Tui Motu Interislands Monthly Independent Catholic Magazine September 2011 | $6

Tui Motu InterIslands monthly independent Catholic magazine September 2011 | $6 . editorial sport, earthquakes and elections

ugby rules, OK! By the time Sadly they continue . Jim Consedine lives and work together to find a just this edition of Tui Motu points up the resilience of those who common vision . reaches you the Rugby have chosen to remain . Some had Daniel O’Leary gives us a fresh RWorld Cup will dominate sports the means to leave and have done look at the power of personal experi- media worldwide . What has been so; some have gone to relations or ence and the way this opens us to planned for, carefully and some- friends elsewhere . Others remain the Holy Spirit . In vulnerability times with hiccups, has arrived . As a because they want to and can . Many and woundedness, we are open to couch potato rugby spectator, I will have no such options and are strug- the reality of grace — as he puts it, enjoy some of the hoopla and look gling with a situation which is far “…the flavours of God’s presence in forward to revelling in the skill and from ideal . Perseverance, resilience everything that happens to us ”. professionalism of the players lived and courage are words that denote We continue our series on out to the optimum . Mike Riddell’s the endless patience the local people ‘religion and politics’, highlighting article puts the Cup in perspective have shown . matters which may be a stimulus to with wry humour . It all depends Mary Wood’s fairy story high- our thinking and asking questions upon the bounce of the ball! lights the goodness of people who about policy for the forthcoming As a complement to this wit, rise to the occasion of tragedy in general election . This month Ivan Mark Bracewell, one of New unexpected ways . Not only the Snook and Robert Reid give us Zealand’s leading sportsmen, gives students, but the ‘farmy-army’ their perspectives on education and a salutary view of the value of sport and others have given magnificent employment issues . As well, the as something which engenders service, a fine measure of practical comment by Dame Pat Harrison the best in all of us: the ability to religion . Looking forward to a new pulls together threads spread over look out for others, to serve the Christchurch remains largely a many areas: education, health, common good of the team, and to dream, and its planning requires a welfare, justice and the hope for be brought out of insularity and big vision . For most residents and productive employment . selfishness — an important take homeowners, let alone businesses, Finally, I recommend to you on the values sport brings to our crucial decisions remain to be made . the film “Of Gods and Men ”. It largely individualistic society . Our hearts and resources stay with is a remarkable portrayal of cou- One year has past since the the people of the garden city as they rageous Christianity lived in an Christchurch earthquakes began . courageously move to rebuild their interfaith environment . n KT

Editorial ...... 2 A Conversation With Irene… ...... 20–21 Kevin McBride contents Guest editorial: One year on...... 3 On Englishing the Liturgy ...... 22–23 Letters to the Editor ...... 4 Prof G B Harrison Comment: Every Child Counts ...... 5 A True Fairy Story ...... 24 Dame Pat Harrison Mary Woods The Bounce of the Ball ...... 6–7 Support for Carers at Home ...... 25 Mike Riddell A Response from Jan Emson Three Cheers for Sport ...... 8–9 Letters to the Editor continued ...... 25 Mark Bracewell The Very Core of the Gospel? ...... 26–27 A New World is Possible ...... 10-11 Sr Kathleen Rushton RSM Canon Paul Oestreicher Book and film reviews ...... 28–29 To Work or Not to Work ...... 12–13 Robert Reid Cross Currents ...... 30 Jim Elliston Celebrating Francis ...... 13 Nicky Chapman Liturgy and Abuse ...... 31 Fr Peter Norris Are Recent Reforms Working? ...... 14–15 Ivan Snook Down by the River ...... 32 Robin Kearns Of Gods and Men ...... 16–17 Fr Kevin Toomey OP The Senses Have It! ...... 18–19 front cover illustration: Donald Moorhead Fr Daniel O’Leary

2 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 . guest editorial one year on Jim Consedine

n the middle of the road outside shoulders when another hits, do a mode of coping . Some are positively my home, a hole about a metre quick estimate of its force — 3 .1 or buoyant, fuelled by the challenges in diameter appears regularly . 4 .7, whatever — and get on with posed by the re-construction of a INo matter how often the road fixing what they are doing . Such is life in whole city . people come and fill it in with tarseal, quake city . There are some scary things too . within a matter of days it re-appears, It is hard to talk of Christchurch A friend told how she had unwisely slumping into the earth, daring driv- accurately because the whole of the re-entered her red stickered home to ers to circumnavigate . Apparently, city was not equally affected . While retrieve some items, found the front the ground under the road has all in Canterbury felt the quakes, door unable to be re-opened from liquefied and left gaping gaps in the many parts of Christchurch, par- the inside due to quake damage, got subterranean structure . ticularly on the western side of the out through the back door which she One year on, it has become a city, were not damaged to any great locked behind her . She found herself personal symbol of the after effects extent . Electricity was never off, in her own yard, now surrounded of the 7 .1 magnitude earthquake water kept running, schools stayed by two metre cyclone fencing, that struck Canterbury in September open, most still went to work and life virtually imprisoned on a property last year — and of the subsequent was relatively normal . from which she was legally banned . quakes which have held this province But in other parts of the city Eventually she clambered through emotionally captive ever since . While especially on the eastern side, life the wire and escaped! much has been repaired or re-con- as we know it stopped and salvage From a personal perspective, it is structed, some basics may never be and emotional maintenance took great to have the toilet re-connected . fixed properly . One such area is the centre stage . While the inten- Last Saturday, my toilet was flushing land most badly affected by liquefac- sity of such responses has been again and the sewage pipes were all tion . Talk abounds of abandoning reduced substantially, many still up and working . It may seem to be such areas and either creating parks suffer from post-traumatic dis- a small thing, but it was a red letter or allowing them to revert to their tress, high anxiety levels and fear day for me . No more port-a-loos or natural state . for the future . Their homes have chemical toilets! Yea . To survey the Central Business been taken from them and red One year on the new city develop- District is to survey unbelievable stickered, they are forced to rent, ment plan, ‘city in a garden’, is under destruction . Well-known landmarks their emotional wellbeing has discussion, with lots of green spaces, are down everywhere — replaced by been under siege and their future light rail, imaginative buildings empty sections covered in gravel and prospects dramatically affected . and people friendly sites proposed . surrounded by fences . Of course, it Despite all this, the spirit of the Obviously a lot of creative energy has won’t stay that way forever . But that people never ceases to amaze me . already gone into it . is the way it is thus far . While thousands have fled either tem- The advent of spring and warmer Everyone is fed up with the porarily or permanently, most others weather has helped lift the mood of aftershocks, though they are dimin- are showing remarkable resilience . people . The city may be in ruins, but ishing . But most now just shrug their Most have adopted the London blitz no one has told the daffodils . n

Tui Motu-InterIslands is an independent, address: Independent Catholic Magazine Ltd, Catholic, monthly magazine. It invites its read- P O Box 6404, Dunedin North, 9059 ers to question, challenge and contribute to its phone: (03) 477 1449 discussion of spiritual and social issues in the fax: (03) 477 8149 light of gospel values, and in the interests of a email: [email protected] more just and peaceful society. Inter-church website: www.tuimotu.org and inter-faith dialogue is welcomed. editor: Kevin Toomey OP The name Tui Motu was given by Pa Henare Tate. It literally assistant editor: Elizabeth Mackie OP means “stitching the islands together...”, bringing the dif- illustrator: Don Moorhead ferent races and peoples and faiths together to create one directors: Rita Cahill RSJ, Philip Casey, Neil Darragh, Paul Pacific people of God. Divergence of opinion is expected Ferris, Robin Kearns, Elizabeth Mackie OP (interim chair), and will normally be published, although that does not Peter Murnane OP necessarily imply editorial commitment to the viewpoint typesetting: Greg Hings expressed. ISSM 1174-8931 printers: Southern Colour Print, 1 Turakina Road, Dunedin Issue number 153 South, 9012

3 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 letters new mass text include people in all situations . letters to the editor It was with feelings of shock and The irony hit me that we were incredulity that I read the report in sitting in Mass – the adults had We welcome comment, your paper (TM, August 11) from prepared hymns with exclusive discussion, argument, debate. the London Tablet’s correspondent language, singing lines like ‘give But please keep letters under in Rome about the workings of the him a helping hand’ alongside the 200 words. The editor reserves group responsible for the new new mass text riddled with exclu- the right to abridge, while texts of the Mass . I was so amazed sive language; then they prayed for not changing the meaning. by the article that I had to read an institution and hierarchy from it three times before I could take priests upward, who continue to Response articles (up to a it in . Considering the prestige of implement the injustice of exclusion page) are welcome — but the London Tablet there can be no of women from the equal oppor- please, by negotiation. possible doubt about the truth of tunity of becoming priests, and the the article . continued discrimination/exclusion Paragraph after paragraph, it goes of married men (and women) from thanks for robert on revealing one incredible fact after the priesthood . I would like to thank Robert another . What has happened to the It is wonderful to realise that the Consedine for his encouraging principles of subsidiarity, integrity children know and behave better reflection, “fragments of belief”, and transparency? It seems that the than the adults! in the July edition of Tui Motu . I ICEL group has been brushed aside Aileen Lowe, Stoke am not sure how old Robert is, but and replaced by a group totally of one I suspect we are of a similar age, mind and totally conservative . Their one planet and climate and have had a similar experience legitimacy is in direct contradiction change of the Church, with the great hope to the Vatican II Constitution on the David Sale was very wide of the of Vatican II flowing on into the Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium . mark when he triumphantly more sombre times we live in now . I wonder what is happening in declared “that is a separate issue” I have watched a video on the Church to which I have given (Tui Motu, August 2011) . Nothing YouTube about The Pale Blue Dot, my undying allegiance . Hopefully in is a separate issue . Everything in life which Robert referred to, and the not too distant future, when the is interconnected . This is the princi- listened to Carl Sagan’s remarkable architects of this aberration called ple of interdependence . commentary . Indeed, our whole ‘the new Mass text’ have passed on, Even the architects of the world, let alone each of our lives, the Church will collectively give world acknowledged this when is a mere scintillation barely vis- itself a good shake and say, “What they signed up to the “Declaration ible against the backdrop of the happened?” Then, in all humility, of Interdependence” at the UIA universe . Yet for all its ephemeral- turn around and revise the Mass Chicago Congress in 1993 . There ity, or perhaps because of its very texts again, removing the anomalies is nothing wrong with picking your fleetingness, my trice of life has and contradictions that have been issue . By all means focus on the cur- been an incomparable gift; min- imposed on us . rent alarming extinction of species, utes, days and years full of passion Tony Scott, Timaru or the loss of habitat, or even the vio- and love . new mass text lence of our built environment, but I have been a priest for 40 years, do not pretend that all these issues and have absolutely no regrets . Recently I attended my son’s Year are not interdependent . We have one How blessed we have been to have 5/6 class Mass where many of the world, one enormous interconnected lived, and to have come to this children’s RE homework was dis- system, and it seems with time run- time in our lives and to have expe- played on power point . Their project ning out, only one chance to get out rienced “this sense of the divine had been to create and display of the environmental mess we are in . permeating all of life” embedded situations in life where the children David would do well to remem- in us from an early age . ‘exclude’ people and what they can ber that nature has no need of us . Once again thank you for this do to ‘include’ people, whether it be If we eliminate ourselves most of beautiful reflection . sports teams, groups working within the world’s environmental problems Denis O’Hagan, Wellington classrooms and generally playing will have been dealt with in a single in the playground . It is great that grand gesture . You do not even need they are involved in being made to to study history to work that out . Letters to the Editor think and be aware that it is always Tony Watkins, Auckland continue on page 25 important to recognise injustice and

