September 2007, Issue 32 Serving Vanuatu Our response to a troubled paradise COMMENT Should we have a theological perspective on technology? Recent PhD graduate Stephen Garner weighs the interface between technology and humanity In our garden there is a path that runs very environment in which we exist. from the back door to the clothesline. It is as if we have become invisibly At the start of the path, the boundary wrapped in media. between path and lawn is easy to see, Awareness of this dependence upon but by the time the path gets to the technology, and its power to reshape our clothesline it’s less obvious. The lawn world, is seen in both a sense of wonder that has encroached upon the path, and the human beings can achieve such things, and also in a sense of anxiety that we will misuse Dr Stephen Garner boundary between grass and concrete this power. In particular, recent cinema slabs is now blurred. A similar blurring has seen a progression of fi lms that ask of the technologists and theologians, but of boundaries is also a recurrent theme questions about what it means to be human also to the voices of everyday people who in discussions about contemporary and how to live with the consequences use and are aff ected by technology in our of human technological power. These technology. Under pressure from new society. digital and biotechnologies, the borders responses to technology mirror a Christian understanding that human relationships This means that we must listen to the between human and non-human, with technology are ambiguous. On the voices of those who have grown up within organic and inorganic, natural and one hand, those relationships can become a culture permeated with the presence of synthetic, creature and machine are idolatrous and displace God, and technol- home computers, video games, the Internet sometimes hard to discern. In many ogy can be used as an unjust instrument of and participatory media, as well as those ways technology has ceased to be just power over others, including the natural who haven’t. It means listening to how a tool we use, but instead is now the world. On the other hand, technology can technology affects our workplaces and become the vehicle through which human businesses, as well as listening to those on beings carry out their response to God in the wrong side of the “digital divide”, where creative, compassionate and just ways. issues to do with poverty, debt and other forms of disadvantage work to establish an When we look at the environments that “information poverty”. Th e voices of those we live within, such as our workplaces, involved in areas such as medicine, teach- our churches, our schools and our homes, ing, and pastoral care also need to be heard, it is critical that we ask ourselves whether as do the voices of those who are served the technologies we use are appropriate to by those areas. And fi nally, it will involve a calling to be creative, compassionate and talking to members of our congregations just before God. Are the technologies we – young and old, male and female – about employ appropriate to the task at hand; how the technologies in their world shape do they solve the perceived problem; what life and faith. other problems do they create? Are they ecologically sound and sustainable, not just By listening to these various voices, and for our local community, but also in light of the hopes and fears that they express about other more distant communities that might technologies in our society, we can build be aff ected by them and their production? up a better picture of the world around us BIBLE Do the technologies we use create social in order to speak back into our individual injustices, working in ways that marginalise lives, our church communities and the SOCIETY or dehumanise parts of our community? wider communities that we belong to, and And do these technologies aff ect us at a to act in ways that use technology creatively, personal level, possibly becoming idols in compassionately and justly before God. their own right? Stephen Garner recently completed a PhD Answering these questions will be an in Th eology at the University of Auckland ... translating Scriptures ongoing process, but it is critical to address engaging with emerging digital technolo- them if the Church and its members are to gies. He is a contributor to the Wikiklesia into the heart-languages understand what it means to be the people Project (www.wikiklesia.org) and blogs about of the people ... of God in a technocultural world. It will science, faith, technology, and pop culture involve listening not only to the voices at www.greenfl ame.org. 2 SEPTEMBER 2007 The Right Rev Pamela Tankersley contributes a regular column to sPanz SpanningsPa Presbyteriansnz in Aotearoa New Zealand Moderator’s Christ-centred, community-facing SEPTEMBER 2007 Issue 32 mission is what we have been focussing musings on in parishes and presbyteries. I have been encouraging parish engagement Who we are on a local level, calling us all to “ seek sPanz is published quarterly by the the shalom of the place where we Presbyterian Publishing Company Ltd, PO Box 9049, Wellington, New Zealand have been sent, for in its shalom, we will find our shalom”. But what do we ISSN 1175 5202 understand by the concept community in this individualistic and isolationist New Zealand of the 21st century? Editor Amanda Wells Most city churches are gathered comm- [email protected] "unities, drawing folk from all over the Ph 04 381-8285 area. Some come because it is their local church but others come because of long- Advertising and subscriptions established family ties, or preferences for a theological stream or worship. Others Jason Reed come because the age structure provides [email protected] Pamela with Vaughn Milner, CEO of Ph 04 381-8284 more opportunities for children’s ministry Presbyterian Support Upper South Island, Fax 04 801-6001 or a youth peer group. Which is all fine and on the occasion of a celebration of a new typical of other institutions in our society partnership between Support and St George's – aren’t those big housing subdivisions in Iona, Christchurch Next issue Auckland and Christchurch designed to be December 2007 dormitories rather than communities? We I’ve been pondering on the tensions Advertising deadline recognised this in our Assembly decision between being an attractional church and 12 October 2007 a few years ago when we abolished the an incarnational one. In simple terms, the concept of parish bounds. attractional church says, “come and find Design the Christ among us” – the incarnational Tangerine In rural NZ, we might think being the church says Christ is “out there” and calls centre of a local community is easier, but us to join him. in my travels I’ve discovered that what Printing While I strongly encourage worshipping has always been taken for granted is no Lithoprint communities that bring glory to God and longer so. Our farmers will tell you that empower and equip each other for a life Copyright community spirit is a shadow of “what in Christ, I wonder if we need now to be The contents of sPanz may not be it used to be” especially in those areas churches that play the “away game” more reproduced without permission of the where the type of farming is changing frequently. It takes us out of our comfort publisher.Opinions expressed in sPanz – particularly as sheep farming has given zone, but maybe we will find Christ in are not necessarily those way to dairy farming in mid Canterbury those communities of interest that our of the Presbyterian Church of or to vineyards in Marlborough. society has established outside the church. Aotearoa New Zealand. But then the question is well asked: who It will create some interesting partnerships and what is the community we are called for us, as we listen to, walk beside, and engage with those who have yet to find Cover Photograph to serve in mission? the transforming love of Jesus in their lives. Photo credit:Martin Baker Community “used to be” formed in and And maybe in this way we will bring about through our churches but contemporary new community. folk make community instead within schools and pubs, sports clubs and coffee Lots of questions, but as we journey on bars – and often these activities and groups being Christ-centred and community- are not located in a specific area, but are facing, they are questions we need to “gathered” communities too, with minimal grapple with. demands of belonging and contributing. May Christ be with you and your How do we as church engage with this kind community as you journey as people of of community? the Way. SEPTEMBER 2007" 3 Have we failed Vanuatu? 4 SEPTEMBERMAYSEPTEMBER 2006 20072007 anuatu is the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New The New Zealand Government is giving Vanuatu $85 million Zealand’s primary mission partner, but what does between 2006-2010, managed by development agency that really mean? Amanda Wells talks to past and NZAID. The main goal of this programme is poverty reduction, V particularly in rural areas, to help support stability and current missionaries to find out what lies beneath sunny economic growth. skies and palm trees. China, Taiwan, Korea, the European Union all appear to Search for stories on Vanuatu and you get either paens to paradise see Vanuatu as having a strategic role in the Pacific, with a or tales of aid, poverty and corruption.