From www.anglicantaonga.org.nz
The confirmed death toll from the Christchurch earthquake has risen to 123, while the number of missing people remains at about 200.
From www.anglicantaonga.org.nz
Statement from Bishop Victoria Matthews, Bishop John Gray and Archbishop David Moxon from Christchurch Otautahi.
“Is this an act of God?” a TV3 reporter asked as we stood amid the carnage of the February 22 earthquake. It was a genuine question, posed by many in the aftermath of disaster.
The answer, of course, is no . “Act of God” doesn’t even stand up as a legal definition these days.
God doesn’t create earth tremors that kill hundreds of people. God is love, creative freedom, righteousness, and justice. And God doesn’t remove grace from any part of the world that God has created. No way.
So how do we understand a natural disaster such as the Christchurch earthquake?
Good biblical theology accepts that the devastation wrought by plate tectonics is a result of freedom – yes, freedom – in the world that God has created.
God's creation unfolds and develops, from the smallest atom to the movement of vast continents and mountain ranges, according to God-given principles of relative freedom.
God contains this freedom within the creative energy and purpose of divine grace, as a new creation is prepared and anticipated, but God doesn’t manipulate events the way a puppeteer does.
God suffers with creation as it groans in travail like a woman in labour, as St Paul reflected.
That’s to say, God takes on the pain and death of the world on the cross and offers back resurrection, in Christ. God in Christ overcomes the powers of sin and death, with a victory of grace and love.
God knows, this can be so painful. But this is the way God overcomes, and this is the way we’re called to live in a still- imperfect and unpredictable world – as an Easter people .
But let’s go back to the Christchurch quake…
In talking with Christchurch people this week I noticed a deep interest in the place and meaning of the Christian church, especially the church as represented by ChristChurch Cathedral.
This extraordinary and iconic sacred space at the centre of Christchurch has become the embodiment of the very heart of this city – albeit a broken heart at this time.
The Bishop, the Dean and other clergy connected to the cathedral, as well as priests throughout the stricken urban area, have touched some spiritual taproots which in some cases were deeply buried.
One of many signs of solidarity and hope has been the sight of the clergy collar.
We all know it’s just a strip of plastic but it singles out someone who lives with trauma and shock like anyone else, and yet is there for others in the name of God. And that strikes a deep chord.
Something equally profound became clear to me in the midst of the crisis.
A tragic event restores Kiwi community, in a time when many of us have retreated into private cyberspace, possessions, or the medication of drugs and alcohol.
These diversions can become symptoms of escape from the true realities and challenges of our city and our world.
But then calamity strikes, shaking the very basis of our life together, – and people discover that they actually need each other.
Neighbourliness and mutual compassion come alive again, re-creating community bonds that have shrivelled in the past 50 years.
Which is why I saw free water bottles thrust into the hands of thirsty drivers and pedestrians … ice creams handed out willy-nilly from passing vehicles… and homemade meals served up with practical help.
The image of God in everyone – however tarnished, fallen or unrecognized – can be glimpsed in the good that we become capable of.
Which goes to prove, once again, that wherever there is goodness, there is God.
David Moxon is an archbishop of this church.
The first two of the Wellington Anglican priests who’ve offered to help in flood-ravaged South-West Queensland will fly to Brisbane on Thursday.
From tvnz.co.uk
New Zealand Anglican clergy are prepared to fly to Queensland to assist with funerals and pastoral care of flood victims.
By Lloyd Ashton, Taonga News
Archdeacon Robin Kingston, the man who’s leading the organising of Thursday’s National Remembrance Service for the 29 Pike River miners, began his Saturday evening sermon at Holy Trinity Greymouth by saying how the tragedy was affecting him.
By Tim Mora, Chairperson, Greymouth Ministers’ Association
"Firstly thank you for your prayers over the last few days. They have truly made a difference. Many have asked how I personally am holding up and I have genuinely been able to say very well, I'm fine and then it dawned on me. There are probably tens of thousands, if not more, people praying for myself and the pastors and clergy of this town. I am fine because I am being upheld by your prayers so please keep on praying. God is at work.
Around 3.30pm last Friday, a gas explosion tore through the Pike River coal mine on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Nothing’s been heard from any of the 29 men trapped underground by that blast, and officials say volatile toxic gases mean it’s still too dangerous for rescue teams to enter the mine. The church in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is praying and waiting.
International Anglican Family Network Oceania Consultation on ‘Violence and the Family’
Lower Hutt, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand - 27 October to Sunday 31 October 2010
“Tonight the conch is blown to signal the ending of violence.” These words were spoken by Archbishop Winston Halapua, co-presiding Bishop in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, as he welcomed participants to a Consultation for Oceania on ‘Violence and the Family’.
By Brian Thomas, Communications Officer of The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia
Anglicans in quake-ravaged Canterbury have given $120,000 for the relief effort in Haiti. This gift – an expression of “thanks and praise” – was announced by Bishop Victoria Matthews midway through the Diocesan Synod at Riccarton Park yesterday (October 30)
By Lloyd Ashton, Media Officer Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
Last Sunday, when Archbishop Brown Turei preached at the service to mark the 25th anniversary of Te Wairua Tapu, home to the Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship, he began by recalling a baptism he’d conducted in Sydney more than 40 years earlier.
By Lloyd Ashton - Media Officer to the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
Frontline Anglican family workers from throughout the South Pacific will soon gather in Lower Hutt with other church movers and shakers to plan new ways to counter family violence in our region.
Frontline Anglican family workers from throughout the South Pacific will soon gather in Lower Hutt with movers and shakers within the Church to plan new ways to counter family violence in our region.
Extracts from the sermon by Sepiuta Hala'api'api', youth coordinator for the Diocese of Polynesia, at Bishop Winston Halapua's service of installation held at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Suva, Fiji, early August.
Representatives from throughout the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia will gather this Saturday for the ordination and installation of the Very Rev Ross Bay as the 11th Bishop of Auckland. The service begins at 1pm in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Parnell, Auckland.
In terms of numbers, the Anglican Church isn’t a very big player in Samoa.
But the scale of the tsunami disaster is such that no-one with any Pacific connections has been left untouched by it – including some leading figures in the Diocese of Polynesia.
Take Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Leota, for example.
Archdeacon Tai, as she’s known to hundreds in this church is a Samoan living in Auckland. She has served as the Anglican Observer at the United Nations, on the Anglican Consultative Council, as a Diocese of Polynesia representative to the General Synod, and earlier this year she was priested.
Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Leota opened a new chapter in her colourful life on Sunday afternoon.
Archdeacon Tai – as she’s known to hundreds of church folk – was ordained to the priesthood at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Ordained, moreover, by Bishop Winston Halapua, the man who had brought her into the embrace of the Anglican Church in the first place, and by Bishops John Paterson and Kito Pikaahu.
Situation Overview
As a result of the flooding, as of this afternoon a total of 8,475 evacuees are residing in 130 evacuation centres, mostly in the Western Division. People are moving back to their houses for clean up and repair, although especially in Western Division the number of evacuees is still high, due to damage to water and food supply.
The people of Fiji are beginning to count the cost of the severe floods which have laid waste to large swathes of both of the country’s main islands.
Eleven people have died; at least 8000 people are still huddled in emergency shelters; roads and bridges have been washed away; and water supplies, electricity and communications have been disrupted.
