Anglican Taonga Winter 2018

WINTER 2018 // No.57

Taonga ANGLICAN

PEOPLE

Celebrations fit for a king Archbishop Don Tamihere embarks on his primacy YO U T H

Life in the fast lane Meet Jax Clark our new T3 Youth Commissioner PEOPLE

Hand on the tiller Heart on the Lord Henry Bull’s journey from bush to bishop

W I N T E R

GENERAL SYNOD NEWS : : #METOO JESUS : : PEACEMAKING IN CHRIST : : THE MONKS OF LUNDY

2018 Page 1

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

HISTORY

Of poets, priests and scribes A new book by Rev Dr Geoffrey Haworth tells the story of Kiwi Anglicans whose poetry and prayer still infuses this Church’s contemporary worship in A New Zealand Prayer Book - He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa.

G

eoff Haworth has researched and written a new prayer book history, ‘He Taonga Tongarewa: A Highly Prized and Precious Gift’ on behalf of the Common Life Liturgical Commission(CLLC).

His book surveys the characters, committees and controversies that contributed to the 25-year epic journey it took to compose and compile the 1989 Prayer Book.

Speaking at the launch, Geoff Haworth reminded synod that the Prayer Book predated the three-Tikanga constitution by three years, “That makes it a very different publication to what our Church would produce today.”

For one, he acknowledged the Prayer Book fell short of Pihopatanga aspirations on its Ma-ori content, and was unable to fulfill hopes for a full Ma-ori language

HE TONGAREWA Highly-prized Precious HETAONGA TAONGA TONGAREWA —— AA Highly-prized andand Precious Gift Gift

He Taonga Tongarewa

A Highly-prized and Precious Gift A history of a New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa

Geoffrey M.R. Haworth Geoffrey M.R. Haworth

GEOFFREY M.R. HAWORTH

Commissioned by Common Life Liturgical Commission

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prayer book revision.

Meanwhile, its Polynesian liturgies covered only two of Polynesia’s four main worshipping languages, and was held back by archaic vocabulary in its prayers.

“But the Prayer Book was a remarkable achievement – and still is.” he said.

“It contains a wealth of brilliant liturgies that expanded a great deal on what it had replaced in the Book of Common Prayer."

Amongst those new Ma-ori and Pa-keha-ā pastoral contexts that the Prayer Book upheld in prayer were: Thanksgiving for the Gift of a Child (p.754), Unveiling of a Memorial (p.881), Daily Services (p.54), Daily Devotions (p.104), Na te Whanau a Te Karaiti (p.499) and A Form for Ordering the Eucharist (p.511).

This latest history is the third to be written on the Prayer Book, adding to recollections from Rev John Williamson in, ‘Shouldn’t there be a comma after death?’ and Bishop Brian Carrell in ‘Creating a New Zealand Prayer Book: A personal Reminiscence of a 25 Year Odyssey 19641989.’

This May, CLLC chair Ven Carole Hughes explained how important it was for this history to cast the research net “deep and wide” to ensure a fulsome picture came together in time for the Prayer Book’s 30th anniversary next year.

To meet that brief, the author spent two years ploughing through archives at Auckland's Kinder Library. And he interviewed 21 contributors, including 16 members of the Commission on Prayer Book Revision.“They all responded without reservation,” said Geoff. “And between them, they covered almost the entire theological spectrum.”

Author Geoff Haworth presents 'He Taonga Tongarewa' at General Synod 2018.

Among the many “able, wise and strong characters” from the NZPB Commission, the book draws on interviews with Archbishop David Moxon, Bishop Waiohau Te Haara, Very Rev Gavin Yates, Rev Canon Bob Newman, Rev Dr Ken Booth, Rev Jenny Dawson, Bishop Brian Carrell and Christchurch’s former Canon, Rob McCulloch.

“Between them they held an incredible reservoir of faith, liturgical expertise, determination, perseverance and imagination,” said Geoff.

‘He Taonga Tongarewa’ also looks at controversies such as the standoff when Prayer Book Commissioners opposed both their own house of bishops, and the Auckland Jewish community, to advocate for their newly-composed ‘Psalms for Worship’.

The book chronicles the Prayer Book’s shift to less male-centred language for God, and to gender inclusive terms for humanity.

These were brought to the fore by female contributors claiming equal space for women in the church – spurred on by the ordination of women in 1976.

Concluding the book launch at General Synod, Archbishop Don Tamihere, Archbishop Winston Halapua and Archbishop Philip Richardson blessed the first copies of ‘He Taonga Tongarewa’ and lauded it as the human story behind the prayers that still feed Anglican liturgy today.

‘He Taonga Tongarewa’ is available for $20.00 from the General Synod Office, PO Box 87188, Meadowbank, Auckland 1742. Contact: gensec@anglicanchurch.org.nz

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Anglican Taonga WINTER 2018

REGULAR

Contents 8

ANGLICAN TAONGA

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ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

WINTER 2018

ANGLICAN TAONGA

PEOPLE

28 Spirituality: Adrienne Thompson looks to the ancient mariners for her bearings 30 Fiction: Imogen de la Bere revisits the monks of Lundy 36 Overseas aid: Gillian Southey on Dalit women’s human rights in Tamil Nadu 38 Environment: Phillip Donnell calls for evangelism with creation in mind 42 Film: John Bluck meets an oceangoing man whose web of lies signals his demise

Anglican Taonga is published by the Commission on Communications and distributed to all ministry units and agencies of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia – Te Haahi Mihinare ki Aotearoa ki Niu Tireni ki nga Moutere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa.

Editor Julanne Clarke-Morris 786 Cumberland Street Otepoti – Dunedin 9016 Ph 03 477-1556 julanneclarkemorris@gmail.com Design Marcus Thomas Design info@marcusthomas.co.nz Distribution and subscriptions Aleshia Lawson Taonga Distribution Manager PO Box 6431, Dunedin 9059 taongadistribution@gmail.com Advertising Brian Watkins Ph 06 875-8488 021 072-9892 brian@grow.co.nz Media Officer Lloyd Ashton Ph 09 521-4439 021 348-470 mediaofficer@anglicanchurch.org.nz.

Cover: Archbishop Don Tamihere, Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, and Pihopa o Aotearoa, preaches at an ecumenical service on Turangawaewae marae, celebrating the 160th anniversary of the Kingitanga, the Maori King movement.

Two years later, Government funding shortfalls still pressure the region’s youth mental health services, making it harder to help young people in this post-earthquake zone.

Lloyd Ashton was on hand for the occasion.

When one chief disappears, another is ready to appear.

Atipihopa Don, Te Pihopa Matamua

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garo atu he te-te-kura, whakaeke mai he te-te-kura.

When one chief disappears, another is ready to appear. No one is indispensable.

When Archbishop Brown Turei, Pihopa o Te Tairawhiti and Pihopa o Aotearoa died in office, in January 2017, he was 92 – and for some time, he'd been the oldest Primate in the Communion.

When Bishop Don Tamihere, Pihopa o Te Tairawhiti, was installed as Pihopa o Aotearoa at Manutuke marae near Gisborne on April 28, he became not only his successor in both offices – but also, at 45, comfortably the youngest Primate in the Communion.

If nothing else, that serves to illustrate a metaphor that Archbishop Winston Halapua likes to use.

When you're sailing into the wind, he says, you sail as far as is profitable in one direction…

Then, to reach your chosen destination, you must tack back the other way. *

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He anga whakamua Looking forward.

That was a phrase we heard at several points during the day – and we saw symbols of Archbishop Don's determination to throw open the doors of Te Pihopatanga to young people.

He chose, for instance, to be installed in his cathedra not by his fellow bishops – but by students: one each from Te Aute Kareti, Hukarere Maori Girl's College – and one from Horouta Wananga, which is a new kura kaupapa Maori in Gisborne.

Those three students presented him with the symbols of his new office: the Aotearoa ring, pectoral cross and crozier.

Then, there was the Eucharist itself.

Most often, at events like these, leading that is a job for archbishops.

Other bishops, at least. But not this time.

Pihopa Don chose the Rev Wiremu Anania, who is Vicar and Missioner of Tauranga Moana, to preside at his installation Eucharist.

And the reason why Wiremu got the nod is because, at the time of the installation, he

was the newest priest in Te Pihopatanga.

He's 24, and he'd been ordained just three months earlier.

There was also support for that anga whakamua message from an unsuspected source.

It came from Kingi Tuheitia, the seventh Maori king, and his wife, Te Makau Ariki Atawhai, who had travelled down from Turangawaewae in Ngaruawahia for the occasion.

And that was the first time a Maori king or queen has been on hand for the installation of a Bishop of Aotearoa.

Rev Ngira Simmonds, who is the Anglican chaplain to the Kingitanga, says the king made that hikoi because "he's passionate about nurturing and supporting young people". *

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Ka mua, ka muri We walk backwards into the future.

There was honour bestowed too, to the kaumatua and kuia who have paid a price to maintain the mana of Te Pihopatanga.

We saw that in the company that Bishop Don chose to keep during the service.

Until the moment of his installation, he sat between his wife Kisa – and whaea Mihi Turei, the widow of Archbishop Brown.

And when he was duly installed, they were the first ones he greeted. *

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The Rev Dr Hirini Kaa preached the kauhau, and in it he recounted the whakapapa of Te Pihopatanga.

He painted a picture of a vine that had been growing strongly before the arrival of the European settlers, to which the Good News was grafted.

"This not just an English vine we're

Christchurch still bears the country’s highest youth suicide rate. But for at least one youth health service, there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

Kingi Tuheitia and his wife, Te Makau Ariki Atawhai.

Archbishop Don, seated between his wife Kisa and whaea Mihi Turei, widow of Archbishop Brown.

talking about," he said. "This wasn't a Harry Potter moment, where a wand got waved, and suddenly we're all speaking English."

The hybrid vine – te reo Maori me ona tikanga, enlivened by the power of the Gospel – didn't replace the earlier one, he said.

"It gave it new life. It gave us new ways of understanding forgiveness and love – the whole world needed new ways of understanding forgiveness and love, through the gospel."

Across the motu tipuna took Good News on board, and ran with it – retelling the Gospel story "our way – in a way we needed to hear and could understand."

Hirini – who is an historian, teaching at Auckland University – cited some stats to prove his point: "In 1844," he said, "there were 12 European missionaries operating in Aotearoa New Zealand. And 295 Maori evangelists.

"In 1854, there were 23 European missionaries here – and 558 Maori evangelists across the motu.

"So, who do you think was disseminating the good news? Who do you think was doing the mahi? Who do you think was listening to who tell this story?" *

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But the settlers were greedy.

Greedy for land, and greedy for power, said Hirini – and the Anglican Church itself became complicit in their sins: the first constitution of the Anglican Church of New Zealand, promulgated in 1857, was

Julanne Clarke-Morris caught up with Dr Sue Bagshaw again.

Hub takes

In 1854 there were 23 European missionaries here – and 558 Maori evangelists. So, who do you think was disseminating the good news?

first step for youth

I

composed without any input from Maori Anglicans.

The Hahi Mihinare was becoming a settler church.

Likewise, said Hirini, the Pakeha Bishops and General Synods did their best to thwart Maori Anglican pleas to have their own Maori bishop.

Only in 1928 – after the Pakeha bishops had excommunicated the thousands of Maori Anglicans who were now following the Maori prophet and healing evangelist TW Ratana – did the General Synod begrudgingly consent to the establishment of a suffragan Maori bishop, answerable to the Bishop of Waiapu.

Bishop Frederick Bennett became that first Pihopa o Aotearoa, and Archbishop Don is the sixth bishop to carry that mantle. *

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n March this year, The Youth Hub Trust set up by Sue Bagshaw in 2017 received a helping hand from the Diocese of Christchurch’s social services agency, AnglicanCare.

In response to the urgent needs of

That wrap around support would be a game changer.

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Hirini then spoke about the "deep and

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Canterbury youth, AnglicanCare, backed

by Bishop Victoria Matthews, invested $4 million to purchase a Christchurch city centre property on Salisbury Street, ready to be developed as the site of a Youth Hub to serve young people aged 10-24.

The 4500 metre-square site at number 109 is the former Canterbury Bowling Club, which has enough space to host up to 12 helping agencies as well as transition accommodation. The Youth Hub Trust will create a safe space where young people who are struggling can find acceptance and opportunities to help them heal and become healthy successful adults.

Sue has worked in the youth health sector for 30 years and helped establish 298 Youth Health, (originally as 198 Youth Health) as New Zealand's second youth one stop shop in Christchurch in 1995.

She continues to advise on the setting up of youth health centres which are part

of the Network of Youth One Stop Shops (NYOSS).

She says the wrap-around support from the proposed Christchurch Youth Hub would be a game changer in young people’s lives. But for now, that vision is still $10 million away from getting off the ground.

“What we need is to be able to host these services in one location, so that young people can easily get access to the help and opportunities they need.” she says.

“There are plenty of great of helping organisations in Christchurch, but for young people the trick is knowing about them and finding them.

“Often they find it too costly to get transport to services, or they may lack the confidence or ability to get there. Some have mental health limitations that make it difficult for them to manage to turn up to

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Kids are kids.

They need to be loved whether they are good or bad.

“What young people need is adults who believe in them and accept them as they are."

She says parents and others can cut off from young people if their message is always: “if you are good I will love you more, if you do as I say you will get this or that''.

“The problem with `you can have this if you are good’ is that it borders on a threat.

Kids are kids. They need to be loved whether they are good or bad.

“At 298 Health we are not there to judge young people for the way they live their lives right now. Our job is to accept them, with their anger and their flaws, and guide them to where they can find what they need.”

Sue thinks Christians need to hear the ‘step back from judging’ message loud and clear.

“The problem with the church is that often we say: this is what you should not be doing - when the best way to help is to focus on relationships that show love.”

“That is what Jesus did, he made relationships with people who were sinners, prostitutes, tax-collectors.

“Relationships were where healing happened with Jesus, not just in abstract instructions about life choices.”

“That is where Christians need to be if we want to make a difference in young people’s lives.”

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ANGLICAN TAONGA

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The first item on the agenda at this year's Tikanga Youth Synod – which was held in Auckland's Henderson Valley in February – was the welcome and commissioning of Jax Clark, the new Tikanga Toru Youth Commissioner.

Duly welcomed, Jax had a gift she wanted to bestow on the synod.

It was a framed photograph of a road sign.

She noticed that sign on her first day in her new job – as she sat snarled up in peak hour Auckland traffic.

While in the lane next to hers, cars were zipping along.

That free-flowing lane is the T3 lane – the lane on some Auckland

arterial roads which, at peak hours, is reserved for cars with at least three passengers.

And Jax took that T3 sign as a metaphor, a note from the Lord even, that when the three tikanga choose to move together, they not only maintain their God-given individual identities – but also travel in the fast lane.

For Jax, that T3 sign has more layers of meaning.

It nudges her to reflect on the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and their threefold work in the world: of redemption, reconciliation and restoration.

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Archbishop Philip welcomes Jax to her new role – while her daughters Libby Jane and Leah look on.

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Jax's family then moved from Tauranga to Manurewa, in South Auckland, and her dad – who, before his conversion, had worked in the rag trade – began working in Baptist social services.

Jax flourished, too. Both at school – she became head girl at Manurewa High – and in her faith.

At 16, she had a dream which she interpreted as a call into mission , and at 18, she became the leader of the Manukau Central Baptist youth group.

She kept that youth work up too, even as she launched out into a career in admin and HR – and she married a guy who was as passionate about the Kingdom as she was.

Together, they trained as youth workers and they led youth work in Manukau and then in the Wairarapa , where they tried life in the early 2000s.

In 2004, Jax and her husband returned to Auckland to tackle further study in pastoral leadership at Carey Baptist College.

During their three years at Carey, they also went full immersion in the gritty realities of South Auckland life: they were the night supervisors at a Mangere centre which seeks to help women who are in danger of having their children taken by the state. *

Jax's husband graduated from Carey in 2007 , and was commissioned as the pastor at Mangere Baptist.

While they were there, says Jax, she came to a bone-deep understanding of the importance of community, and the value of relationships.

In Mangere, too, her understanding of youth work went ahead leaps and bounds.

Jax plunged into that ministry in her community, and Praxis NZ – which is a faithbased youth training network – saw what she was doing, liked what they saw, and asked her to come on board as a trainer.

Jax did, and reckons she learned every bit as much as she taught.

So the Mangere years, then, from 2007 to 2012, were rich for her.

But costly, too.

The intense demands of ministry in Mangere while raising a young family and dealing with personal stresses broke an already strained marriage.

Even so, Jax chooses to honour her exhusband.

"What I learned from the journey we had together – and especially from our time in Mangere – changed me forever.

"At a deep level, I had to confront my hidden prejudices and cultural ignorance, and I'm very grateful for that."

But just as her marriage was about to be taken off life-support, Jax suffered another blow.

Her beloved dad, whom she describes as "the person who was the biggest influence on my faith", dropped dead on a Wairarapa beach.

At that point, says Jax, "I think I knew what genuine heartache and grief feels like." *

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Redemption, then?

And restoration?

Where were they now?

To lick her wounds, Jax took herself off to St George's Epsom in 2012.

Seeing this Jesus transform our family had a profound effect on me.

That's where she fell in with The Third Space Trust.

And that's when her healing began.

The Third Space Trust is a group of St George's folk who baulk at the notion that people need to come in to the church before they can begin in faith.

So, they've been hosting events in pubs and cafés – in third spaces, in other words – which they hope will be relevant and appealing to unchurched people.

About the time Jax arrived at St George's, the trust decided to take a further step.

They decided to set up a third space.

They rented a shop in Oranga (which is an old state housing area near Penrose) and called that space: To Wahi, which means: Your Place.

To Wahi is a community café, an op shop and a classroom, and the trust hoped it would become a springboard for women – particularly Maori and Pacifica women – into further education, and enterprise.

