Category: Addresses and Articles (page 2 of 3)

By Justin Duckworth and Alan Jamieson, 2024

Comments by Richard Randerson

September 2024

The authors’ call to renew the Church in mission is timely. As a spur to such renewal they challenge the Church with the juxtaposition of Centre Church (CC) and Edge Church (EC), the former being the established congregationally-based churches, the latter being the emerging gatherings of disciples who are passionate (white hot) in their love of Christ and
their service of others. The dialogues can be mutually fruitful.

While they affirm CC in some places they more often describe it as “insipid, flabby, idolatrous and compromised”. Yet it is the CC which over centuries has maintained (and revised) the liturgies, music and theology that have inspired and sustained Jesus’ disciples from generation to generation and led major movements in spiritual growth and social change. Having served in different parishes over 60 years I do not agree with the assessment of CC as flabby and insipid. I have known too many members, the large majority
in fact, for whom faith is a living and enlivening centre of their lives 24/7. Is St Peter’s insipid and flabby? Or Central Baptist?

At the same time, having just read this week’s News for our Movement, I am greatly impressed by the extent and variety of what is happening in the Diocese of Wellington (and doubtless in other places as well), events which are out of kilter with the disparaging words about the Church in the book. These events inspire, the book discourages. There is a disjunction between the book and church life in reality.

Maybe back in the 50s, when society was much more homogeneous, there were more nominal members who fell away from about 1960. But I recall congregations from those days whose members were every bit as faithful and convinced Christians as those in today’s churches. Over the years I have also known church members who have left CC because the Gospel presented to them, in personal living and society, has been too challenging.

The white hot passion of EC is commendable but not necessarily broadly based in terms of theology and context. Alan Jamieson wrote an excellent book in 2000 entitled A Churchless Faith. As a Baptist minister and sociologist he had conducted research into why people were leaving EPC (evangelical, pentecostal and charismatic) churches, one of the reasons (as I
recall) being that they found the theology too narrow and simplistic. To be told, for example, it was God’s will that a child had died of cancer was totally unreal. Many are recruited into such churches while too young for broader thought.

We can be grateful that people like John Bluck who through his books and media work contextualises theology in an accessible manner, while in Wellington Scottie Reeve writes articles for The Post that weave theology into the context of daily life and society. The Postalso runs articles on theology in daily life and society by Lyndon Drake (tikanga Maori, on Matariki) and Otago theologians David Tombs and Andrew Shepherd.

In-tensional aims to renew the Church in mission, which is good, but in my view would have more chance of doing so if it included emphasis on the Church’s mission in blending Christian faith with society and remove the disparaging references to CC. They are in my experience untrue and would be a barrier to creative dialogue between CC and EC. Describing the Church as flabby and insipid is a turnoff for audiences who would regard
such a description as not merely inaccurate but also highly judgmental.

In 2010 I published a book Engagement 21. It was based on research I did with 100 representative clergy and laity across NZ on their experience of the Church in mission. It showed the need for much improvement in mission, but also contained 125 thumbnail sketches of projects parishes were engaged in across the whole spectrum of the Anglican five marks of mission.

Perhaps a second volume with positive and practical content might be in order?

Bishop Richard Randerson
Wellington

This brilliant annual report from the Salvation Army contains a comprehensive overview of social-economic data on issues such housing, income, penal policy, children and youth, Maori wellbeing, social hazards (eg drugs). Ideal for local justice group planning its agenda. To access click here.

The Governments Fast-track and fresh water Proposals

A paper by Marinie Prickett (University of Otago) and Dr Mike Joy (VUW) on these key issues with suggestions for response. Letter follows:

Briefing on the new Government’s environmental law proposals and the serious threat they pose to freshwater

Kia ora koutou,

We are writing to you with important information on the Government’s proposals to rewrite environmental law and remove protections for freshwater. We do so because there has been very little public discussion or media coverage of the proposals, and the Government is moving swiftly. Furthermore, information provided by the Government has not been shared with all those with working on or interested in freshwater.

The latest information provided by the Government (in a letter to an unclear list of stakeholders from Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop sent on Wednesday last week) suggests a very short timeframe for feedback on proposed changes – two weeks. So, along with providing a briefing on the proposals, we also make two suggestions for useful and effective actions you and/or your organisation can take right now.

