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...