Colourful Dreamer

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. My sermon will be a reflection on the work of the Holy Spirit at General Synod Te Hīnota Whānui last week. I wont read this out. But it will say something similar. General Synod – Te Hīnota Whānui is the decision making body of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. In many ways it functions like any other Synod within the Anglican Church around the world. It has three houses – Bishops, Clergy and Laity. But unlike some all the houses meet together, discuss the issues together, and make the decisions together. Most votes are on voice vote alone. Rarely is there a vote in houses. Although for contentious issues some of the discussion has been in these houses. One we layer not present in any other Anglican Province is that we also work in three Tikanga – or cultural stream. On a day to day basis we function with these semi-autonomous organisational entities. It means the Tikanga Maori can organise their life and make thei...

I went to a clergy meeting yesterday to discuss "A Way Forward" report for our next General Synod - Te Hinota Whanui (GSTHW). This report was written to continue the work of the previous GSTHW around issues of blessing those in same-sex marriages, and the ordination of those in same sex civil marriages. After a week of intense work the GSTHW of 2014 came up with motion 30 .   In some ways it was good to ha ve the time to e xplore the report and talk in small groups about it. But I did find it really frustrating that a small group just wanted to deb ate motion 30 again. And I found it insulting when one of those people described the report as polemical. Instulting to the people of a huge variety of theolog ical positions who have worked very hard tog ether over the last year and a half to give GSTHW a way forward in light of that motion. They did what they were asked to do and offered the ir re asoning for that work.  A fundemental thing for me of the gospel is how we tr...

I appreciate the thinking being expressed in this article. I have long thought that we are way too fixated on sex as a church  in our current debates. This process seems to have helpfully highlighted other places to start in these debates. I also appreciate the call to now do our theology of marriage, which really has been absent. Again, we have been too stuck on sex and children.  Glimmers of hope maybe?

In the end there was no way the covenant could fly in this church given the comments about our constitution in the Windsor report that lead to the draft covenants. But I applaud out ongoing commitment to the Anglican Communion and hope we can be part of finding another way of holding together. That way has got to be based on a mutual commitment and respect of each other, and a real desire to be together. It cannot be based on the threat of punitive measures and expulsion. Is it possible. I don't know, but I hope so.

I have been to the last four General Synods/Hinota Whanui (The parliament of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia) in my previous role in youth ministry. It is a little odd not being there. Strangely I really enjoyed it. I guess I am a meeting junky. In that youth ministry role I have spent many hours working with others to prepare the report on youth ministry in our church. We did some really creative, inspiring and cool stuff. We were also accused of emotional blackmail by some people who did not thing youth ministry was very important, but felt unable to say so. I am impressed by what the Tikanga Toru Youth Commission has done this time. Well done Michael Tamihere and the whole team. Now we pray that these delegates will act out what they have been applauded when they get home.

I wonder what this new Commission will achieve. I guess it will provide a good summary of the work already done by various church entities on the various issues, including blessing same sex relationships and ordination. And I guess it will clarify what the likely consequences of any decision or non-decision will be. But in the end there will still need to have a debate, and it might not be pretty. So, I hope that this commission will allow us to do that in an informed and less brutal way. My fear is that it will stall the debate for longer, and gay people continue to pay the price for our inaction. Let us hope and pray for a good outcome.

This morning a grand thing happened. The General Synod Te Hinota Whanui passed the third reading of the bill establishing the Tikanga Toru Youth Commission. (Yes we do things the same as parliament, and this now acts as a piece of legislation within our church) Well done Sepi Hala’api’api who moved the bill, and Bishop David Rice who seconded it. My hope is this commission can help establish a three Tikanga context and mind set among young people so that we can become committed to each other in a way that is almost entirely absent from our church at the present. My dream is that the young people can lead the way for our church and help us all understand what a gift our three Tikanga constitution is, and start trying to live it out. It did have a rocky road. Tikanga Maori asked hard questions and there were all sorts of unstated agendas at play, as always. And some of what plagues us as a church was also at play that is that the three Tikanga is something we do when we have time, inst...

I am at General Synod this week, the parliament of the Anglican Church. I will try to post reflections as we go. I have already on http://generalsynod2010.wordpress.com/ That will be where most of my comments will be found.