Anglican Life Jun/July 2012

ISSUE NINETEEN – JUN/JUL 2012

Diocese of Christchurch

Actions Speak Louder than Words:Environmental & Social Responsibilities

Christians in the Mainstream Media

The Hunger Games

Blackboard Project:Before I Die...

AnglicanINVITING / FORMING / SENDING / SERVINGanglicanlife.org.nz

He Oranga Mihinare

AnglicanLife Issue 19 1

ContentsBISHOP’S ADDRESS: Called to Faithfully Create 01

CURRENT EVENTS: Bishop Victoria’s Charge to Synod 04

CURRENT EVENTS: Transitional Cathedral Announced 05

FEATURE: Actions Speak Louder than Words 06

LIFESTYLE: Christianity, Chemistry, and Rare Earth Elements 10

LIFESTYLE: The Biblical Mandate for Caring for Creation 12

WORKPLACE: Christians in the Mainstream Media 13

PHOTO ESSAY: Interactive Blackboard Art Project 14

FEATURE: An Anglican Way of Caring 16

CULTURE: The Hunger Games 19

CULTURE: A Controversial Churchman 20

ISSUE 19June/July 2012

AnglicanLife is published bi-monthly by the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch.

ISSN 2253-1653Editor – Philip Baldwin

Associate Editor – Fiona SummerfieldContributing Writer – Megan Blakie

Contributors +Victoria Matthews, Jesper Baerentzen, Bayly & Moore, Peter Carrell, Michael Cropp, Tom Innes, Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony, Ashleigh Shipton,

Warren And Mahoney Advertising Enquiries

Ivan Hatherley – [email protected] Enquiries

Philip Baldwin – [email protected] – www.baylymoore.com

Printed by – Toltech PrintSustainability – AnglicanLife is printed on

recycled paper using vegetable-based inks.Cover Photo – Marine biologist Philippa Agnew

checks a blue penguin’s nesting box. Image supplied by the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony,

Oamaru NZ. Taken under controlled conditions.

Cathedral Worship and Events at Christ’s College Chapel | Rolleston Avenue

odd bird outChoral Night Prayer

Robert is different to all other ravens...what will become of him?

WORDS: +VICTORIA MATTHEWS PHOTOS: PHILIP BALDWIN / BAyLy & MOORE

One of the most extraordinary aspects of being made in the image and likeness of God is that God has invited us to partner with God in the very act of creation.

Called to Faithfully Create as Indeed We Have Been Created

EDITORIAL

Of course there are manifold things God creates which we cannot, but no other species has the possibility of creating and performing works of art as we have done over time. For many centuries the sacred stories of salvation history were mostly communicated through music, stained glass, and story telling, as so few people were able to read and fewer still had access to the Scriptures.

In the 21st century when we talk about stewardship of the environment, our thoughts most often go to care of the land, air, and water, and so they should. But that is not all that faithful stewardship of creation entails. There is also the calling to spend time with God in prayer and meditation, so as to best reflect in our lives what we know of the God who creates, redeems, and sanctifies us and all creation. Romans 1.20 says: “For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine qualities—have been clearly seen, being understood from

2 AnglicanLife Issue 19 3

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Anglican Living’s aim in its retirement villages and care homes is to enhance your quality of life within a Christian family environment. That means you can enjoy a comfortable and safe place to live, no matter who you are or what you believe. You’ll be part of a warm and welcoming community where you can be as social or as private as you want to be. You’ll also have access to the care and support you need from qualified professionals, and a chaplain if you wish.








lovely gardens.


what has been made...” This means that we are meant to be aware of what is present, yet perhaps not visible, and to care for what the invisible powers of God have wrought in our midst.

It also means being good stewards of our own selves, as we are both part of creation and part of the environment wherein others live. That is something that is easily forgotten in the present world where making one’s point often overlooks the fact that how one communicates creates an environment as much as the actual message. In the well known words of Marshall McLuhan: “The medium is the message”.

As the Diocese of Christchurch considers the building of new churches and halls and the rebuilding of earthquake damaged structures, it is very important that one of the priorities of the Design Guidelines for our rebuilds and new builds is sustainability. “How green is my parish?” is one way of posing the question. It is my hope, as the city and environs look to build new subdivisions and suburbs, that the way we build will be a serious consideration.

