TuiTui MotuMotu InterIslands

August 2002 Price $4

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Tui Motu InterIslands 1 editorial

Electoral Shambles Contents 2 editorial his is written during the final days one at that – Genetic Engineering. The 3 letters Tbefore the 2002 Election. The speakers were thoroughly prepared and 4-6 Why is this life so full of care...? campaign has been dominated by TV both very able presenters. They listened James Hillman shouting matches, minor issues magni- to each other and answered each other. 7-9 Doing it our way: the Waitaha Trust fied by the media into major scandals, Point scoring was reduced to a mini- Katie O’Connor and constant bickering over who will mum. The audience was attentive and 10-12 Life on an Israeli kibbutz go into coalition with whom after July did not interrupt discussion. Katie O’Connor 26. There has been much noise and little 13-15 The Consistent Ethic of Life No one would have gone away from that Mary Eastham reason. Real issues have been ignored or swamped. debate without being better informed 16-17 The icons of Russia and perhaps guided to a reasoned choice Peter Stupples 18 Belting kids The major responsibility for this must on one of the outstanding issues of the Glynn Cardy fall on media coverage, particularly by election. Another supreme virtue was 19-21 Broken-ness: a questionable virtue TV One. The so-called leaders’ debates the total absence of Holmes or his ilk. John Hunt have been little better than circus 22 Ministry to Church leavers entertainment with Holmes, the ring- Significantly, although this debate took Trish McBride master, constantly interrupting and place right at the beginning of the 23 poetry: The Centre of the Circle preventing the development of any campaign, none of the national channels Joy Cowley rational discussion. thought to rebroadcast it. Even more 24 response significantly, the overseas proprietor Paul Green, Anna Holmes Presentation has been custom built chose the following week to pull the 25 Marriage and sexuality in favour of the master opportunist, plug on the local TV channel. Jack Dominian Winston Peters. Little wonder that, 26 in memoriam: Xavier Rynne fuelled by the applause of a lobotomised wo observations on the main Jim Neilan studio audience, the Peters’ Party ratings Tcontenders. Helen Clark never fails 27 Labourer in the vineyard to register her consummate political skill Pat Reid have soared. These misnamed ‘debates’ are constantly interrupted by commerc- and her mastery of detail. However, 27-29 films and books an interesting chink in her armour Mike Crowl; Kevin Burns ial breaks often featuring scare- mongering political advertisements. has appeared during the campaign. Kathleen Doherty Whenever an edge of scorn comes into 30 Crosscurrents And so, during these final days, poll her voice, you can guarantee she is on John Honoré ratings are fluctuating almost as wildly 31 Voices from the past and mindlessly as the Dow Jones index. shaky ground. It is her way of dealing Humphrey O’Leary CSsR with doubt, and she manifested it 32 postscript Over three weeks of the campaign repeatedly towards the Greens and the Tom Cloher I witnessed one really worthwhile GE issue. She knows that both her logic debate – between Green leader Jeanette and her science are vulnerable so she uses Fitzsimon and Labour Minister for the this rhetorical technique to escape facing a new series Environment, Pete Hodgson. It took up to an issue which may well haunt place in Dunedin Town Hall, ably her – and us – for many years to come. Regular extracts from a recent book chaired by an eminent barrister, Judith by Dr Jack Dominian, psychiatrist and Ablett-Kerr. It was televised in full with Bill English has reinforced his image as a commentator on marriage and human minimal breaks by local TV. There was doughty scrapper. He is never overawed relationships. adequate time for questions from the by a hostile protagonist, even Kim Hill (Let’s Make Love, Darton Longman & at her most waspish. However, I never Todd Ltd., is available from the NZ floor, which were often thoughtful and cease to be amazed that he should have distributor Catholic Supplies, Wellington) challenging. After a full hour and a half the debate was still in full swing, so TV so shamelessly hitched his pennant to coverage was simply extended to allow the Law and Order bandwagon. How the process to proceed to its natural many times during the campaign has Cover: Time to stand and stare conclusion. he trotted out the 92 percent figure? Donald Moorhead illustrates the fable of “Ninety Two percent of the electorate The Hare and the Tortoise as an introduction Why was this debate so good? First, in 1999 voted for stricter sentencing”, to the leading article on pages 4-6. there was one topic only – and a crucial he cries ad nauseam. That figure is a

2 Tui Motu InterIslands letters totally dishonest statistic – and he must or 30 years? The manner of this election which afflicts every sphere of modern know it. The 1999 vote was based on and its media presentation must, life, not just politics or media comment, a question so loaded that no court of however, make us pause and ponder. we present as our leading article a law would ever have countenanced it. reflection on the Eighth Deadly Sin. It was another version of the notorious What seems to be obscured or lost in What’s that? Read overleaf and find out! question: “Have you ceased beating the constant media-driven stampede for Read it and then apply its critique of our your wife yet?” The question was quick responses and instant answers is Western world to the way our election wilfully misleading, and therefore the any exploration of depth, any rational has been fought and presented to us by result has no value except to show how debate in search of truth, or any the media. not to word a referendum question. evidence drawn from mature experi- ence. Wisdom is displaced by pragma- You may conclude that in place of It is also evident that Mr English needs tism. Rational argument gives way to ever higher economic growth, of ever a crash course on the virtues of restor- the soundbite and the tele-opportunity. more complex assessment procedures ative justice. He could do worse than Prudence and reflection are sacrificed to to in place of exams, of new assaults on study the writings of Cardinal Joseph haste and expediency. crime, what we in New Zealand need Bernardin (see article pages 13-15). is wisdom – the wisdom to cherish You could say that this accurately and enhance the huge assets of this lections come and go. Who will reflects the instant society we live in: green and pleasant land and its richly Eremember the Holmes debates in instant food, instant comment, instant endowed and talented people. Will three months time, let alone three years closure. In response to this malaise M.H.

Tougher sentencing? to the taxpayer, could never have as Catholics, as Wel-Com gave its Richard Prebble, in his call for harsher done! He has picked up her ideas and readers in the dioceses of Palmerston penalties and his courting of the is now a very fine man at peace with North and Wellington, through a fine ‘Lock’m-up-and-throw-away-the- his community. article by Cardinal Tom Williams key brigade!’ will, no doubt, attract John Miller, Christchurch Social Teachings to Guide Catholic considerable public support in our voters (July issue). increasingly fear and violence-ridden His first principle, the protection culture. Or lack of it! Hitler received letters ✍ of human life and dignity, covered like support in his campaign against issues that mainstream politics in the Jews who terrified him! New Zealand tries to largely avoid, In vivid contrast, there was a man Election coverage preferring to deal with issues affecting with a frightening moko on his face Thank you for the July issue. Quite the economy and other material things, (Tui Motu July cover). His father was a few thought-provoking articles. 0I as did John Honoré. a criminal and he had a terrible life of particularly found interesting those Brian Quin SM, Wellington abuse and did time in prison. A prime about Challenge 2000 and Kitty Tui Motu’s strategy was to offer column McKinley. candidate for Prebble’s solution! space to various parties, but the early election I think that in recent months you have But a woman with radically different date frustrated this. ideas to Richard got hold of him and been balanced in your pre-election As with all matters political and social, we really stuck with him. She has done coverage. I would, though, have aim to raise issues to help people make up for him, on a shoe-string budget, that liked to have seen something on the their minds, not make up people’s minds for which a lifetime in jail, at a huge cost principles that should guide our voting

Tui Motu-InterIslands is an independent, Catholic, monthly magazine. It invites its readers to question, challenge and contribute to its discussion of spiritual and social issues in the light of gospel values, and in the interests of a more just and peaceful society. Inter-church and inter-faith dialogue is welcomed. The name Tui Motu was given by Pa Henare Tate. It literally means “stitching the islands together...”, bringing the different races and peoples and faiths together to create one Pacific people of God. Divergence of opinion is expected and will normally be Tui Motu-InterIslands published, although that does not necessarily imply editorial commitment to the viewpoint expressed. Independent Catholic Magazine Ltd P O Box 6404, Dunedin North, 9030 Phone: 03 477 1449 Fax: 03 477 8149 email: [email protected] ISSN 1174-8931 Editor: Michael Hill IC, Assistant Editor: Frances Skelton, Illustrator: Don Moorhead Directors: Rita Cahill RSJ, Tom Cloher (chair), Margaret Darroch, Robin Kearns, Chris Loughnan OP, Elizabeth Mackie OP, Judith McGinley OP, Kathleen Rushton RSM, Julia Stuart Printed by Rogan McIndoe Print Ltd

Tui Motu InterIslands 3 hree other characteristics of our times are hurled along by the same river: the cults of tech- Tnology, competition, and celebrity: •The principal improvements brought by technological change, until the electronic computer age, were labour- James Hillman saving and space-saving. A technological advance was measurable in the number varice, gluttony, vanity, Time is imagined as a racing river, of working hours saved by a machine, lasciviousness, envy, wrath and gathering speed as it flows in one and the machine could compact and sloth – to these classical seven direction only: “He who hesitates is reduce materials into more manageable Adeadly sins, according to Aldous Huxley, lost,” as the saying goes. Caution can and transportable size. But now we moderns, despite our inventive only be imagined as timidity, pessimism, technological change brings mainly genius and after so many centuries, recalcitrant obstinacy, stubborn and the benefit of speed: more done more have been able to add only one new stupid clinging to old ways. quickly. What is saved is time. sin. The sin? Haste, hurry, rush, speed, momentum, acceleration. We live in Thus, when the precautionary principle • Time also curses the joys of discovery. the economics of hurry, and the planet enters public debate, the sides are It is no longer enough to experiment, itself heats up with the energy of our drawn on archetypal, even mythical ponder serendipitously, discover. There hastening. lines. On the one side, optimism, is a crushing competitive pressure to futurism, expansion, positive thinking, be first with a formula, a method, a Time is money, and therefore the old a progressivist advance that meets product. The first to publish may get adages have been cast aside: More haste, obstacles as they arise and overcomes a Nobel award; the first in the market less speed; Look before you leap; Haste them with redoubled energy. This is the makes the most gain. maketh waste; A stitch in time saves nine; heroic mind, moving single-mindedly Fools rush in where angels fear to tread; forward, rising to every challenge, We are in the age of the short-cut, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound confident in its own ability, no monster corporate espionage and falsified results of cure. too large, no wall too impenetrable. – because of competition. As in a foot Why is this life so full of care? We have no time to stand and stare

Haste, the spirit of hurrying time, As long as time is imagined in accord race, only the one coming in first affects human biology as well. Menarche with the heroic impulse, caution is qualifies; the others are losers. A culture comes on earlier and earlier; children doomed from the start. It can only that promotes winners gets more and grow taller faster; athletes break records, be envisioned as blocking, stopping, more losers. hurdling faster, leaping higher, farther. an impediment in the river, clogging And haste affects our psychiatric its flow, producing backwaters and • The cult of celebrity – the idea that diagnostics: who wants to be considered stagnant pools. Caution has only each of us may have our “15 minutes slow, retarded, passive, withdrawn, the one face given by heroic single- of fame”, in the words of Andy Warhol regressed, fixated...? mindedness. – has radically altered the notion of

