Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
ANGLICAN o.35 N // //
ADVENT 2010 ADVENT Taonga
THE BIG QUAKE Ministering Angels Helping new mums through the shakes
FAMILY CARE Network tackles violence in homes
YOUNG ADULTS Cocktail adds zing to Vic chaplaincy
ADVENT Jenny Campbell’s drive for justice 2010
Page 1 CWS APPEAL
By Greg Jackson
resilient Haitian mother and child have provided inspiration for the 65th Christmas appeal from AChristian World Service. The milestone 65th appeal found the iconic image that drove this year’s theme of “share the care” soon after Haiti’s devastating January 7.0 earthquake. Although smaller than the 7.1 quake that hit Canterbury in September the results were hugely different. Haiti had about 250,000 deaths and still has over 1.5 million displaced people living in appalling conditions in temporary camps. The compelling image of the mother and baby came from a CWS global partner, ACT (Action by Churches Together) Alliance photographer Paul Jeffrey. He was in Haiti within days of the quake when he took his picture of the Haitian mother Bathtime rises above lovingly bathing her baby among the ruins of the capital, Port-au-Prince. It was one of a series of redemptive images of resilience, courage and love that the chaos CWS staff recognised as telling a strong It’s this spirit that needs support and instead strong and able even in massive story of how the people of Haiti were encouragement. adversity,’’ Pauline says. coping with disaster. CWS has both global and local partners The image echoes the CWS ethos of CWS national director Pauline McKay in Haiti to support. supporting people in partnership with an says the image shows vividly how people “What we loved about this picture is that implicit understanding that both parties can in crisis can still rise above chaos. it shows people unwilling to be victims but learn from each other. The mother and child theme also echoes the underlying Christian ethos that inspired the original Christmas Appeal and those that have followed. In a year when sudden changes to government funding have jeopardised much of the work CWS does, it’s also timely to remind supporters of how much good the organisation has done over the years. It’s almost impossible to quantify how many lives have been changed for the better, so CWS is celebrating its achievements by spotlighting partner stories from Uganda, Tonga, Haiti and Gaza. Supporters will see how CWS supports those caring for HIV and AIDS so everyone gets better quality of life; how healing is helped through therapy programmes for children traumatised by war and disaster; how health supports help mothers and children against a backdrop of war; and how people can reclaim ancestral farming techniques and end up eating healthier and cheaper food. Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010 Contents 06 12 16 Regular 19 Social justice: Best and worst of the big quake 28 Meditation: Kelvin Wright’s balancing act 29 Film: John Bluck is moon-struck 20 22 30 30 Preaching: Matthew’s revolutionary manual 32 Bible: Wrestling with the humanity of Scripture 33 Advent: A bridge to God’s love 36 Books: on being responsibly Christian, prayer, and the mystery of Jesus Features 39 From the Far Side: Imogen de la Bere goes to Rome 04 16 Poihaere’s day The big quake Anglican Taonga is published by the Commission History is made at St Faith’s Hospital chaplains hit the wards on Communications and distributed to all ministry units and agencies of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia - Te Hahi 05 20 Mihinare ki Aotearoa ki Niu Tireni ki nga Moutere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. For women Campus cocktail Editor Study centre elects new convenor Adding zing to the Vic chaplaincy Brian Thomas 214 Ilam Road Christchurch 8041 06 22 Ph 03 351-4404 Close to the bone A year in bed [email protected] Tackling violence in the home Glynn Cardy on being awfully sick Design Marcus Thomas Design Ph 04 389-6964 12 24 [email protected] Just where I am Fair go! Distribution Chris Church One woman’s drive for justice Two sticklers for social justice Ph 03 351-4404 [email protected] 15 34 Advertising Brian Watkins Tall story Jailing Parihaka Ph 06 875-8488 Woody, the castaway giraffe In the steps of two Maori prophets Mob 021 072-9892 Fax 09 353-1418 [email protected]
Media Officer A new take on the 14 Stations of the Cross – by Canterbury artist John Badcock – Lloyd Ashton will exhibit in ChristChurch Cathedral through Lent. In a four-week study series Ph 09 521-4439 (from March 17 to April 7) a variety of speakers will present their interpretations 021 348-470 of the Stations, followed by discussion. The aim: to engage in a process of visio [email protected] divina, the intentional practice of reflection on visual art, seeing with the eyes and listening with the mind to hear the voice of God on the Lenten journey. Cover. Undaunted: a few days after • Pictured: “He Meets His Blessed Mother.” Canterbury’s big quake, Chaplains Hilary
Barlow (left) and Pam Tizzard with nurse Edna Byron in the neo-natal unit at For the latest on the Anglican world, check out our website: Christchurch Women’s Hospital. www.anglicantaonga.org.nz Picture: Lloyd Ashton.
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MILESTONES
Lloyd Ashton witnesses history being made in Rotorua
hen Bishop Ngarahu Katene led Poihaere Knight through her diaconate vows before a packed congregation at StW Faith’s Ohinemutu on November 13, they were making history. Because Poihaere is the first woman to be ordained in the 130-year history of that landmark Rotorua church. St Faith’s sits in a special place. It’s on a promontory that juts out into Lake Rotorua, and at the east end of the church there’s that famous etched-glass window of Christ wearing his korowai, walking on the waters. But if you spin on your heels and head out the western doors of the church you see Tamatekapua, the main meeting house of the Arawa tribes, just 100 metres away. This is heartland Te Arawa. In particular, this is Ngati Whakaue territory, and in Ngati Whakaue lore this spot is tapu. Ngati Whakaue are strict about tradition, and some people insist that Ngati Whakaue kawa should apply at St Faith’s, too. No women priests, in other words. No female deacons. When Rahu Katene was ordained Pihopa o te Manawa o te Wheke in October 2006 – at Tamatekapua, in fact – he made it clear that change was on its way. In his first kauwhau as Bishop at St Faith’s, he spelled out why change had to come. Ashley Martin The tapu on the land where St Faith’s stands had long since been lifted, he said, and this is now consecrated church ground. At St Faith’s, he was saying, church kawa overrides Ngati Whakaue kawa. First or no first, for Poihaere, of course, Poihaere’s big day out her ordination was a special day. For a start, her mum, Heeni te in the heartland Hurihangatahi Hanna, was the first Maori woman priest in the Diocese of Whakarewarewa. Before she took on that before we’re anything else. Waiapu. She’d been ordained by Bishop mahi, she taught Japanese and Maori at “All that we did was to be guided by the Whakahuihui Vercoe at Poho o Rawiri in secondary schools. Spirit. There is no choice, really, when the Gisborne in 1987. She’s also a wife (her tane: Kurei Knight), Spirit decides to do things. Heeni had died in 1993, and one of mum (to Morgan and BJ Rauhuia) and sister, “The church has to rise above all sorts the special moments at the November and she’s two thirds through her training at of contradictions… and to be able to offer 13 service came when Poihaere’s sisters the Rotorua taapapa. Whew. a clear explanation as to why it does what it gave her Heeni’s Paipera Tapu – her Bible, Tom Poata thinks the ordination was does. I think that’s been done, fairly well.” complete with the post-it notes that Heeni special, too. But he plays down the historical So: is Poihaere on the road to priesthood? had left there. significance of Poihaere’s ordination. “If they’ll have me,” says Poihaere. “If they’ll Poihaere is the events manager at Te “There are those who disagree on social have me, I’d love to be there.” Puia, which is the business arm for the New grounds. But church kawa has to override, Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Centre at because that’s who we are. We’re church Lloyd Ashton is Media Officer for this church
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tronger representation of women Fronting up to a new era: on all church bodies is just one The Women’s Studies aim of the newly elected convenor Council with the ‘link women’ who represent of the Anglican Women’s Studies S dioceses and hui amorangi. Centre, Rev Carole Hughes. “Some provincial bodies and even diocesan committees don’t have any women,” she notes. “This is not our ideal as gathered church, which traditionally offers challenge and opportunity for all men and women.” Carole says her own ministry and faith have been furthered not only by theological education but also by opportunities to serve on committees at diocesan, national and international levels of the church. “Largely this has been due to church leaders mentoring me and believing in me. It’s been the same for all other members of the Women’s Studies Council, which is why we now want to do the same for others.” Opening doors Carole says her other aim as convenor is to communicate well with those at to women the flaxroots of the church, and to offer educative support. council wanting to take over the church recognising that we need to be intentional “Diocesan link people, nominated or adopting an elitist stance. “Our agenda about equipping women so that we can all by the bishops, will have the task of is simply to inspire, excite, equip and contribute generously and responsibly to identifying, gathering, facilitating, support women.” our church.” resourcing and encouraging women in Carole also rejects suggestions that the Apart from Carole, the three-tikanga theological education. council is locked into a power struggle with women’s council, appointed by General “We also wish to develop relationships men. As Vicar of St John’s in Campbells Bay Synod, comprises Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa, with Kahui Wahine, AAW, Mothers’ Union, (Auckland), she knows that a vibrant faith Rev Canon Mere Wallace, Ven Taimalelagi and St John’s College, all of whom were community is one where women and men Matalavea, Rev Amy Chambers and Rev represented at our last hui in October.” are mutually supportive. Erice Fairbrother. Carole says the Women’s Studies “However, there’s currently an imbalance As convenor, Carole succeeds Jenny Council hopes to meet with women in in leadership, which can only be righted Te Paa who has nurtured the council’s their own situations, to offer administrative by giving women more opportunities, formation since General Synod 2006. support, and to encourage women to especially in theological education and publish their resources. decision-making roles. Check out the Women’s Studies Centre page on the General Synod website: http://anglican.org.nz/Women- She dismisses any talk of the women’s “It’s not about exclusion; rather, it’s s-Studies”.
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ANGLICAN FAMILY NETWORK
Close to thebone f guts, experience and skill are timetables to achieve that in their countries. what brings success, we may have In the Diocese of Polynesia, for example, reached a tipping point on the way three of its most senior figures have to turning back “the sheer, bloody committed themselves to developing non- awfulness”1 of domestic violence in violence training programmes for clergy, Anglicans at the sharp Iour part of the world. laity, youth and Sunday schools by the end end of confronting family Certainly, the 25 delegates to the of the year – with pilot programmes under violence in the South Pacific International Anglican Family Network way in January, ready for a roll-out in the (IAFN) Oceania Consultation on Violence churches in February. met in Lower Hutt recently and the Family are determined that their And they’ve already got a key ally on to nut out how the church gathering in Lower Hutt in late October will side. can better grapple with that mark that tipping point. Archbishop Winston Halapua, the new problem. Lloyd Ashton was They want their five-day meeting to bishop of their diocese, has declared that be remembered as the time when the from now he’ll grant licences only to clergy on hand to see them meet desire to end domestic violence, first in and lay workers who commit themselves that challenge. the church and then in wider communities to persistently and consistently spreading throughout the South Pacific, became an the message that domestic violence is irresistible movement. unacceptable. The IAFN delegates – from Papua New Where the New Zealand dioceses are Guinea; Vanuatu; the Solomons; Hawaii; concerned, this much is already clear: Fiji; Samoa, Tonga, Australia and Aotearoa • Charles Waldegrave (the co-leader New Zealand (along with three Family of both the consultation and its hosts Network reps from the UK) – have returned the Family Centre), Richard Sawrey (a to their homes now, armed with plans and Wellington clinical psychologist) and
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Anthony Dancer (the church’s Social Justice Commissioner) will seek a commitment from their archbishops and bishops to press ahead with a national stopping violence strategy. • In that strategy they’ll focus on getting the no-violence message embedded into training for ministry at every level – from clergy training through to Bible studies in parishes. • And they’ll work up a system to measure their effectiveness – including the goal of 50 percent of the bishops approving the delivery of non-violence programmes in their dioceses in the first year. Where Tikanga Maori is concerned, the commitments and goals are similar. And Hera Clark (long-time Maori woman and children’s advocate) and Huia Swann
(high school counsellor and therapist) told Yes! Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa, who chaired the consultation they’re already thinking of the IAFN consultation, is a former Anglican Observer suitable slogans for their campaign. to the UN, and a priest. She’s flanked here by the Rev In 1975, for example, when Whina Jonathon Inkpin (left) from Australia) and the Rev Tom Cooper led the Land March to protest the Van Culin, of Hawaii. continued loss of Maori land, marchers their raised hands on Sundays to celebrate equally worthy, equally capable, is an evil chanted the slogan: “Not one more acre!” the Eucharist, and to bless people. perpetuated against us simply because of Where this kaupapa is concerned, the How do we know this? who we are .” slogan could be: “Not one more death!” Because the spouses of some bishops at That was a session, and a message, that The Communion’s primates will be apparently wasn’t universally acclaimed. hearing from the consultation, too. the 2008 Lambeth Conference said so. Because a handful of the bishops walked out. It developed a “wish list” that includes Dr Jenny Te Paa told the IAFN gathering • • • • having the primates make a strong that those spouses had spoken of “the Guts, experience and skill? statement against family violence “in code of fear” that these victims are forced At the Lower Hutt consultation, too, we penitence and faith – and affirming the to live by, and of the silence on the part of heard stories from some delegates who’d resolved and planned actions from the their abusers. tasted violence in their own lives. We heard consultation.” That talk among spouses led to the convening of a special session at Lambeth from: he IAFN consultation was served 2008 – the only Lambeth session where the Josey Hansen, who is the highly-qualified with a grim reminder that domestic men and women gathered together – to manager of Aboriginal Services for Tviolence – the violence that rears its confront the issue of abuse of power. Anglicare Western Australia. Josey is from head and strikes in homes and communities Dr Te Paa led that session. “Any the Noongar people of South West Australia, – isn’t something that just afflicts women and abuse of power,” she said then, “which the largest Aboriginal group in Australia. children who don’t go to Anglican churches. manifests itself as the despicable and Her mother was 17 when she gave birth In plain language: the wives and children utterly unacceptable practice of violence to Josey – and when Josey became 17 of some clergy are beaten by husbands against women, against girls, against those herself, she buried her mum, who had tried and fathers who – as Hone Kaa put it – lower of us created by God as equally good, to intervene in a fight between two friends,
Jessica Ingen from Papua New Guinea Tom Van Culin from Hawaii Didamain Uibo from Australia