4 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 comment

every child counts Pat Harrison DNZM, QSO

e all know that a grave build resentment with dangerous problem exists around side-effects . The objective must be to many of our young provide skill-based training leading to Wpeople . All this decade, statistics con- gainful employment and at the same firmed the gravity . On any given day, time address physical and mental 30,000 students truant from schools; health needs, drug and alcohol around 8,000 leave school with no dependency, educational deficits and qualifications; and up to 13,000 15 unsafe living environments . Building and 17 year olds are without school trust with a skilled case manager, or training; in one year Child Youth within a community setting, is the and Family registered 21,000 cases of first step toward human freedom and abuse and neglect; 163,000 children the responsible use of that freedom . It are considered vulnerable; and 20% is the first step towards reversing that live in poverty . The cumulative effect awful process of dehumanisation . of these facts exposes a malaise and social morbidity . But if we are to holistic approach experience profound disquiet, it is It comes with a cost, but future in the figures associated with youth savings on welfare, health, justice, suicide where we are among the skill shortages, wastage of human low-productivity, and human misery highest in the Western world . What resources, and any hint of social will far outweigh the costs of such a hopelessness and despair lie behind alienation are dangerous conse- holistic approach . these figures? quences of scatter-gun social policy . An inclusive society is paramount . intensive investment in endless reviews children Yet in a decade marked by such inter- unemployed youth To our shame, statistics show that generational deprivation, poverty and At present, there are two groups of New Zealand’s investment in chil- human wastage, we have produced youth beneficiaries at risk: those with dren is one of the lowest, and least a record number of research docu- adequate education but without jobs; effective, and our outcomes for them ments, reports, reviews and discus- and those unemployable because of are among the poorest . Interagency sion papers, repetitive in content but alienation, severe disadvantage and cooperation alone has never worked, with no improvement in outcomes educational deficits . since each is driven to its own frame- for youth . It is as if the complexity of Without improved job creation, work by funding mechanisms, frame- the problem has created a paralysis . the former will lose motivation and works within which they operate Disengaged youth can have multiple quickly become disaffected, begin- and often talk past each other . The agency contacts but with no collabo- ning their own cycle of deprivation . solution is targeting the most disad- ration between agencies . Often, inter- But the latter must be handled with vantaged with whole-of-government ventions have come too late, where at skill and care, by qualified staff, in funding at a community level where an earlier stage they would have been a community setting, since it is the teams of multi-skilled staff work more effective, particularly when we community which has a heart and together to cut through the depriva- are faced with children from third soul and social conscience . It acts tion and release a productive energy, intergenerational family deprivation: with reason but with feeling . a healed human being, with valuable three generations of joblessness, of talents and attributes . poor educational achievement, where ‘payment by card’ Such intensive care management abuse, criminality and processes of The government’s new policy of works . I have seen it happen . And dehumanization are inherent . “payment by card” where youth when it does, the return is so great it beneficiaries have basic bills paid defies measurement . n need for inclusion with limited money to be spent at In a small country which relies upon the youth’s discretion could bring Dame Pat Harrison has had a life-long its resilience and inventiveness to even further social exclusion . And, involvement in education and is founder gain an identity in a global market, if set on a punitive path, it could of the Otago Youth Wellness Trust.

5 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 rugby world cup the bounce of the ball

Mike Riddell

One of Tui Motu’s regular writers, who was an avid rugby union player and who is a keen follower of the game, writes about some implications of the forthcoming Rugby World Cup games and the Webb Ellis trophy.

ll you need to know about in the game, it will create a beneficent act of grace — the bounce of the rugby is contained in the force field for the home team . ball . Robbed by forward passes, visu- shape of the ball . It’s oval; But all too often our supplications ally impaired assistant referees, and whichA is to say that it has two pointy fall short, and we are left wandering suspicious stomach ailments — we ends . The net result remain bereft . of this inspired design is that a year of grace? you can’t pre- This is the year, we dict which way tell ourselves . This it will bounce . is the team that will Uncertainty is hoist that holy grail built into the aloft . It would be game . more convincing if It’s the perfect it wasn’t the same symbol for the mantra we used in Rugby World 1991, 1995, 1999, Cup (RWC) . As 2003 and 2007 . It’s we all know with been said that the bitter clarity, the definition of insan- outcome can’t be ity is repeating the predicted . The same action over ball may bounce and over, while for Daniel Carter expecting a dif- to regather and ferent outcome . score in the corner . Reproduced with the kind permission of Garrick Tremain and the Otago Daily Times. Welcome to our Or the All Blacks world (cup) . may bounce right the desert for yet another In the midst of unpredictable out of contention to the tune of the four years — the promised land as outcomes, a few certainties remain . Marseillaise . Anything can happen . distant as ever . Abandoned by dei- The International Rugby Board ties, we endure unending penance (IRB) will make a lot of money . The sport as religion and mortification — with black NZ Rugby Union will lose a lot of Perhaps that’s why the sport has being the colour of our moods as money . Tourism and accommodation become a religion . For each 80 min- well as our jerseys . We look in vain ventures will make a lot of money . utes of rugger, we’re in the capricious for trees on which to hang our harps The rugby-adoring public (and even hands of the gods . We attempt various (or our coaches) . those who hate the game) will lose a modes of appeasement . These include Over the last 24 years we’ve lot of money . It’s all to do with the chanting endearments at opposition crouched (in front of our televisions), bounce of the ball . kickers, wearing certain talismans and touched (wood), paused (holding our vestments, and consigning referees to collective breath), but never engaged consumers’ paradise the fires of hell . My wife believes that with the victory that is rightfully ours . A fair quantity of Heineken will if she leaves the room at crucial points We have been denied the defining be consumed . Sky Television will

6 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 experience a positive blip in sub- television audience of 4 billion . result . The nation will be delirious scriptions . Maori Television will Other estimates suggest the moon and wake up at Christmas having provide the most entertaining cov- is made of green cheese . Too many voted National . It’s the political ver- erage of events . Half-time power accountants have their heads in sion of a date-rape drug, and worth spurts and sewerage surges will test the Cloud . every cent . utility services . Camper vans driven As they say, rugby will be the by red-faced Englishmen will clog who benefits? winner on the day . Unless the All our national highways . If the tournament makes a profit, Blacks lose . In which case, vilification The French delegation will eat the Government will get half of it . will be the winner on the day . The sky very well at Kermadec’s for the If it makes a loss, the Government will fall, the economy stall, and rugby duration . Recipients of corporate will underwrite two-thirds of it . pall . Graham Henry will be ritually largesse will watch the games from Meanwhile that same Government disembowelled and hung from the well-stocked boxes with chicken has forked out $190m of taxpayers’ Auckland Harbour bridge as a warn- legs and champagne in hand . money to upgrade Eden Park, and ing to future deceivers . If we lose to Ordinary kiwis lucky enough to a measly $15m to the brand spank- the Australians, we will become fol- have purchased tickets will tuck ing new Dunedin Stadium . Local lowers of Harold Camping . into hot dogs coated in radiant authorities have been attracted to red sauce . On the way home from subprime mortgages as a means to who’s the redeemer? the ground they will urinate on finance their RWC debt . That won’t happen of course . Henry hydrangea bushes, changing the ph is the Great Redeemer – the one to value of the soil and thus the colour lead us out of the desert to the prom- of the blooms . As they say, rugby will ised Webb Ellis trophy . We will grind Aucklanders will see the major- be the winner on the down French flair, beat the English ity of the rugby . They will complain day. Unless the All by a drop goal, take the bounce out that the government didn’t spend of the Wallabies, and refuse to eat any enough on their stadium . It will be Blacks lose. In which food accompanied by a South African hard to find parking for their Audis . case, vilification will accent . Our time has come . Revellers at ‘party central’ will suffer be the winner on the hypothermia in October’s bitterly up, up and away! chilling sea breezes . Dunedin’s new day. The sky will fall, We’re fit, talented, prepared, expe- venue will prove the most popular the economy stall, rienced, motivated, smart and cun- and exciting in the land . Overseas and rugby pall. ning . And the All Blacks are in good guests who travel that far south will shape too . In the last two dozen praise the city’s foresight . years, never have we been in a better Economic benefits to the country position to win the Rugby World the players are predicted to reach one billion Cup . There’s only one thing that Richie McCaw will be penalised . dollars . This prediction is from the could possibly undo us . The bounce Jimmy Cowan will argue with International Rugby Board . It also of the bloody ball . n the ref . Sonny Bill Williams will predicts that the Aotearoa Legalise offload . Sebastien Chabal will not Cannabis Party will win the general Mike Riddell is an author, playwright, shave before the game . Quade election . The main portion of eco- theologian and film-maker, more recently Cooper will run past tacklers . A nomic benefits consists of ‘invisi- maker of the film “The Insatiable Moon”. Springbok forward will be red- bles’ . However, the major banks in He lives in Cambridge. carded . Spectators will wave like New Zealand have confirmed that they’re drowning any time a camera they will not accept invisibles as points in their direction . Wayne legitimate tender . Barnes will be booed . So is it all worth it? What sort what kind of celebration? of measure can be used to evaluate Money isn’t everything . As Murray the event and its impact on New McCully (Minister for the RWC) Zealand? RWC 2011 will run for tells us, this is the sort of celebration 45 days featuring 20 teams play- that can’t be counted in dollar terms . ing 48 games in 12 different cities . We’ll all be so jubilant and drunk at Some estimates forecast 100,000 winning the World Cup that we’ll visitors to the country and a hardly remember the cost or the

7 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 rugby world cup three cheers for sport

Mark Bracewell

In the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup, Tui Motu interviewed Mark Bracewell to get his take on a philosophy of sport that should undergird our involvement at all levels of play, and across all team sports.

t was a bonus to interview Mark eyes to wider values that the school experiences seem key . He is very clear Bracewell at the high perform- was imparting to its pupils and also that “sport can be a very important ance centre, part of the Edgar to him . He sees how close those part in the teaching of human values CentreI for Sport on the shores of values are to those he is now pas- in this day and age ”. For him, coach- the Otago Harbour . Here he was sionately engaged in imparting to ing is a passionate commitment . He coaching a couple of young, prom- the young cricketers he mentors says, “I haven’t really changed my ising Otago cricketers — putting and coaches . At Kavanagh, he was vocation at all ”. For he has transferred them through their paces on a grateful to have known teachers the skills and competence he gained sunny winter’s afternoon . like Brother John Shepherd who as a teacher to his cricket coaching . Mark is the cricketing manager ran the Edmund Rice camps . To see “Sport is actually one way of giving for Otago Cricket . He comes from Brother Shepherd in operation was back to people, and that is hugely a sporting family . His brothers, John important . It is one of the most and Brendon, were both Test and rewarding things about it . There is no one-day international cricket players, The skills involved reward apart from knowing that you and John coach of the New Zealand in sport are not just have given something of yourself to cricket team . Mark and another sporting skills: they someone else ”. brother, Douglas, have played at first-class level . And now Mark’s son, are people skills. fundamental values Michael, is to play for the Otago Part of the gift of So what are the key values that team team . Despite this, Mark says that sport is to extend sport upholds? He names three rugby was his first love . He played 40 fundamental aspects . First, sport representative games for Wairarapa people’s thinking: to is social . It’s about “dealing with Bush and Wellington as a youngster . open them up to one people ”. Secondly, there is sharing . Mark’s passion for cricket only another. The rank and file beginner and the developed afterwards . He regards it top sportsperson are always working as very important that he trained as towards sharing . Each player is there a primary school teacher a little later “a humbling experience ”. For “ . . to serve one another, and “…the best in life, having matured somewhat he devoted his life to service, and are helping each other . If you set up when he came to do his teacher that sticks in the mind ”. As well, he the environment correctly you ask training . He was principal of the reminisces about Kavanagh’s annual players to help one another, not just Hyde primary school, and from musical productions . “To see the to take ”. These values of learning to there taught at Kavanagh College way in which anyone who put up deal with people, of sharing with one in Dunedin . While at Kavanagh their hand, irrespective of talent, another, and more than that, helping Mark also trained the College’s top was welded into the magnificent one another are very encouraging . rugby and cricket teams . This he musical troupe of 80–90 pupils, Mark says, “It is good for people did for some years before coming and worked as a team, was another to be involved with sport simply to Otago Cricket . humbling experience ”. because you are actually being exposed to these core values . You values are important values in sport have to uphold them to the point Mark reflects on his time at When Mark talks of the values where they take you over . Even if Kavanagh College as opening his which sport brings, these teaching your inclinations are otherwise,

8 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 done ”. “The result is irrelevant if you are actually working towards trying to become the best you can be ”. “The best of it is a form of teaching life skills, of looking at your life goals too ”. And the pressures on professionals? “I cringe when I see individuals being focused on by TV commentators . When the media makes a superstar out of someone, they create that need for publicity in others…You have got to be careful that the media doesn’t create a monster ”.