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fame. In Roman and Renaissance times, never justify the short-term means, but risk assessments, so as to discover their fama, or reputation, was imagined to be that the ends must show their nobility values, their intentions beyond ours, so like an invisible accompanying spirit, in each moment of the means. The that we might work with them, even one’s own genius passed to one by one’s precautionary principle has something follow their lead, for their sake as well ancestors. It was more precious than to offer here for resolving this dilemma as ours. one’s own life, to be served, honoured, of correlating means and ends. That enhanced by one’s actions, and kept they correlate only too well in predatory 2. The cautionary spirit : Its most untarnished. Its lasting benefits passed corporate economics is visible the world remembered appearance occurs in the on to one’s heirs, descending to future over: exploitation of mineral resources cell where Socrates awaited his hemlock generations with the family crest and (ends) correlates with the means of poison. When asked why he did not name. Now fame has been speeded up ravaged Earth, oppressed indigenous escape, he said he had not been urged to and replaced by celebrity. peoples, destruction of ecological by his daimon – spirit, angel, inner voice balance, deterioration of culture. But – and, as he explains, the cautionary The principle of precaution how is it possible to correlate means and spirit never tells one what to do, only The administrator of the Environ- ends in a positive way? what not to do; it acts only as a caution. mental Protection Agency of the It speaks in a peculiarly non-statistical current Bush administration, Christie unscientific manner – anecdotally, Whitman, said at the National superstitiously, symptomat-ically with Academy of Sciences Meetings in omens and hints and whispers; even by Washington DC: “Policy-makers bodily events like sneezes, yawns and need to take a precautionary approach hiccoughs. to environmental protection... We 3. A third psychological background must acknowledge that uncertainty is By slowing and questioning the most inherent in managing natural resources, to caution is quite simply depression. evidently efficient means, precaution Depression slows all heroic endeavour; recognise that it is usually easier to invites innovations and experiment. prevent environmental damage than the very thought of action is too much! The necessity caused by caution actually Hence, depression whether of the to repair it later, and shift the burden becomes the mother of invention. Three of proof away from those advocating psyche or of the economy is desperately grounds for caution are particularly feared in Westernised societies and every protection toward those proposing an noteworthy: action that may be harmful.” possible measure is mobilised against it. 1. First, the Hippocratic maxim: So far so good, but the Whitman statement primum nihil nocere. Before all else, The pressures we feel, the drugs we take, remains in the realm of means – how best harm nothing. Before any action or plan the expectations we nurture and the to proceed or not proceed. What about for action consider first the down-side dictates of global economic expansion before the upside. Explore the risks are all anti-depressive measures. long-term ends rather than the benefits. Expenditures Psychiatry could easily say that the headlong rush of the river itself is a – however noble – on research shall focus on worst-case scenarios, and extend the notion of manic defence against depression. can never justify ‘harm’ fully. short-term means The Hippocratic maxim suggests two thoughts, at least: the ends which the means serve? What • that intervention in the ways of the is the wider purpose of a project? If the world, despite the delusions that heroic ends are competitive advantage, increased goodness brings to its ambitions, always profitability, tax-ation advantages, do not invites a shadow. Yin accompanies Yang, 4. Besides the Hippocratic, Socratic these ends disqualify the means no matter always and everywhere. and depressive backgrounds to the how protective of the environment they psych-ology of caution, there is a fourth: may be? • that the Earth has its own virtues and beauty. As noted by Thomas Aquinas forces: nature may be acting in ways Suppose, however, the ends seem more and repeated by James Joyce, beauty that our lack of caution does not let us noble – safer cures, a cooler Earth, arrests motion. Beauty brings us up see. Hippocratic caution brings with cleaner water, species conservation – are short. We catch our breath, stand in it a background in ancient animism, then the means justified by these ends? surprise, or in awe and wonder or even a respect for the dignity and power of terror, as Rilke said. This momentary Moral philosophy holds that long- phenomena, inviting a listening ear into suspension in the face of a moment of term ends, no matter how noble, can phenomena, beyond cost benefits and beauty is true as well for ugliness which ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 5 social justice ss makes the soul shrink back within itself insensitive forward thrust, in order to Our noses too, and our eyes and ears, and turn away. open the senses by inviting the aesthetic are political instruments, protesters. response. Then, as the arresting moment An aesthetic response is a political The gasp, “ahh-h”, lies at the root of the flees, the principle of precaution can action. Like the daimon of Socrates who word ‘aesthetic’. This aesthetic response incorporate into its innovative explor- indicates only what not to do, we too whether to the ugly or the beautiful ations an aesthetic awareness, insisting know instinctively, aesthetically when shows an immediate instinctual that any plan or project does not neglect a fish stinks, when the sense of beauty awareness regarding the world before the demand that beauty makes, or the is offended. aesthetic judgments and before taste. deleterious effects of ugliness. Standing for these moments – and these beauty comes upon us Were we to arouse our senses from their moments occur each day, within every psychic numbing, many of the products airless office building, seated in each at a glance, seizes us. . . and programmes, the very river of crippling chair, inundated by senseless and lets go time itself, hastened on its course by noise and fattened on industrial food the powers that rule governments, beauty econ-omists, corporations, media and Beauty comes upon us at a glance, seizes industries, would slow enough to seep like caution, is not and lets go; as does horror. The aesthetic into other channels that have not yet meant to stand still response is given with the psyche like been irrigated and so have never had a the inner cautionary daimon that holds chance to bloom. one back, like the depressive mood that – standing for our responses, these refuses action. Were our aesthetic responses to awaken, aesthetic reverberations of truth in the we would not need the admonitions soul, may be the primary civic act of Beauty, however, prompts action. That implied by the principle of precaution the citizen, the origin of caution and of is – the naive aesthetic response leads – not even Hippocratic warnings and the precautionary principle itself with on to aesthetic protest against ugliness Socratic omens. The individual human’s its warnings to stop, look and listen. ■ on the one hand, and on the other, aesthetic response would alter the very James Hillman is a Jungian psychologist and the author an aesthetic desire to preserve, protect course of history and the shape of things of The Soul’s Code. Reprinted courtesy of Resurgence magazine. Visit their website: www.resurgence.org and restore the beautiful. Of course, we live among. various attempts to conserve can turn into reactionary conservatism hostile to technological change. Going backwards results from the identification of beauty with the particular moment of its appearance, CENACLE MINI SABBATICAL which can be naturalism, romanticism, Thursday 6th MARCH – Tuesday 15th APRIL 2003 modernism... Each of these holds the In Mark 6:30 Jesus said: aesthetic response captive, chained “Come away to some quiet place all by yourselves and rest for awhile”. to dogma and deprived of its naive spontaneity. A Sabbatical gives time set apart – ✻ For remembering the holiness of life What the response seeks is a heightened ✻ For personal renewal and refreshment sensitivity and breadth so that the ✻ To regain a new enthusiasm for life – ministry – community! response comes into play ever more ✻ Time to slow down and renew your vision! frequently and perceptively. In earlier times this was called the gradual The mini sabbatical allows opportunity for a loosely structured program, offering improvement of taste. a six-day retreat, a seminar on the Enneagram and Spirituality and a two-day reflection on Jesus and His Land. Time to pray, relax, read, share with others, read and reflect, Here we must distinguish the moment on the beautiful shores of Moreton Bay 55 minutes from the city of Brisbane – in an of arrested movement from an identifi- area noted for the Koala population and native bird life. cation with the arrest itself, as if beauty must stand still. But beauty, like caution, For further information: is not meant to stand still. The saying is not “Don’t leap,” but “Look before Sr Pat Clouston, Cenacle Retreat House, Centre of Spiritual Development 267 Wellington Street, Ormiston, Q.4160 you leap”. Beauty means only for us Tel (07)3286-4011 Fax (07)3821-3788 to arrest for a moment the senseless

6 Tui Motu InterIslands Tunahau Kohu is living proof that second chance education taught the Maori way can rescue many people who failed our education system the first time. Katie O’Connor pays a visit to Waitaha – a Christchurch adult education trust Doing it our way

Tunahau Kohu is a kaiako (tutor) for the know how to answer a question. The The courses here are full-time and run Waitaha Trust: Nga Peka Matauranga emphasis is always ‘support the learner’. throughout the year. We have about 40 o Waitaha. Your classmates are there to support places on the various programmes. One This is an educational enterprise in you. A problem with Maori people is of these is Maori tikanga, about our Christchurch and runs programmes in this in-built shyness. customs and values. Maori language and customs. It attracts people coming back to education in later Sometimes people come to us straight At the start the students learn about life, although there are some young people. out of gaol. Recently we had a student themselves: where they were born; their Many of the students go on from Waitaha who’d just finished a 15 year sentence. tribes; their hapu; their marae. We get to do full University courses. He was a mess. He didn’t even know them to meet people from their own how to sit up at a table! A man in tribe who are in the city. This gives them he people who come here, says his 40s! It took about a week for him a sense of their Maori identity. Tunahau, may have grown up to start to feel comfortable with the in contact with Maori culture environment. Some who come are The next thing is to learn the language. Tbut when they come to the city they street kids. We get drug addicts, we get All our lives people have said to us: leave it behind. I was like that. I missed homeless people. And some finish up “Where the hell is that (learning Maori) the language when I came to the city. with degrees. So there are a lot of success going to get you?” I say to them: That’s what we provide. stories about this place. “Suppose the Asians who are coming in suddenly said to us Kiwis: ‘you are Often when people come here, they The education system in New Zealand no longer going to speak English. From had a bad time at school many years has not served Maori people. We get now on you speak Japanese! You have earlier. So we have to embed them into a few straight from school – the ones to understand the vehicles and techno- a whanau environment where they will the schools cannot deal with. And we logy which is all made in Japan.’ How become excited about learning. That succeed with them too. Once again, would you feel if someone said that to had not happened to them at school. they can begin to belong here because you – ‘Your culture no longer matters As Maori in a class of pakeha kids, we it becomes their whanau. any more’?” found everyone else knew what the teacher was talking about except us! We want to get people to the stage Our kaumatua would say to us: “Our where they are really excited about language is the jewel of our prestige!” So the programmes at the Trust are in what is happening here. They want to We’re told we are New Zealanders. language which people can understand. learn. They were told they were dumb at But we don’t quite fit. Our identity is Our system follows the marae way, school, so they believed they were dumb our language. It helps make us whole. where you are nurtured by grandparents and just finished up doing labouring Within the language we find the wairua, and elders. No one is yelling and jobs. But they aren’t dumb! They are the spirit of Maoridom. We cannot fully screaming at you because you don’t able to use their brains. translate that. We are taught about love ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 7 social justice ss – ‘aroha’ –­ but it is deeper than romantic for 12 years. She did a lot of one-to-one overwhelmed when they saw us all feelings. It centres on something you’re tutoring. She started with people whose there. They didn’t really know the work passionate about. reading and writing was at the level of she had been doing for the last years seven-year-olds. They found grammar of her life. About 40 of us went to the It is the language which teaches us to very hard. It took her a year to get them funeral. She had spent a lot of time with belong. It counters all the negativity we on track. us and she came to know our customs. have received. Our genes only allowed So we walked down the aisle, and we Eleanor was also the counsellor, so she us to become a mechanic or a painter. put roses on her casket. We didn’t have the genes to get to got to know the students personally Varsity and become a doctor! and built on that trust. Then they At a pakeha funeral people don’t cry. were able to learn and to pass exams They don’t show emotion, except The method for teaching language is ‘A and maybe move on to Varsity study. Eleanor’s daughter and grandchildren. Taaranei’ – a method using coloured Eleanor died recently, and that has left But the people were blown away by rods, developed by an American with an enormous gap. She was the ‘mother’ what we did for her and what we said indigenous people in America. It was our aim is about her, so they came up afterwards brought to New Zealand and two and thanked us. women developed the method on marae to give skills in numeracy all over the country. She had been our kuria. She looked out and literacy of place with us, but she was there. I Some of our older people objected and work a lot in the gaols. To have this of this place. She came out of the ‘40s, said our language came direct from Io, lady among the mobsters and the Black when the Queen was important. She from God. They said the new way was Power members with the full moko – fitted perfectly into that scene. Her useless. But those who took it on found this white haired pakeha woman among posture was regal, and when she spoke that using the coloured rods they could all these thugs! It used to make me it fascinated us because she sounded the build the words more easily, and retain laugh. But she was quite at home with way the Queen talks! We had never been what they had learned. So this is the them, and they felt comfortable with exposed to a person like that before. way it is now taught throughout the her. She represented what they were country. It’s a lot of fun. When you’re She was a pakeha schoolteacher. At her afraid of: she looked like a judge. I told happy learning, you want to learn. funeral her family and friends were the people at the funeral all about that. When they go on from us to Varsity they will come across people who are Eleanor Palmer (1931-2002) too academic for their own good, and don’t know how to deal with someone l e a n o r Eleanor was a lively, creative person. with no academic background. They are Palmer She was born in West Otago and put off by the jargon. But we reassure Edied in Janu- boarded at Gore High School for them: “learn it that way”, we say, “so ary 2002 at her schooling. From there she went we can empower ourselves that way”. the age of 70; on to Teacher’s College in Dunedin Here we build their confidence so they for the last 12 and studied to be a home science will be able to cope. The Varsity tutors years of her teacher. But after her family had have also come through these courses. life she had grown up, she moved into what was been literacy to be her real vocation – remedial We do a lot of singing and that helps keep and numeracy tutor at the Waitaha teaching and youth work. people here. It’s another way of learning, Trust, in Christchurch. But she was especially as regards language. Waiata so much more than a teacher – she Her friends testify that she was very enthusiastic about this work even plays a big part. What many find difficult became a guide, counsellor and though at times she might have to is writing. They may not have used a pen friend to some 200 students over those years. deal with people with deep resent- for a long time. We get them to write up ments against society, especially what happens on their own marae, and Although Eleanor was a strong pakeha society. She helped them that is meaningful for them and they person she was also an excellent work through their anger. As a can relate to it. Maori was always an oral listener and was never afraid to teacher she was firm and demanding language, so learning to write it is not easy. become involved in the situations – but also good-humoured and Our aim eventually is to give the students and difficulties of others. She loved affectionate. She is remembered as her work with the Trust because she skills in numeracy and literacy. a true ‘mother’ figure in the work of loved people. Long hours of one-to- the Waitaha Trust. Eleanor Palmer came to us after a one tutoring can be very taxing, yet lifetime in teaching and stayed with us she continued on at Wataha as long as her fragile health would permit.

8 Tui Motu InterIslands grew up in a marae environment. Tunahau’s I was brought up by my grand- parents. My grandfather had died, Iand I had a fight with a teacher at story school. I hit him and just walked out. I went home. My grandmother packed me some tins of corned beef and gave me $3 – and I left. I hitch-hiked to Auckland from Tauranga.

I found this boarding house, and the pakeha lady gave me a feed and sent me to a place where I could find work. I got a job, and the lady let me stay there until I had some money to pay her. I started sweeping the streets for $30 a week.