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ANGLICAN FAMILY NETWORK and was struck a fatal blow. So she grabbed a torch and began perpetrated. It was impossible to find “What did violence cost me?” Josey hiking back over the mountain, praying help in the 1960s, when these bad things asked. “I could smell the pain. I could taste it. fervently as she walked through the night. happened to me. I could feel and sense it – and the grief was Sure enough, she did encounter that war “There were no laws to protect the paralysing.” party – who, on meeting her, melted back victims, there were no shelters, and there Somehow, she overcame her pain, and the way they had come. were no classes to educate people about has gone on to work for her people. what they were going through.” “Our culture,” she told the consultation, Hone Kaa, who gave a keynote address Eighteen years ago she married Tom, “is based upon a different set of values and about Te Kahui Mana Ririki, the national and resumed the education that abuse had norms from mainstream culture.” Maori child advocacy organisation he chairs. stolen from her. And failure to present “potential beneficial He spoke of how things were when he At the age of 68, Tina is a university services in a culturally appropriate manner to was growing up in Rangitukia, among Ngati graduate contributing to Hawaii in a host of Noongars,” she said, “can be seen, effectively, Porou, in the early 1940s. ways, including at the state prison. as excluding them.” Back then, he said, violence in that “Virtually all of the women inmates,” she Josey has some thoughts about what community “was endemic”. wrote, “have come from abusive childhoods, the church can contribute to her people’s “I was fortunate enough to have been and then gone on to become involved in wellbeing. Her first recommendation? brought up in a house that did not possess a illegal activities.” “Listen deeply,” she said, “with your ears, stock whip or a flail made of No. 8 wire.” eyes and heart.” The problems were made worse when he IAFN will shortly publish a the 28 Maori Battalion soldiers returned report of the Oceania consultation Jessica Ingen, whose husband Nathan from World War 2. Those men had never Ton its website: http://iafn. is the new Bishop of the Diocese of Aipo been helped to readjust to normal life. anglicancommunion.org/index.cfm . Rongo in Papua New Guinea. As a result, said Hone, “much of the That report will sketch the process In earlier days, she and her husband violence that the children of Rangitukia followed at Lower Hutt, and stress the value served in a remote highland parish, and one suffered was perpetrated… by men who, of bringing forward the best of cultural day, on a Mothers’ Union mission, Jessica after three or four years overseas, had traditions, alongside Christian values, as a trekked for hours across a mountain range known only how to kill or be killed.” way of stopping violence in a specific part to visit a village in the next valley where of the world. her sister lived. She reached that village at The Rev Tom Van Culin, a priest from The reports from the two previous nightfall. the Diocese of Hawaii, who had the per- consultations – in Kenya in 2003, and Korea That same day her sister was tilling mission of his wife Tina to share what had in 2007 – are also available there. her plot in the village gardens – when her happened to her. 1. A quote from Ian Sparks, who is on the committee of the IAFN, and who has helped organise each of the three IAFN husband attacked her with a bush knife, and She was the survivor of 25 years of abuse consultations on Violence and the Family (in Kenya, Korea and killed her. at the hands of her first husband. New Zealand). Ian formerly led the Children’s Society in the UK. Jessica knew that when the males from Part of her healing had come, she said, Lloyd Ashton is Media Officer for this church. her own village heard of their kinswoman’s when she learned to acknowledge “that murder they would immediately come, I was not to blame for the assaults on my seeking revenge. body, mind and soul which that individual
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ANGLICAN FAMILY NETWORK
LEFT: Charles Waldegrave BELOW: Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese
Don’t worry about the paper chase
t one stage, the IAFN Oceania • Family Therapy. “Just Therapy” In the late 1970s, Wellington’s then City Consultation on Violence and the starts from a place that says, in effect, Missioner was keen to get some church- Family didn’t look like a goer. that if therapists ignore things like based social work happening in the A There’d been a couple of unemployment and bad housing, they’re Hutt Valley. attempts to make it happen elsewhere, but doing a slack job. It’s actually a Family Charles Waldegrave, who is a they fizzled. Centre development that is now being psychologist, a Cambridge theology Then the Family Centre in Lower Hutt taught across the world. graduate as well as a priest at St James in stepped up to the plate. We’ll do it, they • Social Policy Research. Under Lower Hutt, was asked to check out what said. We’ll take it on. Charles Waldegrave’s leadership, the might be possible. He was interested in And, in the minds of the overseas folk Family Centre supplied data that helped family therapy, which was new in those who came to the consultation, they didn’t persuade the last government to drop days, and he was keen. do a bad rescue job. market rentals for state houses; to lift And, in 1979, under the auspices of In the minds of many of those visitors, superannuation, and to develop the Anglican Social Services, he and a few too, one of the biggest revelations was Working for Families package. like-minded colleagues set up the Family watching two accomplished operators Centre. Every few months, those workers • Community Development. go about their work. Those two are would go on retreat to consider their Example: The Family Centre and Afeafe Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese and Charles challenges and their effectiveness. O Vaetoefaga, a Samoan NGO, recently Waldegrave, co-leaders of the consultation, “About 18 months in,” says Charles, won a World Bank prize for a project to and the leaders of the Pacific and Pakeha “on one of these retreats, we realised that revive knowledge of traditional Samoan sections of the Family Centre. something was missing. building. Houses built that way, they The way they work together set the “We were completely Pakeha. Middle- showed, could reduce the risks climate tone. It helped created a space where class educated Pakeha to boot.” change poses to Samoa. Their proposal everyone, no matter where they came Not only were there no Maori or Pacific was one of 26 selected by the World from, felt free to contribute. Islanders on their team, says Charles, Bank for funding, out of 1755 submitted. Terrie Robinson, a priest who’s based there were very few agencies offering in the Anglican Communion Office in • Education. The Family Centre’s Maori and Pacific Islanders anything, on London, and who travels widely helping all leadership team teaches across the their own terms. the Communion networks, describes the world, and shares its story of working The Family Centre decided to change Family Centre as “extraordinary.” for change through building strong that. For a start, they would employ a Maori “I don’t know of any other body linked community and cultural links. and a Pacific community worker. to the church,” she says, “which is working And one of the turning points for They had put out feelers to Kokiri so closely with its community, and flows so the Family Centre, as Charles told the Marae in Seaview for the Maori worker by well with its cultural rhythms. They seem to consultation, came in 1982 when they went this time, and sketched for them the new have worked out how to do that, and how to place a sits vac newspaper ad. direction they intended heading. to bring out the best of what cultures have to offer.” Indeed, the Family Centre has fashioned The Family Centre in Lower Hutt stepped up to rescue quite a record over its 30-year life. the consultation – and did an ‘extrordinary’ job It specialises in four areas:
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Then, as most prospective employers do, they set about preparing to advertise their job. They worked up terms and conditions: set the salary, wrote the job description, spelled out a process to be followed in the event of unsatisfactory performance, generally crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s against the employment legislation. Then, having framed their ad, they placed that in the papers. And, the evening before the applications closed, Charles Waldegrave got a call from ABOVE: Quandolita reports from the women’s caucus Keriana Olsen, who was the matriarch of the during the consultation. Kokiri Marae: RIGHT: Wally Campbell “Charles, we’ve got the person you need.” her mind: the Hutt Valley Maori community was “Well yes, whaea, but…” and Charles “Don’t you worry about the paper chase, concerned. spluttered something about needing to Charles. And so that man, Wally Campbell, from adhere to their process. “The whanau has met. And we’ve chosen Ngati Porou, landed the job. The job had been advertised, he told the right person for you.” The next eye-opener for Charles and the Keriana. Applications closed the next day – Well, to cut a long story short, the Family Family Centre crew came on the day when but, if the person Keriana had in mind cared Centre people could see that yes, the Wally started at the Centre – which was to submit an application by then they’d be person being proposed to them by the operating by then from the old vicarage happy to consider that along with the rest of Kokiri whanau was of some interest. behind St James’ Church in Woburn Rd. the applicants… and yadda yadda. He did seem to have accumulated an It wasn’t just a matter of Wally clocking Evidently, Keriana had another process in impressive record where work among on at 8.30am. He’d brought one or two folk with him. In fact, he was escorted by at least 50 of the Kokiri whanau. And, in the course of the proceedings, one of their kaumatua, Uncle Manaaki, took Wally by the hand, led him to Charles and told Charles straight: “We are giving you this taonga. If you LEARNING FROM OUR PAST, look after him, and keep him warm, we (the Family Centre and the marae) will be knit together like the flax in the kite. “But if you don’t look after him and he becomes cold – we’ll take him back.” Looking back, it seems Keriana Olsen Diplomas in Anglican Studies are developed for and the Kokiri whanau knew what they the ministry and mission needs of our church and were on about. It seems too, that the Family society in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia. Centre learned the knack for keeping They are NZQA approved. Curriculum areas are Biblical Studies, Theology, Faith in History and taonga warm. Context, Ministry and Mission in Context. That’s because, 28 years later, Wally Campbell – now an archdeacon in the Pihopatanga, and a QSO – is seen as one of the cornerstones of the Family Centre’s success. The College of St John the Evangelist Wally’s retired now. But that didn’t stop Te Whare Wananga o Hoani Tapu te Kaikauwhau i te Rongopai him coming in several times during the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT consultation to see how things were going. phone 09 521 2725 You could see, again and again, how email [email protected] much Wally is a part of the Family Centre. www.stjohnscollege.ac.nz You could see too, how rethinking a sits vac ad can pay dividends. Lloyd Ashton
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When did you stop beating your wife, Bishop?
o some bishops beat women sat on separate sides of At one stage, the consultation their wives? When the room during that session. divided itself into men’s and Bishop Catherine It began with a play women’s caucuses. And the Roskam insinuated at on the theme of women’s report from the men’s caucus DLambeth 2008 that some bishops empowerment, followed by a includes the question: What are from developing countries were dramatic reading of the rape of the primates afraid of? indeed guilty of that… well, the Tamar (2 Samuel 13). Then the During that men’s caucus John John Rea from Scotland. English tabloids climbed all over bishops and spouses broke into Rea, who’s an IAFN committee that one. same-sex study groups. member from the Episcopal action plans, province by province, The Suffragan Bishop of New Afterwards, Jane Williams, Church of Scotland, said that he diocese by diocese. York had made her remarks in a the wife of the Archbishop had the feeling that bishops were So they’ve got something Inclusive Church news release. of Canterbury, told a press “sailing on, unruffled” in the wake tangible to present to their “We have 700 men here,” she conference that the session had of the Lambeth session. bishops, to their synods, and wrote. “Do you think any of them been a success. In John’s mind, the key question they’ve got timetables for making beat their wives? Chances are She said the church had a duty is: “How do we help the mostly these strategies happen. they do.” to address domestic violence, male leadership of the church to On the final afternoon, at Many of the bishops, she both in society and within the get from being a significant part the end of the poroporoaki, added, came from places church, for “even disciples fall into of the problem, to becoming a when everybody had said their “where it is culturally accepted ‘patterns of behaviour that are not significant part of the solution?” farewells and thanked their hosts, to beat your wife…” Christ-like.’” “Because if we’re going to Charles Waldegrave, who had Her remarks got up the noses Even so, for whatever reason, make headway on this, we have co-led the consultation, had the of a lot of good bishops. about 100 bishops walked out of got to get our leaders engaged, last word. Dr John Sentamu, for one, that session. owning the problem, showing For Charles, being in a thought they were a cheap shot. • • • • the way.” gathering that wrapped such a “I hope Bishop Catherine has got But all those Lambeth goings- John thinks that some of heavy-duty subject with a daily statistics,” he said then. “If not, on, as Jenny Te Paa remarked the bishops, at least until now, Eucharist, with prayer and with the she is in danger of causing an to the Lower Hutt consultation have seen the need for church singing of hymns, was satisfying. unnecessary rumpus. I find guilt during her keynote presentation, action on domestic violence and In most of the social science by association very difficult.” are ancient history. HIV-AIDS to be women’s work. and psychology forums he In hindsight, the greater The real question, she said, Something for the Mothers’ Union attends, he says, spirituality damage done by Bishop is whether any good has been to worry about. doesn’t get a look-in. Roskam’s remarks may have achieved on that front since 2008. Part of the problem may also “We tend not to be sharp in the been that they angered many “Nearly two and a half years be that bishops develop “thick church. But here, we’ve engaged bishops ahead of a far more on from Lambeth,” she asked, skins” to cope with the truckloads with a lot of sharp, cutting-edge serious attempt to grapple with “can we assure each other of problems that come their way. thinking. We’ve named the issues, the subject. that our beloved church now we’ve set goals and targets. Because a few of the spouses provides inviolate sanctuary for n the end, it could be that “Our goal is to stop violence. at Lambeth had, in fact, raised all?” the Oceania Consultation’s To go out and transform. That’s the subject of abuse meted She broadened her focus: biggest contribution was that our mission. out by clergy to wives. They’d “Can we assure God that God’s it got down to tin tacks. “But we can’t do that without begun to talk among themselves given right for fullness of life for I The 25 delegates sketched sorting out our own house first.” about that. all women and girls is a priority Their talk led to the convening project for all?” of a special session there – the Her own verdict on that only one where the men and charge, she dryly remarked, “is women gathered together – that we remain a somewhat less Can we assure each other that our called “Equal in God’s sight: than credible work in progress.” when power is abused.” Where domestic violence beloved church now provides Dr Jenny Te Paa had, at the is concerned, plenty of the folk request of the Spouses’ Design in Lower Hutt seemed to be inviolate sanctuary for all? Group, led that session. At the frustrated by church leaders spouses’ request too, men and dragging the chain on the issue.
