Journeying Together

Journeying Together – from a three tikanga church perspective
Good Friday Reflections, 2 April 2010, St Johns Campbells Bay, Michael Hughes

I have been asked to reflect briefly on this Good Friday around the theme of ‘Journeying Together’ from a three tikanga church perspective.
I do this out of my experience, however limited, of working and ministering at the provincial or international level in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia / te Hahi Mihinare ki Aotearoa ki Niu Tereni, ki Nga Moutere o te Moana Nui a Kiwa. And that full title of ‘this church’, the Anglican Church in this part of the world, gives us a few clues immediately about what such ‘journeying together’ here might mean.

Let me begin though with some words of greeting:
Maloelele, Ta’alofa lava, Bula vinaka, Kia orana, Namaste, Tena koutou, and Greetings in the several official languages of this church. These are the languages of Tongan, Samoan, native Fijian, Cook Island Maori, Indian Fijian, Maori and English.
And so from these greetings we get a sense of an international partnership being reflected in the make up of this church, as we do also in the title of the church.
The full title of this church reflects not only this multi-national make up, and the implied ‘ethnic journeying together’ that this entails, but more focusedly it also reflects the structural partnerships of ‘this church’, which form the basis of our constitutional shape; our ‘journeying together as three tikanga’.

Firstly, we are the Anglican Church in this place. Part of a global international communion of independent and largely autonomous provinces around the world, around 38 in total, which associate through some common bonds of affection, and a historical relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with other national or provincial churches which have stemmed from the ministry of the Church of England, Ireland and Wales.
So, there continues some global ‘journeying together’ with other churches of the communion, and of late that particular journeying has been experiencing some strain and tension as some matters of difference have seemed to overtake the matters in common. But we are still ‘journeying together globally’ in the main, and many are deeply committed to continuing that journeying together despite the differences, or maybe some would even say with the differences.

By naming ourselves as Anglican we are also differentiating our distinctiveness over against other denominational churches – Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc, which speaks indirectly of another whole set of ‘inter-denominational Christian journeying together’ which call us to find ways of relating with other Christians.

We are not only then the ‘Anglican Church’, but we are the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia – so we are a located church, a contextualized church, we are the church in ‘a particular place’, with all the distinctive elements that particular location and context implies. We are the church in this country, Aotearoa New Zealand, doubly named to reflect its bicultural history, its treaty of Waitangi foundation, and its commitment to working at bicultural partnership. Thus there is a ‘journeying together in this place’, as the first people of the land and as people who have come to this land more recently to live in partnership and journey together.

And yet it does not stop there, for the Anglican Church has designated this Province to include more than just ‘this land’, but also the largest geographical diocese in the world, that of the Pacific, which admittedly is way more water than land, and which incorporates several independent nations in one diocese, and which is the part of ‘this church’.
This is the Diocese of Polynesia, which is the third partner, or tikanga, in ‘this church’ alongside Maori and Pakeha.
Thus we are the Anglican Church, yes, and we are the Anglican Church in this land Aotearoa New Zealand, yes, and we are the Anglican Church in this province of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia.
So, lots of implied ‘journeying together’.

Then we are also te Hahi Mihinare ki Aotearoa ki Niu Tereni, ki Nga Moutere o te Moana Nui a Kiwa
The literal translation of the Maori part of the name of ‘this church’ is loosely:
Te Hahi Mihinare = the Church of the Missionaries
Ki Aotearoa – of Aotearoa
Ki Niu Tireni – a Maori transliteration ‘of New Zealand’
Ki Nga Moutere – of the islands
O te Moana Nui o Kiwa – of the big sea of Kiwa
Kiwa – is an ancestor figure that many of the Pacific peoples share in common and who was renowned as a great ocean navigator and explorer

So we have ‘The Church of the Missionaries in Aotearoa New Zealand and the islands of the great Ocean of Kiwa – the Pacific Ocean.

