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Monday, June 11, 2012

Commission: have met, will meet, will listen, will achieve ... something, I hope

Yes, things can actually come to pass in our church. The appointing of a commission of eminent persons was announced. Then we heard that some eminent persons were not saying Yes to their invitations. Seemingly the commission was not coming into being. But it was. It has had its first meeting. We even know the names of the commission! Report here in Taonga.

The commission is:

"Sir Anand Satyanand, who was a lawyer, judge and ombudsman before he was chosen as New Zealand’s 19th Governor General;
Ms Mele Tuilotolava, a Tongan New Zealander lawyer who is also involved in a wide range of health, legal and Pacific Island advocacy work;

Professor Paul Trebilco, head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Otago;

Judge Judith Potter, a High Court judge, and former president of both the Auckland District and New Zealand Law Societies; and

Sir Tamati Reedy, an educationalist who was the founding Professor of the University of Waikato’s School of Maori and Pacific Development, and who has also served as the head of the Maori Affairs Department."
They are eminent enough that I have heard of three of them. I personally only know one of them. Of course the announcement that it consists of "eminent" persons begs a few questions about the absence of the truly eminent among us, say,  Richie McCaw or Sir Brian Lochore :)

The description of Professor Paul Trebilco does not give an important and relevant detail, namely, that Paul's academic speciality is New Testament studies. He made a great contribution as a consultant biblical scholar to our last Hermeneutical Hui (Auckland, 2010).

The terms of reference for the commission are here.

Let us pray for their work.
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3 comments:

  1. Father Ron SmithJune 12, 2012 at 9:20 AM

    Peter, with your obsession with Rugby Football, my guess is that you would rather have been an All black than a minister of the Church. Tell me, do you prefer the building of a new Cathedral in Christchurch - to the building of a new Football stadium, (the alternative Temple)?

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  2. Peter CarrellJune 12, 2012 at 10:09 AM

    I would love to have been an All Black, Ron, but, alas, my abilities at rugby rank well below my abilities at just about anything else. I fail to see the incompatibility between being an All Black and a minister (e.g. my former school chaplain, the late Ian Botting, was both).

    As for preferring a new cathedral too a new stadium: let's have both. Even better, let's have some new homes for the homeless in Christchurch.

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  3. Father Ron SmithJune 12, 2012 at 11:53 PM

    I'm so glad that our 3 Archbishops of the Province of ACANZP have actually named the members of the Commission who will explore the implications of the evolving understandings of human sexuality - from both the biblical and modern world-view perspectives.

    It will be most interesting to have the actual biblical hermeneutic brought bear on the arguments, both pro and anti, in regard to the LGBT community in the Church and the World at large.

    Also, for the members of the N.Z. Commission to apply their own individual perspectives on how the New Zealand Church needs to deal with homophobia and misogyny in the Church.

    My Prayers will be will them as they do their sacred task.

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