Reconciliation

Above the door to the church here at Gate Pa are the words “Let all who enter here be reconciled.” Over recent years that theme of reconciliation has become a major focus. Because of this focus we are exploring with others the possibility of establishing a “branch” of the Community of the Cross ofNails here in Aotearoa. So what does it mean to be reconciled?

Over the last 20 years or so a group of Christians have worked hard to reconcile with local Maori over the hurts and grievances caused by Archdeacon Brown and others during the Tauranga campaign in 1864. They have held several reconciliation events, and yet we do not seem to be reconciled.

In my conversations with several people I have some to appreciate that it is not enough to simply say sorry. More has to happen. I have described this as living the sorry. I talked about this last year at the 150th commemorations. You can find my speech here.

Just over 8 years ago I was fortunate enough to attend the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation in Auckland. I think that makes me a liturgy nerd. Our theme was marriage. This year they met in Canada, with a theme of reconciliation. The article on the Anglican News site offers some really interesting thoughts about this reconciliation thing. I think I am going to have to do some thinking around what they are saying as we continue to explore how we live the sorry with local Maori.