Ash Wednesday and Waitangi Day
Last night I went to a combined Ash Wednesday service with the local Roman Catholic parish. This in itself was a great symbol of acknowledging our unity and confessing our broken communion, a good way to start Ash Wednesday. Although much of the service was about our individual brokenness and need for repentance, it was placed within the communal brokenness.
What caught me though was how this Ash Wednesday occurred on Waitangi day. I have often thought of this day as a day for celebrating the vision of those who worked for the treaty, and the vision behind it. I have also thought of the treaty as offering us as a church and a country a way of being. What I was reminded of this ash Wednesday is the ongoing need to repent how we have failed to live that out, and to start anew in seeking a just way in this land. Starting anew, recognising past failing, letting go of the crushing burden of that, and starting again to live it out fully.
I know some within Tikanga Maori will be angered by that statement. There is no letting go of the crushing burden, because they live with the socio-economic, demographic and political consequences of the Pakeha reneging on the treaty. I do not want to in any way ignore that. That fact makes working at honouring the Treaty more urgent. But there is also a sense in which we get bogged down and halted by our history. To let go of the burden, and to start afresh in dealing with past injustices and creating a just future is needed, every year.
That is what is needed in all sorts of ways. In youth ministry, we keep being weighed down by our ineffectiveness, and here this lent the invitation is to let that go, to recommit ourselves and to start afresh in working for just, creative and life giving ways that we as Anglicans can live our and offer the gospel to young people.
I at least found this quite thought provoking.
This weekend I am off to help elect a new bishop of Waiapu. I hope it is a chance for us to start afresh, and build our diocese.
What caught me though was how this Ash Wednesday occurred on Waitangi day. I have often thought of this day as a day for celebrating the vision of those who worked for the treaty, and the vision behind it. I have also thought of the treaty as offering us as a church and a country a way of being. What I was reminded of this ash Wednesday is the ongoing need to repent how we have failed to live that out, and to start anew in seeking a just way in this land. Starting anew, recognising past failing, letting go of the crushing burden of that, and starting again to live it out fully.
I know some within Tikanga Maori will be angered by that statement. There is no letting go of the crushing burden, because they live with the socio-economic, demographic and political consequences of the Pakeha reneging on the treaty. I do not want to in any way ignore that. That fact makes working at honouring the Treaty more urgent. But there is also a sense in which we get bogged down and halted by our history. To let go of the burden, and to start afresh in dealing with past injustices and creating a just future is needed, every year.
That is what is needed in all sorts of ways. In youth ministry, we keep being weighed down by our ineffectiveness, and here this lent the invitation is to let that go, to recommit ourselves and to start afresh in working for just, creative and life giving ways that we as Anglicans can live our and offer the gospel to young people.
I at least found this quite thought provoking.
This weekend I am off to help elect a new bishop of Waiapu. I hope it is a chance for us to start afresh, and build our diocese.
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