Bishop Justin’s Synod Charge
Listen to Bishop Justin’s charge, or read below.
Bishop Justin began his charge noting that in speaking on this topic today, he was fulfilling a ‘kairos moment’ of some months ago, in which he felt God had been asking him to re-cast vision for the Diocese.
At that moment, +Justin was asked “Where are we heading?” But he noted that question to reflect on is actually “who are we becoming?”
and to note that that doesn’t really change. Our call since the beginning – since the gospel came to this land – is to see the gospel embedded in every community. We do this by seeking to be a transformative movement of local faith communities.
But it’s important to continue to name our reality. In our season, we find ourselves facing declining numbers in an ageing church, and living in extreme secularity. Wellington City has been described as probably the most secular city in world for those from their mid-teens to mid-40s. This is an extreme environment in which to preach the gospel. It’s often referred to as a ‘post-Christendom reality’ in which all manner of faith views are allegedly seen as legitimate. But in reality, this doesn’t mean there is room for pluralistic options – the Jesus choice is actually the least preferred choice. Our reality is very difficult.
But our confidence is always in God. +Justin quoted Philippians 1:3-6:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
When Paul writes, he is not using an individual but a plural ‘you’. Our God is calling us to become a transformative movement of local faith communities. All of us!
As we continue to become this, three things remain important on the way:
Being disciples
Being family
Prioritising the Biblical call for the last, the lost and the last
Let’s unpack these.
Being disciples. We need to be disciples who make disciples. Wherever God calls us, we all must have the ability to see God’s kingdom come.
Being family. We need everyone to be empowered and transformative. Whether you’re in the 8am or the 10am service you build family, and between them too, and between parishes too, and over the whole Diocese. It’s not important if one rises - if we’re family, then we rise together. We think of our brothers and sisters and where they are struggling and what can we can do to help. It’s not ‘what suits me’ but rather an attitude of ‘what suits the family’.
Prioritising the Biblical call for the last, the lost and the least. We don’t want to be about ourselves. Those on the margins, edges, forgotten – the Kingdom of God comes for them. Our churches etc. must reflect this.
Over recent years there has been such a lot of great work. +Justin noted in particular fortnightly cluster gatherings and leadership development which is bearing the fruit of hard work.
But there are still hard situations and we don’t do this journey in a vacuum. Our history is that we haven’t done well. In this Royal Commission season we are actively looking to recognise where we as a church have been unsafe. We still need to learn and do better.
It’s also hard in the area of Treaty relationships. We are an incredibly wealthy Diocese and sit on a phenomenal amount of land which has its own story. We are facing into those conversations with iwi, and beginning a project to investigate where our land has come from. We want to be responsible Treaty partners.
Strategic Gaps
It’s also hard in the area of strategic gaps. Whenever we recognise there’s a gap, then those who have been strong can feel like they are forgotten. When we focus our energy and language on where we’re lacking, it takes the focus away from those who are in the majority. For example, we continue to have a gap in the area of youth in our churches. We’ve seen such great growth e.g. in the Anglican Youth Movement, and in the blood of new leadership now flowing in the Diocese. Huge thanks should go to the generosity of the faithful who have held the Diocese over so many years – we can focus on youth because of your generosity.
Another gap speaks into the need to focus on non-stipended rather than stipended ministry positions. We have many parishes who cannot afford a stipended leader and many ordained leaders who work in employment situations outside of the Diocese.
We also recognise the gap in the need to mobilise the whole body of Christ – the lay and non-ordained – we have prioritised this ministry and are seeking to raise up up lay leadership and empowering laity to take the discipleship journey. Thank you to Archdeacon Gendy Thomson for her hard work in this space, and we thank the ordained for their generosity and grace to not be threatened and to raise up others.
We have wonderful models of functioning parishes, but continue to identify the gap of the need to develop new wineskins. The development of Spiral Network has been one way for these new wineskins to flourish. The dedication service at the Cathedral this year saw around 200 individuals committing themselves together in edge ministries for the year ahead. We are seeing them repopulate our places and bring new energy and way of being. But we can only do this if we hold old and new wineskin together; appreciating each other and relying on each other.