the importance of sport At the end of the interview, Mark comes back to the original question: Sport is very important, but we have to put it in perspective . Anything that involves people in giving and sharing is important, Mark Bracewell because it is very easy now to get involved in your own little world you really have to trust, to give, is “more about helping each other, where you don’t socialize, don’t to serve . This may go against your working hard for each other”, to share, and set goals for yourself baser instincts, but you have to say “we’re in this together ”. “There’s alone . “There is a great tempta- sacrifice yourself for others . And in a good message here: good teams tion to selfishness . You can see our present highly individualistic do have sound values ”. Most often what is happening, but in the end society, that’s a very good thing ”. inculcating this is up to the coach, what have you got? Nothing . You for it comes from the culture that end up feeling quite empty, quite sport and people skills coaches create around themselves . empty, unless you give . And that’s Mark wishes to emphasise that Again referring to the Highlanders, what I hope that young people get the skills involved in sport are not Mark says that it is the combination out of sport as well ”. n just sporting skills: they are people of very good and well chosen coach- skills . Part of the gift of sport is to ing staff that has grounded the team extend people’s thinking: to open so well . “Leadership dictates . You Mark Bracewell is presently cricket them up to one another . “You open set that, and set it from the top . If manager at Otago Cricket Association. yourself up, and the players do too . you look for short term gains, and He is a noted sportsman, and has a I am extended by the young people’s take shortcuts, things will unravel . background in primary and secondary response ”. Again he emphasizes, “It’s You will be found out . To stop that education. extremely rewarding ”. unraveling, you need to develop a very sound base ”. values in professional sport What about the values in profes- the place of winning sional sport? Mark says that the What’s the place of winning and best teams work on this . “They have winning at all costs? The focus here a culture of team values ”. To take should be on the process which will a local example, Mark referred to bring results . “Results take care of the Highlanders, the Otago prov- themselves if you do things well ”. ince’s representative rugby union If you focus on winning…that can side . Their recent improvement in destroy your team; like import- performance came because they ing a new kicker for the final, have developed a culture, which this destroys everything you have

9 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 world peace a new world is possible Canon Paul Oestreicher

In this second part of the opening address to the International Ecumenical Convention in Kingston, Jamaica on May 18 2011, Canon Paul argues that peace, the rejection of collective violence, is a precondition for a more just tomorrow. He argues from international law and peace studies for genuine alternatives to war, citing Blessed Franz Jägerstätter and Archibald Baxter.

o, dear friends of Jesus, can chaplains embedded with the men drive out the Devil with Beelzebub . we agree in Kingston to work and women who are trained to kill . It will not work . for the day when the major- If they were a questioning, prophetic Sity of our fellow human beings presence, they would undermine non-violent resistance begin to see collective violence, to the cohesion and the morale on I am under no illusion . The price to see war, in the same way as they see which every army depends . They are be paid for non-violent resistance individual murder? welcomed because they raise troops’ to evil is as high as any soldier is At the moment war, once it starts, morale . The taxes I pay, though once expected to pay . Non-violent resist- is held by most of our neighbours to I tried unsuccessfully not to, help to ance to evil will never be a quick be honourable, probably necessary, finance Britain’s Trident submarines . fix . It will call for long suffering and and sometimes noble . Language The sailors who man them have no patience . It will be a living expres- disguises the bloody, cruel reality . right to disobey the order, if it were sion now of the new world that is Heroes, it is said, lay down their lives ever given, as it could be by a British not yet . for the nation . In reality they are prime minister, to commit genocide . The Ploughshares Movement is trained, if possible, to stay alive and They are conditioned to do the one example of non-violent direct to kill the citizens of other nations . unthinkable in my name . action against the symbols of modern Armies, we are told, are there to pro- warfare . Like the Berrigan brothers tect our women and children . In real a more just peace at the time of the Vietnam War, such life, women and children are war’s You will before long be left in no peaceful resisters are prepared to first — and currently the numerically doubt that this Convocation is about break laws that protect the arsenals greatest number of — victims . the world’s need for a just peace . of violence . Juries may acquit them That is, I guess, what has brought us or may send them to prison . The fate regalia as symbol here . However, to speak of a more of Jesus was worse, was fatal . When When — as in England a few weeks just peace would be nearer the truth . he angrily overturned the tables of ago — a crown prince marries in a The struggle for greater justice will the corrupt financial dealers in the Christian cathedral, he is expected remain a task for every generation, Temple forecourt, challenging greed to wear full military regalia . Such for as long as human society exists . in league with priestly power, much symbols are powerful . That is the Our faith, our common humanity, like the bonus culture of today’s extent of our problem . Even when our love for one another commit us corrupt banking system, whose the Pope comes on a state visit, he to this struggle . But we should never life did Jesus put at risk in that is received, like every head of state, give way to the mistaken assump- one-man demonstration? Only by soldiers carrying fixed bayonets tion, as some Christians sadly do, his own . How absurd then, that that are designed to kill, rather than that ‘until there is perfect justice, many Christians use this example by children bearing flowers . His there cannot be peace’ . Rather, of righteous anger to justify the Holiness accepts the military rituals, peace, the rejection of collective vio- violence of war, when in fact it as do practically all our churches . Do lence, is a precondition for the world demonstrates the very opposite . we even register the absurdity? of tomorrow that will always need to be made more just . Killing each genuine questioning unthinkable obedience other can only undermine that task . What I have put before you, in rather We are comfortable with military To oppose evil with violence is to stark simplicity, is nevertheless

10 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 deeply complex . Having spent my resources in the world’s universities of which we are part . War desecrates life studying politics, I do not believe that are given to Security Studies and and pillages nature and squanders its that there is any room for pacifist the development of weapons systems, precious resources . self-righteousness . I have not come we will have made real progress . to Kingston to demonise those who When women, raped and victimised those who have paved the choose the military option . They in every war, are given an equal say in way are part of us, the many and we the how we order our lives, we will have Yes to life means no to war . Humble few . We must find ways of co-opting advanced even further . And with the men who can boast of no Nobel them into the peaceful struggle . The military now recruiting women, will Peace Prize have paved the way . In the critics of principled non-violence are they be able to transform its rigidly midst of patriotic fervour, they have neither knaves nor fools . We must patriarchal traditions? simply said no . Let me tell you of two answer them wisely and patiently . brave, wise farmers . They will rightly ask pacifists like During the Second World War, me many serious questions: how, Franz Jägerstätter defied Hitler’s com- for example, is law and order to mand to take up arms . ‘Jesus forbids be maintained globally without me to’ . His ‘no’ led straight to prison . heavily armed nations? On this A devout Catholic, his bishop came to point there is already good news . visit him . ‘Franz, if you persist in your In the light of the last century’s refusal, you will be executed . Surely history of unparalleled violence, you cannot do that to your wife and international law is paving the way children?’ His reply: ‘Bishop, do you for genuine alternatives . want me to kill Russian husbands and fathers?’ Franz was executed in 1944 . policing laws of peace His wife Franziska stood by him to In theory, war is already largely the end . Franz was virtually disowned outlawed . There are courts to try by his Church . Two generations later, not only crimes committed in war, a German Pope beatified him . but the crime of war itself . But how are the laws of peace to be enforced? a new zealand example It is in their policing that there is Archibald Baxter was a New Zealand still little experience . Yet there is seismic global rethink farm labourer at the time of the some . When soldiers under United Hardest of all, peace will demand the First World War . He belonged to Nations command are trained, as dethroning of the military-industrial no church, but had diligently read police in our streets are trained, not complex . Dwight Eisenhower, the New Testament . In 1917 he to kill enemies, but to prevent or to America’s top World War II general refused to serve . They dragged him end violent conflicts, we are already and then its President, warned the to the trenches in France, tortured on the way to the new world . The American people shortly before his and almost killed him, did all they great majority of the armed forces death of its insidious power, a late could to break his will . They failed . of New Zealand, my second home, but not too late insight . Such a peace He had no formal education, but his are already engaged in the Pacific as demands a seismic global rethink . Its memoir has become a classic of peace peacekeepers, and are proud to be . organisation will be as demanding as literature . Defending his refusal to Violence itself is their enemy . There the organisation of war . Every disci- kill, Baxter replied to his critics: ‘The is good news too in the experience pline will be involved: law, politics, only lasting victory that we can win that a critical mass of peaceful, international relations and economics, over our enemies, is to make them unarmed people, often young sociology, gender studies, personal our friends’ . people, from Leipzig to Cairo and and social psychology, and: last but, Kyrie Eleison beyond can bring down tyrannies . for us, not least, theology, the way we Christe Eleison That ‘love is stronger than hate’ is, interpret the will of God . Kyrie Eleison n as Desmond Tutu often reminds us, There will always remain a dia- a political as well as a spiritual truth . lectical tension between the struggle for justice, and the need to keep the Canon Paul Oestreicher is a former equal resources for peace struggle peaceful . We now know too Director of the Centre for International studies that this new world will also depend Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral. When the still-young discipline on our will and capacity to cherish Paul has been a life long campaigner for of Peace Studies is given the same and preserve the natural environment peace and nuclear disarmament.

11 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 religion and politics to work or not to work...

Robert Reid The writer gives the reader a stark choice: between the level of unemployment required by the ‘market’ and the social goal of work for all.

nce upon a time, full employ- (EEC – the forerunner of the European unemployment became a tool, a goal ment was the goal of the little Union) and then the oil price shock . of the neo-liberal tsars . The goal of the nation at the bottom of the Unemployment continued at this Reserve Bank was reduced solely to worldO — Aotearoa New Zealand . higher level during the 1970s and keeping inflation below 2% and our Following the great depres- early 1980s . Governments responded Treasury and Reserve Bank adopted sion of the 1930s, the first Labour by considering it a temporary aberra- policies that required a high rate of Government was elected vowing that tion and by introducing temporary unemployment . For example, the never again would the blight or cancer work programmes such as the Pre- Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of of unemployment be allowed to infect Employment Programme (PEP) that, Unemployment (NAIRU) is designed the economy and society of this coun- although leaving much to be desired, to keep unemployment and inflation try . Drawing on the philosophies of still paid “award wages” to those on in balance: it has no interest in a target Marxism, Keynesianism, Methodism the programmes . of full employment . and social justice Catholicism, this gov- The Labour Party defeated the The high dollar and elimination of ernment put in place a range of policies authoritarian Muldoon Government import controls and tariffs have seen to ensure that no New Zealand worker in 1984, but an internal coup within hundreds of thousands of New Zealand would be unemployed . Public works Labour saw it taken over for most of manufacturing workers lose their jobs; and enterprise, state housing, industry its 6 year term by policies more repre- car assembly workers, footwear and development, import controls, univer- sentative of those now espoused by the clothing workers, wood processing sal education, control of the dollar, all ACT Party in New Zealand . workers, home appliance manufactur- had the primary or secondary goal of It is still a supreme irony that a ing workers have all seen their jobs and achieving this full employment policy . government under the name of Labour livedlihoods disappear . Government The second world war added to the dismantled almost all of the policies of procurement policies have favoured demand for labour and the reserve army the first labour government that were imported rather than New Zealand of labour (women and rural Maori) was aimed at ensuring full employment manufactured goods, thus throwing mobilised to undertake the work that and paved the way for part two of the more people out of work . Public serv- needed to be done . neo-liberal revolution, which was to ants, blamed for being part of a bloated Following the war, although many continue under the first term of the service that holds back the growth of women workers were sent back to the National government of 1990 –1999 . the private sector, were dismissed from home, full employment continued The neo-liberal dogma adopted their jobs . with even conservative governments by the Labour and then National Of course, when high rates of continuing the Keynesian policies and Cabinets also took hold within the unemployment were being consciously New Zealand’s home grown Keynes, bureaucracy (especially Treasury and created by governments, a “big lie” had Dr Bill Sutch, developing much of the Reserve Bank) and at university to be developed to place the blame for the industrial and full employment economic departments . This was a unemployment on the victims rather policy of the time . Full employment global phenomenon which gave rise than on the creators of these policies . was enshrined as a goal for the Reserve to Thatcherism, Reaganomics and Unemployment benefit levels were Bank . It was a goal for the whole the Structural Adjustment policies deemed to be too high and blamed for society . Full employment policies were of the International Monetary Fund encouraging people into unemploy- such a success that folk history tells us and the World Bank . Any economic ment . The unemployed were blamed stories of prime ministers in the 1950s debate was killed . TINA (There Is No for being dependent on the state . and 1960s knowing the name of every Alternative) ruled . There was only People on sickness and invalid benefits unemployed person in the country! one way and that was the neo-liberal were hounded to be job ready for jobs The first clouds of unemployment agenda of deregulation, privatisation, that did not exist . Solo parents were came in the late 1960s with, first, the market controlled dollar and the required to be job ready while still entry of our “mother country” and “independent” Reserve Bank . caring for their children with, again, no biggest trading partner, Britain into Rather than full employment being jobs being available . the European Economic Community the centre piece of economic policy, The global economic crisis of the

12 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 last few years has shown the inherent We need to support policies that • Take meaningful, practical steps to weaknesses of “financialised” capital- will: address the very high unemploy- ism . We have watched while banks • Put the needs of people before the ment rates among young people and that had been complicit in removing requirements of finance capital . in the Maori and Pacific workforces . socialism for the poor over the last • Refuse to blame unemployed people • Examine all international couple of decades could not put their for being without work . trade agreements through the hands out quickly enough to have • Have a hands-on job creation aspect lens of employment outcomes their own losses socialised . and do not just rely on the market . for New Zealanders . Full employment is not just about • Allow NZ workers to manufac- The first Labour Government was the number of jobs . Over the last few ture and build major projects determined to excise the cancer of decades there has been a huge surge of such as trains . unemployment from New Zealand vulnerable or precarious employment • See a change in the Reserve Bank society . Successive governments including, casual work, temporary and Act to bring full employment back showed that it was possible to achieve labour hire work . The well-paid full- as a policy goal . this . Now, in a changed world facing time job that can support a family is • Allow democratic (Government) global pressures and global responsi- a thing of the past . The International control of the value of the New bilities, which NZ politicians will dare Labour Organisation has become so Zealand dollar rather than it being to commit themselves to the restora- concerned with this phenomenon that in the hands of international tion of a primary human right — the it has introduced a global campaign for speculators . right to work? n Decent Work . • Encourage the formation of more So as we come up to this election, forms of business enterprise to Robert Reid is General Secretary of the what policies should we be looking for create jobs rather than simply National Distribution Union, based in from the political parties? What needs private enterprise . These could be: Auckland. He has a long history of work to be done to restore dignity to work social, co-operative, state, and local in the fields of employment and workers? government enterprises . and social justice.

