Month: November 2012

We have a close relationship with our friends in the Methodist and United Reformed Churches through what we call the EMU Partnership.

That was why Lily Twist, Chair of the Methodist Church in Scotland, and I made a joint visit to our congregations in Rosyth last Sunday. Our congregation’s church was part of the Naval Dockyard – when that ended they decided to share a building with the Methodist congregation in what became a Local Ecumenical Partnership.

It was a good day. The congregations work well together – the future must lie in more ‘on the ground’ sharing of buildings. More important is the need to share mission and ministry in the local community. We don’t do nearly enough of that at present.

I have decided that jet lag is a subset of man flu

If you haven’t strayed into the man flu website, it’s at http://www.manflu.info/

They say you need a day for every hour of time difference – which means 13 days. I had no ill- affects for the first five days after getting home. Two days of College of Bishops, a day meeting people in the Office and a meeting of the Standing Committee in Edinburgh – no problem.

The odd thing is the way it sweeps in and disables – driving in the evening is particularly difficult. But according to the day count, I should be almost there.

We’ve made our escape after two weeks of meetings in Auckland – Anglican Communion Standing Committee followed by Consultative Council. After that, one needs a little tourism. – we may not pass this way again, The weather is less spring-like than expected but when the sun shines it is beautiful – this is Taupo Bay on the east coast of the North Island. The beaches are like Ireland and the people are warm and friendly.

My new friends were preparing for the cultural performance at the Treaty Grounds – a celebration (?) of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 under which New Zealand became part of the British Empire. When they heard where we were from, they declared firmly that they liked both Scottish and Irish people. We had earlier visited Flagstaff Hill above Russell where the Maori cut down the Flagpole with its British Flag four times. The plaque said that this was due to a ‘misunderstanding’

And finally … even paradise has its problems. This is a small reminder that the east coast of New Zealand faces the Pacific Ocean and that there was a tsunami warning last week

Our time here began with the unveiling of a Memorial Stone – a year after his death – for Sir Paul Reeves. Sir Paul was a remarkable man – Maori by background, former Bishop of Auckland, Archbishop and Governor General of New Zealand. You will find the full account on the Anglican Communion website

Archbishop Rowan began his homily by quoting from the modern Maori poet, Glenn Colquhoun:

The art of walking upright here,
Is the art of using both feet.

One is for holding on.
One is for letting go.

That powerful symbolism was picked up last night by Archbishop David Moxon, Primate of the New Zealand Dioceses, as he spoke about the careful cultural and linguistic balances between the three elements of the Anglican Church here. Like many of us, I have been learning – and learning with respect. Yet is is clear that this careful set of balances cannot be an end point – if it becomes that it will enshrine a process of parallel development rather than the building of one body in Christ. Yet nobody can really say where it is going. Thinking back to my own experiences in Ireland, I asked some people whether they had acquired the ability to laugh about their differences. For that too has to be part of the journey – though I think that the first attempt would have to come from the Maori.

Archbishop David spoke of this as a dance – fluid, relational .. One foot on the ground and one moving. I like that image. It seems to me to describe perfectly what is needed.

One other question which I found myself discussing at last night’s dinner was the power of symbolic action. One of the things which we learned in Ireland was that it is possible to negotiate the substance of issues. But you cannot negotiate symbolic action. So there is something to explore here – particularly when for the Maori and Polynesian communities symbolic action is so important. It’s about finding a new set of symbolic actions which move the ground beneath our feet – even as our feet dance on top of it.

‘Land of Promise’ is a Report from NIFCON – one of the Anglican Communion Networks – about Christian Zionism. It’s weighty – 33000 words. But I think it is an excellent attempt to unravel and describe the various threads – political, cultural and religious – which make up the issues around the state of Israel and its relationship with the Palestinians. In that sense, it seems to me to be as significant and helpful as some of the material which first give us an understanding of sectarianism.

I was not part of the group which produced the Report but was asked to present it to ACC – which I was happy to do. I was fascinated to see how sensitive some members were about it – it required a redrafting of the Resolution before it was passed.

This is what is said about it:

I’m honoured to have the opportunity of speaking about this important Report ‘Land of Promise’ which, as Sue
Parks has said, is work done at the request of previous ACC Meetings. I’m sorry that it has to be presented on behalf of the group which produced it – I wasn’t part of that group – because it seems to me to offer a comprehensive and authoritative survey of a very complex issue set of issues.

As Sue has said, we’re going to give you an opportunity for discussion. Our suggestion is that your discussion should be around the question of what our response as Anglicans might be.

Some definitions first from the Report.

What is Zionism – ‘Zionism is a form of nationalism of Jews and Jewish culture which supports a Jewish nation state in the land defined as the land of Israel’
What is Christian Zionism – ‘Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 is in accordance with Biblical prophecy’

What is this Report then really about? It does not invite us to identify ourselves with those definitions. Rather it is about exploring the complex of issues, religious, political and cultural which lie behind those statements – offering ways if thinking which may inform future discussion and ultimately resolution of the question.