1. Write to the Minister Hon Chris Bishop, Minister for RMA Reform, Chris.Bishop@parliament.govt.nz
2. Inform others

More details on these actions in the last section of this letter.

You are receiving this letter because at some time in the past decade either Mike and/or Marnie has had contact with you over your concern for freshwater.

The strength of many public voices on freshwater issues has successfully achieved change in the past and we believe it could have a positive effect again if we react to these proposals in a timely way.

The new Government’s proposals for freshwater and related policy

Overarching resource management law

The coalition Government outlined in its coalition agreement documents its intention to severely weaken environmental protections and their associated human health protections beginning with overarching resource management law.

At the end of last year, under urgency, the new Natural and Built Environment Act 2023 and Spatial Planning Act 2023 were repealed.

The new Government now intends to reform the Resource Management Act 1991, having committed in its coalition agreements to replace it “with new resource management laws premised on the enjoyment of property rights as a guiding principle” (National – ACT coalition agreement, p. 6).

Fast-track Minister-controlled consent process and irrigation projects

The letter from the Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop to some stakeholders sent on 31^st January 2024, stated:

“I am proposing a new bill which draws on the previous fast-track regimes and that will reflect the following:

• The new fast-track process will be contained in a standalone Act with its own

purpose statement.

• Locally, regionally and nationally significant infrastructure and development projects will be prioritised.

• There will be a process for the responsible minister to refer projects for acceptance

into the fast-track process, and the bill will also contain a list of projects that will be

first to have their approvals granted.

• Referred projects will go to an Expert Panel, which will have limited ability to decline a project once referred and will apply any necessary conditions to ensure adverse effects of the project are managed.”

What this means in practice is that the Government will produce a list of projects that will by-pass normal democratic processes, with likely little to no formal avenue for tangata whenua and wider public input or opposition. A number of these projects are likely to be large-scale irrigation schemes, based on the coalition agreements’ commitments to increasing water storage.

A ‘standalone Act with its own purpose’ means the Government is intending that these fast-tracked projects would avoid having to be consistent with the purpose of the Resource Management Act, which is (among other things) “safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems”. The ‘standalone Act” for fast-track projects is likely to have as its purpose “increasing productivity” or something related. If this is allowed to progress, projects are very likely to be given the go ahead with little or no environmental consideration.

National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020

In the short term, the Government first intends to (though it is not entirely clear how) disapply Te Mana o te Wai from the fast-track consents. In the medium term, the Government has said it intends to replace it the NPS-FM 2020 (signalled in the coalition agreements) and has particularly emphasised that they will either remove or “rebalance” Te Mana o te Wai. They have said this process of replacing the NPS-FM is expected to take 18 to 24 months.

Rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai would have the same effect as removing it. Te Mana o te Wai is the central decision-making framework that, along with its principles, establishes a “hierarchy of obligations” requiring councils to prioritise the health of waterways and people’s drinking water over commercial interests.

It has been beginning to have effect in consenting, with a consent application for over 8 billion litres of water per year turned down in Hawke’s Bay last year on the basis of Te Mana o te Wai. The commissioners at the time noted in their decision that, in previous versions of the NPS-FM, “no strong weighting was given to the protection of freshwater values versus its use and development”.

We have further concerns for the National Objectives Framework, the part of the NPS-FM that establishes bottom lines for contaminants in waterbodies. Indications from Government suggest that they would like to remove or weaken these on the basis that “local communities get the opportunity to customise and to have nuanced processes in place that ensure that at a community level they can be making decisions that are appropriate for that community”. This emphasis on community and “catchment-level” decision-making would be unnecessary if you intended to keep the National Objectives Framework as it is because community involvement and catchment-scale management are already how the NPS-FM functions. What this narrative suggests is wanting to remove bottom lines to allow the most well-resourced in society to pressure councils for whatever level of pollution works for their commercial interests.

The risks to human and ecological health of these proposals

For most, the risks of these proposals will be clear. However, we provide a brief outline here that highlights issues at a high level and is not exhaustive. The associated threats to equity, biodiversity, resilience to and mitigation of climate impacts, democratic process, etc. should be inferred.