But even before we reach that stage, and in some parts of the Diocese cleared spaces will remain building-free for a long time, there is the possibility of planting gardens and even orchards, of putting in benches and picnic tables and playgrounds. We have the possibility of making our spaces inviting and consoling for people of all ages and stages. I think that is very important in a society that too often segregates age groups. Indeed the church is one of the last remaining parts of our society that is truly all-age inclusive, and for people who are very lonely and isolated that is a gift not to be overlooked.

Our parishes also need to remember that how they present their face to the public communicates a clear message. If our parish property is beautiful and inviting, we communicate that we worship a beautiful and welcoming God. Indeed, how we build and repair for the future creates an environment for the generations yet unborn.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.” (Psalm 8.1–2a).

“We have the possibility of making our spaces inviting and consoling for

people of all ages and stages.”Anglican Living’s aim in its retirement villages and care homes is to enhance your quality of life within a Christian family environment. That means you can enjoy a comfortable and safe place to live, no matter who you are or what you believe. You’ll be part of a warm and welcoming community where you can be as social or as private as you want to be. You’ll also have access to the care and support you need from qualified professionals, and a chaplain if you wish.








lovely gardens.



Transitional Cathedral AnnouncedTwo April events on the site of Christchurch-St John’s, also known as St John’s Latimer Square, “launched” the Transitional Cathedral for the Diocese of Christchurch.PHOTO: WARREN AND MAHONEy

Bishop Victoria’s Charge to Synod

This is a digested version of the longer Charge to Synod that was distributed on 21 April 2012. The complete document can be read at www.anglicanlife.org.nz/Resources/Synod

WORDS: VICTORIA MATTHEWS

LOCAL / NATIONAL / WORLD

Current eventsOnce built and operational, it will be the home of Cathedral worship and its estimated 700-seat capacity will make it suitable for some civic and public events.

The location of the temporary replacement for the Cathedral in the Square was announced at one o’clock, Monday 16 April, on the now empty St John’s site. Once the new permanent Cathedral is built, the Transitional Cathedral building will become the home church of the Christchurch-St John’s parish.

The following Sunday, 22 April, a mid-afternoon sod-turning ceremony marked the start of work on the church that will be constructed using cardboard tubes, timber beams, and structural steel. Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was in attendance and turned the first sod. After blessing the site with holy water, Bishop Victoria crossed Madras Street and blessed the CTV building site, where 115 people died in the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Expressing her gratitude to Chancellor Richard Gray, the Transitional Cathedral Working Group, Christchurch-St. John’s, and the Cathedral congregation at the 21 April Synod, the Bishop said: “I’m very proud of the people who have worked to make [the Transitional Cathedral] happen….”

Ban designed a similar building for the earthquake-devastated city of Kobe in 1995 which is still in use. He is working in collaboration with Christchurch architect Peter Marshall, of Warren and Mahoney.

Construction is expected to begin in early June, and it is hoped the Transitional Cathedral will be finished in time for the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury in early November 2012.

Although there has been some public controversy over the use of cardboard tubes (the 9mm thick walls are fire resistant)

and the estimated $5.3 million cost of the building (which will be funded entirely by the Church and targeted donations), its construction is likely to stimulate tourism, bring people into the central city, and support the rebuild of Christchurch as a whole.

Commenting on the Transitional Cathedral’s ability to host events such as Anzac Day, Kidsfest, and the Flower Festival, Bishop Victoria added: “We would also like to continue the Christmas-time tradition of schools visiting the Cathedral to bring presents to put under the tree for the City Mission, and sing their Christmas carols on the chancel steps”.

for them in the future. The same Lord who turned water into wine can turn our struggling parishes into exciting hubs for disciple making. Are you ready?

There will be lots of thoughtful and well-crafted speeches at this Synod about the Anglican Covenant, but in the end, do we want to be a communion of churches or not?

We owe a huge vote of thanks to both Phil Trotter and Joshua (Spanky) Moore for their work in raising and forming young leaders for Christ, and to Carolyn Robertson who has brought a new and different vision to Children’s Ministry.

Looking ahead, the call for faithful stewardship, young leaders, and Christ-centred Mission is ever more pertinent and necessary.

Glory to God whose power working in us can do more than we can ask or imagine.

It isn’t business as usual in the Diocese these days. The local world in which we live has changed a great deal.

But throughout all these difficulties, the love of God in Christ has been present and active; and the call of the Gospel on our lives has been constant.

In the city centre the Transitional Cathedral is being planted on St John’s Latimer Square across from the CTV building site, and will be the home of the Cathedral congregations for up to ten years. Thereafter it will be Christchurch-St John’s.