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When I look back on my life, I realise that in every conversation and interaction there’s a pattern, there’s a reason, there’s a God incident
Jenny Campbell with a handful of glass picked up off the bush floor. An environmental activist, she promotes and practises the three “R’s” - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Page 12 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
ENVIRONMENT
Mention ‘Jenny Campbell’ and you’ll get either a blank look or a gasp of admiration. Jenny’s low-key approach often helps her escape notice, but don’t be fooled. Here’s a woman with boundless energy and determination to build a just and sustainable world in Godzone. Julanne Clarke-Morris profiles this home-grown prophet. Just whereI am enny Campbell is an extraordinary book sale, raising thousands for missions that limit women’s potential. Anglican. A laywoman from and hospital chaplaincy. Currently she Although she works to bring about Mossburn in Northern Southland, works for Supporting Families in Mental change, Jenny doesn’t focus on the negative. Jenny is always challenging the Wellness. For her, emphasising the positive is where J church on something, whether it’s What drives Jenny Campbell – when half God comes in, human rights, care for the earth, or making of what she does would exhaust most of us, “For me it’s all about helping people hold hard decisions based on justice. and the lethargy she often encounters would on to hope, looking for the best in people Jenny has been a lay ministry organiser dampen the strongest resolve? and thinking of positive ways forward. and trainer, a Dunedin synodswoman and Go back to her roots and you’ll start to When I look back on my life, I realise that in a member of General Synod/te Hinota understand where all that energy comes every conversation and interaction there’s Whanui. In 2008, when she was awarded from. a pattern, there’s a reason, there’s a God the QSM for service to community, Bishop Jenny’s earliest memories are from a incident.” George Connor said: “We’re grateful for the remote sheep station called Hamenga, on way you continue to challenge us all.” the south Wairarapa coast. It was a hard enny’s introduction to faith was weekly When a colleague from Southland Forest life for Jenny’s mother, with three children, JSunday school led by Mrs Didsbury, and Bird nominated Jenny for a Kiwi Battler Jenny’s father and up to six other men to a warm, motherly woman, who handed award this year, the application showed feed, and the nearest woman 10km away. out stars and books and shared a gospel more than 16 organisations that benefit “When the rivers came up, we couldn’t of loving and caring. Through her Bible from Jenny’s work, ranging from recording get out at all, so Mum fed us from what we stories, Jenny came to look for the best from Southland’s oral histories, to the Human could take off the station. It was tough for life, to see in God a constant source of hope. Rights Commission Taku Manawa project. her to cope with the isolation,” Jenny recalls. She’d heard about fire and brimstone, Jenny is often reminding the church Later, on the family farm at Pirinoa, but it was only when Jenny left Pirinoa about our responsibility to protect the Jenny’s mother not only ran the household school and boarded at Solway College in environment. As well as more than 30 and cared for the children, but with her Masterton that she was really struck by the years with Forest & Bird, she convenes landgirl skills from WW2 she’d work on the fearful side of religion. Invercargill’s Environment Centre, a hub for farm too. “One of the other boarders, a Brethren communication and resources on protecting “I remember my mother going out to do girl, used to sit up at night and tell us how the earth. Make sure you have your lambing beats on horseback for hours and we were all wicked sinners and were going compost and your recycling sorted before hours. In the evening she’d come home and to burn in hell. We were really scared, it was Jenny comes to your church! cook the meal while the men sat down and horrible. Jenny cares a great deal for people, too. read the newspaper. “I used to ask God, ‘How can I be OK She’s a member of the Anglican Social “After they’d eaten, she’d still have all the if I’m such a terrible sinner?’ It didn’t add Justice Commission and the ecumenical other household chores to do. The men on up somehow, with the message of love and social justice network in Southland, where the farm were paid for what they did, but my hope I’d heard in Sunday school.” she helps challenge the unjust structures mother never got a penny and had no say in Before high school finished, the family that keep people poor or on the margins. the financial decisions.” left the farm and moved near to Greytown. Each year Jenny helps to coordinate a Watching this, Jenny grew determined Jenny headed to Kuranui College as a UNIFEM white ribbon day in Southland, for that not only she, but other women too, foundation sixth-former and came out as education and training in non-violence, and could have power over their lives. She was dux. Not that she boasts about it. “I’m not for years she’s organised a secondhand also motivated to challenge the stereotypes ›› CONTINUED
Page 13 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010 that bright, I’m just a worker.” she says. “I only found out how valuable the on and I should come back when she was After school, she set off for Victoria native bush was after I joined Forest and 35 pounds. When she died (at 8 months) University to study maths, botany and Bird and when I took high school biology she was only 9 pounds. geography for a B.Sc. In her second year students on field trips to Tautuku in the “I was completely overwhelmed by the she went flatting with some first-year Catlins and the Hollyford Valley. We’d study violence and Louise being sick. I used to friends from the Anglican women’s hostel. the bush up close, and there were very think that God was punishing her for my “We had huge discussions about God knowledgeable parents and helpers to tell mistakes. I was so angry at God for taking it and spirituality,” she remembers. “We talked us amazing things about it.” out on her.” about faith and justice, about apartheid and Jenny doesn’t know what got her over what was happening in Cuba. I really loved ut let’s go back to before Jenny the anger and the pain, but somehow the the openness of those discussions. went teaching, because it was loving, hopeful God won out over the tyrant. “There were student protesters who then that her life took a sharp “When Emma and Amanda (her other went on about all these things, but I wasn’t Bturn. She found herself in a violent children) were about 5 and 3, I just started one of them. I was too busy plugging away relationship, with small children and little going back to church. I was encouraged by at my degree.” support from any direction. friends and colleagues, but I think I knew She got it, of course, and that persistence “I was totally dependent on my partner there was more to life.” has become her trademark. for money. He was quite violent. But Later she took a job teaching biology “My problem is I can’t remember because of the shame, I couldn’t share what and maths at the local high school, gaining the arguments when people try to close was happening with neighbours or friends. the financial independence that led to the me down. I just keep going when I know They knew what was going on, but we just end of the violent relationship. something is right. didn’t talk about it. That’s where I got my When she found out Louise’s heart had “At a recent meeting people were commitment to ‘Say No to Violence’.” been part of the debacle at Greenlane bringing out all the old reasons why we Even so, Jenny warns against blaming Hospital, and she’d come to terms with it, shouldn’t have Te Reo Maori in our church women who refuse to leave a violent home. she responded by becoming a contact services. ‘It’s tokenism’, someone said, “People can be very judgmental. They for anyone else in Southland who’d been and ‘No one understands it.’ So I just said say, ‘Fancy her staying there with that going affected. again, ‘But it’s our commitment, we’re in this on!’ When I was in that situation, I couldn’t For Jenny it’s important that what she’s three-tikanga church.’ They said, ‘There are defend myself.” achieved is not what she’s done alone. For no Maori in our churches anyway,’ so in the She did leave with the children several her it’s all about seeing where God is in the end I just said, ‘Actually, I’m Maori’.” times but returned each time - against her picture, about building relationships, about Which is true: Jenny’s Dad was Ngai better judgment, community. Tahu, and the family’s marae is Te Rau “When I see someone stuck in a violent “I want to recognise God’s presence in Aroha in Bluff. situation, I feel a responsibility to help them. everything that happens and look for the “I’m not sure what brought my You have to be a friend, help them to get spirituality in others, whether or not they grandparents to the Wairarapa, whether somewhere safe, get their precious things call themselves believers.” they met when my Pakeha grandfather out, like photo albums or things you can’t The way Jenny sees it today, she has a was already farming there, or when my take if you leave with just one suitcase. rich life, Ngai Tahu grandmother was performing in “And you’ve got to keep on being a “I see myself as wealthy because I have shows in Wellington.” friend - help make sure they can get a job, choices. I’m financially independent. I have Like a lot of things that are important to or have the monetary resources to not have a safe place to live where I’m not subjected Jenny now, her Maori side wasn’t valued to go back.” to violence. I have a fantastic garden. I have when she was young. And neither was the Despite the violence, it wasn’t till Jenny’s wonderful family and friends who love me land under her feet. third child, Louise, was born that things unconditionally. “We used to spend whole days on really hit rock bottom. “And I don’t just work either. I have time horseback up in the bush on my uncle’s “When it became clear she wasn’t in my life for fun, for walking in the bush, for farm, but I didn’t appreciate its value in growing, I recognised there was something appreciating my beautiful daughters and those days. We knew the valuable land wrong, something inside.” grandchildren, for enjoying my freedom of was flat land that you could grow grass and In the end, the doctors found out that baby choice.” graze sheep on... It wasn’t till years later that Louise had a heart condition. Jenny and For Jenny, a verse by John O’Donohue is I understood how precious the bush was.” Louise went up to Greenlane Hospital to get a good prayer for anyone to take to heart: As a teacher, she has stayed open to help, but they couldn’t do anything for her. May I have the courage today learning. “They said she was too little to operate To live the life that I would love, To postpone my dreams no longer But do at last what I came here for i was totally dependent on my partner for And waste my heart on fear no more.
money. He was quite violent. But because of the Julanne Clarke-Morris is Assistant Editor of shame, I felt I couldn’t share what was happening Anglican Taonga. with neighbours or friends [email protected]
Page 14 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
Tall story: the castaway giraffe by Craig Dixon
uake response in Canterbury greenstone. I would love to keep her but since has taken many forms but none bringing her to Christchurch, poor Woody has so quirky as the case of Woody become traumatised with the aftershocks. The the giraffe. higher up you are they worse they feel. She QThe revelation came to me on the desolate needs a stable environment and lots of love. West Coast of the South Island where, bored 5000+ Trade Me hits, extensive media of ‘baiting, I was kicking through the driftwood coverage, and an auction settlement of $41 at the remote Kapitea Creek north of Hokitika. later, Woody had a new owner. Canterbury By some weather-wrought miracle, a had been blessed, distracted and besotted. broken branch, tossed and turned into a Warmed by a wooden heart in trying times. giraffe, found me. Woody confirmed again Reader’s Digest
Standing at an impressive 2.3 metres, a wisdom, ‘Laughter is the best medicine’. Sticky moment: Craig (left) introduces Woody to her giraffe from every angle, the duly named EQC payments bring some relief after new owner, Chris Oldham, at ChristChurch Cathedral. ‘Woody’ joined our happy team of St John’s a disaster. ‘The imperative to ‘Look after College friends from the early 1980s. Yourself - Look after Others’ also makes excited the media and the many who sought She spent the remaining days lying around sense. But the most effective remedy is to Woody on Trade Me. with us, then was loaded on to a trailer to cross nurture the creative stirrings within, to see Some wanted to distance themselves the Great Divide to a new life in Christchurch. the ordinary in extraordinary ways. To laugh from what they probably thought was trifling And that’s when the fun began. A giraffe and live expansively and lightly find ways behaviour. But by far the majority delighted suffers greatly during aftershocks. Height is a through the mire. in the unfolding story. Thousands, young and disadvantage. Nothing for it but to find Woody My sadness at losing Woody through Trade old, followed the ‘Q&A’ record on Trade Me. a home away from the broken plates. Me has turned to joy. Her new owner, miracle There were doubters: “Buyer beware! Trade Me to the rescue – and in no time of miracles, is the Administration Manager of Woody is just a drifter from the sticks. And if you Woody had gone ‘viral’. Here’s her story as ChristChurch Cathedral. don’t believe me, check out her family tree.” told on the auction site: OK, Woody hasn’t gained a new life far And there were devotees: “My son Woody has been earning a living as a away from the aftershocks, but better, she now Pinocchio is looking for a pet, we also have ‘Whitebait Spotter’ on the West Coast, a little resides in the heart and soul of the City. some stables so could definitely provide the south of Hokitika. Tossed overboard from a Plans are afoot for an appearance at this environment you are looking for.” passing circus ship, she swam ashore and year’s ‘Children and Animals Christmas Not since the time of Max, the winged befriended baiters who took advantage of her Service.’ Bishop willing, Woody will take on Bambina of Mid-Canterbury, has such great height (2.3metres). She was abandoned the central role of ‘Bishop’s Crook’. (Check out lightness focussed on dark times, and when the bait stopped running. I found her Exodus Chapter 4 for the important place of laughter rung loud around the ruins. There is two weeks ago, near death. How she survived sticks in religious tradition.) a ministry of mirth. I may be growing older is beyond me. There were only stones around Seriously though, despite my penchant for but I refuse to grow up! her. I imagine that Woody must have gained fun, I was surprised at how the chance find of sustenance from sucking on small fragments of an ordinary piece of driftwood enlivened and Craig is Woody’s constant friend.
COORDINATOR, CHILDREN & YOUTH MINISTRIES In the context of our Mission Plan entitled ‘Daring to Live God’s Promises’, an opportunity exists as part of the collaborative Wollaston Education Centre to re-establish Anglican Children & Youth Ministries in the Diocese. This is a permanent position for which both clergy and lay people may apply. The core purpose of the Anglican Diocese of Perth is to be a people called to worship God in Christ and by the power of the Spirit to share radical love with the world, building communities of hope, healing and transformation. We are both faithful and entrepreneurial, both catholic and evangelical, and we engage with each other’s theological and spiritual diversity with affection, respect and a delight in learning from one another. Enquiries can be directed to: Jennifer Simpson on +61 (0)8 9325 7455 / [email protected] For information about this position and selection criteria, please go to: www.perth.anglican.org/web/Ministry_Opportunities/
Page 15 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
THE BIG QUAKE
Lloyd Ashton arrived in Christchurch the day after the quake – and he could have kidded himself he was a war correspondent. For the next couple of days, he was photographing churches that looked like they’d been hit in bombing raids. Then, in the afternoon before he left the city, he visited two chaplains at Christchurch Hospital. And that was where he saw resurrection at work. Close encounters in Christchurch ike thousands of Cantabrians, When Pam and Hilary checked into hospitals that first morning – first the A&E Pam Tizzard was jolted awake at Christchurch Hospital’s A&E unit they found department (where any casualties would 4:35am on Saturday, September 4. an elderly woman with a gashed head – surface), then intensive care and the cardio- Things were toppling in the dark she’d been struck by a falling TV – but there thoracic unit (where patients awaiting or around her. Glass was breaking. weren’t many more casualties than you’d find recovering from heart surgery go). Then HerL home was bucking. after a normal Friday night. they walked, floor by floor, through the Pam’s a chaplain at Christchurch The toll taken has showed in other ways. Women’s Hospital. Hospital. She rang her sister-in-arms, Hilary For example: Christchurch Hospital They’ve long since learned to read faces, Barlow, who’s a chaplain at the next-door normally deals with two to three heart attacks to see the signs of stress, to know when they Christchurch Women’s Hospital. a day. But in the days following the quake, that need to pause, to talk, to encourage or to Neither Pam nor Hilary were down to work rate had risen to eight to 10 a day. offer to pray. They were never fazed. that day, but they’re first responders in an Never knowing when the next quake will ›› CONTINUED PAGE 16 emergency, and so they made plans to head hit, nor how bad it will be, has led to “men’s into the hospitals at first light. hearts failing them for fear,” as the KJV puts it. They both threw on jeans – to show they’re And while the hospitals could postpone easy to talk to – and wore clerical collars and elective surgery, the babies queuing to be their chaplains' ‘flak jackets’. born around September 4 didn’t take As they drove through the dawn streets, notice of admin priorities like that. they braced themselves for the worst. In the 24 hours after the first quake, They didn’t find the worst, of course, there were 21 births at Christchurch because that was the miracle of Christchurch. Women’s. That’s a record. The quake, which hit Canterbury with the Pam and Hilary systematically same force as the one that killed 230,000 went through wards at both Haitians, killed no one.