Celebrating Francis, patron saint of ecology, on 4 October Nicky Chapman

t’s mid-August, and after a sunny Francis’ life . In preparation, Caritas has • ACT to change our choices and winter, I am looking out on white sent all Catholic schools ideas on how, behaviours to reduce the ways we hills, and grey harbour waves white- following Francis’ love for creation, contribute to climate change . tippedI by icy winds . Strange weather, we can continue to grow the seeds of • ADVOCATE for Catholic prin- we say, and shiver . On the news today stewardship – kaitiakitanga . ciples and priorities in discussions were stories of Congo’s cholera epi- One idea we can all share is to and decisions, especially as they demics, worsened by climate change; take the St Francis Pledge to Care for have an impact on those who are and mothers near Fukushima afraid of Creation and the Poor (thanks to the poor and vulnerable . their breast milk being radioactive . US Catholic Climate Covenant) . As Pope Benedict XVI tells us, “The I am remembering others who have Through it, we promise “to live our protection of the environment, and walked on this same holy earth: Jesus faith by protecting God’s Creation the safeguarding of resources and of bringing the fire of truth and love, one and advocating on behalf of people in the climate, oblige all . . to act jointly dusty footstep and one conversation poverty who face the harshest impacts . . promoting solidarity with the weak- after another, and washing his friends’ of global climate change” . est regions of the world” (Caritas in feet; Francis stripping off his rich man’s The pledge commits us to: Veritate, no . 50) clothes, rejecting his father’s mate- • PRAY and reflect on the duty to For more resources and informa- rial expectations . I imagine Francis care for God’s Creation and pro- tion, go to the Caritas website (www . here and now . I can see the hikoi . He tect the poor and vulnerable . caritas org. nz). and the Catholic would have walked barefoot across the • LEARN about and educate others Climate Covenant website (http:// country, whatever the weather, praising on the causes and moral dimen- catholicclimatecovenant org). . To join God’s good earth, calling us to revere sions of climate change . an interfaith mailing list for those Lady Poverty and the wisdom her sim- • ASSESS how we contribute to concerned about climate justice, go to plicity brings, calling us to compassion . climate change by our own energy https://groups google. com/group/faith-. On October 4, we celebrate St use, consumption, waste, etc . communities-for-climate-justice . n

13 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 religion and politics are recent reforms working? Ivan Snook

The author argues for a more rounded approach to the task of the education of children in schools, with greater accountablility to parents, fuller attention given to culture and contemporary challenges, and a reform of teacher education.

hen the “reforms” of Kelvin Smythe, for example, deprived of resources and forced to Tomorrow’s Schools wrote: compete for students . Schools were were initiated, the “What has been imposed on forced to charge “fees” and, in the officialW propaganda assured us education is a technocratic adminis- tertiary sector, students became long- that, as a result, trative model which is grossly unsat- term debtors to the state . Despite • Schools would be controlled isfactory for an education system . A attempts to target some funding to locally and would be able to model which, when all the costs are lower decile schools, inequality of adjust the curriculum to local added up, will be more expensive to funding increased . needs and individual children . run, and less effective in providing Some schools are very success- • There would be at last equity the foundations for high quality edu- ful at raising large sums of money, and fairness . Maori and cation . . Education has been trivial- while others struggle to make ends lower socio-economic groups ised and politicised ”. (Developmental meet . Maori and Pasifika children would no longer lag behind Network Newsletter, issue 1, 1990) became ghettoised and white middle others in achievement . class parents moved their children • Principals would be academic elsewhere . “The long tail of poverty” leaders in their schools and teach- “The long tail of led (no surprise) to the “long tail of ers would be able to operate as poverty” led (no under-achievement” which, ironi- true professionals . surprise) to the cally, is now being blamed on teachers rather than on economic policy . effects of “reforms” “long tail of under- Perceptive critics such as Kelvin achievement” which, compulsory curriculum Smythe, John Codd, Hugh Lauder ironically, is now The state instituted a compulsory and (he says modestly) the present curriculum for the whole country writer warned that the “reforms” being blamed on and controlled schools by account- would have quite different effects . teachers rather than ability measures of which the so- They argued that: on economic policy. called “National Standards” are but • There would be local responsibil- the latest sorry instance . The new ity for making ends meet but bureaucracies, Ministry of Education in all other matters there would (MOE), New Zealand Qualifications be more rather than less control flawed at outset Authority (NZQA), Education from Wellington . David Lange, the minister who pre- Review Office (ERO) – and later • Competition would increase sided over the legislation, was later Tertiary Education Council (TEC) rather than decrease the to suggest that the “reforms” worked and the Teachers Council – turned inequalities between schools well in the early years but were sub- from supporting institutions and and between the achievement of verted by the National Government teachers and became agents of various groups . after 1990 . There is a modicum of repressive control . Those in charge • The inherent “business model” truth in this but Smythe’s prescient of schools and tertiary institutions would exert pressure on princi- piece was written while the Labour became managers and, in the tertiary pals to be managers rather than Government was still in power . The area a new managerial class rose up professional leaders, and teachers, critics saw that the new model was to replace teachers and academics . instead of being freed, would be fatally flawed from the outset . In universities, the long-standing increasingly monitored and their As the years went by, schools and position of the professorial board in professionalism undermined . other educational institutions were academic matters was bypassed by

14 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 “managers” fixated not on education This “research” is carried out underpin them . but on “the bottom line ”. without a genuine research • An insistence that all aspects of methodology and depends on a contemporary curriculum be teachers as techinicians currently fashionable (but totally given full attention including our Teachers came to be seen not as unreliable) views about what own cultural heritages and the knowledgeable professionals but as constitutes good teaching . It is enormous challenges facing us technicians who need to be control- summarised to suit the minister all such as climate change, glo- led through extensive accountability and is released in a slanted press balisation and the power of mass mechanisms . In the case of the release . It then becomes part of media . There should, however, be primary and early childhood sectors, the mythology to be regurgitated the possibility of variations to suit teacher training has been “stream- by commentators who remember local situations . lined” by the virtual elimination of only the headlines (e .g . “30% of • The return of Community Forums all content knowledge (“subjects to teachers are incompetent ”). to negotiate fair school zones, be taught”) and its replacement by resolve conflicts between schools greater attention to the processes of policies of parties and reduce damaging competition literacy and numeracy which, though As we approach an election the politi- for resources . important, are tools for education cal parties (other than the Greens) are • A reform of teacher education, not education itself . This imbalance saying little about education . Among along the lines of Finland (which is being reflected in primary schools: a number of policies, the Greens rec- regularly tops the world in school so much time is spent on literacy and ommend a Commission of Inquiry achievement): 4-5 years of rigor- numeracy that there is very little time into the education system with a view ous teacher education involving for the other subjects which are often to eliminating the many problems in-depth study of several key lumped together as Integrated Studies . which the policies of the past twenty disciplines as well as professional years have caused . This might be a study and teaching practice . more “reforms” good idea . The suggestion of NZ Ideally the former should occur During the past three years, anti- First to reduce student debt for those in the subject departments of education policies have continued: who stay working in this country the university not in the College/ • The so-called “national standards” might also be well worth considering . School of Education . For in these policy threatens to over-rule the departments science is taught by educational needs of children, author’s priorities scientists, history by historians, the philosophy of local manage- Apart from these, my priorities and so on . Then, as in Finland, ment, and the professionalism of would be: there would be no need to monitor teachers . Even at this early stage • The removal of the divisive and teachers: with parental support, there are signs of further nar- nonsensical “National Standards” principals and teachers would rowing of the curriculum which and their replacement by a constitute a powerful professional always happens under “high requirement that all schools team which could be trusted to stakes” assessment . report to parents in a meaningful get on with the job of educating • In the Polytechnic sector, demo- way on the progress of children our nation’s children . n cratically elected councils have in all subjects, recognising that been replaced by small groups of science, technology, humanities Ivan Snook is Emeritus Professor of (mainly) government nominees and the arts are just as important Education, Massey University. He is the who keep the sector “in line” for the future of our society as author of several books including, most with government policies and the literacy and numeracy which recently, The Ethical Teacher. make sure that staff do not speak out of turn . If you really love • State agencies have become reading your increasingly politicised . ERO, Tui Motu, for example, not only evaluates each school but has taken upon you might like to itself to evaluate the school sector remember us in your will. Tui Motu Interislands as a whole . This is passed off as P. O. Box 6404 “research” and used by the min- Dunedin North 9059 ister, the ministry and the media to berate schools and teachers .

15 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 of gods and men

ugust 1 is a special day of remem- worked. Constantly over many decades, he brance for me. On this day 15 years had striven for the reconciliation of people ago in 1996, I woke up early at Santa of differing faiths and of the many factions SabinaA in Rome to the eerie sound of some- within a fractured Algeria. one sobbing deeply. It was my Dominican At first, Pierre’s work had been relatively brother, Jean Jacques Perénnès, lamenting easy, because the traditional Islam was the death of his close friend Pierre Claverie, welcoming and peaceful. By the 90s a more the Dominican bishop of Oran, in Algeria. ideological version of Islam had grown up Pierre had been assassinated the evening in Algeria and become manipulated by before, together with his Muslim chauffeur those in power, splintering Muslim groups Mohammed, by a powerful bomb activated into opposing factions. Slowly this ideologi- when the front door of his house had been cal form of Islam, stripped of its traditional unlocked. The blood of these two men lay human and spiritual values, became an mingled on the steps of the house chapel instrument of violence, justifying itself in where they fell. religious terms. Pierre saw this slow back- Pierre and Jean Jacques had worked wards growth as a conflict between Islam together in Algeria, shared many hardships and the West, North and South, rich and and maintained a strong friendship always. poor. All of this he called the ‘fault lines’ Through the following days, we shared Jean of humanity, along which many Algerian Jacques’ pain and sorrow, and supported people had been killed. his grief. This intermingling of blood in the death of a Catholic Bishop and a Muslim chauffeur was highly symbolic of the way in which Pierre, Algerian-born of French parents, had

The garden of the Cistercian monastery at Tibhirine

16 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 of gods and men Kevin Toomey

It is against this same background of seeking reconciliation and of growing violence that the film “Of Gods and Men” is set. In the Algerian mountain village of Tibhirine, seven Cistercian monks and the local people had built up a solid, supportive respect for one another’s traditions. But a group of Croatian construction workers had been murdered nearby. This sets the scene sharply for the monks: should they stay or should they leave Algeria? Would their going be cowardice? Would staying be a form of arrogance or self-imposed martyrdom? They chose to remain — on the grounds of being neighbours to their Muslim friends; were kidnapped and killed. Remains of their bodies were found on 21 May, 1996, only six weeks before Pierre was killed. Their deaths have kindled a light that will never be extinguished. It is a light which continues to speak of respect for the Other, of true neighbourliness, of the peace and the human dignity which are reflected time and again in the hearts of millions of people across our world. The monks, the bishop and his chauffeur are icons of truth and love before the behemoth of factionalism and violence. n

Kevin Toomey op is the editor of Tui Motu with a strong interest in inter-religious dialogue.

