Tui motu 2007 february

Tui Motu InterIslands

February 2007 Price $5

Epiphany Tramping around lake Rotoiti and up Hopeless creek

With a swift turn it was gone under the sway of a branch

I turned a corner and beheld the unexpected epiphany

the land performed its sleight of hand hiding the accepted

a fawn frozen in sunlight trembling between apprehension and flight

creature in the Eden from which I was expelled

One glance and I fell hopelessly in love

Yet the other night I had a reprieve the Christ came to me

so delicate of mien all of a tremble taking in the scent of me

with the same delicate grace his eyes were the fawn’s dark eyes and asked

the dark eyes that asked am I safe or sunsafe?

may I rest my hart’s head on your heart’s beat or must I also flee?

Tui Motu InterIslands 1

editorial

The sign of Jonah Contents 2-3 editorial

Ron Sharp 3 letters 4-5 Bringing something hopeful to birth

Glynn Cardy 6-9 Men Matter

Richard Rohr 10-11 Will God ever leave us alone?

Deepak Chopra 12-13 Making entrepreneurs of the young

Ivan Snook 14-16 Crunch time in Fiji (2 articles)

Michael Field, Kevin

Barr and others 16-17 Cribs and family rituals

Trish McBride 18-19 Reality wedding

Peter Murnane 20-21 What teenagers really want

Paul Andrews 21 A mother’s journal

Kaaren Mathias 22-23 Nearest in love

Simon Rae 24 Turning the other cheek

Margaret Bedggood 25 Reflecting on John

Susan Smith 26-27 The Queen

Kevin Toomey

Paul Sorrell 28-29 Books

Merle van de Klundert

Mike Crowl 30 Crosscurrents

John Honoré 31 Dealing with the violent offender

Humphrey O’Leary 32 Postscript – Urban Rape

Michael Hill

Poetry:

Peter Rawnsley (cover), Mary Thorne, Joy Cowley

ISSN 1174-8931

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aymond Brown, the American Scripture scholar, speaks of a discussion he once had a with a Jewish rabbi. The rabbi said: “How can you Christians say that Christ has come when the world is in such a mess?” Ray replied: “Since the world is in such a mess, how can we say that Christ has not come?”

As we review the state of the world at the beginning of 2007, the word “mess” fits the bill perfectly. John Honoré wrings his hands in despair (p 30) at the apparently insoluble crisis in Palestine and Iraq, not to speak of ominous rumblings from Iran and the wilful rigidity of American policies. Closer to home political unrest and instability are spreading across the south Pacific like a virulent contagion. Two articles on the situation in Fiji (pp 14-15) offer some light but not much hope.

and this earth out of love. The solution is available to us through the law of love if only we humans were not too blind or obdurate to recognise it.

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esus said to the Pharisees who demanded a sign that the only sign they would get was that of the prophet Jonah. Jonah in the whale’s belly is the classic image of what spiritual writers call ‘liminal space’, that state of utter helplessness when the only way out is to trust God’s loving mercy.

Ivan Snook (pp 12-13) laments, with reason, how the new school curriculum is being permeated with the self-serving values of the market economy. However, clearly the greatest challenge of all – to the whole world – is the looming environmental crisis.

Rampant consumerism and greed are ravaging the world’s resources and causing ever-increasing levels of pollution such that even George Bush is beginning to take notice.

Richard Rohr (pp5-9) applies this to our individual faith journey. But it is equally applicable to communities, to society, to states, to the whole of humankind. Only utter disaster brings men and women to their senses. Only defeat in battle or at the polls or in business destroys the overweening pride of political tyrant, of entrepreneur or any human person driven by greed and ambition.

What answers are offered by Christian faith? Opposite, Ron Sharp expresses once again an abiding trust in the goodness of God which has been the constant theme of great Christian writers down the ages. God made us

As a race, we humans are facing Armageddon. It is only when things are this bad that we start to take seriously the Gospel of Christ and allow it to rule our lives. And that is some agenda for 2007!

M.H.

Tui Motu-InterIslands is an independent, Catholic, monthly magazine. It invites its readers to question, challenge and contribute to its discussion of spiritual and social issues in the light of gospel values, and in the interests of a more just and peaceful society. Inter-church and inter-faith dialogue is welcomed. The name Tui Motu was given by Pa Henare Tate. It literally means “stitching the islands together...”, bringing the different races and peoples and faiths together to create one Pacific people of God. Divergence of opinion is expected and will normally be published, although that does not necessarily imply editorial commitment to the viewpoint expressed.

Independent Catholic Magazine Ltd, P O Box 6404, Dunedin North, 9030 Phone: 03 477 1449: Fax: 03 477 8149: email: tuimotu@earthlight.co.nz: website: www.tuimotu.org Editor: Michael Hill IC; Assistant Editor: Frances Skelton; Illustrator: Don Moorhead Directors: Margaret Butler OP, Rita Cahill RSJ, Tom Cloher, Robin Kearns, Chris Loughnan OP, Elizabeth Mackie OP, Katie O’Connor (Chair), Kathleen Rushton RSM

Grounds for Hope

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ope is not an easy feeling, when you are being oppressed

by Egyptian, Babylonian, Roman or Corporate masters. Who can save us when we feel oppressed by issues like global warming, pollution, inability to stop consuming, running out of resources and a seeming human determination for self-destruction.

Will our intelligence and the Divine spark within us be able to bring about the changes needed? What sort of saviour are we looking for? Many actually want the whole operation of the earth to crash down all around us and end things now so that we can discover heaven.

But is that the sort of heaven meant by “heaven”? What if it’s not?

Lloyd Geering – 1

Dr Murray Rae’s review of the Otago University Press’s collection of essays on Lloyd Geering (Dec TM) was one-sided and ungracious towards its subject matter. Without naming one of the contributors the reviewer implied a wholesale rejection of Geering’s writings; yet another review I have read suggests a more diverse range of opinions are shared.

A friend, no longer a churchgoer, said that back in the ’60s he was virtually hounded out of his church youth group when he raised questions his leader did not feel comfortable addressing.

He added that, putting aside the truthfulness or otherwise of Geering’s views, his biggest contribution was “to open the doors and windows” and take the discussion of religion out of church and academia in to the market place of discussion and disputation.

For this alone, we owe Lloyd Geering a huge thank you.

John Thornley, Palmerston North

Lloyd Geering – 2

It seems churlish to question the appropriateness of an award given to a fellow citizen, especially when it happens to be the highest honour the nation can bestow. But, then, the recipient seemed more than somewhat abashed himself. Lloyd Geering

In 2007 we face some big challenges to hope! But I for one believe that humans have been through greater catastrophes, like ice ages, continental shifts, earthquakes and volcanic upheavals in our 4.4 million years of development. We are only one important species that is only just coming out of its infancy in comparison with the whole story of the Universe.

The potential within creation is enormous. Maybe we have to change our attitude to God’s amazing and mysterious cycle of creativity, through the strange process of birth, destructive death and rebirth. There is so much for our little brains to comprehend. So I find there is huge scope for hope in the power behind it all.

letters to the editor

Ron Sharp

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We welcome comment, discussion, argument, debate. But please keep letters under 200 words. The editor reserves the right to abridge, while not altering meaning.

Response articles (up to a page) are also welcome, but need to be by negotiation

protested surprise that he should be distinguished as a theologian par excellence. St Thomas Aquinas would expect a theologian to be on the side of the angels, but Geering is not even on God’s side e.g. his publication Christianity without God. There is no gainsaying that Lloyd is an extraordinary talent; his publications exhibit enviable erudition, lucidity, and capacity to engage the community in controversy. Normally such attributes would illuminate theology but Lloyd is not a theologian.

Mike Grimshaw (Listener Oct.06) explains why, in reviewing Lloyd’s autobiography Wrestling with God. Grimshaw, a ‘dissenting Presbyterian’, wrote an honours thesis on the original Geering controversy, and now teaches religious studies. He considers that God scarcely gets a look into the Geering autobiography; “for Geering is neither a theologian nor an original theological voice – that is not his role. His crucial importance has been as a communicator... a prophet to

that section of society attempting to encounter modernity and religion – yet uncomfortable with both”.

The Honours Committee should give credit where and when it’s due but for the right reasons. Normally you would expect peer group opinion to confirm such an honour. Did that occur? No one is well served by an inappropriate decision, least of all the recipient.

Tom Cloher, Auckland

Opening the books

Since Vatican II, the winds of change have blown through the corridors of the Catholic Church. This glasnost has been refreshing and most welcome.

It is therefore most disappointing to note that during a renewal of Planned Giving in our parish in Dunedin, we were not advised of the indebted state of the diocesan finances. This information was supplied to the clergy at a special meeting.

As the laity are the shareholders of the diocese, I think it is entirely appropriate that they should be informed of the financial state of the diocese. To know what we are aiming for would enable us to focus our energies on the problem, and hopefully we would be given the opportunity to make a contribution to its solution.

John Vincent, Dunedin

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waitangi day

Bringing something hopeful to birth Waitangi day 2007 Glynn Cardy

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ach year at this time we remember a Treaty – or as the early missionaries called it a “covenant” – between two nations.

It was signed at Waitangi in 1840

by Governor Hobson on behalf of Britain and by various Maori chiefs, predominantly Nga Puhi.

Yet when Jesus, whose power was deep within himself as well as in the tradition of his people, voluntarily chose to put others before himself, others’ needs before his own, grace and hope entered in. This is the theme of reversal so prevalent in Christian literature. When the powerful voluntarily give up power for no personal gain, the whole community can be empowered. When the wise voluntarily becomes a fool, then Lady Wisdom can dance with the whole community.

Covenant is a Biblical word.

It implies that the written and legal words are only one part of the story. The other, and much larger part, is God, the Sacred, mingling with our fraught words Reconstruction of the Treaty signing – L.C. Mitchell and motives to bring something hopeful to birth in the hearts as well as Spirit of God is like, look at Jesus.

Jesus did not lack courage. It showed What was the Treaty all about? the laws of a people. through particularly in his keen sense The history of Aotearoa New Zealand At this time of year there is a cacophony of justice. He lived in a society where can be read as a struggle for primacy. of voices. “Ditch the Treaty”, say some. one group, the religiously righteous, The Treaty for example can be seen as “It has passed its use-by-date and now is claimed primacy over all others. a vehicle for British colonial expansion. purely a source of division.” “Enshrine People like Matthew the tax collector When Maori were the majority in the it,” say others, “as the basis of a new were on the outer – spiritually and land the Pakeha Parliament made sure Constitution.” There are those who see morally impure. there was no proportional representation. it as racially divisive and inappropriate On the other hand some would see the for a national day. There are those who Jesus also lived in a society where one Treaty settlements, not as justice, but as see it as an idealistic symbol of hope that racial group, the Romans, held political Maori trying to gain political leverage difference can live together or indeed power and would ruthlessly use any and ultimately primacy. means to retain it. Jesus challenged can be wholeheartedly celebrated. both groups and the latter killed him. Our history, however, is more than Jesus was on about fairness.

Fairness a struggle for primacy. There are Philip Temple, when commenting on moments of grace that from time to our national values, writes: “Fairness Selflessness time erupt and surprise us, acts of (is) the key word. This simple (word) However, alongside the fairness of Jesus individual selflessness and corporate underpins… equality of opportunity, there was also another value: selflessness. self-giving. social justice, reparations to Maori… Most current writers do not mention and a highly representative and open this. For it is an unpopular word, with The signing of the Treaty in 1840, I Parliament.” He goes on: “All the a blighted history. The less powerful think, was a moment of grace that was problems of the world… are caused groups in society (servants, employees, bigger than any one or group present. by one group claiming primacy over housewives, etc) were, and often still This was not a document attesting to a are, encouraged to live out this value conquest. There was no victor dictating another.” by the more powerful groups (masters, terms to the vanquished. Rather, two For Christians, God is seen uniquely employers, patriarchs, and the clergy). sovereign peoples, both with their in Jesus. If you want to know what the Selflessness is a word of control. mana intact, signed a document that

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said they would try to live and build a future together. Both tried to articulate things that were important to them, and both to some extent acknowledged the importance of the other’s things.

There was a spirit there bigger than the ink or the people.

I am not saying that there were no ulterior motives or trickery involved.

Some wanted converts, some muskets, some land, and some security. I’m not sure how much equality was present – both English and Maori probably would have considered themselves culturally superior to the other. Yet despite all that there was also a spirit of distinctive peoples trying to make peace work without blatantly subjugating the other through violence.

Yes, lots of violence followed the signing of the Treaty. Land was sold. But large tracts were also stolen and usurped by shameful deeds and acts of Parliament.

For years injustice was rife, and any tangible reconciliation seldom attempted.

Governments even in my lifetime swept legitimate Maori land grievances under the carpet and gave little room for legal recourse until the Land March in 1975 opened the door a crack.

Waitangi today

In 1982, 23 years ago, I paid my first visit to Waitangi. It was a different world then. Robert Muldoon as Prime Minister believed that bullying people was a legitimate way to win arguments, and it seemed that the New Zealand populace agreed with him. He stigmatised those who disagreed with him. Maori who sought redress about misappropriated lands, and the few Pakeha who supported them, were “radical protesters” and “communist stirrers”. Fairness, let alone selflessness, was not on the Government’s agenda.

But things were beginning to change.

In 1983, for example, there was the last ‘apolitical’ church service held on the Upper Treaty grounds. A middleaged local Pakeha priest had prepared a service giving thanks to God that we are all one people. Yet even before he

walked out on that ground, even before other clergy and laity, I among them, prepared to be seen as fools stood to disrupt that service, there were police lined up, shoulder to shoulder at the end of every pew.

As any student of Reformation history knows there has long been a delicate relationship between church and state, each conscious of its sovereignty and of its sovereignty’s limitations. Both church and state fiercely guard their auto­nomy. On the morning of Febru­ ary 6, 1983 the state crossed the line.

The church was being used to sanctify the ‘there-is-no-problem’ attitude of the Muldoon Government.