I joined up with the Stormtroopers gang. We used to put $2 aside each week What woke me up was helping my kids to come here and learn, just sign this so as to go to this other country – the with their homework. Some bright paper. Otherwise, just throw it away.” South Island – where they were going spark sent a Maori tutor to the girls’ I signed on. But the first week I refused to have the Commonwealth Games in school. They came back and told me to stand up and be acknowledged with Christchurch. By the end of the year about what they were learning, and they a mihi by the class. I came in all dressed we had enough money for a minivan. would ask: “What’s the Maori word for up in leather. But a friend taught me ‘door’ or ‘window’?” And I realised I the words how to introduce myself in During this time I had very little contact didn’t know! with pakeha people. I believed they Maori. I paced up and down until two ripped us off, taking everything from I had grown up with Maori language. in the morning repeating it. The kids us and we were second-class citizens My grandmother spoke it all the time. were saying: “Dad! Shut up and get among them. Joining a gang was finding But I didn’t want it. TV arrived at the to bed!” a whanau. They took me along to their time I was growing up – and here was Next morning I stood up and said: “Ko pad: they had everything I dreamed something else. So I wanted to get away Tunahau a ho nga Tauranga ho. Tene about there. There were girls there! I from the marae and the language. was very excited. koto. Tena koto katoa”. I was waiting Anyway I went to see my cousin and for someone to smirk at me, and I was Then, when I got to Christchurch he taught me the Maori words for going to run across the room and kick on holiday, I went to this hotel and ‘door and ‘window’! Then I went to him in the head! That was my mindset. there were these pakeha girls who see a friend who had learned Maori But instead they all said: “Kia ora, kia were looking at us. We wondered and was teaching it. That was when I ora, welcome!” And they grabbed hold why, then we found they were came here to the Waitaha Trust. He of me and hugged me, and it really made interested in us and wanted to talk to said to me: “Hang on! If you want to me feel good. And I never sat in that us. So we went and stayed with them. do this you’re going to have to come corner again! And we found the pakeha people in here and learn!” the shops and the street were friendly So I took it on. Eleanor taught me how to us. At the end of the week I said So he showed me round, where they to read and write. And 14 months later to others: “I’ll see you fellows – I’m did advanced Kohanga Reo Maori and they gave me a job. Up to that time I had staying down here”. where they learned about computers. sold drugs, cheated the Social Welfare. I He introduced me to Evelyn, who was went down the pub drinking and didn’t I joined another gang in Christchurch. in charge. I said to myself: “No! a bloody go home for two days. I went through a period of selling dope ‘baldhead’ (a white person)”. to make more money. But it wasn’t a I left all that behind. But I brought a bad experience altogether. Eventually I He persuaded me to come and meet lot of the guys who had been with me met a young lady from Rotorua, and we her. This lady spoke to me for two before to this place so that they could settled down and had nine kids! Eight hours and told me what the place was change too. I know where they have girls and, then, a boy. Now they range all about – but she didn’t want anything been, so I can deal with them. Even from me. Then she said: “If you want from 24 down to seven. the guys in the gaols. You don’t stand in ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 9 international

Life on an Israeli kibbutz

“It would drive me crazy”, says TV producer Lorraine Isaacs (left), who has lived most of her life in Invercargill and Dunedin. Born into a Jewish family in South Africa, she emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 8. Lorraine has visited Israel many times and talked to Tui Motu about life on a kibbutz and the present troubled situation

y family originally came from Northern Europe Facilities are communal although every family has its own (Ashkenazi Jews as opposed to Sephardic, from house. There is no private wealth but the kibbutz takes S Europe). They escaped from the European responsibility for the wellbeing of its members. They were Mghettos to go and live in S Africa – and spread from there to set up on the borders and were a protection or buffer for Israel and to many other countries, including New Zealand. I Israel from its Arab neighbours, who have always tended to have an aunt who moved to Israel and cousins, my aunt’s son be hostile to the existence of Israel. The new settlers went and daughter, who have lived there on the same two kibbutz either to the cities or to a kibbutz. since 1965. I have visited there a few times. Over the years the typical kibbutz has diversified into The very first kibbutz was established by Jews in Palestine more of a manufacturing economy, computers for instance. in 1909. The first members of my family went to set up the Many of the people living on the kibbutz will now go out kibbutz Tzorah in 1948. A kibbutz is a voluntary collective to work somewhere else. My cousin’s wife 30 years ago community, mainly agricultural. It can be seen as a form worked only on the kibbutz. Now she travels half an hour of ‘communism’. to Jerusalem for work.

front of them and look down on them, and it’s interesting to me how it runs finish our day like that, acknowledging ss like a lot of people do. alongside the Bible story of creation. everyone who came during the day. They run side by side. Until coming here In the classrooms we have a karakia I have been a tutor now for 11 years. I’ve I had never opened the Bible. You say enrolled to get a Bachelor of Education session also with the students. They to yourself: “Didn’t Tane do that – just too get used to framing their learning degree in Maori. I’m not interested in as Moses did in the Bible?” just chasing more money. I want to in prayer. We teach them about half a dozen karakia – about blessing food, stay here and help these people. It’s the framing their learning lowest paid job I’ve ever been in – but about health, opening and ending the there is huge job satisfaction. Before, in prayer day, acknowledging someone who is in I worked just to feed my children. I hospital, their loved ones. watched the clock all day! Every morning here we start with a Before I came here I had no faith. But there are lots of messages for me now in My family don’t mind. Because doing karakia session. We start with a prayer the Bible. When I read about the narrow this job has made me a better person. I and a reading. We sing. We open up the gate in Matthew, I think of going to speak Maori at home with the children. floor, so that all the matters are dealt Varsity as a road that not many people But I’m also quite at home in the pakeha with. If we have any trouble we settle it travel. Multitudes go along the other world too. That is what Waitaha has here – even if it’s hurtful. Then we round path – but it doesn’t do them any good! given me. it up with a karakia and we join hands. The wairua flows from each person to We have the courage to tread this path It has also been a spiritual journey. We everyone through the linking of hands. now, achieving the goals we have set for learn about the Maori Creation story, We finish with a chant. We start and ourselves. ■

10 Tui Motu InterIslands So what’s it like living on a kibbutz today? That isn’t for everybody – it would drive me crazy! You In 1948 the kibbutz where I stayed had vineyards and dairy get together and do everything together, and it isn’t easy cattle. Today there are still dairy cows producing milk for to make friends outside the circle. There is not much in the cities. It still grows grapes. They even produce wine the way of art and culture. You do not do things on your in conjunction with a local Franciscan monastery. It grows own. For instance, you don’t go shopping. You give a list coffee, rears turkeys and has a furniture factory, and makes to someone else who goes to Haifa and gets it for you! equipment for the disabled. Somebody else makes the children’s clothes. For me it is too ‘communal’. I like to make my own choices. Money earned is pooled. My cousins do not own their own car, but whenever they need one they can register to borrow My cousin goes into Jerusalem and manages a major one. It is noticeable that money is used much more now orchestra. In the evening he returns to the kibbutz. And if it than in the old days. Once you simply fed in the communal is his turn on the roster, he is handing out the food, washing dining room. Now your meals are charged against your the dishes, cleaning the floor afterwards. If he is working budget according to the amount of money you bring in. fulltime, it is not too much, but he is obliged to do his bit. So those who earn more from their work can save to go on overseas trips. In the old days everyone received the same It is a very sheltered little world. My impression is that whatever they did. there are fewer marriage break-ups, fewer mental health problems, because there is this sense of communal loyalty. There are 270 kibbutz in Israel on which 120,000 people You are less likely to grow away from your marriage live. That is three percent of the total Israeli population. partner if both of you have the same ideals. Among the They vary between a hundred and a thousand members. 900 members I never came across any broken marriages. Tzorah has 900 members so it is one of the bigger ones. It The kibbutzim are mostly secular. There are no services. has two and half thousand acres of agricultural land. On God is not discussed. Israeli standards that is huge. The whole country is only the size of Southland: 240 km from north to south, yet only What about the Jewish religion? How widely is it 20 km across in places. practised? The kibbutz Tzorah is mentioned in the Old Testament as There is a guesthouse for visitors. All 900 can eat in the one the birthplace of Samson. Even though the kibbutzim are dining room. A huge common laundry. It is run like a small secular they keep up their Jewish traditions. In December village. It is guarded. There are no roads for cars. Everyone when we were there, they celebrated Hannukah – a festival has their own little garden. It has its own primary school of light which commemorates the Dedication of the second and a high school that also serves the surrounding villages. Temple in about 165 BC. The festival lasts for eight days, because the tradition is that the Temple oil miraculously People come as visitors and may work up to a year. To lasted for eight days. settle there you have to be Jewish and prepared to give your wealth to the kibbutz. You must have work to contribute It reminded me of the Christian loaves and fishes miracle. to the kibbutz. You are vetted by the kibbutz association The people were miraculously provided for! It is a lovely to be allowed to join. That process may take 18 months. festival. There is no tradition of giving expensive presents, but there are traditions of eating sugar buns and the children What effect does this communal style of life have on playing with spinning tops. the ‘family dynamic’? My aunt who has lived there since 1965 has her own great They also celebrate Passover roundabout Easter, celebrating grandchildren living there too: four generations of one the fact that the angel of death which struck down the family. In the early days the children were brought up Egyptians ‘passed over’ the Israelites and spared them. communally, like a whanau situation. At first the children They are celebrating God saving the people at the time of lived all together, but after one generation the kibbutzim the Exodus. They also celebrate the Day of Atonement, decided to go back to a family situation. fasting all day before their ‘new year’ in September. It is a day of atoning for all the wrongdoings of the previous The next generation of children were brought up in family year. So they continue their traditions even though they are units, and they have a much closer bond, I would say, with in many respects a secular society. their birth parents. Interestingly, the first generation of children spoke Hebrew, so their English tends to be poor, There are of course lots of very religious Jews who tend to whereas the next generation speak excellent English and live in particular areas in the cities. I am not just referring speak Hebrew as well. My impression is that the younger to the ultra-Orthodox (whom everyone dislikes!). In generation are more friendly and loving than their parents. Jerusalem there is a district called Meashearim, where the ultra-Orthodox are. You are not allowed in the streets unless Living in a kibbutz means living in an agricultural village. your head is covered and women must wear dresses. The ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 11 ss men are dressed as they were in 17th Century Poland, long something for these refugees, who have been better off, black coats, black fur hats, beards and ringlets round their especially the women, under Israeli rule than under their ears – for the men. The women shave their heads when own Arab neighbours. The problem is not only Israel’s. they marry and always cover their heads and wear long dresses. Their life of synagogue worship and strict bible The Arab women under Israeli rule are better off because reading would not be possible on a kibbutz. at least now they have some rights. Their children are better educated and housed, whereas Arab Muslim I think a lot of the problems law afforded them no rights. in Israel spring from the My family sees no possibility of peace There are Palestinian schools intolerance of the ultra-Orthodox as long as Arafat is chairman... I would in Jerusalem itself. There is fundament-alist Jews, just as include Ariel Sharon in that. a Palestinian town Abu Gosh the Arab problems spring from bordering Jerusalem, where the fundamentalist Muslims – and the mayor says he is Jerusalem’s best Christian problems from ultra-Orthodox Christians. When friend and resents any prospect of a change in the status quo. they go so far ‘to the right’ in any of these religions, they become rigid in their beliefs and hateful towards everyone How safe did you feel in Israel on your recent visit? else – to the point where they are prepared to kill those who The unsafe parts were the Palestinian areas, the West Bank do not believe as they do. and Gaza strip. Also parts of the cities, such as Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem itself where young people gather. My view is that Israel should give these territories back You see tanks on the road, young Israeli soldiers carrying in return for an absolute guarantee from the Arab states submachine guns, you are searched at the airport by armed allowing Israel to exist. My family who have always lived guards. When I went in to Jerusalem to go to the museum I there would not see it like that, but my brother and sister- had to promise my family I would not stand at a bus stop,

Shalom! Welcome to Kibbutz Tzora

in-law who have been there for the past three years only but would travel straight there and back in a taxi. You have would agree with me. to be careful, even in the Jewish areas. The illegal Jewish settlements built since 1967 would have My brother and family feel as safe there as anywhere, to be abandoned and the people moved back into West provided they avoid the danger spots. So far the Israel. The government settled these with refugees, mostly suicide bombers have not been into the smaller places. Russian, as a further buffer zone. These people never had Unfortunately you cannot travel to places like Bethlehem any choice where they lived. They are constantly in need or Jericho which are under the Palestinian authority because of the Israeli Army for protection. If they were resettled they are not safe. there would no longer be need for such a large Israeli Army. My family sees no possibility of peace as long as Arafat is How do you see the rights of the Palestinian people? chairman of the Palestinian authority. But I would include I feel sorry for them. But I also deplore the fact that the Ariel Sharon in that. Those two men have been at war for neighbouring Arab states do not lift a finger to help them. 50 years, since Israel was set up as a state in 1948. Until Some of these Palestinians have lived in refugee camps for they are replaced by younger men there will be no chance 50 years. Look how reluctant the Arab states have been even of peace. ■ to accept the 13 Arab gunmen locked up in the Church of the Nativity. Ironically, only the Israelis have tried to do