17 Tui Motu InterIslands Images from ‘Of Gods and Men’. See FilmSeptember review 2011 page 29. spirituality the senses have it! Daniel O’Leary

It is often said that people are searching for meaning in their lives. But could it be rather that they are looking for evidence that they are really and truly alive?

boy sat on the steps of a building with a really experience reality with the judgmental battered hat by his feet . A cardboard sign mind because you are dividing the moment read: “I’m blind . Please help ”. The hat before you give yourself to it . You are not free Aheld a few small coins . A man was walking by . to receive . You are in control of the outcome . He dropped a euro in the hat, picked up the sign, Your fearful mind is in charge; you are not yet turned it around, wrote something on it, and put vulnerable enough . it back near the boy . Soon the hat began to fill The poets knew well that nothing can match up . That afternoon, the man who had written the power of authentic experience . “The secret of the new words on the sign came back to see how it all,” wrote Walt Whitman, “is to write in the things were . Recognising his footsteps, the boy gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment — to said: “You are the one who changed my sign this put things down without deliberation or framing morning . What did you write?” The man said he – without worrying about their style, without only wrote the truth, but in a different way from waiting for a fit time or place . . By writing at the boy’s words . The new sign now read: “You the instant, the very heartbeat of life is caught ”. are enjoying a beautiful day but I cannot see it ”. Seamus Heaney, too, knew this . “I rejoiced most when the poem seemed most direct, an We taste something of the upfront representation of the world it stood for . . I loved Gerard Manley Hopkins for the flavours of God’s presence intensity of his exclamations which were always in everything that happens to equations of a rapture and an ache I didn’t fully us. There is a divine whisper know I knew until I read him . I loved Robert Frost for his farmer’s accuracy and his wily in every sound; even the down-to-earthness . ”. sound of temptation. No other In their own way also, the mystics are great religion dares speak of human champions of human and spiritual experience . It is why they feel secretly sure about being chosen, experience like that. invited and loved . In their efforts to explain their experience of God, they refer to an intense desire between themselves and their passionate Both signs told the people that the boy was lover . There are echoes of the Song of Solomon blind . The first was simply a statement of fact . in these lines from Draw Me After You by St The second reminded the people of the gift of Clare of Assisi: their sight . One was about knowledge; the other about personal experience . One about the mind; Draw me after You! the other about the senses . We will run in the fragrance of Your perfumes, Knowledge alone, ideas and concepts do not O heavenly Spouse! change us profoundly . Pure experience does . It is I will run and not tire, until You bring me always focused, concentrated and non-dualistic . into the wine-cellar It attracts, persuades and convinces . After it, until your left hand is under my head we see things differently . This may be a song, a and your right hand will embrace me happily touch, a film, a story, a note of love . and You will kiss me with the happiest kiss of Our experience is pure when we hold no fil- your mouth. tering lens, no preconceived notions . You cannot

18 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 God became human experience: “What we he wrote . “This is it . If you don’t get it here you have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, won’t get it anywhere . The experience of eternity what we have looked at and touched with our right here and right now is the function of life . hands, concerning the word of life – this life Heaven is not the place to have the experience; was revealed . . so that you also may have fel- here’s the place to have the experience ”. lowship with us; and . . with the Father . ”. (1 The senses have it! We look at each other and John 1:1-3) . see God’s face, maybe faintly, every day . We taste When asked about the essence of his message, something of the flavours of God’s presence in Jesus replied: “Come and see ”. Come for the day everything that happens to us . There is a divine and experience the presence of my company . He whisper in every sound; even the sound of temp- gathered his life’s passion into one moment of tation . No other religion dares speak of human washing people’s feet . He used the metaphors of experience like that . bride and groom, weddings and intimacies, to Maybe our future resurrection will reveal that explain the nature of union with God . All his we have been experiencing it all our lives . We will words and works carried the experience of grace have already felt it, “proved on the pulse”, as John and the grace of experience . His own essential Keats wrote just before he died . “Heaven”, wrote humanity was in evidence in that sensual experi- Fr Harry Williams in True Resurrection, “will be ence of having his own feet washed by Mary’s recognised as a country we have already entered, tears, dried by her hair and anointed with her and in whose light and warmth we have already fragrant ointment . In that sacramental moment lived ”. We will know well when we’re home . n of mutual presence, they both felt vulnerable, and they were both transformed . Fr Daniel O’Leary is a priest of the Leeds Diocese. His Before he could believe in the Resurrection, website is www.djoleary.com Thomas relentlessly insisted on his need to touch the wounds of the Risen Christ . Deep healing and Reprinted by kind permission of the London Tablet true faith are mostly found within the experience www.tablet.co.uk of woundedness . “Until I put my finger . ”. Authentic conversion is nearly always experienced corporeally and emotionally . Thomas’ own wounds had now become sacred wounds . It was to make all our pain redemptive that MACRIN A divine love became wounded flesh . True to the WIEDERKEHR Incarnation, Tertullian preached that the reality osb (USA) of salvation “hinges on the feelings of the flesh ”. “The Holy Spirit can only be experienced,” CHRISTCHURCH & AUCKLAND writes Franciscan preacher Richard Rohr . God Living Mindfully— became flesh, the place of experience . Grace The Medicine of Deep Listening is always incarnate . Faith is that attitude that Friday eve 7pm & Saturday & Sunday empowers us to experience in healing depth, all Saturday 9-4pm 9.30am-4.00pm daily the hard and routine experiences that each day 21 & 22 October 2011 29 & 30 October 2011 may bring . $70—BYO lunch $120 prepaid—BYO lunch All of this is not really surprising when we VENUE: Mary Potter VENUE...St Columba Centre remember that God needed and desired to Community Centre 40 Vermont St, Ponsonby, 442 Durham St, Christchurch become our bodies, our senses, our emotions in Auckland SEE WEBSITE BELOW time and space, so that divine being could be Hearts Deepest experienced everywhere, by everyone, not just Yearning Auckland REGISTRATIONS: Te Ngakau Waiora notionally known by the few . It was with a view Wednesday 26 October MERCY SPIRITUALITY to experiencing an astonishing and redeeming 10.00-4pm CENTRE intimacy with all of us that God created the $52 BYO Lunch Ph 09 638 6238 or www.mercycentreauckland.org.nz world in the first place . Chch VENUE—as above Mythologist and Catholic writer Joseph Chch REGISTRATIONS: Macrina (Arkansas, USA) is a Campbell is of the opinion that people are not Benedictine, highly valued retreat Sr Eveleen Retreat House director and author of Seasons of so much looking for the meaning of life as such, 03 3266897 Your Heart, Behold Your Life, but for the experience of being more abundantly [email protected] and Seven Sacred Pauses. alive . “Eternity has little to do with the hereafter,”

19 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 a profile of faith a conversation with irene…

Kevin McBride This interview tells the story of one Maori woman’s struggle to have her identity as a Maori enhanced and to help her own people find their own identity in the richness of an inculturated liturgy.

“It is as Maori that the Lord calls 1959 and they married in 1963, in art forms are admitted and involved, you, it is as Maori that you belong a registry office as a compromise to where she can express the Gospel to the church, the one body of both families (Buster was Catholic) . in terms of her own culture, the Eighteen months later, following her encounter is joyful and envigorating . Christ”. baptism in the Catholic faith, their marriage was blessed by the church parish ministry growing hen Pope John Paul II and by both families . Over the fol- For Irene, her parish journey in uttered these words in lowing years, they raised three chil- the North went from feelings of the course of his address dren and 11 grandchildren, moved isolation, through the integration Wto the Maori people at Auckland to a small rural community for work, of Maori hymns into the Mass Domain in 1986, he could well then back to Omanaia in the Far and, eventually, to the monthly have been speaking of Irene Hancy, North, where Irene still lives follow- celebration of Mass in Te Reo . The a modest and self-effacing widow ing the death of her beloved Buster strengthened Maori community then living in an unpretentious house three years ago . formed a Maori Pastoral Committee alongside the highway between focussed on community outreach Kaikohe and Opononi, because time at sedos and later to the moving of appropri- being Maori has been at the centre How did this basically unremark- ate liturgies, like Tangihanga, into the of her faith-filled life . able person come to be invited to marae . There they took responsibility address the prestigious Service of for the smooth running of morning growing up Documentation and Study on Global and evening prayers, the grieving and Irene grew up on a farm, the sev- Mission (SEDOS) in Rome, during eventually the funeral Mass/liturgy . enth of 14 children . Her father was the 1998 Synod of Oceania Bishops? The tangi for Irene’s husband, Buster, Mormon, her mother Ratana but It came about because Irene has a at Omanaia was an experience of Irene cannot remember any conflict strongly unique way of presenting the richness and integrity of a fully between them relating to their dif- the reality of inculturation for indige- inculturated liturgy . Unfortunately, ferent doctrines . She does, though, nous peoples . Her presentation to the this is not always the case, depending remember being baptised into the SEDOS gathering revolved around too much on the tolerance of priest Mormon faith in the river running her own experience of the Gospel in or Pakeha community . through their valley and the daily her life and of the critical importance dedication of the day to God in the that, in that encounter, the identity leadership with TTPC small hours of each morning . Her of the person be preserved, and even This parish experience led in turn to childhood memories reflect a life of more importantly, enhanced . Her a 14-year involvement with the Tai hymns, Bible-readings and shared own encounter with Christianity Tokerau Pastoral Council (TTPC) prayer and traditional cultural and even more with Catholicism, has which she chaired for six years . The teachings, led by parents fluent inTe thrived or diminished to the extent TTPC is made up of representa- Reo. Sundays saw neighbours gather that her identity as Maori is dimin- tives of nine northern parishes and, at their house for song, Scripture ished or enhanced . Desolation and although open to all, normally meets and testimony bearing witness to a loneliness, isolation and the effect on marae under Maori protocol . For Christ of love, justice and integrity of participating in liturgy as through Irene, the TTPC hui was an oppor- of life . a glass panel, these were her experi- tunity to encourage the growth of After a basic secondary education, ences when her cultural identity was the Catholic faith among Maori in Irene trained in obstetrics then spent not recognised . Where her right to ways that are deeply Maori and truly three years in the Army before resum- ancestral and cultural identity is Catholic . Deeply Maori and truly ing a nursing career . She met her recognised, when her traditions of Catholic – such were the gatherings husband, Rawiri (“Buster”) Hancy in religious values, customs, myths and of the TTPC under Irene’s leadership .

20 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 compassion and solidarity These public sides of her life are accompanied by a more private but deep sense of compassion which has kept her moving through the community at all hours of the day or night, living out a spirit of solidarity open to the needs of all in her community whether isolated in a hospital or needing support in the home .

thankfulness As she goes about her daily tasks, forg- ing and maintaining links with all sorts, conscious of the Gospel images of Christ sitting with the people, she is saddened at signs that the church seems still unwilling to take its own teachings and proclamations seriously, to be where the people are rather than trying to fit all into one universal mould . She loves the ritual maori pastoral care plan join an ecumenical team working of both the Catholic Church and marae She was and remains a staunch in association with Judge James but is impatient with the resistance of advocate of the Maori Pastoral Care Rota in a pilot scheme utilising leadership in the Church to embrace the Plan (MPCP) developed under marae justice principles through the diversity of the marae and the diversity the guidance of Bishop Takuira court system . It involves the team of iwi which could refuel our liturgies . Mariu in the 1980s and 90s . Irene working alongside families whose In her conculsion at SEDOS Irene embraced and promoted the MPCP members have fallen foul of the law . reflected, “While it is little and slow and enthusiastically, for it embodied all The team stands in solidarity with frustrating, it is still exciting in Christ! that she had discovered for herself them through the court process, Who would ever have thought that I in her own faith life . As she said encouraging them to take responsi- would thank God for pain, frustration, to SEDOS: “The Gospel enhances, bility for their whanau and seeking isolation and desolation . I most certainly transforms and releases the cultural to act in a way which restores and do, otherwise I do not believe I could understanding of the truth . Every enhances the mana of both sides, enjoy the sweetness of this moment but culture has a place in God’s house- rather than isolating and diminish- for my journey in him ”. hold . The Gospel transforms every ing them through impersonalised But she is not waiting around for culture . Language is at the very and purely punitive processes . that to happen nor disheartened by the heartbeat of any culture and shifting Similar principles character- failure of clergy and Pakeha to risk the back to live in the place of my birth, ise her work with school music bicultural relationship we are all called I was given a wonderful homecom- groups and Te Reo groups . Fr Peter to in Te Tiriti o Waitangi . Instead, she ing . Surrounded by family, relatives, McDermott SM, who has worked gets on with what she does so well: being meeting houses, language nests, the with Irene in these areas, says that present to those who need to rediscover whole community and church life what begins with children or par- their identity and the strength of com- was exhilarating ”. ents separately soon brings both munity which has given her the cour- together so that people of all gen- age to live out her own commitment growing community work erations are working together . And to being deeply Catholic and deeply Since stepping down from the none of these sessions is confined to Maori, to a new emerging Church, to TTPC leadership, Irene’s life has the learning of a specific skill but being a dynamic people of faith . We been devoted to the community . all end up including prayer, Te Reo, need, she says, freedom to be Eucharist First, with Buster and whanau and music and somewhere in the piece, to one other . n latterly as part of a small commu- sharing on scripture and shared nity team, she has continued to wisdom . All are imbued with Irene’s Kevin McBride is the co-ordinator exercise her extensive networking holistic view of the woven strands for Pax Christi Aoteroa-New Zealand skills . Her concern at the high rate which make up the integrated and with a strong interest in justice and of Maori imprisonment led her to full life . bi-cultural matters.

