's School in Stratford.  The genesis for the conference came from the Anglican Schools' Conference which was held in Christchurch last year.  During this conference, a parallel programme ran for selected students from year 12 from all over the country.  One of the suggestions that came from the young people was for a more intentional gathering to focus on developing young leaders in our Anglican Schools.  The Director of the Anglican Schools' Office, the Rev'd Anne van Gend worked with Tikanga Pākeha national youth advisor, Phil Trotter, to put together a programme based on the theme of 'Making a difference'.  How can year 12 and 13 students make an active difference to their schools and to connected parishes and the whole church?  Bishop Helen-Ann was able to attend part of the conference, both in her capacity as Bishop of the Diocese (representing Archbishop Philip also who has been in Melanesia at the installation of the new Archbishop of that Province), and as Youth Liaison Bishop, a role which links the House of Bishops to the Tikanga Toru Youth Commission.  The 3TYC Youth Commissioner, the Rev'd Michael Tamahere was present, along with several school chaplains.  We were delighted that we had excellent representation from St Mary's School, Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, and St Paul's Collegiate.  Presenters at the conference included World Vision and voices from within the schools themselves, sharing stories of discipleship at grass-roots level.  Added to this were opportunities for worship and the outstanding food at St Mary's (which we experienced at our Diocesan Synod dinner last year!).  Delegates were welcomed to St Mary's during a pōwhiri in the recently built school gymnasium, which saw all the girls of the school welcome the manuhiri.

On the Friday evening, Bishop HA was grilled during a 'Bishop on the sofa' session, during which the Y12 and 13s asked her all sorts of questions, to which she did her best to respond!  You will have to ask those present whether she passed the test!

One of the delights of the conference was that it was very much a Three Tikanga event, with Hukarere and Te Aute Colleges, and Basden College in Suva represented.  All in all, a superb way for our schools to be at the forefront of developing present and future leaders in the whole life of our Church.