12 Tui Motu InterIslands theology The Consistent Ethic of Life

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin challenged the new Religious Right in America to reverence human life in all its aspects. Mary Eastham concludes this two-part account of Bernardin’s life

ll theology is contextual. This centred upon individual rights in life- is especially true of public style choices, economic entitlements theology which holds before us and global responsibility. In domestic aA moral vision of human possibility. In policy liberals champion the ‘right of A Consistent Ethic of Life: An American- a woman to choose’, gay and lesbian Catholic Dialogue(1983), Cardinal rights, a strong welfare state to protect Joseph Bernardin notes the uniquely economically disadvantaged Americans American context of his moral vision. and an end to the death penalty. In He is aware of deep contradictions foreign policy, they promote a nuclear- within American culture; and yet he free policy and laws to protect the also knows that the American people environment. can respond to a powerful moral vision. The most glaring inconsistency in Since the conversation between religion, the liberal position is the alarming morality and politics has always been blind-spot between individual life- alive and well in the United States, a style choices and their long-term skilled public philosopher and public social consequences. A society cannot two Supreme Court rulings, Roe vs. theologian can gain a sympathetic overnight alter deeply held moral Wade and Doe vs Bolton (1973), which hearing – provided he/she respects the convictions on a range of family life overturned the prevailing consensus secularity of the political process, the issues without significant personal and against abortion on demand. Almost religious pluralism of the American social upheaval. overnight a political movement was people and the need for civility, not formed – the ‘Religious Right’ – which religious passion, in public discourse. The task of the skilled public theologian championed the right to life, and vowed is to make moral and political links for If a moral and religious language is to overturn Supreme Court decisions the general public in such a way that chosen that can be understood by all, they considered an affront to the moral mutual understanding and reconcil- the public theologian stands a chance of values of most Americans. iation become possible. Only then alerting the nation to a new vision. For can contentious political principles of The Religious Right also champions Joseph Bernardin, the Catholic tradition public morality be clarified in a way that platforms which do not promote the of social ethics provided the language; moves the dialogue forward in both the right to life: a strong national defence, the consistent ethic of life, the vision. Church and the wider society. capital punishment and eliminating Early in his career, Bernardin grasped state-supported welfare programmes. ‘Life’ is not a single issue that life is sacred, interdependent and life is sacred The purpose of the consistent ethic whole. The links he makes between of life is to ground a pro-life ethic ‘life issues’ reflect his awareness of the interdependent in a comprehensive and consistent spiritual and moral bonds holding the world-view. The US. Catholic bishops’ human family together. If a people and whole pastoral letter The Challenge of Peace: could become aware of these spiritual God’s Promise and Our Response(1983) Here we see a disturbing contradiction and moral links, they might see the provided a major opportunity for in the psyche of American conservatives: human face behind problems posed by Bernardin to develop the link between how to reconcile a pro-life position technology and seek solutions that were abortion and nuclear war. humane and just. which is both anti-abortion and pro- capital punishment. He argues: “success on any one of the The American background issues threatening life requires a concern Among the most controversial decisions Similar contradictions exist in the for the broader attitude in society about in American public life have been ‘liberal’ camp. The liberal position is respect for life.” Thus, issues as varied ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 13 theology as genetics, abortion, pornography, action violates the rights of others or insists: “The position of a public figure capital punishment, modern warfare, that the consequences of actions on a who is personally opposed to abortion the care of the terminally ill could then given issue are so important to society but not publicly opposed in terms of be linked on a continuum as pro-life that the authority of the State and the specific choices, is an unacceptable issues. Abortion is not the same as war; civil law ought to be invoked to govern fulfilment of a public role.” nor is capital punishment the same as personal and group behaviour.” The Impact of the Consistent Ethic poverty; but each, in its own way, is a Bernardin pointed out how black slaves threat to the sanctity of life. A moral vision takes time to make deep were denied their humanity and their inroads into the consciousness of a The consistent ethic also highlighted rights were not guaranteed under the people. Ideas precede moral judgments, the social nature of each pro-life issue. law. Until that was overturned by the which in turn lead to a new awareness of Anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia must Supreme Court in the 19th century, being in the world. As a social ethic, the be linked to the need for a wide range of black people were treated as property consistent ethic of life takes place at the humane positions on tax policy, welfare and could be abused according to the level of ideas and moral judgements. If policy, nutrition and feeding program- whim of their owners. argument is persuasive, attitudes change mes, health care, housing, education, Bernardin believed parallels existed on the range of life issues, from abortion employment, old age pensions and com- between that decision by the Supreme to nuclear war to capital punishment passionate care during times of crisis. Court and the Roe vs. Wade ruling to the interconnectedness of all beings Poverty merited special attention. In in that both decided “who fit in the on Earth. 1984, Bernardin noted that 35 million circle of the legally protected human we need to show Americans lived below the poverty community.” Unless the Roe vs. Wade level. Most were women, or children, is revisited, the American people have convincingly that we or belonged to ethnic minorities. These not responded to the moral challenge statistics were just as alarming as that of posed by abortion – the care of the most are ‘for life’ 1.5 million abortions per year. helpless and vulnerable among us, who In 1989 another Supreme Court are genetically human in every way. decision (Webster vs. Reproductive Public Morality and the Cult of Killing of any kind – including abortion Health) redressed the faulty logic of Privatisation and euthanasia – tears at the moral and Roe vs. Wade – not “Who decides?” An issue Bernardin sought to clarify was spiritual fabric of society. but rather “What is being decided?” the concept of public morality, because Surveys indicate that some 60 percent of • the cult of privatisation it is very misunderstood in American Americans were opposed to abortion on As life becomes more complex and public life and at the heart of much demand in 1990 but were ambiguous overwhelming, people retreat into of the tension between “liberals” and about how many restrictions to place on the privacy of their lives. This split “conservatives”. In many ways, abortion it. Perhaps the consistent ethic of life was between the private and public realms is a private matter between a woman, having an impact in moving Americans of life, however, destroys any hope of her family and her doctor; so too, who previously held extreme positions recon-necting the sacred and secular in genetically altering human life in utero; into this middle ground. so too, euthanasia. In each instance, we modern life. A moral vision is necessary are faced with dilemmas that have been which speaks to the sacred in the secular In 1990 Bernardin wrote: “It is not thrust on us by the intrusion of modern as it puts us in touch with the sacred enough to be against abortion; we need technology into the most intimate areas within ourselves. to show convincingly that we are for of our lives: birth and death. a moral vision which life – life for women and children; for life, in support of the very old and the So how are these issues also public? speaks to the sacred very young; for life, which enhances • they are concerns of public morality in the secular the chance for the next generation Bernardin believed that a private matter to come to adulthood well-educated, became an issue of public morality if well-nourished, and well-founded in a it involved public peace, protection of The consistent ethic of life is such a vision, value structure which provides a defence human rights, and commonly accepted and yet even Catholic public servants against the allure of drugs, violence and standards of moral behaviour. fall prey to the cult of privatisation when despair.” In Religion and Politics(1985), he wrote: they make public statements such as: He also believed that the consistent ethic “Whether a given question should be “I’m personally opposed to abortion, might have played some role in reshap- interpreted as one of public morality euthanasia, capital punishment, but I ing the relationship between the US and is not always self-evident. A rationally do not want to impose my religious the Soviet Union: “the possibility of a persuasive case has to be made that an convictions on others.” Bernardin different political order in world affairs,

14 Tui Motu InterIslands (was) closer at hand in 1990 than... in n 1997, the New Zealand Bishops Bernardin’s legacy 1983, despite the existence of some reformulated this vision to reflect The legacy of Joseph Cardinal Bernar- 50,000 nuclear weapons.” the unique spirit of our nation. din is above all a statement of compas- INote, however, the cosmological sion and reconciliation between people But the consistent ethic of life has not orientation of New Zealand’s approach, and between discordant groups in changed public opinion on the death over against the anthropological society. What would he have to say now penalty. Indeed, as Bernardin noted, orientation of Bernardin. about the spectacle of sexual abuse by some politicians actually ran for public the clergy? I think he would hold the office on the basis of whom they were The sacredness of creation is the starting errant parties accountable and demand prepared to kill. As late as this year, point for the bishops’ statement. The justice for the victim. The consistent Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scaglia, document begins, “We live in a world ethic would demand of priests the of extraordinary beauty”. It proceeds some politicians highest standard not only because they to develop nine issues connected with serve the Church but the community. ran for office on the a consistent ethic of life. • the choice of life or death is at the He would work tirelessly to bring basis of whom they were heart of the Biblical tradition... about reconciliation. He might say: ‘the Church should not be evaluated solely prepared to kill • respect for the integrity of the ecosystem within which human life on one of its darkest hours. Consider who has never hidden the fact that he exists... the contribution of Catholic schools, is Catholic, suggested publicly that the • rejection of discrimination in all its hospitals, old age homes, hospices’. He Church reclaim its tradition of capital forms because we are united by our might even ask the Press lords why they punishment! common humanity... are clobbering the Church so mercilessly. • eradication of poverty which is the Issues like Can the Catholic Church Save Bernardin’s New Zealand visit number one killer in the world... Itself (Time magazine, Good Friday, In 1995 on a visit to New Zealand, 2002,) are intended to make a powerful Bernardin reiterated five ways the we live in a world public statement. Church was called to witness publicly in the modern world: of extraordinary Bernardin might hint that there is something about the American Church’s 1. – as a community of conscience beauty speaking out when human rights and public witness to the full range of life issues that is troubling some rich and dignity are trampled; as in: abortion, ( NZ Bishops) war, sexual promiscuity, poverty, powerful people today. For the church injustice, oppression, and denying • elimination of mass weapons of opposes stem cell research, which stands refugees entrance to wealthy countries. destruction, both nuclear and conven- to make only a privileged few healthy. 2. – as a community that understands tional, developing comprehensive peace It condemns over-consumption in the the interdependence of the human accords based on mutual respect... First World and human rights abuses race and thus lives in solidarity with • promoting peace based on justice in the Third. When was the last time all people. and to reject war as a means of settling you read an exposé in Time about 3. – as a community which is faithful disputes... the inherent injustices of the global to its heritage, historically and intel- • an end to abortion – the creation of an economy and its effect on the poorest lectually because this fidelity is a environment within families and society of the poor? precondition for authentic doctrinal where pregnant mothers are supported In the meantime, we can hold up development. and children are made welcome... Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s life and 4. – as a community of struggle which • raising awareness about the link vision as something to celebrate, cherish shares in the suffering of millions of between euthanasia and opening the and continue to develop: people as it works to eradicate poverty, door to other kinds of “mercy killing”... “...for I was hungry and you gave me injustice and oppression. • ending of the death penalty and a food, I was thirsty and you gave me 5. – as a community of learning and call for the development of humane something to drink, I was a stranger teaching which collaborates with restorative judicial processes for all and you welcomed me, I was naked and intellectuals the world over to solve the criminal offending... that allow for you gave me clothing, I was sick and you urgent problems confronting us all. (see apology, healing, mercy, compassion, took care of me, I was in prison and you New Zealand Tablet, 2 April 1995) forgiveness, and wherever possible, visited me.” (Matthew: 31: 35-36) ■ These five statements summarise the reconciliation. essential contours of the consistent ethic (A Consistent Ethic of Life-Te Kahu-O- Mary Eastham was Director of the Pastoral centre Te-Ora, April 1997) on Palmerston North. She is now chaplain at of life. Massey University and a public theologian

Tui Motu InterIslands 15 sacred art The Icons of Russia their art and spirituality

ussian icons are religious images that follow of coloured light (mandorla), is usually shown traditions and rules that have their origin in receiving and holding the white shrouded soul of ancient Byzantium. They depict the Twelve His earthly Mother at her Assumption, just as she is RFestivals of the Eastern Orthodox Church related to shown in other icons holding her son in her arms after the life of Christ, as well as a range of other images the Nativity. Our example shows St John the Baptist including the lives of the Virgin, the saints and the and St Stephen at the top of the icon. Saints Peter and Fathers of the Orthodox Church, as well as local Paul are usually depicted at either end of Mary’s bier. religious stories. They do not aspire to realism but to Another popular icon in which Mary plays a prominent symbolic representations of the Divine. role is of the Nativity itself (below). Our example They are usually painted in egg tempera on a gesso indicates the way icons often show various aspects ground set into a wood panel. The majority are small of an event dispersed about the picture surface – the and portable, no more than 50 centimetres square, but three kings arriving on horseback at the top left, the they can be large, over two metres high. The smaller protective archangels above the Christ Child in his icons were generally for domestic devotion – every household had an icon corner with several images. The larger ones formed part of the iconostasis, the wall of icons separating the sanctuary from the congregation. There are popular images relating to the Virgin, always referred to in Russian as Bogomater, the Mother of God. The Virgin has particular significance in Ortho- doxy interceding on behalf of sinners to her son Christ the Judge. A fresco image of the Virgin was often painted on the apse ceiling of the sanctuary, where she stands with arms raised in supplication to her grim- faced Son depicted on the domed ceiling above the iconostasis. One popular icon depicts the Dormition (see above opposite ), the ascent of the Virgin Mary’s soul to heaven after her death, celebrated on August 15. Christ in The Nativity, mid-16th century, (63 x 59 cm.) is kept in the Andrei Rublev Museum of Glory, set in an abstract landscape Early Russian Art, Spaso-Andronikovo Monastery, Moscow.