Section 8 of the Report is particularly directed towards us as Anglicans – it identifies issues which we can affirm; it identifies views which it regards as likely to be unacceptable. Most helpfully of all it identifies issues on which it is harder for us to come to agreement. Within this section there are key understandings of the role of a God who is active in history; of the authority of scripture and of prophecy in particular and its applicability to particular places, times and circumstances.

There are too many for me to mention all – but let me just refer to one or two as a sample
There are three sections

First some things which we can affirm:
God is equally concerned for all peoples and all lands
It is essential to sustain a Christian presence, and in particular, an Anglican presence in the Holy Land.
The state of Israel is an established national state and it’s citizens have the right to live in security, peace and freedom
Palestine has a national identity, with a cultural heritage to be acknowledged and respected. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have a right to live in freedom, peace and security without military occupation or appropriation of land and to self-determination

And some which the report regards as unacceptable to Anglicans – reminding you again that this is a few drawn from a longer list:
God has given the Holy Land as an exclusive possession to any one community
Christians, Muslims and others have no right to live in the Holy Land because it has been given by God to the Jews
Prophecy as prediction can be separated from prophecy as ethics

Thirdly there are some where the report recognises that there are significantly different views held with integrity among those who hold an Anglican interpretation of the Christian faith:
The continuing is significance of Israel as a partner in a continuing covenant with God
The status of Israel as a Jewish state
The moral duty of Christians to support the state of Israel in light of the history of anti-Judaism and the Holocaust
The call to direct action for Palestinian advocacy as an over-riding imperative for Christians.

Most helpfully of all, it seems to me, in the light of the references which I made a moment ago to other places and contexts .. this section and this report take a situation of unbelievable complexity and offers ways of finding little bits of solid ground on which we might stand. It encourages not to see this simply as ‘impossible’ or as ‘impossibly conflicted’ but as something which might one day find a lasting resolution.

There is as the Report implies a universality to these questions which makes it important for us as a Communion. When I was a parish priest in Northern Ireland, the Israeli flag flew on the roundabout at the lower end of my parish – a sign of the instinctive identification of the Ulster Protestants with Israel. More than that, I think that there are parallels with every situation in which faith, politics and religion unhelpfully intertwine. That may be the sectarianism of Ireland or Scotland where religion seems to be at the service of political or cultural movements. Or it may be other parts of the world where Islam strives to create theocratic states and puts pressure on governments. These situations often are so complex that they seems to defy rational description and leave us helpless observers. This Report addresses what is probably the most complex of all of these situations and attempts to describe, inform and engage.

If you read nothing else in this document, I suggest you turn to the Postscript written by Archbishop Rowan. He suggests that the fundamental question which this Report asks is ‘what will be lastingly just for everyone?’. It seems to me that that is where this report leads us – not to taking sides nor to a helpless disengagement. Rather to an informed understanding of an very complex situation and the search for what is lastingly just

I commend the Report to you

We had an interesting and important debate today about whether or not Continuing Indaba can be expected to resolve difficult issues.

Continuing Indaba is a means of developing honest conversation – honest conversation across difference. The ultimate purpose is to strengthen and enhance the mission of the church – energy expended in living with unresolved difference becomes available for mission.

But I don’t think that resolving issues can be a primary purpose. Indaba isn’t mediation. Nor is it debate. Nor about negotiating compromise. I believe that it is about giving primacy to relationships rather than to issues. Part of what has caused difficulties in the life of the Anglican Communion has been our habit of doing the opposite – attempting to deal with difficult issues without having invested time and goodwill in developing strong relationships of mutual respect and understanding. And many of the issues which we face are not resolvable by debate or by win/lose votes.

But of course we hope that Continuing Indaba will help us to reach a point of deep understanding of one another that it will become possible to address and resolve difficult issues.

It’s just that, if we burden Continuing Indaba with a primary responsibility for resolving difficult issues, we end up back where we started – giving primacy to issues and not to relationships.

Continuing Indaba renewed its mandate today in the ACC. The full report is on the Anglican Communion website

I was part of the summing up – since I am Convenor of the Reference Group for Continuing Indaba. This is what I said:

I was in Rotorua on Sunday. When you preach, you listen to yourself. I heard myself being very passionate about the life of our Anglican Communion. I really believe in what Archbishop Rowan said last night – that we aspire to be “both catholic and orthodox and consensual, working in freedom, mutual respect and mutual restraint; without jeopardising the important local autonomy of our churches.”

He also talked about convergence – growing closer. I sometimes talk about coherence – which is sticking together. And we all talk of the particular aspiration to Communion where we grow closer to God as we grow closer to one another and vice versa.

You cannot be a family just by saying that you are. You have to do things – place yourself in situations in which the Spirit can move and in which you can be challenged and changed. I believe that miracles of grace begin when we place ourselves in obedience where we are called to be – in places where we can build the relationships which create family and Communion

Indaba – as Phil has said – is not a programme or project. It is a movement and a way of being the church – God’s church – our Anglican Communion. If I was French I might call it ‘un saveur’ – an aroma. It is honest conversation – honest conversation in the context of our shared faith – which takes seriously our local contexts.