The IV poles were swinging wildly in the quake and the staff clutched the cribs with their fragile cargo to prevent them overturning
PagePage 16 16 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
THE BIG QUAKE
ABOVE: Hilary Barlow and Pam Tizzard: sisters in arms at Christchurch Hospital. Best of BRITISH INSET: Pam stops to chat
ilary Barlow, the Chaplain yet not one person killed. Because in the Psalms, there’s the at Christchurch Women’s “So instead of anger,” says Hilary, promise of God’s protection. Hospital, thinks Christchurch “there is anxiety, and deep tiredness. “Not that He will make things go away, Hhospital people have “All these aftershocks – there was but that He will be with us in it. responded to the quakes the way the another one this morning. I thought: ‘Oh “And it is like the Valley of the Shadow Brits stood defiant during The Blitz. really. Just go away, will you?’ at times down here, darling. Hilary ought to know. She’s lived “But the reality is, we’ll have them until “But we’re not going to fear, because through both. She’s a Geordie. She was all this energy is released. God’s presence is with us. born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1938, “We did have a reasonably big one the “I think everybody is wise enough to when that city was a shipbuilding centre other day – a 5.1 or something. realise that there still could be deaths, – and therefore a target in 1940 and ’41 “I was up in the neo-natal unit at the more awful things could still happen. for the Nazi bombers. time. I’d been visiting families and I was “So that’s the reality. But it’s actually not “Listening to my family, I sensed that passing through a doorway that leads to been about blame. It’s been about loving spirit of ‘I won’t die – even if they kill me!’ the lifts when the shaking began. each other. Taking care of one another.” “And I’ve sensed that same “I just said: ‘Jesus, save our babies.’ The In fact, the paradox of the quakes, says determination here: ‘We are going to take last thing you were doing – that’s what’s in Hilary, is that they’ve brought out the best care of our patients – because that is our your mind at those moments. in hospital people. vocation, that is what we do. And we will “When it stopped, I realised that if I’d “They really have had an extraordinary do it together.’” reached the lifts before it struck, I’d have effect. People haven’t been closed up There is, however, one big difference. got stuck, because they stopped. by them. We’ve become more open to During The Blitz, says Hilary, folk “had “I was in the safest place I could’ve one another. We’ve been ready to be someone to blame.” been – a doorway. So I think to myself: vulnerable to each other, and to embrace “Hitler was roundly cursed. So people How much protection do you want, the needs of the patients. could get angry and plan to ‘get even’. Hilary?” “In the midst of all the awfulness, we’ve And their anger released some of their How does she read the ongoing had touches of Heaven. awful feelings of powerlessness.” Canterbury crises? “I really don’t want that to go away.” But in Christchurch, she says, there’s “Well, Jesus did say ‘… and I am with no one to blame. you, always.’ Lloyd Ashton Not even God. So much damage – and “But there’s more to it than that.
Page 17 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
THE BIG QUAKE ›› CONTINUED According to Pam and Hilary, the staff else in the hospitals. reverence for life that felt… well, special. have consistently showed calm, reassuring “If you were to look in the eyes of an A couple of weeks later, during a phone call, professionalism, too. anxious grandmother as she sees her I described my reaction to that visit to Hilary – On that first Saturday, for instance, they new grandchild in an incubator,” she says, and she wasn’t surprised. came in when their own homes had been “you’d see that the nurses and doctors “Oh darling,” she said (everybody is darling broken; and they stayed on after their night hold the hopes, dreams and fears of the to Hilary). “I was so aware of the Spirit of God shift, not knowing what devastation awaited parents and their families. And to see the around us that day. It was powerfully strong, but it them at home. staff responding with such gentleness and was warm and tender.” But when the chance came to let their kindness… that’s magic.” Sometimes, she reckons, she can almost feel guard down... well, Hilary, who counts When that 4:35am quake struck, the IV the beat of angels’ wings in the hospital. In the herself “as the chief hugger” at the Women’s poles were swinging wildly and the staff children’s wards, especially. Hospital, says she was well out-hugged clutched the cribs with their fragile cargo to When Pam, Hilary and I left the neo-natal following that first shake. prevent them overturning. unit that afternoon we didn’t chat much. We When I dropped into the hospital five days When I visited that unit, I found the voices didn’t want to break that spell. after the quake, Hilary and Pam took me to hushed and the lights dim, the strongest We made our way down to Hilary’s office, the neo-natal unit at the Women’s Hospital. coming from monitors on the hi-tech gear. where Pam and Hilary showed me the flak That’s where newborns, who are clinging I noticed, too, that Pam and Hilary weren’t jackets they’d worn on Sept 4. We moved into to life by a thread, are nursed and nurtured. intruders. They fitted. They were welcome. the passageway to take a few photos, and to say At any time, there’s more at stake in this They’re part of the team, and there was an our goodbyes. place, says Hilary, than just about anywhere intensity of care, a gentleness, focus and And as I was snapping away, a young woman came down the passageway. She paused when she saw Pam and then, smiling and brushing tears aside, embraced her. Turns out that this young woman had The gift of time brought her daughter in for a routine operation. Routine, yes – but this little girl had been n the end, it comes down to time. chaplaincy is the difference between through many health crises, and while she was The time that you, as a priest, have nurturing a community of faith, and in hospital, she’d died. available to connect to people – and to ministering to individuals. I And here was her mum, still in profound connect to God on their behalf. Often, she says, those individuals are sorrow, stopping to thank Pam for the care that That’s the big difference between quite isolated. she’d given her. parish ministry and hospital chaplaincy – “In a hospital most people don’t know When they’d been fighting to save the little as Pam Tizzard and Hilary Barlow see each other. And so you’re reaching out girl’s life, her mum had asked to see a chaplain. it anyhow. to people who are separated from a She was desperate to talk. Not only was And they should know. Between them, community of faith. she consumed with grief for her child, but those two Christchurch hospital chaplains “Or who have no faith at all. You’re she was blaming herself for her daughter’s have notched up 40 years of ordained responding to their spiritual needs from predicament. ministry, which included long stints as out of whatever is happening in their life. Pam had talked and prayed with that young parish vicars. “Then they go out the door, and you mum – and helped lift the burden of guilt from her. “In my last parish”, says Pam, “I saw may never see them again. And that’s all She walked her through what had happened, people through from birth to their mid- right, too, because God is God, and we’re teens… and when I left I was taking the just people.” and helped that young mum see that she weddings of people who, when I arrived Hospital chaplaincy, says Hilary, is a couldn’t have changed anything. Not a thing. there, were barely in their teens.” vicarious ministry. “When she saw me again that afternoon,” Whereas the stats show that the average “You see people who are about to says Pam, “I think she felt that I’d helped her stay in Christchurch’s hospitals is four days. have surgery, and they’re frightened. You through an enormously stressful period.” Those brief moments still work for say: ‘Would you like me to pray with you? That chance encounter was a special Pam. Her primary gifting, she believes, Or would you just like to talk?' moment. But being a chaplain, says Pam, is full is a pastoral one, and she relishes the “Often they’ll say: ‘Well yes, actually. I’d of special moments. chance to ‘be there’ for people at a time like you to do both.’ And so you engage “When crises come, and I go to the hospital when they’re particularly vulnerable. with God on their behalf. At their request.” in the middle of the night, people say to me: “Anyone who comes into hospital – Hilary says chaplaincy is a sending ‘Thank you so much for coming.’ even for a routine procedure – is in some ministry, too. “I always tell them: ‘It’s a privilege to be sort of crisis, because no one ever wants “It’s very much like the diaconate. allowed into your life.’” to be in hospital. Jesus says ‘Go’ – and you just go out into When Pam and Hilary were driving to the “I think too, of Paul’s remark about the the hospital community. hospital on the morning of Sept 4, they were need to be ‘all things to all people’. While “We’re thrill seekers at heart, I think. bracing for the worst. we are Christian chaplains, we are here We never know what’s coming around the What they’ve found instead, and what they for all people.” corner, nor the response we’ll get. are part of themselves, is the best. For Hilary, the difference between “And that,” says Hilary, “is just ministering in a parish and hospital glorious.” Lloyd Ashton is Media Officer for this church.
Page 18 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
THE BIG QUAKE
The Canterbury earthquake of September 4 brought out the best and the worst – as Jolyon White discovered while on a mission of mercy Sticking up for justice n Saturday afternoon – the day Well, yes… red sticker meant get out of the big quake – I jumped into until a written engineer’s report. Orange a van with six friends and drove meant go back in for stuff. Oout to Pine Beach and Karakai, She was, however, very reasonable and two neighbourhoods worst hit by the jolt. We well spoken. Unfortunately for Doug that still were trying to verify rumours of a landlord carries undue weight in disputes. She also pulling a red sticker off her rental doors to was the owner of multiple rentals, and, as it get tenants back in and paying rent. turns out, well versed in not giving anyone The group of students (who recently anything back. work out how to run cool enough events, campaigned to convince a supermarket to We worked through the process with or have sexy enough music, to attract donate surplus stock to a foodbank) went Doug. Negotiated with the landlord, talked, them in. door to door and found leads to several and documented everything needed to Conducting, rather than having concerning incidences – including the red lodge a favourable application with the devotions about, social justice campaigns, sticker case. tribunal. I believe, is far more appealing than much After we tracked down both the tenant I get that it’s difficult for Celia, as with of what we offer. Late teens to early 20s (whom we’ll call Doug) and landlord (Celia), other landlords. The time and money it are an idealistic group who care a great the story turned out to be a little less black takes to look after multiple places after a deal about their world. It’s easy to under- and white than it first seemed. But it was still disaster, or just attending to insulation and estimate them. worth some attention. heating that will not return a capital gain, There are plenty of resources Celia had ripped down the first red must be difficult. available, from advocacy to community sticker (character reference to remember But, using fair trade as an analogy, the development toolkits. These should for later in the story) but that had already alternative is still called exploitation. If you form the required reading, thinking and been sorted out by neighbours. What was can’t afford to do it justly then you can’t practice of any church ministry, every not resolved was whether she would return afford to do it at all. bit as much as worship music, activities, three weeks’ overpaid rent, and the bond. Why do I mention this? Because half of games and leadership development. Doug had continued to pay rent because the group that helped with this – the same That group of young adults is meeting he was in a lease and was unaware he group who negotiated a deal between a this month to celebrate two victories, two needed to give only two days’ notice if a supermarket and a foodbank in a way far changes in their city, and to ask ‘what property was unliveable. more sophisticated than pinching food from next?’ Anyone curious? Celia didn’t want to return it, claiming that the supermarket dumpsters or yelling – are because his stuff had stayed in the property the age of some churches’ young person Jolyon White is social justice enabler for the Diocese of Christchurch. he was still the occupier; “with his stuff in ministries. there I couldn’t get in to clean,” she said. Some of those churches are still trying to [email protected]
Studying Theology at The University of Auckland The School of Theology’s programmes provide opportunities for you to explore religious beliefs and practices within one major world religion, namely Christianity, through the exploration of Biblical Studies, Christian Thought and History, Spirituality and Ethics and Justice.
Please visit the School of Theology’s website for more information: www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/departments/theology
Contact Susanne Gomes, phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 86672, email: [email protected]
www.auckland.ac.nz | 0800 61 62 63 | txt 5533
Page 19 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
Joel Carpenter, Human FM manager. Ramsey House: inspired by an offbeat, retro Jesus theme.
Kelburn’s vicar has turned around the chaplaincy at Victoria University but it took lots of raving, dreaming and praying. Spanky Moore reports from the heart of Kelburn, the campus cafe Campus cocktail hen David Newton Kirsty also worked on the mission field in scene is very different and far less smelly. turned up to Victoria the remote Karimoja region of North East Ramsey House, the chaplaincy HQ at University to head up Uganda, as well as Egypt and Cyprus. the heart of the Kelburn campus, has been the campus chaplaincy, That day of the big interview, despite the completely renovated, inspired by an offbeat, things were very smell, he accepted the role as supervising retro Jesus theme with more than a pinch of differentW from what you see today. chaplain and set about reimagining what kitsch. To some it may sound like decorating “The day I was interviewed for the chaplaincy at Vic could be and what God heresy but for students it has become a appointment there was a guy outside had in mind. beacon of hospitality. preaching to a brick wall. The place smelt, “The vision evolved with input from lots “Early on we decided to move away from the library was in disarray and unused, the of people along the way – lots of raving, the ’70s drop-in’ model to something more walls were festooned with bossy posters dreaming and praying. In the broadest sense ‘normal’. So we opened a café – something about this cause and that, which no one read. we say we’re on about ‘Mission, Formation normal and mainstream in Wellington. On It was pretty uninspiring, if not scary.” and Community’. warm days it spills on to the street which lifts It was pretty clear to David that the “In essence it’s saying the most missional our profile and makes it easier for people to place and its whole approach to chaplaincy and most pastoral thing you can do for a feel comfortable accessing the place.” needed a serious change of direction. But student is help ground them in a robust faith Ramsey House is the hub for a long list of what? And how? to take into the rest of their life.” ministries to students. He was and remains the Vicar of St On a more practical level the new NewsWatch is a language and friendship Michael’s, Kelburn, which neighbours the team set out to change five key areas of programme for international students; university, but he also brought a unique how they did things on campus over the X-Nous offers seminars on biblical cocktail of experiences and skills to the next five years: establish new patterns of perspectives of academic concerns; ‘DO table. ministry, rebuild the infrastructure, beef up SOMETHING!’ is a series that looks at hot In a past life David worked in the New the governance, widen and deepen the social and political issues. Plus there’s a Zealand film industry as a scriptwriter, PR funding base, and make the transition to new range of Bible study groups, waffle and consultant, and ran his own cinema sound leadership. prayer on Tuesdays, and an on-campus and production company. He and his wife Fast forward 10 years and the current midweek Communion.
Page 20 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
David Newton: ‘Light a candle and think of God’ won’t cut it.
