Reflection by The Ven Dr Deborah Broome

Bound together in relationship 

[Jesus said] As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if m you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.                                      John 15:9-17

This coming Sunday (the second Sunday after Pentecost) was set aside by General Synod / Te Hīnota Whānui as Te Pouhere Sunday, to celebrate our life as a Three Tikanga Church, established in 1992 by our Constitution / Te Pouhere.  It’s a way of being Anglican unique in the worldwide Anglican Communion, grounded in our life here in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia.  It’s a way of being Anglican grounded in our relationships with one another across the Tikanga, the cultural streams of Māori, Pākehā, and Pasefika, which allows us to structure our ministry in ways appropriate to our different cultural groups.

Our Church’s unity isn’t about sounding the same, but about learning to sing the same song in different voices.  This unity is grounded in abiding love – the sort of love Jesus spoke to his disciples about when he redefined relationship from servants to friends: it’s bigger than just a structural arrangement.  It’s about relationship – and the relationship between Pākehā Anglicans and Māori Anglicans here in this diocese is part of our Waiapu whakapapa.  Our first four diocesan Synods were held in te reo Māori, and with our diocesan strategic vision we get to live deeper into that part of our identity.

Te Pouhere calls us to abide deeply – in Christ and also in one another. What Jesus was saying to his disciples – to his friends – the night before he died makes a connection between the two. When we abide in the love of Christ we will love one another the way he loves us. The binding together of Te Pouhere isn’t primarily administrative – it’s something that should mirror Christ-shaped friendship, a shared participation in Christ’s self-giving love. 

And relationship is the key. I remember one of the Three Tikanga meetings I was part of a few years ago. It included a service in which everyone was involved, and the person leading the Prayers of the People began by outlining briefly what she was going to pray for.  And then she switched to her first language, which was Tongan. Now, I have only a very few words in Tongan, but at the end I could easily join in the “Amen” along with everyone else. I don’t know exactly what she prayed, but I was happy to say Amen because I knew and trusted the person praying.  Te Pouhere, our Constitution, gives us the chance to know and trust each other – and that’s important. It’s an invitation to grow into mutual indwelling love, the love that Christ encourages his friends to have.

And as with any friendship, it’s not always plain sailing.  Friendship implies vulnerability and listening across Tikanga, and sometimes there are tensions, and sometimes that mutual love asks things of us that aren’t easy.  When General Synod / Te Hīnota Whānui meets later this year there’s going to be some discussions about a more equitable sharing of resources.  Jesus’ command to “love one another as I have loved you” reminds us that sometimes love can be cross-shaped and costly. 

Because of Te Pouhere / the Constitution our three waka can sail together. There’s a lovely image in the Liturgy that begins on p 476 of our Prayer Book. When we rejoice in God’s forgiveness of our sins the English has “We shall all be one in Christ, one in our life together” but te reo is much more colourful: Ko te Karaiti te pou herenga waka: Christ is the hitching post for the canoes. Christ is what stops our individual waka from splitting up and drifting all around the lagoon. In a universal Church which is made up of different denominations, in an Anglican Communion made up of different (and sometimes disagreeing with each other) provinces, in a Province made up of three different Tikanga, it is good to hitch our waka to a strong post, to be bound together by Christ, and to gather together around his table.