What encourages me?

All sorts of things encourage me, but I think one of the most encouraging things for me as bishop (i.e. a person with particular worries and concerns - :) - about how some 54 ministry units in a diocese are doing at any one time) is news of (or first hand experience of) growth and development and/or new people joining our ministry units and/or strong ministry units continuing to be strong, if not growing from strength to strength.

Yesterday, I went to a service in one of our churches, arriving as morning tea between two services was being served. What a buzz there was. And, what a lot of new faces. The new faces are being noticed - parishioners told me about what they themselves are seeing as new people arrive week after week. There was a definite shout out by parishioners who talked to me to an emphasis through past months on the parish prayer meeting Encouragement number 1 for the day.

Encouragement number 2 came later in the day, with several reports of an excellent special youth-led service in another ministry unit. 25 young people present, 25 children present.

Praise the Lord! Thank you, God!

Yes, there is a lot going on around the Anglican world to discourage us (I am choosing not to link to various sad stories, but you can find them: thanks Google AI), or, looking more secularly, a lot in the general world this week to disturb us, measured in part by fuel prices zooming upwards again.

But how exciting to see that in the midst of toils and troubles, God is at work in people's hearts, and, in the mercy of God, some of those people being moved by God inwardly are finding themselves moving outwardly towards our ministry units.

Kororia ki Te Atua.

Pointing to Taonga

Still short of time. A lot is going on, including a tangihanga at Te Pa o Te Hui Amorangi o Te Waipounamu, Christchurch. So, let's head to Taonga and let some reports there do the talking for Anglicans living Down Under this week.

A very important change at our recent General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui was made to our Title D - canon on ministry standards. This article is a great introduction to the change - a change which does need explaining to our church, to laity and to clergywith appropriate supportive training/education.

Two notable women in our church have died recently, Margaret Bedggood and Huia Tahere. I have been privileged to know each of them a little - and the local tangihanga is for Huia Tahere. Dr Jenny Te Paa offers a tribute to each of them here.

Our recent Synod grappled with a motion concerning Israel/Gaza/West Bank and, in the end, did not vote to pass it. General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui in Tonga also grappled with a motion and passed it. Arguably, the latter offered better balance than the former re the nuanced challenge of condemning evil on all sides of the conflict in the Middle East, including the evil spilling over into the wider world per increased anti-semitism and lack of safety for Jews. 

My point here is not to recite either motion or to analyse details in each motion but to note here that Anglicans Down Under are concerned about what is happening in Israel/West Bank/Gaza. Anglican Taonga, for instance, notes (via this article in the Middle East Monitor) a recent inhibition by Israel of Christian teachers. Even in the last week, news reports continue to add one bleak picture after another of Israel proactively making life horrible for Palestinians. Can anything be done?

Our Synod - my Address

For those interested in my Presidential Address to our annual synod, which took place at the end of last week, you may read it here.

PS In the wisdom of diary-setters, my immediate post-Synod life has led me to Auckland for three days of meetings; and the end of this week involves further travel. Not every week is like this. But this week, assessing its particular "tempus fugit," I am making this briefest of posts, and it is posted two days late according to my intention to post on Mondays. My hope for next week is better chronological things :).

Dolly Parton: a saint in heaven?

I have been fascinated by a large series of reels on social media following the death of Dolly Parton. They show Dolly Parton as a brilliant star of entertainment, mostly through her music but also in her films, and as a quick-witted, endearingly self-deprecating, very humourous interviewee of many TV talk shows. She was also a canny businesswomen who stood her ground against men in the entertainment world who tried to make more dollars from her than they deserved, and with her wealth, Dolly was an outstanding philanthropist. To cap everything off in the tributes through the past week, not one person has a bad word to say about her. In fact, lots of warm, sincere eulogies have been made paying tribute to her goodness and greatness as a wonderful human being.

The Living Church offers this report which points to the possibility of the calendar of The Episcopal Church incorporating formal remembrance of Dolly Parton:

"Episcopalians are paying tribute to the artistry and philanthrophy of Dolly Parton, the singer, actress, and songwriter whose rise from poverty to becoming a country music legend and successful entrepreneur draw admiration from a broad swathe of American society.

On Threads, the Rev. Rachel Kessler, rector of Harcourt Parish in Kenyon College, is advocating for Parton’s commemoration in the Episcopal Church calendar on the day of her death, August 25, at the age of 80."

By contrast, I have seen on X comments made by sincere and genuine Christians that Dolly Parton is most certainly not in heaven because she was not a true and wholehearted follower of Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour, the implication being that she has in recent years erred and strayed from the faith of her upbringing, perhaps due to her warm and inclusive embrace of the LGBTi community, to say nothing of a more or less universalist approach to the salvation of all.

We could get stuck in the weeds of the theological suppositions and presuppositions involved in either positing Dolly Parton should be fast-tracked into ecclesiastical calendars or that we (somehow, when we are not God) have a sure and solid ability to determine that Dolly Parton is in the place opposite to where many, many people around the world assume she is.