Is it any wonder that some of us rebelled? Fr Terry Dibble, one of those arrested, was brought before the court on the charge of saying a prayer during a church service. Think about that charge… The absurd was in the air.

Anglican Church and Waitangi

The Anglican Church, long a weather­ cock of middle-class opinion, began to move. Although the Bishop of Wellington choked, declared it as “anarchy”, he was generally laughed at.

My local parish of St. Heliers had an animated discussion but no one left. In the parish of St Andrew, Epsom, where the Vicar was amongst those arrested, the discussion was more heated. Yet very few left.

The next year at Waitangi, the then Bishop of Aotearoa, Whakahuihui Vercoe, was asked to speak at the

I

church service. Surrounded by fellow bishops he castigated the state for its appalling record in redressing Maori grievances. It was Hui at his best. After that year the state gave up trying to organise and control church services at Waitangi. The church and state were quite obviously at odds on this issue.

Yet the Anglican Church has continued its keen interest in the issues of nationhood and the redress of wrongs in order to facilitate that. We have remodelled our own house in order to acknowledge the spirit of Waitangi: sovereign peoples committing themselves to trying to live together.

As a national church we are learning tolerance, restraint, listening skills, not running away from discomfort, and most of all the surprising grace that sneaks in when we least expect it.

I am very hopeful about the future of our country for though I have seen the turbulence of hatred, violence (of the punch and of the pen), and terrible prejudice, I have also seen rainbows of grace, people prepared to listen and to change, and acts of wonderful courage. We are now enriched by many cultures. Although English and Maori will always have a special, yet different, place in our country, the spirit of Waitangi embraces more than both. It was, and is, a covenant – God mingling with us, though we be riddled with imperfection, to bring something hopeful to birth. n Glynn Cardy is parish priest of St Matthew-in-the-City, Auckland

Treaty 2 U

t took seven days to write, seven months to sign, 165 years to debate – and we’re still debating it. TREATY 2 U brings the story of our founding document.

You can experience the Treaty through sight, sound, video, cartoons, and animated graphics. The exhibition also offers replicas of the original nine Treaty documents.

It covers the events that led up to the signing. It explains what is written in the documents and the crucial differences between the Maori and English versions.

TREATY 2 U aims to show that despite controversy over the years, the Treaty of Waitangi continues to help New Zealanders understand the past, make sense of the present, and build for the future.

Presented by Te Papa, Archives New Zealand and the National Library – and funded by the State Services Commission.

A detailed itinerary of the tour can be viewed at www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz

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male spirituality

Men Matter This is the second major theme offered by American Franciscan Richard Rohr in Christchurch last October. Here he puts the spotlight on how Christians grow up, and notes it is much more problematic for men than for women

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wo factors have emerged in modern times which challenge the way in which the human male develops.

(1) The emergence of feminist spir­ it­uality, which has upset the pre­ dominance of the patriarchal system.

The patriarchal code was a spirituality ‘from above, from outside’. Feminist spirituality at its best emphasises interiority: the passionate search for the God within.

Some years ago Robert Bly wrote the often mocked but significant book called Iron Man which described classical Indian rites of passage for young males. Bly also noted the absence of adult male role models in contemporary society. He was writing from a secular perspective; but he acknowledges that a process of initiation in the absence of ‘god’ was doomed to fail. He saw initiation as basically a religious process.

(2) The phenomenon of ‘absent fathers’. In the modern West many young men yearn for their absent fathers, who are either actually or emotionally missing from home.

There is no male role model present to help shape the young male and help him through adolescence.

Today, we see even heads of states, leading clerics and business tycoons behaving in an infantile manner. They are seeking always to win, win. They are driven by the desire for power, and remain deaf to a nobler ideal such as the Gospel of Jesus, which is a call to the humble service of others.

The male of the species does not naturally grow up. He has always had to be taught, sometimes brutally, otherwise he will never develop to be a mature man. This was the function of the rites of initiation universally found among primitive cultures.

Immaturity can even affect radical male activists, who at base are found to be little more than power-hungry liberals. In the West we have largely failed to provide a healthy male ideal.

In the US this ideal currently is the businessman; in Switzerland it is the banker; in Germany the policeman; in Australia the bronzed athlete. In such a world view women are demeaned as the powerless sex: motherhood implies loss of power. Yet it is the young males who remain emotionally infantile.

The male journey of transformation old fool The shallow male still pursuing success, building bigger barns

selfidentity )

32

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ey

ou ”j

oic er

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Necessary period of idealism. Motivated by duty, responsibility, hard work, delayed gratifications.

Black-and-white world view, a dangerous sense of righteousness. Values sacrifice more than mercy

angry young man ng

u yo ol

fo

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crisis of limitation (ages 35-50) Mid-life crisis – loss of meaning, failure, struggle. Confrontation with the cross. Need for humility and honesty.

God-control takes over from self-control

embittering journey w

His wounds are not

‘sacred’. Becomes a is (a dom blamer, a cynic. ge s jou 50 rn -6 ey 5) Needs spiritual holy fool guidance. Must learn to let go, surrender, be compassionate.

Abraham’s journey.

Is discovering the paschal mystery.

The shadow is embraced, not merely tolerated.

Values mercy rather than sacrifice

The mellow ‘grandfather’. God is now in control.

He ceases to judge and returns to simplicity. Prestige and possessions become unimportant.

Can lead, partner or follow. He has become wise.

A

ll this poses society with a huge psychological and spiritual cha­ llenge: how do adult males get in touch with their real selves? For the American Indian, male initiation was done out in the midst of nature. Young men were sent out for an extended time in all weathers. Their task was to discover their own names and to find God. Their encounter was with transcendence and this was their road to transformation into adults. The boys were often made to roll naked in ashes to remind them that they were not greater than the earth they came from. That is the wisdom of all the primitive races on this planet.

How did we come to lose it?

Young males who are never taught such wisdom become toxic. They are full of uncontrolled testosterone. They must never be given power until they have earned it. In the patriarchal culture males will tend to seek power and will easily abuse it.

The Initiation of Adults

For women, childbearing offers a nat­ ural path of maturity into adulthood.

For nine months they experience mystery and growth. They suffer pain: you cannot have gain without some

Male initiation rites

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nitiation rites in primitive cultures were usually held out in the open, in the midst of nature. The young male was taken by the tribal elders and made to experience something he cannot control. He might undergo circumcision, so that he too – like the young female – experienced bleeding and pain.

In West Australia the process culminated with the boy making his own axe from flintstone, then returning to the tribe with this symbol of his manhood. ... and we present the young male, on graduation, with a car! loss. But males never undergo such pain by nature. Culture has to provide it, and at present for the most part it doesn’t. It is incumbent on males too to undergo a paschal transformation, travelling through darkness into light, through winter into summer.

An initiation process must offer the male an alternative world view. Jesus proposes the kingdom. He offers a big frame, quite different from the restricted horizon of the self-preoccupied hedonist. Initiation into the kingdom of God demands ritual rather than talk – and not the ritual of frilly lace surplices!

This initiation must somehow enlarge a young man’s vision. And it needs to happen between the age of 13 and 17. If this doesn’t occur the male can

become violent and cynical. Hence the ‘angry young men’. For most young Christians, sadly, Confirmation is a non-event as a rite of passage.

Adult initiation in the early church was a ‘drowning’ rite, not a blessing rite. Baptism was by total immersion and was the climax of a long period of initiation. The new converts were confronted with their own mortality, head on! They had to face death before they were ready to face mature adult life. In today’s church we have to ask ourselves: are we truly a transformed people – or are we just a cosy club? Making Baptism into a childhood blessing rite has robbed us of the experience of becoming transformed by the Death and Resurrection of Christ.

fem

inin ag e “de es 1-2 scen t” 1

permeable self-identity

grief, loss of meaning – along with a new desire for self-fulfilment

22-42

de s yo truc un g f tive oo l

midlife crisis ages 42-49

nh ho

Marriage, children, survival, career, struggle, friendship.

Her life is practical, concrete, ordinary, problem-solving.

If there is no love or support she can lose her sense of self, become empty, disillusioned, a Many little “crosses’ build gossip. to a crescendo. Anger,

“w itc

Sophia emerges – a combination of strength, wisdom and vulnerability.

Since she is ascending when the male is descending, she may appear as a threat

holy

Going nowhere on her broom!

Angry, selfprotective and blaming others.

God’s beloved daughter; “mulier fortis” of Scripture.

Can live with paradox and mystery, with compassion and fool forgiveness

po w ag er as es 50 cent -65

The young girl in most cultures is reminded of here inferior status, weakness and dependency. Her culture tells her that life is hard. She has a slow start to life in terms of self-worth – but a headstart in terms of gospel. She seeks herself more in relationships than in idealism.

er bro o

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The female journey of transformation

Pain untransformed into mercy and understanding

embittering journey

diagrams by Richard Rohr – adapted Tui Motu InterIslands 7

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male spirituality ss

Physical rites symbolise a spiritual transformation. Religion has to move beyond belief systems into inner experience. It is only when we move into the unconscious and the mystical that we encounter the shadow within our personality and truly begin to live.

Jesus taught us to “love our enemies”.

This command includes the need to meet our own inner ‘enemies’, the wounds of the soul which need healing.

To achieve this we have to go out into the desert. We must go there without books – but we should take a journal.

In the desert we will encounter mystery.

We will discover inner meaning.

This is the second birth, and unless we undergo it we will never understand the true meaning of life. How can we, who are constantly confronted by images of the suffering Christ, fail to understand that unless our egos are crucified we can never be our true selves? Unless the grain of wheat dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (Jn 12,24).

Some practicalities:

• The primary heresy of Western Christianity has been to dilute the

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Gospel message. Catholics have been seduced by aestheticism; Protestants have been intoxicated by moralism.

Religion has degenerated into religiosity – reduced to being respectable and ‘nice’.

For that reason, in many countries adult males never go to church. What sort of transformative faith is it that eliminates half the human race?

• Grace always entails some humiliation of the ego. Perhaps that is why more religious brothers have become saints than priests and bishops! In our world this lesson need applies to girls as well as boys, because today’s young female is possessed of the same ego-drive that was once the prerogative of the male.

• For Christian educators: a good way to initiate our young people would be to take them out of their normal ego-centred environment and get them working for others, especially for the disadvantaged. As it is, religious schools often mimic the worst aspects of the competitive, capitalist Western culture, making the achievement of personal excellence into a god.

All transformation takes place in ‘liminal space’. It is necessary for us to leave behind ‘business-as-usual’ and go out into the desert. We need a spiritual guide to lead us into this liminal space and to facilitate change.

Early Christian art often depicted the predicament of the soul as Jonah in the belly of the whale. The Jonah story was a symbol of the resurrection of the just after death. But it was also a paradigm of Christian initiation.

The whale’s belly is a graphic image of liminal space – a place where we have no control and very few of us want to stay long. We either want to hurry back (conservative) or rush forward (liberal). The sign of Jonah was all Jesus was prepared to give those who de­manded a sign. He is offering them not a ‘miracle’ but a place of suffering.

Yet that liminal space is where growth occurs and change happens, if we stay there long enough. Growth ceases if we cling to security. Spiritual energy is nurtured in solitude, loneliness, boredom, suffering and fear.

The four male archetypes

here are four classical male archetypes: King, Warrior, Lover and Sage. Each archetype has a light and a dark side. The Sage for instance may be the wise counsellor with a ‘magic’ touch or the evil sorcerer using his knowledge for personal aggrandisement. The Lover archetype includes both the artist and the addict.

The King holds together the other three, the whole personality. The king knows who he is. He includes the ‘opposition’ within his ambit. The king comes into his own in later life when he no longer has to prove himself. He becomes the ‘father figure’ bringing peace, not chaos and division.

To have no father figure – or not to love him – is disastrous.

It was the predicament of the Germans in the ’30s so they elected Hitler: a bad father was better than no father at all.

The Warrior is the disciplined part of the male personal-

ity. The warrior learns early to say NO to self. He learns to put up boundaries to protect himself, to control impulses and maintain those boundaries. The limits may be arbitrary but that is part of the warrior training. The classical initiation of the ‘knight’ was to learn to defend others. This archetype is like a ‘nursemaid’ and teaches us inner discipline.

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Transformation

With the passage of time the Warrior can become an idol.

The dark warrior follows every impulse to the end and finishes by transgressing every boundary.

The Sage (Magician) is the archetype which seeks to

integrate the inside and outside of personality. The range is clown–scholar–spiritual guide–prophet. Without the sage archetype, a person can be ‘nice’ – but remains superficial.

The priest who is a sage will help people to change and be healed. Unfortunately, there is a tendency for religious people to prefer their priests to be kings more than sages. Nelson Mandela is the Sage/King – alas! more than can be said for Bush or Blair or Howard.

The Lover (an archetype often repressed in northern Euro­ peans) is a creative person who easily moves ‘outside the square’. The lover is moved by beauty and by art.

The mature personality contains all four archetypes. Jesus moved comfortably between all four. Most males will tend to repress one of the four. King David rejected the ‘sage’ – until he was confronted by the prophet Nathan – You are the man!

(2 Sam. 11-12).

(At Richard Rohr’s New Mexico Centre, retreatants are taken to a desert area to dwell for a couple of weeks amid Mexican poverty. There are no lectures.

They just live there in a place where there are no evident answers, where there appears to be no resolution or closure.)

That is why the essential Christian prayer is one of gratitude. I am going to die, and an essential part of every initiation rite is to prepare me for my eventual death.

Those who have had near death experiences agree on certain features, which they have in common with the mystics.

For instance, they have no great interest any more in shopping! (When Jesus cleansed the Temple he was infuriated by the ‘buying and selling’ in his Father’s House, because retail therapy makes religious experience almost impossible.)

They have an increased taste for solitude and silence: they aren’t afraid to be alone any more. They may even lose their fear of death.

