Waitangi Day and church

I just walked out of our church service. I have never done that before, but I just couldn’t stay. I was too incredulous that we could have an Anglican service on Waitangi day and deliberately decide not do say a single thing about it. Not even a prayer.

Today is Waitangi day, our national day. A day we remember the signing of our foundational document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. A treaty that would not have happened without the work of Anglican missionaries persuading the British Government of the need for it, helping write it, translate it, and then persuading Maori at Waitangi on Feb 6 1840, and around the country to sign it. Those same Anglican missionaries worked hard to try to have that Treaty honoured, and Maori land protected, along with Maori tino rangatirotanga (authority). It is our treaty. It is part of our constitution, and helps shape the life of our church in Aotearoa-New Zealand. And in my church today, we decided not to even mention it. Not in the sermon, that was well set up for it with it being about salt and light and such. Not in the prayers. We prayed for the oppressed in PNG. We did not pray for anything to do with Waitangi. The liturgy was all about peace and justice, breaking down walls that divide, celebrating this land, and yet we decided to be Waitangi free. It is pious Christianity, all nice but totally removed from actual life. So I left. Me and God, and not about us and God, and the land we live in.

Yesterday I went to a wedding in Matamata. It was what Waitangi day really is about. Two young Maori whose wedding was in an Anglican church, a liturgy full of Te Reo, and then a celebration at Ngira’s home marae of Pikitu in the Waikato. Just a beautiful spot. While the occasion was Maori, it wasn’t forced or strident. It just was. People spoke in Maori, used Maori terms naturally. It is how they live and work. Maori culture underscored everything, but there was a generosity in all we did that made you feel welcome and part of everything. It was a coming together of people in a Maori environment that was clear, but open and inviting. It is what we should be working towards and celebrating every Waitangi Day, and the days between. It gave me hope.

The service was held in the Anglican Church in Matamata. The stain glass windows in the Nave have St. Francis on one side and Wiremu Tamihana on the other. Both men worked and lived for peace. Wiremu is described as “a remarkable man, whose vision of peace and prosperity for his people was disrupted by a conflict not of his own making.” You can read more on http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/wiremu-tamihana. While he did not sign the Treaty, he worked hard to create a strong place for Maori so that Maori and Settler could live side by side, two people under one God. It was good to have the wedding in a church which honours such a man.

So at least I had a Waitangi type celebration. Too bad for the others who came to my church today. Hei aha.