General Synod
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Personal Impressions of General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui The Very Revd Frank Nelson (Dean of Wellington)
He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
Hardly original but nonetheless a good summary statement of General Synod. My over-riding impression of this week-long bi-annual gathering of the Anglican Church’s ‘parliament’ is that people are foremost in our concern within our church. One need only glance at the formidable list of reports to see that people – young and old, lay and ordained, Maori, Pakeha and Polynesian – feature largely in the life and work of the church. If at times this focus appeared threatened by the inevitable minutiae of working out our common life, the smiling faces of students at the Good Shepherd Secondary School in our link diocese of Kagera, Tanzania brought it sharply back into focus.
For me General Synod was one of those ‘to do’ things. In my thirtieth year of ordination it seemed about time I put my hand up to attend the highest decision-making body of our Church. So it was that I, along with our Bishop and five others from the Diocese , spent the second week of May in an oppressively low-ceilinged, air-conditioned room at one of the smarter hotels in Wellington. Delegates came from each of the seven New Zealand Dioceses, the Hui Amorangi of Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa, and the Diocese of Polynesia.
My own particular contribution to General Synod came, along with the whole Cathedral family, in planning and hosting the opening Eucharist. How fitting that it should be on Pentecost Sunday – celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Church, and the impetus for mission and ministry in the world! And what a celebration it was – with opening powhiri (true to form running over time), splendid colourful procession, which seemed to go on forever as three Cathedral choirs were followed by clergy and Archdeacons (each carrying one of the Sesqui Gospels), bishops and archbishops – backed by full organ, NZ Brass and the voices of people who are used to, and enjoy, singing hymns. Readings and prayers were read and prayed in different languages, both those used in our church and some of those spoken by members of the Cathedral. Bishop Tom began his sermon by likening the Diocese of Wellington to a 150 year old rug - a little worn in places, the odd coffee stain, but with threads and a pattern that are still vibrant and colourful. Over the years it’s been a place to stand upon; a wrap to give sanctuary; a space in which saintly deeds have been done; a point from which missional enterprise has been launched. Among the many favourable and complimentary comments made to me was this simple statement: Thank you – I worshipped God tonight!
Then it was down to business starting with an awe-inspiring list of duties our three archbishops have engaged in over the past year or so. Among the debates was the future shape of the primacy – one or three archbishops? In Synod’s wisdom we decided on three primates (did the imminent Trinity Sunday having any influence?) for the time being. Archdeacon Tai Leota (some time representative of the Anglican Church at the UN) has a wonderful way of putting things in perspective – often accompanied by a throaty chuckle and her observation, “I love our Church, where we are able to change things so that they work!” Having plenty of mis-givings as to how this model will in fact work, I was somewhat re-assured by the realisation that we are a young church, searching for ways of governance that work. Former Archbishop John Paterson made an impassioned plea for real and adequate support for the archbishops – he should know! One of the moving moments of Synod was the commissioning of, and prayer for, the three Primates (Archbishops Brown Turei, Jabez Bryce and David Moxon) – with young people standing behind the primates as we prayed for them.
The elephant in the room, which everyone knew about and yet, I suspect, feared to tackle – the question of homo-sexual bishops, Lambeth Conference and a proposed Covenant – was dealt with in a novel way. This is what I said in a sermon on the Sunday following Synod: The debate on the future of the Anglican Communion, and a proposed covenant between Anglican provinces across the world, had the potential to rip us apart. The fact that it did not is due in no small measure to the gift of debate in hui mode offered by Tikanga Maori. Sir Paul Reeves chaired the five hours devoted to the hui and started by laying down some ground rules. Among them: the speaker speaks without interruption, people listen respectfully, a thread of conversation is developed, there should be no muffling of truth, people must go beyond point-scoring and look for common ground. Presentations were made on behalf of each Tikanga, often almost brutally honest, and the wide range of understanding and interpretation particularly, but not exclusively, over matters of sexuality, was clearly laid out. Time and time again there was the encouragement, the urging, for the church to think in fresh ways about entrenched issues and perceptions. It became clear that while many felt deeply the pain of those excluded from the church because of sexual orientation and practice, for others the reality of finding enough to live on, devastating floods and the disruption to civil life of military coups simply doesn’t allow for what is perceived as the luxury of this debate.