CPT hopes we will work towards exceeding codes of all our building projects and not use public buildings that are earthquake prone. Strategic Working Group calls on the Diocese to have Anglican ministry present in large new subdivisions as soon as possible.

Warren and Mahoney, Diocesan architects for the post-earthquake build, produced the Design Guidelines which are on the website.

The decision to lower the damaged walls of the seriously damaged Cathedral to a safe height is causing persistent protest from some. I have no regrets that we have put human safety first.

I want to thank: the Anglican Centre staff who work in less than ideal conditions, St Peter’s Upper Riccarton and Vicar General John Sheaf for their hospitality, Gavin Holley and Elizabeth Clarke in their negotiations with ACS (previously Ansvar), and especially Pamela Galbraith and Patrick Murray.

Strategic Working Group and Standing Committee recommend setting up a rationalisation process whereby every parish evaluates the state of its buildings and determines what would work best


FEATURE

Whether it’s one-use plastics, consumerism, or child pornography, there’s certainly no lack of problems that need our intervention. And with an encyclopaedic range of information at our keyboards and fingertips, we know enough to know that we need to do things differently.

The trouble is: where do we start?In the decades that American environmentalist Annie Leonard has been working for

the health of communities and the planet, she’s received thousands of emails from caring people who aren’t sure how to take that first step.

“I recently heard a yoga teacher explain that the hardest pose in yoga is the one that gets you from your house to the yoga studio”, writes Annie in one of her blogs (March 19 entry on www.storyofstuff.org/blog).

“Once you’re there, with a group, it’s a lot easier, and a lot more fun, to figure out what to do next”, she says.

She draws a parallel with social and environmental causes. While she admits there’s always room for more research and education, enough of us care that we are now in the position to be able to make some serious changes.

“We need to move on from the ‘there’s a problem’ part of the conversation to the ‘let’s do something about it’ part. Clearly, knowing and caring is not enough; we need to act. We need to take that first step”, she challenges.

To help us get to the “yoga studio” (figuratively speaking) and get involved with issues that are affecting our community and beyond, our diocesan social-justice website is a helpful place to start. It provides a template for devising practical steps for achieving our own goal or project.

“A goal that is simple, clear, and specific is more likely to be achieved,” says diocesan Social Justice Enabler, Jolyon White, who manages the website.

“Working out an appropriate way to tackle a problem and identifying potential stumbling blocks are key to maximising your chances of success”, says Jolyon. “And yes, taking action means risking making a mistake—but doing nothing is worse than trying to bring about positive change”.

Two people who are taking practical steps in their communities are city-dweller Max Joines and West Coaster Susan Miller.

Actions Speak Louder than WordsWhat gets your blood boiling? What things in the world seem unfair, unjust, or harmful? These are some of the questions being asked of us on the diocesan Anglican Life blog on social and environmental issues.

WORDS: MEGAN BLAKIEPHOTOS: MEGAN BLAKIE / OAMARU BLUE PENGUIN COLONy

“We need to move on from the ‘there’s a problem’ part of the conversation to the ‘let’s do something about it’ part. Clearly, knowing and

caring is not enough; we need to act.”

Linwood rubbish collectors Max, Neil, Linda, and Helen are easily identified in their high-vis vests.

Max Joines (St Chad’s Linwood) is part of a group that collects rubbish in a bid to keep the neighbourhood tidy.

8 AnglicanLife Issue 19

FEATURE

Website Resources(1) eblogs.anglicanlife.org.nz/socialjustice The diocesan website on social justice and environmental issues can also be accessed through the home page of anglicanlife.org.nz (click on the story teaser mid-page OR the link under ‘Anglican Care’ at the bottom of the page). A great tool for planning how you’d like to take action on an issue or problem that’s dear to your heart.

(2) www.storyofstuff.org Provides quirky, informative (and free!) downloadable videos on a range of environmental issues. A faith-based study guide for teens and parents can be found by searching “teens” or at www.storyofstuff.org/2011/02/24/faith-based-program-for-christian-teens

(3) acen.anglicancommunion.org This environmental network of the worldwide Anglican Church provides useful information and links to church-related environmental initiatives. They take seriously the Church’s fifth mark of mission: “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the earth”. Encourage your parish to be part of the energy saving initiative, the “genesis covenant”!

(4) www.arocha.org/nzA Rocha is an international non-denominational organisation that engages conservation research, education, and community-based projects. A Christchurch-based group meets on the last Sunday of the month.

