Sunday, April 7, 2013

To be People of Friendship and Reconciliation


Our parish had a visitor in mid-February, a visitor with an eye for parish potential and an understanding of our kind of context. The Rev Elizabeth Mansill was here to conduct my Ministry Development Review, a process adopted by the Presbyterian Church to ensure ministers remain worthy of their Certificate of Good Standing. It also assists minister and parish in developing the minister's gifts in a way that is responsive to the particular parish context.
This was my second review so Elizabeth built on observations of three years ago. This time she came up with two very interesting general themes.
Firstly, she noted that our congregations comprise people who are leaders. Not just “pew sitters” but people living the Christian life in a way that is effectively Christian leadership within their families and community. In my words, you are all ministers; I am minister to the ministers.
In years past, Elizabeth noted, things were different. Now, with Sunday just another day of the week, those who continue to participate in church (or even to stay connected through a newsletter like this) are the ones with real commitment to what the gospel is about. Elizabeth encourages me to continue helping you recognise what you are doing in your lives as gospel work. Also to help you develop gifts you haven't thought you had and maybe even interests you'd never dream of having.
Dare I say it, she says that I need to aim at “doing myself out of a job”. In part that is because no minister stays forever. In part the future will likely bring changes we don't yet envisage.
The second theme is Māori-Pākehā relationships. This, says Elizabeth, is an important mission for our future, as a point of difference and a set of relationships and skills to build on. And she was not just talking about Kaeo. I quizzed her on that, but she was very clear that it was both congregations she perceived as having this mission of building understanding and reconciliation between Pākehā and Māori. And there are things she recommends I do to help this be not just my thing, but part of the parish identity.
She encourages me to take people with me when I go to Māori related events. I will be delighted to have company, so please let me know if you are interested. Like an invitation I made some time back (and keep meaning to renew) to come with me to Bible-in-Schools, at Riverview on a Friday morning or Kaeo on a Tuesday afternoon, just to listen in and spend some time with 10 and 11 year olds. So also the invitation is now open, to come with me to a tangi, to attend a community hui to help our young people, or to join the monthly service with the elderly folks at Kauri Lodge. In each case people would see it as great community support.
Another suggestion of Elizabeth's is to bring into worship other voices besides my own to lead te reo portions. I can vouch for the benefit of having had somewhere to practice speaking Māori in public. It means now that I can lead tangi services in a way that seems to be much appreciated by families and marae communities. And it means the kids at College don't laugh at my pronunciation like they used to. Getting School Cert by correspondence in Mid-Canterbury was only the precursor to the real learning here. I say a big thank you to the Kaeo congregation who have allowed this to happen over these years. The Kerikeri congregation too, although I suspect some have other views and we need to talk about it. Kerikeri is a town that looks so different from the rest of Northland and we're more inclined to be mono-cultural. I really am thrilled with the ability of many sharing the grace at the end of the service, and the enthusiasm of some who would like to learn it off by heart. But the old Latin adage holds: festina lente – hasten slowly.
In any case, I suspect there are more ways than these that our parish could claim for ourselves this theme that Elizabeth identifies. Relationships between Māori and Pākehā are an undeniable part of life in Northland. Maybe we as a parish could make a difference. Centred in Christ, we have the means to do it, to dig away at dividing walls between people and open up understanding and respect, without which the phrase “he iwi tātou – we are one people” doesn't yet apply. Maybe this is our unique calling.
What ideas do you have for us to be a parish of friendship and reconciliation?
And more generally, what leadership in the Christian Way do you want to claim as your unique calling as a follower of Christ?
Shalom, Robyn
POSTSCRIPT: I appreciated Diane's company when I went to listen to Whangaroa presentations to the Waitangi Tribunal. Our Whangaroa people did us proud and it was important for some of their Pākehā friends to be there. With a Māori parishioner on each side of me it was a moving moment when Nuki Aldridge said: “We acknowledge that this land now has two peoples – Māori and Pākehā – Pākehā being the people who came later to these shores and stayed here with our people. This we cannot change, nor do we wish to change it.”  

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