21 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 translation of liturgical texts on englishing the liturgy G B Harrison

Father Michael Hill discovered a link between the first translation of the English liturgy and a noted Palmerston North scholar, Professor G B Harrison.

Detroit was responsible for my being he new translation of the Mass has been in general use in New one of the two laymen appointed to Zealand for eight months. It has not been welcomed with uni- this committee . versal enthusiasm: indeed the general reception seems to be From this meeting of ICEL resignation,T consternation or opposition. Most people seem well con- emerged our first publication — a tent with the 1970 ICEL translation, and can see no need to change. Nor pamphlet called English for the Mass . are they persuaded by the official reasons given in support of the new It set out different ways of translat- translation. ing such texts as the Gloria, the It is not generally known that one of the leading figures of the ICEL team Credo and Agnus Dei . We asked for who gave us the old version, G.B.Harrison, spent his final years living in criticism and advice; we got it! Some Palmerston North. Harrison was born in Sussex, England in 1894. He 16,000 copies of the pamphlet were taught English at universities in North America for much of his life, and sent out; more than 4,000 replies until his retirement he was Professor of English at Ann Arbor, Michigan. came back, which revealed a great conflict of opinions, strongly held, In an article for the journal America, Harrison wrote: “Words affect us and often violently expressed . on more than one level. On the surface they affect us by their meanings, Some wished the committee to in the subsoil by their sounds, especially when combined into rhythms, rewrite the Mass . Others demanded and in the depths through the fusion of meaning, rhythm and association. that we keep as close as could be to And it is in the depths that the spirit communes with spirit. Nothing but the language of Cranmer’s Book of perfect expression can suffice for the union of God and humanity in the Common Prayer . Others again were Mass.” (April 1964) as eager for the disappearance of the The following excerpts are taken from the final chapter of his autobi- old familiar words, even ‘almighty’, ography One Man in his Time: the memoirs of G.B.Harrison 1894 –1984, ‘everlasting’ and ‘Amen’ . A few Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 1985 urged us to follow the vocabulary of the Beatles as that of the generation MH to come . A second pamphlet was issued a translating the liturgy into icel year later: English for the Mass, Part english Both the Council and the new Pope, 2 . This was a large collection of trans- The Second Vatican Council came Paul VI, desired that when the same lations of the prayers, prefaces and together in Rome in October 1962, language was spoken by several prayer endings . We replied to those and one of its first accomplishments countries, commissions should be who demanded that we use the con- was to approve the Constitution on established to make one text for all . temporary idiom: “it must be good, the Sacred Liturgy and its reforms . As a result, the English-speaking straight, simple English which brings The purpose of the reforms was to bishops appointed the International understanding to the unlearned and encourage the people to take a more Commission on English in the delight to the literate ”. active part in the rites of the church . Liturgy, hereafter referred to as ICEL . The original intention of the The vernacular language could be This body consisted of two com- Council Fathers was that only certain used . Few in the Council realised that mittees, an Episcopal Committee parts of the Mass should be translated when the gates are opened to a large of representatives from different into the vernacular . Pending official and impatient crowd, they rush in countries, a secretary and treasurer translations, different dioceses used and are no longer controllable . Once with offices in Washington; and an what was available in the existing the vernacular was admitted, the Advisory Committee (at first of eight missals for the Gloria, the Creed and demand for its full use was general persons) to organise and oversee the other parts, but the offertory prayers and quite irresistible . translation . Archbishop Deardon of and the Canon were still uttered

22 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 inaudibly in Latin . This hybrid was addressed the sovereign with obsequi- of child to father, as Christ taught in generally felt to be most unsatisfac- ous phrases and gestures . Englishmen the Lord’s Prayer . The Gospels plainly tory, and in the early Spring of 1967, also, in the 16th century and later, show that in his prayers Christ used the American bishops petitioned that endured the same kind of education the simplest words . So too in his talk the Canon might be said aloud in in rhetoric and flattered the sovereign and his parables . English . To their surprise, permission in the same way . Latin liturgical from Rome was given three weeks conventions were thus natural in criticism of the new texts later; haste is not usual in such mat- Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer, Most of the severe critics of the ICEL ters . The result was that ICEL was and to those brought up on that book translations failed to realise the facts ordered to have the translation ready of life . The texts were not for their for use by the end of the year . We replied to those own community or parish, but for The Canon in English was every community . There are about 75 published in October 1967 . It was who demanded million English speaking Catholics greeted with startled screams by the that we use the throughout the world . Of these 82 conservatives . One of my former contemporary idiom: percent live on the North American graduate students wrote to me that continent, 6 percent in England he had thought the new translation “It must be good, and Wales . Most English-speaking was commonplace — until he heard straight, simple Catholics, whatever their country, it, and then to his surprise, it became English which brings are simple people with small knowl- a thing of simple moving dignity . edge of the Bible, Church history or These words were his, not mine . understanding to the English literature . A translator should unlearned and delight never forget he is providing words for a procedure for translation to the literate”. public utterance to and by plain folk . In April, 1969, the authorized Latin Hereupon the literate critic cried text was officially published in Rome, out in disgust: ‘What! Basic English?’ its language seemed the only proper and at last we could get down to a The answer was; ‘Yes, basic English,’ respectful way of addressing God . This final translation . just as the Gospels were written in hyperbolical tradition was still strong By early summer we had reached a kind of basic Greek (the learned in the Vatican . Even lay members of what in our jargon was called the call it koiné) . They were intended, ICEL received letters addressed on Green Book stage . The Green Book not for educated Greek and Roman the envelope “To the Most Reverend, was the committee’s semi-final ver- gentlemen, but for slaves, merchants, Most Learned, Professor” — to sion, issued in a green cover and sent soldiers, shopkeepers, sailors and the irreverent amusement of their to our own Bishops’ Committee, the common people; and for that very families . Modern masters of prayer various Ecclesiastical Conferences reason, because the basic instincts of have entirely rejected that mode; and the English-speaking bishops (all ordinary folk are more durable than they no longer compose prayers in 750 of them) and to other interested the tastes of professional writers and the style of a Loyal Address to the parties . They responded with 300 critics, the Gospel narratives are still King of Kings by his abject slaves . pages of observations, some — but vivid and readable . n Instead they prefer the direct speech not all — helpful . Personally I found it embarrassing when a most respected archbishop made strong EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT: comments that were contradicted in These writings of G B Harrison equally strong comments by another make it clear that as far back highly respected archbishop . Either as 1984-85, ICEL had worked way we offended one if not both, but extremely hard and from sound we grew hardened to that risk . principles to produce a robust Apart from the problems of time and durable text for all English and place, the greatest difficulty speakers. One wonders what was the Latin text . The traditions Professor Harrison’s response of liturgical Latin were almost, but would have been to the new not quite, as old as Christianity . Mass text, and to the official Educated men in the second and later reasons given in support of the centuries received an elaborate train- new translation. ing in rhetoric; and in the Imperial Court at Rome or Byzantium they

23 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 christchurch earhquake

a true fairy story Mary Woods This fairy story is about King Allan, charming Prince Sam, and the student army Or: the challenge for intergenerational volunteering.

nce upon a time the earth beneath the city roared and

shook and the city broke . OBuildings fell . People died . People wept . Roads cracked and liquefaction spread its grey greasy silt across the ground . It was a sorry state . Then the people picked themselves up and said, “How can we fix our broken, messy City?” It was the Civil Defenders who had power to sort things out, but the job was so big and they were so tired . Who could help them? They summoned their team mate King Allan from over the mountains on the West Coast . He “Sorry, Mate,” King Allan said, scrape and clean away disgusting heaps was a wise king with wide experience . “it’s too much risk, how could we of silt from the yards of the people of He would know what to do . keep them in control? Send your lively Christchurch . But hard working stu- King Allan said, “Yes, I’ll come and students off to someone else’s place ”. dents get very hungry, so Prince Sam help ”. He mounted his iron charger Prince Sam persisted “No”, he said, gave all his money to his team mate, and sped across the Alps . “we’ve got energy and skills . We’ll even Sir Morgan, to buy the workers food . Meantime out in the still stand- jump through hoops for you to help Meantime down in the South, the ing Ivory Towers, Charming Prince the others live ”. King Allan scratched people of Oamaru and Dunedin baked Sam said, “I have my book of friends his beard and said “Ahem, we’ll see and cooked and created a mountain of and they have friends and they have you try . Deliver, Lad, to me at speed food, so next day enough lunch arrived friends . We are young and strong so the rules that must apply . Show us to feed an army . The students ate and we can help the people ”. So he sent how we’ll know who’s here and where distributed meals to the communities his cyber pigeons off to summon up and how they’ll work and what they’re they were helping . his friends . going to do ”. This miracle happened because King Allan came and saw the mess Prince Sam went home and called wise King Allan tested his distrust of of grey revolting silt that the Earth had his team of widely skilled students who youth by listening to Prince Sam and spat up and everyone said, “Yuck” . ”O put their trusty computers to work long challenging him to do the things that dear, O dear”, King Allan said . “How into the night . Together they devised would make his army safe . Despite his can we clean this up?” Then came a procedures and set up systems to ensure enthusiastic confidence, Prince Sam knock on his door . Prince Sam peeped the safety of the mob . heard King Allan’s worries and thought, round and said, “Excuse me, Sir, we’ve At 3am King Allan heard the cyber “We have ideas, skills and energy galore come to help . There are about a thou- pigeon call . “The web site’s up and but this old Geezer’s been around and sand of us, what is it we could do?” ready with instructions for us all . We’ve probably knows some more ”. He used King Allan looked and saw a boy got i d. . cards to know who’s who and the skills and tools of youth to allay the one third of his great age . “How check us in and out . We work in groups old man’s fears . could a callow lad know how to lead?” and only do what’s asked ”. King Allan As a result many of the people of thought the mighty sage . The King thought, “Maybe I can trust this preco- Christchurch were rescued from a threw up his hands and nightmares cious boy to do the mighty job . His sticky mess and the students experi- passed his eyes — drunken students, computer is his other arm and far from enced the joy of helping . n burning sofas, undie 500 cars broken just a toy . He’s passed the test and led a down in intersections blocking all the team, we have to let him try ”. Mary Woods is a Christchurch resident roads . He couldn’t let students loose to And so the student army went with extensive experience in volunteering loot the people with their scars? with shovels and barrows to dig and and training volunteers.

24 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 response/letter to editor support for carers at home

This letter is a response to the article (Tui Motu, July) dealing with the care given at Clare House. Here the writer develops the care needed at a prior stage, the “at home” period.