Open-mike event Blah Blah Blah
They have a well-stocked and growing Christians drift into oblivion. actually have good news so people can see theological library, study area, lounge, “There’s near enough to 20,000 students something credible in us. ‘Light a candle meeting area, brand-new chapel, admin area, at Vic and over 2000 staff. It’s the second- and think of God’ won’t cut it. Neither will and upstairs is a new seven-berth student largest employer in Wellington, not counting an inflexible and defensive or reactionary flat with live-in residents adding to the Massey, ‘Otago in Wellington’ and a bunch of conservatism.” permanent charm of the place. other tertiary institutions. But after originally committing five years They’ve even beefed up the IT throughout “So we’re talking of a virtual city within to the process of plotting a new course for the the building with wi-fi for students and an a city. Parishes, including my own, need to chaplaincy at Victoria University, David has internet kiosk. seriously investigate what mission within now been there for 10 and is about to hand And get this – the chaplaincy even has its these virtual cities means and begin to over the reins. own radio station. Human FM is a short-reach engage.” “AngChap needs to go new places. It’s station that broadcasts from the building. It David also has some hunches about how time to pass the ball – though it needs to be hosts an open-mike event called Blah Blah Blah the Anglican Church can better engage a clean pass. We’re expectant that the right which has proven hugely popular, some nights young adults – and it doesn’t necessarily person is out there... having standing room only. mean tossing out the prayer book and “I’m looking forward to focusing on parish “You could argue we’ve spread ourselves wheeling in the rock stars. work. The parish has grown tremendously in thinly – growing too fast too quickly,” David “I think we need to reclaim our heritage recent years but we’ve plateaued and need to says. “But our aim is to be a kind of icon into – especially our liturgical one. Rock-n-roll go deeper as well as broader.” the Gospel on campus, and for that to work it religion has its place but by and large it’s has to be a total package.” not our heritage so we should play to our Check out AngChap online at www.victoria.ac.nz/ chaplains/angchap.html or nod your head along to All this forces the question though; strengths. Human FM at www.humanfm.co.nz. why aren’t our universities and tertiary “We’ve been running a fairly trad institutions more of a missional priority for the student-oriented evening service called Spanky Moore is young adults’ leader in the Diocese of church? After all, they’re arguably the most Substance for some years now. It’s basically Christchurch. formational years of one’s life, the breeding ‘by the book’ worship. The emphasis is on [email protected] ground for future leaders, and one of the word and sacrament. most common places where faithful young “We’ve also got to start believing we
Page 21 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
A year in bed
ince April Fools’ Day I have spent patient with me. My wife is a saint. most of my time lying in bed, I have also been the recipient of reading novels and watching enormous quantities of kindness – from movies. I have consumed more extended family, parishioners, colleagues, fiction than I have in a decade. friends, Rotarians, and strangers. One Life looks different after you’ve It’sS a somewhat surreal existence. Mind couple, who prior to my illness I did not been knocked flat on your back. you, operations, fatigue, rehabilitation and know well, have provided us with a Friday Glynn Cardy reflects on the all that, can take the shine off it. But it does feast for months and months. I’ve been the upside and the downside of sound good. recipient of lots of food, cards, and prayers. Some days I feel good, and some days It feels very strange to receive all these spending months in hospital I don’t. The good days are the ones where gifts and not be able to repay them. Even if I I can stay on my feet for a few hours, take a cooked a weekly meal for someone else for walk, write something sensible, go out for the rest of my life I doubt I could equal what lunch, or even go to church. I don’t like to I’ve been given. I am in debt to the grace remember the bad days. extended to me. I imagine I will live the rest I’ve become very knowledgeable about of my life in the company of that grace. beds. I like the ones that can go up and What I lack is control, or rather the I remember being in wards down and bend. I’ve learnt how to organise control that I’ve been used to. The control of multiple pillows for maximum comfort. I’ve getting up and down, going out or staying where everyone was in acute learnt how to reach books, glasses, water in, working or not working, eating and pain. Some cried, some yelled, and remotes with minimal movement. All ablutions. Little by little these things have some swore, and some were skills that I wish never to use again. begun to return. Controlling my own mind silent. There was a strange I’ve also been blessed. With my bed is perhaps the greatest discipline, and the camaraderie, a communion. now in the lounge I see a lot of my family. scariest part of being sick. I’m home when they’re home. For once I In place of control is dependency. I’ve have time, even if I lack concentration. They had to learn to rely on others. Others to feed get under the duvet and watch television and nurse me, others to look after my family, with me. They’ve been very generous and others to do my work for me, others to
Page 22 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
argue publicly for the principles and politics much. I do remember being in wards where Prayer Book. It meant a lot to me. He offered I believe in. There’s a lot of letting go when everyone was in acute pain. Some cried, a presence that was not perturbed by my one’s sick. some yelled, some swore, and some were state. The poetic words were like a mountain I now go to a gym that specializes silent. There was a strange camaraderie, a stream massaging, giggling, and soothing in catering for people with injuries and communion. No one was judgmental about as it made its way down. disabilities. There is lots of chatting, and a others’ pain. Pain is very personal. I received lots of lovely cards that distinct lack of lycra. Such gyms are great Slowly I gained some authority over beautified my hospital corner. I had a places to get a reality check if you are both my mind and body. The latter was rock too, and some Mission Bay sand. tempted to think you’re hard done by. My decorated with lumps, bumps, holes, and Occasionally people came to visit, but I five cents of suffering is nothing compared scars. My hair had shed like a dog’s winter either didn’t know who they were or didn’t with many of my gym buddies. And, of coat, likewise my fat stores. It’s taken a while remember they’d been. It was in that period course, they are the ones who can make it to look at myself in a mirror. The mind is not when the curtains were morphing into to rehab. on display like the body, thank goodness. gargoyles and I was going on other crazy The medically minded may be No one can see my fears. No one can see drug-induced trips. wondering what’s wrong with me. I’ll give when I wake up and wonder whether I’m Life is a crazy thing. One moment you the short version: On April 1st I was still me. everything is going full-steam ahead, rushed to hospital with a ruptured bowel, I didn’t have Holy Communion while decisions to make, crises to manage, where I endured four operations and I was in hospital. Although I know it is a words and hopefully wisdom to share. I remained for six weeks. I was a bit of a comfort to many, it’s something I prefer to was running hither and yon, being the best mess. I’m now waiting for my body to heal do with a community. That’s the thing about little vicar I could be. And the next moment sufficiently for two more operations after church: it’s a together thing. And the thing it all stops. Like a ship in full sail hitting an which I’m told I’ll be as good as new. I missed most about when we’re together uncharted reef. On April Fools’ Day. Hospital is a strange place. There are was the music. lots of comings and goings, tubes and I did have a friend who came most nights Glynn Cardy is Vicar of St Matthew-in-the City, Auckland. injections, opinions and orders, pills and to lead me in Night Prayer, one of the least pain to swallow. I don’t remember sleeping anachronistic liturgies in A New Zealand [email protected]
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SOCIAL JUSTICE
Monty and Mere: sticklers for a fair go
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With three daughters and 40 foster children, Monty and Mere Montgomery could write a book on self-giving love. Their loving isn’t confined to family either. As staunch Anglicans their soul purpose is to see Maori and Pacific Islanders get a fair go – and heaven help anyone who tries to stand in their way. Julanne Clarke-Morris reports
f you want a life where you don’t have Auckland, and when the family joined him Spurred on by this, and looking for to worry about anybody, don’t be in 1958 Lesieli had saved enough to get a ways to bring about positive change, Maori. Don’t be Tongan either. Life will house in Ponsonby. Mere became a founding member of the be easier.” Mere has early recollections of racism Polynesian Panthers, a chapter of the US Dunedin Anglicans Monty and there – the “brown place,” as some called it. social consciousness and advocacy group, MereI Montgomery would have had an With a growing awareness of racism against the Black Panthers. easier life if they hadn’t been Christians, Polynesians, Mere came to see advocacy The Polynesian Panthers helped Pacific too. But as it is, they’ve lived out their faith as as a key part of working for God’s justice in Island and Maori people protect themselves advocates for justice for over 40 years. this country. from racist landlords and organised legal aid These days Monty is the administrator Mere’s father was Roman Catholic, so for Maori and Pacific Islanders during dawn at St Paul’s Cathedral in Dunedin, while she was schooled at Catholic schools, even raid immigration crackdowns. Mere holds a senior position at the Ministry though her mother was Anglican and her They also set up homework centres for of Social Development’s Child, Youth and maternal grandfather had supported the Polynesian children, took isolated elderly Family service in Dunedin. foundation of the Anglican Church in Tonga. out for recreation and transported visitors Since the ‘70s the two have brought At school, Mere was already a keen to Paremoremo Prison, which was almost up three daughters of their own and 40 Christian. From age 12 to 15, she lived as impossible to reach without a car. foster children. Along the way they’ve also a juniorate of the Little Sisters of the Poor When they visited Maori and Pacific supported and resourced Maori and Pacific in Hastings, serving in a kind of religious islanders in prison, they made sure they Island communities through bilingual and apprenticeship. knew what was going on. anti-racism education, legal support and Living away from family in religious “We used a booklet by David Lange to prisoners’ rights. community, Mere was inspired by educate people about their legal rights. It For Mere and Monty it’s about bringing Bible stories, the lives of the saints, and was actually the beginning of legal aid in the Christian perspective into play by theological reflection. She especially loved this country, but at the time we were seen as getting people a fair deal and standing the old people in their care, and hearing disruptive and a threat.” up for human dignity. That is, recognising their stories. But being a nun wasn’t quite Mere met Monty while they were students God’s image in whoever they work with. the thing for Mere; she had just a little too at Otago University, even though he too had much spirit. grown up in an Auckland suburb. Mere Montgomery (née Meanata) “I was good at sports and school work, Mere’s family background is Tongan, Maori and I enjoyed winning. The sisters thought Robert (Monty) Montgomery and Fijian. Her Maori great-grandfather, I didn’t show enough humility. I used to get In Monty’s family there are German, Pita Meanata, left Kaitaia in 1887 and joined into trouble for singing Millie Small songs Welsh, Irish and Scottish roots. Monty has a whaling boat headed for Tonga, where he out the window during times of silence. a strong Anglican identity from his father’s jumped ship. Only 16, he was raised in the They said I was unladylike and they called side. Family examples of community and grounds of the Tongan royal family’s palace. me a distraction.” national service fuelled his passion to work Two generations later, in 1940, Mere’s So Mere went back to Auckland, even with others to redress injustice. father Sosefo Vailima Meanata came back though she wasn’t entirely finished with the Anzac day was important to the family. from Tonga to join the 28th Maori Battalion idea of religious life. Stories of the personal cost to those who’d and to rediscover his roots. After three In her late teens Mere encountered secured the peace, brought with them a years’ active service, he returned to New again the injustice of racism when Pacific commitment to preserve it. Zealand injured and was granted his family Islander friends asked her to help them find land in Kaitaia. accommodation using her good English. From age 3 to 5, Mere lived there with “I’d get to the end of a phone conver- extended family, four siblings and her sation with a landlord and everything would mother, Lesieli Soakai, who cared for be agreed. Then the landlord would ask for the household so frugally it was almost the name. When I gave it, the house was subsistence. Mere’s father was working in suddenly not available any more.” she says. Looking for ways to bring about positive change, Mere became a founding member of the sticklers for a fair go Polynesian Panthers
Page 25 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
Growing up on the North Shore, Monty from the north, they’ve certainly made a greater social awareness of the issues, might have been a candidate for racist contribution in the south. especially in government departments.” attitudes, but he understood from his Mere set up the Polynesian Panthers in maternal grandfather not to take things at Dunedin when she came down to study ere and Monty learnt from the face value. Like many other veterans, the law. She was hard to miss about town with Black Panthers to keep their gandfather had returned from Gallipoli her Afro hairdo, and refused to take grief eyes open for individuals who with a respect for the Turks and Maori yet from anyone. Mabuse power to hurt people. sceptical of British leadership. Maori wasn’t offered as a subject Driven by a sense of gospel justice, both still Monty’s grandmother had lived in high at Otago in 1974, so Mere asked to be look out for situations calling for prophetic society as a lady’s companion, so when concurrently enrolled in a Maori language action. she married Monty’s “hard-case Irish” course from Massey, much to the irrirtation One such opportunity arose for Monty in grandfather it made for a dynamic mix in of the person at Otago’s admin desk. a school where he worked. the following generations. “She said I couldn’t do that, but that I “I knew there were three teachers on the “We grew up knowing how to behave, shouldn’t complain. ‘You’re luckier than the staff who were into physical abuse of students. but being tempted not to behave,” he says. pygmies in Africa,’ she said. ‘At least you At a staff meeting I advised the staff they Although from diverse backgrounds, can go to university; you should be satisfied should no longer support a cover-up. Monty and Mere shared much in common. with that.’” “After seeing a teacher kicking a student Early in their relationship, Monty vividly Mere’s response to that comment made on the ground, I said to the boy, ‘Get your remembers Mere warning him about a sure the university rushed to let her enrol. father to phone me tonight and I’ll tell him fundamental principle of the Polynesian Later, the Polynesian Panthers and the what really happened’. “ Panthers: university’s Maori Club got Maori studies The way Monty saw it, the staff were “If you’re working for justice, you have established at Otago. protecting the abusive teacher from students to keep yourself clean. If you don’t, you’ll Monty has worked hard to strengthen and parents. But having fostered children be discredited on a sideshow and you’ll no Maori education in in New Zealand, helping whose lives had been marred by abuse, longer be an advocate.” to set up bilingual schools in the North he wasn’t about to stand by and watch it Last year Monty gave exactly that advice Island and Kura Kaupapa in Dunedin. happen again. to prisoners on how to keep the focus For many years, Mere and Monty also “I was charged with professional on injustice, not irrelevant and avoidable supported local kaumatua at Otakou on misconduct for going outside the system misdemeanors. the Otago Peninsula. One crucial meeting and speaking directly with the parent, but I Taking his advice, one prisoner who’d on the marae led both Monty and Mere to wouldn’t back down. It was the last time that been given a maximum penalty on an take up the cause of the community in their abuse took place.” internal matter, later received a High treaty claim. In their struggles for justice, Mere and Court decision quashing the conviction At that meeting, the committee heard the Monty have been sustained by the words of on grounds that no evidence had been devastating news that their school would the Gospel. “Come unto me all who labour produced at the initial hearing. be closed without consultation and that 90 and are heavy laden and I will give you rest For the Montgomerys, that experience acres of land (marked as an inalienable means a lot after a bruising week,” Monty brought to light some serious hazards in right) had been gazetted for sale on the testifies. the current political climate of “sensible quiet and sold at the buyer’s price. He falls back on the core truths of sentencing” and harsher penalties. No wonder the Montgomerys committed Christianity. “When authorities are under pressure themselves to helping out. “The spiritual side of all this is to try to from the community to clamp down on “In those days, the old people were deal with everybody as if they were Jesus offenders, further injustice is not a solution.” working day and night, just to preserve what Christ. I have to think, ‘If that person in front they say. they had. They needed additional support of me were Christ, how would I treat them?’” Though Mere and Monty both hail to work towards the settlement and promote Monty says. After their marriage, Mere joined Monty in the Anglican Church. Unsurprisingly, Sunday worship has been a staple of the marriage. Hidden “In the chaos and the turmoil of the week, it’s good to be still and just be at church as a Country family. It’s there to draw on in times of need.” Their daughter’s friend once challenged Having Faith in Aotearoa New Zealand her about going to an Anglican church: “Aren’t the words always the same?” she John Bluck's autobiography asked. Aroha Montgomery replied: “You have to $34.95. Available from Epworth Books, go for a lifetime to understand those words Box 17255, Wellington 6147 are different every week.” [email protected] Julanne Clarke-Morris is Assistant Editor of Anglican Taonga.