There is another thing men need to learn – how to grieve and shed tears. The grieving mode is opposite to the ‘fixing’ mode, the controlling mode, the explaining mode – where the male ego usually likes to stay. Jesus said: Blessed are those who weep! If men don’t learn to grieve, they can become very angry human beings.

And it isn’t enough for males just to hear this: it has to be experienced and felt. Sermons don’t convert people. It is woundedness which really teaches us.

Jacob was struck in the thigh when he wrestled with the angel, and limped for the rest of his life (Gen.32:22-32). That is a classic example of an initiation rite for a male.

Secularism

Modern secularism, says Richard Rohr, is the child of Christianity. How so? It is the Incarnation that moves us to take this world seriously. Our rituals are there to point us beyond the cosiness of religion into the secular world. That is where 85 percent of people – the unchurched – are waiting to have the gospel revealed to them.

To go out into the market place and share that message is the task of churches today. (But if you spend your energy fighting a paranoid bishop, you end up being as paranoid as the bishop.

Just take no notice!)

Insofar as secularism excludes the spiritual, it is a philosophy of death.

It does not feed the soul. That is one reason for the high suicide rate in modern Western society. The happiest people are those with some sort of faith-based life.

Jonah in the belly of the whale – a favourite image in early Christian art.

Richard Rohr interprets this as being a classic example of subliminal space

Nevertheless we do come across ‘nonbelievers’ who are embarked on a spiritual quest. Their lives are a search for meaning. They may be closer to God than many of us who believe.

Jesus’ message was not I’m okay; you’re okay! It was I’m not okay; you’re not okay – and that’s okay!!

Conclusion

What needs to be rediscovered in the modern world is the Indwelling Spirit.

The Spirit is the ‘midwife’ within us seeking to bring to consciousness what is already there in the unconscious.

In the Old Covenant it was sufficient to know the right formula and the right answers. The Gospel takes us a stage further. The New Covenant, as anticipated by Jeremiah (Jer 31,33), is to recognise the Spirit alive in one’s heart.

It is a spirit of freedom and creativity and it moves us into transformation.

Life is not about me – it is about God. It is about God’s spirit dwelling in me.

The last of the demons to die in us is the desire to control our own lives. It is the ego’s last stand.

Marriage and having children is one of the best natural antidotes to this form of self-worship. An effective initiation rite puts a boy into a situation where he discovers he has no answers, so he begins to yearn for the guidance of those who had already walked the journey – the ‘elders’.

It is when we are wounded or fallen we really start to ‘see’ God. Jesus didn’t start his ministry until he was 30 – when he entered middle life. True spiritual growth will start for us when, in mid-life, we too meet failure and pain. But if we continue striving to get rich, being obsessed with finding total security, still trying to be winners, then we will simply remain forever a spiritual adolescent. n This account is a free adaptation of Fr Richard Rohr’s lecture and tapes. Much of what he teaches here is to be found in his 2004 book Adam’s Return: the Five Promises of Male Initiation.

Richard Rohr is founder and director of the Centre for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico. websites: www.malespirituality.org

www.caradicalgrace.org

Tui Motu InterIslands 9

spirituality

Will God ever leave us alone?

Deepak Chopra comes at the eternal question of the human search for God from a perspective outside the Christian tradition. He offers grounds for hope – but not where Christians would normally look

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n their heart of hearts I’m sure most people wish God would stop interfering in everyday life. This concern reaches far beyond religion. The United States President and other born-again Christians refer to God’s helping hand in making war in the Middle East.

Western society couldn’t be more different from traditional Muslim society, but we have in common that people in both places want God on their side, which involves knowing what God thinks. People assume that they do, a remarkable assumption given that God is infinitely present and infinitely transcendent, cosmic and personal at the same time, invisible and unable to be located in time and space.

• Consciousness reflected in subtle objects and events; • Consciousness reflecting upon itself; trees, mountains and clouds belong in the first category; dreams, ideals and aspirations belong in the second; the self belongs in the third. Whenever any noble cause is brought to my attention, such as the cause of the environment, I try to see its underlying reality, which is always the same.

Every cause, ideal, spiritual movement or soul teaching is about answering the question: Who am I?

Fundamentalists of every stripe want this question answered once and for all by an unquestioned authority.

They may succeed in quelling doubt for a while, but God has nothing to say and People continue to be The search for God consists of arriving at a everything to say. He nagged by ancient docu­ place and discovering that God has just left. conforms to every type of ments called Scriptures Thomas Merton mind that confronts him. that claim to transmit I am fond of Thomas what it is that God exactly wants. The great Indian poet Kabir wrote that he had Merton’s words: The search for God consists of arriving read all the Scriptures, bathed in all the sacred pools, at a place and discovering that God has just left.Which visited all the holy shrines, and found God in none of is as it should be. The essence of human nature is to reach them. Most people would consider that a counsel of beyond what we already know about ourselves. despair when in fact it’s the key to freedom. In Vedanta, At this moment we are faced with ferment and potential the purest spiritual doctrine of India, God doesn’t want chaos as outmoded religious beliefs struggle to prove anything of us. He doesn’t want to be found; he has no that they are as strong as ever. Professor of Religion laws that we should obey; he never judges, punishes, or Susan Smalley says, quite realistically, that no-one can puts forth expectations. ‘let go’ of any belief until the void it would leave behind The truth is that God left us alone a long time ago.

This wasn’t an act of abuse or abandonment. It was an opportunity to find our own freedom, and in that freedom to realise something simple yet profound. God is existence itself. Existence isn’t an empty vessel. It contains life and death. It harbours the Self, a point of consciousness that can embrace its own existence and create its own stage for evolution.

If you go deep enough into Being, leaving aside all the objects that surround us and mask Being from our eyes, you find that Being is eternal and contains the seed of every created thing. All that exists is only a reflection of the Self, and all worlds, including this precious one, fall into three categories: • Consciousness reflected in material objects and events;

10 Tui Motu InterIslands

is filled. Those who have already ‘let go’ of God aren’t necessarily better off than fundamentalists. They, too, have a void to fill.

God won’t leave us alone as long as human beings feel afraid and lonely. He might evolve – so one hopes – into something other than a white-bearded authority figure with a taste for vengeance. In moderate denominations, that transformation happened a long, long time ago. But somehow we couldn’t handle a nicer God.

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illions of people feel too hollow and afraid, angry and attacked, lonely and disconnected to believe in a benign divinity. This phenomenon is called alienation. It was well diagnosed by Marx and Freud, who pointed out that the human psyche suffers terribly when people are yanked out of a connection with

nature, when traditions stop being a safety net, when dislocation and insecurity are the daily norm.

The reason that 87 percent of North Americans tell pollsters that they never had a doubt about the existence of God isn’t rock-ribbed faith. It’s fear of the alternative, a cosmos where the void between the stars is small compared to the void left by an absent God. Whatever our beliefs, we all have to fill that void one person at a time.

It would be an act of good faith if the Religious Right could concede that we’re all in this together. It would be an equal act of faith if the enemies of the Religious Right made the same concession. Spirituality would then move forward, and on a global basis we could continue the universal quest, which is to unite Heaven and Earth, first in our minds, then in every place our minds inhabit.

It’s true that evangelicals are making gains, even in the most traditional places. (A country like Ecuador, once a bastion of orthodox Catholicism, is estimated to be up to 25 percent Protestant, due to inroads made by missionaries from the US.) The future of God, however, lies in spiritual evolution, and the next step of growth is for people to start to awaken one by one, just as Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed did.

Judging by grassroots activity, the following trends will continue to shape spiritual life outside the church: • Meditation will become mainstream;

• Aspects of the paranormal and miraculous will be widely credited; • Healing, both physical and psychological, will become commonplace; • Prayer will be seen as real and efficacious; • Manifestation of desires will be talked about as a real phenomenon; • People will regain a connection to their souls; • Individuals will find answers inwardly to their deepest spiritual questions. They will believe in their private answers and live accordingly; • Communities of belief will arise; • Gurus and other spiritual authorities will wane in influence; • A wisdom tradition will grow to embrace the great spiritual teachings at the heart of organised religion; • Faith will no longer be seen as an irrational departure from reason and science; • Wars will decline as peace becomes a social reality; • Nature will regain its sacred value.

Millions of people already embody these trends in their own lives. They abide by the values of the new spirituality.

Outward events may mask this widespread revolution in spiritual values, but outward events have always been a poor guide to what is happening at the soul level. n Deepak Chopra is the author of many books, most recently Grow Younger, Live Longer

Reprinted with permission from Resurgence magazine www.resurgence.org

Grief I wept today after all these years pain time-dulled leapt up fresh searing sharp.

Rogan McIndoe advert

I wept anew at your loss, Dear one.

I ached for one more cup of tea glass of wine gin words of comfortable clothesline banter shared pondering on the drive and laughter missing soothed by the touch of the sun heron’s slow flapping flight and the fragrance of the Manukau

Mary Thorne

Tui Motu InterIslands 11

education

Making entrepreneurs out of our young people Educationalist Ivan Snook examines the new Draft Curriculum for Schools and finds it heavily influenced by the Business lobby.

The Catholic Bishops likewise are highly critical

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he Ministry of Education recently released a draft curriculum for the schools. It begins with rather mean­ ingless “principles”, “values” and “compet­encies”, none of which will be of much relevance to busy teachers as they try to work with the new curriculum. The real force lies not in these abstractions but in the emphasis on fostering “the growth of the economy” and developing “entrepreneurs.”

An entrepreneur is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as “one who undertakes or controls a business or enterprise and bears the risk of profits and losses.” Thus the new curriculum is to be driven by business interests. If adopted, it will transform our schools into agents for the indoctrination of one particular set of values. Instead of producing informed and critical citizens who can relate with sympathy to each other, the schools are to aim for passive consumers on the one hand and go-getters who will exploit their fellow human beings on the other.

A critical view

Readers of Tui Motu will be interested to note that this criticism is echoed by the New Zealand Catholic bishops in their submission on the draft curriculum: The problem [of consumerism] will be compounded if schools lose their independence to teach the skills of critiquing business practices whenever those practices are not conducive to creating a just and compassionate society. The risk of losing this independence is the reason why we have strong reservations about special partnerships between business enterprises and schools. As it stands, the curriculum could create a perceived need for such partnerships.

website. The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme involves students in years 12 and 13.

In case anyone misses out on this massive saturation of business values in school time, Business for Kids (B4K) is a week long holiday programme in which young people from years 8 to 12 “develop enterprising skills and behaviours through forming their own businesses. Along the way they write curriculum vitae, apply for jobs, earn income and keep financial records and develop and produce products to sell at market evenings.” (Enterprise Trust website). It is highly unlikely that they learn how to “form unions, organise strikes, negotiate collective agreements, take cases to the Employment Court and learn to outwit marketers.”

These programmes are obviously biased towards the interests of employers and take no account of the interests of the work force, which most students will join. Most young people will not become entrepreneurs, and society would not be able to cope if they were. Most will join the work force as paid or salaried workers. If well indoctrinated by the curriculum they will, however, regard entrepreneurs as superior people!

As if all this is not enough, the Enterprise Trust runs an annual conference for “aspiring secondary Principals” and has similar plans for primary schools. No doubt this is to ensure that future principals adopt business values and practise business style management rather than genuine educational leadership.

It has to be admitted that teachers who have been involved in the business programmes are often enthusiastic; they find that the students are highly motivated and eager to learn, the studies seem clearly relevant This emphasis in the draft What kind of knowledge are we imparting? What are to the students’ lives and the curriculum is the culmination the children really learning? Are we acting ethically? programmes facilitate the of several years of insidious desirable aim of integrating campaigning by major busi­ the diverse curriculum. But this is not sufficient justification ness interests including the beer producing firm Lion Nathan, for seriously indoctrinating students with the values of a the Business Enterprise Trust and now Business New Zealand, sectional interest group. the national organisation of the four regional Employers’ Many teachers today, especially younger teachers, have been Associations. Inclusion of a few words in the curriculum subjected to a narrow form of teacher training. Deliberately documents will give legitimacy to programmes under offer starved of studies in the history, sociology, and philosophy and, in some cases, already operating in the schools. of education they are ill prepared to see beyond enthusiastic The Primary Enterprise programme (PrEP) is delivered to faces and vibrant classrooms to the deeper social significance primary children from years 1 to 8: indoctrination in the of what they are doing to the children they are entrusted with. business ideology starts very young! Enterprise Studies As subject studies are also being abolished they are deprived Programme (ESP) is designed for those in years 9 and 10. of the critical tools which come from mastery of mathematics, Year 11 is covered by SELL, a programme which has been science, history and literature (and other forms of thought operating for some years and is soon to be taken over by and feeling). They are thus quite unable to ask questions such Enterprise New Zealand Trust and funded by Business New as: What kind of knowledge are we imparting? What are the Zealand and “an anonymous donor”, according to the Trust’s children really learning? and are we acting ethically?

12 Tui Motu InterIslands

The new curriculum in detail

The new curriculum gives an official mandate for these business programmes to continue and be compulsorily extended to all schools. So, from day of entry to “the primers” until graduation, the students will be formed to be uncritical consumers. It is no surprise therefore to find that the learning areas in the draft curriculum areas lack any real critical edge. In Social Sciences students must “ understand their place in the economic world” with no acknowledgement that they should critically examine (even reject) that “place”. What indeed, is one’s place in the economic world? And who decides it?

Conclusion

Young people should be being prepared for life in the widest sense: as citizens, parents, spouses, church and community members, and voters in a democratic society. If teachers, who are professionally charged with caring for young people, neglect that duty, parents, caregivers, and community members must step in and demand that children be protected from the interest groups promoting such programmes.

