Bishop’s Letter - Beyond Lockdown

Beyond Lockdown...

On the 21st of December 1836, Bishop Pompallier, our first bishop, set sail from the French port of Le Havre… After over a year of being locked down on various ships, on the 10th of January 1838, he arrived at the home of Thomas and Mary Poynton at Totara Point, Hokianga in the far north.

Bishop Steve Lowe

Bishop of Hamilton

Facebook: Bishop Steve Lowe

Postal address: Chanel Diocesan Centre, 51 Grey St, P.O. Box 4353, Hamilton East 3247

Thomas Poynton had been transported to Australia as a convict in 1822 after defending the land rights of tenant farmers. After his incarceration lockdown he met Mary Kennedy and in 1828, they moved to New Zealand. It was at their house that Bishop Pompallier celebrated the first Mass in Aotearoa New Zealand on the 13th of January 1838. Until Pompallier’s arrival, there was no Catholic priest in New Zealand. The Poyntons had previously sailed to Sydney to have their first two children baptised and in 1835 Thomas Poynton returned to Sydney to ask for a Catholic priest to serve the Catholic community in New Zealand. As it happened a decision had been made in Rome two years prior for a priest to be sent to New Zealand… it just hadn’t yet happened.

For many of you I had the privilege of celebrating Mass “virtually” in your home during the Covid-19 lockdown. Even though there was the pain of not being able to receive Holy Communion, hundreds each weekday and thousands on Sundays connected online because of your desire for the Eucharist. I was heartened to hear from so many of you how the online Masses had deepened your appreciation of the Mass. In addition to this, in many homes throughout the Diocese, individuals and families found new ways to pray and develop their faith life. It is such desire and hunger for the Mass that has built the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand.

It is such hunger and desire for Eucharist, for the other sacraments and for a deepened spiritual life that we will need to rebuild our faith communities postlockdown and in time, post-Covid-19. The pandemic will change everything. Our world, our communities, our families and our parishes won’t be the same. We will have to rebuild. What our tupuna, our ancestors in the Catholic faith in New Zealand, teach us is that the basic building blocks are found in recognising the importance of faith and the passion to share that faith.

Already your priests and many of you have been involved in this as you engaged in various works of outreach during the lockdown. Can I take this opportunity to thank all those people who connected with parishioners with various initiatives to respond to the spiritual, physical, social and emotional needs of our people. May your efforts bear much fruit! Diocese a wonderful opportunity to re- ”vision” what and how we do things as believers and in our faith community. In particular, what each of us and each community needs to ask is how we “connect” and “reconnect” with the wider community. I have been so heartened by the stories I have heard of how this happened during lockdown. Our challenge now is to bring the phone or social media connection to a physical connection with the parish.

In the same way we need to reflect on how effectively our parishes and liturgies “connect” and “reconnect” with the people in our communities. What might I and we do better?

We went into lockdown in the season of Lent and came out in the season of Easter. We went from cross to resurrection. May 2020 not be just the year of Covid, but rather a year of transformation of ourselves and our communities of faith.