City Ministry

The Marist City Ministry is an umbrella title for outreach that involves

• work place support
• restorative justice
• conversation in the pub

Workplace support

Procession from St Mary of the Angels. Wellington city gives thanks for the contribution of the emergency services.

The approach the City Ministry team takes is to its work is alongside people – basically bringing the gospel into the workplace by their presence and willingness to be there for the people we meet and work with. This work is not hard-sell religion and is not evangelical.

In the course of this ministry Peter Roe and Peter Head both are engaged in some counselling, but that is not their primary focus. Their primary focus is to say that that in every way and in everything they do, they actually care about the people they minister to and will be there when they are needed.

Peter Head ministers at a range of work places in Wellington.

A myriad of different reasons brings people to see them; things going wrong at home, at work, in relationships, trouble with kids, trouble with the boss, harassment, workplace bullying, bereavement, tragedy. There are positive things too, and when people work out that Pete Roe and Pete Head are priests they sometimes connect again with their faith background – for some of course that is Catholicism but they also help people of other faiths too. It is there experience that people haven’t given up the faith, rather they have just stopped going to church.

This mission takes place outside of a church setting, rather than having people come to them, they go to them in their place and their space. The Police, Ministry for Environment, Opus International, Land Transport New Zealand, Wellington Free Ambulance, the New Zealand Fire Service, Life Flight Trust and International Cold Stores as some of their clients.

Both are former Parish Priests, but have undergone significant re-training in “Cricical Incidence” and “Grief and Loss” in order to help them reach out. Pete Roe compares the ministry to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the Well,  “Jesus accepts her for who she is and even asks her for some water – later down the track Jesus shares with her who he is and what he has to offer.”

Conversation in the Pub
Conversation in the Pub is an initiative based on the Australian Marist Province’s “Spirituality in the Pub.”

Conversation in the Pub takes place four times a year, downtown Wellington. People gather and listen to a speaker for about 20 minutes. The speaker is selected in order to stimulate conversation on issues that are important within contemporary life and then a lively discussion/conversation develops among those there and the speaker.