AD

Tidy Kiwis

Max Joines is one of a small group from Christchurch’s Linwood parish that collects rubbish in a bid to keep the neighbourhood tidy.

“We’re the distance from the local fast food outlets [at which] people tend to finish their food, and so out it goes”, he says about

Penguins and Poverty

Susan Miller, of the West Coast parish of St James, in Franz Josef, has been involved in conservation for more than 20 years. The former trustee of the West Coast Blue Penguin Trust (set up because of the decline in Korora/blue penguin numbers and their habitat) is part-way through writing a conservation adventure story for older children and plans to write a children’s book about blue penguins.

Susan got heavily involved in conservation in the early 1990s when a water extraction project that was proposed for Jackson Bay, near Haast, threatened to

disrupt the pristine marine environment and the adjacent brown-kiwi habitat.

“I got involved with the issue because it was clearly very important, although I knew very little about it. It was in the days before the internet, and [when conservation] awareness in New Zealand generally, and particularly on the West Coast, was very low”, says Susan.

The five-year campaign was a hard road. She and the lobby group she established copped quite a bit of flak, but steadily public opinion began to change and the proposal was dropped.

More recently, Susan has been taking an active interest in social issues and the links between human poverty and the environment.

“I have shifted my focus…towards issues involving people, because I have realised that unless people are in a secure position, they are unable to look after the environment.”

She cites examples where animal poaching in Africa has been reduced

the proliferation of rubbish along the main road where his church is located. The bus stop outside the hall is also a magnet for bottles, cans, and other mess.

When the idea was mooted that the parish help to keep the vicinity clean and tidy, Max volunteered. “It’s looking after God’s creation really”, he says about his involvement.

On the second Saturday of every month, after the St Chad’s men’s group has finished its meeting, Max and others don high-vis vests and clean up footpaths and streets nearby.

“When we were collecting this time, a person in a car stopped and gave us a [cash] donation,” he says of their latest clean-up. The donation gave the group a huge morale boost, and is indicative of growing recognition locally of the group’s efforts.

Max says the group’s latest haul of rubbish superseded their past efforts: he had to take some of it home after filling the parish’s bins full to capacity. He acknowledges that some people might find rubbish collecting in public a bit embarrassing, but he gets a real buzz from seeing the area clean and tidy.

“It’s a funny little quirky thing [to do], I suppose, but it certainly makes a difference. The area can be quite messy after a Saturday night. After we do our clean-up, it’s always so pleasing to drive that way in the morning to church”, he says.

“That’s my personal ‘buzz’ that keeps me doing it. You see the reward!” he adds.

when people’s standard of living has been addressed.

“The most successful projects have been those where people are helped to develop sustainable small businesses, or in which they have been given solutions for cooking or water supplies. This releases them from the grind of poverty, giving them the energy to look after the natural world around them.”

To help overseas farmers and producers to get a fair wage, Susan is a proponent of the fair-trade movement. Parishioners and travellers to the oft-visited Franz Josef church will see the fair-trade posters she has put up in the foyer!

By raising awareness of issues both here and overseas, and contributing to addressing them, Susan hopes for a better future for us all.

“By improving the environment around us, and celebrating the beauty of God’s creation, the quality of life of both people and nature are together enhanced”, she says.


FAMILy / SOCIAL JUSTICE / ENVIRONMENT / SUSTAINABILITy / SPIRITUALITy

Lifestyle

WORDS: FIONA SUMMERFIELDPHOTOS: JESPER BAERENTzEN / FIONA SUMMERFIELD

exclusive: “Just because you understand something, doesn’t mean God didn’t create it.” In fact he says the more he continues to learn about chemistry, he finds himself thinking “How cool is that?” and appreciating the intricacies of creation.

Richard will tell you those two rows have unfamiliar names like cerium, neodymium and lanthanum. They are sometimes known as the rare earth elements. Cellphones, ipods, computers, flat screen televisions, electric motors—even your environmentally friendly hybrid car—all contain these rare earth elements. A hybrid car has one kilogram of neodymium magnets in the motor and ten kilograms of lanthanum in the batteries. A three-megawatt wind generator has two tonnes of rare earth elements. “Normally you don’t know as a consumer what is in a product or the background of how it is produced”, Richard says.

These elements may have become essential to the creation of many modern technologies and particularly the “green” technologies, but to extract them is not very environmentally friendly. It involves using acids and solvents which usually means pollution, and generally the waste material from the mines contain low radioactive thorium and uranium. “The rationale is to have greener technology but at the moment the way of making them is as polluting as you can get”, Richard says.

