Between 22-24 August, the Abbey 2025 gathered more than 300 youth leaders, trainers, young people, children and youth ministry supporters from across the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia, for a weekend of intensive youth ministry training, networking, shared worship and fun.

The Abbey is Aotearoa New Zealand's Tikanga Pākehā youth ministry training event of the year, brought together by National Youth Facilitator Lorna Gray and held at Waikanae's El Rancho Christian camp an hour north of Wellington. 

Each year the The Abbey planners design the programme to encourage youth leaders to look, Up, Out and In: Up to God, Out to others and to Reflect In. Lorna Gray was delighted to see so many take up the training opportunities offered by The Abbey in 2025.

"It was great to see such a good turn out from across the motu, with people from each of the Pākehā Dioceses and Diocese of Polynesia as well as from two Hui Amorangi, Te Tai Tokerau and Te Upoko o Te Ika." said Lorna, who was delighted this year to welcome an intergenerational crowd with young leaders joined by older people turning out to help and several families with young children and babies taking part.

At the event last weekend, Archbishop Justin reflected that The Abbey is a great place for young people in youth ministry to be recognised and resourced by the church. 

"There's a sense here where this generation can feel they have a future in the church – they are not waiting to be given the keys to leadership, but can recognise that's for them right now." 

This year's Abbey theme was inspired by the Japanese ceramic painting art of "Kintsugi", where the craftsperson restores beloved pottery objects by repairing their breaks and covering them with gold - not only making something new and beautiful, but highlighting the visible scars. 

Diocese of Nelson Youth Coordinator Brad Woods (who introduced the theme and later helped campers to paint their own kintsugi) shared how the ceramic art form works as a metaphor for Jesus' redeeming role in human lives. 

"Jesus doesn't discard broken people. He doesn't say, "Come back when you've got it all together."
He kneels down. He sees. He touches. He heals.
But even in his healing – he doesn't remove how the damage came to be."

Throughout The Abbey weekend, keynote talks and shared worship unpacked the theme, with Rev Spanky Moore (Nelson), Rev Keri-Ann Hokianga (Tamaki makaurau) and Archbishop Justin Duckworth all inviting reflection on the power of God's call amidst the real life stuff of brokeness and healing, failure and redemption.

Each speaker connected young people's experiences of surviving failure or brokenness with the ultimate story of Jesus' overcoming the 'failure' of death in resurrection.

Keynote speakers' insights were backed up by specialist-led workshops on youth ministry that addressed the theme via the many skills youth leaders need to walk alongside their young disciples well.

Workshops offered insights from experienced practitioners in youth work and leadership training, often drawing on the staff from The Abbey sponsors: Bishopdale College, NZCMS, Anglican Missions, Praxis (Youth Leadership Training), Scripture Union NZ, Laidlaw College, Living Wage Aotearoa and Bible Society NZ.

The 22 different workshops offered training in:

Supporting youth mental health
Working through anxiety, Tools to interrupt self-harm (for the church), Blurred Lines and Big Calls-Youth Ministry Ethics, and Developing Disciples in Neurodiversity.

Creativity and communication
Kintsugi painting, Making a glass pebble mosaic, Wool spinning and knitting, Waiata-a-Ringa intensive

Spirituality and worship
Rhythms of rest - guided meditations, Worship -wide and deep, Recaiming joy through forgiveness, and Spanky Moore on 'The stones in our soil'

Being with young people
Ministry of welcome, Why evangelism still matters, Working in schools, Building a sustainable team in youth ministry, Intergenerational ministry

Working for justice and peace 
Starting your social justice journey, Understanding the Living Wage, Hope for the Holy Land & Palestinian Christian advocacy, the Five Marks of Mission. 

Kava Pasikale from Palmerston North was struck how realistic and helpful he found the workshop on forgiveness.

"It changed my expectations and opened my eyes to what forgiveness is and how it works...they said it's not going to be "forgive and forget"...so nothing will ever be fixed overnight, because forgiveness is a process over time." 

"But the true beauty of forgiveness is that when you do see God's grace, that will be the greatest moment, because you are going to be free – liberated from hatred and pain." 

While the annual North Island versus South Island football match carried on into extra time on Saturday, Asst Bishop of Wellington Anashuya Fletcher, Bishop of Christchurch Peter Carrell and Bishop of Nelson Steve Maina met with young people for "Afternoon Tea with the Bishops", chatting on anything and everything the young leaders wanted to know. 

Bishop Steve Maina reported that young leaders would love to spend more time with their bishops, and he had answered their gnarly questions on the local and global challenges facing the Anglican Church. 

Diocese of Polynesia Youth Ministry lead 'Alokoulu 'Ulukivaiola got a lot from each of the four workshops he attended.

In the 'Ministry of welcome' workshop he enjoyed looking at what spaces help young people to have a conversation, not only in youth groups, but out in the community. In the 'Working with schools' workshop he enjoyed hearing all the different leaders experiences of working in schools, and their emphasis on 'connection, not correction' in the way youth workers share the gospel.

"What I got from that too was that with young people we need less words and more action - we can let the action do the speaking." 

For more information on the workshops and keynote talks at The Abbey, go to: The Abbey website

You can find podcasts and videos of the major talks at:

Next year's Abbey is scheduled for 31 July - 2 August 2026. For more information contact Tikanga Pākehā National Youth Facilitator Lorna Gray: nationalyouthfacilitator@gmail.com