The care given in facilities such as members, who may be acceptable, are a sufferer to allow a carer to have a Clare House is at the last stages paid far less than a non-related carer .) shower, walk around the block, do of what is generally an extended The relentless nature of care- the shopping is a gift which is beyond period, from the first vague indi- giving in these situations gives the price . Similarly, taking the sacrament, cations of a problem, through carer very little space, as the suf- and praying with the carer and suf- diagnosis and care at home until ferer frequently does not want the ferer maintains a connection with residential care becomes necessary . carer out of sight . Consequently, the community of faith . A regular In this “at home” stage, care is most daily activities (shopping, hanging commitment for as long as it takes is often provided by a spouse/partner, out washing, having a shower) can one of the greatest gifts which could sibling or child . The burden prima- become major challenges . be offered . rily falls on to one person . “Going out” requires major Any service which can go to the The pastoral needs of this pri- organization, so church attendance home is helpful . One way of support- mary care-giver are physical and decreases or maybe ceases altogether ing carers and sufferers is through spiritual . Respite can be difficult to (especially if the sufferer becomes massage . This has been pioneered in obtain: there are limited “respite” unable to cope in large gatherings) . the USA by “Compassionate Touch”, beds available for the longer periods This is of huge significance to those with whom I recently had the privi- allocated . Shorter respite times of a who have been regular worshippers . lege of training . A mobile massage half-day or so may also be difficult to Sadly, too often such couples seem to service is only one way of supporting find . Suitable “substitute” carers are drop out of pastoral concern . those with dementia in their journey not always easy to find, and are often The best support for carers and through the ravages of this disease . not accepted by the sufferer . (Family sufferers alike is time . Sitting with Jan Emson, Waikanae

letters to the editor continued

volunteering in her local parish to Now I can reply! Writing from thanks for encouragement create vibrant inclusive liturgies my heart, I will tell them I totally For two months in a row now, Tui for all, I loved the description of understand how they feel and I will Motu has arrived into my Gold “the active faith of innumerable share what motivates myself and Coast letterbox and immediately a small groups bringing their faith what strategies our parish uses to piece of writing has resonated with and love into their communities” include families . I will also attach an issue in my heart . where “the baptismal gifts of all… Fr Maloney’s article, and say: This In July’s issue, it was Kaaren are recognised ”. This article helped sums up what is happening in our Mathias’ reflection on feelings of me write three emails I had been Church, and what I believe needs constriction and smallness of life putting off for some time! I have to happen is each baptised person with children, and her prayer for received three messages this winter to take seriously their responsibility patience and grace . Well from one from Catholic friends, struggling to be involved in parish life, not as Mum to another, from diverse to feel positive about the state of a ‘helping the priest’ scenario, but countries of India to Australia, she their local parish, due to limited as empowered laity itself . It is not encouraged me and lightened my welcome and inclusion for families easy, it will take effort; who will be load . Thank you, Kaaren! and children . They write to me, a part of this “purifying and hum- The August edition arrived tempted to attend more welcoming bling” process? With gratitude for yesterday and the article ‘A Peep Protestant churches, but feeling your encouraging magazine, into the Future’ by Fr Pat Maloney great sadness, as they love their Theresa Vossen, Southport Qld was beautiful and hopeful . As a Catholic Faith . Not an uncommon (abridged) woman in her 30’s, passionate and scenario I believe .

25 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 scripture the very core of the gospel?

Matthew 20:1-16 The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (26th Sunday Ordinary Time - 18 September) Kathleen Rushton

ack of workers, unemployment, set wages and their payment, a discussion between an Lemployer and some workers — these are the stuff of everyday situations . However, add a puzzling detail . All workers were paid the same wage without regard to the length of hours worked . This astonishing outcome in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1–16) irritates today’s listener because it goes against sound human logic and the univer- sally accepted rule of payment of wages according to hours worked . Can this parable inspire us today? Is it more than a peculiar story from long ago? the strategy of a parable Jesus, teller of parables, has a well- conceived strategy and takes care that the story connects with the world of the listeners . There are extravagant features that provoke and stimulate thinking . Three moments can be seen but not separated in this process . 1) At the beginning there is a time of estrangement . What does this strange story mean? What’s the point? 2) Meaning breaks through the image often with shock . What is at stake is recognised . 3) However, insight is not the end . and roles of the household were husband/father/master controls and Once understood, the content has to topics of frequent discussion in provides for the household . be embraced with one’s whole being . ancient philosophical writings . This It affects the whole person . It is not debate concerned the organisation of context of the parable just about the mind . It turns the society, the duties of citizens and the Matthew’s audience could connect hearer upside down . pursuit of the good life . The house- the landowner (employer) of this hold was regarded as the basic unit of parable with this structure . Further, cultural background the state or city . It consisted of four this parable is found in Mt 19–20 Matthew’s gospel was most likely aspects: three relationships (husband- where Jesus addresses critically three written in the Greco-Roman city wife; father-children; master-slave) of the four topics of the household of Antioch about fifty years after and the task of earning wealth . The management tradition outlined Jesus’ death . Their world there was structure is hierarchal because in the above . Jesus speaks of the relationship influenced by both Greek and Jewish three pairs, the former rules over the of husband and wife (19:3–12); chil- thinking . The structure, members latter . It is patriarchal in that the dren (19:13–15); of a rich man and

26 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 his wealth (19:16–30); and then in a what is the point? hour who are blessed abundantly by parable uses the image of masters and What does this strange story means? God’s grace, pardoned and loved? slaves (20:17–28) . In all these areas of What’s the point? Does the parable The great parable specialist, Adolf life, Jesus opposes the use of power to re-define for those who hear it “what Jülicher, had a very challenging view “rule over” others . According to Jesus’ is right” in terms of equal treatment, of this parable . He saw it as the very teaching, the community of disciples overturning the expectations and core of “the good message of the is called to a way of life in which all assumptions of the “first” who look gospel,” the very kernel of the gospel human beings have equal value . They for justice to uphold the status quo which really contains the whole gospel are called to be creative of a new (hierarchal structure)? Or does this message . What is this kernel? Ours social world . well-considered fictitious story with is to recognise and seek this kernel . So it is in this context of Mt some intentionally exaggerated parts How can we tell this parable of Jesus 19-20 that the Parable of the Workers draw on conditions in the ancient today in a way so that the audience is in the Vineyard is to be considered . world but not really deal with eco- “once more astonished” and touched It instructs those who hear it about nomic laws? Instead, does it deal to the core of their being? n life in the transformative present and with the surprising way God reveals future basileia (reign) of the heavens . Godself in Jesus and how God acts? Kathleen Rushton RSM of Christchurch The first line is: “For the basileia of Are we, too, workers of the eleventh is currently at the Catholic University of the heavens is like a householder who Leuven, Belgium. went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard ”. Now over 10,000 items online two scenes including the latest release from Pleroma Press The parable has two scenes . The first “A Grandmother Prays...” deals with the hiring of the workers (vv .1-7) and the second with their for herself, payment (8-16) . In the first scene, for others, the passing of time is shown by the for her grandchildren householders “going out” five times: By Rosemary Atkins $22.50 ea early morning, about the third hour, about the sixth and ninth hour, and 0508 988 988 finally at the eleventh hour . Day [email protected] labourers were a common sight in 38 Higginson Street, Otane the marketplace and a readily avail- Central Hawkes Bay able pool of cheap labour . Many www.christiansupplies.co.nz may have been uprooted from small peasant farms . A denarius was the usual daily wage .

The second scene has five divi- The United Nations has sions: evening comes and the work- described this crisis as ers are called; the arrival of those ‘a human tragedy of unimaginable proportions, hired at the eleventh hour and their the worst in human history.’ payment; the arrival of those hired Currently over 12 million people first, their expectations and pay- require emergency assistance. ment; the discussion between these Can I really make a difference? workers and the householder; the YES! With your help Caritas is able to work with its partner workers’ reaction; and the house- agencies and bring hope to the holder’s response . The five hirings of lives of families like this one.

A pastoralpastoral family family struggling struggling for survival for in survivalthe drought in affected the drought-affected Madera District Kenya Medera - July 2011. District Photo Kenyacredit: Cordaid – July 2011 So please join us - the first scene become two groups, Photo credit: Cordaid because together we can the eleventh hour workers (the last) Please donate today by: make a difference! and the rest (the first) . The last are • visiting our website www.caritas.org.nz • phoning 0800 221 022 during office hours paid first . The contrast between the to donate by credit card two groups in the reversal of the • phoning 0900 411 11 for an automatic $20 donation from your phone bill order of payment, their treatment • or by posting a cheque to Freepost 689 (no stamp reqd) and responses are crucial to the story . Caritas, PO Box 12193, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

27 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 book review ‘a theological hitchhiker’ revisited

More than you know – Albert remained grounded among an autobiography ordinary Christians seeking the light of faith . He spent time in early life Albert Moore as a country pastor, and even during Published by Jonathan Moore and his academic years he was a faithful Rachel Ovens member of his local Presbyterian Available at University Book Shop, church in Opoho, Dunedin . Dunedin I think Albert might have been too Price: $44 .99 polite and gentle to become embroiled Reviewer: Michael Hill ic in the theological controversies of his time . In the book he relates what many his very full account of the rich of his contemporaries were saying . and varied life of Albert Moore He did not approve modern thinkers, has been published privately sat at the feet of another great scholar like Don Cupitt who reduce God to a Tby his son and daughter . Albert was who also became his friend, Ernst hypothesis . To Lloyd Geering he pays the founder of the Phenomenology Kåsemann . Later in life he was to travel due acknowledgment, but refrains in of Religion department in the Arts extensively in America, in the Far East his book from critical comment . Faculty at the University of Otago, was and Japan . To Albert’s many students, friends its Associate Professor and spent a large When he eventually returned to and admirers this book will come part of his life teaching in the University Otago to teach, his restless mind con- as a delight . It will rekindle for them and at Knox College . During his retire- tinued its search . “Through teaching”, the warmth of his friendship and the ment he continued to be active in the he says, “one continues to learn ”. He breadth of his amazing scholarship . I Theology faculty as well as a regular learned to use artwork to accompany recommend it . n favourite as a U3A teacher . his lectures, and soon made himself an One beneficiary of Albert’s scholar- expert in iconography . Iconography he OTAGO TERTIARY CHAPLAINCY Tui Motu ship and enthusiasm was . He describes as “a way of understanding AND DUNEDIN ABRAHAMIC was a regular contributor, delighting the depth and variety of the world’s INTERFAITH GROUP readers especially with his original religions, especially the Oriental ones ”. commentaries on works of art of many Albert Moore was a highly intuitive ANNUAL PEACE LECTURE periods and schools . Anyone who person . The world of imagination was Compassion, Justice and the enjoyed his wit and learning in those for him the fitting complement to the Pursuit of Peace: articles will love this book . intellectual quest . He describes his feel- Ten Years On from 9/11 Albert was possessed of an intensely ings when he started a slide show in his Associate Professor Chris Marshall inquisitive mind, and although theol- lectures: “When the lights are dimmed Head of the School of Art History, ogy was his first expertise, he also and the audience is stilled, the shaman Classics and Religious Studies, became an authority on many aspects takes off on his mystical flight and gets Victoria University of the visual arts especially as they carried away in ecstasy… something of helped to illuminate the human quest this happened to me ”. 5.30 – 7pm Monday, 26th September 2011 for God and the meaning of life . He His favourites among the great loved the cinema, and he was also from artists of the West tell us a lot about ST DAVID LECTURE THEATRE a very early age a jazz enthusiast . Albert’s own mind and his sensibility . UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO The book describes his many jour- He loves William Blake whose poetry followed by supper in All Saints neys overseas as he sought to expand and imagery carry the imagination Anglican Church Hall, his theological knowledge and to beyond normal experience . He relished 786 Cumberland Street experience the art, culture and religion the earthiness of Stanley Spencer who ALL WELCOME of other lands . His travels took him first brought the Gospel into the lives of to the United Kingdom: he studied ordinary 20th Century people . He is INQUIRIES: for his PhD at Manchester under the enchanted by the colour and imagina- Greg Hughson 479 8497 distinguished New Testament scholar tion of Marc Chagall . Albert respected [email protected] T W Manson . He describes himself as the “artist’s insight as a way of seeing www.otago.ac.nz/chaplain a ‘theological hitchhiker’, and he went things afresh in our world ”. www.dunedininterfaith.net.nz on from Britain to Germany where he In terms of his own beliefs,

28 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 film review embracing this troublesome child