Now I have mentioned several times the concept of tikanga – stemming from ‘tika’ = right/correct. So, implying ‘the correct or right way’ for the people who follow, – i.e. tikanga Maori, tikanga Pakeha, tikanga Pasefika. So, the correct way for Maori, or the correct way for Pakeha, or the correct way for Pasefika/or Polynesia. The way that is culturally right for them to be Christian, to be Anglican, and to be Church, within their shared cultural heritage and norms.

Such a way of working, of being church, implies of course a great sense of ‘journeying together’ alongside each other, in parallel but not in competition. No one way, or tikanga, being better or more important, or primary, over the others, but rather each bringing to the ‘journeying together’ its riches and wealth of tradition and cultural expression, and each thus enriching the whole of the church – especially when the three come together in one setting. As it did in part at my liturgical welcome to my new provincial role recently held at Auckland Cathedral. There were on that occasion leaders from all three tikanga, and various languages and forms from differing tikanga were used, but there was a sense of the three ‘adding to’ and ‘enriching’ the whole as we sought to ‘journey together’ in shared worship.

This three tikanga ‘journeying together’ is perhaps most apparent in the General Synod/ te Hinota Whanui, of this church. This biennial gathering is of representatives of each of the tikanga together in a shared space, for reporting, governance and decision making. The General Synod is presided over by the three Archbishops, one of each tikanga, who together in their shared office represent the primacy, or the head of this church in this Province. This Synod is a place where each of the tikanga ‘journey together’ in equal partnership, regardless of numerical supremacy, but rather on equal footing as three who seek to work as one. This is not only reflected in the presidency of the three Archbishops but also potentially in the empowerment of the tikanga as partners, within a traditional Anglican polity, or system. So when it comes to voting, like any Anglican Synod the voting is done in houses, Bishops, Clergy and Laity, and a majority is required in all three for agreement to be reached. But the General Synod, in honoring the equal ‘journeying together’ of the tikanga partners, also constitutionally has the option of calling for a tikanga vote, so a vote by each of the three on tikanga or cultural grounds. In this case, which has only ever happened a couple of times in the life of the church since this new constitution came into being in 1992, the majority of each tikanga must also agree for agreement to be reached.

It is a unique piece of church polity, and yet it is borne out of a generous ‘journeying together’ as cultural partners, which seeks to empower each and all the tikanga, as partners together, rather than allowing for the numerically superior to dominate.

This somewhat unique way of relating, and of ‘journeying together’, as tikanga in this church is depicted in the provincial symbol of Anglicans in this part of the world, that of the woven flax cross, which is on our prayer book and now also on the roadside sign here at St Johns Campbells Bay. It is, as Archbishop David Moxon said recently, an image ‘picking up strands from all three tikanga of the church in these islands. At the centre of the woven cross pattern is the koru, a sign of new life. The koru is presented in red as sign of life-blood, of the life-giving love that flows through the heart of the Christian message and Christian mission’. Thus it contains Maori koru, pacific weaving, and the missionary cross in a unique blending together of a shared tikanga journey.

So then, apart from including this symbol, and the church’s full name, on our signage, how else can we express and engage in such three tikanga ‘journeying together’ locally here?

I would suggest in some of these ways:
1. Seeking to understand something of the unique make up of this church in this province.

2. Praying for our tikanga partners and for their unique expression of worship and mission.

3. Seeking to learn about the other cultures that make up this church.

4. Learning a little of the other languages of this church – at the very least maybe words of greeting and perhaps snippets of liturgy. Our prayer book contains these resources there for us to use.

5. Maybe even seeking out some first hand experience of engagement with the other tikanga than our own – through attending worship, or courses, or events held in other tikanga or joint three tikanga experiences where a mix of all three are to be found.

Such is the richness and the diversity of the journey we are offered by the church we are a part of, it is up to us to take it up if we wish to more fully ‘journey together’ as a three tikanga church.