Page 26 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
Pick-me-ups n Easter-time procession along a litter-strewn street prompted an AEast Christchurch parish to take practical steps as well as worshipful ones. Members of St Chad’s, Linwood were walking to the nearby Presbyterian church for their Good Friday service when they noticed how dirty the streets were. So they decided to collect it on the return trip. “Once we’d had the service, [St George’s Iona] rustled up a few plastic Essentials for loving bags and about half a dozen of us started world-renowned marriage and for couples in Auckland and Wellington, picking up rubbish as we walked back,” relationship educator, Dr Harville and two-day workshops for counselling says priest-in-charge Helen Roud. AHendrix, and his wife Helen LaKelly professionals. Since then, a small number of Hunt – co-creators of Imago Relationship The Rev Canon Caroline Leys, who parishioners have continued to get Therapy – will visit New Zealand in March trained as an Imago Educator in 2007, has together every month to do the low- next year. been offering the Imago pre-marriage key clean-ups in the vicinity of the local With a PhD in psychology and theology, education programme “Start Right, Stay shopping mall. They meet at St Chad’s on Harville has written nine books including a Connected” at Holy Trinity Cathedral. the same Saturday mornings as the newly New York Times bestseller, Getting the Love Bishop Ross Bay took this initiative established men’s group – and naturally You Want – A Guide for Couples. while he was Dean of Holy Trinity, and the the men are invited to stay and help out. His educational programmes and programme continues now with the support Long-time parishioner Max Joines, comprehensive therapy to support and of Dean Jo Kelly-Moore. one of the regular cleaner-uppers, says: enhance marriages are offered in 30 “We ask all couples to participate in the “The Sunday morning after we clean up, it countries around the world. Imago marriage preparation course,” she always feels different down there. People Harville begins his tour with an evening says. “This course has been universally well actually stop and say what a great job public lecture, “Couplehood as a Spiritual received and everyone speaks very highly we’re doing.” Path,” at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland of their experience.” Max estimates the group collects a st on 1 March. This is a contemporary Attending a public lecture or couples “jolly good bootful” of rubbish each presentation of marriage as a spiritual workshop would be valuable for those collection. “We’ve come back with wheel journey and covers many levels: mentally, wishing to enhance their relationship, make hubs and all sorts,” Helen adds. more sense of relationship challenges, or emotionally and spiritually. St Chad’s doesn’t have council wheelie who are looking for tools to work through Harville will follow this with another bins, so participants have to divvy up evening lecture, “The Four Essentials for a difficult issues. the debris to take home. Max says they Loving Relationship,” in Auckland, Wellington recycle what they can in their domestic and Christchurch. For more information: www.imago.org.nz recycling bins. Megan Blakie He also will present weekend workshops
Harville Hendrix New Zealand Tour March 2011 Public Lectures (Evenings) Tues 01 March Auckland Couplehood as a Spiritual Path (Holy Trinity Cathedral) Harville Hendrix Wed 02 March Auckland The Four Essentials for a Loving Relationship Thurs 03 March Wellington The Four Essentials for a Loving Relationship is a world–renowned Sun 13 March Christchurch The Four Essentials for a Loving Relationship marriage and
Getting The Love You Want—Couples Workshop relationship educator Fri Evening/Sat/Sun Morning 11-13 March Wellington and author of nine Getting MORE of the Love You Want—Couples Workshop books including the Fri Evening/Sat 18/19 March Auckland best seller ‘Getting the Love Two Day Training Workshops in Imago Relationship Therapy for You Want – Counsellors, Psychologists and Psychotherapists in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch A Guide for Couples’ www.imago.org.nz [email protected] 0800 462464
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MEDITATION
Kelvin Wright invests heavily in the lucrative international one-legged stool market
Balancing act
o meditate properly you need to word to say to you: Google. learn to sit with your spine straight, Lying in bed one morning at 3am, your body as symmetrical as you the time when I always have my clearest Tcan get it, and you must learn to sit thoughts, a plan came to mind which was still for as long as it takes. Now if you’re only brilliant. It was for a one-legged stool that they are transferred from the ephemeral dabbling, doing it two or three times a week would be light, that would fold for travel world of our head into the world of bits and for 10 minutes or so, pretty much any old and have an easily adjustable seat angle. It bobs we actually live amongst. chair will do. Start getting serious, though, would be utterly cool and probably make It’s true of meditation stools but also of and faults in your posture soon show in little my fortune on the lucrative international every other invented thing. It’s also true aches and pains in your back and backside one-legged meditation stool market. of some less material but still real things and all over the place. So next day off I spent a happy few such as relationships and intentions. In the long term, sitting cross-legged in hours making it out of some old cedar After all, how do you really know you love the posture called the lotus position is the weatherboards I had lying around. It looked someone unless it is shown in some way best way to go but us Westerners, with our exactly as I’d imagined: the height adjusted demonstrable to both you and the beloved? rolls of fat in all the wrong places and our perfectly and there was that ingenious How do you really know that the two of joints stiffened by too many comfy couches angle-shifting apparatus which was my you would be just great together until you and too many car rides, just can’t manage it. pride and joy. actually set up house and start squabbling So for us, a small stool that allows us to I was delighted with it. Until, that is, the about whose turn it is to empty the kneel in the position Zen Buddhists call varnish dried and I took it into my study dishwasher? How do you know that you Seiza is often the best option. It only takes a and sat on it. The angle-shifting thingummy really could write that novel or learn the few weeks for our stiffly padded frames to simply would not hold my weight and no guitar unless you actually sit down with a adapt, and the only difficulty is getting the amount of tinkering and adapting could pen or a six string? stool. make it do so. This is probably why God created the I bought one from Australia, but it was a So I glued it into one rigid position universe. Even for God, everything that bit expensive and too big to fit easily into a and found that the clever device was is was still just a crazy idea until it found suitcase. So I’ve been making some to give unnecessary anyway. Seat angle relative to expression in... well, everything that is. away, and improving my design along the my sitting parts could be adjusted simply Incarnation – that is, making the fancy way. I’ve made two-legged and one-legged by moving the stool backwards or forwards ideas into actual flesh – is not just about the varieties, and if you can’t imagine how a a bit. That’s the way with ideas. They’re not second person of the Trinity; it is one of the one-legged stool works I have but one really good ideas unless they stack up once founding principles of creation, woven into every atom and every combination of atoms that there is or ever has been. It’s certainly why The Word became flesh Hospitality, Conversation & Theological Encounter and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Go to www.vaughanpark.org.nz It is one thing to affirm that we are loved by the centre of all that is. For Accommodation, Daily Worship, Retreats, Ministry, It is quite another to see in Jesus a life of Scholarship opportunity, Research Centre, Books and more. self giving love which demonstrates. that we are and shows us what it means that we are. So next day off it’s back to my work- bench with plane and sander and saw. I have an idea but, as I have learned, as long as it’s just an idea I have nothing. Vaughan Park Anglican Retreat and Conference Centre Director John Fairbrother Email: [email protected] The Rt Rev Dr Kelvin Wright is Bishop of Dunedin. 1043 Beach Road, Long Bay, North Shore Phone: 09 473 2600 [email protected]
Page 28 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
FILM Moon-struck John Bluck goes to the movies and is mesmirised by a slice of magic realism, Kiwi-style
The Insatiable Moon It’s not religious, said one sacrificial love and forgiveness. well-known reviewer, but maybe No wonder it’s so hard to ot many movies it’s spiritual. categorise this movie. deserve a whole Yeh right. This is a movie all Despite the fact that The column in Taonga, about the Second Son of God Insatiable Moon has been but this one does. meeting the Queen of Heaven. flying under the radar from NNot only because it’s the best Not religious! the start, audiences are slowly result of our New Zealand film The beauty of The Insatiable discovering it by word of mouth, industry this year, even though Moon is that it doesn’t preach, and loving what they see. the Film Commission got cold even though it’s full of preachers. The performances of Rawiri feet and withdrew their money. Riddell himself was one. The Paratene as Arthur and Sarah The film was finally made for Baptist pastor in Ponsonby, Wisemen as Margaret, Greg about $300,000 which is the back in the 80’s where he learnt Johnson as Bob, the grumpy price of a very small oily rag in firsthand about the chaos that bad-mouthing boarding house this business where The Hobbit former psychiatric patients live proprietor, and Ian Mune has $300 million to play with over in under “community care” as an old drunk are simply the next two years of filming. in halfway houses, and the extraordinary. If Sir Peter can The Insatiable Moon was shot inspirational lives of those who tease anything like that quality in five weeks, though writer and try to support them. from his Hobbit team at a theologian Mike Riddell and his Mike wrote a book back in thousand times the price, he’ll wife and film director Rosemary 1997 based on his experience. be doing well. (in her spare time she’s a district Now the film brings it to life And the role of the Anglican court judge) have been working on the streets better known for vicar trying to do what he can away on this project for eight lattes than lunatics. to support the halfway house years. Lunatics poetically, not in a community determined It’s clearly been a labour of psychiatrically. The magic to protect the beautiful people love. Gospel love. Because this is effects of the moon are well is well portrayed. Reviewers a film inspired by the Jesus story embedded in this film, from the describe him as helpless and like no other New Zealand film I title to the romance between hapless. I’d call him brave, even can remember. self-proclaimed Son of God if he is overwhelmed by the And in our relentlessly secular called Arthur and social worker issues, as you would be. Kiwi society, that makes The Margaret whom Arthur sees The Riddells have given us Insatiable Moon very difficult to as the Queen of Heaven. Some a great story and a memorable finance, produce, market and reviewers baulked at the film. Our churches are full of review. implausibility of all that, just equally great stories. If we spent Especially review. Tui Motu as they would struggle with some of our surplus investments magazine understood it, but the idea of transfiguration or on making even three of them all the other normally sensible, resurrection. a year into movies like this reliable reviewers I’ve read are Riddell uses the genre of one, the dividends for Gospel completely confused by this magic realism, much more proclamation would be hugely movie. effectively than Vintner’s Luck valuable. They speak patronisingly managed to do. This is One Flew Anglicans have the stories about its size and budget Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets and the money and the talent and local production and Chocolat. to make it happen. What we dependence on volunteer labour. The film is part fable, part lack is the nerve and the They worry about what genre fantasy, part gritty social imagination that the Riddells to slot this film into, without documentary on media and real have displayed. success. Nobody knows what estate greed, all informed with to call a movie driven by the a powerful but never preachy Bishop John Bluck lives in Pakari, north of Auckland. Gospel in a way that many so- Gospel message about the cost called “religious” films are not. and the redemptive power of [email protected]
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PREACHING
St Matthew and the Angel by Savoldo, Giovanni Girolamo. A revolutionarymanual Peter Carrell tackles ocket science does not quite of Israel, but these express a temporary the challenge of measure the wisdom Matthew mission priority, not the general policy. Matthew, Gospel for brings to telling his version of the Matthew’s Jewish audience is challenged Gospel of Jesus. to receive his version of the Gospel, then to Year A (2011) R Kicking off with a genealogy, Matthew give it away to the Gentile world. cleverly sets out to enlarge the vision for Reading Matthew’s Gospel, it is a good mission of his Jewish Christian audience. idea to keep a bookmark in chapter Gentile women unexpectedly appear one. Back there we find the main man in the male layered line of ascent introduced with two names, Jesus and from Abraham to Jesus. Soon Gentile Emmanuel, both of which kick-start two worshippers appear from the east at infant significant theological themes in the Jesus’ side. Scattered through the Gospel Gospel. The latter is a little odd because Matthew came up with are hints of mission trials to come when it’s mentioned only this once. But the idea the Trinity centuries witnesses to Jesus will be dragged before ‘Emmanuel’ captures, that God is with us, Gentile authorities. reappears twice in words many Christians before the church Finally, in the last verses of the last know by heart: ‘where two or three are chapter Jesus’ Great Commission sends gathered in my name, I am there among declared its belief the disciples to ‘make disciples of all them’ (18:20), and ‘I am with you always, to nations.’ True, in chapter 10 Jesus sends the the end of the age’ (28:20). disciples on a mission ‘only to Israel’, and The name Jesus is simply explained in chapter 16 he teases a Gentile woman ‘for he will save his people from their sins’ that he has been sent only to the lost sheep (1:21). But what does Matthew’s Jesus do
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to save people from their sins? He forgives out in order to destroy what is rotten and has got there already. His anticipation is people their sins, frees them from the rebuild what is everlasting. extraordinary. power of sin over their lives – heals them In telling us these things which Jesus Preaching Matthew through this next and delivers demons from them. taught and did, Matthew faced a dilemma. year is an opportunity to present Jesus as In the end Jesus gives his life as a God was doing a new thing, but what Son and Saviour, integrate Old and New ransom for many, dying on a cross so that was the relationship to the way God had Testaments, motivate for God’s mission as sinners might live. There is more: Jesus previously acted in history through Israel? inclusive and expansive, dare ourselves to teaches (and models) what a community Was this a change, with implications that deeper discipleship, and inspire holy lives of saved lives looks like, especially in the past experience of Matthew’s Jewish fit for the kingdom of heaven. chapters 5 to 7 – the Sermon on the Mount. readers was worthless, or a continuity in A recurring piece of coded language which that heritage was valuable but now The Rev Dr Peter Carrell is Director of Theology House in the Diocese of Christchurch. captures this salvation work, the ‘kingdom reconfigured? of heaven’. Again and again Matthew opts for [email protected] A Jesus who saves people from their continuity. The beginnings of Jesus’ physical sins, who makes ‘God with us’ into ‘I am life as well as of his spiritual ministry with you’, is a human out of the ordinary. are heavily underlined as ‘fulfilments’ Matthew sets out a case that Jesus is more of prophetic words of former days. than extraordinary. Implicitly, he is the king Matthew is the integrator linking past of the kingdom, in keeping with being ‘son and present. Mattheanisms of David’ (1:1, 17). But his challenge does not end there. Through this ‘son of Abraham’ (1:1, 17) What about the Law of Moses? Was Most of us have favourite words and the world will be blessed, as promised of keeping this no longer at the heart phrases. Matthew is no exception. old to Abraham senior. By this new Moses, of salvation? This kind of question Here are some Mattheanisms – words the laws of the kingdom of heaven are provoked the endlessly brilliant Letter or phrases or characteristics which taught in five distinct sections of teaching of St Paul to the Romans which still are rare or not found in other gospels. (5:1-7:29; 10:1-11:1; 13:1-58; 18:1-19:1; transforms forests into books. Righteousness Matthew, smarter than a rocket 23:1-26:1). Yet none of these forerunners (3:15; 5:6; 5:10; 5:20; 6:1; 6:33; 21:32) was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, scientist, draws out from Jesus the according to Matthew, is the Son of God. inexhaustibly profound statement that Weeping and gnashing of teeth Unsurprisingly, since leaders lead, he had not come to ‘abolish the Law or (8:12; 13:42; 13:50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30) in Matthew’s narrative we find followers the Prophets ... but to fulfil them’ (5:17). Kingdom of heaven (numerous references, following Jesus. By the time Matthew’s No space here to reconcile Matthew never used in Mark, Luke or John) and Paul, but it can be done. version of the Gospel of Jesus is written, Heavenly Father or Father in heaven What we should note is that the followers are in their thousands, and (numerous references; rare in Mark or Luke) the proportion of those who knew Jesus Matthew gets that salvation is not a firsthand is growing smaller and smaller. cheap grace in which God cares not Brood of vipers Matthew writes to tell people about whether we sin. Salvation is God at (3:7; 12:34; 23:33; just once in Luke 3:7) Jesus, but cleverly also tells followers about work in Jesus Christ making people The Law and the Prophets what Jesus wants them to do. His book is a holy. People saved from sin stop (5:17; 7:12; 22:40; just once in Luke 16:16) sinning and start serving God and gospel and a manual for discipleship. So was fulfilled what was (what the Lord others. What the Law was intended to What are disciples taught here? The had) said (spoken) (2:15; 2:23; 13:35; see starting point is to know one’s need for achieve, a holy community of godly also 2:17; 13:14; 26:54; 26:56: 27:9) God. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ is the people, the Gospel will fulfil. (16:18; 18:17 x 2; the only gospel to beginning of Jesus’ teaching. But we are Is that bookmark still in chapter Church use the word ‘church’) not left to wallow in lament for our spiritual one? We noted that the God of that poverty. Jesus sets our sights on serving chapter is the God who is with us. Doublets: Matthew often tells us about two God as he blesses us. At the end of the book God is still of something compared to one elsewhere with us, though, as we also noted, it We are to bless those who curse us, hug Two demoniacs those who mug us, take up our cross and is Jesus identified with God boldly (8:28; compare Mark 5:1-21; Luke 8:26-40) follow him. Only by dying can we live, only claiming ‘I am with you.’ Two blind men (9:27-31 and 20:29-34; by losing our lives for Jesus’ sake will we But the strangest thing happens former without parallel, the latter paralleled find our lives. in the ending to the Gospel. God in Mark 10:46-52 and Luke 18:35-43, in each Matthean disciples have a revolutionary is identified as Father, Son, and of which is one blind man) manual in their hands. The Saviour really Holy Spirit (28:19). Somehow, means to save us. The saved person is centuries before the church of God Two animals on Palm Sunday done with sin and fit for heaven. He will formally and decisively declared (a donkey and a colt travel in 21:1-11; other turn our lives upside-down and inside- its belief in God as Trinity, Matthew gospels have just one animal).