If the highly contentious slogan of “entrepreneurship” remains in the draft curriculum (as I suspect it will: the forces behind it are very powerful ) I suggest that: In Health and Physical Education, there is no mention • unions and other interested parties such as environmental of those organisations (eg the drug, tobacco, and alcohol groups, charities and social justice groups should mount a industries) which systematically undermine health and campaign to have their materials included in all programmes. safety. The activities of entrepreneurs drive up the price of If schools are to be directly political, employees and the com­ housing which, in turn exacerbates poverty and causes ill munity have as much right to be heard as the employers. health. There is no place in the curriculum to discuss and • teachers should work to subvert the curriculum (as some argue about such matters. already do) by subjecting the programme to constant questions In Technology there is much glorification of technology and critiques such as what has business done for the water in society, but no recognition that technology is far from supply, for climate change, for health in developing countries? benign: it has produced • Parents should campaign to weapons of mass destruction, Schools should help young people understand keep business programmes health destroying drugs, and how they are manipulated by advertisers, out of their schools and, if environmental pollution. Even marketers, and ideologues unsuccesful, should demand (NZ Bishops) the motor car, a highly valued that their children be exempt technological achievement, has under a conscience clause as done immense harm to the physical and social environment. for religious instruction since the same principle applies: The bishops’ submission makes similar points. Regarding the programmes presuppose a controversial values system the emphasis on producing entrepreneurs, they say: The which suits the beliefs of some but undermines the beliefs curriculum cannot be isolated from the environment in which of others. students live. This is an environment that allows aggressive and greedy market practices, including some that target adolescents, and now even children, bypassing parental oversight. A successful education, by any definition, includes providing students with the skills they need not to be taken advantage of – not just providing the competence they need to go and do the same to others under the title of being entrepreneurial.

In regards to the Science and Technology sections, they write: “We gratefully acknowledge that science and technology have brought many blessings but in the Science and Technology sections of the Draft Curriculum there is no acknowledgment that the benefit of these advances has not been spread equitably, often with an adverse effect on the world’s most vulnerable populations. And although “care of the environment” is also a value in the Draft Curriculum there is no recognition of the fact that social policies and business and individual activities have brought about degradation of the environment.”

In the new regime, local communities will be required to adapt the curriculum to local conditions. Emboldened by the talk of ‘entrepreneurship’ local business people will be only too ready to advise the school. It is imperative that other members of the school community, most of whom will be wage earners and some unemployed, make their voices heard. Otherwise the message of the school will be that profit making is the only genuine value.

Once again the Bishops’ submission makes a similar point: A major function of schools, especially in a democratic society, is to produce critical thinkers, discerning consumers and perceptive citizens. Schools should be helping young people to understand how they are manipulated by advertisers, marketers, and ideologues of various kinds.

If they are to invite business into the school, they should not give privileged place to the view of employers. Equal time should be given to the perspectives of employees, the unions, the unemployed and the consumers.

The Picot reforms were designed to give power to parents, not to corporations. Board members and other parents should make this a serious issue in their school. Principals Associations should debate this very important matter. And the Teacher Associations should fight to ensure that teachers are free to examine interest groups of all kinds and to teach their students to think critically about all aspects of society including business. The minds and hearts of our young people are at stake. n

Ivan Snook is Emeritus Professor of Education at Massey University and author of The Ethical Teacher (Dunmore Press 2003), and several books on values in education. He holds office in the Quality Public Education Coalition and is a member of the Social Justice Group in St Patricks Parish, Palmerston North.

Tui Motu InterIslands 13

the pacific

Crunch time in Fiji Two articles from widely different sources attempt to unravel the recent crisis in Fiji. The first, by Fairfax Pacific correspondent Michael Field, looks at Fiji’s recent history and criticises the role of the churches.

The second, sent to us from a Catholic source, first appeared in the Fiji Times News and offers some pointers towards a resolution

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iji runs to a couple of standard expressions in times of trouble. One says that democracy is a foreign flower.

Another line, getting a solid workout in the wake of the latest coup, states that Fiji is unique and nobody can understand it other than Fijians.

Aside from being inaccurate, the utter­ ances cover-up high level incompetence and dreadful leadership that is increasing scarring Fiji and its neighbours. Sadly, this has also contaminated the Christian churches who now seem rather more interested in political point-scoring than they do in dealing issues of great community good.

In reporter’s shorthand the events of December 5, when military com­ mander Commodore Voreqe Baini­ marama removed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, was Fiji’s fourth coup since 1987. This numbering disguises a more complex situation, and even staying within the simple definition of ‘coup’ it’s possible to define at least six coups since independence in 1970.

What that illustrates is a deep malaise in Fijian culture, a kind of vanua or tribal selfishness in which quite small groups compete against each other for power and treasure. A debate about numbering the coups also hints at the possibility that Fiji is one long coup. With a sophisticated leadership the churches could disarm this continuing trap.

What confuses Fiji is the notion of good and evil. For indigenous Fijians, who are predominantly Methodist, life has a simple theology. If the Fiji Sevens win their game of rugby it is because

14 Tui Motu InterIslands

one long coup . . . they prayed and God deemed them worthy of victory. They honestly and sincerely believe in a God who will get involved in a rugby match and order it so that Fijians will beat Australians.

Perhaps this barely matters and at best can draw a smile over the simplicity inherent in the view of God determining each bounce of an oval ball. But what is a problem is their often terrifying notion of evil. The Methodist Church for many years made little secret of their view that Hindus were possessed of evil.

On the flipside of this theology, many rural people in Fiji simply see evil as something to be fought against with prayer. No bad thing one would say, but in the political environment of Fiji, good and evil doesn’t help deal with what are complex issues of light and shade. Prayer alone is inadequate. One could argue that if Fijians had a little less religion in their daily lives and were a little more pragmatic dealing with the complex world between extreme good and extreme evil, they might be able to beat the coup culture.

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ommodore Bainimarama is a Meth­odist, but the bulk of his education was at Marist Brothers High School in Suva. He has no academic training. The Marists have a long tradition of education of leaders in the South Pacific, but that is not to blame them in particular for producing a coup plotter. Suva Grammar produced George Speight. Sitiveni Rabuka hails from Queen Victoria School (although, in a supreme irony, he did a Masters paper in

coup plotting at the Indian Army’s staff college in Wellington, south India, and then went home and followed it). To most adult men, their high school is but a distant memory, but in the officer corps the alma mater has a masonic quality about it. Commodore Bainimarama’s Marist clique enjoy dominant military influence and those from other colleges are steadily being pushed out.

The problem in numbering the coups is that the December action is an extension of Speight’s 2000 coup, in which he overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

In that coup armed men seized Parliament, and took Chaudhry and his government hostage for 56 days.

Ten days after the occupation in May 2000, the Commodore declared martial law and overthrew the then President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. That is not counted as a coup – but it should be.

Because Chaudhry was Indo-Fijian and Hindu the old good-and-evil yardstick clicked into place, and the Methodist and fundamentalist churches quickly backed Speight’s coup. When, after international pressure, the replacement interim government held democratic elections in 2001, Qarase won on an indigenous rights and conservative Christian platform.

The old National Council of Churches was too liberal for Fijian churches, and with government financial support the Assembly of Christian Churches in Fiji (ACCF) was established. Whilst preaching Christianity, it was in reality a political body devoted to ensuring

the political supremacy of the Fijian Methodist Church (which the world body of Methodist Churches now disassociates itself from) and other assorted fundamentalists.

When its patron was overthrown, the ACCF said it amounted to “mani­ festations of darkness and evil”. That was, of course, sheer nonsense. At worst Commodore Bainimarama can be viewed as misguided, but he has shown little evidence that he is demonic.

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he head of the Catholic Church of Fiji, Archbishop Petero Mataca, climbed into the argument and assailed the ACCF, saying that it was “politically biased and theologically wrong”. He said the people who were using the darkness and evil line now

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were silent during 2000 when another government was overthrown. It was a curious statement to make, given the ambiguity of the Fiji Catholic Church during 2000 when it, like other churches, was busily granting forgiveness to others without trying to end the on-going wrongs.

Archbishop Mataca said the ACCF should say that it is not the time for vindication and retribution but a time to call and affirm unity, peace and respect for individual lives and freedom.

He said it was time to acknowledge that Fiji had failed to learn the lessons from 2000. He also said that all churches should appreciate that the future is not for us to decide, and it is improper to infer that God will only work with

the sinless and not with the sinful, as implied by the ACCF. Another piece of evidence for the theological confusion in Fiji came from the Methodists who initially condemned Commodore Bainimarama’s coup and then switched, saying that it was “part of God’s plan for Fiji” and urging supporters to pray for the new government. Fiji’s tragedy lies in its failure to recognise that God doesn’t run every detail in life; human beings blessed with free-will make decisions not only for themselves but for their families, their village and their state. Making good decisions requires intellectual honesty and vision that is lacking in the political and religious leadership in Fiji at this time. n

diagnosis . . . and treatment

he recent Fijian coup has been correctly condemned as contrary to democracy and the rule of law. The illegal removal of a democratically elected government is wrong.

However, there is another perspective – that of social justice.

Racist agenda: The previous government of Laisenia Qarase showed clearly how democracy could be manipulated to serve narrow Fijian nationalist interests. It was native Fijians who benefited to the detriment of Indians and others. Many policies such as the Affirmative Action initiatives, the Qoliqoli Bill, the Reconciliation and Unity Bill, and the Indigenous Lands Claim Bill were aimed to further the interests of one section.

In its first years in power it converted areas of Crown Land to Native Land so that currently around 91 percent of land in Fiji is native owned. This process was driven by a small group of extreme nationalists. Meanwhile, Indo-Fijians did not have land leases renewed, they suffered a disproportionate amount of crime, and their places of worship were desecrated. Many fled overseas.

Unfair government: The Qarase government misman-

aged the economy. Scandals such as the ‘agricultural scam’ tainted its image. The government was strongly pro-business and was deaf to the voices of the poor and ordinary workers.

VAT was increased from 10 to 15 percent, while there was no national minimum wage, no proper system of social welfare and a growing percentage (34.4 percent) living below the poverty line.

The Qarase government was supported by the Assembly of Christian Churches in Fiji (ACCF), who want Fiji to become a Christian state with only ‘good’ Christians in positions of leadership. Fiji will be blessed, they say, when the gods of other peoples are driven out.

What is Bainimarama demanding?

• that legislation serving narrow Fijian interests be dropped; • the exclusion of those tainted by the 2000 Coup; • mismanagement and corruption be addressed; • the Native Land Trust Board be reviewed.

The Commander and the military leadership want Fiji to be multiracial and inclusive, and the economy properly run in the interests of all the people not just of a business elite.

What is true democracy?

Many overseas governments (the US, UK and the EU) were quick to condemn the military takeover; yet they do not have to look back far in history to discover kings deposed, wars fought, governments ousted or revolutions begun precisely to bring about a more just regime change.

In Fiji, many people in rural areas do not vote for the candidate of their own choice but feel obliged culturally to vote for the candidate selected for them by their chief, provincial council or church minister. Is that democracy as found in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.?

Was it a ‘coup’ in the true sense?

The coup was not a swift, sudden and unexpected event.

Tension between the military and the SDL government had been building for some time. The demands of the military were well known. Abundant time was allowed for the government to respond and deadlines extended, but Qarase and his advisors did not listen.

Bainimarama has been a reluctant revolutionary. He did not seek power for himself but spoke rather of a “clean-up campaign” after which he would hand over power to an interim government. Fresh elections are promised. The takeover was peaceful. ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 15

christmas

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oday being the feast of the Epiphany, the traditional Twelfth Night, I take down the Christmas tree, the crib and the cards and the other festive ‘bits’ from doorways and banisters. Four weeks ago a seven-year-old granddaughter helped me put it all up, and chose where on the tree to put the ornaments and tinsel, and just where Mary and Joseph and the Baby should be in relation to kings and shepherds. Today celebrates the manifestation of the Christ to the Gentiles – that’s us! Do we see him?

Taking down the tree decorations is a nostalgic task. The pieces all have a history that is part of our family story. There is the startling little green leprechaun, hands clasped round knees, which came along with a tree and other ornaments with my in-law family from Ireland in 1952. The little red-beaded Santas were made by elder daughter as a teenager. Three of them – two are now put aside to give to her children for their tree next year. The red apples and silver bows are from younger daughter’s store, and are housed and used here while she lives in England.

Next there’s the task of fitting the collection of 20 or so wooden painted tree ornaments back into the right holes in the box, like doing a jigsaw.

They were probably made in Taiwan.

The angel named Joy, the bell of Love, and the dove of Peace are gently stacked

Cribs and people together. Two black-haired children are tucked in a green bed dreaming Christmas dreams.

Then the three little women with vaguely Scandinavian pointed hats, which granddaughter decided are the ‘Three Wise Women’. She has a book about them in which they visit the Baby from afar, one bringing as gift a loaf of bread, another a story, and the third a kiss from her own baby.

And eventually I take the angel from the top. All so familiar, all with the memories of many family Christmases wound around them.

The crib too goes away, back into its shredded paper packing. Its simplicity suits me well these days: just the basic participants – family, one angel, two shepherds, a sheep each, three kings and ditto camels. The camels, like Belloc’s donkey, have “ears like errant wings”. The star is blue-tacked to the wall. The only way to keep the family as centre of the scene was to mix up the other participants, so kings and shepherds are rubbing shoulders and the animals too. Power and Poverty sharing space together before Truth.

ss Popular uprisings in favour of the SDL government (which had been predicted and even called for) did not eventuate.

The future of Fiji

We are now in a time of uncertainty – but also of opportunity.

We can hope for more serious efforts towards reconciliation; the ending of the desecration of places of worship of Hindus and Muslims; the resolution of the land lease problem and the sharing of land; a halt to overseas migration; Indo-Fijians having equal opportunities in all areas of employment; the injustices of neo-liberalism done away with and a better distribution of economic benefits.

The dominant influence of the international financial institutions such as the World Bank must be balanced by a focus the needs of ordinary Fijian people. The public service will need to be gradually downsized over the next three years, the size of Government curtailed, the proposed increase in

16 Tui Motu InterIslands

B

efore this crib came to me, there was a much more elaborate one, again thanks to mother-in-law.