These elements might be known as the rare earths but they are not the rarest elements: cerium is as common as copper. They were called that because initially the ore these elements are found in were thought to be rare, and unlike other ores, not usually in large deposits that are easily mined but spread throughout the earth’s crust.

Today almost all the production of rare earth elements happens in China. There is a fear, with growing consumption in China, they may halt exports of rare earth elements and have threatened to do so. There are old mines such as the Mountain Pass mine in California. This mine shut in 2002 because it could not produce the rare earth elements as economically as China; however even if it does reopen, there would still be the problem of pollution from the techniques that are used to extract the rare earth elements.

It is a paradox that as the world demands more “green technology”, the techniques for getting the elements to do this are not very “green”. In addition one of the results of our throwaway culture is that the concentration in our rubbish piles of some of these rare earth elements can be greater than in the ore that is mined. So what should we do?

Christianity, Chemistry, and Rare Earth Elements in Your Pocket

It is a paradox that as the world demands more “green technology”, the techniques for getting the elements to

do this are not very “green”.

Richard Rendle says it is hard to know whether there will be supply shortages; he points out they have been saying the same thing about petroleum for years. But he also says: “It makes sense, consumption is going up and up and the production is basically all from China”.

He believes green chemistry may be able to provide the answers. Work in this area involves going back and looking at production of materials, finding ways to improve techniques, or looking at the materials and researching further if they are the best ones to use. If old mines or new ones do open up he believes the legislators, process designers, and developers will need to get together to solve the pollution problems.

Items using the rare earth elements have become too important: “You get to the stage where society can’t operate without them”, Richard says.

Do you remember the bottom two lines that were all by themselves on the Periodic Table? Do you even remember the Periodic Table from science at school? You may have forgotten them but some of the elements from those two rows are possibly right now sitting in your pocket.

Richard Rendle has been involved in chemistry education for over forty years. After leading music at church on a Sunday, the conversation is more than likely to switch from discussing the finer points of the sermon to chemistry.

He says being Christian and being a chemist are not mutually

All these electronic modcons use rare earth elements.

A three-megawatt wind generator has two tonnes of rare earth elements.


LIFESTyLE

The Biblical Mandate for Caring for CreationExploring faith today; title no. 23. Wellington: Avery Bartlett Books, 2011. 158 pp. ISBN 978-0-473-19374-4. RRP: $24.99.

WORDS: PHILIP BALDWIN

FINANCE / CAREER / STEWARDSHIP / ETHICS

Workplace

Dick Tripp has left his readers in no doubt of the need for urgent attention to the state of our world and its inhabitants. In the first five chapters of The Biblical Mandate for Caring for Creation he cogently outlines the growing crisis in climate change, waste and pollution, water contamination, de-forestation, plant and animal extinctions, and desertification. From a NZ perspective, it is particularly chilling to read that American agencies estimate that 13% of waste comes from agriculture, and 75% comes from mining, oil, and gas production—sectors of the economy where the NZ population continues to have serious concerns.

One of the most basic causes of our blindness to caring for creation, Tripp argues, is that “Modern humans, leaving God out of the picture, see themselves as autonomous, accountable to none but themselves…” (p. 31). A brief overview of the modern environmental movement, the positive and negative influences of Christianity on environmentalism, and the growing emphasis on caring for creation in modern Christianity conclude the first part of the book.

Then the author begins a closely reasoned exposition of scripture that leads us “to read and understand the Bible in

the light of the present fact of Creation”. The environmental and ethical sources that he brings to the issues are largely contemporary and his scriptural references show that he is no flippant “proof-texter”; rather, the weight of the biblical references seems to cry: “We should know this. How could we have set aside such persuasive evidence from Genesis, the Psalms, and the prophets?” Tripp comments particularly: “So many of the detailed instructions of the law refer to the use and care of the land, directly or indirectly, that this is easily the most comprehensive of the ethical and theological categories of the law” (p. 102).

Two themes remained with me from this impassioned plea for Christians to become “staunch creationalists”. The first is Tripp’s call to a eucharistic life rather than a consumeristic one: “Perhaps the greatest reason for caring for the earth is, simply, gratitude”. The second concerns salvation and redemption: “…if we are to treat our bodies with reverence now because they belong to the Lord and will one day share his glory, surely we must care for creation now for exactly the same reasons”.

Christians in the Mainstream MediaPeople love to bag the media, but rather than grumble about its shortcomings, the Christian Broadcasting Association (CBA) runs a network that assists Christians working in the mainstream media.