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THE BIBLE
Tim Meadowcroft wrestles with the humanity of Scripture
Word and Spirit ne of the most difficult questions variegated track record of authorship, a The second closely related deficiency, facing Christians, although not diversity of perspectives, and a distressing the more important of the two, is what I one often enough asked by tendency to call forth competing would term an inadequate appreciation of Omost church members or by interpretations from the ranks of its readers. the role of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. It is those who lead them, concerns the nature One response is to allow the humanity of easy enough to assert in general terms that of Scripture as the word of God. It’s difficult Scripture simply to overwhelm any sense of the Holy Spirit is active at the point of the because it is a question that confronts the God speaking and to give up the attempt to “inspiration” (whatever that might mean) humanity of Scripture. listen. Assuming that line of least resistance of the biblical writers, but apparently much Many Christians I know have some not to be the necessary or best option, how more difficult to conceive of the Holy Spirit as real experience of God speaking to them might one truly encounter the word of God in active and reliable at each operation through through the Bible, and as a result have some the midst of the human words of Scripture? which the words of the Bible came to be and clearly held, if unexamined, perceptions as to An opening move is to ensure that the now are experienced as the word of God. the divine nature of the Bible. They have not human-ness of Scripture is not overdrawn. Such an appreciation requires a thought very much about such questions as: The Bible is a wondrously cohesive, if comprehensive sense of the Spirit of God the role of the church in the formation of the diverse, story of God’s engagement with pervasively active in God’s word: when canon; the limitations imposed on Scripture the cosmos and those who inhabit it, and its the Creator creates, when the writers by the humanity and the time and space teaching is broadly self-consistent.1 wrote, when the editors edited, when the boundedness of its authors; the inescapable A second is to confront the human translators translate, when the early church fact that any reading and/or translation process behind the production and reading fathers and mothers discerned canonicity, of the Bible, even one’s own, is also an of Scripture, which can be distressing in when the scholars study and assemble interpretation with its own limitations. its subjectivity. This is a necessary move data, when the commentators write, when They (and I) long for certainty and if we are to form in ourselves and in readers read, and when preachers and objectivity in the matter of communing those we influence a robust faith and an teachers preach and teach. with the divine and hope for the Bible to accompanying confidence in Scripture At each point the Spirit is at work be an externally generated and objectively which is able to confront a world that is bringing the word of God to life. Through verifiable message from the Creator. It’s sceptical of the notion that God speaks. But the Spirit God is present in all the mundane difficult to discover that the ancient set of to do so is not easy. realities of existence including in the documents we call the Bible has a long The struggle usually arises from one human uncertainty around the handling of history of compilation and collection, a of two inadequacies in understanding the Scripture. Just as the “word became flesh way the Christian relates to the Bible. The and lived for a while among us” (John first is an ironic desire to eliminate the 1:14), so God’s word takes on the garb of need for faith in living the life of faith. If humanity in the collection of texts known the Bible is conceived as entirely a divine as the Bible, but never ceases to bring the Through the Spirit, God is word miraculously free from the fingerprint word of God into the situations in which of humanity, whose meaning may be the texts are read. This is nowhere better present in all the mundane reliably discerned through the exercise expressed than at 2 Peter 1:19-21. realities of existence including in of good method, then the need for faith is 1. That assumption may be defended in various ways. On a the human uncertainty around eliminated. Helmut Thielicke characterizes literary level, see Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: BasicBooks, 1981), 131-54. the handling of Scripture. this desire as a “need to establish Scripture which does not dare any longer to seek 2. H. Thielicke, The Evangelical Faith: Volume Three, Theology of the Spirit (trans. and ed. G.W. Bromiley; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, God’s Word in it with the help of the 1982), 192. testimony of the Holy Spirit but in the passive attitude of a consumer [wanting] to The Rev Dr Tim Meadowcroft is Senior Lecturer in 2 Biblical Studies at Laidlaw College and Dean of Laidlaw- find God’s Word in book form.” Carey Graduate School.
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SPIRITUALITY
Craufurd Murray says Advent and Lent offer bridges to the way of God’s love
dvent is a season of preparation, but some of my own getting ready looked beyond ADecember 25. Every year in the parish, as Christmas approached, I would remind myself to plan ahead and set things in place for Lent. This was not because the incarnation and atonement are inseparably interlinked. It was for a much more practical reason. Unless the date for Easter happened to be late, Lent appeared over the horizon very quickly after the summer holidays. This gave little time for any deliberate preparation, especially if Lenten material For everything needed to be ordered. Last month the latest ‘Harry Potter’ film was released. This series of films has there is a season included sequences taken close to my mother’s home in the Scottish Highlands. enriching. Advent and Lent are intervals They are seasons with great potential to One in particular features the spectacular in the church’s calendar that provide the draw us closer to Christ and to strengthen Glenfinnan Viaduct, a massive curved opportunity for us to ‘add value’ to our the church. They fit well with Abbe construction on the West Highland Railway. spiritual journeying. Michonneau’s words about the essence Twenty-one arches span almost 400 Yet our attitudes can get in the way of the missionary spirit. He wrote that, by metres, with the tallest standing some as we project on to these seasons our very nature, we have to be bearers of 31 metres above the ground. For years I unhelpful thoughts. Advent is often barely the Good News, and we “must speak in wrongly assumed this was a magnificent acknowledged. The familiar cry is that we the name of a Person whom we have some example of 19th century engineering, are far too busy with end-of-year activities, experience of hearing and seeing”. Let us built of stone. On reading the history of the plans for holidays and preparation for then seek concrete ways at these times to railway, I discovered it dates from 1901, Christmas. add to our spiritual environments.
and was made from “that much maligned Lent can be distorted by thoughts of Readily accessible, low-cost resources for Advent and Lent, material,” concrete! our sinfulness and the need for self-denial, available online from ChristChurch Cathedral Shop: At the time the contract was given, making it seem a test of endurance and a • A Handful of Light (A Companion for Advent, Christmas and New many were strongly critical, anticipating daunting prospect. Year) edited by Lynda Patterson and Craufurd Murray. (All profits to CanTeen) Published 2008. an ugly scar on the landscape. The result, Both these seasons offer a wonderful • Through Grit to Glory (A daily companion for Lent, Holy Week however, was both perfectly functional and progression – like huge bridges with and Easter) by Craufurd Murray. Published 2010. totally captivating. many arches across seemingly difficult For all kinds of reasons we can be terrain – leading us to grasp God’s love in Craufurd Murray is a Canon Emeritus of ChristChurch narrowly opinionated, causing us to pre- a way we can understand, and enabling Cathedral, and President of St George’s Hospital Incorporated Society. judge outcomes when, in fact, they have the us to see the victory of the Cross over the potential to be beautiful and enjoyable and invasive power of evil. [email protected] A good childhood The Science and the Spirit of Good Parenting in the 21st Century DVDs available of the series – $30. Contact: Chris Church, Theology House, 30 Church Lane, Merivale, Christchurch 8014 Email: [email protected]
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BOOKS
Prompted by a newly reprinted travel diary, Rob Ritchie retraces the wanderings of two Maori prophets, Te Whiti and Tohu. Jailing Parihaka n 5 November 1881, the largest and most prosperous of any the undefended village Maori community in the country. With its of Parihaka in Taranaki industriousness and famed generosity was invaded and later to visitors, it stood out as a rebuke to the ransacked by government Government’s advance. Otroops and militia. Its celebrated spiritual Settlers on the North Island’s West and political leaders Tohu Kakahi and Te Coast resented this peaceable Maori Whiti o Rongomai were forcibly removed community in their midst, as did their to New Plymouth and then to Wellington. seriously indebted Government which, Meanwhile, a date on which they would be finding no other means to acquire the tried was repeatedly postponed. Having chiefs’ land, was swayed towards invasion. removed the two chiefs from their peaceful Aggressive feelings towards Parihaka were stronghold, the Government found it had magnified throughout the young colony insufficient evidence to support the sedition by newspaper editors and politicians charges it had brought against them. accusing its leaders of being war- Six months after their arrests and still mongering hypocrites and madmen. expecting to be tried, Te Whiti and Tohu Acute political and spiritual discord were brought to Christchurch, where they about land is evident in a travel-diary were held for several weeks in the modern written by John P. Ward called Wanderings jail at Addington. With a newly completed with the Maori Prophets. Employed as Looking over Parihaka towards Mount Taranaki, ca 1890. Anglican cathedral, large museum and an Te Whiti and Tohu’s interpreter and industrial exhibition under way in Hagley travelling jailer, Ward begins his account activists it is certainly a precious record; but Park, Christchurch was seen as an ideal as they arrive in Christchurch. It covers an it is Ward as unintended apologist for the place for the Government to drive home extensive tour of the South Island by rail and colonial economy which may be the diary’s to its two prisoner celebrities the folly of ship, finishing in Nelson from where Tohu most important and revealing aspect. resisting the advance of British civilization. and Te Whiti were shipped home in March Ward declares he has set out to write Despite tours of the district by rail and 1883. The diary ends as the two chiefs an honest record, yet reveals himself to be tram Tohu remained indifferent; and though greet Maunga Taranaki from the sea, and deeply biased. For example, he applauds Te Whiti clearly enjoyed much of what he step ashore at Opunake to begin a glorious visiting government officials bringing saw, his greatest affection was reserved return to Parihaka. inducements of privately owned land and for the Avon River. Parihaka, after all, was Now reprinted for use in Treaty of government incomes to his captives. These already one of the country’s most advanced Waitangi education, Ward’s diary is a benefits will be granted, the chiefs are municipalities, installing electric lighting testimony to 19th Century Pakeha beliefs told, on condition they “…agree to give up before Wellington. about their entitlement to individualize and assembling the people.” Importantly, Parihaka’s leaders rejected exploit Maori land. Though these offers are renewed at the spiritual vacuum within which Pakeha As a unique account of 12 months spent intervals on the journey, the chiefs are technology operated. It was already with two creative and resolute peace- unmoved. Eventually Te Whiti tells Ward: “I want none of their love,” at which Ward’s commentary swings furiously between With its industriousness and famed admiration for their resolve and horror at such foolish indifference. generosity to visitors, Parihaka stood out as a Ward often confesses to being fond of his captives, and while discussions with them rebuke to the Government’s advance. range widely there’s much disagreement [declared only to the diary] about
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BOOKS Peter Carrell Quick reviews Here are some books that have caught my eye and may help you while away the Christmas holiday break:
The Ratzinger Reader (T & T Clark, 2010) is a one-volume introduction to the writings of Joseph Ratzinger, leading Roman Catholic theologian, known to us these days as Pope Benedict XVI. Editors Lieven Boeve and Gerard Mannion offer a general introduction to Benedict’s writings, as well as brief introductions to the excerpts they have chosen. A wide variety of topics are covered, and different fonts are used so it is very clear when one is reading Ratzinger and when one is not.
Lift High the Cross: Anglo-Catholics and the Congress Movement (Canterbury Press, 2010) by John Gunstone takes up a crucial stage of the burgeoning influence of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church of England, the five congresses between 1920 and 1933 which have been judged ‘the high noon of Anglo-Catholicism.’ This book is particularly germane with the news in November, 2010 of a significant low point in English Anglo-Catholicism through the imminent departure of five bishops to the Anglican Ordinariate.