16 Tui Motu InterIslands The Icons of Russia their art and spirituality

Peter Stupples

manger overlooked by the ass, the angels having descended from the dark semi-circular Heaven at the top centre. The shepherds are at left centre. Mary herself looks towards the aged Joseph conversing with a saint, possibly warning him to seek sanctuary in Egypt, and at the bottom right the baby Jesus is being bathed by a midwife, foreshadowing the later ritual of baptism. ■

Peter Stupples is retired Professor of Art History at the University of Otago. One speciality of his is the religious art of Russia

The Dormition, early 15th century, 48 x 37 cm., Russian Museum, St Petersburg. Dormition, or ‘falling asleep’, refers to the death of Mary and the ascent of her soul to God.

n the icon of the Nativity, a scene real life. By contrast, an icon is Iis often added to the Scripture more like a window into another accounts (see detail left) showing world – the world of God and of a midwife washing the child Jesus the Saints. in a large basin. At the same time another figure is ritually pouring The icon is a ‘sacramental’ presence. water. This scene symbolises the It became an indispens-able part new life given to the Christian of Orthodox worship, revered like through the baptismal rite. As Scripture itself as revealing God to Christ was born of Mary into this the believer. St John Damascene world, so the Christian is reborn to wrote in the 8th Century: “(in eternal life through baptism. church) my gaze is held and my soul is moved to praise God...” Since the Renaissance religious Henri Nouwen wrote: “Every time pictures in the West have been I entrust myself to these images... like a mirror of the real world – they draw me into closer commun- naturalistic, humanist, depicting ion with the God of love”. ■ religious subjects as scenes from

Tui Motu InterIslands 17 comment

Belting Kids

GlynnCardy

his week Jake Wilson was most parents experience at some stage I was interested that Jake Wilson’s acquitted for beating his in child-raising. lawyer quoted the Bible – not in order stepson, Shayne Ambler, with to discourage hitting, but to encourage This belt. Shayne has Attention Deficit Yet there is a cost to instilling fear. By it. The lawyer trotted out the only verse Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.) allowing any hitting, some are set along that seems to justify belting: Proverbs and, reportedly, major behavioural the path of hitting a lot, with the result 13:24: “Those who spare the rod hate problems. It seems the stepfather was of some nine or more children being their children, but those who love them at his wits end and belting the boy admitted each week in New Zealand are diligent to discipline them.” The key had the desired effect: namely hitting hospitals with adult inflicted injuries. word in this verse is rod. It has long produced fear, fear produced compli- A number of these are babies. been assumed in our culture that this ance, and compliance produced safety. Another cost is the flow-on effects. The is a piece of wood. The law says he can use ‘reasonable child’s logic says: If an adult is justified However, Biblical scholars beg to differ. force’, and the jury believed the belt was in hitting me, then hitting is obviously reasonable. Just as a jury in Hawkes Bay The rod they say is the rule of God. It acceptable in society. How often have is the Torah, the first five books of the last year believed that using a piece of children discovered the morally suspect timber was reasonable. Bible, and the Wisdom writings which scenario of being hit by an adult because provide a measure (a ruler) for faithful Reason has actually got little to do with they have hit another child? Is it any obedience to God. In other words the it. We are part of the most advanced, wonder that those hit become hitters verse means those who neglect to teach scientific, reason-based, medical system themselves? their children the faith hate their kids, our planet has ever seen. We have the those who are but those who love their children are knowledge and technology to prevent hit become hitters diligent to put the time and work into plagues, to heal many of the lame, instructing their children in its ways. and to help the blind to see. This same themselves It is an admonition to teach children advanced medical system is unequivocal the beliefs and understandings of their in its condemnation of hitting children. nother cost is the change in the religion, to give them religious standards The British Medical Association and the relationship between an adult and ideals to seek to measure up to. It American Academy of Paediatrics, to and a child that violence brings. has nothing to do with hitting. name just two august bodies, clearly WeA know that when physical violence The Bible does not give clear irrefutable state that physical chastisement of enters a marital relationship, the trust instructions about hitting or not hitting children should never be permissible. is never the same again. The same children. It doesn’t say: “if they’re may well be true for many child-adult In the case of Shayne Ambler two naughty belt ’em”, nor does it say “thou relation-ships. Learning and modelling medical experts appearing for the shalt not hit children”. What it does alternative methods of handling anger prosecution are reported as saying, in say, for Christians, is that Jesus is the and disputes is hard work. Yet I think we particular, “a hyperactive child should paramount revelation of God. need to minimise fear in children’s lives. never be hit”. Their evidence seems to So what would Jesus do? Some would have been dismissed, not on the grounds It is a fallacy that fear brings respect. I, say that, if he’d had children, he would that the medical data was scientifically like many adults, went to a school that have hit. Others would say that Jesus flawed, not on the grounds of reason, practised caning. Indeed some Masters was loving and kind. While remaining but rather on the basis of the jury’s own would practise every opportunity they true to the demands of love, Jesus never experience. Objectivity was replaced by could get (improving their golf swing?). intentionally instilled fear in anyone. In the subjective and deeply held belief in Yet there seemed to be an inverse particular he was deeply committed to their minds, and in the minds of many correlation between how much respect the vulnerable and the marginalised – in our society that fear, and the physical a teacher had and how much they used including children. ■ means to instil fear, are an important the cane. The most inspiring teachers part of controlling children’s behaviour. never used it or threatened to use it. This belief is augmented by the feelings Glynn Cardy is Anglican Vicar of St. Andrew’s, Respect and cooperation were earned Epsom, Auckland of frustration and powerlessness that by non-violent means.

18 Tui Motu InterIslands spirituality Broken-ness – a questionable virtue There’s no virtue in being a doormat, says John Hunt looking at a dubious Christian tradition

remember someone the water is stirred up; while I speaking of her friend, am trying to get in, somebody an elderly woman, “She’s else gets there first.” Jesus said anI absolute saint. What to him, “Get up, pick up your she puts up with from that mat, and walk” (John 5 GNB). I husband of hers!” Do you suspect the man was trapped in feel a little uneasy? A woman thinking of himself as unwell. is being praised for allowing Jesus confronted him with the herself to be treated badly. question, and offered him the Is there something possibility: Do you want to get praiseworthy in a well? I believe Jesus invites woman accepting people to be well! abuse? I am unhappy about a stream in the For me, the Christian Faith is Church which honours broke-ness. a three legged stool: love for neighbour, love for self, love for God. If one of the legs of We have the prayer of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the the stool is too long or too short, the stool falls over. We have Jesuits: been strong on love for neighbour. We have been reasonably Teach us good Lord, strong on love for God. The third leg, love for self, has often ...To give and not to count the cost; been short. The life of the Christian man or woman has been To fight and not to heed the wounds; ‘broken’. To toil and not to seek for rest... A former Sister said to me “Those words are dangerous. They The cult of broken-ness allow the ill-treatment of religious people”. Plato had the idea that everything is an imperfect representation of its perfect form in the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm From time to time, someone will say to me, “You’re looking was thought to be perfect and good, the material world tired”. What is being said? It is an expression of concern. To imperfect and bad. Platonic Dualism degraded the whole look tired, however, is an acknowledgment that I am doing physical world. my job. To become ill from overwork is praiseworthy. We see this view also in Manichaeism. Mani taught that Broken-ness somehow authenticates ministry. I think, there are two opposing forces in the universe: God (light) and through the Christian centuries, by accepting broken-ness matter (darkness). We can move toward the light by denial good Christian men and women have allowed themselves to of the physical. be abused and exploited. The honouring of self-sacrifice, the glorification of pain, has meant many broken, unhappy lives. Manichaeism is important chiefly because of its influence on Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Augustine gave us the doctrine Remember the man who had been by the pool for 38 years. of original sin, the theology that from Adam’s sin, ‘we suffer Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man from an hereditary moral disease and we are subject to an answered, “Sir, I have no one here to put me in the pool when inherited legal liability’. ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 19 spirituality

ss Natural human desires are condemned as inherently wrong. he honouring of broken-ness has made people, Sexuality is regarded as sinful. It is as though the denial of the particularly women, vulnerable to exploitation and physical means the enhancement of the spiritual. Augustine abuse. When a woman who has suffered ill-treatment had a profound effect on Western theology. He leaves us with atT the hands of her superior or at the hands of her husband, the pathological view: “The world is bad news. Life is bad has protested, she has been accused of pride or wilfulness. news. People are bad news”. The broken position has been regarded as the true Christian position. Once upon a time women, who engage in something as physical as giving birth to a baby, were disregarded. The Jesus in the Gospels word hysterical has its root in the Greek ustera, womb. It was I believe Jesus is not offering us his broken body. Jesus is assumed women therefore were unable to think. Men, who offering us his whole body. Jesus is offering us wholeness engaged in thinking, regarded themselves as acceptable. It and wellness. From a position of broken-ness, we can take could be the Church has created a culture of people feeling Jesus’ death on the cross, as Augustine does, as the sacrifice badly about themselves, people lacking self-esteem, people of God’s Son, to atone for the sins of humankind, to satisfy feeling inferior. We see people therefore unable to form loving God’s sense of justice. We see the abject, broken Christ, relationships; people therefore unable to take their place in hanging on the cross. society. From a position of wellness, we can take Jesus’ death on the When I first came to St Giles in Christchurch, a man about cross, as the Celts see it, as Jesus suffering the worst pain, but not overcome. The Celts see Christ both alongside us in my own age said to me, “You never tell me I am a naughty our pain and calling us beyond our pain. Through Christ’s boy, John. You give us the carrot but not the stick”. I looked crucifixion and resurrection, we also will not be overcome. at him and felt for him. This man was missing the sado- masochism he had found in the Church! He couldn’t believe At the Resurrection Jesus came to the disciples hiding behind that he is an acceptable, good man. locked doors. From a position of broken-ness, we could identify with the disciples’ failure to stick with Jesus, their feeling of An anomaly in Scripture: failure, their feeling of worthlessness. Did Jesus say, “Where “My body broken for you” were you when I needed you?” No. Did Jesus say, “A bright The honouring of broken-ness appears in the words of bunch of friends you turned out to be!” No. What did Jesus Institution of Eucharist. In Matthew 26.26 we have: Take, say? “Peace to you.” eat, this is my body; in Mark 14.22, the same. In Luke 22.19 Jesus understood the disciples’ fear. Jesus accepted that we have: This is my body given for you. But in the Authorised they had done their best. Jesus said to them, Shalom, have Version, 1 Corinthians 11.24, we have: This is my body which peace, have wholeness, have contentment. Jesus gave them is broken for you. the confident, cheerful spirit they needed to step out into the world. In the northern hemisphere, Easter comes at the The A.V. of 1611 follows what is known as The Received Text beginning of spring. It is a time of new growth, new flowering, which is now recognised as unreliable. Since it was compiled new beginnings. in 1550 by Stephanus, many further manuscripts have come to light. Broken is missing in the earliest manuscripts Jesus is offering – and in Origen, Cyprian. In modern versions of the New Testament: RSV, New English, GNB, NRSV and ‘Jerusalem’, not his broken body – but at Corinthians 11.24, the word broken does not appear. his whole body The message of this verse to people celebrating the Lord’s Supper was: a true follower of Christ is a person who will The Celtic Spirit – A free spirit allow him or herself to be broken. Calvin reinforced this The Roman Empire and Church did not get to Ireland in the view: “even the good works of Christians are intrinsically evil, early period. When Christianity did come, the Celts were not though covered and not counted as sins through the imputed told what to do; they were not put in hierarchies; and they merits of Christ”. were not told what to believe and what not to believe. The Celts delighted in the Psalms, with their references to God in A young minister of the Church of Scotland one winter’s the natural world and in John’s Gospel with its mysteries. The Sunday morning skated down the frozen stream from the Celts could take seriously what seemed good and true to them. manse to the church. He was brought before the Session for discipline, charged with ‘Skating on the Sabbath’. In his The Celts delighted in the Creator they knew in the creation. defence he pleaded, “It was just a means of transport”. The They saw in the passing of the seasons, the rhythms of day Elders discussed this a while. Then the Session Clerk put the following night, the turning of the tides, the migrations of question, “Did you enjoy it, minister?” birds, the ever-flowing streams, God’s constant love for them.