The elevation of the enjoyment of property rights in resource management is very concerning as the health and wellbeing of communities and the natural environment simply cannot be protected on this basis. Resource management is applied, by necessity, across properties and public land to ensure that people and the environment avoid acute and cumulative impacts from individuals, businesses, or other agencies.

Fast-track consenting that facilitates irrigation schemes, particularly when they are not subject to any resource management law, bottom lines, or public scrutiny, will undoubtedly mean further intensification of agricultural systems and land use. This will mean more pollution to waterbodies and less water in waterways. Irrigation schemes have had extreme impacts on water quality and people’s drinking water sources in parts of the country, particularly Canterbury. Dams themselves also impact the health of waterbodies.

Removing or “rebalancing” Te Mana o te Wai will mean a return to the prioritisation or dominance of commercial interests over the public needs for a healthy environment and safe drinking water. There is ample evidence in of the health of drinking water sources and even minimal ecological health considerations being overridden in favour of intensification of land use. Without the Te Mana o te Wai legal weight given to drinking water and ecological health, commercial interests can use their resources to stay in planning processes as long as they need to achieve the outcomes they want at regional level.

What to do right now

Write to the Minister

The Government has suggested they will only allow an extremely short time frame for feedback on the fast-track consenting. The letter from Chris Bishop states:

“Details of the fast-track consenting regime and NPS-FM changes will be worked through over the next month, and your input into this process would be appreciated.

My officials will be in touch to seek a meeting with you to discuss the proposals and understand your perspective.

All feedback provided by the 12 February 2024 will inform the new [fast-track consent] bill to be introduced to Parliament in early March.”

Given this pace of decision-making, the most important action you and/or your organisation could take now is to write to the Minister to state your opposition to the Fast-track consent Bill and to replacing the NPS-FM 2020, removing or “rebalancing” Te Mana o te Wai.

Hon Chris Bishop, Minister for RMA Reform, Chris.Bishop@parliament.govt.nz

Informing others

A second and ongoing important thing you can do is to inform others of these proposals and the threats they pose to waterways and communities. As we noted at the beginning of this letter, these proposals are not widely known.

• Feel free to forward to letter to any one you wish.
• Speak to your organisation and professional networks.
• Encourage others to write to the Minister too as soon as possible.

·        Write an opinion piece or letter for a newspaper or industry publication to inform others.

Thank you

Thank you for reading this letter and for the time you take to stand up against the unravelling of environmental law and freshwater protection.

We have made progress in the past and we can again if there is enough strength shown from those outside parliament.

If you have any questions or thoughts, please contact us.

Ngā mihi nui,

Mike Joy and Marnie Prickett

Faith & Belief – Te Patapātai Whakapono (faithandbeliefstudynz.org)

This is the latest WF report on attitudes on faith and belief from a survey of 1009 New Zealanders. Few are church members so here are views of the community at large. Some are surprisingly hopeful and suggest areas for church outreach.

 To access click on title above to open.

An extract of the 2023 CLS by Peter Lineham. 2400 Anglicans responded on issues relating to their local church such as faith, spiritual sustenance, outreach to community and leadership. A wealth of material for mission and ministry. See attachments and pick your topics.

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Bishop Richard reflects on choices that affect our lives

Slipping the Moorings (Richard’s memoir).  STM… . gives chapter references below

Historical notes: Takapuna Grammar (53/7). Otago University. St John’s College, Union Seminary NYC (68/9).

Vocation 1  My years as curate at Papakura (’64/68) where I married Jackie were bleak years vocationally. I had offered for priesthood in the 50s when churches were full, but in the 60s people were leaving in droves. We went to New York for post-grad study in the midst of anti-Vietnam protests, Black Power and US capitalist exploitation in South America. There our understanding of missionwas blown wide open.  Key learnings:  First, the Church’s mission is to engage with society, and second, the experience of grace with finding this enlarged vocation.   STM 1

Industrial Mission (Teesside and Auckland 71-78), Vicar St Peter’s (78-90)

Vocation 2  At St Peter’s I corresponded often with Bishop Edward  Norman on key issues in Church and Society. Many kept silent. We developed a respect for one another. Key learning: “speaking truth to power” in a way that gets through is a skill to develop, but there can be a cost. As leaders to develop the skill to listen and consult is like gold – better outcomes, more commitment. STM3

Anglican social justice officer (90/94), Asst Bishop Canberra/Goulburn (94-99), Jackie was guidance counsellor at Canberra (Anglican Boys) Grammar.