And the fact that the Third Space Trust were willing to take a punt on Jax to launch To Wahi… has meant everything to her.

"I was a woman on a benefit with two young children," she says, "scarred from the breakup of my marriage.

"I'd thought: 'Well, that's it. I've done my dash. I'll never be in ministry again.'

"But this group of people picked me up – they picked me and my girls up – they saw potential in me, they found me a

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Making sure all

Mona Tavakoli demonstrates the buddy system with the Rev Barbara Dineen, chaplain and spiritual advisor to Lesley Groves Rest Home, Dunedin.

find their place Charles Tyrrell looks at the rising social anxiety over the disease of dementia, and asks what would Jesus do when faced with its limitations.

Over the years I have learnt to value worship in the ‘here and now’.

from the logging camp The newly ordained Bishop Henry Bull, presented to his people.

It's about as far as the east is from the west.

A

s the crow flies, Henry Bull didn't travel far to be made a bishop.

He could have been ordained in the relative splendour of Suva's Holy Trinity Cathedral – which is, after all, the mothership of the Diocese of Polynesia.

Instead, he chose to get the job done in the playground of St Mary's Primary School, Labasa – which is on Vanua Levu, Fiji's second island.

Henry chose Labasa because most of the 800-odd well-wishers who turned up to support him were from Vanua Levu's rugged hinterlands, where few roads run, or from its remote coastal settlements, which are only reached by boat.

Around those parts, most folk are subsistence farmers – so, for them, a trip to

Suva, on the far side of Viti Levu, Fiji's main island… well, that wasn't going to happen.

Labasa has something else going for it: it's just 60 kilometres from Dreketi, the rural settlement where Henry was born, which is his turangawaewae, and from which he will continue to operate now that he's Bishop in Vanua Levu and Taveuni.

As we said, Henry didn't travel far for his ordination.

But if we're talking the distance from where Henry's life was tracking in 1985, to where his life is now… that's about as far as the east is from the west. *

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Dreketi is a blink-and-you'll-missit settlement half way along the lonely highway that stretches from Labasa to Nabouwalu, which is the ferry terminal on

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Don grew up, and when he was a young man, he fell in love with Queenie Sai Moi – who was the daughter of a Chinese dad, and a village girl.

But Queenie's dad had died when she was just a child.

So, she was adopted by George Fong Toy, and his wife Lily – who just happened to be the grandparents of the Rev. Amy Chambers, and great grandparents of the Rev. Claude Fong Toy. Anyway: that's how come Don and Queenie met: because the Fong Toys and the Bulls lived across the river from one another.

And on November 7, 1956, Queenie gave birth to Henry Raymond Bull. *

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When Henry was born, Don and Queenie weren't living together.

So Don took their son down the river to a plantation out along the coast.

That plantation was owned by Pauline and Murray Sutherland – and for his first 14 years Henry Bull was, in fact, Henry Sutherland.

You might well ask why Don headed down that river with baby Henry.

Well, Don knew that Pau and Murray had wanted a son… because Pau was his older half-sister.

Turns out that when Philip John had first come to Fiji, he'd taken an I-Taukei woman as his common-law wife – and Pau was one of three children he'd had with her. *

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When Henry was 14, he was sent back to live with Don and Queenie, who had by then married and established themselves.

Bishop Henry doing what he loves best: Going on mission in his preferred mode of transport. That's his eldest son Jale at left.

"Dundee" had taken over the reins at Bull Brothers, and he too became a successful, hard-driving businessman.

But this new-found family togetherness didn't last long – because in 1972, Don packed Henry off to Suva's Marist Brothers High School.

Henry struggled there. After a year, he pleaded with his father to let him work in the bush.

History has a way of repeating itself.

Because when Henry was 19, he got his girlfriend (she was Amy's cousin) pregnant.

Then, in 1979, when Henry was 23, he met Alumita.

They had a daughter, too, before they tied the knot in 1981. *

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That brings us to the defining moment in his life.

The moment in September 1985 in a logging camp that changed everything.

It's a story that Henry never tires of telling: “There was this Methodist brother… he came from the saw millers to select logs for veneering.

“He was a very good country singer, and in the evenings, he’d join us around the kava bowl.

“He would sing to us.

"Then he started telling us stories from the Bible…"

“And we were like little children."

So much so, Henry recalls, that the foreman of that logging gang ordered 40

I had this hunger...

I just wanted to know more about this wonderful God.

Bibles for his crew.

The country singer talked about how "God is holy, man is sinful – but God didn’t leave us in a mess.

"And for the first time," says Henry, "I saw what Jesus did for me on the cross.

“He invited us to say a prayer: ‘Lord, I trust you. I believe what you did for me…’

Henry prayed that prayer – and when he woke the next morning “everything I saw was beautiful. And I had such a love for my wife.

"It was first love, and I was so full of it."

Henry was ravenous, too.

“I had this hunger… I just wanted to know more about this wonderful God, and what Jesus did for me.

“I was searching so much that I asked one of the priests: ‘Reverend William2, can you explain this to me? Because I’m so hungry.’

“He was a wonderful, humble man. And he said: ‘Henry? I can’t answer all your questions now. But don’t worry about that.

‘Because Henry, what I want to tell you is that God is calling you.’ *

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Back in the day, the vicar of St Thomas Labasa would head down to Dreketi every couple of months.

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SPIRITUALITY

C

I'd thought: 'Well, that's it.

I've done my dash.'

A long way

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MINISTRY

hurch didn't play any part in Jacqueline Clark's family story.

Not in the first chapters, anyway.

But when Jax was about eight, the story changed.

The Youth With a Mission ship Anastasis docked in Tauranga – where the Clark family were living at the time – and the ship's company fanned out through the city.

A couple of young missionaries knocked on her parent's door – and led them both to the Lord.

"I watched my parents soften," says Jax, "my older brother develop this vigour about faith, and God, and seeing this Jesus transform our family had a profound effect on me."

the south-west tip of Vanua Levu.

In fact, Dreketi is a tikina, a loose-knit collection of settlements scattered either side of the Dreketi River, up which colonialera traders and fortune-seekers navigated.

Bishop Henry's grandfather, Philip John Bull, was one of these adventurers.

He came from New South Wales after World War One with his younger brother Harry. Together, they set up Bull Brothers' logging and sawmilling company – and they prospered.

Then, when the time came for Philip John to find a bride, he went back to Australia, and returned with Flora Grace.

Bishop Henry's dad, Don Bull – who, at 85, is still firing on all cylinders – is the child of their union.

The former bowling club rooms sit on the 4500m2 site now tagged as a future youth services hub.

site: from professional counselling and medical care, through to arts and cultural activities, sports and exercise, DJ-ing and music-making, as well as life skills and employment training.

“As well as a place to get well, the hub would offer a stepping stone to adult life, where young people need to know how to find opportunities for themselves.”

There are lessons here for any adult who interacts with young people, she says.

The first is that numerous clinical studies tell us adults underestimate the impact of emotional stress on children.

“Any stress can interrupt a child's brain development.”

“The earthquakes had an impact on everyone. People don’t acknowledge how bad it was. I have always said it is relatively easy to repair buildings, but it is not so easy to repair people.”

Another cause of emotional stress comes when parental relationships go sour and families part company.

“Kids take family break-ups harder than they reveal. They tend to suffer quietly and then explode.”

“Parents often don’t look for help until the explode stage, but especially in Christchurch with so many adults already in the mental health system, they often find there is no help available.”

Sue thinks there is more that everyone can do. Of course, the first thing for her would be funding support so that the Trust can raise enough for Christchurch’s sorely needed youth services hub. But after that, instead of the twelve or so examples round the country, Sue would love to see similar hubs in every town.

In the meantime, she says any adult can make a difference in a young person’s life.

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In December last year, beneath a makeshift tin shelter erected in a school playground in a modest Fijian town, Henry Bull was ordained as an Anglican bishop. As Lloyd Ashton has been learning, that was a milestone on a remarkable journey.

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YOUTH

In the lane next to hers, cars were fair zipping along.

appointments at certain times.

“The hub would put everything right in front of them.”

But getting there is not the only problem, says Sue. Young people who are very unwell often lack faith that life can hold any possibility for people like them.

“When experience tells you nothing is likely to improve your life, there are a lot of more fun, easier things to be doing than making all the effort to get yourself help."

That is why the $10 million facility would not only operate a walk-in and referrals day clinic, but also an employment agency, legal advice, creative and recreational activities alongside its 20 supervised youth housing units. Some residents will be there because they have nowhere else to go.

Simply being on site will make it easier to receive help.

The housing units will be transitional to allow the hub to support more young people in need.

“Our plan is that young people will arrive with an exit plan already in place.

That might be to get well and rebuild relationships before returning to their families, or develop the independent living skills to go flatting.”

Last year, heavy demand for services and limited resources meant 298 Health had to close their books to all but the families who couldn’t afford to get help.

Those clients come from the 20% of young Kiwis who struggle.

Sue says the underlying issue for that 20% will seldom be a quick fix, because it is about the effect of abuse and family disruption on brain development.

Neuroscientists now know that as the brain develops, the ability to understand and manage feelings comes on board later on.

“For some people, that selfunderstanding comes in their teens, for some it is later, up to 25 years old,” says Sue. “Abuse or trauma slows it down, especially if trauma occurs before the child can talk. That could be caused by neglect, sexual or physical abuse, bullying, or for some, by earthquakes or loss.”

Because of that need for emotional development, a vital part of the hub’s work will be connecting young people with caring adults whose ‘no strings attached’ support can bolster their self-confidence and help their brains to grow.

That critical relationship work can happen through a wide range of activities, many of which would be on

ANGLICAN TAONGA

PEOPLE

Dr Sue Bagshaw at 298 Health

Back in 2016 when Lloyd Ashton interviewed Dr Sue Bagshaw, she told us how Canterbury’s mental health services were crying out for support.

Students from Te Aute, Hukarere and Horouta Wananga lead Bishop Don through his vows before installing him in his cathedra.

More than 1000 people poured into a huge marquee on Manutuke Marae, near Gisborne, on April 28 to tautoko Pihopa Don Tamihere's installation as the sixth Pihopa o Aotearoa, or leader of the Maori Anglican Church – and to applaud his recognition as Primate/ Te Pihopa Matamua and Archbishop of the Anglican Church in these islands.

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WINTER 2018

Y O U T H A N D H E A LT H Moments after his installation at Manutuke, Archbishop Don poses with Vianney Douglas, who is a Kai Karakia, and Wiremu Anania, who presided at the Eucharist.

D

ementia is becoming the new cancer.

For some time we have been paralysed with fear at the thought of developing the ‘C’ word – despite real advances in the early detection, treatment and management of cancerous tumours.

Now many have begun to fret about developing the ‘D’ word. Even though, like cancer, dementia has been around for a very long time, the thought of

acquiring it strikes terror into the minds of presently lucid people.

Dementia literally means ‘out of mind.’ It describes a range of mental conditions from mild forgetfulness to Alzheimer's disease and numerous conditions in between.

No matter what the stage or form of a person’s dementia, as the church we need to ask what ministry of care and spiritual sustenance we can offer to people living with this condition.

In 2010 I became Nelson's Diocesan Enabler for Older Persons' Ministry.

As part of that call I offered ministry to the Flaxmore Care Home in Nelson, a residential unit for up to 40 people living with dementia, down the street from where I live.

Since becoming Flaxmore's chaplain I have regularly visited residents, especially if their health deteriorates, as well as leading services on a monthly basis.

I find these visits moving and often challenging. I keenly remember one man with dementia who even as he was dying, remembered enough of his life to repent of his misdeeds and seek forgiveness.

In the regular services that I take simplicity is the key. The 25+ people who turn up bring a wide variety of needs and abilities: some fully take part in the service, while some do not react at all, but may still be listening.

I follow the same simple structure for the liturgy. A welcome and brief statement of the theme is followed with a wellknown hymn, played by a resident whose qualifications in piano come to life as she supports the service music.

Next I say prayers and we join in the Lord’s Prayer using the old ‘thy and thou’ language. People remember that version from their youth, which means most can take part.

After another hymn and short Bible reading I lead an informal talk – aiming to involve as many as I can through questions that unlock memories. On some days we talk a lot and on others very little is said.

The service concludes with intercessory prayer, never forgetting to pray for poorly people in the home and giving thanks for those who care for the residents, before a final hymn is sung.

Over the years I have learnt to value the power of worship in the ‘here and now’.

Even as we believe in an omnipresent and universal God, worship still helps us to meet God in the present. The services at Flaxmore stand alone month by month, not least because many residents have no memory of the recent past, nor dwell on the possible future.

A friend in the UK, Rev Dr Rod Garner of Liverpool speaks of these fleeting moments as ‘the miracle of worship.’ In his regular experience of divine service with a parishioner who has dementia, he reports how she may not have expected him to turn up, and minutes after his visit most likely forgets he had been there. But during worship, she was spiritually and

intellectually centred and fully present.

That is the miracle.

I believe these simple lessons may help us develop into more dementia-friendly church communities.

At Nelson Cathedral we modified the building to assist people with disabilities take part in our life: replacing steps with ramps that enabled access into the building and to spaces within it.

So what modifications do we need to make to accommodate people with dementia?

Are our congregations ready, for example, to welcome and support people whose response to worship may vary from ours?

For people with dementia, we need to find ways to allow safe access to every aspect of church life.

A good start would be a buddy system.

Pastoral leaders could invite appropriate people to join a ‘buddy’ system to ensure those with dementia are not left alone or confused while at church. Those buddies could be nearby to guide others through the liturgy when it felt complicated or convoluted, first gaining their trust, then helping their fellow worshipper to keep up with screens and books, announcements and service sheets.

When this is done as discreetly as possible, the dignity of worship is restored.

But could we go further than that to include people with dementia, who often experience isolation and stigma? Do we believe people with dementia can grow intellectually, or are they trapped in a time warp? Do our study groups allow for people with dementia to give and receive knowledge? Are new clergy and

crew. My passion was satisfied.

My fascination with the Polynesian navigators began some years ago – one icy June morning when I joined a group at the top of Mt Victoria to watch the stars of Matariki rise, marking the Ma-ori new year.

In the freezing dark a Ma-ori

Adrienne Thompson sets a course for her spiritual journey, guided by the navigators of ancient Polynesia and Israel.

What stories do we steer by?

A waka crewman demonstrates the navigation circle carved onto the deck.

The Very Rev Charles Tyrrell QSO is Dean Emeritus of Nelson Cathedral and was Nelson Diocesan Enabler for Older Persons Ministry until 2017. He serves on the Board of the NZ Faith Community Nurses Association. pikimai@gmail.com Note: If you are concerned that you or someone you know may have dementia, you can take action by seeing your general practitioner (GP) for a full assessment. For support you can contact your local Alzheimers organisation on 0800 004 001 or visit www.alzheimers.org.nz

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Waka Odyssey arrival, the Hine Moana moors in Wellington Harbour.

Adrienne and Paul Thompson on board the Hine Moana.

We have a ministry to those living with the full gamut of dementia.

lay ministers trained to cope with this challenge as the numbers of people with diagnoses of dementia increase?

There are many people living with dementia who continue to enjoy productive and worthwhile lives. There are others, who for their own safety and well-being need to be closely supported by trustworthy carers.

As Christians our ministry is to the whole of God’s people, and especially those marginalised in society. That means we have a ministry to those who are living with the whole gamut of dementia. Let us not be afraid, but embrace this challenge as Jesus would have done by expecting to find the image of God at the centre of every human heart.

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But best of all, we talked with the crew.

R

ecently, a fleet of doublehulled waka entered Wellington harbour. Their colourful sails caught the wind as they re-enacted the arrival of the first voyaging canoes 800 years ago.

I had looked forward to this event for months, and wouldn’t miss it for the world.

As it turned out, neither would 20,000 other Wellingtonians. What

I saw that day was mostly the back of their heads, with a few tantalising glimpses of waka as I wormed my way nearer the front of the crowd.

Surprisingly, it didn’t matter too much. The arrival was so clear in my imagination, it was enough to be there in the crowd, under the tranquil dusk, and to know that this was happening.

Later we could see the waka in the harbour, even board and talk to the

astronomer pointed out the constellations – those same stars that had guided Maui and Kupe and so many voyagers to Aotearoa. How, how did they do it? I asked. They sailed the Pacific Ocean as if it were a highway. But what map did they follow?

Back on that mountain top night, the astronomer told us that many tales in Ma-ori mythology are linked to stars or constellations. Told in the right order, they helped the navigators to remember which stars to look for next. In other words, they were stories to steer by.

That vision of celestial navigation has captured my imagination. It staggers my brain that those ancient sailors, over hundreds of years, could find their way to the remotest islands. Now it fills me with wonder that modern humans are rekindling the old knowledge and applying it again.

It has also challenged me to ponder – what stories do I steer by? What songs and litanies help me to hold my course?

The ancient Israelites had their steering stories and theirs have become mine.

“The Lord said to Abraham – get up and go to a country that I will show you” is one such primal story.

God calls people from stability to

uncertainty, from safety into danger, from the known to the new, it tells me – all for the purpose of being a blessing to others.

One of those who travelled by waka from Samoa was Lauaki Afifimailagi. Talking about the voyage at Te Papa, he compared the ancient voyagers to Abraham, hearing the inner voice that told them to seek new lands. ‘You need to have faith in God – whatever name you give to God – to set out across the ocean,’ he said.

In Wellington harbour I took the chance of a waka ride. We stepped aboard the vessel’s carved deck, even held the heavy paddle and steered for a minute. But best of all, the crew talked to us.

One young woman described the star compass to us. Sun, moon and stars tell you your direction, yes, but you must know the times of day and night, of the month, the year. You must factor in winds and currents, you must pay attention to clouds and birds.