WORDS: MEGAN BLAKIE

Called “Salt”, the network is nationwide and primarily operates as an on-line forum where members can share views, encourage each other, and chew the fat on issues affecting them in their work.

Six Christchurch members of the network, including Anglican Life writer Megan Blakie, came together recently to attend a training session organised by the association. The Saturday event was fronted by Josh Couch and Sam Bloore of “Compass”, an Australasian organisation that teaches and writes on the combination of faith and culture.

The media-savvy pair (both work in radio) identified four key aspects that define secular culture: individualism, the freedom to create our own meaning, consumerism, and entertainment.

“Good readers of culture can critically evaluate what’s going on in this world”, says Sam. “Then they can provide signposts saying there is another way.”

Participants were reminded of the redemptive story that

weaves its way through the Bible, and were challenged to find effective and engaging ways to tell the story to their generation.

“The western model of evangelism is to have a hip event, invite people, and let the ‘God person’ convert. I don’t like that”, says Josh. “I prefer having just a really great conversation with friends.”

CBA also sponsors student scholarships and coordinates a bi-annual Media Prayer day.

Watch the “cba in a nutshell” video at www.cba.org.nz and hear Julia Bloore, Rob Harley, and Petra Bagust talk about cba’s use of top-rated secular commercial radio to reach huge audiences of people who would never set foot inside a church.Find out more about Compass at www.compass.org.au

“We didn’t inherit the land from our forebears. We are borrowing it from our children.” – Amish proverb quoted in Caring for Creation


PHOTO ESSAy

Interactive Blackboard Art Project For the past three years creative people from the lifestreams congregation of St Barnabas Christchurch, have created an Easter art installation that’s free to the public.WORDS: MEGAN BLAKIEPHOTOS: MEGAN BLAKIE / MICHAEL CROPP

This year the venue was the safety fencing surrounding the damaged church building.

Giant stencilled blackboards provided a space for people to “chalk up” their hopes and dreams. In the two weeks the project was open, the boards became a scrawled canvas of cherished ideas. (In fact, heavy rain in the second week cleared some space

for a second wave of “chalkie” contributors). Some comments were intensely personal, others global. All were sacred expressions of how people want to make a contribution, a difference.

Passersby—joggers and dog-walkers, church-goers and visitors—shared their thoughts. We pray that, one day, their cherished hopes come to fruition.


FEATURE

An Anglican Way of CaringThe images and information on “fracking” (the colloquial name for a mining process known as hydraulic fracturing) flying around cyber-space are not very pleasant.

WORDS: TOM INNES – CHAPLAIN, UNIVERSITy OF CANTERBURy

is being used in Taranaki. Investigative work is being undertaken in Southland and Canterbury, though industry representatives say they have no plans for fracking in these areas “at this time”.

As a resident of Canterbury I am not reassured. Based on overseas experience, critics claim that if fracking takes off here in Canterbury, it will threaten the quality and availability of water from our precious aquifers; that it will damage soils, the atmosphere, landscapes, and infrastructure; that it will degrade our vegetation while being detrimental to animal and human health. Against this scenario are industry profits, government revenue, and the ongoing supply of oil and gas to a global economy that looks something like a fossil-fuel addict.

The petro-chemical industry accuses the anti-fracking movement of scare-mongering and exaggeration. After all, if the claims of the “fractivists” are to be believed, then fracking is one of the most destructive processes humans have ever conceived, and the arrival of multi-national corporations prepared to use this technique in our land marks an imminent disaster of apocalyptic proportions. The truth about the level of the threat probably lies somewhere in between the claims of the pro- and anti-fracking

parties—that is, at about the level of a mini-apocalypse. Small comfort.

While we can debate the actual dangers of fracking, what is indisputable is that there is a lot at stake. We should all care about what is happening, or being proposed. A number of environmentalist and anti-fracking groups are pushing for a moratorium on fracking until the Commissioner for the Environment has made a full investigation of fracking and its potential impacts here. I believe the case for such a moratorium is unassailable, but even addressing this topic in these pages begs the question: Is there an Anglican way of caring about this and other environmental questions?