My thinking (for what it is worth) is twofold.

First, we should celebrate the goodness and greatness of this remarkable human being. She was amazingly talented. She was very, very kind - as many children who have benefitted from her generous book programme delivering books around the world are testifying to, to say nothing of many other beneficiaries of her kindness and generosity. In so celebrating, we could usefully look at ourselves and ask whether we are doing all in our power to do as much good in the world as we can - that is what Dolly Parton did, and she did it with a large dose of personal humbleness. Thanks be to God for her example.

Secondly, we should consider carefully the character she exhibited in her generosity, her inclusiveness, her kindness and her unwillingness to engage in tit for tat meanness. (Romans 12:9-21, the epistle reading for Sunday 30 August 2026, Ordinary 22, is most apt as a lens through which to assess the quality of her character.) If Dolly was a true Christian, then something very, very Christlike shone through her bubbly personality. If Dolly was not a true Christian, then something very, very Christlike shone through her bubbly personality. I am happy to leave it to the God of heaven how he views each and every human being, from the most famous to the least well-known. But I think it might be avoidance if I stop there and do not ask of myself, am I the best self I can be in the light of my belief that the way of Christ is the way to God and to human flourishing? Am I allowing Christ to work on every aspect of myself to transform my heart so that I too have a generous, gracious, kind, warm and relentlessly loving approach to all people I meet?

Might such questions be better questions to ask in relation to the life of Dolly Parton than asking whether she is or is not with the Lord Jesus Christ?

Tonga [updated]

In so many ways it was brilliant being in Tonga for General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui 2026 (GSTHW 2026). The weather was warmer than in Aotearoa New Zealand; the hospitality from local Anglican parishes and St Andrew's High School (our only Anglican school on Tongatapu) was magnificent; the food was plentiful and delicious (though for some this was tempered by some tummy bugs doing the rounds); and our main venue, a world class gymnasium at Tonga High School (built by - you guessed it - China Aid), was very pleasant to meet in.

Anglican Taonga has reports worth reading and looking at the great pics taken by our media team:

On the outstanding formal welcome to the members of the General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui, read this.

On the overall themes of the synod, One Mission, One Vaka, One Ocean, read this.

On the splendid opening eucharist, read this.

On the question of equity re funding in our church, read this and this, and for some Pakeha work on the matter just before the Synod began, read this.

A fair amount of time was spent considering the plight of the islands of our church, especially those within the Diocese of Polynesia, as climate changes ravage us and change the ocean around us. I hope there will be a report in Taonga soon on these important conversations and information sharing.

We also made some important changes to Title D our canon on ministry standards.

Am I hopeful for our church?

On the whole, Yes, but it was good to be reminded by one member of the synod that various statistics tell us we are a church in numerical decline, and we should be the opposite of complacent about this reality.

UPDATES

A. Lovely reflection via video of the GSTHW here.

B. Since posting the above, news has entered the public domain of a boating incident on the last full day GSTHW members had together on Tonga, some of whom went on a whale-watching trip. Taonga has now posted a news report about this, here.

General Synods Down Under, and ARCIC progress

Although this is being posted on Wednesday 12 August, think of it as next Monday's post, 17 August 2026. 

I will be in Tonga then, participating in the biennial General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. 

From time to time the Diocese of Polynesia hosts the General Synod in Polynesia so it is a privilege to be able to travel to Tonga to enjoy their hosting. (Polynesia has hosted previously in Fiji (1990, 2012), and South Auckland (2000).)

All details about our meeting, including links to bills and motions can be found by heading to this site.

Pray for us, please!

Interestingly, the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Australia is meeting this week in Melbourne. I have enjoyed following Professor Peter Sherlock's reflections - his reflections on the first day is here.

If none of this synodical stuff interests you, or you love it but have further reading time available, then a few weeks ago I was very much taken by this account of the state of Anglican-Roman Catholic conversations (= ARCIC).

Enjoy!

If ever someone was anointed by the Spirit

In the midst of all the stuff happening around us these days, as appalling wars continue, peace talks grinding into moribundian dust, and economic gloom clouds over our everyday material hopes for a better world, it is possible to find moments when heaven meets earth. Yesterday I had one of those walking into the cathedral late yesterday afternoon, to find the combine choirs of The Cathedral Grammar School rehearsing Johann Sebastian Bach's moment of Jesus which is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

Within the livestream of the service itself you can hear/see this at  28.40 at this link: Jesu joy of man's desiring.

The lyrics are:

Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring
Holy wisdom, love most bright

Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring
Soar to uncreated light

Word of God, our flesh that fashioned
With the fire of life impassioned
Striving still to truth unknown
Soaring, dying round Thy throne.

We sometimes talk about someone being "anointed by the Spirit" - the Holy Spirit is at work in a believer in a very, very special way, with wonderful outcomes. Is not this psalm to Jesus a mark of J.S. Bach being anointed by the Spirit?