We have learnt much – in the Communion we have learnt that the problems and difficulties which we experience between provinces across the world are problems and difficulties which we also experience within our provinces. What is experienced within a Province reverberates in the wider Communion – and what is experienced in the wider Communion reverberates locally. And there is something more. As we have been experiencing in the life of the church here in New Zealand, history and the legacy of history – particularly bad and painful history – can shape the way in which we respond to one another. We may not even be aware of that – but we need to become aware and to talk about it.

We believe that the next part of the journey of Continuing Indaba must honour the whole of our relating in our provinces and between our provinces, We need honest conversation – in Indaba – within each of our Provinces but always with an engagement, an involvement and support from the rest of the family, the rest of the Communion.

We kept Sunday as All Saints in Rotorua. The gospel reading was about the Raising of Lazarus from the dead. So inevitably I said some things about death and life.

I felt that it was important to give people a flavour of the wider life of the Anglican Communion. I am a believer in what I think we represent – the aspiration to grow into a global Communion without a centralised structure of authority – closer to God and to one another.

So this is part of what I said

‘For us in Scotland, the Anglican Communion matters greatly. To be part of something bigger is really important. It is a one of the privileges of my life that I have the opportunity of exploring the life of the Anglican Communion in my travels. During this year, I will have seen England, Ireland, Canada, America, Hong Kong, New Zealand. Next month i shall be in Uganda and after Christmas in India. Everywhere there is welcome. Everywhere I find churches which are Anglican in ways which we in Scotland can recognise – recognisable in worship, in polity and governance, in culture and friendship. People say that the Communion is in difficulties and that it is finished. New Zealand and Scotland have both decided not to adopt the Covenant and that may leave us feeling slightly uncertain about where we are with the Anglican Communion.

But I am a passionate believer in the Anglican Communion. I believe that rumours of its death have been exaggerated – although there is some dying to do. By that I mean particularly the legacy of history which makes some relationships difficult – the word we sometimes use is colonialism. It means that people take into themselves bad history – you know all about that in New Zealand – so that it threatens the present and destroys the future. It speaks of death.

Let me introduce you to the Bible Study Group with which I have begun each day for the last week. Yesterday the passage was introduced to the whole conference by the Acting Dean of Christchurch Cathedral, Very Rev Lynda Patterson, who comes from Northern Ireland and tells me that she is a regular reader of my blog on the Internet. She speaks of the death of a cathedral and of how new life may come. Sitting around the table with me were Dickson – Provincial Secretary of the Church in Tanzania; Maria Christina – a Spanish speaking priest from Cuba; Humphrey – Bishop of Peshawar in Northern Pakistan; Josephine from the USA; Dick – bishop of Old Catholic Church from Netherlands. We sit and wait. We share and pray. We minister to one another. We are in a sense the Anglican Communion rising to new life. We are the saints of God – as you are the saints of God.’

We have just spent the weekend in Rotorua. It’s about 200 miles south of Auckland and it is famous for its geothermal springs and boiling mud. There was a certain satisfaction for me in seeing the hot springs and geysers in Iceland and New Zealand in the same year.

This was strange – clouds of steam rising behind the hedge beside the road – a pipe venting superheated water just beside the car park – a distinct smell of sulphur wafting into the church during morning worship.

We were with the Vicar of St Luke’s Church, Revd Alex Czerwonka and his wife Jocelyn. It’s hard to say that it was very different from what I see most Sunday mornings – more ethnically diverse. But the attractions of that were that it was almost like but not quite. And it’s the not quite which is interesting.

Some of the other local clergy and their people joined us for a congregational lunch and we did some serious talking about mission. They are much better than we are at social outreach – lunch clubs and thrift shops. Their equivalent of Casting the Net and Mission Action Planning is ‘Missional Mapping’ and I think we may have been a little more developed in that. What was particularly interesting was their pattern of local shared ministry – under the oversight of somebody called the Bishop’s Chaplain but really more like an Archdeacon. That’s a pattern which we are exploring in Argyll and Moray – small congregations with their own indigenous ministry with a stipendiary priest exercising oversight of a number of congregations.

There is nothing better than getting out of a conference and meeting the local church. We really enjoyed it.

So here we are – into the second week and still going strong.

Every morning we begin with Bible Study. Over this kind of distance, you become a sort of family. So I am holding forth.

On one side is Maria Christina who is from Cuba. She watched me clutching my IPhone for which there was no wifi – rather like a child with a toy – and told me that I should love God more and think about my e mail less. On the other side is Bishop Humphrey Peters, Bishop of Peshawar in northern Pakistan. For him the presence of the Taliban and Al Quaida are daily realities and present danger, Those for whom the greatest danger is a deer jumping out of the wood on the way back to Blogstead are humbled in his presence.

We are meeting in the Cathedral here in Auckland. It is a spellbinding building