Cherish is first and foremost a community of people who care deeply about supporting one another and helping others thrive.
In order for us to operate at the capacity that we do, we also have some formal structures that guide how decisions are made and how the centre runs day to day.
This page introduces the different groups and teams that support Cherish, and explains how they work together to care for the community.
The Board helps care for the long-term wellbeing of Cherish by keeping our vision and values at the heart of how we operate. We provide strategic direction, support effective leadership, and make sure the organisation is financially sustainable and meeting its legal responsibilities.
We are a collection of volunteers who care deeply about our community and wish to see it function well.
The Cherish Pastoral Care Group holds the spiritual and emotional wellbeing of the Cherish community at its heart. Group members are committed to cultivating a foundation of trust, deep listening, and loving presence.
We gather together fortnightly to bless the life of the centre and the people within it, and to gently hold the wider community and city in care.
To contact the Pastoral Group email:
Pastoral group members are:
Nicole O’Hearne
John Allen
Nicky Mack
Elinor Galbraith
Dan Burgess-Milne
This team manages the day-to-day requirements of Cherish.
If you email us for any reason, this is the team you will be talking with.
All the administration, scheduling, and various tasks required to Cherish open is managed by this team.
Logistics team members are:
Nicole O’Hearne – Admin and Operations
cherishchristchurch@gmail.com
Dan Burgess-Milne – Content and Programmes
dancherishnz@gmail.com
Cherish was brought into actuality through the vision and care of Alison Hume.
Alison has now stepped back from much of the management of Cherish, but continues to be a part of the community. Her warm heart and compassionate vision informs all that we do.
I am a Singer, Song Leader, Qigong Teacher and Sound Healer. There are many ways we can support and heal ourselves and others with our voice and other sounds and I love to explore these.
I offer group and individual Sound Healing sessions. I lead the Threshold Choir at Cherish.
I am a retired accountant and hospitality operator. I am passionate about gardening and bee keeping.
I walked through the doors of Cherish in a time of personal need and found so much support and love. I am now in a position where I can offer support back to Cherish and I am excited to be helping with strategic direction and financial management.
I am currently living near Barcelona and learning Spanish and meeting a new community of people. I am happy that I can still make a contribution to this wonderful community.
I have been involved with Cherish since 2021, joining the Governance Board 2025 supporting the vision of Cherish, building a heart-centered community. It is such a treasure to have Cherish where we can be with like-minded souls, supporting and encouraging one another through our life journeys. I joined the Board, seeing this as a way to be more involved and connected with the Cherish whanau.
I have a background in health as a Speech Language Therapist. She is a Kai Mirimiri and Taonga Puoro Practitioner working with Sound energetics encouraging individuals to strengthen their knowing, recalibrating, centering, balancing and harmonising their sense of BE-ing
I am stepping into Eldership and with this comes a lifetime of learning, experiencing and creativity.
An early childhood teacher, massage and healing practitioner, a landscape designer and contractor, a celebrant and ordained interfaith minister, a dancer, singer, artist and kaitiaki of our beautiful earth.
And now in 2026, my great passion is to cultivate and attend to the sacred in the everyday, to live my life in a balanced and harmonious way, developing my art practice and deepening into being a companion for the dying.
I create meaningful and collaborative rituals and ceremonies for end of life also for those significant thresholds that we experience in our human journey.
In the Cherish community I offer support as a friend, for I love what is unfolding , a place of Sanctuary , a place of Peace .
I have been involved in Cherish since 2023 when Alison made the request for me to help her to make this offering to the community.
I love that a space exists to bring together people with a diverse range of skills and offerings that share an aspiration to support individuals and community to thrive and live well.
I am on the board, and I am also the content and programme coordinator, working alongside Nicole to support the day-to-day logistics required for a community of this size.
My background is in Buddhadharma, guided predominantly by Tarchin Hearn through a Mahamudra lens.
I have a passion for finding new concepts and methods for exploring timeless wisdom through a contemporary lens, and I explore this through various creative modalities such as rap and game design.