When I was studying theology, the Rev’d Dr Tim Meadowcroft commented that one of the distinctives of Anglicanism is that it is “world affirming”. I took this to mean not that Anglicans affirm everything about the world and the way all people live in it, but that Anglican theology, or the Anglican ethos, affirms the world as a gift from God and a suitable and fitting place in which humans can live and grow and experience the goodness of God in relationship with one another. I thought this view would also place a high value

When I enter “fracking” into Google images, I get pictures of people drinking foul-looking water, filthy drill sites oozing toxic waste into waterways, dead fish, sick cattle and vegetation, tap water that catches fire when a match is held to it, aerial photos of whole landscapes pocked with well-holes and access roads, angry protesters, convoys of trucks bearing toxic chemicals, and diagrams designed either to reassure me or scare me stupid. The same search on YouTube reveals some truly shocking accounts of how communities, families, and landscapes have been decimated by this process. These images come mainly from the United States, but some are from Australia. There are even some from New Zealand.

“Rather than seeing the planet as ours to exploit as a result of

some kind of superiority, we might choose instead to acknowledge the mutuality of the relationship between humans and the earth.”

A Marcellus Shale natural gas fracking drill worksite in northeast Pennsylvania.

To be fair I should give the industry’s response to all this negative publicity although, in all honesty, I don’t find it very convincing. The arguments go along the lines of “there is no proof”, “it’s not actually fracking that causes xyz problem; they are simply the kind of problems associated with any industrial process”, “we won’t allow cowboy operators in New Zealand”, and “we have legislation here that provides for better environmental protection”. Given the potential risks, it seems reasonable that the onus of proof-of-safe-practice should fall upon industry, rather than upon those who oppose its activity.

What is fracking? Hydraulic fracturing is a process used to extract oil or gas from underground: a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand is injected at extremely high pressure into deep wells that run vertically down to, and then horizontally through, the target subterranean layer. This injection creates fractures in the rock, which are then held open by the sand. These open fractures allow the oil or gas, along with a proportion of the injected water and chemicals, to escape and be drawn to the surface. The technique is being used widely overseas. Here in Aotearoa/New Zealand it


FEATURE

on the relationship humans have with the world, as it was created by God and declared to be “very good” in Genesis. For Anglicans to be world affirming would mean that they were actively engaged with the “care of creation”.

Evidence of this Anglican distinctive is seen in our identity as a global communion that is grounded in local geography. It looks a little quirky sometimes—our little churches in now isolated spots—but the principle behind it is sound. We are a Church that is incarnational and local. We are rooted in the soil on which we live, in the history of our communities, and in the story that is told in our liturgy, expounded in our preaching, and enacted in the Church’s sacraments.

Strangely enough it also was Dr Meadowcroft who, on a subsequent occasion, first alerted me to another aspect of Anglicanism relevant to the idea of a distinctive way of caring for creation: he suggested that the Anglican Church is held together not by a hierarchical order or chain of command, but by relationships between people. We see this expressed at the “highest” level of our communion in the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whom we describe as “first among equals”. This point is certainly relevant to how and why we might, as Anglicans, support one another should the oil rigs show up at our gates. It might also shape the way we see our relationship to the creation we say we care for. Rather than seeing the planet as ours to exploit as a result of some kind of

CultureFILM / MUSIC / LITERATURE / WEB / FOOD / EVENTS

The Hunger GamesThe Hunger Games is a film based on the very popular book series by Suzanne Collins which many a teenger (this one included) have devoured by torchlight late into the night.

WORDS: ASHLEIGH SHIPTON (ST CHRISTOPHER’S AVONHEAD)superiority, we might choose instead to acknowledge the mutuality of the relationship between humans and the earth. After all, without the earth we have nowhere to live.

I conclude then that Anglicanism is, by its ecclesiology and theology, both relational and world affirming, and I thank God for that.

Meanwhile, here in Canterbury, I am trying to imagine what happens if they start drilling through our aquifers. If the well casings fail and our sources of drinking water are ruined, I seriously doubt that the corporates will take responsibility for the damage. Corporations are hard-wired for their own survival. As a result they are not known, either here or overseas, for stepping up on their own and putting things right when they go horribly wrong. If our aquifers are destroyed, it is unlikely that any corporation would repair the damage done or provide adequate compensation for the damage, even if it were possible to do so.

What would the loss of clean water do for our communities and our land? Where would the water for farming come from? What would we drink? How could we put right the damage to our flora and fauna? How could we face our children and grandchildren, and explain that we let this happen? As people who cherish the land and who relate to it and to one another in healthy, gospel-shaped ways, we cannot let our landscape be destroyed in return for money, or even in return for oil or gas. It is not worth it.

it is necessary to kill. The games unveil the bitter corruption of a society where people are desensitized to each other’s pain.