Ethics 1 (and mission) As social justice officer, and with the impact of Rogernomics and Ruthanasia,  I ran 150 local seminars to link the theology of mission with analysis of local community needs, and then to plan local support services and advocacy for socio-economic change. Key learning: to integrate an outward-looking theology of mission with effective social engagement and strategies for change. STM 4.

Ethics 2 – Neoliberalism  As social justice officer I had frequent dialogue with the late Roger Kerr of the (then) NZ Business Roundtable. Roger described the churches as perpetrators of corrosive myths, undermining the neoliberal ideology. Some aspects of neoliberalism are positive, eg avoiding excessive regulation and freedom to use one’s gifts in a creative manner. But as practised it fails to recognise that St Paul’s teaching about individual gifts is that they are for the common good. Key learning: any economic or corporate policy must be measured by whether it is for the common good. STM 6

Ethics 3 –Royal Commission on Genetic Modification In 2000/1 I was the deputy chair of the four-member RCGM. In assessing the option for GM in NZ one of the considerations was ethics. I suggested we should create a statement of values as a measure of any recommendations. There was some doubt as to whether this was possible in a society but together we identified seven core values which we felt would be shared by most New Zealanders and were relevant to the consideration of genetic modification:

• The uniqueness of Aotearoa New Zealand
• The uniqueness of our cultural heritage
• Sustainability
• Being part of a global family
• The well-being of all
• Freedom of choice
• Participation (in decision-making)                            STM 8

Vocation 3 – Ambition  Being part of an institution inevitably raises the question of ambition. But ambition for what? For God? For mission? For the Church? For one’s company or for oneself? Ambition can be positive if one feels called to exercise a leadership that serves God and mission.  The only position I ever aspired to was Dean of Auckland. I turned it down twice because on each occasion I had just started another job. It was pure grace that it came back to me after my year on the RCGM. I relished the opportunity to lead good worship, preach and also be a voice in the public square (2000/07). Key learning: in vocational choices whom or what do we choose? STM 10

Spirituality 1  A Quaker woman, Catherine Benland, composed the S-Factor – spirituality for all New Zealanders

• freedom of conscience and belief
• a sense of the sacredness of one’s own self and body, and that of others
•  a sense of relationship among human beings
•  belonging to a family, community or whanau
• tenderness and compassion to the weak and needy
•  love for the earth, its rivers, mountains and bush, and its various life forms
• a feeling of awe in the face of the mystery of existence.
  
  

Spirituality 2/Vocation 4:  Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest in New Mexico, in Falling Upward, writes about two journeys in life. In the first journey of life we tend to be busy creating our place in the world – education, work, family, success, affluence, influence. But as we mature we come to see that bigger things are at stake – compassion, justice, truth, loving God and others. In the second journey we build those things into our lives, so that the second journey is shaping the first. Discovering the second journey early in life gives us a strong vocational sense of life’s purpose.

Key learning: what shapes your vocational choices?

St Peter’s, Wellington: seminar on God, 20 August 2023.      Bishop Richard Randerson

Personal statement: My faith begins with an experience of a God who is a mystery of love, whose nature is revealed in Jesus, and who calls us to follow Jesus.

Faith is not primarily an intellectual belief in creeds, dogmas, doctrines, liturgies, music, icons, a cross or rosary. These things are merely signposts whose usefulness is measured by the extent to which they lead us to an experience of God and to discipleship.

They are human constructs, many of them beautiful and life-giving, but they can also be barriers to faith. Images from 2000+ years ago do not resonate with many, especially if they feel they are to be interpreted literally. But any signpost that leads you to an experience of the living God is valid. Different images work for different people.

The ISMs

Theism 1: (as at top) an experience of God as spirit, mystery, some over-arching reality, transcendence, something bigger than ourselves that engages us. At a human level think of school spirit, Anzac spirit, team spirit.

Dag Hammarskjold, second Secretary-General of the United Nations:

I don’t know who or what put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone, or Something, and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.

Exodus 3:Think also of Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush. God said my name is I AM (Yahweh), or simply Being.  (cf Being vs a being).

^{John 6.68} Simon Peter answered:“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have come to believe and know you are the Holy One of God.”

