About Us
Our
History
We take our faith seriously and, as Anglicans should, we appeal to Scripture, Reason, and Tradition to nurture our faith. This means we believe in the Bible, though we are not literalists. We pay attention to what ‘all the saints’ — scholars, mystics, and fellow pilgrims — have said about the meaning of their lives, the meanings in scripture, and how to understand church doctrine.
We try to strike a balance between having enough going on in the parish to sustain us as a community and not so much happening that we use huge amounts of energy and resources entirely on ourselves. We know how to have a good party together and we hear the call to give ourselves for others.
There is a great diversity of people at All Saints. Everyone of every age and condition is welcome. We pray that we can be as hospitable, inclusive, and compassionate as Jesus encouraged his first disciples to be so every one finds a welcome here. We don’t always agree with each other but we manage to get along, have some fun, and encourage each other as we seek to be the Body of Christ in this part of God’s creation.
Rev. Prince Devanandan
The All Saints office administrator is Jan Zane-Harris
Jan began her working life as a teenage office secretary. ‘I learnt touch typing at school because that was what my parents thought I should do,’ she says. But she soon broadened her horizons and studied to become a teacher, eventually gaining a Masters in Linguistics with first class honours while raising four children.
After teaching at several primary and intermediate schools she took a course in teaching English and got a job at Unitec, eventually becoming Assistant Head of the School of Languages for six years.
She then spent three years in Bahrain helping set up their new polytechnic, and on returning home joined the staff of a private language school in Auckland where she led a team through a curriculum development project.
Making a better place
The Covid downturn in overseas students prompted Jan to retire two years ago, but when she learnt All Saints needed a parish administrator, she felt it was another fun opportunity.
Jan works in the parish office Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and loves it. ‘I enjoy the variety of work, from accounts to newsletters. But most of all I love being in an office where everyone is friendly and trying their best to make our community a better place.’
People v rosters
Jan joined the All Saints church community a number of years ago and since she took on the administrator role, she has met more parishioners and now feels even more at home at All Saints.
The most enjoyable part of her job? ‘The people!’ And the most challenging? ‘The rosters!
Vestry
As well as the people listed about All Saints also has a ‘Vestry’.
The Vestry is the business meeting of the parish and comprises an elective body in the parish composed of the Vicar and a group of elected parishioners who administer the temporal affairs of the parish. In effect this is All Saints ‘board’ with a Treasurer, Secretary and various other officers who have specific work to do for All Saints
All Saints has been many things over the last 150 years.


Vestry
“Vestry” originally referred to the room in the church “in which the vestments, vessels, and other requisites for worship are kept and in which the clergy “robe” (The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church).
However, since the vestry was the room in which church business meetings took place, the word also came to mean “an elective body…composed of the vicar and a group of elected parishioners administering the temporal affairs of the parish”
The Vestry in an Anglican church meets routinely, usually monthly, to give leadership and oversight to the mission and ministry of the congregation Vestry is the executive committee of the parish and is elected annually.
While Vestry members are responsible for the planning and financial matters of the parish other groups of parishioners fulfil various needs in the parish life:
- Welcoming
- Reading
- Leading prayers
- Leading worship
- Altar serving
- Morning teas
- Flowers
- Hospitality
- Cleaning
- Fundraising
- Function organising
- Maintenance
- Public relations
- Lawns and garden
- Junior Church
Baptism, Marriage and Burial registers
The Parish records are not held locally. They are held by the Auckland Diocese archives at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell.
The following registers are available:
- Baptisms
- Marriages
- Burials
Records are in the greater part held electronically.
Minutes & other Church records
The diocese archives also hold the Minutes and other church records.
However these records are not available electronically so any queries would have to come through Archives via email.
For further information or to contact the archives please visit the Auckland Anglican Archive pages: https://aucklandanglican.org.nz/archives/