Collins was originally inspired to write the book after flicking between TV channels one evening and imaging what would happen if the bloody war scenes of Iraq and Afghanistan were merged with the game show world of reality TV. And the film leaves most viewers with the same question as they leave the cinema: could The Hunger Games be a mirror of our society in the future?

The story is a reminder of what the price of consumerism and injustice could be when pushed too far, while The Hunger Games, the first film of a trilogy, seems also to point towards a future hope in spite of an ongoing battle for control. The question is, who will win?

A powerful, truly captivating and genuinely inspiring movie. Bring on the sequel, Catching Fire, I say!

Set in the near future, the story whisks us away to a mystical land of Panem: what was once North America. Although a fictional world, it’s not so different from the reality we live.

Panem is a nation made of twelve districts, ruled by its evil Capitol. Long ago, these districts tried to rebel against the Capitol, but were defeated in battle. As punishment for this rebellion, every year districts must sacrifice two teenagers to participate in “The Hunger Games”, a fight to the death.

When sixteen year-old Katniss sees her sister being chosen as one of the two “tributes” for her district, she intervenes and offers herself as a sacrifice to take her sister’s place. On her departure Katniss leaves her sister with a promise of hope: she will win The Hunger Games and return to her soon. Through Katniss’s journey competing against the 23 other tributes, we are taken to a world where in order to win,

“Given the potential risks, it seems reasonable that the onus of proof-of-safe-practice should fall upon industry, rather than upon those who oppose its activity.”


CULTURE

A Controversial Churchman: Essays on George Selwyn Bishop of New Zealand and Lichfield and Sarah SelwynEdited by Allan K. Davidson, Wellington: Bridget William Books, 2011. 292 pp. ISBN 9781877242519. RRP: $49.99.

authority of General Synod. Would we have arrived at our present three-Tikanga Church if full involvement of Maori in governance had been embraced from the arrival of Selwyn in 1841 onwards?

Eleven essays in this book written by a strong cast of NZ, Canadian, and Australian scholars represent papers delivered at a symposium held in Auckland 2009 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Selwyn (10 papers) and Sarah Selwyn (1 paper).

While just about anything written about the Selwyns casts light on the background to our situation today in society and church in Aotearoa New Zealand, I was particularly interested that two essays dealt with two current matters. Talk about the Anglican Covenant is illuminated by Terry M. Brown’s essay on Selwyn in North America. On two visits in the 1870s Selwyn spoke about his vision for the Anglican Communion, a line from which directly leads to support for the Covenant. Here in Christchurch, forced as we are to reflect deeply on the essential ministry and mission of a cathedral, Ken Booth’s essay on Selwyn as Bishop of Lichfield, offers some illuminating thoughts as he charts Selwyn’s reformation of the cathedral there.

However there is something of relevance in each essay; the whole set repays exploration. The legacy of the Selwyns continues.

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“A stain on his apostolic reputation here was his ambiguous relationship with Maori believers:

he was often supportive, but in significant ways he constrained

their full involvement in the church which was once theirs.”

WORDS: PETER CARRELL, DIRECTOR, THEOLOGy HOUSE

Selwyn was, and is, a controversial churchman. He got caught up in conflicts here and in England, promoted a view of the fledgling Anglican Communion which, these days, would be “pro-Covenant”, while leaving a legacy for the Anglican church of these islands which is unparalleled elsewhere among Anglican churches.

In cold hard cash terms, Selwyn bought farmland which formed the core of the St John’s College Trust Board assets, over a hundred years later realising huge returns when the land was sold for housing developments, as Auckland’s growth exploded in the second half of the twentieth century. It is fitting that the publication of this book has enjoyed the support of the St John’s College Trust Board. But even without any such good fortune, Selwyn has been the single greatest human influence on the life of our church.

He built churches of distinctive design, founded our sole surviving residential theological college, initiated our first constitution, ensured the voice of laity would be heard in the synodical governance of the church, and mapped out the way for the single Diocese of New Zealand (of which he was the first and only bishop) to become the seven dioceses of New Zealand. We could even say that the five hui amorangi in the Bishopric of Aotearoa owe a lot to Selwyn.

A stain on his apostolic reputation here was his ambiguous relationship with Maori believers: he was often supportive, but in significant ways he constrained their full involvement in the church which was once theirs. One legacy of that constraint has been the desire for as much separate governance of their own affairs as Maori can manage within a church united under the

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Anglican Life Jun/July 2012

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Transcript of Anglican Life Jun/July 2012