It’s intuitive, mathematical and accurate.

‘But how do you measure the angles?’ I asked. The woman held up her hands. ‘We calibrate our fingers. Look!’ She made a gesture. ‘That’s my 45 degrees!’

To be a navigator you have to know where you’ve come from, literally and metaphorically. You can’t know where you are, if you don’t know where you began.

And you can’t get to where you’re going without knowing the stories, practices and prayers of the ancestors who journeyed in the past.

Jesus had his own inner compass and describes it as clearly as the Pacific navigators named the stars: “I tell you for

certain that the Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing, and he does exactly what he sees the Father do.” (John 5:19) ‘I know where I came from and where I am going,’ he says.

Like that young navigator, Jesus holds the knowledge within himself. Sure and confident in that knowing, reading his star compass, attentive to everything that happens around him, he steers his course.

(John 8:14) Something else I heard from the sailors: trust the navigator. These oceangoing double-hulled vessels can take up to sixteen on their crew. Ultimately, though all contribute, it’s the navigator who will keep them safe.

Jesus also had this deep sense of trust.

‘The Father who sent me is here with me.’

(John 8:16) Lord, let me know the stories that I steer by. Let me learn well the ancestors’ lore, their achievements and their mistakes. Let me learn to read the winds and currents, and the signs of the times.

Let me, like Jesus, be attuned to God and set my direction by what I see the Father doing.

And above all, let me trust that Jesus is always with me as tuakana, teacher and navigator.

Adrienne Thompson is a spiritual director and professional supervisor in Wellington. She is involved in the Stillwaters Community and Wellington Central Baptist Church. lekhika@paradise.net.nz

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Features

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18

News in brief from the 2018 General Synod/Te Hi nota Wha-nui

Meet Jax Clark, this Church’s new T3 Youth Commissioner

08

22

Archbishop Don Tamihere: Primate and Pihopa o Aotearoa

David Tombs exposes a little known fact of the Passion

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24

Dr Sue Bagshaw shares her vision of a game-changing hub for youth

Geoff Troughton traces the lines of Christian peacemaking in Aotearoa

Moving forward together

Taking up the mantle

Hope for young Cantabrians

Travelling in the fast lane

#MeToo Jesus

Christ’s peace in a new land

14

Hand on the tiller, heart on the Lord Henry Bull’s journey from bush to bishop

For the latest on the Anglican world, check out our website:

http://anglicantaonga.org.nz Page 3

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H I N O TA W H A N U I

General Synod news in brief When General Synod Te Hīnota Whānui met in New Plymouth this May, our Church grappled with some of the toughest issues facing Anglicans across Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Taonga Editor Julanne Clarke-Morris flags some of the top synod stories available online at www.anglicantaonga.org.nz/news/general_synod

Finding a way to be together After almost 50 years of earnest debate about human sexuality, the Anglican Church in these islands has said 'Yes' to blessings for same gender relationships.

A resolution passed allowing bishops to authorise some priests to conduct blessings of samesex couples who have married in a civil ceremony. The motion also includes legal protection for clergy who will not offer such blessings and see them as

incompatible with Christian conscience. The Diocese of Polynesia confirmed it will not authorise blessings of same-sex relationships in any of the countries where it ministers. At the time of printing, LGBT Anglicans and supporters had welcomed the move, while members of four congregations in the Diocese of Christchurch had disaffiliated in response.

Bishop Richard Ellena opens the Motion 29 Working Group presentation to synod.

Apology to Tauranga Moana iwi

Archbishop Philip Richardson reads the apology as synod members stand in support.

On Thursday 10 May, General Synod delegates rose to their feet to make an official apology to Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho iwi of Tauranga. Archbishop Philip Richardson read out the history of our Church’s role in the sale of lands which were the birth right of those tribes, and are the site occupied by Tauranga

City’s central business district. The land was purchased when the Church Missionary Society was put under duress to sell, although it had been sold and in part given in trust to CMS by local iwi – under a shared understanding that the land was to be used for Christian mission and education.

The Church’s apology acknowledged the church’s complicity in the alienation of land that has disenfranchised generations of Tauranga iwi down to today. As part of the apology, the Anglican Church now commits itself to accompany and help resource Tauranga iwi as they seek redress for their loss.

Empowering people with disabilities Anglican communities across Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia have been asked to recognise and empower the ministry gifts of disabled Anglicans. Chaplain to the Auckland Disabled Community the Rev Vicki Terrell told synod that making room for disabled people means more than ensuring physical access and better facilities. “It means rethinking the way we

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worship and minister to create opportunities for disabled people to serve, as well as to be served,” she said.

This Church will now produce resources to help churches do better at supporting the ministry of people with disabilities, enable training and research on the theology and spirituality of disability, and mark Social Justice Week’s Disability theme from 9-15 September in 2018.

Rev Vicki Terrell outlines why disabled Anglicans need opportunities to minister.

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Combatting Climate Change This Church has agreed to investigate the viability of a Climate Commissioner role to help drive and coordinate its commitment to climate action. The Commissioner would ideally take charge of disaster risk management training, support dioceses and pihopatanga to develop climate change response strategies, and

resource climate advocacy work within and beyond Anglican churches in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the Pacific.

In a separate motion, Anglican church trusts have been asked to establish practical means of divesting fully from fossil fuel extracting companies by 2020.

Isaac Beach encourages synod to take action on climate change.

Backing justice system reform In the light of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ‘racist and broken’ justice system – with its elevated incarceration rate, especially of Ma-ori – the Anglican Church has agreed to support plans for a review of how the country deals with crime and punishment.

Matua Kim Workman outlines the merits of a Royal Commission, as Rev Dr Paul Reynolds looks on.

In response to the proposal moved by Rev Tric Malcolm

Confirmation gets confirmed A new set of rites to replace confirmation with affirmation and renewal came before General Synod, but was withdrawn after speakers across three tikanga favoured retaining the status quo. Te Hi-nota Wha-nui identified

the Bible Society’s most recent translation of Te Paipera Tapu as officially recognised for use in this Church and approved a raft of minor changes to Ma-ori language texts for the next He Karakia Mihinare revision.

Investing for gospel returns Spurred on by the housing crisis, synod passed a resolution to encourage a percentage of funds held by church trusts to shift into "mission aligned impact investment". Moved and seconded by Bishop Te Kitohi Pikaahu and Bishop Eleanor Sanderson, the motion requests a 2% minimum of church trust money to move into fiscally

sound ventures with mission returns, for example uplifting families through social housing builds, or caring for creation through environmental projects.

A small working group will now be established to provide advice on mission-aligned investments that can deliver social and environmental returns in the regions of the three Tikanga most in need.

and seconded by Ven Dr Paul Reynolds, Te Hi-nota empowered the provincial Justice Portfolio Group to prepare evidence backing public calls for a comprehensive Royal Commission.

That enquiry would review not only prisons and sentencing, but every level of the justice system.

Strengthening ecumenical relations In a move toward closer ministry cooperation with the Methodist Church, Te Hi-nota Wha-nui has requested that the Conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand revisit how they understand the personal nature of the ministry of oversight. General Synod passed a bill to empower the Council for Ecumenism as the first port of call to equip Anglican dialogue and cooperation with fellow churches and expanded its brief to resource this Church’s interfaith relationships.

Further stories from Te Hi-nota Wha-nui/General Synod in this issue include: New prayer book history launched (p.2), Hikoi to Turangawaewae (p.11) and Youth gain a governing voice (p.21).

Further synod stories are featured at www.anglicantaonga.org.nz/news/general_synod

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H I N OTA W H A N U I

Synod upholds support for kura The General Synod has passed a resolution supporting Te Aute and Hukarere colleges – and encouraging church boards and bodies "to join in reaffirming and empowering" their mission.

No rescue was forthcoming from that hui.

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B

etween 2008 and 2012, the St John's College Trust Board received repeated pleas from the Te Aute Trust Board – which was drowning in debt – to bail

it out.

Over this period the SJCTB drip-fed $3.44 million into the TATB coffers, but over that same period the TATB debt soared from $1.9 million to $11.4 million.

Things came to a head at the 2012 Nadi General Synod, in a fractious debate about whether St John’s Trust should step up to save Te Aute and Hukarere.

No rescue was forthcoming from that hui.

Later, though, Te Kotahitanga directly asked the SJCTB to step in.

After undertaking a financial review – and with the buy-in of the General Synod Standing Committee, Te Kotahitanga and Te Runanganui – the SJCTB hatched a radical rescue plan.

In November 2013, it provided a 10-

year interest-free loan of $15 million to the TATB. The crippling bank debt was paid, the SJCTB trustees became the new TATB1, renovations begun – and the two remaining Maori Anglican schools on the planet were saved. *

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So, mission accomplished, then?

Well, yes – and no.

Last year's Te Aute Trust Board annual report2 showed that, in terms of financial performance, the trust is holding steady.

But the trust’s chair, Archbishop Don Tamihere, says efforts to lift school rolls, and build a brighter future are being hindered by old perceptions and resentments.

"We are now at a moment," he told this year's General Synod, "where we want to get away from existing under the culture of barely surviving, to a place where we can begin to build relationships, to reach out to

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

"We've found," said Archbishop Don, "that as we've sought conversations with different boards and committees, and sought to build networks and partnerships with other communities, that the seeds of doubt have preceded us." *

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That's the background for Motion 27: "The Future of Mission: Te Aute and Hukarere Kareti" which was brought without notice and passed following the presentation of the Te Aute Trust Board annual report.

This resolution thanks those who have helped Te Aute and Hukarere; expresses "unequivocal and prayerful" support for the kura as "key drivers of mission in Tikanga Maori and in the wider Church"...

And it "calls upon the various boards and other bodies affiliated to the Church to join in reaffirming and empowering this mission." *

other parts of the church that might want to assist us."

But the "hesitation of the voice of General Synod" back in 2012, has lingered with some, he said – who continue to doubt, or who "might perhaps be a little resentful" about the loan, or who want it repaid ahead of its 2024 due date.

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Archbishop Don told the synod that the two kura "have been drivers for mission for Tikanga Maori, for Te Pihotanga o Aotearoa, for more than a century.

"If you don't believe me, can you consider: Maui Pomare, Apirana Ngata, Te Rangi Hiroa, Turi Carroll, Ngoi Pewhairangi, Mere Haana Hall, Mereanna Tangata, and Jean Puketapu. Consider Sir Mason, and Lady Arohia Durie.

"All old students from Te Aute and Hukarere who have radically reshaped community services and social service, health and well-being within an entire race."

The Te Aute chaplain, Rev Dinah Lambert, also pointed to direct service to the church: she brandished a list of 36 Te Aute old boys who had become ministers,

Committed to you... committed to this future.

three of whom had become bishops3 – while Hukarere had educated both the first Maori woman ordained to the priesthood (Rev Puti Murray) and the first Maori woman Minita a Iwi (Rev Keeni Priestley). *

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Motion 27 was moved by Archbishop Philip, and seconded by Archbishop Don. As he sought leave to move the motion, Archbishop Philip – who is both an SJCTB trustee, and one of its two remaining trustees on the Te Aute Trust Board – turned to the ope from Te Aute and Hukarere which supported the TATB presentation: "Without claiming too much, I hope for the students and staff of Te Aute and Hukarere... what you can see in me, is the whole of my brothers and sisters in Tikanga Pakeha...

"Committed to you, and committed to this future."

1. The SJCTB trustees, as individuals, became the new TATB. This was always an interim arrangement, and all but two of the SJCTB trustees (Maui Tangohau and Archbishop Philip) on the TATB have now resigned and been replaced by trustees appointed by Te Pihopatanga.

2. Search for: Te Aute Trust Board 2017 Annual Report 3. They include two bishops in the Diocese of Melanesia, and Archbishop Brown Turei.

Deepen your faith Pursue your calling

Bible | Theology | Ministry | Counselling | Teaching | Leadership www.laidlaw.ac.nz

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ANGLICAN TAONGA

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PEOPLE Moments after his installation at Manutuke, Archbishop Don poses with Vianney Douglas, who is a Kai Karakia, and Wiremu Anania, who presided at the Eucharist.

More than 1000 people poured into a huge marquee on Manutuke Marae, near Gisborne, on April 28 to tautoko Pihopa Don Tamihere's installation as the sixth Pihopa o Aotearoa, or leader of the Maori Anglican Church – and to applaud his recognition as Primate/ Te Pihopa Matamua and Archbishop of the Anglican Church in these islands.

Lloyd Ashton was on hand for the occasion.

When one chief disappears, another is ready to appear.

Atipihopa Don, Te Pihopa Matamua

N

garo atu he te-te-kura, whakaeke mai he te-te-kura.

When one chief disappears, another is ready to appear. No one is indispensable.

When Archbishop Brown Turei, Pihopa o Te Tairawhiti and Pihopa o Aotearoa died in office, in January 2017, he was 92 – and for some time, he'd been the oldest Primate in the Communion.

When Bishop Don Tamihere, Pihopa o Te Tairawhiti, was installed as Pihopa o Aotearoa at Manutuke marae near Gisborne on April 28, he became not only his successor in both offices – but also, at 45, comfortably the youngest Primate in the Communion.

If nothing else, that serves to illustrate a metaphor that Archbishop Winston Halapua likes to use.

When you're sailing into the wind, he says, you sail as far as is profitable in one direction…

Then, to reach your chosen destination, you must tack back the other way. *

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He anga whakamua Looking forward.

That was a phrase we heard at several points during the day – and we saw symbols of Archbishop Don's determination to throw open the doors of Te Pihopatanga to young people.

He chose, for instance, to be installed in his cathedra not by his fellow bishops – but by students: one each from Te Aute Kareti, Hukarere Maori Girl's College – and one from Horouta Wananga, which is a new kura kaupapa Maori in Gisborne.

Those three students presented him with the symbols of his new office: the Aotearoa ring, pectoral cross and crozier.

Then, there was the Eucharist itself.

Most often, at events like these, leading that is a job for archbishops.

Other bishops, at least. But not this time.

Pihopa Don chose the Rev Wiremu Anania, who is Vicar and Missioner of Tauranga Moana, to preside at his installation Eucharist.

And the reason why Wiremu got the nod is because, at the time of the installation, he

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Students from Te Aute, Hukarere and Horouta Wananga lead Bishop Don through his vows before installing him in his cathedra.

was the newest priest in Te Pihopatanga.

He's 24, and he'd been ordained just three months earlier.

There was also support for that anga whakamua message from an unsuspected source.

It came from Kingi Tuheitia, the seventh Maori king, and his wife, Te Makau Ariki Atawhai, who had travelled down from Turangawaewae in Ngaruawahia for the occasion.

And that was the first time a Maori king or queen has been on hand for the installation of a Bishop of Aotearoa.

Rev Ngira Simmonds, who is the Anglican chaplain to the Kingitanga, says the king made that hikoi because "he's passionate about nurturing and supporting young people". *

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Ka mua, ka muri We walk backwards into the future.

There was honour bestowed too, to the kaumatua and kuia who have paid a price to maintain the mana of Te Pihopatanga.

We saw that in the company that Bishop Don chose to keep during the service.

Until the moment of his installation, he sat between his wife Kisa – and whaea Mihi Turei, the widow of Archbishop Brown.

And when he was duly installed, they were the first ones he greeted. *

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The Rev Dr Hirini Kaa preached the kauhau, and in it he recounted the whakapapa of Te Pihopatanga.

He painted a picture of a vine that had been growing strongly before the arrival of the European settlers, to which the Good News was grafted.

"This not just an English vine we're

Kingi Tuheitia and his wife, Te Makau Ariki Atawhai.

Archbishop Don, seated between his wife Kisa and whaea Mihi Turei, widow of Archbishop Brown.

talking about," he said. "This wasn't a Harry Potter moment, where a wand got waved, and suddenly we're all speaking English."

The hybrid vine – te reo Maori me ona tikanga, enlivened by the power of the Gospel – didn't replace the earlier one, he said.

"It gave it new life. It gave us new ways of understanding forgiveness and love – the whole world needed new ways of understanding forgiveness and love, through the gospel."

Across the motu tipuna took Good News on board, and ran with it – retelling the Gospel story "our way – in a way we needed to hear and could understand."

Hirini – who is an historian, teaching at Auckland University – cited some stats to prove his point: "In 1844," he said, "there were 12 European missionaries operating in Aotearoa New Zealand. And 295 Maori evangelists.

"In 1854, there were 23 European missionaries here – and 558 Maori evangelists across the motu.

"So, who do you think was disseminating the good news? Who do you think was doing the mahi? Who do you think was listening to who tell this story?" *

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But the settlers were greedy.

Greedy for land, and greedy for power, said Hirini – and the Anglican Church itself became complicit in their sins: the first constitution of the Anglican Church of New Zealand, promulgated in 1857, was

In 1854 there were 23 European missionaries here – and 558 Maori evangelists. So, who do you think was disseminating the good news?

composed without any input from Maori Anglicans.

The Hahi Mihinare was becoming a settler church.

Likewise, said Hirini, the Pakeha Bishops and General Synods did their best to thwart Maori Anglican pleas to have their own Maori bishop.

Only in 1928 – after the Pakeha bishops had excommunicated the thousands of Maori Anglicans who were now following the Maori prophet and healing evangelist TW Ratana – did the General Synod begrudgingly consent to the establishment of a suffragan Maori bishop, answerable to the Bishop of Waiapu.

Bishop Frederick Bennett became that first Pihopa o Aotearoa, and Archbishop Don is the sixth bishop to carry that mantle. *

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Hirini then spoke about the "deep and

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Archbishop Don – flanked by Archbishops Philip and Winston, and a bevy of ordained wellwishers.

many" challenges Archbishop Don and Te Pihopatanga now face.

"We've been separated from the vine in so many ways," he said. Lured by consumerism ("Don't worry about your connections to one another – just buy that phone. It will give you meaning and purpose") – while trapped in poverty.