She’d got it in Italy in the 1930s, where the custom was to have the whole village in the Nativity scene. When we had a large house and all the children were still at home, it was given pride of place in the lounge. The scene was set with a midnight-blue taffeta backdrop pinned to the two walls, liberally sprinkled with stick-on silver stars. The angels and the

VAT dropped. While investment is encouraged, the wages of all workers must be protected so that all receive a just, living wage. There must be more investment in agriculture and assistance for rural areas and the outer Islands. The root causes of poverty will need to be addressed. In this way our Christianity will be put into practice and a nation created where there is justice, compassion and inclusiveness.

Is democracy to be understood only in its narrow Western context and measured only by the criteria of free and fair elections? Are not considerations of social justice also relevant and important in assessing what is happening in Fiji? Could it be that the future in Fiji will be more truly democratic and just because of the military takeover? We will have to wait and see, but hopes are high that, in this time of opportunity, new positive directions are being set for Fiji and its people. n Written by Paolo Baleinakorodawa, Fr Kevin Barr and Semiti Qalowasa

and family rituals Trish McBride too, from Christmas Day onwards, was the new little family.

large star hung there too. A hill of books was swathed in green fabric, and a silverblue river ran across the plain.

Then the village began to come to life – there must have been about 40 figures, all going about their daily routines. A man fished in the river, a woman sat with her spindle, another carried a basket of bread in one hand and led a child with the other; a water-carrier with a yoke and buckets, women carrying jars or baskets on their heads. And yes, there

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This crib was always set up a couple of weeks before Christmas, with an empty manger – Baby Jesus was hidden ‘somewhere safe’ by the child whose task it would be to lay him gently in his bed once we’d returned from Midnight Mass. The kings (all very swarthy), their servants and camels were set up on a distant window sill, and journeyed gradually towards Bethlehem, carefully scheduled to arrive on January 6. In Irish fashion the crib had then to stay up for another few days so they could ‘be there’. From Christmas Day there would be much moving around of the figures as the news of the birth spread, and gradually the whole village arrived to honour the Baby. Except perhaps for the supine shepherd who had apparently slept through the angelic summons!

Good memories of all those years, and their domestic church rituals! Memories from beyond family in my ritual of taking down the Christmas cards. It’s good to keep connections alive, to have friendships that go back 40 and 50 years, to remember those no longer with us!

And to value newer friendships! I was intrigued by a feminist pastor friend’s ‘Happy Christa-mass’, and moved by her card. It shows her own photo of an African mother and child, and was taken following her participation in a US Lutheran-sponsored visit to support the women of Rwanda.

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he evidence of Christmas 2006 is now all stowed away for another year. However, for me the significance of Christmas is less about acknowledging the story that happened ‘out there’ and more about its power to shift our inner worlds. It is wondering what new things the Spirit is conceiving in my life this year.

And saying with Meister Eckhart “Of what use is Christmas, if He be not born in me?” And in this imperfect world, with our imperfect and sometimes painful Christmases, knowing with the atheist Nietzsche that “the chaos within is needed in order to give birth to a dancing star”. And so we are pregnant, and we struggle, and we give birth to newer stronger selves. Then any engaging we do with the needs of the world will be done more reverently and more authentically in the mind of Christ! Do we see him... in ourselves?

When the song of the angels is stilled And the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the shepherds Have found their way home The work of Christmas is begun.

(I am he Light of the World –Howard Thurman)

Bethlehem Reconstructed

he crib illustrated above was designed and built at St Bernadette’s church, Forbury, Dunedin for the Christmas season just finished. The artist was parishioner Margaret McTear, who often makes banners for the parish liturgies.

This, her first venture into crib making, was inspired by a workshop Advent Story given in December by Canadian Lisa Stuart. Lisa’s plea was: “We live in a beautiful country: so why not use natural materials?” She also encouraged the idea that if a crib was big enough, then children of the parish would not be merely spectators: they should be encouraged to actually get inside the crib and explore. That meant it had to be big.

Helped by the parish priest, Fr Damian, and a team of parishioners Margaret built the crib against the back wall of the church – and it was ‘man-sized’. They used natural materials: shells, sand, rocks from the beach; river stones, flax, grass etc. The Samoan community provided tapa cloth as a backdrop. The figures were lifesized cut-outs, but without faces. People had to use their imaginations as to how the Holy Family looked.

The children soon responded to the invitation to explore. There are some risks to this – and Baby Jesus was taken on walkabout by one little visitor! However, the general response to this new form of crib from the parishioners was approval and delight. n

Tui Motu InterIslands 17

real life

Hitchhiking to a country wedding – a wedding with a difference.

Peter Murnane OP offers this vignette of real life in the best sense

Reality Wedding

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hat’s real? When people have witnessed some spectacular flood, fire or earthquake it is not uncommon to hear them say: “It was just like on television!” Do we too find ourselves saying to someone who made a brief appearance on the news: “I saw you on television!”, as if at last we know that the person is now more real than before?

It gets worse. TV producers now put people into make-believe natural surroundings and observe them like animals in a wild-life documentary.

Incredibly, they then call this selfconscious performance Reality Television.

And when we celebrate high-points like weddings, do we keep wondering whether we are doing it ‘properly’’ as they do in the soap operas that abound on the electronic screen? Wedding parties become so concerned for appearance and ‘style’ that the event becomes enormously expensive and the guest-list something that breaks up families. This is so absurd that it is embarrassing.

But there is hope for us! I was recently at a wedding which was real, defying the concern for things which threaten our human relationships, our

18 Tui Motu InterIslands

naturalness and our love. This wedding was to be on a Saturday morning in a little hilltop church beside a lake, about six hours’ drive from my home in Auckland. I could not leave before 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon. No buses!

I would not drive alone, knowing now how badly our petrol-burning damages the earth. So I decided to hitch-hike, that more real way of sharing transport while giving mutual help to each other.

It is much more ‘real’ than the way thousands of us drive solo in large cars into and out of our cities every day.

As I waited near the motorway at 5pm, thumb extended, hundreds of new-looking sedans and SUVs passed me. Then two young Maori men in a battered van stopped to ask where I was headed. They were going home after a day of delivering building materials. As we crept along the motorway amid four lanes of almost stationary traffic, they asked me if I could play any music.

I admitted to being half-competent on the recorder. Hearing that I had it with me, they insisted on a few tunes, even turning off their heavy-metal cacophony to listen. They found the few Irish folk songs I know “awesome”.

They even clapped and cheered a bit of classical – though I did not attempt to

explain Handel. Before dropping me off at Penrose they urged me – still not understanding that not all music is electronic – to “get an amp”.

Just before sunset I was two hours out of Auckland’s fumes, among green hills and enjoying the cleaner air and rural silence – between the occasional swish of cars. Those who drive pretentious luxury models tend to look aside when one makes eye contact with them as they speed past. So I was surprised when a BMW stopped. But Craig (not his real name) was one of those people who have become more real because life has run over them. He had lost a leg in an accident, had seriously injured his back and was still sad about his broken marriage. So he was glad to help someone needing a ride.

When hitch-hiking I have learned to pray a kind of “emptiness prayer”, fully admitting that perhaps no one will stop and I might spend the night on the outskirts of the city I am trying to leave. This attitude really accepts that it wouldn’t matter if no one stopped.

But of course someone always does. By 9.15pm I found myself 240 km from my starting point. I slept soundly in a Taupo Back Packers hostel.

Starting out at 6am next morning I still had 140 km to travel before the 11am wedding. My longest lift was with Jim (not his real name either) a farmer. As a young man his health had been ruined by breathing petrol fumes from the tanker he drove, then by the agricultural poisons that in the 1970s were going to rid the world of all pests.

He too was glad to help others with a ride.

For the last 40 km I was helped by Tom (really). A young English tourist, he was travelling around the North Island in his dubious red van. Knowing well the bridegroom’s family and what kind of wedding it would be, as we neared our destination I asked Tom if he would like to come to the wedding. At those more pretentious – but less real – city reception centres we would not dream of doing this. But is it real to stifle our dreams? Tom was delighted to come to the Nuptial Mass and the feast that

followed, mingling with the guests. He even stayed the night among them.

The very real bride and groom were Abraham Land and his lovely wife Nancy Haliburton. A generation ago Abraham’s parents chose to live more truly what Jesus teaches and what our planet needs if it is to survive at all.

Many of the numerous Land family still live simply, growing almost all their food. Their minimal ecological ‘footprint’ is a real example to everyone in our unreal industrial societies.

Abraham’s long hair, beard and bare feet would prompt some – mindlessly – to deride him as a “hippy”. But he has already been around the world and is fully aware of political realities.

Nancy, an expert musician and teacher, obviously shares his values.

Realism was evident in every aspect of the wedding. Simple, practical accommodation was provided for the

dozens of visitors in two empty farm houses, a school camp and a woolshed.

No one minded that many guests came barefoot. Nor that fresh grape juice instead of alcohol was on the tables at the hangi in the local hall. It seemed utterly natural that among the guests a cousin of the groom went into labour on the eve of the wedding, and after moving to a local hospital gave birth to a baby girl at the same hour as the wedding.

City couples who worry so much about the cost of their wedding could learn much from this reality wedding, with its generous inclusiveness.

Abraham and Nancy’s new home has no electric power. Not for the last time, they challenged our unreal needs for consumer goods and labour saving devices when they advised guests who wished to bring a wedding gift: “Please, no electrical appliances”. n

Sacred Silence

As we come near holy ground, we undress our minds and lay the garments of habitation at the side of the road.

We do not carry the judgements that we place on others and ourselves.

We let fall our notions of evil, our desire for goodness.

These too, must go by the way.

Next we take off our religious shoes, all those ideas about worship, and the words we use to measure God. They have a place in our lives but not in this inner sanctum.

Do we feel naked?

Do we feel vulnerable?

Then it is time to proceed, bare and simple, to the place where we will be clothed in the radiance of Love far beyond human thought.

Joy Cowley

Tui Motu InterIslands 19

young people

What teenagers really want Paul Andrews

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n a survey when teenagers were asked how they think their elders see them, the answers were pretty negative. Teenagers feel they are not understood, but judged harshly and disapproved of. So here is an attempt to make amends, to offer one way of thinking about teenagers.

It may be useful in these lazy crazy hazy days of January when our adolescent children are free from pressures and

have time to get in touch with their feelings. Some parents love these months, and the chance to see more of their children at the height of their powers: healthy, alert, bubbling with energy. Other parents dread the long empty days and late nights. With no school to put shape on their time and absorb their energies, what will they be up to?

Clearly no two adolescents are the same, and the diversities grow wider with puberty. Some girls are young madams by the age of 11; others seem to be still children at 16. Yet the tasks of the teens hold true across the board: what are they?

20 Tui Motu InterIslands

First, to avoid false solutions, the sort of compromises with society’s demands where the price seems to be one’s deepest dreams and integrity. This may take the form of differing from parents’ choice of career, or college, or clothes.

If they cannot identify their deepest dreams, they may define their style by differing from their parents. A 17-yearold boy was given a budget by his father to buy himself clothes; after selecting a jacket, he apologetically asked the shop assistant: Can I come back and change it if Dad likes it?

Most parents remember their own childhood clearly enough to sympathise with sons or daughters who are trying to find their own personal style. That does not mean that the parents should finance expensive experiments.

If young Brendan’s dreams cost money, then truth requires financial transparency: he should only spend what he has earned.

A wealthy friend, long dead, told me that he tried hard to ensure that his seven children would remain unaware of the huge riches they would inherit.

He feared that if their mind-set was: Dad will pay for it, they would lose the hunger and ambition that had driven him to success. He was ready to spend money on his children’s skills, but not on their pleasures, nor on devices (such as a Gap Year and travel abroad) for putting off a career decision and keeping at bay the pressures of adult life. If they wanted such luxuries, they would have to earn the price themselves. To look at his grown children you would have

to say he was right, and his philosophy worked well.

Secondly, in the doldrums of the teens, it seems important to feel real, with all the intensity of which a young body is capable. The occasions for this may be rare, such as exciting matches, good concerts and parties, when young music, and the heightened emotion it generates, makes you want it to last forever. A good Gospel choir, where you can lose yourself, body and soul, in the music, can meet this need. But alcohol does not; rather it is an escape from reality. It lifts inhibitions and allows you to feel repressed emotions with more intensity, until you get into a quarrel or fall asleep. It is a narcotic that dulls rather than sharpens the senses.

There is a third need of teenagers which I remember vividly from my years of teaching. It is to prod society repeatedly, so that society’s antagonism is shown up, and can be met with antagonism.

Teachers will remember the barely concealed delight of older students when they have wrong-footed a teacher or Principal into a display of injustice or temper, which then legitimises their protests and indignation.

The fourth need is to defy in a setting in which dependence is met and can be relied on to be met. Nothing makes more demands on parents than this: to hold the limits within a family, to face unreasoned anger and ingratitude, and meet it with firmness but without retaliation or vindictiveness; not letting his way of treating you determine your way of treating him. Nothing tests the vocation of a father more than this: to experience the limits of his control over his children, to run out of punishments and rewards, but not out of love. Nothing teaches the single mother more painfully her need for a spouse than to face this unsupported.

A mother’s journal…

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t’s the hot, languid time of the afternoon so a No Talking Hour is declared. The children snooze and read books. It’s a new year. A New Year. I sit with coffee and the last little packet of shortbread from the Christmas gift pack. What a great thing to have all these goodies as we head away on a holiday at the beach. This was another New Year I didn’t manage to stay awake until midnight. But I loved our fire on the beach and fish baked in foil.

Here on holiday at the beach in South India, it feels like a Kiwi summer – except that it’s warm and sunny every day. We’re glad to leave frosty winter in Himachal Pradesh for a spell.

Like a new morning, a new year gives me a chance to start again. To re-think what are my hopes for the coming months before school starts up again and things get busy. I realise that in the busyness of December I didn’t do much in the way of Advent, I’ve hardly written in my journal for a month, and I’ve done so little praying or reflecting that I hardly know how to start back again.