Theism 2: theologians today tend to use this as a particular image of God – God as a supernatural being with all the anthropomorphic traits of human beings. (cf Xenophanes, 4oo BCE in Greece: parallel of horses choosing a horse for their god).  KEY QUESTION:  is this the reality of God? Or a human image? If it works for you, that’s fine, but for many people it is a barrier. (eg religion vs science re Creation; god of the gaps); or the problem of evil – why does a good God allow evil to happen?, or not stop it; eg a tsunami or cancer.

Agnosticism: usually a doubt about theism 2 and theism 1

Atheism: generally a denial of theism 2 and theism 1.      (Some atheists may have a sense of theism 1 (something bigger) but not revealed in Jesus).                                                        

Non-theism: a new kid on the block. After much thinking I now call myself a non-theist 2 who believes strongly in theism 1 (God as mystery revealed in Jesus) but not in theism 2 (God as a supernatural being). (Bishop John Robinson wrote of non-theism 2 in Honest to God, (1963).

Apophatic (not speaking) theologians believe that words cannot describe the mystery of who God but only of what God is not.

Humanism:  A commitment to the well-being of humankind. Some atheists and agnostics see themselves in this group.

Pantheism: the view that God and creation are one

Pan entheisn: the view that God is in all things. (Bishop John Robinson was of this view.)

Scientism:  the view that the only truths are those that are scientifically verifiable. Some atheists hold this view. Such a view rules out other truths such as ethics, or the arts.  

Creationism: the fundamentalist view that the Genesis creation stories are literally true and should be taught in the science curriculum in schools.

Intercessory prayer:  with few exceptions the bulk of our liturgies and prayers are based on theism 2 –the assumption that a heavenly father (or mother) is listening to us and will take some action to help us, or someone else we are praying for. I am very comfortable using prayers of this kind but in a non-theistic manner. The words are a powerful symbol of the God who is a mystery of love (theism 1).

For me prayer is allowing myself to be open to this mystery, to be filled by this divine spirit, feeling my life and concerns lifted, being thankful for all that is, feeling the joys and pains of others and being motivated to reach out to them. Prayer is healing in the sense of lifting us into the wholeness of God’s sustaining life and power.

Two prayers in NZPB that go some way to avoid theism 2 images are the Affirmation of Faith on p481 (…your purpose overarches everything we do…) and the version of the Lord’s Prayer on p181 (… Eternal spirit…source of all that is and that shall be –Jim Cotter).

When dealing with images there is no right or wrong. Finding the image that leads you to God is the key. Feel free to discuss this with Richard, the clergy or friends.

You may access Richard’s website and subscribe free for a whole range of resources on faith, justice, ethics and spirituality. 

  www.awordforallseasons.co.nz On the resources page you will find his memoir Slipping the Moorings in which Chapter 11 addresses issues raised in this paper.                                    

So Richard Dawkins has been and gone and if you had $300 you could have heard him speak. What follows was the basis of a letter in The Dominion Post  on 25 February 2023.

 Richard Dawkins is a renowned evolutionary biologist and campaigning atheist. His visit this weekend raised important issues about scientific method and the status of non-scientifically verifiable realities such as the arts, religion, ethics and philosophy.

In 1859 Charles Darwin’s On the origin of species divided the Church into three broad categories: those who rejected science (biblical literalists), those who rejected religion (whence spring many atheists) and those who sought to blend the two into a creative synthesis (contemporary theology). 

Contemporary theologians point out that the Genesis account of the Earth’s origins are neither history nor science. They speak instead of the unity and sacredness of all creation and our role as kaitiaki of the Earth.

In The God Delusion (2006) Dawkins describes how he and a former Bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries, wrote a joint letter on behalf of a group of scientists and bishops to Tony Blair opposing a proposal to introduce creationism (a religious ideology) into the science curriculum of a state-funded school. (They received a vague response.) 

Regrettably Dawkins, while thus being fully aware of contemporary theology, campaigns against religion on the basis of caricatures and biblical literalisms.

Dawkins is moved by Schubert and Shakespeare. He would like to find a scientific explanation for that but such a quest takes one down the road to scientism (no truth except what is scientifically verifiable). Dawkins would do better to break free from that straitjacket and acknowledge that there are other truths in life that do not need to be shoe-horned into the scientific paradigm.