Stuck in housing that makes people ill "while P ravages our communities", overrepresented in prisons. Vulnerable to climate change, and proposed laws which threaten tikanga: "Euthanasia is not a choice," he said. "It's economics. And Maori are going to be exposed to euthanasia far more than nonMaori.

"Euthanasia is saying to our kuia: 'Look, Nan we love you – but I can't take any more time off work, I'm afraid. And I can't afford

Just buy another phone.

It will give you meaning and purpose.

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the petrol to come and see you.

"So here's Plan B." *

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*

Archbishop Philip later acknowledged the mamae of the story Hirini had told – and spoke of his hope "that we're starting to see some resolution of that."

He noted, too, how long it had been since Archbishop Brown died, "and just how impossible it has been to try and hold the space that he's left."

"So, now it's time for a new leader with his own gifts, and with the particularity of the call that God has placed on his life, to reshape that space.

"I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to what that new partnership might look like. I anticipate that will be pretty bracing, at a whole lot of levels.

"And I really welcome that. We have a sense that the old is falling away, and the new is starting to emerge.

"That's not just a generational thing.

"That's a missional thing." *

*

*

*

*

And finally, some reflections, shared on his installation day, from the man himself.

"I really felt at peace – after the long journey, after all that's happened...

"It felt like it was time. It felt like this was the finish line at the end of the marathon.

"I felt pleased for my people. For the church, for Maoridom, for hahi Maori, to

The preacher: Rev Dr Hirini Kaa. The president: Rev Wiremu Anania.

have an opportunity to come together and celebrate the beauty of our whakapapa, the history that's on our shoulders.

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, Engari, he toa takitini.

Success is not the work of one But the work of many.

"I don't think there's been one point," said Archbishop Don, "where I've been able to view this from a personal point of view. I've always viewed it in light of its whakapapa.

"I'm left without any doubt whatsoever that I'm nothing by myself.

"I'm here because of the many, many people who lifted me up, and helped push me through.

"Who prayed for me – and have come today. Doing the dishes, setting tables, all those wonderful young people that came around the powhiri to represent their marae, their iwi, and to support the church, and all those who travelled from so far away.

"When you see that, you realise what a wonderful God we serve.

"I'd like to see us continue to be this way for each other."

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Words create worlds.

Words shape destiny.

Words can change the lives of our whanau, hapu and iwi.

Returning the favour

O

ne good turn deserves another.

As we've explained, the Maori king made the hikoi to Manutuke to be at Archbishop Don's installation.

So, when Kingi Tuheitia asked our new archbishop to preach the following Sunday at Turangawaewae at the ecumenical service to mark the 160th anniversary of the Kingitanga – he was going to be there.

General Synod or no General Synod.

And when Archbishop Don suggested that the other members of General Synod might like to join him there, the General Synod Standing Committee jumped at the idea.

So that's how come the members of synod piled on to a bus at 5am on Sunday May 6 in New Plymouth, bound for a church service in Ngaruawahia. *

*

*

*

*

Archbishop Don Tamihere stands in a line of Maori priest scholars.

That's the view of Rev Dr Hirini Kaa – who described his work this way at his episcopal ordination in March 2017: "We’ve had scholars who have both ministered the Word, and interpreted the Word in a way that relates to our matauranga.

“That’s harder than it seems, and it's a never-ending challenge. Reconciling (the two) in a way that works for us, and gives life.

"He is in that tradition.”

Don Tamihere is also a gifted preacher – and at the 160th anniversary service the new archbishop expounded the gospel reading of the day: John 1: 1-5 – which starts, as does the Book of Genesis, with the phrase: "In the beginning…"

He mused upon the power and majesty of God's written and spoken Word, with which He ushered creation into existence, and with which Jesus resisted the temptations of Satan: "It is written. It is written. It is written."

Archbishop Don spoke of the Logos, or how "words make worlds" – and of the importance of 'hovering' in the divine creative act: "Before God spoke," said Archbishop Don, "before He uttered a word, He hovered upon the face of the deep. You can tell people who don't hover before they speak."

He then spoke of another beginning – the day in 1858 when Wiremu Tamihana crowned the first Maori King, Potatau Te Wherowhero "not with a crown formed by the hands of men…

"But a crown in the form of a Holy Bible.

"To be crowned with the Word of God," said Archbishop Don, "is a beautiful thing.

And a powerful thing.

"To be given the gift of the Word of God is a gift beyond our imagining.

"Because words create worlds.

"Words shape destiny. Words can heal.

Words can unite. Words can change the lives of our whanau, our hapu, and our iwi.

Archbishop Don preaching at the service to mark the 160th anniversary of the Kingitanga.

"We must be careful before we speak.

"We must hover on the face of the waters.

"But when we do such a thing, we know that when we speak, we will not be speaking heat – we will be speaking light.

"Where else in the world is a king crowned with the Word of God? "Queen Elizabeth, when she was crowned as Queen – she was handed the Word of God, and she held it in her hands.

"She was told that this object is of the greatest value from this world.

"She was told: 'Let its law lead you. Let its gospel guide you. Let it be the thing that defines your monarchy."

"But while it was placed in her hands – it was not the crown upon her head." *

*

*

*

*

"And te whanau, if there's a message from this gospel for all of us, it's this…

"You need to watch your mouth.

"You need to be careful what you say.

"Because your words, like the Word of God, are powerful.

"If speaking is the primary creative instrument of the God who created all the universe, and we are made in His image – then that same creative potential is within us all.

"When you speak, you can create – and you can bring light.

"But only if you speak the right words."

Page 11

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

Y O U T H A N D H E A LT H

Back in 2016 when Lloyd Ashton interviewed Dr Sue Bagshaw, she told us how Canterbury’s mental health services were crying out for support.

Two years later, Government funding shortfalls still pressure the region’s youth mental health services, making it harder to help young people in this post-earthquake zone.

Christchurch still bears the country’s highest youth suicide rate. But for at least one youth health service, there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

Julanne Clarke-Morris caught up with Dr Sue Bagshaw again.

Hub takes

first step for youth

I

n March this year, The Youth Hub Trust set up by Sue Bagshaw in 2017 received a helping hand from the Diocese of Christchurch’s social services agency, AnglicanCare.

In response to the urgent needs of

That wrap around support would be a game changer.

Page 12

Canterbury youth, AnglicanCare, backed

by Bishop Victoria Matthews, invested $4 million to purchase a Christchurch city centre property on Salisbury Street, ready to be developed as the site of a Youth Hub to serve young people aged 10-24.

The 4500 metre-square site at number 109 is the former Canterbury Bowling Club, which has enough space to host up to 12 helping agencies as well as transition accommodation. The Youth Hub Trust will create a safe space where young people who are struggling can find acceptance and opportunities to help them heal and become healthy successful adults.

Sue has worked in the youth health sector for 30 years and helped establish 298 Youth Health, (originally as 198 Youth Health) as New Zealand's second youth one stop shop in Christchurch in 1995.

She continues to advise on the setting up of youth health centres which are part

of the Network of Youth One Stop Shops (NYOSS).

She says the wrap-around support from the proposed Christchurch Youth Hub would be a game changer in young people’s lives. But for now, that vision is still $10 million away from getting off the ground.

“What we need is to be able to host these services in one location, so that young people can easily get access to the help and opportunities they need.” she says.

“There are plenty of great of helping organisations in Christchurch, but for young people the trick is knowing about them and finding them.

“Often they find it too costly to get transport to services, or they may lack the confidence or ability to get there. Some have mental health limitations that make it difficult for them to manage to turn up to

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Dr Sue Bagshaw at 298 Health

appointments at certain times.

“The hub would put everything right in front of them.”

But getting there is not the only problem, says Sue. Young people who are very unwell often lack faith that life can hold any possibility for people like them.

“When experience tells you nothing is likely to improve your life, there are a lot of more fun, easier things to be doing than making all the effort to get yourself help."

That is why the $10 million facility would not only operate a walk-in and referrals day clinic, but also an employment agency, legal advice, creative and recreational activities alongside its 20 supervised youth housing units. Some residents will be there because they have nowhere else to go.

Simply being on site will make it easier to receive help.

The housing units will be transitional to allow the hub to support more young people in need.

“Our plan is that young people will arrive with an exit plan already in place.

That might be to get well and rebuild relationships before returning to their families, or develop the independent living skills to go flatting.”

Last year, heavy demand for services and limited resources meant 298 Health had to close their books to all but the families who couldn’t afford to get help.

Those clients come from the 20% of young Kiwis who struggle.

Sue says the underlying issue for that 20% will seldom be a quick fix, because it is about the effect of abuse and family disruption on brain development.

Neuroscientists now know that as the brain develops, the ability to understand and manage feelings comes on board later on.

“For some people, that selfunderstanding comes in their teens, for some it is later, up to 25 years old,” says Sue. “Abuse or trauma slows it down, especially if trauma occurs before the child can talk. That could be caused by neglect, sexual or physical abuse, bullying, or for some, by earthquakes or loss.”

Because of that need for emotional development, a vital part of the hub’s work will be connecting young people with caring adults whose ‘no strings attached’ support can bolster their self-confidence and help their brains to grow.

That critical relationship work can happen through a wide range of activities, many of which would be on

The former bowling club rooms sit on the 4500m2 site now tagged as a future youth services hub.

site: from professional counselling and medical care, through to arts and cultural activities, sports and exercise, DJ-ing and music-making, as well as life skills and employment training.

“As well as a place to get well, the hub would offer a stepping stone to adult life, where young people need to know how to find opportunities for themselves.”

There are lessons here for any adult who interacts with young people, she says.

The first is that numerous clinical studies tell us adults underestimate the impact of emotional stress on children.

“Any stress can interrupt a child's brain development.”

“The earthquakes had an impact on everyone. People don’t acknowledge how bad it was. I have always said it is relatively easy to repair buildings, but it is not so easy to repair people.”

Another cause of emotional stress comes when parental relationships go sour and families part company.

“Kids take family break-ups harder than they reveal. They tend to suffer quietly and then explode.”

“Parents often don’t look for help until the explode stage, but especially in Christchurch with so many adults already in the mental health system, they often find there is no help available.”

Sue thinks there is more that everyone can do. Of course, the first thing for her would be funding support so that the Trust can raise enough for Christchurch’s sorely needed youth services hub. But after that, instead of the twelve or so examples round the country, Sue would love to see similar hubs in every town.

In the meantime, she says any adult can make a difference in a young person’s life.

Kids are kids.

They need to be loved whether they are good or bad.

“What young people need is adults who believe in them and accept them as they are."

She says parents and others can cut off from young people if their message is always: “if you are good I will love you more, if you do as I say you will get this or that''.

“The problem with `you can have this if you are good’ is that it borders on a threat.

Kids are kids. They need to be loved whether they are good or bad.

“At 298 Health we are not there to judge young people for the way they live their lives right now. Our job is to accept them, with their anger and their flaws, and guide them to where they can find what they need.”

Sue thinks Christians need to hear the ‘step back from judging’ message loud and clear.

“The problem with the church is that often we say: this is what you should not be doing - when the best way to help is to focus on relationships that show love.”

“That is what Jesus did, he made relationships with people who were sinners, prostitutes, tax-collectors.

“Relationships were where healing happened with Jesus, not just in abstract instructions about life choices.”

“That is where Christians need to be if we want to make a difference in young people’s lives.”

Page 13

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

PEOPLE

In December last year, beneath a makeshift tin shelter erected in a school playground in a modest Fijian town, Henry Bull was ordained as an Anglican bishop. As Lloyd Ashton has been learning, that was a milestone on a remarkable journey.

A long way

from the logging camp The newly ordained Bishop Henry Bull, presented to his people.

It's about as far as the east is from the west.

Page 14

A

s the crow flies, Henry Bull didn't travel far to be made a bishop.

He could have been ordained in the relative splendour of Suva's Holy Trinity Cathedral – which is, after all, the mothership of the Diocese of Polynesia.

Instead, he chose to get the job done in the playground of St Mary's Primary School, Labasa – which is on Vanua Levu, Fiji's second island.

Henry chose Labasa because most of the 800-odd well-wishers who turned up to support him were from Vanua Levu's rugged hinterlands, where few roads run, or from its remote coastal settlements, which are only reached by boat.

Around those parts, most folk are subsistence farmers – so, for them, a trip to

Suva, on the far side of Viti Levu, Fiji's main island… well, that wasn't going to happen.

Labasa has something else going for it: it's just 60 kilometres from Dreketi, the rural settlement where Henry was born, which is his turangawaewae, and from which he will continue to operate now that he's Bishop in Vanua Levu and Taveuni.

As we said, Henry didn't travel far for his ordination.

But if we're talking the distance from where Henry's life was tracking in 1985, to where his life is now… that's about as far as the east is from the west. *

*

*

*

*

Dreketi is a blink-and-you'll-missit settlement half way along the lonely highway that stretches from Labasa to Nabouwalu, which is the ferry terminal on

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

the south-west tip of Vanua Levu.

In fact, Dreketi is a tikina, a loose-knit collection of settlements scattered either side of the Dreketi River, up which colonialera traders and fortune-seekers navigated.

Bishop Henry's grandfather, Philip John Bull, was one of these adventurers.

He came from New South Wales after World War One with his younger brother Harry. Together, they set up Bull Brothers' logging and sawmilling company – and they prospered.

Then, when the time came for Philip John to find a bride, he went back to Australia, and returned with Flora Grace.

Bishop Henry's dad, Don Bull – who, at 85, is still firing on all cylinders – is the child of their union. *

*

*

*

*

Don grew up, and when he was a young man, he fell in love with Queenie Sai Moi – who was the daughter of a Chinese dad, and a village girl.

But Queenie's dad had died when she was just a child.

So, she was adopted by George Fong Toy, and his wife Lily – who just happened to be the grandparents of the Rev. Amy Chambers, and great grandparents of the Rev. Claude Fong Toy. Anyway: that's how come Don and Queenie met: because the Fong Toys and the Bulls lived across the river from one another.

And on November 7, 1956, Queenie gave birth to Henry Raymond Bull. *

*

*

*

*

When Henry was born, Don and Queenie weren't living together.

So Don took their son down the river to a plantation out along the coast.

That plantation was owned by Pauline and Murray Sutherland – and for his first 14 years Henry Bull was, in fact, Henry Sutherland.

You might well ask why Don headed down that river with baby Henry.

Well, Don knew that Pau and Murray had wanted a son… because Pau was his older half-sister.

Turns out that when Philip John had first come to Fiji, he'd taken an I-Taukei woman as his common-law wife – and Pau was one of three children he'd had with her. *

*

*

*

*

When Henry was 14, he was sent back to live with Don and Queenie, who had by then married and established themselves.

Bishop Henry doing what he loves best: Going on mission in his preferred mode of transport. That's his eldest son Jale at left.

"Dundee" had taken over the reins at Bull Brothers, and he too became a successful, hard-driving businessman.

But this new-found family togetherness didn't last long – because in 1972, Don packed Henry off to Suva's Marist Brothers High School.

Henry struggled there. After a year, he pleaded with his father to let him work in the bush.

History has a way of repeating itself.

Because when Henry was 19, he got his girlfriend (she was Amy's cousin) pregnant.

Then, in 1979, when Henry was 23, he met Alumita.

They had a daughter, too, before they tied the knot in 1981. *

*

*

*

*

That brings us to the defining moment in his life.

The moment in September 1985 in a logging camp that changed everything.

It's a story that Henry never tires of telling: “There was this Methodist brother… he came from the saw millers to select logs for veneering.

“He was a very good country singer, and in the evenings, he’d join us around the kava bowl.

“He would sing to us.

"Then he started telling us stories from the Bible…"

“And we were like little children."

So much so, Henry recalls, that the foreman of that logging gang ordered 40

I had this hunger...

I just wanted to know more about this wonderful God.

Bibles for his crew.

The country singer talked about how "God is holy, man is sinful – but God didn’t leave us in a mess.

"And for the first time," says Henry, "I saw what Jesus did for me on the cross.

“He invited us to say a prayer: ‘Lord, I trust you. I believe what you did for me…’

Henry prayed that prayer – and when he woke the next morning “everything I saw was beautiful. And I had such a love for my wife.

"It was first love, and I was so full of it."

Henry was ravenous, too.

“I had this hunger… I just wanted to know more about this wonderful God, and what Jesus did for me.

“I was searching so much that I asked one of the priests: ‘Reverend William2, can you explain this to me? Because I’m so hungry.’

“He was a wonderful, humble man. And he said: ‘Henry? I can’t answer all your questions now. But don’t worry about that.

‘Because Henry, what I want to tell you is that God is calling you.’ *

*

*

*

*

Back in the day, the vicar of St Thomas Labasa would head down to Dreketi every couple of months.

Page 15

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

PEOPLE

The Holy Cross family in the mid 1990s, in front of the shelter which served then as their church.

Don Bull at his son's ordination in December 2017.

Then, in the late 1980s, a veterinarian who'd been posted to Dreketi, became a resident non-stipendiary priest3.

By this time, there were more churchgoers than could squeeze into anybody's house.

So, they built a makeshift shelter out the back of the vet's place – and that was church.

In those early days, Henry would grab his guitar and lead worship. Share his testimony. Pray for people. Reach out in whatever way he could.

Bishop Jabez Bryce recognised his gifts, and in 1991, he licensed him as a lay evangelist.

Still the numbers grew, and in 1995, Bishop Jabez secured a World Council of Churches' grant to build The Church of the Holy Cross, which was consecrated in 2000.

In the late 1990s, the vet moved on – and Henry was asked to take his place.

He was ordained as a deacon in 1999, and priested in 2000. *

*

*

*

*

At first, Don wasn't convinced by his son's faith.

That's putting it mildly.

But Henry was praying for him.