Bonhoeffer: A Guide for the Perplexed Looking over Parihaka towards Mount Taranaki, ca 1890. by Joel Lawrence and Augustine: A Guide for the Perplexed by James Wetzel (both economics and also evolution. Yet when reflect propaganda arising from a land Continuum, 2010) each offer 125 pages or Ward enthuses about the profits which are confiscation-and-sale agenda, visible in our so of readable introduction to two famous to be wrung from the land, little comment land legislation to this day. But though his theologians. The reading level is Year 13/ is heard in reply from his captives. Where diary speaks for an overwhelming majority first-year university. The value in the first their practice is peace and generosity, Ward of settlers, it does not speak for all. is that Bonhoeffer's less popular writing is the Settler sees gains only for those quick On the morning of arrest and invasion, not always obtainable, and the value in the enough to outpace their rivals. Parihaka’s famed welcome-space for second is that Augustine wrote too much for No matter how much honesty he aspires peaceful visitors had been reduced to most of us to have time to read it all. to, it seems beyond Ward to recognize the a small hut on the edge of the marae political and spiritual genius of the two where, peering through its lattice walls, a The Archer and the Arrow: Preaching by Phillip D. Jensen men he is accompanying. Though they few trusted Pakeha journalists crouched the Very Words of God and Paul Grimmond (Mathias Media, 2010) are now securely held far from their home, unseen. It was their report which is both an argument for the importance of Te Whiti and Tohu represent such a threat broadcast to the world how this village, in the face of relentless propaganda and preaching and a practical book on preaching that legislation is drafted with their names which is shaped by the sentence, ‘My written into a new Bill designed to enable provocation, held fast to peace. aim is to preach the gospel by prayerfully their indefinite detention. By a coincidence Wanderings with the Maori Prophets costs $20 and expounding the Bible to the people God has rich with irony, the West Coast Preservation can be ordered from Don Rowlands, rowlands.don@ given me to love.’ Act is passed on a day when its two paradise.net.nz
subjects are deep in the South Island’s The Rev Dr Peter Carrell is Director of Theology House remote West Coast, at Preservation Inlet. Rob Ritchie is a researcher at the University of in Christchurch. In both contemporary and historical Canterbury. terms, Wanderings with the Maori Prophets All the listed books may be borrowed from the [email protected] Theology House Library, http://www.theologyhouse. is an important book. Ward’s views ac.nz/resources/
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BOOKS
When we were bolder
Responsibly Christian in collection of 52 brief passages in the transition years, the early Church and Society Today. from the Archbishop’s 1980s. I can still remember Challenges from a Christian addresses and reports in the when a table at Synod was Leader: An anthology of readings by Allen H. 1960s and 1970s. With each is reserved for journalists. At Johnston (Anglican Church in a verse of scripture and a brief some point we forgot to give Aotearoa, New Zealand and reflection on the context by them anything they considered Polynesia. his daughter and son-in-law, newsworthy. $14.99 plus $2.50 p&p from Jocelyn and George Armstrong. I can still remember when the General Synod Office, I have used it recently as part of priests and bishops appeared Box 87-188, Meadowbank, my morning devotions. on television to offer critical Responsibly Christian offers Auckland 1072). His writings are reminiscent comment, rather than to just snippets on love, justice, human of a time when the church and lead funeral processions. I Glynn Cardy rights, evangelism, hope, the its leaders understood their can still remember when the cross, a bicultural church, “What we are now finding is vocation to be service to the heated debates we had within and much more. In doing that amongst many, poverty is whole of society, not just those the church reflected the heated so it reminds us of a former viewed as a more or less wilful who were or would become debates outside of it, and we age, confidence, and courage act of exclusion of the poor by Anglican. They are reminiscent were led by bishops who to share with our whole nation the rich.” of a time when the church spoke understood the importance of it. what we know and listen This was not said by a banner- out on social, fiscal and foreign Archbishop Allen was a to what we don’t. waving trade unionist, a Third policy, and those who didn’t like measured, thoughtful, via media This present age is not so World theologian or left-wing what they said berated them for cleric. He was fair and just, different. If only we had the faith politician. Rather, a polite, it. They are reminiscent of a time offering wise and sympathetic and fortitude to take their eyes gracious and dignified Anglican when church leaders believed counsel to other leaders as he off the needs of the church and archbishop of New Zealand said the future of their institution was guided the Diocese of Dunedin focus instead on the needs of it. Archbishop Allen Johnston. assured, and used the power for 16 years and the Diocese the world. And he addressed it to future they knew they had for the good of Waikato for 12. He was leaders of commerce. of all in society. Archbishop of New Zealand for Glynn Cardy is Vicar of St Matthew-in- Responsibly Christian is a I was trained and ordained eight of those years. the-City, Auckland.
Never lose heart also prompt us to respond in it’s worthwhile….don’t lose Anyone can Pray: A Guide practical ways. heart.” (p187) So begins his to Christian Ways of Enjoy God without words Praying by Graeme Davidson last chapter on “Obstacles (London: SPCK, 2008 - £9.99). and let God’s love “challenge to prayer.” Its title belies the and inspire you” (p144) positive tone of these last Maggie Smith – a simple definition of few pages of a book that is contemplative prayer. He offers reassuring, readable and “Anyone can pray.” In a sense an easy-to-follow method for helpful. the title says it all. Graeme centring prayer and use of the It seems to me that prayer, Davidson writes like a scholar “Jesus Prayer”. for Davidson, is a delight, a and a teacher, but also as a man Brief biographies of a necessity, and as easy and vital with his own deep experience few Christian mystics entice as breathing. He trusts implicitly of prayer. And he shares his the reader to explore the in the love of God for us and experiments with the reader in contemplative way to union with God’s longing that we should an attractive and humble way. God. In a chapter on “Praying know that love. He is warmly Davidson writes of the cry way – vital for the Christian – to with others” Davidson also affirming that anyone can pray! of the heart, the one-liner, come to important decisions. offers ideas to help children the growing conversation, the He is sensitive in handling the experience the intimacy of Maggie Smith is an Anglican priest and spiritual director, living in rural letters and the poetry along issue of prayer for forgiveness prayer. Canterbury. with the traditional prayers of and for healing, and suggests “Like any relationship, there the saints past. that sometimes our prayers will be ups and downs, times [email protected] He validates prayer as a for the healing of another may when we wonder whether
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BOOKS
Face to face with a mystery
Jesus: A Portrait by Gerald O’Collins SJ of mediations which expand the first chapter (London: DLT, 2008 - £12.95). as Collins gleans the gospels for his portrait of Jesus. He mediates on Jesus who is God’s Kath Rushton Kingdom in Person and who is healer, teller he subtitle sums up what O’Collins of stories, and on his suffering, death and sees as the scope of this book resurrection. – a portrait that remembers and O’Collins refers to the works of artists, experiences Jesus. He reminds us writers and saints and their response to Jesus taught was implicitly autobiographical thatT so many approach Jesus as “a problem to Jesus. There are no descriptions of Jesus’ and permits us to fill out a portrait of Jesus. be solved by honesty and scholarship rather appearance in the gospels so O’Collins We are invited to imagine the mind that than a mystery (or rather the mystery) with encourages the reader to reflect on his ‘face could have envisaged and told the parables. which to engage ourselves for a lifetime.” For in action’ – the One who looked at people Likewise, the chapter on the beatitudes O’Collins, many who write about or present with love, grief, compassion and even anger. (Jesus the Storyteller) serves as a self- Jesus dodge a face-to-face encounter with I detect an influence in his book, which description of Jesus. the Jesus who is witnessed to and disclosed O’Collin’s does not mention explicitly – that For O’Collins, “a personal portrait of Jesus by the four evangelists. of the imaginative prayer of Ignatius. This … is also a vital mirror of ourselves” – the O’Collins begins with a stunning first is found in a moving section inspired by personal portrait of Jesus which emerges chapter, “The Beauty of Jesus,” which took Michelangelo’s Pieta where gazing on the in this book mirrors the author’s lifetime me ages to move on from to read the rest lifeless body of Jesus the reader is invited to faith-filled reflection on the One he invites his of the book. He quotes Godfried Daneels, look back on his life by focusing in turn on his readers to discover and rediscover. Archbishop of Malines-Brussels, who holds eyes, his mouth, his ears and face, his hands, that the way into the culture of our time is and his feet. Dr Kathleen Rushton RSM is a New Testament specialist involved in education and spiritual development. through an appeal to beauty. I found particularly helpful O’Collins’ This insight is applied to Jesus under exploration of Jesus’ death in Mark where he [email protected] headings from Augustine’s homily on Psalm prays the first verse of Psalm 22 in his native 45 which declares that beauty characterises Aramaic. Usually this is regarded as a cry of Making genuine Jesus at every stage of his life: ‘Beautiful abandonment. O’Collins sees this differently in Heaven, Beautiful in Earth,’ ‘Beautiful as he suggests that Jesus aligns himself with disciples of Jesus in the Womb, Beautiful in His Parents’ the further features of the whole Psalm 22. doesn’t just happen even in the Arms,’ ‘Beautiful in His Miracles, Beautiful In his memorable chapter on the parables best of churches unless it is a part of the overall programme. When Inviting to Life,’ ‘Beautiful under the (Jesus the Storyteller), O’Collins has the Scourge’… knack of presenting what the parables tell us TOUCH BASE WITH The rest of the book is in essence a series about Jesus. There he sees so much of what OMEGA DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRIES Email offi[email protected] or phone 04 905 2209 for a free information kit. Developed in Australia by Ian Malins www.omega-discipleship.com
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind” Rudyard Kipling 1(:$87+256 5HI $7 The UK’s leading independent publisher is now seeking new manuscripts in all subjects. For an appraisal please send your manuscripts to: MELROSE BOOKS St Thomas’ Place, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4GG, UK Phone: 01353 646608 [email protected] www.melrosebooks.com
Anglican Taonga.indd 1 24/11/2009Page 11:09:0937 Anglican Taonga ADVENT 2010
STUDY
Simon Stanley says Lenten courses are the way to personal and spiritual growth
Thinking of doing a Lent course?
Why do a course at all? Easter. It’s easy to remember if it becomes a ecumenical all the participating churches need to be in at the planning stage – or, at the Because it’s good to discuss issues of faith, regular annual event. very least, kept informed. doubt, morality, conflict and so on with other But, needless to say, you don’t have to wait people – especially if they take a different until Lent. You can do a study course any time Who do you want to come? Non-church view from you. Discussion of important issues you like, as many times as you like in the year. members should never be turned away, but helps you grow, both as a person and in faith. you may want to concentrate on a course How do we go about running designed for those actively involved in church Anyway, it’s always useful to keep up with a course? life. But the wider the mix of group members new ways of thinking. One way to keep Good preparation is essential. So you have to in terms of age, gender and experience, the things fresh is to have members of other better the course is likely to be. congregations and denominations in any decide a few ‘whos and hows’. How big should the group be? Between 5 group you may form. Who will organise it? Probably you, but try to recruit at least one ‘buddy’ who will share and 12 is best. Fewer means a limited set of And if you’re doing it right, it’s FUN! opinions; more makes the group unwieldy the load. and not everyone gets the chance to speak. Why do it in Lent? Who will lead it? It doesn’t need to be the How will you let people know it’s on? Publicity vicar. But whoever the leader is, they would Lent, traditionally a period of fasting and is important: posters, leaflets, invitations, always be well advised to consult as widely prayer in preparation for Easter, is the ideal church notices and pew sheets, church as possible, especially with the leadership. opportunity to put aside time for regular noticeboards, lists at the back of church for meetings for joint study. You can get five or Who do you need to check with to make people to sign up. And there is always the six sessions in between Ash Wednesday and sure everyone’s on board? If it’s going to be number one best way – approach people in the congregation and invite them! ECUMENICAL COURSES FOR ENQUIRING MINDS Finally, where, when and how? Where will it take place? Anywhere! But NEW for LENT 2011 wherever it is church, hall, home - make sure 5-session discussion course for Christian groups worldwide it’s comfy and accessible, including for parking. with BOOKLET, CD + TRANSCRIPT featuring Hospitality is important – coffee for example, or even a party to start the series off. Whatever the format, try to stick to it – it makes people feel more secure, especially if they are new to this sort of thing. And keep it simple. When? Give plenty of notice of when the group(s) is going to start, and what the subject is. Find out what day of the week and time of Dr David Hope Archbishop Dr Paula Gooder Jim Wallis (Intro) Vincent Nichols day is likely to suit best. Retired people may plus INDERJIT BHOGAL (Closing Reflections) prefer to attend a daytime group and avoid the dark evenings, for instance. How long should each session last? Less than Our Course CD brings these leading Christian thinkers into an hour is probably too short to do justice your discussion group. to the subject and anything over 90 minutes The Course booklet includes a choice of wide-ranging questions means people start to fidget. to help group leaders involve all members in lively discussion. All the information you need on what course Jesus didn’t write a will. He didn’t seem to have a plan. At the end, almost all of his followers had abandoned him. Nevertheless, Jesus’ message of reconciliation with God lived on. With this good news to choose to suit your needs and how to run his disciples changed the world. How did they do it? What else did Jesus leave behind? This course it from start to finish can be found on this addresses these questions. website – www.yorkcourses.co.uk 5 Sessions: (1) An empty tomb; (2) A group of people; (3) A story; (4) A power; (5) A meal Why not give it a go this in Lent 2011 – there’s Prices start from UK £3.10 (ca. NZ$ 6). Flat rate subsidised postage regardless of order value. Order at www.yorkcourses.co.uk. Fuller details online, including sample pages and soundclips. nothing to lose, but plenty to gain. York Courses, St Chad’s Vicarage, 36 Campleshon Road, York YO23 1EY Tel: 00 44 1904 466516 Email: [email protected] Canon Simon Stanley is a principal of York Courses.
Page 38 Anglican Taonga SPRING 2010
FROM THE FAR SIDE
Imogen de la Bere crosses a Great Divide Into the den of martyrdom
his year, in a folie a deux, Jeremy misadventures of getting the wrong buses, being Anglo-Catholic, we were quite and I decided to organise a parish getting spectacularly ripped off, and comfortable to adopt. pilgrimage to Rome. We did this getting lost. And every afternoon, after our However, all is not as it seems. because our parish priest, who 5pm Mass, the pilgrims gathered for gin, During our guided tour of the English T th combines historical precision with delightful cigarettes and gossip on the roof garden of College, lavishly restored in the 19 century, wit, had recently lost his closest friend. And the convent. we were sent, unaccompanied, to the upper as he had spent the defining period of his The nuns of Villa Rosa (I recommend gallery of the chapel, called the Tribune. student years in Rome, we thought planning it to any traveller) treated us with perfect This area, Father explained, had been off- the trip might be a salutary distraction. hospitality. There was no impediment to limits to him as a student, in case it upset his And so it proved. He had a wonderful our using the chapel for Mass. Irish Sister Anglican sensibilities. For all round the walls time plotting bus routes and itineraries Christina, efficient and pleasant, called the were grisly scenes of martyrdom – most and weighing up the merits of one church vicar “Father” and appeared not to notice notably the many priests sent out by the against another. As there are a thousand that we were technically Protestants. English College to convert and subvert the churches in Rome, this exercise took It was the same when we went on our Protestant nation. some time. special guided tour of the English College Scene after scene of butchery and But we soon found quite how much of in Rome, where the vicar had been a privation, as these martyrs went to their a folie it had been. By the time we had student. The nun in charge, American this death at the hands of the cruel English managed to get them all on and off the time, called him “Father” and showed off Protestants. Blood and body parts were airport bus, on and off the plane (clinking the serried ranks of English cardinals with scattered profusely as the good students with duty-free gin), had steered them great satisfaction, which she expected us of the English College were hung by their through the vast crazy complex of Rome’s to share. We felt accepted into the great feet, hacked up and disembowelled. The Termini Station, fought off the touts and church family. names and deeds of these men were pickpockets to buy them all Metro tickets, And so it was when we went to the Villa prominently displayed, both in the College shoved them and their cases through Palazzola across the lake from the Pope’s and its villa. And their memory was alive the barriers and on to the train, then summer palace. Owned by the English and honoured as if only decades had dragooned them all, panting and sweating, College and run as a cross between a passed, rather than centuries. up the Aventine Hill to the convent I had retreat house and a hotel, there’s Mass In the Tribune, we no longer felt like selected, we did not feel we had missed every day and the Salve Regina sung members of the family. our vocation. after dinner, but also a bar serving lethal But we were wonderfully bonded by cocktails, a swimming pool, and deep Imogen de La Bere is a Kiwi writer living in London. the shared adventures of exploring the comfortable armchairs. Here we were also [email protected] byways of a great city, and by the shared treated as honorary Catholics, a position,
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