Young Anglicans and Social Justice Activism
How and what are young Anglican social justice activists contributing to civil society in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand? That’s what Catherine Rivera wanted to explore for her Anthropology PhD thesis.
After meeting Bishop Ellie at a conference at Victoria University she became interested in why our Diocese had a growing number of young people (not something she associated with Anglicans, she thought they were all old!), who were involved in quite a lot of social justice activities.
While Catherine wanted to find out “how and what are young Anglican social justice activists contributing to civil society in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand,” what she actually ended up looking at was “what gave the young people in the Diocese the capacity to do justice work.”
In doing her research she found three main aspects that were helpful in growing and maintaining youth mobilisation for justice work.
Living in intentional communities: Practical support is important for young people to flourish in these precarious times (socially and economically). Intentional communities provided this through a structured way of life, relational support from others, and practical support (a stable living situation not tied to market rental system).
Having regular rhythms of spiritual practices such as prayer, Lent etc: The use of liturgy and ancient spiritual practices was stabilising and grounding (both bodily and spiritually), as was the consistency of the Church year.
Providing and maintaining ‘open space’ for interactions with many types of people.
She found a strong theme coming out of the research was the importance of creating and maintaining spaces where a variety of people, ideas, theologies, and practices can encounter and connect with each other. These encounters can often be ‘messy’ and not very ordered, which is why institutions often shy away from them, but this is actually where and when growth occurs.
She contends that one of the main reasons for the growing amount of youth mobilization in the Diocese is because space has been made for them ‘at the table’, and for experimentation and all the messiness that comes with growing new expressions of Christianity for this particular time and place.
Catherine also found that it is important to practically resource these growth spaces. For example through paid positions, providing housing, and generally helping to lift the neo-liberal economic burdens that many young people are experiencing. It’s a lot easier to partake in working for justice if you are not having to worry about your rent going up or if your work contract is about to end.
Catherine Rivera is a tutor at Massey University and her thesis, titled ‘Social Justice is a Spiritual Practice’: Exploring Civil Society Participation among young Anglican Social Justice Activists in Aotearoa New Zealand, is due to be published later this year/early next year.