Don was watching, too. He came to see that the change in his son's life was dinkum – and in 1990, when he was in Suva, and Bill Subritzky was holding meetings in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Don decided to investigate.

What's more, he invited other family members to join him.

They came. And by the end of the evening, each had committed their lives to the Lord: Queenie, Alumita, Henry's sister Flora – and Don who, in Claude's words, was "swept off his feet by Jesus".

Amy agrees: " Don is just an amazing gospel carrier."

And with Don's conversion, three generations of Bull family tensions melted away. *

He came to see that the change in his son's life was dinkum.

*

*

*

There's been a happy outcome, too, where Henry's first-born son is concerned.

Mesake Jale Sovasova was born in Suva, then sent back to Dreketi for his schooling, into the care of a great aunt – who was living with Claude Fong Toy's mum and dad.

So, Claude and Jale are like brothers, and Alumita sees Jale as her eldest son.

Jale's done all right, too. At 42, he's the Assistant Superintendent of the Fijian Police Force – and he's one of Bishop Henry's biggest supporters. *

Page 16

*

*

*

*

*

In fact, Henry's early struggles have become good news for needy kids.

Because besides their own four children, Henry and Alumita have adopted two youngsters, and opened their home to heaps more.

That's not the extent of their embrace of young people, either. For example, each December for the last three years, a dozen Auckland Anglican teenage leaders4 have travelled to Holy Cross. And they're not the only ones.

Holy Cross works for older people who come from overseas, too.

Take Helen Lower and her husband David, for example, who live on Bribie Island, near Brisbane. They first came to Vanua Levu in 2008 – and Helen reckons she's been back 22 times since.

"Every time we go," she says, "It's like coming home. I feel closer to God in Fiji than I do anywhere else.

In particular, says Helen, "there's just something special about Henry.

"It's his spirituality... as I see it, his faith is structured and focussed on the two main things: Love – and the cross." *

*

*

*

*

Wayne Tildsley has also noticed how Henry keeps circling back to the power of the cross.

"He's so impressed by the grace of God working in him," says Wayne. "Turning him around.

"I think his idea is that if God can change him – then no-one is beyond God working in them.

"It's His amazing grace – it encourages him, strengthens him and propels him forward."

Wayne, who is the minister at Richmond

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Bishop Henry speaks to the congregation after his ordination.

At the end of Bishop Henry's ordination service, the bishops blessed the children. The man in the short-sleeved blue shirt and tie is Jale, Bishop Henry's eldest son. He's sitting next to Alumita, Bishop Henry's wife.

Bishop Henry with young people from The Church of the Holy Cross and the Diocese of Auckland's BOLD team. This shot was taken in December 2017, shortly after his ordination.

Caption

Anglican Church, near Sydney, met Henry eight years ago, and he now comes to Dreketi two or three times a year, usually with a team of young people in tow.

"I've got to know Henry pretty well. He has a great love for people, and a great awareness of the struggles they may be going through.

"It's an interesting experience to be with him. Because he has a way of treating people with respect and honour that's very uplifting to be around.

"That's a tremendous character trait to have. Full stop.

"But it's particularly important for a bishop." *

*

*

*

*

The Church of the Holy Cross is not a big church.

That's just rural ministry for you: People are always moving away in pursuit of education, or work.

But that squares too, with a prophecy once declared over Holy Cross – that it would be a sending church.

And send it has: two young men have gone from Holy Cross to serve as

missionaries in Mongolia. A third is serving in China, while another is in American Samoa.

Then, there's Taito Varea. He came to Dreketi as the postmaster, back in the early 1990s.

Taito is a Rotuman. Nowadays, he's a priest at the Cathedral of Holy Trinity in Suva.

Claude Fong Toy is another Holy Cross export. He left Dreketi in 2005 – and never went back.

Amy Chambers, likewise. She left Dreketi to go to high school – and has spent her adult life in service to the Anglican Church. *

*

*

*

*

So people get sent out from Holy Cross.

But not Henry. Whenever he's away, he can’t wait to get back.

His love of his people, and that territory, is such that Archbishop Winston Halapua is happy for Henry to base himself there as a bishop: “That’s moana leadership," he says.

"Being a leader in your own context.”

He says Henry’s election is vital “because we don’t have any specialists in rural ministry: leaders who can speak with a deep, deep heart of love to the seafarers, to the coastal fishing people and to the lonely people in the interior.

“Henry has such a big heart – and I just love the fact that people can see a bishop who models that love.” *

*

*

*

*

We'll leave the last words to Claude Fong Toy, and to his aunt, Amy Chambers:

Claude says he's always seen Henry as "an Abraham figure. One God called out to bring reconciliation to our families."

"Henry would preach to us and say: 'Hey, God has called us here. Our ancestors came and settled in this land – but we need not be consumed by our struggles. We can be set free from them.'"

For Amy, there was joy in seeing how her country cousins had turned up, in droves, to Henry's ordination, because they wanted to support a man who has ministered among them for 20 plus years: "The Bulls and the Fong Toys were there.

My sister and her husband came from Cairns.

The Sutherland family too. The Coverts, the Steiners, the Hewsons, the Fosters, the Dyers… we're all kailoma, we're all related by marriage, we were all there – and we loved it.

"When Jesus calls any one of us to a ministry – the desire among our cousins to be there for that person, to come to any event to support them… is very strong.

"So now we look to Henry for leadership, both in the church, and in our families.

"We will continue to be there for him.

"And we will support him, always."

1. The Rev Amy Chambers is the Principal of St John's College in Suva – and The Rev Claude Fong Toy was, till recently, the Dean of Suva's Anglican Cathedral. Amy's grandparents, George and Lily Fong Toy, also brought Amy up.

2. Rev William Sanegar.

3. Rev Metu Delavoni.

4. After Queenie died (in October 2005) Don moved to Labasa. He now spends his still formidable energies serving the Northern Christian Training Centre.

5. Jale carries his mother's maiden name.

6. They go as part of the BOLD (Building Outstanding Leaders and Disciples) programme.

Page 17

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

YOUTH

I'd thought: 'Well, that's it.

I've done my dash.'

The first item on the agenda at this year's Tikanga Youth Synod – which was held in Auckland's Henderson Valley in February – was the welcome and commissioning of Jax Clark, the new Tikanga Toru Youth Commissioner.

Duly welcomed, Jax had a gift she wanted to bestow on the synod.

In the lane next to hers, cars were fair zipping along.

It was a framed photograph of a road sign.

She noticed that sign on her first day in her new job – as she sat snarled up in peak hour Auckland traffic.

While in the lane next to hers, cars were zipping along.

That free-flowing lane is the T3 lane – the lane on some Auckland

Page 18

arterial roads which, at peak hours, is reserved for cars with at least three passengers.

And Jax took that T3 sign as a metaphor, a note from the Lord even, that when the three tikanga choose to move together, they not only maintain their God-given individual identities – but also travel in the fast lane.

For Jax, that T3 sign has more layers of meaning.

It nudges her to reflect on the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and their threefold work in the world: of redemption, reconciliation and restoration.

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

C

hurch didn't play any part in Jacqueline Clark's family story.

Not in the first chapters, anyway.

But when Jax was about eight, the story changed.

The Youth With a Mission ship Anastasis docked in Tauranga – where the Clark family were living at the time – and the ship's company fanned out through the city.

A couple of young missionaries knocked on her parent's door – and led them both to the Lord.

"I watched my parents soften," says Jax, "my older brother develop this vigour about faith, and God, and seeing this Jesus transform our family had a profound effect on me." *

*

*

*

*

Jax's family then moved from Tauranga to Manurewa, in South Auckland, and her dad – who, before his conversion, had worked in the rag trade – began working in Baptist social services.

Jax flourished, too. Both at school – she became head girl at Manurewa High – and in her faith.

At 16, she had a dream which she interpreted as a call into mission , and at 18, she became the leader of the Manukau Central Baptist youth group.

She kept that youth work up too, even as she launched out into a career in admin and HR – and she married a guy who was as passionate about the Kingdom as she was.

Together, they trained as youth workers and they led youth work in Manukau and then in the Wairarapa , where they tried life in the early 2000s.

In 2004, Jax and her husband returned to Auckland to tackle further study in pastoral leadership at Carey Baptist College.

During their three years at Carey, they also went full immersion in the gritty realities of South Auckland life: they were the night supervisors at a Mangere centre which seeks to help women who are in danger of having their children taken by the state. *

*

*

*

Archbishop Philip welcomes Jax to her new role – while her daughters Libby Jane and Leah look on.

*

Jax's husband graduated from Carey in 2007 , and was commissioned as the pastor at Mangere Baptist.

While they were there, says Jax, she came to a bone-deep understanding of the importance of community, and the value of relationships.

In Mangere, too, her understanding of youth work went ahead leaps and bounds.

Jax plunged into that ministry in her community, and Praxis NZ – which is a faithbased youth training network – saw what she was doing, liked what they saw, and asked her to come on board as a trainer.

Jax did, and reckons she learned every bit as much as she taught.

So the Mangere years, then, from 2007 to 2012, were rich for her.

But costly, too.

The intense demands of ministry in Mangere while raising a young family and dealing with personal stresses broke an already strained marriage.

Even so, Jax chooses to honour her exhusband.

"What I learned from the journey we had together – and especially from our time in Mangere – changed me forever.

"At a deep level, I had to confront my hidden prejudices and cultural ignorance, and I'm very grateful for that."

But just as her marriage was about to be taken off life-support, Jax suffered another blow.

Her beloved dad, whom she describes as "the person who was the biggest influence on my faith", dropped dead on a Wairarapa beach.

At that point, says Jax, "I think I knew what genuine heartache and grief feels like." *

*

*

*

*

Redemption, then?

And restoration?

Where were they now?

To lick her wounds, Jax took herself off to St George's Epsom in 2012.

Seeing this Jesus transform our family had a profound effect on me.

That's where she fell in with The Third Space Trust.

And that's when her healing began.

The Third Space Trust is a group of St George's folk who baulk at the notion that people need to come in to the church before they can begin in faith.

So, they've been hosting events in pubs and cafés – in third spaces, in other words – which they hope will be relevant and appealing to unchurched people.

About the time Jax arrived at St George's, the trust decided to take a further step.

They decided to set up a third space.

They rented a shop in Oranga (which is an old state housing area near Penrose) and called that space: To Wahi, which means: Your Place.

To Wahi is a community café, an op shop and a classroom, and the trust hoped it would become a springboard for women – particularly Maori and Pacifica women – into further education, and enterprise.

And the fact that the Third Space Trust were willing to take a punt on Jax to launch To Wahi… has meant everything to her.

"I was a woman on a benefit with two young children," she says, "scarred from the breakup of my marriage.

"I'd thought: 'Well, that's it. I've done my dash. I'll never be in ministry again.'

"But this group of people picked me up – they picked me and my girls up – they saw potential in me, they found me a

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ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

YOUTH

scholarship to finish my degree , and they gave me this opportunity.

"It was the opportunity to lead something. To make mistakes, to get it right, to get it wrong, to be accountable to the Trust – but to be given the freedom to give something a go."

"The idea of To Wahi is that women come in, find their place, and gain some confidence.

"I was one of those women.

"To Wahi became the place where I was redeemed, really." *

*

*

*

*

Get it right?

She nailed it.

So much so, that Jax got headhunted by the Auckland City Council in 2016 to run its big nearby Oranga community centre.

Jax did that throughout 2017.

She knew too, that she could serve God in the community, and that she'd have a good career in the council.

But that call to ministry Jax had first felt when she was 16... she still has that yearning in her early 40s.'.

So last year, she applied for ordination.

She got the thumbs down.

"I let myself have 24 hours to feel the pain, then I went away, walked and prayed.

"And I felt God say to me: 'I'm giving you a gift.'

At the time, that made no sense.

A few months later she saw the ad for the youth commissioner's job.

"And when I got offered the job – on my birthday – I remembered: 'I'm giving you a gift.' *

*

*

*

*

So Jax is back in youth ministry.

So what spins her wheels about that?

"I think it's always the potential that you see.

They cut through the BS. They want authenticity.

Page 20

Out of the rain – young people at this year's TYS, in the Henderson Valley.

"Whenever I see a young person, I see the future.

"They cut through the BS. They want authenticity.

"And that's the kind of faith I want to have.

One that is probably a bit messy – but it's real.

"Young people are messy. They're not often understood, but they ooze an authenticity which I think is to be celebrated, and not feared."

"Often, we go: 'Right, they've turned 13 – we're just going to disengage from them until they turn 17, and hope for the best.'

"But actually, those years are wonderful years."

Jax says her framework for youth ministry has been shaped by her time with Praxis.

"Young people," she says, "need a sense of belonging; they need to feel like they have mastery over some things; they need to feel independence – and they need to have opportunities to practice generosity.

"And if you can engage them in all four areas, they will become resilient.

"They also need adults who are willing to walk alongside them, and to be their cheerleaders.

"It's this whole idea that it takes a village to raise a child.

"Maori cultures get this. Pacifica cultures get this.

"And I just think we've got an amazing opportunity as the church to become that village.

"But we've got to get away from compartmentalising: 'This is the youth ministry' and: 'This is the children's ministry' – so guess what: when you finally get to the adult church, you won't know anybody. And we wonder why the young adults drift away…

"Whereas in Maori and Pacifica cultures we see the opposite. We see the kids in

with the adults, we see the adults having to be respected by the kids, we see lots of intergenerational stuff happening.

"You've got me started!

"But that's what lights my fire.

"The church ultimately is what lights my fire.

"Jesus said that the church was his bride.

"So, if He has to love it, we have to, too.

"How awesome it is to partner with Him in the unfolding drama of the Spirit's work in the world.

"And what a privilege it is to belong to the Anglican Church, and to be chosen to help the Tikanga Toru Youth Commission fulfil its mission: 'to disciple young people to be Christ-Centred in our Three Tikanga Church.'

"Because the church is God's answer to the world."

Notes 1. In her dream, Jax was sitting on a beach with her dad. On the horizon, there was an island. Her dad then waded into the water and began lightly slapping the surface – and a pod of dolphins swam to him. Jax and her dad then rode out to the island on the backs of two of the dolphins. Out there, they convinced the island people to hop on the other dolphins, and to follow them back to the mainland. When Jax awoke, she immediately interpreted her dream as a call to mission. She then prayed what her dad described as a "very dangerous" prayer: "God, I’ll go wherever you send me".

2. They set up a youth centre in a derelict Carterton dairy factory.

3. Jax, meanwhile, had to travel in the slow lane. She was looking after their two young daughters.

4. Bishop Justin Duckworth has also worked for Praxis.

5. Jax has a Bachelor of Applied Theology.

6. http://www.makethefirstmove.org/

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

H I N OTA W H A N U I

Youth raise their governing voice Young Anglicans have shifted their Church into gear on youth leadership, mental health training and resource sharing. Five proposals put forward by Tikanga Youth Synod have zoomed in on ministry needs that are standouts for young people across Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Claiming a voice at synod

T

he first youth move at synod this year opened the door to young people’s representation at the highest levels of decision-making in this Church. From 2020 onwards, diocesan and pihopatanga delegations to General Synod must offer a priority spot to youth, and the General Synod Standing Committee has already invited three new youth members, one delegate from each Tikanga.

T3 Youth Commissioner Jax Clark was heartened to see these changes get through.

“This is worth celebrating. Over the last two years young people across our ThreeTikanga church have put significant time and energy to develop their arguments for better representation.”

While the new youth roles will help lever the General Synod age balance, a wider survey of Three-Tikanga bodies now gets underway to find which other groups need greening with youth in leadership roles.

Shutterstock

Investing in mental health Young Anglicans have raised the problem of unsatisfactory mental health awareness and support within Anglican churches.

Citing Aotearoa New Zealand’s high youth suicide rates, youth delegates told synod that mental health issues are an area of life that impacts ‘almost everyone’ and that means the Church needs to up its game.

Now General Synod has adopted the youth proposal to improve this Church’s care for people with mental health issues.

Above: Youth and youth staff at General Synod 2018. Back: L-R: Ataahua Hepi, Byron Behm, Etienne Wain, T3 Youth Commissioner Jax Clark, Tikanga Pakeha National Youth Facilitator Lorna Gray, Ciru Muriuki, Levi Torrey.

Front: Mere Tulavu, Mana Em. Right: Te Waipounamu's Ataahua Hepi advocates a guaranteed youth voice on synod.

Below: Etienne Wain challenges synod to become more accessible to youth.

We will do that now by: • Increasing discussion and skills training in mental health for clergy and lay ministers, delivered through our current ministry training programmes and • Encouraging the Social Justice Unit to resource churches in mental health training

Practical resource sharing Introducing a youth proposal on resource sharing, Isaac Beach posed a question for every parish, diocese and hui amorangi round the motu.

“If your hands are full of blessing, are you ready to share it?”

The answer to that question may be yes, said Isaac, but if we don’t know what resources others have, then our chances of sharing them are slim.

Answering that challenge, General Synod approved a plan to register the resources Anglican church communities can share.

“That might be anything from your church’s van or buildings, to equipment (think photocopiers or sports gear) or people with skills that others might need,” said Isaac.

Young people backing the register hope it will encourage broader conversations on resource-sharing, not only between Tikanga, but also within dioceses and hui amorangi.

If your hands are full of blessing, are you ready to share?

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ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

PUBLIC THEOLOGY

Lord, when did I see

you naked?

Otago University Professor of Theology and Public Issues, David Tombs believes it is time to revisit the stripping of Jesus and name it as the abuse it was intended to be.

Jesus’ stripping was a form of sexual abuse.

Page 22

S

ince 2017 the #MeToo movement has brought the prevalence of sexual assault and sexual abuses against women and girls into the public eye more

than ever.

This wave of awareness raising has also exposed the common tendency to deny, dismiss or minimise the significance and impact of these experiences. This in turn has raised questions for the churches and prompted a #ChurchToo discussion.