Actually to be accurate, in the week before Christmas I did pray very hard and earnestly for our sick dog Gulab Jamon. We prayed that God would be with us and with our sick exhausted puppy…and when she then died despite our best efforts I prayed extra hard for God to be with our three children.

“Gulab Jamon was our best friend in India,” sobbed Shar. So. as part of the farewell service we shared our favourite memories of times with our fluffy, bouncy friend – and looked at photos together. The children like imagining Gulab bouncing around in heaven now. I’m not sure about how heaven works these days but I’m sure if its a virtue-based locale, then our long suffering and faithful dog is there.

So I did pray in December, but it was the Please God, Help Us Now! type of telegraph, with no waiting around for

The nuclear family

The nuclear family offers a space for the extraordinary tensions that arise out of intimate living: between man and wife, father and son, mother and daughter, brothers and sisters.

The Bible, from Cain and Abel on, is the story of such tensions. Within a family these explosive forces can be worked through in a framework of exceptional strength. Even the revolts of adolescence are negotiated successfully in 90 percent of families, because of the bond of unsentimental affection that binds parents to one another and to their children. The result is a dynamic equilibrium, which

thoughts on what is required of me. So, hanging out with God in 2007, as I flick through the preface of a Joyce Rupp book I get some ideas.

Be present to the moment. This is a resolution nearly every year – and having small people in my life has certainly made this easier. Their focus around Here and Now is hard to escape – although my thoughts drift easily onto plans and dreams in the future. When I go walking with four- year-old Rohan, he reliably pulls me away from my plans for dinner or leading a workshop with an insistent “Mum, Look at this nice rock. Mum! You’re aren’t looking very well! MUM!” Be and do like a lump of dough. Be prepared to be kneaded, to be forced to change shape, to die to myself and my ‘needs’.

I don’t think that means I just flop out like a shapeless flat foccaccia… I think more, my idea of being a reliable square loaf gets changed into becoming a bread plait – still with verve and individuality…but willing to be moulded and shaped. Willing to believe that I don’t always know best.

Be deliberate. As we sat and drank tea in the shade last week a friend told me her idea of making a sort of ‘strategic plan’ for her children. It sounds a bit Covey’ish, but the idea’s grown on me. Jeph and I have talked through our ideas for nurturing and stimulating each child’s physical, social, spiritual and creative growth. Then we thought we would add in a joint family action each month for Caring for the Earth and Caring for People. This month we’ve decided on an action to reduce use of plastic water bottles in India.

So 2007 lies ahead like a new, fluffy puppy. I don’t know how things will turn out, and I guess there’ll be some good and some bad. But I hope I can pick it up and maybe even risk embracing it. And try to pray often along the way.

Kaaren Mathias Kaaren Mathias is a mother of three living and working with her husband, Jeph, in a village in Himachal Pradesh. She is focussed on keeping her kids happy, improving public health and enjoying the beautiful surroundings

produces a particular sort of people.

If you want an institution that will produce a creative and revolutionary people, there is none to compare with the Western nuclear family.

Do these four needs throw any light on your teenagers’ dynamics? It is always healthy to look at our own way of reacting to them. As Donald Winnicott put it: The big challenge from the adolescent is to the bit of ourselves that has not really had its adolescence.

This bit of ourselves makes us resent these people being able to have their phase of the doldrums, and makes us want to find a solution for them.

There are hundreds of false solutions.

Anything we do or say is wrong. We give support and we are wrong. We withdraw support and that is wrong too.

We dare not be ‘understanding’. But in the course of time we find that this adolescent boy and this adolescent girl have come out of the doldrums phase and are now able to begin identifying with society, with parents, and with all sorts of wider groups, without feeling threatened with personal extinction. n Paul Andrews is an Irish Jesuit priest and psychotherapist living in Dublin

Tui Motu InterIslands 21

muslims/christians

Nearest in Love…

Presbyterian scholar, Simon Rae, reflects on the life and times of the prophet Muhammed, when Muslims and Christians held each other in mutual respect

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ecent discussion about the social and religious legacy of the Prophet Muhammad gives rise to many questions, among them a question about how relations were between Christians, Jews and the early Muslims in the immediate environment of Muhammad. Little can be traversed in a short article, but there is enough evidence of early ChristianMuslim solidarity, even when both communities were debating with each other, to pull us up in some surprise in view of the religious barriers erected subsequently by both sides.

The prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca in either 567 or 569CE into an impoverished family of the merchant elite. Orphaned, he travelled with an uncle on the long merchant caravans and gained a wide understanding of his own Arabian society in which there were strong Christian and Jewish communities, in both cases of mixed backgrounds, culturally and doctrinally. On one such journey as a young boy he was identified by a Christian monk as a prophet – “a great future lies before this nephew of yours”, the uncle was told, “so take him home quickly”.

Grown up, he married a widow, Khadiyah, older then himself, who was an important support and assurance to him when, at about 40 years of age, he began receiving revelations from God. He preached in Mecca for 12 years before his withdrawal to Medina, the hijra, on 16 June 622. This date marks the beginning of the Muslim era, in which years are designated A.H. He died 7/8 June 632 CE.

22 Tui Motu InterIslands

Muhammad was opposed on account of the tenor of his preaching, which challenged fundamental beliefs, atti­ tudes and practices of his society. The early revelations were difficult for him to interpret and there was a long pause after the first, during which the voice was not heard. Although Muhammad became a social leader in Medina his life was one of struggle and not infrequent danger. One of the repeated themes of the Qur’an is that all God’s messengers suffer misunderstanding and opposition from their uncomprehending hearers.

This is the background to the events that follow.

all God’s messengers suffer opposition from uncomprehending hearers There were Christians, Jews and Jewish Christians in Muhammad’s environment. The Christians were from Byzantium (representing the church of the great councils, but seen in Arabia and elsewhere in the east as the imperial religion of its day), Syria, Ethiopia, and the Christian kingdom of Najraan in what is today south Yemen.

The early Muslims felt the enmity of the Jewish tribes in their region (now of unknown background), but spoke of the Christians in remarkably warm terms: “Nearest to the (Muslim) believers in love you will find those who say, ‘We are Christians’; because among them are men devoted to learning (qissis) and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant” (Qur’an 5: 82).

This is one of the late chapters of the Qur’an, from the Medina period, but the Abyssinian word qissis indicates that its context was the flight of a group of early Muslims, led by Muhammad’s nephew, to seek refuge with the Christian ruler, the Negus, of Abyssinia. When questioned about their prophet they told the king: “He summoned us to acknowledge God’s unity… and to renounce the stones and images which we and our fathers formerly worshipped.

“He commanded us to speak the truth, be faithful to our engagements, mindful of the ties of kinship and kindly hospitality, and to refrain from crimes and bloodshed. He forbade us to commit abominations and to speak lies, and to devour the property of orphans, to vilify chaste women. He commanded us to worship God alone and not to associate anything with Him. And he gave us orders about prayer, almsgiving and fasting.”

After hearing a reading from the chapter entitled ‘Mary’ that tells of the birth of John the Baptiser and then of Jesus (Qur’an 19) the Negus wept and declared, “Of a truth this and what Jesus brought have come from the same niche” (from Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad’s earliest biographer, trans A. Guillaume).

This Christian solidarity with refugees from Mecca, and the example of their scholarly monks, remained in the memory of the early Muslims.

In the Qur’an Jesus, son of Mary, (Isa ibn Maryam in Arabic) is treated with great honour, although regarded as a prophet of God and not to be associated with God as a ‘son’ – either

begotten or adopted. This is an issue for dialogue in its own right but some of the discussion around it is revealing. In chapter 2: We gave Moses the book and we have followed him with later messengers and we gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear signs and strengthened him with the holy spirit.

But whenever there comes to you a messenger with something you did not seek are you not then puffed up with pride?

Some you accuse of falsehood and others you kill!

In the Qur’an the Jews are rebuked for rejecting Jesus and his message, and the Christians are rebuked for arguing about Jesus and his message.

With the clear signs of his miracles and the strengthening of the holy spirit (seen as a manifestation of God’s power and sometimes identified with Gabriel and sometimes with Jesus himself ) Christians should have been in full harmony and agreement about Jesus and his message – had not God confused their thinking.

It is patently clear to any Christian reading the Qur’an that Muhammad was deeply scandalised by the disagreement and violent argument among the different Christian groups – the imperial theology of Byzantium, the Nestorians, the Monophysites, the Copts and the largely Monophysite church of Abyssinia. That Christians could not agree meant they has marred the message given to them, and a new revelation, for all people but in the language of the Arabs, would be given. Jesus however continued to be respected as prophet, messiah, servant, messenger, word, spirit, sign and blessing, although each of these titles is invested with new meaning in Muslim teaching.

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bn Ishaq, Muhammad’s first biographer, tells a remarkable story. When an embassy from the Christian kingdom of Najraan came to the prophet to negotiate a treaty Muhammad allowed them to offer their prayers in the mosque, despite the protest of some of his followers.

While the majority of the Christians of Abyssinia were Monophysites, and the Negus had no doctrinal dispute with the Muslims seeking his aid, the Christians of Najraan were a different matter. They were of Byzantine background, and the worship they offered would have been according to the Byzantine rites.

Muhammad argued with them because they claimed that Jesus was God’s son (on account of his signs and because his father was unknown) and because they said that “he was one of three”. Muhammad called on them to submit themselves to God, which they protested they had done, and to forsake their error but in spite of all this debate they were permitted to offer their prayers in the mosque.

Muhammad was deeply scandalised by the violent argument among the Christian groups Ibn Ishaq recounts another mark of the prophet’s reverence for Jesus, the son of Mary, and his mother. When the Ka’ba, the enigmatic shrine in Mecca that is now the earthly centre-point of the Muslim world, was being cleansed of all its accumulated pagan images and religious pictures, Muhammad ordered that two pictures of Jesus and Mary should not be erased.

Christian association with this mysterious shrine predates Muh­ ammad’s work – Ibn Ishaq records an account, whose source he identifies, of a stone found 40 years before Muhammad’s mission, with the inscription, “He that soweth good shall reap joy; he that soweth evil shall reap sorrow; can you do evil and be rewarded with good? Nay, as grapes cannot be gathered from thorns” (Matt. 7: 16).

Finally in the chapter ‘Light’ (Al-Nur) come the beautiful verses about the light of God known as ‘The Lamp Niche’ (Mishkat):

God is the light of the heavens and the earth.

His light is like a niche in which is a lamp, The lamp in glass and the glass like a brilliant star, Lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, Whose oil would almost give light even though no fire had touched it; Light upon light; God guideth to his light whomsoever he will...

(Qur’an 24:35 –translation, Geoffrey Parrinder, Jesus in the Qur’an 1965)

While the mishkat was a feature of all Arab homes this parable, which may embody echoes of Jesus’ saying about a lamp that gives light to the house, has a distinct sense of a light that draws people to God – a sanctuary lamp, in its niche, rather than a house lamp, and this is reinforced in verse 36: “(such a lamp shines) in houses which God has permitted to be raised… for the celebration in them of his name.”

Could it be that the vivid and multilayered imagery of these verses that have been extensively commented on by Muslim writers goes back to a childhood memory? Did the young Muhammad, about the time he was identified by a Christian monk as a prophet awaiting his call, go into a Christian church somewhere on his travels – drawn by the oil lamp that seemed as bright as a star?

Can we find again in this same sense of wonder at the extent of God’s mercy and compassion a way out of the confusion of our adversarial attitudes?

In a world where imperial powers still co-opt religions to their purposes, a consideration of those things that unite rather than those that divide could enable us to find new places to stand together in witness to the light. n

Simon Rae has been translating De Jezusverzen in de Koran (2006) by the Catholic scholar Karel Steenbrink of Utrecht, on which he has drawn for some of the background above, while absolving Professor Steenbrink from any responsibility for the way it has been used.

Tui Motu InterIslands 23

peace & justice

Turning the other cheek At a time when the news is filled with violence Margaret Bedggood tells of a hope-filled initiative

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visited Mexico when I worked for Amnesty International. Near the border with the USA there is a free trade zone full of shanty towns which house the workers in the nearby factories.

I learnt the dreadful story of that place: that over the years, many young women had disappeared. Mothers held photos of their daughters for us to see; the photos and the memories were all that remained of precious lives. The women just sat there. No one knew what happened to the girls, and no one seemed prepared to find out. But their bodies keep on appearing in the fields.

And as I listened to their stories, I remember thinking, this could be me, with a picture of my own daughter. I was overwhelmed.

At home, I watch the news. Genocide in Darfur, unending fighting in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan. ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka; the violence of poverty and social injustice at home and world wide; violence against women and children and old people; injustice and lack of keeping faith for indigenous peoples. The distance detaches me. We don’t tend to look at it and think those are our children, our parents, our grandparent, our brother or sister or friend, because – day after relentless day – we simply couldn’t bear it if it were.

In the face of all this, often we feel simply helpless. There doesn’t seem to be anything much usefully that we as individuals, ordinary people, can do.

We don’t seem ever to know enough anyway, and even if as Christians we believe that any response should be a non-violent one, we don’t know how to make one.

This was exactly the thinking which led a British lawyer, Peter Benenson, to the

24 Tui Motu InterIslands

founding of Amnesty International over 40 years ago. It is also a part of the motivation of a group which has been working over the last year to establish a Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in a University here in Aotearoa.

around the country to gauge popular interest and support and has raised over one million dollars in donations, set up a database of over 600 supporters and established contact with a number of overseas institutions.

The Centre is intended to be as independent as possible in a University setting and provide degree courses on all aspects of peace theory and practice, from international peacekeeping to domestic violence, from ethnic conflict to indigenous rights, from restorative justice to theories of non-violence. It is modelled on the highly successful and influential Centre at Bradford (UK), but it is to be grounded especially and uniquely in the peace history of all the peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand. It will provide short courses for peace activists – and for all of us – and practical, on-the-ground experience will be part of some of its courses and its research methodology.