20 Tui Motu InterIslands The following piece illustrates the Celtic Spirit: As the hand is made for holding and the eye for seeing, thou hast fashioned me for joy. Share with me the vision that shall find it everywhere: in the wild violet’s beauty; in the lark’s melody; in the face of a steadfast man; in a child’s smile; in a mother’s love; in the purity of Jesus. Alistair McLean

A personal story When I was confirmed, I had to meet with the minister in the vestry on the Friday prior, after school. A girl came out crying! Is there no other way? I recall thinking, ‘this doesn’t look too good!’ The minister then appeared and beckoned to me. I recall vividly him saying, “On Is there no other way but this this eve of your confirmation, John, it is appropriate for you when children learn to curse and kill, to confess your sins. When I say something which is right for when isolation numbs the brain you, you say ‘I confess that sin, Lord’”. and torture breaks another’s will? I knelt down. He began his prayer referring to sins I had never Is there no other way but this heard of! I do remember he said, “I have spilled my seed upon from tyrant fear ourselves to save, the ground”. I had a picture of helping my father plant the but eye for eye, and death for death, garden and wastefully spilling a packet of seed. I have an idea till earth becomes our common grave? now what he was referring to. Is there no other way but this I was feeling a failure because I hadn’t committed any of the when drug and truncheon, tank and gun sins he was naming! It was a huge relief when he said, “I have impose belief, or seek to force taken thy name in vain”. I was very happy to be able to say: their iron rule on everyone? “I confess that sin, Lord!” Must we take up the stone and knife, and at the last the winter bomb, I was only 14! Wouldn’t it have been so much better if he had protect our own by taking life, said, “On the eve of your Confirmation, John, it is appropriate pit all our strength against the strong? for you to look back over your life and remember God’s love for you. Would you like to tell me about some of the difficult Is there no other way but this, things you have handled? no other choice before our race, “Would you like to tell me about some of the things you have must hate forever mask from me achieved? Would you like to tell me about your good friends, a brother or a sister’s face? people in your family, people who love you?” I choose another way than this. I choose to turn from final loss: I am clear Jesus wants us to think well of ourselves. Jesus choose good for bad, choose love not hate. accepts us in our weaknesses and affirms us in our strengths. Lift up, my soul, the Saviour’s cross. Jesus is with us in our pain, both alongside and calling us Colin Gibson through. Jesus delights in and nurtures our goodness. Jesus Suitable for Hiroshima Day, 6 August. ■ calls us to grow and to flower. This year is the 58th anniversary of the first atomic bomb. Hymn of the month: Source: Alleluia Aotearoa #73 and He Came Singing Peace #12; John Hunt is Minister at St Giles Presbyterian church in Papanui, available from the NZ Hymnbook Trust, Box 2011, Raumati 6450 Christchurch. Celtic spirituality is a special interest for him. or from your Christian Bookshop.

Tui Motu InterIslands 21 pastoral care

Ministering to Church Leavers

Trish McBride

here is a common perception people a spiritual way-station with national training event of the Association among members of Christian companionship and support from of Christian Spiritual Directors last year, churches that individuals who people who understand the pain of they were asked whether they have an Tleave their church are doing so because making such a move. There is space agenda for the people who come to the they have ‘lost their faith’‚ and turned to reflect, voice doubts and fears, to be group. “Do they see it as a way to gather their backs‚ on both God and their angry, to grieve for lost certainties. up the lost sheep and return them to community. In Catholic terms they Attendance at the group can be a dozen the fold?” have ‘lapsed’, an exact equivalent of the or more, said Jenny. The format is evangelical term ‘back-slidden’. Their reply was engagingly honest: “We generally a discussion on an advertised used to see it like that, but now we don’t. Not necessarily so, says Dr Alan topic, with sharing of personal journeys Now we understand that leaving a (or Jamieson, pastor at Wellington’s Central in smaller groups. Topics over the last the) church is a valid and necessary part Baptist Church. His interest was year have included “Who is God?”, of some people’s spiritual journeys. They sparked in the early ’90s by observing “What is Prayer”, and “Spiritual Abuse”. may or may not join another denomin- that many people whose integrity and Scheduled for early 2002 are “Why I ation, but the God-journey is going to commitment he respected were leaving Left the Church”, and “Easter and the continue.” churches to which they had been deeply Absence of God”. Other topics will be committed for a significant number of generated by the group. lan makes a strong correlation of his findings with Fowler’s years. This led to his doctoral thesis and Brenda, who has been with group for Stages of Faith, and concludes subsequent expansion of his findings two years, said: “When you leave the thatA most EPC (Evangelical, Pente- into his book A Churchless Faith (Philip church you get really lonely, you miss Garside, 2000). the community. Here there is acceptance costal, Charismatic) churches, on with no agenda for you – no fear and no which his research focussed, are geared It also led to a unique ministry to control. That feels amazing!” Another to people with up to stage 3 faith. church leavers operating from the base participant said: “I don’t have to watch Stage 3 is characterised by Fowler as of Wellington’s Central Baptist. Known my words here, I don’t get judged, and needing external authority/a parental as Spirited Exchanges, this support group I’m only responsible for myself.” figure, with followers grouped around meets twice a month and is facilitated a leader. In contrast Alan assesses the by Jenny McIntosh who leads this part- For many, leaving their church can be a general level of New Zealand secular time paid ministry. major life experience equating to divorce society to be at stage 4 level, where self- or bereavement. It throws up conflicts responsibility, plurality and listening to Alan’s research findings were that most for the onlookers too. Those who all the voices are becoming the norm. of of the people who leave churches after remain within the institution can feel intense commitment, in fact continue threatened and rejected and frequently A question one might ask: does the to have a vibrant faith in God and Jesus. find maintaining a relationship with the Catholic umbrella offer room for the They simply cannot continue with leaver in the too-hard basket, much as development of more stages of faith integrity to express it in the setting/ friends do after a divorce, despite the than EPC churches? Catholics are far language/theological understanding/ best intentions to remain in touch with less homogeneous in theology than, community in which they have hitherto both parties. say, AOG members. done so. Spirited Exchanges gives such When Alan and Jenny addressed the

22 Tui Motu InterIslands So is it worth taking, this huge step of practice, what useful information could not lead them to come back, but it can faith in one’s faith journey, leaving the the church learn from those who are significantly reduce the negativity of familiar church? Can God really be ‘in departing? Is there an emphasis, shared their experience and their stories.” And the other place’? Does God roam free with EPC churches, on bringing people if God is truly known as having a special of the boundaries of denomination in the front door (eg through the RCIA care for the marginalised, how might and institutional religion? Is there really programme) while resolutely ignoring the Catholic Church enflesh this care ‘nowhere else to go’? Spirited Exchanges those leaving by the back door? Thirty for those whose journey leads them to provides food and shelter for the early years ago there was a sense that God its margins and beyond? ■ part of the journey out into the desert never led people out of the Catholic away from the companionship of those Church. Has this changed? with whom the travellers have pitched A Churchless Faith by Alan Jamieson is published by their tents for a long time. Some join As Alan writes in A Churchless Faith in a plea for leaver-sensitive churches: Philip Garside Publishing, another denomination. Many find their Wellington ($29.95). way later to a group of people whose “Church leavers tell their horror Cover picture courtesy of journey has taken them down a similar stories ... surely this cannot be a good Philip Garside. track. These post-church faith groups advertisement for the Christian faith. are the topic of Alan’s latest research. Putting time and effort into leavers may One recent Catholic analysis has it that by abandoning their religious institution individuals lose the influence The Centre of the Circle that would enable them to bring about change in either church or society, hen I began my journey, have no access to the shared practice W the road was quite narrow of a time-tested tradition, no longer and fear lurked on either side. enjoy the wisdom of the great figures I shrank from people who walked paths of the tradition or a coherent theology, so distant they seemed opposite to mine, no longer experience the nourishment and I even called them enemy. of a canonical sacred literature and have no access to the tested traditions of moral ideals and restraints. Again, But Love called me on “not so”, say Alan and Jenny – church and the beautiful road grew wider. leavers can take with them the best of Fear was still there but I could see their learnings including moral ideals, over its fences, and people on other paths and continue to make a contribution to seemed nearer so that I could call to them bettering the society in which they live. and wish them well as they travelled. hile the compassionate work that is being done by Still, Love called my heart, Central Baptist is focussed and the beautiful road grew so wide Wmainly on people leaving EPC churches, that the boundaries of fear disappeared. their ministry raises questions for I saw other paths so close to mine Catholic parishes. What do priests and and other parishioners do when that I wondered how I ever someone indicates being unsettled or could have viewed them as alien. starts talking about leaving? Is there a willingness to try to understand, to Come, said Love, dragging at my heart, continue in ministry to that person, to and now the paths had no separation wish them well, to have confidence and no horizons, only a brightness that God is with them and still guiding that transcended all ways and words. their way? We did not need to name it, Could there be a farewell ritual, even for in its light, we were all one. a viaticum – food for the journey? If corporate bodies conduct exit interviews Joy Cowley in an attempt to refine their business

Tui Motu InterIslands 23 response

Dear Bishops. . .

Continuing the Dialogue abuse entails an abuse of power and authority in their he pastoral letter from our bishops provided welcome pastoral relationships. reassurance that issues of sexual abuse were being As noted in the article on sexual abuse, restorative justice Tconfronted. Several important issues, however, remain to conferences are a way to initiate the process of healing be addressed. More information and continuing dialogue and reconciliation. They would also provide a way for our will surely help us along that path of healing. When the bishops to step back from their positions of power and members of St Patrick’s (Palmerston North) Social Justice status over the laity. A conference run by well-trained lay group discussed the letter, several points were noted: facilitators, who are independent of church authority and • Victims should have been invited to come forward without unconnected to the victims or offenders, would be more fear likely to achieve solutions with credibility throughout the • We need assurance that there are no persons in positions community. It could go a long way to restoring a relation of pastoral care who have credible claims against them of service between priests and laity. • Our priests and bishops should acknowledge that sexual Paul Green, Palmerston North See July issue pages 21-22 for the previous article

An Open Letter to the Bishops of New Zealand hank you for your recent letter on sexual abuse in the Oceania and Asia tried with passion to address urgent church in New Zealand. Sexual abuse hurts the whole pastoral concerns about marriage, women in the church, TPeople of God; most of all it damages victims and their married priests and many more. The problem of sexual abuse families. of women by priests was raised at all these Synods. None We are very conscious of priests and religious feeling of their final documents deal with these issues. All were alienated from those they minister to, by the actions of written in Rome and anything contentious was edited out. abusers. When priests are moved to parishes where abuse Second, the current method of appointment of bishops by has occurred they may not be informed of this and feel the Vatican, with minimal local consultation, sometimes unsupported by their bishop. They face the deep anger and causes conflict and distress in the local church. This occurs hurt of communities who have been abused. when the appointed bishop is at odds with the local church and attempts to impose his vision of church. It is no use focussing on the past and introducing draconian punishments for abusers without at the same time trying to In the Church in New Zealand, we note with sadness, that ensure this will not happen again. Other professions have similar behaviour occurs. Local bishops sometimes move very clear written standards of accountability and behaviour. priests without consulting the parishes to which they will go, They also undergo regular professional supervision and or the ones they will leave. This exactly reflects the Roman auditing of their work. We think this is essential for all model above. It is sinful to appoint a priest to a parish where pastoral workers. We understand this is a radical proposal, as he then dismantles a well functioning church community the work of clerics has always been left to their consciences. and imposes his limited vision of church. This damages Unfortunately the present outcome shows this is not enough the community and the priest. It does not reflect the image to safeguard the innocent. of Church as the People of God. Another ongoing issue for women in the church is the deliberate use of exclusive male Two underlying factors contribute to abusive behaviour. language in liturgy and the failure of Bishops to address • On one hand there is an unreal expectation that because this practice. the institutional Church represents God in the world, it must appear perfect. To publicly acknowledge the sinfulness of The church is in a process of radical change. This demands a clergy and religious is therefore impossible. Not wishing painful letting go of past certainties, safety and power. That to scandalise the faithful was the excuse of those who hid is the real challenge of the Second Vatican Council. This age abuse. • On the other hand there is unchecked, abusive power calls for a stepping out in faith, a walking on water, with full at all levels of the Church that reflects its internal hierarchical knowledge of our weakness and fallibility. and clerical structure. This leads to a profound deafness, a A dysfunctional church wounds us all. We pray for a true failure to listen and be accountable. People of God, a church where the truth can be spoken in In the Vatican, abuse of power is visible in two important love and heard. We pray that you might have the faith and areas: hope to help it come to birth. First, its Congregations refuse to listen to the pastoral Blessings and peace, concerns of bishops. Local bishops at the Synods of Africa, Dr Anna Holmes,Catholic Women Knowing Our Place