During Lent, we reflected on the disturbing story of Jesus' torture and crucifixion described in the New Testament, and how it relates to his resurrection and the new creation.

Yet despite the Passion being one of the most widely known and retold stories in human history, the stripping of Jesus typically receives little attention or discussion.

It is time we named the stripping of Jesus for what it was intended to be – a powerful

display of humiliation and gender-based violence that should be acknowledged as an act of sexual violence or abuse.

The stripping and exposure of victims was no accidental or incidental part of Roman crucifixion. It was a deliberate means by which the Romans chose to humiliate and degrade those they punished.

This meant crucifixion was more than a physical punishment, it was a devastating emotional and psychological punishment.

This Lent in a lecture series at St Paul's Cathedral Dunedin we took a slow-reading approach to the mocking and stripping of Jesus as told in Mark 15.16-24.

For this, we used an approach to the text developed by Professor Gerald West, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. With his method we slowed down our reading of this event to reveal stark and unexpected elements in the text. It does not take long to see the stripping goes beyond the explicit reference in verse 20: After mocking him, they stripped him of

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

As most Christian art has done, this folk altarpiece from the Annecy Castle Museum drapes the naked, crucified Jesus in a loincloth.

the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. (Mk 15.20) The words ‘put his own clothes on him’ signal Jesus had been stripped of his own clothes before the purple robe was put on him: Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. (Mk 15.16) The third stripping comes towards the end of the passage: And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. (Mk 15.24) There are three enforced strippings in just nine verses. How often do we read this passage and not notice these, or reflect on their significance?

The idea that Jesus experienced sexual abuse may seem strange or shocking at first and some view it as an offensive suggestion.

Some sceptics respond that stripping a prisoner might be a form of abuse, but it is misleading to call this ‘sexual abuse’. But if the purpose was to humiliate the captive and expose him to mockery by others, and if the stripping was done against his will and as a way to shame him in public, that justifies naming it as a form of sexual assault.

In the first episode of the HBO television series Rome, the stripping of Vercingetorix, King of the Arverni and leader of the Gallic tribes, demonstrates the sexual assault perspective very clearly.

The scene brings out the vulnerability of the naked prisoner who is stripped and exposed in front of the assembled ranks of Roman soldiers after his defeat by Caesar at the Battle of Alesia (52 BCE).

The scene highlights the captors' power and control in contrast to the prisoner's submission and vulnerability. To watch the scene also hints at the threat of greater sexualised violence if the soldiers took this further.

The convention in Christian art that covers Christ’s nakedness on the cross with a loincloth is an understandable and often appropriate response to the indignity of Roman crucifixion.

But this should not prevent us from recognising the historical reality would have been very different.

All this is not just a matter of correcting the historical record. If Jesus is named as a

'Jesus dies on the cross' #13 from Te Huarahi o te Rīpeka by Whanganui sculptor Kirk Nicholls.

victim of sexual abuse it could make a huge difference to how the churches engage with movements like #MeToo, and how we promote positive change, especially in majority Christian countries.

TearFund reports that follow on from Silent No More: The Untapped Potential of the Worldwide Church in Addressing Sexual Violence (2011) have highlighted huge potential for the church to care for survivors and offer leadership for social change on this issue.

So as worshipping Christians, how we do we make sure we do we remember Jesus on this issue?

Two liturgical moments are appropriate to recall the events of Jesus being stripped and what this would have meant for him and his followers. The first is in the Stations of the Cross, at the tenth station, which recalls the Stripping of Jesus.

The second is at the Stripping of the Altar on Maundy Thursday which offers an opportunity to revisit the stripping of Jesus' body indirectly, and in a safe and sacred space, at whatever depth a worshipper feels comfortable and secure.

These remembrances would require sensitivity within the church for the experiences that might be triggered, and a readiness to provided appropriate pastoral and professional support if needed.

It would not be helpful or healthy to dwell on this disturbing indignity for the whole year, but it is not right to forget about it either.

Lent offers a period in which this stark reality of crucifixion might be recalled at

We cannot dwell on this disturbing indignity all year, but we cannot forget about it either. an appropriate time, and in an appropriate way, and connected to important questions to explore why victims of sexual violence are still so often blamed or stigmatised by many in society and the churches.

Even having this conversation makes a good starting point to work on how churches might do more to address the silence around sexual violence.

By acknowledging sexual abuse as an injustice included in the death of Christ, the churches can bring to the surface and challenge the shame and stigma that is all too often mistakenly attached to victims rather than perpetrators.

Professor David Tombs is Howard Paterson Chair for Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago. For further info on the project ‘When Did We See You Naked?’ see www.otago.ac.nz/ctpi/projects/2018.

Notes 1. Prof Gerald West visited Otago University in the first semester of 2018 as the De Carle Distinguished Lecturer, where he offered an outstanding lecture series on The Bible as a Site of Struggle. www.otago.ac.nz/ctpi/projects/west.html.

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ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

HISTORY

Geoff Troughton and Philip Fountain dig deep into Aotearoa New Zealand’s history of Christian peacemaking and find challenges to New Zealanders’ peaceful self image.

Witnessing to

Caption

Christ's peace

War and peace figure in this First World War window that commemorates John Hugh Allan at All Saints’ Dunedin.

We need to complicate that too rosy picture of ourselves.

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N

ew Zealanders often express pride in their nation’s long-standing reputation for peace.

That irenic perception became embedded in the national DNA after the Second World War, when New Zealand took on a more independent foreign policy.

Many New Zealanders cherished their country’s role in founding the United Nations, and lauded our commitment to global peacekeeping. World-leading opposition to nuclear weapons and contributions to the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s and 80s became the stuff of legends.

New Zealand’s internal conflicts, given what we read daily about tensions elsewhere, seem relatively benign. Just quietly, Kiwis are pretty chuffed at how

the world perceives us, and how we stack up on international scales like the Global Peace Index (second in 2017) and World Happiness Report (eighth in 2017).

This perception of peacefulness is not without merit, but to be truthful, we need to complicate that too-rosy picture.

New Zealand’s history is not as gleaming and conflict-free as many would like to think.

The modern nation itself was forged in violent colonisation, and an active, even eager, participation in global wars.

At times, New Zealand society has faced significant tensions based on ethnicity, class and religion. Contemporary rates of domestic and sexual violence are deeply troubling, and youth suicide rates are appalling.

It is revealing that New Zealanders have tended to publicly valorise,

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

celebrate and commemorate histories of warfare and militarism, but have been less thoughtful in recognising those things that made for peace.

In two recent books we have edited, we have aimed to remedy some of that imbalance.

In Saints and Stirrers (2017) and Pursuing Peace in Godzone (2018) we look squarely at the history of Christian contributions to peacemaking in New Zealand.

The first book addresses the years 1814 to 1945, while the second reaches up to the present, drawing in lively accounts from diverse Christian individuals and communities that have worked conscientiously for peace.

Both books bring to light Kiwis who did extraordinary things inspired by their Christian faith. The books narrate these stories for new generations unfamiliar with the colourful protagonists within them.

We think the stories will appeal to all New Zealanders, though suspect they will be especially compelling for the nation’s Christians.

These books do not establish Christians as uniquely peaceable, nor Christianity as the central factor that has shaped our nation’s peace. Such claims would be difficult to prove, and the arguments would be mostly polemical.

What we can demonstrate is a significant peace-pursuing strain within New Zealand Christianity – a more sustained and influential strain than has been generally recognised, either by the nation’s historians or by most New Zealand Christians.

Anglicans have not always been at the forefront of Christian peacebuilding efforts, but at different times they have contributed a great deal.

Nineteenth-century Ma-ori Christians and CMS missionaries feature prominently in Saints and Stirrers.

These include Nga-kuku, the father of Tarore; the main theorist of Kingitanga and innovative leader Wiremu Ta-mihana; and Te Ma-nihera Poutama and Kereopa Hemi Patene, who were killed during their attempts to evangelise their tribal enemies.

All of these individuals carried out costly and moving acts of peace inspired by their Christian faith.

Or, for example, take the case of Samuel Marsden. He had a chequered reputation as chaplain and magistrate in New South Wales, where he was known for his severity, but in Aotearoa proclaimed a gospel of peace and responded to Ma-ori invitations to help mediate disputes between iwi.

In Pursuing Peace in Godzone, we can

point to George Armstrong’s leadership in the anti-nuclear Peace Squadron in the 1970s and 80s.

At that time France regularly carried out nuclear testing in the Pacific.

Armstrong decided to counter nuclear activity in the Pacific with a Peace Squadron—a rag-tag flotilla of boats and dinghies whose purpose was to get in the way of American nuclear armed vessels when they visited New Zealand ports.

That idea germinated when, as a student in the USA, he observed Quaker activists undertaking similar blockades on Baltimore harbour.

Upon returning to New Zealand, Armstrong joined the St John’s College faculty where he began many of the initial squadron conversations. At the same time, churches up and down the country joined with others as partners in the peace movement that built momentum for the country’s landmark nuclear-free legislation of 1987.

Another compelling example is former Taranaki Dean Jamie Allen’s account of Taranaki Cathedral taking first steps on a journey towards peace and reconciliation.

His story chronicles that community’s attempts to overcome a history of often unwitting racism and partiality. Along the way, it reveals the costly, painful work required to help heal the wounds of history – within the church, between church and society, and between Ma-ori and Pa-keha-.

The Taranaki story invites readers to imagine how we can all seek to address the ongoing effects of colonial violence that shape how we live today.

Despite two books full of stories of Christian peacemakers, it would strain the imagination – and credibility – to suggest that Christians have always been the vanguard of New Zealand’s peace tradition.

Why might that be?

It is certainly not because the Christian tradition lacks resources, examples, rituals and scripture that commend the passionate and wholehearted pursuit of peace.

The church worships and celebrates Jesus—who blessed peacemakers, commanded his followers not to reciprocate violence, and died praying that his persecutors be forgiven. Those who follow the Prince of Peace have every good reason to opt for peacemaking.

However, if we are honest, we must recognise that peace is not an easy path to pursue.

Contrary to the word’s warm connotations, peace work is often messy and disruptive. During the twentieth

They carried out costly acts of peace – inspired by their Christian faith.

century’s ‘total’ wars, when whole societies geared themselves toward defeating the enemy, pleading for peace was tantamount to national heresy. Even today, peace work threatens to confound our desires for security and stability.

Responding to violence with friendship remains deeply counter-intuitive to this day. That makes the unilateral pursuer of peace a precarious and vulnerable figure.

It takes mighty courage to render oneself defenceless.

That’s why it takes a community to nurture a peacemaker. Communities of formation provide the moral compass, political insight, networks of care, and patterns of forgiveness that keep peacemaking a viable option.

New Zealand churches have sadly not always cultivated the kind of communities that enable the pursuit of peace.

We offer neither a blueprint, nor a model for future peacemaking in these books.

Instead, we put forward some inspiring, gritty and challenging stories from Aotearoa New Zealand’s past that show how others have pursued peace.

We hope these stories will inspire Christians and others to actively cultivate the habits that make for peace. And we hope they will give a taste of the moral imagination and community spirit that fuels successful peacemaking, as we continue to face the legacies and current challenges of violence in our society and the wider world.

Dr Geoff Troughton is Programme Director of Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington and Dr Philip Fountain is an anthropologist at Victoria University specialising in Christianity, politics and development. geoff.troughton@vuw.ac.nz Note The two books mentioned in this article are available from Victoria University Press at http://vup.victoria. ac.nz. Saints and Stirrers: Christianity, Conflict and Peacemaking in New Zealand, 1814-1945 is edited by Geoff Troughton, VUP 2017, $40.00. Pursuing Peace in Godzone: Christianity and the Peace Tradition in New Zealand is edited by Geoff Troughton with Philip Fountain, VUP 2018, $40.00.

Page 25

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

MINISTRY

Making sure all

Mona Tavakoli demonstrates the buddy system with the Rev Barbara Dineen, chaplain and spiritual advisor to Lesley Groves Rest Home, Dunedin.

find their place Charles Tyrrell looks at the rising social anxiety over the disease of dementia, and asks what would Jesus do when faced with its limitations.

Over the years I have learnt to value worship in the ‘here and now’.

Page 26

D

ementia is becoming the new cancer.

For some time we have been paralysed with fear at the thought of developing the ‘C’ word – despite real advances in the early detection, treatment and management of cancerous tumours.

Now many have begun to fret about developing the ‘D’ word. Even though, like cancer, dementia has been around for a very long time, the thought of

acquiring it strikes terror into the minds of presently lucid people.

Dementia literally means ‘out of mind.’ It describes a range of mental conditions from mild forgetfulness to Alzheimer's disease and numerous conditions in between.

No matter what the stage or form of a person’s dementia, as the church we need to ask what ministry of care and spiritual sustenance we can offer to people living with this condition.

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

In 2010 I became Nelson's Diocesan Enabler for Older Persons' Ministry.

As part of that call I offered ministry to the Flaxmore Care Home in Nelson, a residential unit for up to 40 people living with dementia, down the street from where I live.

Since becoming Flaxmore's chaplain I have regularly visited residents, especially if their health deteriorates, as well as leading services on a monthly basis.

I find these visits moving and often challenging. I keenly remember one man with dementia who even as he was dying, remembered enough of his life to repent of his misdeeds and seek forgiveness.

In the regular services that I take simplicity is the key. The 25+ people who turn up bring a wide variety of needs and abilities: some fully take part in the service, while some do not react at all, but may still be listening.

I follow the same simple structure for the liturgy. A welcome and brief statement of the theme is followed with a wellknown hymn, played by a resident whose qualifications in piano come to life as she supports the service music.

Next I say prayers and we join in the Lord’s Prayer using the old ‘thy and thou’ language. People remember that version from their youth, which means most can take part.

After another hymn and short Bible reading I lead an informal talk – aiming to involve as many as I can through questions that unlock memories. On some days we talk a lot and on others very little is said.

The service concludes with intercessory prayer, never forgetting to pray for poorly people in the home and giving thanks for those who care for the residents, before a final hymn is sung.

Over the years I have learnt to value the power of worship in the ‘here and now’.

Even as we believe in an omnipresent and universal God, worship still helps us to meet God in the present. The services at Flaxmore stand alone month by month, not least because many residents have no memory of the recent past, nor dwell on the possible future.

A friend in the UK, Rev Dr Rod Garner of Liverpool speaks of these fleeting moments as ‘the miracle of worship.’ In his regular experience of divine service with a parishioner who has dementia, he reports how she may not have expected him to turn up, and minutes after his visit most likely forgets he had been there. But during worship, she was spiritually and

intellectually centred and fully present.

That is the miracle.

I believe these simple lessons may help us develop into more dementia-friendly church communities.

At Nelson Cathedral we modified the building to assist people with disabilities take part in our life: replacing steps with ramps that enabled access into the building and to spaces within it.

So what modifications do we need to make to accommodate people with dementia?

Are our congregations ready, for example, to welcome and support people whose response to worship may vary from ours?

For people with dementia, we need to find ways to allow safe access to every aspect of church life.

A good start would be a buddy system.

Pastoral leaders could invite appropriate people to join a ‘buddy’ system to ensure those with dementia are not left alone or confused while at church. Those buddies could be nearby to guide others through the liturgy when it felt complicated or convoluted, first gaining their trust, then helping their fellow worshipper to keep up with screens and books, announcements and service sheets.

When this is done as discreetly as possible, the dignity of worship is restored.

But could we go further than that to include people with dementia, who often experience isolation and stigma? Do we believe people with dementia can grow intellectually, or are they trapped in a time warp? Do our study groups allow for people with dementia to give and receive knowledge? Are new clergy and

We have a ministry to those living with the full gamut of dementia.

lay ministers trained to cope with this challenge as the numbers of people with diagnoses of dementia increase?

There are many people living with dementia who continue to enjoy productive and worthwhile lives. There are others, who for their own safety and well-being need to be closely supported by trustworthy carers.

As Christians our ministry is to the whole of God’s people, and especially those marginalised in society. That means we have a ministry to those who are living with the whole gamut of dementia. Let us not be afraid, but embrace this challenge as Jesus would have done by expecting to find the image of God at the centre of every human heart.

The Very Rev Charles Tyrrell QSO is Dean Emeritus of Nelson Cathedral and was Nelson Diocesan Enabler for Older Persons Ministry until 2017. He serves on the Board of the NZ Faith Community Nurses Association. pikimai@gmail.com Note: If you are concerned that you or someone you know may have dementia, you can take action by seeing your general practitioner (GP) for a full assessment. For support you can contact your local Alzheimers organisation on 0800 004 001 or visit www.alzheimers.org.nz

Page 27

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

SPIRITUALITY

Adrienne Thompson sets a course for her spiritual journey, guided by the navigators of ancient Polynesia and Israel.

What stories do we steer by?

A waka crewman demonstrates the navigation circle carved onto the deck.

But best of all, we talked with the crew.

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R

ecently, a fleet of doublehulled waka entered Wellington harbour. Their colourful sails caught the wind as they re-enacted the arrival of the first voyaging canoes 800 years ago.

I had looked forward to this event for months, and wouldn’t miss it for the world.

As it turned out, neither would 20,000 other Wellingtonians. What

I saw that day was mostly the back of their heads, with a few tantalising glimpses of waka as I wormed my way nearer the front of the crowd.

Surprisingly, it didn’t matter too much. The arrival was so clear in my imagination, it was enough to be there in the crowd, under the tranquil dusk, and to know that this was happening.

Later we could see the waka in the harbour, even board and talk to the

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Waka Odyssey arrival, the Hine Moana moors in Wellington Harbour.

Adrienne and Paul Thompson on board the Hine Moana.

crew. My passion was satisfied.

My fascination with the Polynesian navigators began some years ago – one icy June morning when I joined a group at the top of Mt Victoria to watch the stars of Matariki rise, marking the Ma-ori new year.