One gap which Bishop Justin particular highlighted is around the way our Diocese still does not reflect the ethnically diverse society we live in. We are still primarily a mono-cultural church. +Justin prayed that God would lead us on this journey where we have not managed to make good enough in-roads.
Local Transformation
Bishop Justin noted with joy that there is much to celebrate in the area of local transformation – so many stories, of which these are just a few:
St Peter’s Willis St Korero series – with the Prime Minister doing her 100-day speech as part of this series. So great to see our church speaking into public domain.
In Masterton and Naenae – the development of social housing for community members facing housing insecurity
In Silverstream and Stokes Valley – Stokes Valley having the courage to choose to lay themselves fallow and meet in house churches in the hope that the gospel will come again, and Silverstream choosing to re-plant there.
St Anne’s Porirua – their foodbank during lockdowns working at the grassroots.
Wellington City Mission - kicking huge goals recently, particularly in lockdown, around housing and food provision.
Transforming as a Family
In recent years we have started to further live into rising as a family or Movement. In particular +Justin mentioned our response towards the refugee crisis and doubling the quota campaigns, and our collaboration with the Red Cross and the Catholic church which has resulted in fitting out homes for newly arrived refugee families across the Diocese.
He also noted the transformational process of the discussions around the blessing of same-sex relationships. There are strong theological views in both directions, but +Justin is so proud of the way we have managed to live into this tension. Because our world is more and more polarised, it’s so good that we can hold strong different views and still be in the room and hear each other. The world so needs this kind of transformative community, particularly now in vaccine-hesitant spaces. We need to sit down and hear each other and not talk past each other.
The climate advocacy submission process is also worth celebrating. As a relatively small Diocese together our submissions accounted for nearly 4.5% of the whole submission process around the Climate Commissions recommendation. Our voice was heard – and not just urbanites – but this was an opportunity for the rural Diocese too and for rural and urban to learn off each other.
+Justin also recognised movemental transformation around the housing crisis – as well as the parish initiatives noted above, there are so many other parishes thinking about their land and how to get houses there. The work done by the Board of Trustees and Bedrock Holdings is enabling this.
And finally, +Justin spoke to the Get One, Give One campaign for vaccine equality. Watching those figures rise and knowing that together we have now provided over 13,000 vaccines for vulnerable people is just phenomenal. All credit to Archdeacon Sue Fordyce for the original idea.
And then, Covid-19…
+Justin began to wrap up with a reality check. We’ve done well, and we’ve navigated so much change. And then we found ourselves in Covid-19 season, as if things weren’t hard enough. Yet we rose to the challenge. During last year’s lockdown it was so encouraging that so many parishes took up the challenge not just to survive, but to ask ‘what’s God got for us in this season’? Many parishes have made bold changes during this time to live into invitations to explore ‘what do we want to be on the other side of this’?
Realising that it’s been so much worse for most of the world, many of us are still tired and worn out and over it. And it’s not coming to an end yet. +Justin reminded us however of the quote from 19th century missionary James Hudson Taylor: “There are three stages to every great work of God; first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”
And as Archdeacon David Rowe reminded us earlier this year at Ministry Leaders’ Family Camp: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Cor. 4:8-9) As our lives are poured out, we are still seeing the life of Jesus released amongst our communities and seeing lives transformed. And in some senses, though we are worn out, our resilience actually grows.
+Justin reminded us too of the Theodore Roosevelt quote shared at a previous Synod:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
So as we go forward into this year, +Justin encouraged us to reset our priorities to be family. This call is more important than ever. As the tension goes up – as we are more tired, as Covid impacts more – we are under more stress. The temptation is to take our frustration out on others. But it’s more important than ever that we recommit to being family. In every interaction – the encouragement is think ‘am I taking the temperature down, or am I adding to it?’ ‘Should I email or phone in this situation?’ ‘Should I believe the best?’ ‘Do I just soak this up so it stops with me?’ Be quick to forgive. If we live into this, +Justin concluded, we will see God’s kingdom transformation come. As Paul wrote in Philippians 2 Phil 2:5: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” May we also have this mindset.