A cameo of God’s Spirit of aroha at work was to see two people, at opposite ends of the sexuality spectrum, heads together, working on finding wording acceptable to both. A helpful image picked up by the Synod was that of the village square – where people, coming out of their various houses, have time and place to speak together. I found myself looking with new eyes at the woven cross in the front of our prayer book. It suggests the weaving together of many different strands, with one little piece not yet tucked away – perhaps suggesting that the work is not yet finished. In his summing up Sir Paul wondered whether there has ever been a common Anglican theology, and whether the strength of the Anglican Communion lies precisely in this position of recognising that people with different perspectives still breath the same air. His final words were to ask whether, as a result of the hui, we understood better our own and others positions! Could this have happened in a Westminster style debate? I doubt it.
At every synod I have ever been to, and they number quite a few, I have been awed at the capacity of some to stand and debate eloquently, coherently and (sometimes) succinctly. My own fumbling attempts usually result in my sitting down wondering why I had forgotten to make the most important point! If the skills of debaters are worthy of awe, even more so are those who chair these meetings. I am not one of those who finds reading the Constitution and Acts stimulating bed-time reading – but acknowledge the wisdom of those who do.
Always suckers for punishment we gave a whole evening over to the politicians, specifically asking them to comment on the five ‘planks’ of the Hikoi of Hope (this being ten years since that momentous event in New Zealand’s life). True to form most of the speakers came with their own agenda and stuck to it. But it did give us a chance to view an excellent presentation on the Hikoi offered by the Social Justice Commissioner of our Church, and Cathedral member, Dr Anthony Dancer. Have we progressed as a nation in the past ten years? Overall the vote would have to be yes – but with some worrying signs of a growing divide between rich and poor.
Each day began with an early morning Eucharist (attended by the truly committed and those who never sleep). Synod itself started at 8.30am with a half hour spent in bible study, reflection and prayer. The depth of wisdom and prayerful insight quickly became apparent. (We were encouraged to tell stories and I found myself recounting my meeting, twenty years ago, a wizened old lady introduced as the mother of one of my curates. She had spent her life washing clothes and cleaning houses for other people. Last month her son was installed as the Archbishop of Cape Town.) Each of the three Tikanga had a day to lead worship in its own particular style and languages – the Diocese of Wellington, as the host diocese, having a day to itself.
I am always interested to see what really provokes energy in Synod – often the least expected matters. With such weighty matters as resource sharing, and adequately funding ministry to, among and from young people, it was the debate on a proposed children’s liturgy that took me by surprise. Archdeacon Tony Gerritsen captured some of the absurd in this fine piece of writing: And on the lighter/sadder side Motion 8, ‘A BILL INTITULED ‘THE PSALMS FOR WORSHIP AMMENDMENT STATUE 2008’ was passed after three readings, in good Westminster tradition, to change the spelling of one word in Psalm 106 vs 23. The word change was ‘breech’ to ‘breach’. The world tilted on its axis as this momentous decision was made and to add to the irony of the occasion it was then that the TV cameras came in to film the proceedings of synod.
But General Synod really is about people – and it was the meal breaks that allowed conversation to flow as people sought out old, and made new, friends. The Diocese of Wellington put on a splendid dinner, graciously hosted by the Hon Peter Dunne, at Parliament’s banquet hall – a fitting venue for our own church parliament.
My overall impressions? An enriching time which left me exhausted but with a far better appreciation of the richness of our unique three tikanga church, that the Gospel is being preached in innovative and creative ways, and that there are very fine people out there living their faith in daily life. Among the personal challenges – to build bridges with our Maori partners in this part of the world, and to look seriously at a new tikanga of growing importance – those from Asia and Africa who do not share cultural European ways.
A final word: the Cathedral Choir sang, for the first time, the hauntingly beautiful arrangement, by Miss Huia Beattie, of the Lord’s Prayer in Maori. What a gift to the church.