In the freezing dark a Ma-ori astronomer pointed out the constellations – those same stars that had guided Maui and Kupe and so many voyagers to Aotearoa. How, how did they do it? I asked. They sailed the Pacific Ocean as if it were a highway. But what map did they follow?

Back on that mountain top night, the astronomer told us that many tales in Ma-ori mythology are linked to stars or constellations. Told in the right order, they helped the navigators to remember which stars to look for next. In other words, they were stories to steer by.

That vision of celestial navigation has captured my imagination. It staggers my brain that those ancient sailors, over hundreds of years, could find their way to the remotest islands. Now it fills me with wonder that modern humans are rekindling the old knowledge and applying it again.

It has also challenged me to ponder – what stories do I steer by? What songs and litanies help me to hold my course?

The ancient Israelites had their steering stories and theirs have become mine.

“The Lord said to Abraham – get up and go to a country that I will show you” is one such primal story.

God calls people from stability to

uncertainty, from safety into danger, from the known to the new, it tells me – all for the purpose of being a blessing to others.

One of those who travelled by waka from Samoa was Lauaki Afifimailagi. Talking about the voyage at Te Papa, he compared the ancient voyagers to Abraham, hearing the inner voice that told them to seek new lands. ‘You need to have faith in God – whatever name you give to God – to set out across the ocean,’ he said.

In Wellington harbour I took the chance of a waka ride. We stepped aboard the vessel’s carved deck, even held the heavy paddle and steered for a minute. But best of all, the crew talked to us.

One young woman described the star compass to us. Sun, moon and stars tell you your direction, yes, but you must know the times of day and night, of the month, the year. You must factor in winds and currents, you must pay attention to clouds and birds.

It’s intuitive, mathematical and accurate.

‘But how do you measure the angles?’ I asked. The woman held up her hands. ‘We calibrate our fingers. Look!’ She made a gesture. ‘That’s my 45 degrees!’

To be a navigator you have to know where you’ve come from, literally and metaphorically. You can’t know where you are, if you don’t know where you began.

And you can’t get to where you’re going without knowing the stories, practices and prayers of the ancestors who journeyed in the past.

Jesus had his own inner compass and describes it as clearly as the Pacific navigators named the stars: “I tell you for

certain that the Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing, and he does exactly what he sees the Father do.” (John 5:19) ‘I know where I came from and where I am going,’ he says.

Like that young navigator, Jesus holds the knowledge within himself. Sure and confident in that knowing, reading his star compass, attentive to everything that happens around him, he steers his course.

(John 8:14) Something else I heard from the sailors: trust the navigator. These oceangoing double-hulled vessels can take up to sixteen on their crew. Ultimately, though all contribute, it’s the navigator who will keep them safe.

Jesus also had this deep sense of trust.

‘The Father who sent me is here with me.’

(John 8:16) Lord, let me know the stories that I steer by. Let me learn well the ancestors’ lore, their achievements and their mistakes. Let me learn to read the winds and currents, and the signs of the times.

Let me, like Jesus, be attuned to God and set my direction by what I see the Father doing.

And above all, let me trust that Jesus is always with me as tuakana, teacher and navigator.

Adrienne Thompson is a spiritual director and professional supervisor in Wellington. She is involved in the Stillwaters Community and Wellington Central Baptist Church. lekhika@paradise.net.nz

Page 29

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

FICTION

Imogen de la Bere tells the story of Brother Michael, keeper of the light of Lundy.

Guarding the He was a simple soul from the depths of Devon.

Page 30

holy fire Shutterstock / Gergely Zsolnai

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

O

n Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel there was before the second war, a community of monks.

They lived very well and comfortably, in chastity, a certain amount of poverty and a small dollop of obedience, but there were only a few of them rattling round in a big house under the lea of the hill, away from the wind that never stops blowing on Lundy.

They had the use and care of the big grey stone church which sits right on the top of the island and there they sang all their offices and said their various daily masses.

For they were all priests, except for one lay brother, Brother Michael.

Now Brother Michael was a rather simple soul from the depths of Devon, but he was a wonder with his hands.

And not long after his simple vows, the community made him sacristan.

He was born to be a sacristan. He washed the fine altar linen with spring water and dried it on the hedges, so that it shone like the sea; he ironed the linen with a dash of lemon juice, so that the folds of his purificators were sharp enough to cut bread.

He concocted a special mixture to polish brass, the secret of which he told only to his confessor; his brass came up so shiny that the prior could check the state of his shave while he put incense in the thurible.

Brother Michael had everything in the sacristy labelled and put away he had very neat writing and he had boxes labelled for Ordinary Altar Candles, High Altar Candles, Votary Candles, Ordinary unbleached candles, Unbleached candles for High Altar, Ends of candles, Ends of unbleached candles and even Ends of candles too small to be saved.

He swept and dusted. He darned and folded. He grew lavender specially to put between the folds of the vestments, so that on Good Friday when the prior came out in the Black, he was accompanied by very unmanly wafts of scent.

But of all Brother Michael’s cares, the one on which he lavished most attention was the Sanctuary Lamp.

The Sanctuary Lamp was one of those

The ancient burial ground overlooks St Helena’s Church and the distant mainland.

great big onion-shaped ones, and it hung on chains before the high altar, only to be pulled down by a hook on the end of a pole.

Back then, it was kept burning day and night before the Tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament. When it needed to be trimmed the flames were carefully transferred to a nearby rank of candles, while the lamp was lit again from the flames and hoisted aloft.

Before being put out on Good Friday, the flame would be used to light a special brazier of charcoal, which the sacristan painstakingly kept glowing until Easter Eve. On that night the charcoal would be blown into flames to become the New Fire, and the prior would light the Paschal candle and hold up the light of Christ for all to revere.

Now the light in the church had taken on a special significance for the islanders, because it was the only light visible at night, and they would use it as a marker when they stumbled home from the pub to the cottages.

Often the lighthouse would be shrouded in fog, and people would swear that light from the church had guided ships at night, though this seems fairly unlikely. They said on the island

If the light went out, they said, the island would be lost.

that if the light went out Lundy would be lost.

Now they said this in the pub in the way people do, but Brother Michael took it seriously, and he worried himself sick about the sanctuary lamp. He was convinced that the light contained the presence of Jesus in a special way - after all, they genuflected to that very light on Easter eve, so it must contain Jesus’ presence the way the bread and wine did.

He worried so much he would sometimes get up in the night to check on the flame, and the backup flame he kept in the side chapel just in case.

When the monks came in for matins, they would find him asleep in the choir stalls wearing his pyjamas and dressing gown.

One night in September, a bit before Michaelmas, the equinoctial gales were Page 31

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

FICTION

Half doors in St Helen’s porch swing open in the wind

roaring across the island, and Brother Michael woke up in a panic, dressing gown on, forgot his slippers, and ran up the cliff behind the monastic house till he could see the church.

To his horror he could see the church, outlined against the sky, because although it was blowing a mighty gale, the sky was clear. But he couldn’t see the light of the lamp, which always shone out through the clear church windows.

He ran barefoot into the wind across the stones and mud into the church and found to his horror that the furious blowing had extinguished the light of Christ. It had blown out every flame in the church.

Michael was devastated, convinced that Jesus was gone and the island ruined. He threw himself before the

Michael was devastated, convinced that Jesus was gone.

Page 32

The East end window at St Helena’s.

Blessed Sacrament and wept.

Now Prior Andrew was a good, cheerful man. He didn’t like getting up at night which was why he had relaxed the rules a bit. But when he woke that night and heard the gale, he knew the likely effect and he knew what Michael would be doing. So he levered himself out of bed and ran to the church, wisely wearing his dressing gown and slippers.

When he got inside he couldn’t see anything, but he could hear poor Brother Michael sobbing away.

"Come come, Michael, up you get," he said, "the light’s gone out before the sacrament, we can’t have that.

"Put a light on, get the pole and pull down that lamp."

"But Father, Father, " cried Michael, "All the flames have gone out, even my secret one in the sacristry."

"Don’t you worry, my boy," replied Andrew, "The Lord will provide."

So Michael turned on the electric light, fetched the pole, hooked down the sanctuary lamp and held it obediently before the prior, waiting for a miracle.

"I always carry an emergency supply of Christ's light," said the prior, as he reached into his pocket, took out his cigarette lighter and carefully relit the flame.

The moral of the story is simple.

No matter how many times the light of Christ goes out in your heart, God will always send someone to light it again.

Imogen de la Bere is a writer and director living in England. delaberi@googlemail.com

Another Inspiring book

by George Bryant

Stories of 15 Christian Kiwis making a real difference to the way we live. Includes Anglicans Rev Barbara Walker and Archdeacon Andy Joseph.

Available direct from the author for the launch price of $25 plus $5 postage: bryantgw@xtra.co.nz

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

LITURGY

Megan Blakie reminds worship leaders that when we refer to an all-male God, we leave too many faithful Christians behind.

Cases of casual sexism still creep into worship.

In whose name do we pray?

Gino Santa Maria's / Shutterstock.com

T

he Anglican Church has always relied strongly on liturgy as a way to articulate our theology. The words we say each Sunday in a corporate environment can foster a deeper understanding of our faith and help us feel included in the family of God - or not.

When I hear the Trinity portrayed exclusively in masculine terms, I feel disconnected, as if there is no space for me to belong. Yet I know I have the spark of God within me as much as any human being, male or female. But I would be hard pressed to have a sense of that in many church environments.

Just as the wind, a rock, an eagle, or a mother hen don’t give us a complete picture of God, the term ‘Father’ is an incomplete description of God’s character. God is neither male nor female. I think we diminish God and create a sense of disconnect for many people inside and outside the Church when we only refer to He, King, or Father.

Mark, Matthew and Luke record Jesus calling God ‘Father’ only a handful of times. It is in John’s interpretive gospel that the word Father is used more than 100 times over. This demonstrates how

the surrounding culture and theological expectations affected how Christian faith was expressed just as they continue to do today.

In both Testaments, the writers ascribe ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ traits to God. In the parable of the prodigal son, I imagine Jesus shocking his Middle Eastern hearers by assigning ‘feminine’ attributes of forgiveness and compassion to the Father in that story. So although Jesus calls the human-character-who-represents-God in that story ‘Father,’ the character behaves in a way that is likely to have been seen as feminine.

I have found useful the book 'Not only a Father' from Carey Baptist College’s former lecturer Tim Bulkeley. He is insightful in analysing the issues and providing cogent arguments and interpretation.

Our own New Zealand Prayer Book/ He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa uses inclusive language for humanity in the English, opting for ‘us’, ‘human’ or ‘women and men’ rather than ‘man’. Yet today, cases of casual sexism still creep into worship – and I don't think this is isolated to my former parish.

I am saddened to have to keep alerting

A mother hen mosaic adorns the stone altar at Dominus Flevit Church at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

church leaders to sexism in the way we communicate. For example, on one Sunday, two of the chosen songs referred to ‘mankind’ and ‘sinful man’.

It seems young women and men are not immune from perpetuating this. Perhaps those of us who lived through the tensions and achievements of the 70s (women's ordination being key) have forgotten to hand down these hard-won lessons.

These are not just academic or theological matters for me. They are about belonging to a faith community that includes and acknowledges me as a woman, by recognising that masculine terms for God are metaphors, and if used exclusively, diminish our understanding and relationship with the Source of Life and Love.

Our prayer book offers us an example in Jim Cotter’s adapted poetic version of the Lord’s Prayer on Page 181, which refers to God as ‘Eternal Spirit, Earth -maker, Painbearer, Life-giver’ and ‘Father and Mother of us all’.

Page 33

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Transforming lives,

St Michael and All Angels Matata begin their House of Sarah violence prevention programme.

Photo: Caroline Chambers-Torovugalei.

ending violence

The Anglican Diocese of Polynesia’s House of Sarah (HoS) has initiated a four-year violence prevention programme to run across Fiji’s Anglican communities.

Violence against women is not a man's right, nor is it ever OK. It is a sin.

Page 34

H

ouse of Sarah Management Committee chair Rev Sereima Lomaloma believes their new community mobilisation programme will be able to change hearts and minds.

“We want our people to understand that violence against women is not a man’s right, nor is it something that is ever OK, but to view it as a sin,” she says.

HoS upholds survivors of violence against women and aims to transform the lives of those who come seeking help.

Rev Sereima is a House of Sarah founding member, and Archbishop Winston Halapua is one of its strongest supporters.

This work is carried out in a country where more than 60% of women are subjected to gender-based violence from intimate partners.

The Fiji Women's Crisis Centre reports that 64% of women who have been in intimate relationships have experienced physical or sexual violence from their

partner, including 61% who were physically attacked and 34% who were sexually abused.

The centre says its five branches recorded 161 cases in January of offences committed against women and children.

Rev Seremia said the Diocese of Polynesia synod laid foundations for the prevention programme in 2013, with a resolution on ‘zero tolerance on violence against women,’ followed up by 2017 legislation that equalised gender representation on synod.

The new initiative draws on ‘SASA!’, a community-based development programme which stands for “Start, Awareness, Support and Action,” created by ‘Raising Voices’, a Kampala-based women’s development NGO in Uganda.

HoS will deliver a faith community version called SASA! Faith produced

by Trocaire, an Irish Christian aid and development agency, which will be adapted to the cultures of Fiji, and later

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

It lays the groundwork for a permanent shift in ordinary people's attitudes.

The House of Sarah's violence prevention programme team. L-R: Josefata Waqalala, Alisi Qaiqaica, Mereani Naisua Tora, Ema Asioli and Jone Tuiwaiwai. Photo: Trevor Whippy.

Tonga and Samoa.

“We are starting in three Anglican communities in Suva: St. Mark's Newtown, St. John's Wailoku and St. Michael & All Angels Matata, where our congregations are made up of Fijian people of Melanesian descent,” said HoS project team leader Alisi Qaiqaica.

“That means training materials, posters and other resources have to be translated into the iTaukei language and the training will take place in iTaukei.”

But the Fijian programme will not only be translated, it will also expand the introductory phase, setting aside a full day to examine biblical texts, especially those misused to support gender inequality and unequal power relations.

Using the SASA! Faith format, the House of Sarah team will help groups critique community norms that validate violence, and encourage them to lay the groundwork for a permanent shift in ordinary people’s behaviour and attitudes.

Project trainers in Fiji will broaden the scope of enquiry from the household, leading groups to examine power dynamics at play in faith communities, women’s and men’s groups, youth groups and sports teams.

And they will critique unhealthy or violent social expectations that are compounded by the media, fostered in schools and educational programmes, or found in decision-making structures, rules and procedures, governance and

management.

In 2018, the House of Sarah violence prevention programme received funding through the Fiji Women’s Fund and UN Women’s Fiji Multi-Country Office, which has enabled them to employ Alisi Qaiqaica, who will lead a team of five to manage and facilitate the programme.

Jone Tuiwaiwai and Ema Asioli will work as project officers; Josefata Waqalala will carry out monitoring and evaluation of learning needs, and Mereani Naisua Tora will look after administration at the House of Sarah offices in the Suva-based Moana Anglican Service and Teaching Centre (MAST).

“Our vision is that other faith communities in the Pacific will be able to implement the same community mobilisation approach,” says Sereima.

“And there is already interest from the ecumenical Pacific family to do similar work in their churches.”

Now the House of Sarah team are sharing their vision with Anglicans beyond Polynesia.

“Last year we held a south-south learning exchange with Anglican groups offering services in the area of violence against women and children – from the Church of Melanesia (from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands), and we hope Papua New Guinea will join us this year.”

“We hope that as these new expectations form, the skills to put them into practice will spread into other parts of our communities.”

Sarah Carers review gender-based violence versus gender equality in the Bible.

Photo: Trevor Whippy.

Caring while working for change

W

hile the House of Sarah works for change in attitudes toward gender-based violence, it continues to build support for victims.

This year HoS extended training for “Sarah Carers,” – a network of women who can provide “a listening ear, a warm heart and a helping hand” to survivors of gender-based violence in local parishes and communities.

In 2018, the House of Sarah employed Christina Tearawa as the Sarah Carers' support and link staff person, while Christina and Esita Vuki led awareness raising workshops in Naviavia, Savusavu and Labasa. With the latest workshop in Lautoka in June, a total of 70 women have been introduced to the role of Sarah Carer this year.

Julanne Clarke-Morris is Editor of Anglican Taonga magazine and www.anglicantaonga.org.nz. julanneclarkemorris@gmail.com

Page 35

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

OVERSEAS AID

Helping to empower

Tamil Nadu's Women Development Resource Centre staff line up on either side of WDRC Coordinator, Manohari Doss (4th from left).

Photo: Caroline Chambers-Torovugalei.

Dalit women

T

They have made huge gains, but now there’s a backlash.

Page 36

hanks to help from Aotearoa churches through Christian World Service (CWS), life is getting better for Dalit women living near Madurai city in Tamil Nadu, India.

In their caste-divided village, strict rules have curtailed the lives of women like Lakshmi and Alagammal. As Dalits, the non-caste Indians once known as ‘untouchables,’ they are responsible for jobs like sanitation and tanning. Beneath the social order, they face regular discrimination and are at times brutalised by other Indians.

In 1994, when CWS began funding

programmes in Tamil Nadu, Dalit women suffered the indignity of not being allowed to wear bodices under their saris or sandals on their feet when in upper caste areas.

Many were illiterate and often went hungry.

Tribal people (indigenous Indians) were confined to the forests, where they gathered items in exchange for rice, but not cash.

Since CWS began funding, both groups have won access to government schemes providing food, paid work and housing, and have gained the right to be elected to local government.

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Incensed, he beat the three of them with a rope.

Tribal women gather with their children to listen to WDRC trainers, just outside a Tamil Nadu forest.