24 Tui Motu InterIslands sexuality

Human and Divine Love

n the last 30 years all the Christian the state described in Genesis: This is celebrates the personal, interpersonal and Ichurches have moved to accepting why a man leaves his father and mother creative encounter of love. coitus as an expression of love. But few and joins himself to his wife, and they have explored the link between human become one body. Now both of them n this sense sexual intercourse with and divine love. I will attempt to do so. were naked, the man and his wife, but Iits components of nakedness and they felt no shame in front of each other genital encounter is the epitome of First of all, in the Song of Songs sexual (Gen.2:24-25). embodiment and is the channel of attraction and the body communicate the divine. The couple, in the process the divine plan for human loving of making love, are expressing the intimacy. In this passage of Scripture, Jack Dominian is a leading contemporary central liturgy of the domestic seriously ignored in 2,000 years of Christian psychiatrist and commentator church. They are the couple in Christian sexuality, we find that the on marriage and human relationships. prayer, and sexual intercourse is the body with its erotic components has central and recurrent act of prayer the divine assent to the messages it Christianity has traditionally been hostile of the couple. More specifically, communicates. to sexuality, eroticism and sexual desire. when we come to sexual intercourse, Yet, writes Dominian: “Every time we it reflects the inner world of the So in the course of ordinary life, make love we are in the presence of God.” Trinity in that the Trinity expresses when we find ourselves in the grip the relationship of love of persons. of being sexually attracted, far from This is the first of a series of extracts Let’s The Father loves the Son, and the being apprehensive, anxious and taken from Dominian’s recent book, Make Love fruit of this love is the Spirit and experiencing disgust, we can be where he explores the inner all three are essentially one but sure that we are in the midst of meaning of sexual intercourse. completely separate. We find in divine approval. We are meant to sexual intercourse an interpersonal appreciate God with out bodies and It is a common social phenomenon that union of love in which, at the moment our ordinary personal communication when sexual matters are referred to in of consummation, the spouses are is embodied. public a certain unease emerges which one and yet at the same time they are We accept God as a creator who gives is translated into jokes or laughter. separate persons. This total communion identity to the world he created through Similarly, the presentation of nakedness of separate persons who become one is his love. He hands over this creation to in public, although shown repeatedly one of the most powerful examples to human beings, whose bodies become in recent times, is still surrounded with illustrate the Trinity. the principal instruments of perpetu- apprehension and unease. Yet in sexual ating this love through marriage, in intercourse within marriage, nakedness Thus, God as love is expressed in the which the chief feature, as we have seen, assumes its original innocence and the original state of the innocence of is sexual intercourse. communication of divine love. So at nakedness. The act of intercourse is like the very centre of intercourse there is a the Eucharist feast in which we take in At the centre of sexual intercourse is the divine presence in nakedness. each other’s bodies. It culminates in the naked encounter of a man and a woman. trinity formed by two people becoming From nakedness there is a move towards Nakedness has been viewed with an eye a third, single being in one union. Since sexual intercourse and the body is of suspicion in the Christian tradition, sexual intercourse has such a powerful mobilised for actual intercourse that and yet nakedness highlights sexual spiritual connotation and is the experi- culminates in the intense exquisite attraction and pleasure. This nakedness ence of the overwhelming majority pleasure of the orgasm. The whole in the midst of sexual intercourse of married people, its understanding, procedure of intercourse is a divine continues the divine plan of creation. safeguarding and appreciation is a major liturgy of love. We go to church and part of evangelisation. The couple has returned to a world of experience God at the Mass or at any safety, relaxation, peak excitation and other service. In marriage, the couple has Marriage and sexual intercourse are the celebration of pleasure. The physical and their own domestic church and at the people of God in prayer. The ability the emotional slide imperceptibly into centre of this church is the enactment of Christianity to see this vision is the the spiritual. The couple recapture the of sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse spiritual answer to divorce and to the initial state of innocence, now redeemed as a divine liturgy gives the couple the trivialisation of coitus. ■ through grace, and thus they return to means to experience and create love. It

Tui Motu InterIslands 25 in memoriam

Xavier Rynne 1915-2002

Jim Neilan

bituaries have appeared in the were the first unofficial but authoritative It was not until the late 1970s that OCatholic press worldwide for history of Vatican II. Through them, Murphy publicly acknowledged he was an 87-year-old Redemptorist priest, Rynne exposed the human side of the indeed Xavier Rynne – a combination Francis Xavier Murphy, who died in Church and, as a result, neither the of his second name and his mother’s April. He was reasonably well known Council nor the Church was ever quite family name. Murphy was an excellent as a writer, but this would in no way the same again. professional historian. He saw that explain why his death was so widely what was happening at the Council The doors of the Vatican’s inner reported. The truth is that Francis had all happened before. He thought it workings were thrown open and its Murphy had a second identity. He was important to present the human side of personalities portrayed ‘warts and all’. the mysterious Xavier Rynne, whose the Church. His critics complained that He cut through the commonly held writings caused a sensation in the he made it look too human. His response ecclesiastical trickle down theory that marble halls of the Vatican and whetted was to point to four other writers also God speaks exclusively through the an appetite for news about the Catholic guilty of this fault – Matthew, Mark, pope who filters it down to the laity Church among the world’s secular press Luke and John! during the years of Vatican II. via a celibate male chain of command. Instead he presented a thoroughly In Rome he lectured in Patrology, and The saga began in 1962 when an article human scene of men lobbying for votes, a favourite theme was the insistence by – Letter from Vatican City – appeared quarrelling and arguing about the future many of the early Christian Fathers that in the New Yorker magazine, exposing of the Church. the Church is both holy and sinful – a some uncomfortable truths about Xavier Rynne community of sinners struggling for the intrigues behind the scenes in the holiness and truth. And all the people Vatican. Obviously, there was a mole in exposed the human side of God, from the highest ranking to the corridors of power. The article was the humblest of the laity have to live signed ‘Xavier Rynne’. The Letter caused of the church. . . it was out this struggle. In the 40 years since great interest around the Catholic world never the same again the Council, Xavier Rynne’s hopes and infuriated those members of the that it would usher in a more open, Roman Curia who were attempting to humble church gradually diminished Council debates were closed to the shape the Council in a way that would as the windows were steadily closed press, so Rynne’s reports were eagerly thwart Pope John XXIII’s “opening the and power was again centralised in the devoured. It was well known that a windows to let some fresh air into the Roman Curia. Church”. powerful group abhorred the idea of opening the Vatican windows. They He died before the sexual abuse scandals Murphy was a large, gregarious man wanted to control what the bishops in his own country reached shock wave with a great sense of humour. He discussed and to vet any documents proportions. He would have seen the had an amazing variety of friends released to the faithful. Xavier Rynne clerical system, which fostered secrecy, – not surprisingly, considering his exposed these machinations. privilege and emotional immaturity in background as parish priest, teacher its ordained ministers and hierarchy, as One example was the heated debate and army chaplain. He would never an example of this reluctance to admit about collegiality – restoration to local admit to being Xavier Rynne, but to the human, and often sinful, dimension bishops and regional conferences the those who knew him it was an open of the Church. secret. He took great delight in playing authority which, in communion with the cat-and-mouse game necessary to the pope, was theirs by right, but which Francis Xavier Murphy would be right conceal his clandestine reporting from had been whittled away by the curial behind those, including many bishops, angry officials who wanted him silenced authorities in the Vatican. This proposal who see the need for another Vatican and punished. caused a furore. At one point Cardinal Council. The man who did so much to Ottaviani, (a predecessor of Cardinal bring the last one to the world’s notice During the council, 16 of the Letters Ratzinger), suggested that the only time will not be around for the next. Will appeared in the New Yorker. They were the Apostles acted collegially was when he be entered in the heavenly register then published in four volumes and they ran away and abandoned Jesus! as Murphy – or Rynne? ■

26 Tui Motu InterIslands From this came awareness Labourer in the vineyard of the needs of the bereaved, so a group for widows (and widowers, when they can be found!) An Auckland parish farewells a faithful pastoral worker was formed. She also was the moving force s we are all aware, priests seem to the singing herself. She planned liturgies behind the establishment Abe becoming an endangered species for major feasts and helped the bereaved of the Passionist Family and the laity will have to rely on their prepare for funerals. Groups which provide own resources more than ever. In the social interaction among 1980s quite a few members of religious Eileen had no car initially, and promptly parishioners. As well as orders became parish workers. Sr Eileen became the fittest person in the parish. all these activities, she O’Sullivan RSJ was appointed to our She walked miles. She became aware was a de facto member of other parish parish (St Helier’s, Auckland) in 1988. of the needs of young mothers – groups. She immediately set out to discover particularly those who had no extended what was needed, then acted upon it. family to call on, so started a weekly At Sr Eileen’s farewell many were involved playgroup where they could chat while in planning the liturgy, preparing food First, she was co-opted onto the Liturgy their children played. She then started for more than 200 people, decorating committee. We had only to mention a group for senior parishioners, to meet the hall and organising the formal part a hymn, and she could recite all the at regular intervals – sometimes for an of the proceedings. It was a fine tribute words, or alternatively, burst into song. anointing Mass followed by lunch, and to a person who, in recent times with She was very good at getting people at others, to listen to a speaker or just an energetic pastor, has contributed to involved. She laboured to find people socialise. the growth of the parish in every way. ■ to accompany the singing at Sunday Mass. When none was available, she led Pat Reid

Minority Report chemical mix, and their caretaker; and the prison guard who Directed by Stephen Spielberg plays Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring on an organ, to soothe his Review: Mike Crowl inactive charges. The eye-replacement scene, by the way, isn’t as stomach-turning as the rancid sandwich moment on’t miss the beginning of this movie: a lot of that occurs just a little later! Dinformation arrives in a hectic first five minutes. The opening is one of several superb set pieces, such as the fight Minority Report is a detective story, but with the detective on a car assembly line (a take-off of a similar sequence in as the apparently guilty party. However Spielberg and his the latest Star Wars movie?), and another fight sequence scriptwriter filter themes of more importance into the script: where most of the participants have backpacks enabling how do we see (in every sense of the word); do we really them to fly. And let’s not forget the futuristic motorways. have a choice about our destiny; how near the surface of our lives does evil live? Minority Report is set about 40 years hence, in Washington DC, where murder has become a thing of the past due to Sight and seeing and blindness and changing eyes are so the ability of three ‘precogs’ to warn the ‘Pre-Crime’ police common in this movie, it’s as if Jesus’ words about “those that a murder is about to be committed. Thus people who who think they see, are blind”‚ had been pasted to the would have committed a murder are incarcerated even scriptwriter’s keyboard. And the idea of predestination, though they haven’t actually done the deed. whether we choose to change what’s going to happen, or A number of Spielberg themes reappear: the lost child whether we can, is the crux of the main investigation and of from Hook and Al; ‘Big Brother’‚ police (from ET); the climatic scenes. It’s no coincidence that the disruptive the perceptive but helpless female (any of the Indiana FBI investigator tells us early in the piece that he did three Jones movies), and the way choice can change the future years at Fuller Seminary before training for his present job. (Schindler’s List). This movie shows Spielberg and Tom Cruise at their best. There is also a bunch of typical Spielberg grotesques: the Great pacing, plenty of twists and turns, wonderful filming maybe-crazy ‘inventor’ of the precogs; a surgeon who can and effects, and an underlying seriousness mixed with the replace your eyes (so you’re not identifiable on the iris shocks and laughter. ■ scans) and his peculiar Swedish assistant; the three inert pre-cogs who spend their lives floating in a womblike

Tui Motu InterIslands 27 books

is not grounded in what one does or achieves. ‘Who we are’ as persons The mystery of God in a new language lies elsewhere, and “this fundamental dimension is all too often buried Altogether Gift the reader is led to pay attention to beneath a veneer of physical beauty and Michael Downey the small words, believe it or not, the strength”. The fullness of the human Orbis New York and prepositions! These are important words person is to be found in relation. The Dominican Publications, Dublin within the ‘grammar of the Trinity’ human person is from God and for God. $36 NZ approx. because they express relationship. It conclude with a direct quote from Review: Kevin Burns is a bit bewildering at first to take in Ithe book which carefully leads the the importance of these words but the reader into lovely new territory: “What his book has a very engaging author insists, “the Christian faith is beginning. Two theologians got we see in mentally handicapped persons T defined prepositionally, since prepos- is that they are frequently conspicuously together to develop their ideas on itions express sheer relationship”. Trinitarian Spirituality. Catherine La relational with little pretence of self Cugna and Michael Downey, both These small words – “in” and “through” sufficiency. They often must look Professors of Theology, wrote inde- and “to” – describe the relationship of towards the other, to others, for the pendent essays on the Trinity for a new Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the relation- fulfilment of basic human needs. But Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality and ship of the three in one Love to us, and what we also see in many such persons they then agreed to work together to our relationship to God. The author are real qualities of heart, deep capacities produce a book. Two years after the then draws the conclusion that the for forgiveness, for reconciliation, agreement Catherine died at the age of Christian life is always to the Father, for celebration, for mutuality, for 44, and Michael continued alone with through the Son and in the Spirit. tenderness and compassion”. the commitment and finally published I recommend this book as a study and in 2000. This strengthens the belief that God’s covenant is irrevocable, not just because a meditation that touches and expands I found the book gentle and deep. I of the promise verbalized through the the heart. ■ needed to read much of it over and prophets, but because the presence of Kevin Burns is parish priest of Our Lady over to appreciate the new language God is utterly reliable and constant. of Victories, Sockburn, Christchurch and the use of language to challenge the The author presents God as totally self- reader to delve deeper into this central giving, totally relational and he takes Christian mystery. We are so much at the reader towards seeing the Trinity as home with the traditional and familiar Giver, Given and Gift/ing. words describing the Trinity that this book serves well in presenting us with he base for people seeking a different language and a careful use of Tspirituality today is usually the age- language when speaking of the mystery old question: “Who am I?” Whereas, of God. Trinitarian Spirituality as presented by Downey poses the question quite ‘Father’ is not God’s proper name. differently: “Whose am I?” In this Nor is ‘God’ God’s name. God has no search for ‘whose am I’, the book proper name. Father, Son and Spirit draws our attention specifically to the are names that designate relationships ‘mentally handicapped’. The mentally Bible Society ad rather than who God is in God’s handicapped stand as a reminder that fullness. God is inexhaustible mystery. our whole being cries our for relation- Unfathomable. But through the process ship. In the lives of the mentally of naming, the three names, Father, Son handi-capped there is little hope of and Spirit emerge in relation to one achieving current (false) notions of another and to us. They bespeak the ideal humanity. This is also true for the profoundly relational character of the permanently ill and disabled persons. divine mystery, the One whose name is beyond all naming: ‘God is love’ (1Jn This notion is thoroughly thought out 4:8) p38. and wonderfully developed leading to the amazing discovery of how the Towards the middle of the book and in mentally handicapped serve as a catalyst the chapter ‘The Doctrine of the Trinity’ in the recognition that one’s personhood