It has invited expressions of interest in hosting the Centre from New Zealand Universities, and has recently agreed to enter into negotiations with the University of Otago. While one University will serve as the host university, a central focus of the group has been to set up a collaborative model with other Universities and indigenous peace centres involved in planning and delivery. From the beginning the group has included tangata whenua representation and such continued representation is seen as essential in the planning and delivery of the Centre.

Why have such a Centre in a University?

Won’t it be just another talk-fest? A University Centre will be a sign that peace-making is being taken seriously; in the same way as we train doctors, lawyers, accountants, policy makers, so peace makers too can benefit from engaging in and reflecting on both the theory and practice of peace building in a range of contexts and cultures. While the Centre will probably begin with courses at Masters level attracting students from here and overseas from a wide range of disciplines, it is intended to expand to include undergraduate, doctoral and short term (continuing education) programmes.

The idea for the Centre has been guided by three trustees and a Steering Group representing a range of interests. This group has held a number of meetings

For people of faith this Centre has another dimension. If we are to really take to our hearts the Gospel call to love others, to love our enemies, and to follow Jesus’ example and teaching of non-violent action and response, then should we not bring to this task all our resources of reason and experience as well as passion and faith? Walter Wink has made the point that responding to violence non-violently is not a natural reaction for human beings: it has to be painstakingly learned and practised. It is our hope that the new Centre will provide opportunities to do just that. n For more information about the Centre email: <anzpcsc@ihug.co.nz>; or visit www:bradford.ac.uk/acad/peace/

Margaret Bedggood is one of the trustees of the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, and was for six years a member of the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International.

scripture

Reflecting on John – 1:35-51 Susan Smith

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ohn the Baptist takes seriously his vocation to witness to the light, and the opening chapter of the Fourth Gospel reveals him moving around the Transjordan area proclaiming that this Jesus, son of Joseph of Nazareth, is indeed the Lamb of God, the Son of God. On learning this two of John’s disciples, Andrew and one who is unnamed, leave John to follow Jesus.

Andrew then finds his brother Simon Peter and informs him that they have found the Messiah.

that God is not confined to a particular place or group of people.

The following day Jesus journeys to Galilee, possibly to Bethsaida, finds Philip, and invites him to follow Jesus.

Philip in turn informs Nathanael that “we have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth,” words that elicit Nathanael’s famous rhetorical question: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

One of the temptations to which Christians can succumb is to confine God to a particular place or to a particular people. Many Christians believed that God was not present among pagan peoples until the first missionaries arrived and ‘brought God’ with them so that people could be saved.

What is fascinating about the story of John the Baptist is that despite his ascetical life style, he does not appear to be associated with the Qumran community who lived a strict life south of Jerusalem on the edge of the Dead Sea. Nor is John associated with a particular village and its synagogue, or with the Temple. In other words John, the man sent by God, recognizes

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The Gospel suggests something similar about Jesus who emerges as a man on the move. He is walking by when John identifies him as the Lamb of God. He walks on, followed by Andrew and the unnamed disciple. The next day Jesus decides to go to Galilee, where he invites Philip and Nathanael to follow him, while on the third day he goes to Cana for a wedding.

Bookmark our website for easy access to up-to-the-minute information on available books, music, devotional aids and church supplies. Catalogues still available.

Or again, while Catholics believe that Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament in their tabernacles, they may find it more difficult to believe that Jesus is present in the least of their brothers and sisters inviting them to struggle for a more just world for the economically and politically marginalised. They do not really believe that the Spirit of God is moving throughout all creation challenging them to be involved in the great ecological issues of the day.

Christians need to be people on the move alert to the Spirit wherever she blows (Jn 3:8). n Susan Smith is a Mission sister who teaches Biblical Studies at the School of Theology, University of Auckland

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Tui Motu InterIslands 25

church in the world

The Queen – a study in the exercise of power Kevin Toomey OP compares the predicament of Queen and Pope

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n the way out from enjoying Helen Mirren’s performance in The Queen, my companion mused, “What will the monarchy look like in a hundred year’s time?” Without thinking I blurted out, “But what will the papacy look like in a hundred year’s time?” There lies the rub, to misquote Shakespeare! Both institutions are venerable in age, have high profile incumbents, are full of ancient protocol, and are intent on presenting an important face to the world.

But very often they seem less than relevant to the common person. Even more so in the case of the monarchy, 20,000 km away from Balmoral Castle and Buckingham Palace, where New Zealanders are fast but falteringly learning that their socio-economic, political and cultural ties lie with the Pacific first, and then with Asia.

The most poignant scene of the film for me was the way the Queen was portrayed in the gardens at Balmoral, with her own mother, anguishing over her traditional duties as sovereign as against her personal wishes for the good of her family. The most touching parts of Queen Elizabeth II’s long tenure as the British sovereign have been her clear sense of service to her people, not just at home, but throughout the Commonwealth.

This is something that was clear in the outpouring of devotion to her that took place during the time of the celebration of her 50 years as monarch. The Queen’s sense of duty comes from the vow that she took when she was crowned in Westminster Abbey 54 years ago. And that vow derives from the time when the monarchs of Europe saw themselves as personally chosen by God to rule their nations. This is the so-called divine right of kings, a view long since outmoded politically. (We see hints of this in the way that President George W Bush refers to his own presidency.)

The person with true power in Britain is Tony Blair. The film very clearly points that out. He single-handedly saves the monarchy. This parody of reality has a shadow of truth.

However, we will have to wait for the verdict of history on these eight days after the death of Princess Diana, so poignantly portrayed in The Queen, to understand them more fully in their true light.

What then is the parallel with the Papacy? The last Pope to experience himself as both monarch and Pope was Blessed Pius IX, who in protest against the taking away of the Papal States and his monarchical power in 1870,

26 Tui Motu InterIslands

instituted himself as the ‘Prisoner of the Vatican’. In my judgment nothing could have been more fortuitous for the mission of the Papacy than that it lost this political and monarchical power.

That the Papacy to this day maintains the outward face of a medieval princely court is an anachronism – a leftover from the days when the church’s state and religious functions were joined. Is it by chance that in the same year, 1870, the Pope’s temporal power was ripped away from him, the First Vatican Council profoundly strengthened his spiritual and religious power by declaring him infallible?

Successive Popes have attempted to come to terms with both these important events. Paul VI, in shedding the papal tiara at his ‘coronation’, gave a clear sign that he was renouncing this symbol of the Pope’s temporal sovereignty. Pope John XXIII was brought down to earth literally by giving up the sedia gestatoria, whereby the Pope was carried by papal attendants. Hence his nickname among many Romans at the time, “Johnny Walker”.

How much of this pomp and ceremony is necessary now to give the Pope his true function as a gospel figure truly representing Christ? Does this protocol not isolate the Pope, as it did the Queen? And who in the Vatican has the function of pointing out to the Pope where he may need to change, just as Tony Blair did in advising Her Majesty the Queen on how delicate was her constitutional position after Diana’s death?

It may take many more decades before the theology of the mission of the Church, portrayed in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, finds its way into the practical structure of church power sharing. The Council theologised about the place of the Pope and his power alongside that of the bishops, moving us away from more juridical thinking into a theology steeped in the Scriptures. So far the Synod of Bishops, which was the medium set up to begin a process of power sharing, has been tightly controlled by the Vatican dicasteries themselves. Their fear could be that, unless strictly controlled, too much power may devolve into the hands of the bishops, as happened at Vatican II. How, indeed, will ‘other voices’ be allowed to represent important views complementary to, or indeed in opposition to, those the Pope’s closest advisers give him?

Are the Pope’s ‘eyes and ears’, his apostolic nuncios throughout the world, instructed to help in this process?

Greater sharing of the Pope’s spiritual power with the

film review

Film: The Queen Review: Paul Sorrell

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oming hard on the heels of New Labour’s landslide victory in 1997, the death of Princess Diana unleashed a tide of public sorrow unparalleled in contemporary British life. It also created a popular backlash against the monarchy – accused of dishonouring Diana’s memory – that threatened its very existence. In Stephen Frears’s The Queen, these very public events are the catalyst for a rich and complex study of institutional power and the personalities who wield it.

The film shows how Diana’s death created a realignment of power in the UK, handing the reins to Tony Blair and his vision of a ‘modernised’ Britain and catapulting a reluctant and hidebound monarchy into the 21st century. In many ways, the movie is a two-hander, a subtly observed conflict between Blair (Michael Sheen) and

Queen Elizabeth II over the future direction and character of the nation.

Dame Helen Mirren in the title role is outstanding, a veteran actor at the height of her powers.

Yet the film is also populated by a host of figures, some famous and others obscure, who form a variety of alignments around this central conflict.

Although the stark contrasts in style between the old and the new Britain are emphasized, some surprising parallels emerge. While Blair is cast as a hip young innovator, he also has traditional instincts that allow him to admire the Queen’s deeply entrenched sense of duty and ability to change where change is necessary. On the other hand, he despises the utter lack of integrity displayed by his chief spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, played with just the right amount of flippant cynicism by Mark Bazeley.

Campbell in turn is twinned with the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Robin Janvrin, an honourable traditionalist

local bishops in such a forum as the Synod could help this. It may also symbolise a Papacy stripped of some of ‘monarchical’ pomp, and one more open to the voice of the common people.

Much will depend on the spirituality and will of each future Pope. With less pomp and ceremony the Pope would be seen more as a pilgrim in faith like us, while faithfully fulfilling a unique function within the structure of the church. Pope John Paul II’s many trips around the world had as one of their purposes to allow millions more people to see him in person. In fact these journeys distanced him from the common person, as he became more and more a world media figure of immense proportions. How Pope Benedict and future popes will deal with these conundrums is just one of the many the church has to face, as it seeks to give a more human face to the gospel and that fuller humanity which our troubled world seeks daily.

Both monarchy and papacy have suffered in the shifting sands of living out their respective missions to their people. That was the heart of the film, as Elizabeth was shown with the Queen Mother struggling to work out what was her role and future path. Will some enterprising film maker give us as evocative a portrayal of Pope Benedict’s struggles? Will it be called The Pope? n

who tries in his own way to bridge the gap between court and Cabinet.

Prince Charles and his father come off worst. The Duke of Edinburgh is an irascible reactionary, incapable of an altruistic impulse. Charles is shown as a craven opportunist, desperate to impress the new Prime Minister with his ‘modernising’ credentials. These caricatures raise wider questions about the ultimate veracity of a film based of necessity on the reconstruction of largely private events and conversations.

In the end, Frears is too kind to Blair.

A sense of dramatic irony is at work throughout and, at the end of the film, the Queen warns her Prime Minister that he, too, will fall from grace when he least expects it. All too quickly, Blair changed from the bright-eyed young reformer depicted here into US President George Bush’s lapdog and partner in warmongering, diminishing his status in the eyes of many and leaving a promising reputation in tatters. n

WALK BY FAITH An Extramural Course for Adults This 3-year course uses adult learning processes to help you to: • know and understand yourself better • deepen your faith • enrich your knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Scriptures and the Church • learn with others participating in the course

For an enrolment form or further information, contact::

NCRS, PO Box 1937, Wellington Ph 04 496 1761 Fax: 04 496 1762 Email: ncrsnz@clear.net.nz OR your Diocesan Education Office The programme is directed by the National Centre for Religious Studies on behalf of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Tui Motu InterIslands 27

book reviews

A history of personal redemption Seminary Boy John Cornwell Harper Collins,2006 Review: Merle van de Klundert

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his book tells of the stark and bleak reality of what life was like growing up in the East end of London where poverty was the norm for thousands of families. John Cornwell’s experiences were not unique, but because he describes the harsh reality of his childhood so graphically I felt he was indeed fortunate to escape the hardship and grinding poverty of the London slums.

John Cornwell was tough and a fighter. After he had cracked a nun over the head at school he was sent to a type of reformatory for a month. His mother despaired of him, and sent him to be an altar boy at the parish church where the priest was as poor as his parishioners.

This man of few words made an impression on John as he served daily Mass. He felt he had a vocation and was taken by his mother to be interviewed at the bishop’s house, an ordeal for both of them. He was accepted as a candidate for priesthood, the expenses of his training to be met by the diocese. A long list of essentials proved too much for the cash-strapped family, but the parish priest came to the rescue by striking out items of clothing he deemed unnecessary.

This poor boy, a product of the East End, was sent alone to the minor seminary at Cotton College in the West Midlands. The first night at the seminary was very long as

Sean McDonagh National tour of New Zealand Fr Sean McDonagh is a missionary, theologian and anthropologist. He writes and lectures on the relationship between faith, justice and ecology. In New Zealand his overall theme will be Ecology, Justice and Religion

The final details of venues and times below will be publicised by local hosts: Auckland: Monday evening 19th February Whangarei: Tuesday evening 20th February Wellington: Thursday evening 22nd February and

Friday morning 23rd February Palmerston North: Friday evening 23rd February Dunedin: Sunday evening 25th February Invercargill: Monday evening 26th February Alexandra: Tuesday evening 27th February Oamaru: Wednesday evening 28th February Christchurch: Thursday evening 1st March.

28 Tui Motu InterIslands

he had never slept in a bed by himself in his life. As the term progressed he found his school work difficult as he had never been instructed in Latin, Greek and other subjects.

With determination he kept his nose to the grindstone and gradually managed to keep pace and then overtake his fellow students.

Life was grim at Cotton – a strict regime of prayer, Mass, study, classes, long walks in the desolate, windswept countryside or digging ditches for recreation. There was very little chance of forming friendships with fellow seminarians, though some type of comradeship happened among the students. The contrast between the disciplined routine of the seminary with the higgledy-piggledy family life with its ups and downs during the holidays was to say the least confusing.

Scruples dogged the poor boy. The normal awakenings of puberty were never fully explained to him. Also the passion several students had for him plus the craving of a very normal adolescent brought confusion and doubt.