Of Gods and Men Director: Xavier Beauvois Reviewer: Paul Sorrell

his quiet, slow-moving film tells the story of the last days of a small community of TCistercian monks living in the remote Atlas Mountains of Algeria during a time of political and social turmoil, brutality and violence . Although it is in essence the story of their martyrdom, there are no heroic speeches, no stay very close to the protagonists and one brother, fearful of what might lie pious histrionics, no implacably evil begin to understand what makes them ahead, Christian counsels, “You have enemies, no romanticised suffering or tick . While all the brothers are given already given your life — you gave it sense of triumphalism . Nevertheless, individual personalities, two charac- by following Christ ”. Acceptance of Of Gods and Men celebrates a vic- ters stand out . Br Christian, the leader their situation, and a determination tory, of which the brothers are only a of the community, is serious-minded, to do their duty by their Muslim part — the triumph of love, compas- intellectual, determined, aware that neighbours, leads to a reinvigoration sion and communal solidarity over the the fate of the community rests in his of courage, even joy . In one extraor- forces of hatred and violence . hands . The elderly Br Luc is in many dinary scene, the brothers, relaxed In the build-up to the events that ways his opposite — relaxed, playful, and smiling, sip red wine to the eventually overwhelm them, we shrewd, only too well aware of human accompaniment of Tchaikovsky’s observe the brothers going about frailty, he is wearing himself out in Swan Lake played on a tape deck . their daily lives, working and wor- ministering to the medical needs of The music is dramatic, foreboding, shipping together and interacting the village . but also strangely uplifting . Is this the freely with their Muslim friends and If the monks appear as rather ordi- Last Supper, or drinking the new wine neighbours in the poor village com- nary — and very different — men together in the kingdom of the Father? munity they have made their home . in their daily lives, they are shown What is truly extraordinary about We see them joining in birthday transformed in the regular round of this film is its total lack of any sense celebrations, treating patients in a liturgical worship . White-robed and of partisanship . In a profound sense, local clinic, selling their honey at the singing the Office or celebrating Mass we are seeing events not only through souk — even giving gentle advice to together, their simple but powerful the eyes of the monks but through the village girls on affairs of the heart . spiritual unity, based on prayer and eyes of God . In the words of one of When violence erupts on the edges service to God, becomes apparent . the community’s hymns, “You hold of the community, they do not take The hymns and chants they sing speak against your breast this troublesome sides, but listen, pray and offer help of love, forgiveness and compassion, child, which is the world of mortals ”. where they can . Yet, inexorably, suffering and endurance . The liturgy In a final letter, an anonymous brother along with the local people, they find forms a counterpoint to — and com- acknowledges his complicity in themselves caught up in the growing mentary on — the violent action the events that have overwhelmed conflict between the forces of the going on beyond the monastery them, affirms his kinship with his ruling military dictatorship and the walls, and sets it in the context of the Muslim brothers and sisters, and Islamist guerillas who oppose them . all-encompassing divine presence . In offers forgiveness to his killers . Much of the power of this film one scene, their chant must struggle At a time when the mass media arises from the decision by director against the sinister beating of an army is dominated by caricatures of Xavier Beauvois to show the action helicopter gunship swinging overhead . Christianity, the understanding of through the eyes of the monks . This Torn between their fear of what the Gospel presented in Of Gods and accounts for the lack of political back- might happen to them and their Men is profound . Shown widely, as it ground and allows events to unfold loyalty to the local community, the deserves to be, it should do much to in all their apparent randomness and brothers eventually determine to undo current misapprehensions and troubling chaos . It also means that we stay . It is not an easy decision . To enhance interfaith relations . n

29 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 comment

Crosscurrents Jim Elliston ‘vatican insider’ The series also championed values frequency in future, because of the Vatican communications to the real that Christians and non-Christians greater speed with which economic world have been pretty amateurish, share, and provided opportunities for factors spread through the world . resulting in misinterpretation and Christian parents to talk to their chil- The first was the 2000 financial confusion, especially as few journalists dren about how those values are pre- crisis, triggered by Lehman Brothers’ understand either the issues or their sented in a special way in the Bible, as collapse, the effects of which were real importance . Benedict XVI has well as motivating millions of children instantaneously transmitted from the successfully instigated a radical trans- around the world to read books . US throughout the world . The others: formation of the Vatican newspaper, a viral pandemic, cyber attacks, a large Osservatore Romano, and now a Milan evangelization guidelines geomagnetic storm, and social unrest secular newspaper, La Stampa, has cre- A document, ‘Christian Witness in in Europe resulting from possible ated a website dedicated to professional a Multi-Religious World: Recom- economic crises . journalistic reporting of Church affairs . mendations for Conduct’ was released With support from a number of at the end of June by the World ideology and reality journalists and newspaper editors Evangelical Alliance (WEA), the World Democratic government presup- in major capitals who recognise the Council of Churches, and the Vatican, poses negotiating; this requires a importance of debates on religious representing 90% of the world’s total degree of give and take . To force the themes and ethical issues in people’s Christian population . Preparation of opponent to give without ceding lives, along with the need to have fresh the document began in 2006, largely something in return is not negotiation . and reliable first-hand news,La Stampa in response to accusations of “unethical The US Republican party has forced decided to create an online information methods” by Christian missionaries, in the Democrats to concede cuts far channel in three languages . The aim is unspecified regions . beyond the requirements of prudent to address a global audience, providing Some core points: economic policy while refusing to serious and independent accounts of • Rejection of all forms of violence allow tax increases on the super-rich, everything that goes on in the Holy including the violation or destruc- or to remove huge subsidies to oil See . It (vaticaninsider lastampa. it/eng). tion of places of worship, sacred companies . Their demands require is the first Vatican information site not symbols or texts . removing help from the poorest sec- associated with the Church, religious • Acknowledgement and appreciation tions of the community . congregations or communities of faith, of what is true and good in other David Brooks, a Republican but is promoted by a secular generalist religions; any criticisms should be columnist for the ‘New York and independent newspaper . made “in a spirit of mutual respect ”. Times’, wrote that the actions of the religious pottering • Respect for the “full personal free- Republican Party over budget nego- dom” of their converts by allowing tiations had “brought their country, Speaking of the Osservatore, a Catholic them “sufficient time for adequate and the world, to the brink of more News Service report summarised two reflection and preparation” before financial disaster” . Explaining that recent articles on the Harry Potter films they adopt a new faith . a normal Republican Party would enumerating their positive values . • Denunciation of proselytizing have conceded some points to the “Evil is never presented as fascinating or with the use of “financial incen- Democrats to cement the gains made attractive in the saga, but the values of tives and rewards ”. in negotiations and not demanded friendship and of sacrifice are highlighted. • Regarding faith healing, the complete surrender, he wrote: “But In a unique and long story of formation, document instructs missionaries over the past few years, the Party through painful passages of dealing with to ensure the “vulnerability of has been infected by a faction that is death and loss, the hero and his compan- ions mature from the light-heartedness of people and their need for healing more of a psychological protest than infancy to the complex reality of adulthood are not exploited ”. a practical, governing alternative . The …Eternal life is reached through death, members of this movement have no the benefits of globalization. not without it. And Harry Potter, although sense of moral decency…they talk he never declared himself a Christian, calls Economically speaking, the world is a blandly of default and are willing to on the dark magician to mend his ways, village . The Organization for Economic stain their nation’s honour ”. Tea Party repent for what he has done and recognize Cooperation and Development tells us ideologues squandered the opportu- the primacy of love over everything so he that five shocks are likely to destabilize nity to make a realistic reduction in will not be damned for eternity.” the global economy with increasing US debt .

30 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 comment liturgy and abuse Peter Norris

eople complain about the “silly” decisions . On the other hand Pope John Paul II needs only one words for the new liturgy but people have a tremendous loyalty to more miracle to be declared a saint . sometimes they can give some our bishops but it does not mean that He was a good man and doubtless Punintentional light relief . I was sitting they agree with them at all times . will soon have one . But not everyone near the back of the church recently I was talking with someone up liked his pontificate and allowing when words for the creed came up north recently who was commenting time to heal might have allowed some on the overhead . Rather than just on the rapid beatification of Pope negative views to dissipate . My friend reciting them like everyone else, an John Paul II . I was telling him of said, “The only miracle I would elderly person near me, said in a loud what happened after the conclave accept is something being done about voice: “This is all so silly ”. She was that elected Pope Paul VI, when priests who abused children during right and I was silently endorsing Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston, his watch ”. This seems rough but her comments each time some silly stood up and proposed that the represents the view that John Paul translation variation came up on conclave declare Pope John XXIII II, in his refusal to act, made prob- screen . There is a value in ritual but a saint by acclamation . Cardinal lems worse . Some distance from the we keep changing the ritual for what Cushing admired John XXIII who moment would have allowed some of seem petty reasons . Worse still when had elevated him to the Cardinalate this negative feeling to dissipate . it becomes clear that there is fighting while Pius XII had neglected to do We may respect our leaders for between various church bodies who so . Paul VI was too shrewd a politi- their convictions and for the way are arguing about a text . Translators I cian to bring about a canonisation by they lived their lives but they still know, try to get the sense of a docu- acclamation as he probably realised have to account for mismanage- ment rather than become anal about that such a move would be a loyalty ment . I join many others in the the words . test every time a pope died . He pews who see a lot of work with The Catholic church administra- announced that he was immediately new translations as just “silly ”. I also tion asks people to accept blindly opening canonisation proceedings think that there was mismanage- quite a few things . Whether it is for Pope John XXIII and Pope Pius ment in handling sex abuse cases . I change to the Lord’s Prayer, and then XII (whom Cardinal Cushing could also join the vast majority of people changing the words back again, or to not stand!), thus forestalling the in our New Zealand churches who change some of the ritual greetings implications of a canonisation by see our leaders as good people . The back to older versions . The assump- implication . The rapid beatification rapid beatification of someone with tion is that the administration has of John Paul II will have implications a poor management track record right on its side . I think that most for the future as fans of future popes does a disservice to the man in ques- people nowadays do not make this will assume that their favourite popes tion . Some of his decisions were not assumption and lose patience with should be beatified or canonised . just “silly” and a little time should have been allowed to elapse before his beatification . n

Father Peter Norris is the Master of St Margaret’s College, University of Otago

31 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011 postscript

Down by the river Robin Kearns

was never really keen on having a dog . All that knees to drink the soft stream water, filtered by moss random defecation and holes dug in the lawn! But and roots . I think of wild rivers — those gushing she’s part of the family now and we regularly go for arteries that pump energy from the heart of the land, Iwalks along Oakley Creek . On a Sunday afternoon that cleansing our spirits . And how last December my mate longing look tells me the river’s calling her . Peter and I were in the remote Karamea River valley, She’s a retriever — in breed as well as disposition . three days walk from anywhere, and were holed up by While at the creek, she invariably strains at the leash to rain that raised the river by two metres overnight . All try and grab a floating stick or piece of rubbish . Most night the river’s roar enveloped the hut . I prayed, but recently we were there after a winter storm . She was doubted, we’d get out as planned . But by morning my beside herself with an apparent sense of duty . There was frustration turned to awe as the river settled and the so much to be plucked from the creek — plastic bottles, raging torrent calmed . That day I decided it can be good polystyrene cups, wayward tennis balls . How is it that to be stopped in our tracks . As Hemi Baxter wrote, “The our rivers have become exit routes for so much rubbish? creek has to run muddy before it can run clear ”. A rich Floating litter is just the city version of a nation- metaphor for the faith journey! wide malaise . In rural areas, cattle are random defeca- After last week’s riverbank walk, Dave Dobbyn sing- tors par excellence . Unlike many dog-owners, farmers ing, “Where you gonna be when the river don’t run at don’t pick up after their animals . All that falls in or all?” played in my head all day . Where am I going to be? near streams over-enriches the water and ultimately The slow-moving waters of Oakley Creek have become kills off complex ecologies . As I walked along the creek part of my place . I know each bend . On Sundays and on the other day I pondered — there’s an inquiry into the street corners, I feel like asking “Where is your closest price of milk, but what of the cost of dairying to our stream? How was it used by tangata whenua before your streams? Or is dairying the sacred cow to which we time? Is it clean enough to gather food from? If not, must offer a wide berth? why not? How might it be spiritually significant today?” But surely we need clean rivers for more than just I have learned from a dog who smells that all’s not the ecosystems they can support . Back in the ‘80s, I well . We too need to be retrievers — not just collecting heard Thomas Berry memorably say that the more flotsam left as litter on the riverbank, but rather seeking tainted our planet’s waterways become the less we are to retrieve the place of rivers in our lives . able to appreciate the symbolic aspects of water . In It’s time we asked questions about our waterways . other words, if we are surrounded by water that is undrink- It’s too easy just to go with the flow . n able, the meaning of baptism becomes undermined in our collective consciousness . Down by Oakley Creek, I think of the many tracks Kaaren Mathias is still on holiday. in remote regions where I’ve crouched on hands and j If you know a friend who might Subscribe to Tui Motu InterIslands enjoy reading — and maybe $28 for five issues (unwaged $24) subscribing to Tui Motu — fill in Name their details below and send it to us at: Address $56 for a one-year subscription 11 issues (unwaged $48) Freepost 97407 Overseas

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32 Tui Motu InterIslands September 2011