With our help, CWS partner the Women Development Resource Centre (WDRC) has backed Dalit women to make these huge gains. Now Dalit and Tribal children can go to school rather than work, and their mothers, aunts and older sisters can save through the WDRCinitiated Women’s Bank.

But as conditions improve for WDRC women, other Indians have started a backlash, reasserting religious and economic power.

Last year, as Lakshmi returned from burying her husband, three caste members attacked her, accusing her of carrying the body through the village on a public path.

When her son came to help, the two female and one male attackers kicked him too, beating them both with sticks before throwing chilli powder into her son Murugan’s face.

Another time, Alagammal and three

women’s sangam1 members collected firewood on recently bulldozed public land. Seeing the women, an adjacent landowner accused them of stealing the wood from his property.

Afraid, three of the four gave him their woodcutting knives in response to his demands. More confident Alagammal defied him, insisting the wood was not his. Incensed, he hit all four women with a rope. Three got away but he beat Alagammal who was four months pregnant. She returned home badly injured and that night miscarried.

Many Dalit women are landless and need access to public land for firewood and cattle-grazing. If villagers deny them this right, they cannot support their families. As competition for resources grows, landowners are trying to seize public land. WDRC trains Dalit and Tribal women to advocate for their gathering rights via 321 village sangam across

the region that WDRC serves. Now with our help these women can press for recognition of their human rights for their children’s sakes, so that caste and gender-based violence becomes a thing of the past.

To donate to the WDRC through CWS: 1. Go to: www.cws.org.nz/donate, choose General Fund and add comment: India, WDRC. 2. Donate by online banking to Christian World Service: 06 0817 0318646 00/ India, WDRC. For a tax receipt, email your postal address to cws@cws.org.nz.

Gillian Southey is Communications Coordinator for Christian World Service. gillian.southey@cws.org.nz Note: 1. A sangam is a local organisation or association.

Join other ethically minded Christians It’s easy to join or transfer to our Scheme

0508 738 473

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A copy of the Product Disclosure Statement is available on our website.

The issuer is The New Zealand Anglican Church Pension Board. The Scheme was formerly called Koinonia KiwiSaver Scheme.

Page 37

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

ENVIRONMENT

Shutterstock / Phattana Stock

Phillip Donnell reveals why creation care lies at the heart of discipleship for every Christian.

God is making

all things new

O The New Testament offers 65 ways we will change – immediately.

Page 38

ur Resurrection faith recharges us with the power of Christian hope and calls us to question where that hope plays back into our lives.

As theologian Tom Wright says in Simply Christian,1 Christ’s resurrection inspires us 'to go and make new creation happen in the world'.

As followers of Jesus, Wright says, we are 'to be agents of that new creation here and now… to model and display that new creation…' witnessing in our actions that 'new creation has already begun.'

With Jesus' resurrection God began

a new order, not one ruined by sin, but renewed by the Spirit. So how do we grow that new creation?

The New Testament offers more than 65 ways that we will change after we come to faith. For one, the way God looks at us radically alters, as God leads us to become more like Jesus.

God wants to transform not only the whole human person, but the whole of creation.

God promises a total overhaul, no less than a 'new heaven and a new earth.' 2 But God does not intend to replace everything we know, but to restore it to what he originally intended.3

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

Biblical writers use the image of renewal by holy fire, which refines and purifies all that has been corrupted by sin (2 Peter 3:10-13). God is grieved by what humans have done to what he has made, they tell us, and the crisis sin has caused.

All this gives us a clear message that Christians are called to care for creation, but also to lead others into environmental stewardship towards God’s renewed earth.

Our task is to cooperate with the Spirit in renewing both people and nature. For too long Christians have made it a case of one or the other, when the gospel calls for renewal of both.

So while environmental restoration is discipleship in itself, it can also serve as a timely means to change hearts. As we foster environmental health alongside others, we can tell of our Christ-centred motives for doing so. We can share the good news of the Creator, while caring for the created. We can reflect God’s concern for creation as we, God’s servants, plant trees or tussock, work to stem the polluting tide of plastic and petroleum, or clean waterways to protect wildlife from harm.

Around the world, churches' environmental projects are becoming cutting edges of outreach. Where ecological pressure means a community suffers from life-threatening effects, these ministries tap into growing concern and deepening human need. All

Francesca Masfen Future Astronautical Designer BE MORE THAN YOU EVER IMAGINED

this makes caring for creation an ideal way to do God's will, and to share the good news for such a time as this.

When we take up Christ’s challenge of renewal in 2018, we know that by doing so we play our part in preserving what our Creator has called good – from here unto eternity.

people. He offers talks, seminars and workshops for churches and others.

Phillip Donnell is the Director of New Creation New Zealand, which seeks to cooperate with God in fulfilling his renewal agenda: restoring nature and redeeming

3. See restoring what God originally intended in Isaiah 11:6-9, Romans 8:18-25

Your Anglican Taonga magazine is taking a break from its printed form while the communications team work on a new digital format for Anglican news and feature articles from around Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

pjdonnell@orcon.net.nz Notes 1. Wright, Tom. Simply Christian, SPCK, London, 2011: pp 99,186-202.

2. See a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation 21:1 and Isaiah 65:17,66:22; 2 Peter 3:13.

expectations have shifted from receiving information to joining a conversation.

The Anglican communications team has recognised that our current magazine and website no longer meet the majority of you, our readers in the online spaces you inhabit. So, as this Church has done before, we need to carry our gospel message to where the people are.

Our aim is to introduce more Anglican voices to this new communications world. This will include everything our current news and magazine articles have done, but will go on to share Anglican news and views through video, audio and social media feeds. By this, we hope to broaden and enliven our - and your – public voice on ministry and mission, and your views on what matters to you as Anglican followers of Jesus.

By 2017, almost nine out of 10 Aotearoa New Zealanders were active on social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, and across the Pacific many received at least as much of their daily news by smartphone, tablet or home computer as

by TV, radio or print.

Over the next few months Media Officer Lloyd Ashton will produce a bumper magazine to farewell our province’s Anglican life in print – for now. Taonga Editor Julanne Clarke-Morris will join the team taking our Anglican communications into the new digital realm. Watch this space.

Receiving digital news has also changed the news itself, so that our readers’

Want to know more? Email Julanne on julanneclarkemorris@gmail.com

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Page 39

ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

E VA N G E L I S M

An ordinary day in New Zealand, where 35% claim no spiritual or religious belief.

Why Kiwis could use good news

E

vangelism has never been more important for Aotearoa New Zealand than it is right now.

Every night as we watch the latest bad news we hear the world cry out for God’s life-giving presence to enter every human heart.

Yet as we struggle with the multiple pressures of modern life, more Kiwis are turning their backs on God. It is small wonder that so many suffer the downward spiral of despair and hopelessness as they look at the bleak prospect of a meaningless life.

But before you take my word for it, let’s look at some statistics. For one, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation, one third of Kiwi families are affected by drug and

There’s hope for people who feel dispossessed, desperate, lonely or lost.

Page 40

alcohol use.

For another, Housing Minister Phil Twyford recently stated that over 8,100 households are waiting for a place to live.

And New Zealand has the highest rate of teen suicide in the developed world.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.

Inviting people into the Good News of Jesus can help them drive back the demons that lie behind suicide, alcoholism and substance abuse, and offer powerful spiritual resources to deal with any other problems we may face.

But most people in this country no longer look to God or the church in times of need.

Newshub’s Tony Wright points out that ‘belief in any form of religion, has dissipated to the point where almost half of all Kiwis don't associate with any religious belief at all.’

That is backed up by the Australian research company McCrindle’s survey Faith and Belief in New Zealand study released this May, which showed 35 percent of Kiwis have no religion or spiritual belief, while 20 percent are ‘spiritual but not religious’.

As Christians, we know there is hope for the growing number of people who feel dispossessed, desperate, lonely or lost. And that is what Alpha New Zealand sets out to provide.

Christians are called to serve and to be a light to this world to help restore brokenness.

Part of that is to restore misperceptions of what Christianity is and what a relationship

with Jesus is about.

Alpha does this through a series of interactive sessions exploring the essentials of the Christian faith, which get people thinking and making better choices for themselves as they journey into a closer relationship with Jesus.

As evangelists, we have a duty to meet people where they are. Alpha helps churches do this with newcomers by starting from the beginning and then offering resources to stick with people right along their discipleship path.

The vision for Alpha NZ is to run the Alpha series everywhere. From prisons and rehabilitation centres to retirement villages, schools and tertiary institutions.

Small group evangelism helps Christian communities create safe, non-judgemental environments where a collection of caring individuals can walk alongside new or uncertain believers as they explore life, faith and meaning.

In view of all the problems and tensions faced by our communities, committing to this kind of focused outreach is vital for all who long to see lives being transformed in Christ.

Zelda Robertson is the National Director of Alpha NZ. zelda@alpha.org.nz

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

BOOKS

Words that weave GRIEF’S SHADOWED PATH – POEMS OF LOSS AND HEALING

EV BOOKS 2017, EVBOOKS@GMAIL.COM JOHN BLUCK

BY ERICE FAIRBROTHER EV BOOKS 2017, EVBOOKS@GMAIL.COM

Shutterstock / Peter Wey

JOHN BLUCK

E

rice Fairbrother’s small book of poems from Kopua and other quiet places offers a different and distinctively New Zealand voice.

— Alister G. Hendery (Pastor, writer, and author of Earthed in Hope: Dying, Death & Funerals)

These intensely personal poems resonate with love of place and environment and, more importantly, with the love between daughter and father, close friends and family. While these poems arise specifically from Hilary’s grief following the death of her father, they are a reminder to the reader that grief is many-faceted and reshapes our sense of self.

— Lynne Frith (Poet, teacher, theologian, and Methodist Presbyter, Auckland)

Grief’s Shadowed Path, takes us to a heart-wrenching encounter with death.

Hilary Smith’s poetry reveals the vulnerability of self-realisation when death of a loved one threatens to swamp personal response and disturb being understood by others. In the best of senses, this courageous book, simply, offers means for personal reflection and meditation. Hilary reveals her heart, broken, yet in her loss, finding a legacy of renewal and strength.

Grief ’s Shadowed Path P OE MS OF L O S S A N D H E A L I N G

Hilary Smith

— John Fairbrother (Priest, poet, and former Director of Vaughan Park Anglican Retreat and Conference Centre, Auckland)

Her poetry is saturated in Christian liturgy, story and devotion, which is allowed to speak for itself through image and experience beautifully distilled.

She lets us listen, without nudging, to the earth “that gives speech to the heart”, to the cows in the paddock and above all the trees that she walks among as she composes her lines, trusting that their branches catch “the falling shadowed light and our fading light of prayers.”

Hilary Smith

WATER IN TREES

The sheer honesty of Hilary Smith’s poetry plumbs the heart of grief. The words she chooses are seemingly simple, yet they express the complexity of chaos that we experience in the wake of loss and bereavement. Her poems were borne out of her own stories of loss, but as I read them, I hear my own stories and know that I am not alone. This collection is far, far more than emotional catharsis. It contains profound insights and deep wisdom. Grief’s Shadowed Path is a taonga.

POEMS OF LOSS AND HEALING

G

rief is the most private of emotions. To share it demands a vulnerability beyond most of us, and a risk of seeming mawkish or self indulgent.

Hilary Smith, a Scottish pastor, theologian, writer and retreat leader attached to Vaughan Park in Auckland, offers a masterclass in mourning.

Her new book takes us on the journey through her father Joe’s dying, her grieving and finally moving on. But not

before we’ve learnt to navigate the clutter of guilt and regrets, the condolences and the platitudes, the people who don’t know what to say to you, so talk instead about the “rain and the price of fish”.

It’s written as poetry but reads more like the prose of everyday conversation, interspersed with signs from the natural world that tell Hilary her father’s life goes on.

“He was a beautiful dad. He still is,” she writes. The book is about the chemistry of enduring presence, which tells the most personal of stories in a way that lets outsiders observe without intruding.

If you have lost someone you love and wonder whether death needs to have the EVB last word, this is a book worth reading.

Grief ’s Shadowed Path

BY HILARY SMITH

death into life

This is an extraordinary expression of faith incarnated in the simplest things of life in Aotearoa, from a woman who has learnt the hard craft of walking and listening her poems into life.

They emerge out of fourteen days of silent retreat, yet they shout aloud for our attention.

Bishop John Bluck is a writer living in Northland. blucksbooks@gmail.com

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ANGLICAN TAONGA

WINTER 2018

FILM

No turning back John Bluck finds powerful truths hidden in the tangle of hopes and lies, dreams and selfdeception that leave a sailor out to sea in new UK film 'The Mercy'.

N

ot many of us have tried to sail around the world alone in a yacht. But watching the true story of someone who tried to do that is an illuminating experience for anyone who ever dreamed about any great adventure, and failed.

Donald Crowhurst was a happily married family man who fell under the spell of Sir Francis Chichester’s challenge to emulate his own success as a solo sailor and go where no one’s been before.

So Donald enters the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe around the world race; hopelessly inexperienced, ill equipped and underfunded, and soon finds himself out in the Atlantic, afraid to go on, and unable to face turning back to financial ruin and shame.

There he sits for seven months, faking reports of rapid progress, and finally ends it all. No one is sure quite how, his yacht was found abandoned with a log entry scribble. It is finished. It is The Mercy.

In contrast to Jesus' last words, these ones come from a different kind of cross; one fashioned out of false dreams, guilt and concealment rather than service and sacrifice.

Yet the achievement of the film is to draw us into sympathy for Donald as he tries to protect his family from his disastrous decisions.

Not least the temptation to become a media celebrity.

He enjoyed this status for months as the hobbyist sailor defying the odds of the ocean and the skills of professional yachties.

Everyone loved the adulation: the family, the marketing machine fed by The Sunday Times headlines, the public and especially his home town of Teignmouth made famous overnight, until the press turned on his family as the true story emerged.

His wife’s denunciation of the Page 42

media scrum crowded outside her front door is a masterly moment of cinema.

The personal consequences of fake news have rarely been better portrayed. Right now politicians seem to get away with it unscathed.

But Donald’s story shows us you can’t. In the words of Luke’s gospel: “There is nothing hidden that will not become public, nothing under cover that will not be made known.”

Watching that uncovering close up and personal makes for riveting viewing, wrapped as it is in a lovely study of children who adore their father and a wife who loves him but can’t bear to see his dreams disappointed.

This is a film about a good but easily distracted man, desperate to do good for his family, trapped in an escalating spiral of deceit and unreality, who finally can’t live with the concealments he’s created.

And even if we’re never likely to sail across the Atlantic, we recognise in Donald’s odyssey a journey we are all capable of making. And we tremble.

Apart from fine performances

by Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz, there are some lovely touches drawn from the original true story.

Among them was the gracious gesture of the actual winner of the round the world race Robin Knox Johnston who donated his considerable prize money of five thousand pounds to the grieving family.

Why remake this much told story 50 years on?

Maybe because governments, corporations and dictators seem to play the politics of concealment with impunity and cynicism, compared to Donald’s fumbling

attempts to do the wrong things for the right reasons.

Maybe by watching him up close we can glimpse the real cost of living a lie, without it being smudged and buried by media spin doctors and news fakers.

Bishop John Bluck is a writer living in Northland. blucksbooks@gmail.com

ANGLICAN TAONGA WINTER 2018

F R O M T H E FA R S I D E

sixpixx / Shutterstock.com

As Imogen de la Bere lightens her household load of plastic she ponders the endless weight of virtue for its own sake.

Ditching plastic for God’s sake

O

nly after I had decided to go plastic-free did I discover that it was the latest thing.

Everywhere in the media were people offering tips on where to get shampoo in solid bars, ham wrapped in cloth and fill-your-own laundry liquid.

This is a bit of a worry for me, because I’ve always been the champion of lost causes – extreme ritualism, Classical Latin, cadenced prose and plainsong. And now, increasingly, being a Christian in England – which feels odder and odder by the year.

So to find myself right on trend was a shock.

On one level it’s fun, a sort of life-hack challenge. I find myself channelling my mother, who took thrift to an art form: every food scrap into the soup pot. Plastic bags washed for reuse. The last surviving yoghurt pots for seedlings: milk in bottles, homemade hummus, meat from a real-live butcher’s shop, salami by the foot-long wodge, loose veggies only.

Every week brings a new conundrum.

I need rinse-aid, without which my

dishwasher will grind to a halt. It comes in a plastic bottle. So buy those all-in-one tabs with dissolving coating? But doesn’t that coating get into the water supply? And why are you using a dishwasher? Wash up the old way. But then I will need detergent.

Which comes in plastic bottles…

Will it ever end?

No, I think not. I can see that once plastic is vanquished, I will have to worry about wasting water. And electricity. And gas.

And petrol. And why are there, ever awake in this house, eleven server hubs, ten mobile phones, nine Raspbery Pis… and Alexa the digital assistant always on the watch…

It will never end.

Spiritually there is clear benefit in this activity. It springs from the Benedictine notion of work for its own sake and more importantly, for God’s sake, and the Franciscan doctrine of the divine connectivity of all living and created things.

So when doing away with plastic, one is doing God’s work and that is one reason why it is so popular. It’s the sort of godly

work anyone can do without the theology and historical baggage of religion that the modern world finds difficult.

But there is one huge difference.

Shedding plastic out of your life simply opens up a new vista of waste and earthly damage to be tackled. I know once I have cleaned up my household, I will have to go out and start clearing the thick crust of plastic and tin that disfigures the beautiful lanes and less lovely verges of Hertfordshire.

The spiritual life, by contrast, offers a resting place from one’s labours. Our spiritual life, while a journey, has endless stopping-off points.

Every week, every day if we ask for it, we are forgiven and renewed, and we can rest quietly, knowing that no labour of ours can buy that Love.

Imogen de la Bere is a writer and director living in England. delaberi@googlemail.com

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