28 Tui Motu InterIslands A conundrum in the family tree

At the Edge of Memory he told his family, but his movements dead, at the grave in Hamilton where by Michael King between then and his arrival in New Maurice Belgrave had been buried published by Zealand when he was 26 are uncertain. with the rites of the Catholic Church. Price: $32.95 It is unfortunate that the author Review: Kathleen Doherty He converted to Catholicism and was overlooked the fact that in Jewish married in a nuptial Mass, had three ritual, Kaddish is not an individual sons, and ran a successful drapery but a communal synagogue prayer oor Maurice Belgrave! He wasn’t business in Hamilton. In all this time requiring the presence of 10 Jewish to know, when he arrived in New P he made no contact with other Jewish males over the age of 13. And having Zealand in 1908 with a new name families in the area, and gave no signs said Kaddish, he left his great-uncle by and a new identity and proceeded to that he was anything other than what marriage “twice blessed, to the serenity establish himself as a family man and he appeared. A letter from a sister in which two traditions of Faith promised worthy citizen of Hamilton, that the Australia who had managed to track righteous men”. One wonders what wife of one of his sons would be the him down was returned by his wife Maurice Belgrave would have made aunt of one of New Zealand’s leading with a note that her husband wished of it all. historians and probably its leading to have no contact with his relatives. biographer. Putting together the details of a huge The only hint that he felt for what he family dispersed all over the world and And he wasn’t to know that a passion had left behind was when the family with names changed to make their for family history would lead to a housekeeper came upon him one day lives easier at a time of intolerance of grandson of his first cousin, now in 1943 listening to a BBC broadcast Jew, is a mammoth task, and relating living in New York, to compile, over about the Nazi extermination camps. the work done must be an inspiration 40 years, a family tree of some 1200 “Those are my people,” he said to her, to aspiring geneologist. But this story names, his included. Or that the two with tears glistening on his cheeks. is full of gaps which Michael King would make contact and one would Days later he was dead. fills neatly with might-have-beens, encourage the other to turn the story which are not altogether satisfying. of how and why Moshe Bilgorj became n his introduction, Michael King The known facts would have been Maurice Belgrave into a book. acknowledges that, like many true I sufficient. ■ stories, this one has gaps that can At the Edge of Memory is an intensely be bridged only by supposition, and personal book. Michael King, who was there is much of that in this memoir. born two years after his great-uncle by One of the most fascinating chapters We will find those books marriage died in 1943, has made it as relates not to the Belgrave family but for you! much the story of his own search and to the Gluckmans, who also lived in reaction to the emerging past as the Books mentioned in this paper, or Hamilton. Ephraim (Ted) Gluckman story of what might have happened. any other books you can’t find, can had been born in the same year as be ordered from: Mr Bel, as he was known affectionately Maurice Belgrave in an adjacent by King’s mother, made such a good area of Eastern Europe belonging to job of covering his tracks that during the Russian Czarist Empire. Unlike his lifetime and for many years after his Maurice Belgrave, however, Ephraim death no-one knew that he was Jewish, Gluckman had wanted his family to O C Books although many subsequently said they know of their roots and of his life had suspected it. in the shtetl, and his account must Tollfree 0800 886 226 be a family treasure. Whether or not 39 Princes St, Dunedin In spite of his claim that he had been Maurice Belgrave’s experiences were Ph/Fax(03) 477 born in London, he had in fact been similar is a matter of conjecture. 9919 born into the closed and restrictive culture of a strict orthodox Jewish At the end of his sleuthing Michael Visit our website family in what is now south-east King takes it upon himself to say http://www.ocbooks.co.nz Poland. He left home when he was 12, Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the

Tui Motu InterIslands 29 comment

and financial chaos. All this – in a land gifted in natural resources and with Do cry for me – Argentina! a resilient people who have endured incredibly destructive regimes. he collapse of Argentina stirs I have not lost faith in Argentina, but Tmemories of family history for me. Crosscurrents there are parallels between the present My parents spent five years in Buenos by John Honoré situation there and the great depression Aires in the late 1920s and shared in of the 1930’s from which emerged the Argentina’s golden age which drew to a Weimar republic in Germany. This close with the crash of 1929. My father economic crisis is seriously affecting pioneered the purchase of wool for a has produced rampant capitalism in the hands of corrupt managers. Fernando Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. Other French textile manufacturer. Wool was countries in South America are notoriously difficult to value because of de la Rua’s government of the ’90s was corrupt beyond belief. Now the IMF, as beginning to protest against neo- huge variations in fibre diameter, often liberal policies. Can Argentina weather invisible to the naked eye. His first head of an international creditors’ cartel, is not solving Argentina’s problem but this storm and redefine its social and delivery was a disaster. His boss, who political identity yet again? knew his potential, hid the truth of this is seeking repayment of its loans. The shipment, sending him a good report, external debt, corruption, and the In memory of my father, I pray for but telling him to take care. Father’s economic crisis have produced social Argentina. confidence was established, and he went on to become a legend in the firm for Au revoir, Kim his uncanny ability to value wool from have mentioned before the pervasive of the world’s experts on Shakespeare South America and New Zealand. I influence of women in positions when he had reason to pause at her line of enquiry and finally said; “That’s a The wealth of Argentina was established of power in New Zealand, and this, very intelligent question”. It summed on the extensive rural estates, the under the direction of Marian Hobbs up for me Kim Hill’s absolute mastery estancias, which sustained an enormous as Minister of Broadcasting, extends to of her medium. number of grazing animals – bulls, radio and television. But this is not to cows, horses and sheep descended from say that this authority is always of the But the network needs revitalising and the animals brought by the Spaniards to highest quality. Cracks are beginning to it appears that Sharon Crosbie, chief the New World. They covered all the appear in National Radio, particularly executive since 1995, might have been plains of Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Santa since the departure of ‘La Stupenda’ long enough at the post. National Radio’s Fe and Cordova. The pampas grasslands Kim Hill from the 9 to noon slot on musical content is appalling and the are among the most fertile soils in the weekdays. continuity of programmes defies logic. world and helped to define the coun- Its flagship programmes rely on the Kim Hill reigned supreme. I remember try’s economic and social heritage. likes of Kim Hill and Chris Laidlaw, particularly her interview with a doyen for whom it is only a part time job. Between 1870 and 1940, Argentina’s of English literary criticism, Harold It is too early to form an opinion on population increased from 800,000 to Bloom, who had just written another Linda Clark who has the unenviable 13 million and that increase changed huge tome on Shakespeare (which Kim task of succeeding Kim Hill. Overall, the nature of country life. Today, 14 gave the impression she had read the National Radio has lost its authority million out of a population of 37 night before). As usual, she was holding and identity and this signals the need million are living below the poverty line. her own admirably with, arguably, one for new directions as well as the need How can this be? Argentina has experi- Anybody need a new broom? enced the governments of Peron who ruled the country as a despot, prior to for new management. be other niches for Michelle. the violent military dictatorship of 1976 write this before the results of the She was the new broom who cleaned out - 83, which resulted in 30,000 people I General Election are known to me, the National Party’s cupboard of political ‘disappearing’; the Falklands war of 1982 but from what the polls are predicting, no-hopers. Every party has them. I suggest and the traumatic hyperinflation of 1989. Labour will win and National will take that she be hired by the Labour Party to The IMF lent endless amounts of a bath. There will have to be a scape- do the same job for them. Then she could money to the bloody dictatorship of goat and who do you think it will be? move on to the Reserve Bank where her 1976 – 83 and has implemented the Even as you read this, Michelle Boag sense of dress would enliven the boring neo-liberal ideas of globalisation which will be studying the fine print of her quarterly pronouncements from the contract. However, I think there could grey-suited chairman. The country needs

30 Tui Motu InterIslands On the tape Raymond Brown showed himself well aware that there is a similar Voices from the past problem in the New Testament, even with some of the words recorded in the have been listening to a voice from College had become ‘Coppers’ Christi’. Gospels as being those of Jesus. Taken Ithe past. I have been playing tapes literally they are offensive to a wide made by Scripture scholar Raymond As our community recited Morning Prayer today I thought over what he said variety of individuals, to Jews, to blacks, Brown not long before he died four to women. years ago. They deal with “New Testa- on one of the tapes. Jesus spoke in the ment scholarship as we end one century words and thought patterns of a Jew of But Brown sees it as a problem for and begin another”. It was fascinating the first third of the First Century. His which tampering with translations is no to hear his voice again. It recalled when words as recorded in the Gospels have solution. A translation of John’s Gospel on a lecture tour he stayed with the perennial value. We can draw on them that pretends that the evangelist never Redemptorists in Melbourne. But it for answers to today’s problems. But laid blame on “the Jews” short-circuits also embarrassed me as I recalled how we must accept the reality that they are the issue and leads to false solutions as I lied to him at that time. couched in the words of a culture of two to how we are to show proper respect thousand years ago, not of that of today. for and kinship with the Jewish people He had a free Sunday afternoon. I of today. offered to drive him out to Healesville The Prayer of the Church employs the The translation of the psalms used in the Sanctuary to see the kangaroos, wombats psalms and the canticles of the Old Prayer of the Church is relatively, though and other truly native Australians. Testament, the products of an even not completely, tamper free. So far so When he asked me how long the drive earlier age. These inspired texts are full good. But it still leaves me with the would take, I grossly underestimated of expressions utterly at variance with problem of how to use prayers couched the time. I did not want to lose the the Christian message as we perceive it in the words of a culture not my own. opportunity of having an afternoon today. The believer in Isaiah 38 thanks I will have to work towards a solution. with Raymond Brown. In the event I God for having been preserved from believe he was glad he came. I certainly death because in the after-life – if there At least one thing I am sure of. I will not enjoyed the time, for Raymond was is an after-life – it will not be possible take up Psalm 126’s counsel to marry, good company, with no pretensions of to praise God. The faithful are enjoined beget a large family and so have a full any kind. in Psalm 149 to praise God and shout quiver of sons with me when I contend for joy, for God has dealt out vengeance with my enemies. ■ On the way back we dropped in on the to the nations and punishments on all police academy, formerly the provincial the peoples. Hardly our sentiments in seminary. He had spoken there on these days of the struggle for justice Fr Humphrey O’Leary is superior of the a previous visit to Australia. He was and peace. Redemptorist community, Auckland intrigued to find that Corpus Christi

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Tui Motu InterIslands 31 postscript

Let the punishment fit the crime Tom Cloher magine that you have been the for the ‘sentencing’ brigade with whom, the specific violent minority maybe, Iunfortunate victim of a serious road distressingly, three prominent political on the score of a safer community, accident. Subsequently you are told that parties marched strongly in the recent but no research exists to demonstrate you will be in hospital for three months. election campaign. that longer sentences return a more No! ‘doc’, that’s a lifetime. You could be rehabilitated person to the community. forgiven for that reaction. Even a week Of course, there is a case for continuing in hospital can feel like a month. detention for violent offenders who The lock-em-up-throw-the-key-away show no remorse and are patently an syndrome may deliver short-term Any kind of detention is an alien ongoing risk to others; but they are political mileage but it is a mean experience. Ask the kid who’s been comparatively small in number. The vast gut reaction to very complex social kept in after school while the mates go majority comprise those unfortunates problems, which the prison system home, or a serving soldier whose leave is whose life experience has been some- should not be expected to solve. Let’s cancelled. No punishment is worse than thing most readers (and writers) can hope that the next term of office for the being somewhere you don’t want to be, only imagine, this writer included. incoming government will be graced while helpless to do anything about it. Visiting prisoners conveys some sense with more initiatives like restorative People campaigning for longer sentences of their current and past deprivation. justice. and reduced parole have simply never It is difficult enough just going there grasped that a year in prison is longer – staying there is the real pain, day A policy with more emphasis on than three anywhere else; a week in one after dreary day, night after endless redemption, and less on retribution, of Her Majesty’s finest would give them night, whatever the sensible sentencing will deliver better security for our com- an entirely new perspective. pundits think. munities and better rehabilitation for offenders. ■ How long is enough? We trust highly How long is enough? Johnny-on- qualified and carefully selected judges the-outside seems to think length of Tom Cloher is chairperson of the to determine this, but that’s not enough sentence equals effective justice. For Tui Motu Board

‘A Fair and Just Solution’? By Rory Sweetman Historian Rory Sweetman writes succinctly on the history of integration of Private Schools into the State Educational System in this newly released book. The State Aid Conference held over 1973-4, under Norman Kirk’s Labour Government, provided the opportunity for interested parties to seek a solution under the Education Act for the inclusion of the ‘special character’ of parochial schools, thus ending more than a century of secularism in New Zealand education. Says Sweetman... “Through complex and lengthy dialogue, the negotiators on the integration working party found the words to bridge a century of conflict...”

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32 Tui Motu InterIslands