John Cornwell became head boy at Cotton, but a strong disagreement with the Rector left him with doubts about his vocation. He spent only one term at Oscott, the major seminary in Birmingham. Fortunately, because of his sound academic record he had earned a place at Oxford to study English Literature where he did exceedingly well.

For over 20 years he had little to do with Catholicism even though he had married a Catholic. His journey back to the church was not easy. John Cornwell is a distinguished scholar and author from an impoverished, dysfunctional family. From the harshness of life at Cotton to the richness he has found in his career and family life, this surely is a story of redemption. n

Holy Cross Primary School, Henderson 75th Jubilee Celebrations 1932 - 2007

Friday 01 June 2007: Meet and Greet Evening 7.00pm – 10.00pm: at the School Hall Finger Food/Cash Bar – Cost: $15.00 Saturday 02 June 2007: Formal Dinner 6.30pm – 12.00midnight: at the Croatian Centre Buffet Dinner/ Cash Bar – Cost: $60.00

To register either Go to website:

www.holycross75jubilee.myevent.com Or Contact school for registration form:

Ph (09) 838 8802 Early Registration advised as limited number of tickets available.

Registrations close 27 April 2007

Troubling of the Soul The Troubling of the City Roger Lloyd Published by Allen & Unwin in 1962 Review: Mike Crowl

to buy, buy, buy. The end result is a complete lack of peace in the average human soul. Without peace we have no time to reflect.

I

• The Complexity of Modern Life, in Lloyd’s terms, relates to taking something simple and making it more complex. This results in people giving up on trying to achieve things that seemed simple – particularly in the area of social justice – because intellectuals of every kind have made them utterly complex. Our concern for the environment and for other people’s souls can be affected in the same way.

A person can deal with a thing if it’s seen straightforwardly. But if it’s loaded with tangents and undercurrents and behaviours and abstract philosophising, then the simple thing gets lost under a weight of nonsense.

found a copy of Roger Lloyd’s 1962 publication The Troubling of the City in a secondhand shop a few weeks ago, and bought it out of curiosity, as it seemed to have some similarities to C S Lewis’ writing.

For instance, it concerns the ‘troubling’ (in a very heavy-handed way) of the English city of Winchester, and especially its ancient Cathedral, by an archdemon called Vitrios and his cronies. At one point in the story, Vitrios exhorts the other fiends with a kind of inside-out sermon, rather like the (upside-down) letters C S Lewis’ Screwtape sends to his nephew.

On the surface Vitrios encourages the demons to consider the four ‘soft spots’ which humans have, and which the demons can attack. But beneath this the author shows the reader four areas of their spiritual life in which they can fail, and over which they need to exercise care. Even though the book was written in the 1960s, these four soft spots are as relevant to modern day Christians – and other people with concerns for their spiritual life – as they were more than 40 years ago.

The four areas are: Excessive Stimulation, the Complexity of Modern Life, the Sense of Despair, and the Forgetfulness of Forgiveness.

• Lloyd’s Excessive Stimulation relates primarily to people being stimulated into doing far too much, with the end result that they do nothing of value, even giving up on the useful things they used to do. This still applies, but even more in the sense of humans being stimulated beyond measure by endless noise, visual matter, words at every hand, and constant exhortations

Vitrios, the archdemon, states that the demons should insinuate the idea that “Over-simplification is the mark of the unintelligent”. Which of course means, by default, complexity is the mark of the intelligent. This is, of course, a subtly disguised lie.

• Complexity of this nature leads to the third soft spot: a Sense of Despair.

When people can’t get a handle on issues – whether they be how to deal with problems in their city, or the dishonesty of politicians, or the rightness or wrongness of something ethical – they lose heart, and despair gradually creeps in. Keeping buoyant and positive in the midst of false complexity is never easy.

• Finally, there is the Forgetfulness of Forgiveness. One of the great Christian themes is that God forgives us our sins, on the basis of our repentance. Vitrios wants his demons to muddy the waters and get people thinking they can never repent enough. And if they can’t repent enough, then God probably won’t forgive, and so, if he won’t forgive,

there’s no point repenting. A vicious – and demonic – circle, and one that is full of lies.

God’s forgiveness isn’t reliant on the depth or degree of our repentance.

None of us could ever be repentant enough, if the truth be told. Vitrios is sharp enough to understand that God is far more concerned with how much we forgive others, rather than the extent of our repentance. Jesus himself said, If you don’t forgive others, my Father in heaven will not – indeed, cannot – forgive you.

There’s a great deal more of interest in this book: the battle between good and evil, the value of prayer, the need to discern the work of supernatural enemies. It’s a well-told story, with a number of surprises.

But the section I’ll remember when the rest of the book has gone from my mind concerns the four soft spots: areas of my life I need to keep a grip on. n

We will find those books for you Books mentioned in this paper, or any other books you can’t find, can be ordered from:

O C Books Use our email to order – or to receive our fortnightly email newsletter Tollfree 0800 886 226 99 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin Ph/Fax (03) 477 9919 email: shop@ocbooks.co.nz Visit our website http://www.ocbooks.co.nz

Tui Motu InterIslands 29

comment

Not a very happy New Year

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he new year is traditionally the time of resolutions, expectations and hopes for the future, but the world is in such turmoil as to suggest the beginning of a cultural conflict between the Arabic and Western worlds. Practically, how much can one hope for a resolution to the widening Middle East crisis? Is there hope for religion when, in the very heart of ‘the promised land’, the problems between monotheistic faiths seem insurmountable? Paul’s Epistle to the Romans advises, but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Can one hope for something when there seems no possibility of attainment?

Based on a literal interpretation of Genesis, the Zionist Jews claim that Jehovah promised the whole land of Palestine exclusively to them, ignoring the fact that God’s covenant was given to Abraham and to all his descendants, not merely to Israel. Christian Zionists and Fundamentalists, particularly in America, are convinced that there will be an apocalyptic war between good and evil (enter George W. Bush’s war against terrorism); therefore there is no prospect for a lasting peace between Jews and Arabs.

So the slaughter of civilians continues in Palestine, the West Bank and Lebanon, and the threat of war against Iran and Syria is justified as countering the threat to Israel’s ‘right to exist’. In the new millennium, the Cold War has been replaced by a Holy War, the War on Terror. At stake is the right to annihilate enemies with the ultimate WMD – a nuclear bomb.

The astonishing power and influence of Zionists in protecting and expanding the state of Israel (by whatever means) and its ‘right to exist’ were exposed in a seminal academic paper, The Israel Lobby, commented on in this column last July. The paper is still being

30 Tui Motu InterIslands

Crosscurrents John Honoré

denigrated by Israel’s supporters who are now slating Jimmy Carter’s latest book, calling him anti-Semitic for criticising Israel. Jimmy Carter writes, “It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defence of justice or human rights for Palestinians.” What hope is there for Palestinians to create a viable independent state on their own land when they have pitted against them the political, economic and military might of America?

T

Iran the next target

here are moments in history which seem utterly bleak. With the chaos in the Middle East, 2006 was a good example and posed the question: could it get any worse? The brutal hanging of Saddam Hussein at the end of the year (which the Vatican called “tragic”) cast another shadow over a war-torn Iraq.

The execution of Saddam was about revenge, not justice. He has become a symbol of Sunni Arab resistance and another cause for sectarian violence. The execution exemplifies the ineptitude of the American occupation of Iraq.

The new year brings confirmation of Bush’s intention to send even more troops to Iraq. His proposed ‘surge’ appears to have no real military purpose and is opposed by the US military, the majority in both Houses and by the American public.

But to rescue a ruined Iraq is not the plan. The goal is to crush Iran, the threat to Israel and the obstacle to American hegemony in the Middle East. Part of the Israeli and American plan to bring down Iran has already been achieved with the destruction of

civilian infrastructure and the spread of sectarian violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon. By whatever political chicanery and propaganda necessary, the American public will be subjected to a news media blitz of misinformation about Iran.

The next war is already being planned.

Iran is the target. It could well involve nuclear weapons launched by either Israel or US under the guise of the war against terror, meaning the war against Islam. Iraq has been destroyed, what hope is there for Iran?

T

The voice of reason

hese dark prospects require that we step back from violence and war and begin to question political leaders in order that hope is not abandoned at the beginning of the new year. There is an immediate need for honesty, a need particularly for church leaders to speak out against injustice and to criticise the policies of governments.

Where are the protestations of the Catholic Church in New Zealand?

How can any Christian accept the preposterous declaration by George W. Bush that Iraqis should still be grateful to America for starting the war? Such an insult to the intelligence not only of Americans but of all of us should be challenged by church and state; it should not be left just to Jim Anderton.

Hope empowers action and gives a vision of new possibilities and the faith that they might become realities. There is an example for church leaders. Jesus spoke the well-known words, “Put up thy sword.” The sword in question was no symbolic weapon. It was Simon Peter’s sword, and he had just cut off the ear of one Malchus. These words can still take root in people’s hearts when repeated by those with power and influence. Then hope will not be abandoned. n

Whose voice do we listen to regarding violent offenders?

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he papers last month were full of Graeme Burton’s rampage on the hilltops at Wainuiomata. Once more, a paroled individual with a history of violent crime turned a gun on innocent people. There was public outrage and calls for the operation of the parole system to be checked and where necessary put right. In this understandable and healthy reaction there lies a danger. Penal reform is indeed needed. But it must be the right penal reform. More needs to be looked at than just the parole system.

We have in our country one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world. Among developed countries we rank second only to the United States. In 2004, the average prison population for sentenced males was 30 percent greater than the average in 1995. For sentenced females, the increase was 113 percent.

Even greater increases were found in the use of custodial remands. For males, a 147 percent increase since 1995 and for women, a staggering 387 percent increase over the decade.

The latter figures were despite the fact that so many of those held on remand are ultimately acquitted of the alleged offence.

All this during a decade when the crime rate in New Zealand has been falling.

Do we really believe that New Zealand is one of the most vicious and criminal societies on the planet? Or is our sentencing policy out of kilter? Is simply locking up offenders the solution to the problem of crime?

An organisation that has over the past 15 years battled for better solutions than the purely custodial is the Howard League for Penal Reform. This Christchurch group sees itself as “committed to working for rational and open debate on issues of crime and punishment”. It has both offered assistance to prisoners on an individual basis and kept reminding the community and the authorities of various avenues available for

the better administration of justice. Just to mention a couple: the wider use of the restorative justice system and the fuller employment of rehabilitation measures in our prisons.

During my years in Christchurch I was impressed by the work of the League. I cannot say that I got hands-on involved in practical steps to help those who had run afoul of the law. But I was enlightened by the things that the League did and said.

Would that more New Zealanders were similarly enlightened.

If you would like to share the enlightenment that I received, an email sent to: howardleague@caverock.net.nz will get you on the electronic mailing list to receive the League’s succinct two monthly bulletins. If you want to peruse earlier bulletins and check out other material, go to the website: www. howardleague.co.nz There are of course other voices on penal matters, such as the Sensible Sentencing Trust. Its spokesman, Garth McVicar, was included in New Zealand Listener’s recent list of the 50 most powerful people in the country. The Trust’s website reflects the public’s understandable abhorrence of the recidivism of violent offenders. But the remedies the Trust proposes are simplistic and vindictive ones: longer sentences and more severe prison regimes, steps which offer little hope of reducing the amount of crime and violence in our nation.

Quite a few readers of Tui Motu have greater experience of prison and criminal realities than has the writer of these lines, or for that matter has Garth McVicar. They are those who function as prison chaplains and visitors. It would be illuminating to know on whose side they would range themselves, the selfstyled Sensible Sentencing Trust or the Howard League for Penal Reform. n

Humphrey O’Leary

Fr Humphrey O’Leary is rector of the Redemptorist community in Glendowie, Auckland

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Tui Motu InterIslands 31

postscript

Urban rape

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racious buildings are part of the desirable urban landscape of any city. Like mature trees and shrubs and parks, they soften the harshness and bustle of city living. When they are desecrated it is always a tragedy.

Dunedin has many such buildings, which is one reason it is probably New Zealand’s most attractive city and one of the most pleasant to live and work in.

To keep it that way is a constant battle with vandals and urban ‘developers’.

Illustrated above is Santa Sabina. If you go out of the city along North Road you see this old Dominican convent gracing the hillside to the left, surrounded by mature trees. But not for much longer: it is about to be vandalised. Many trees will go, the convent will be despoiled and some 60 dwellings crammed together on the site in contemporary egg-box style.

photo: Jim Neilan

The local parish school – Sacred Heart – will be threatened by having this excrescence created on the steep hillside immediately above it. Access to the site for cars is totally inadequate.

The loss of trees will certainly reduce the stability of the hill.

The locals are up in arms, but the City Council has given permission and the developer’s will is decisive. The voices of the little people have gone unheeded. On appeal, the number of

dwellings was reduced. But that is like saying gang rape is forbidden, but a smaller rape won’t be noticed. A rape is a rape! One new building on that site is one too many.

This decision is a disgrace, and one has to wonder what pressures were applied to obtain it. We have a weak City Council and a supine Mayor to thank for it. They should be thoroughly ashamed. n

M.H.

Programme Coordinator for Mercy Spirituality Centre 104 The Drive, Epsom, Auckland

Lent is here.

Praying, fasting and giving has an awesome impact on our lives. It can also change the lives of people in far away places.

Look out for your Lent Appeal envelopes, and reflection programmes, in your Parish.

Te Ngakau Waiora Mercy Spirituality Centre, Auckland, is a retreat centre and place of learning for deepening one’s relationship with God in ways which foster the inner search leading to hohourongo – personal, social and spiritual renewal.

We have created a new, full-time, paid position for a Programme Coordinator – for a person who has the knowledge and skills to plan and execute the annual retreat and spirituality programme for the Centre and who would enjoy being part of a small caring organisation.

For further information contact: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

FREEPHONE 0800 22 10 22

32 Tui Motu InterIslands

Sr Rita Vessey on 09 638 6238 or

email: ritajvessey@xtra.co.nz

Visit our web: http://www.mercycentreauckland.org.nz