The warble of the tui.
Every since I was a child I have enjoyed the sound, I can remember my mother always prompting me to stop and listen to the tui and try and get a glimpse of its glossy black feathers. Recently in the winters we have had more Tuis around the house, and thankfully I have never seen the cats catch one.
For me the call of the Tui is a call forward, a pull towards our country of New Zealand and a cry of identity as New Zealanders. The Tui has a distinctive cry; it is instantly recognizable and unique.
As kiwi-Christians do we have a recognizable and unique cry?
From the times of the early church in Paul’s day Christians have gathered to discuss their dual identities as citizens of the Kingdom of God, and of the culture they live in. If however we do not have a robust identity as kiwis how does that impact on our ability to wrestle with our dual identity. In Revelation 5 we read of the “saints from every tribe and language and people and nation” worshipping Jesus. In the most basic of interpretations of this passage we can see that our identity as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven does not need to obscure or negate the distinctive of our cultural identity. If we take the position that Jesus came to transform culture not to stand against culture (Paul Hiebert), then how does that change the way we look at our kiwi identity. Perhaps part of how Jesus would and does transform our culture is by solidifying our identity. Our diversity and uniqueness is something that delights God, and should be celebrated and affirmed.
In New Zealand our Christianity has a base of Victorian English missionary involvement, the first sermon was preached on the beach at Marsden cross in 1814. We have therefore inherited a Victorian English form of Christianity, the church here in NZ being sustained by imports from the UK from 1814 until the present! I believe that these roots (that I have deep respect for) have left Christians without an authentic expression of spirituality that we could call kiwi. Dependency has therefore developed the equipping and empowering of the local culture to develop an authentic expression of spirituality that is true to its identity never occurred. Kiwi Christians are now overly dependent on Christians in other countries to form our faith. We have no place to wrestle with the issues of what it means to our cultural identity as kiwis to be Christian and what it means to our Christianity to be kiwi. We can no longer go on uncritically imposing an anglicized and Americanized form of Christianity on NZ.
My challenge is that we stop looking to the traditional countries of US and UK for inspiration and information. It is time to shake off their colonial hold over us and our dependency on them. My challenge is that you go for one year without reading anything written in the US or UK. How will that inform and reform our ecclesiology and spirituality. How can we be informed by and learn from Maori spirituality? How can we begin to develop something that is really us, that feels that it comes from within and wells up from who we are, that is dependent on the bible and yet expresses and celebrates our uniqueness as kiwis?
well I could go on but I want to hear from you first ...
Christina
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2 comments:
Christina are we like all peoples not to some extent a product of our historical roots. Maybe the fact that we are a relatively young country makes that link more apparent but it is still who we are (what do we mean by 'who we are' not sure if that is not in itself to big generalization). I am not sure it is possible to 'create' a NZ identity on purpose (or thru isolation) and there is no doubt we are becoming a more multi-cultural society. I note a significant number of churches have different service times on their signs outside for different cultures (I have no doubt there are good reasons for this) but maybe a way to create a NZ identity church culture we need to start putting all these differences into the melting pot rather than keeping them apart?
O.K. so, some ideas...
* The NZ tourism industry is now marketing us at the "youngest country in the world" http://www.newzealand.com/travel/International/
* We're still in the process of 'becoming' as a nation/people let alone as a church representative of the people.
* Our creation as a commonwealth nation was heavily influenced by Christian/missionary ideology, no doubt also influenced by early humanism (before it went all evolutionary/secular).
* Who we are socioglobally should always be secondary to who we SHOULD BE biblically as a multicultural (rather than bi-cultural) people. Our friend and colleague Dr. Kofi Anane-Fenin puts it this way,
"To find answers to cultural diversity our first point of departure is the Biblical perspective that God reveals Himself as well as information about creation to all people and nations (Romans 1: 1 9,20). Our second point is that in their different cultures all humans whether they are aware of it or not are answerable to God. Our third point emphasises the four basic relationships in which God has created all human beings.
· In relation to God.
· In Relation to nature.
· In relation to his/her fellow human beings.
· In relation to himself/herself.
See the full article here: http://www.pioneers.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35:cultural-diversity&catid=48:general-mission&Itemid=100026
* I think most Christians in New Zealand are acutely aware of finding God in creation.
* We also SHOULD have an innate communal leaning but that is probably less so in urban NZ than rural NZ, but any part of NZ that is still influenced by a traditional Maori worldview will have a greater degree of communal/koinonia understanding.
* Where we still struggle (A LOT in my estimation) is our understanding of ourselves, both personally/individually and nationally/globally. This becomes particularly important when 'we' are exposed to 'them' (immigrants) because 'they' can threaten the 'us' that still hasn't fully developed it's identity - and this can/does manifest itself in the local church.
* Whatever spirituality develops from this soil must always be submitted to Biblical critique for authenticity/orthodoxy, but missiologically theology is always rooted in context so our distinct context informs our Christianity distinct from the rest of the world - as does our history.
* Our context is heavy on equality.
* Our context leads the world in reconciliation and restitution and human rights and justice and peace-keeping.
* Our context sings a national anthem that amazingly still declares many of the values of this nation under God. Look it up.
* Our context mitigates material progress with other holistic needs (family, leisure, sport, creation, etc)
* Our context tends to be more socialist than capitalist. More defence than attack. More doing than talking. More action than emotion.
Trouble is the NZ church rarely represents a NZ theology very well at all.
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