Author: wmc

At the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, Governor Hobson affirmed, in response to a question from Catholic Bishop Pompallier, ‘the several faiths (beliefs) of England, of the Wesleyans, of Rome, and also Māori custom shall alike be protected’. This foundation creates the opportunity to reaffirm an acknowledgement of the diversity of beliefs in New Zealand.

From time immemorial food has been invested with cultural values that acknowledge it as a gift. However, the globalisation of food production and distribution disrupts these mores and values not by the free choice of affected populations but as an imposition of global players. This was the problem examined by three authoritative speakers at a recent seminar arranged by the Tamihana Foundation.

Discrimination against Pacific people can often go unnoticed in the NZ context when we live in a country that was the first to grant women the vote, and whose citizens protested against the Springbok tour and where such atrocities as the Holocaust did not take place.

The suffering of the Irish at the hands of English colonisers was recalled in a 4 February Mass foreshadowing Waitangi Day as parishioners of St Joseph’s Church, New Plymouth, reflected on the twin notions of ‘people of this land’, the Māori – and those who came after. In the spirit of a dialogue between the Treaty and the gospel Cushla Low spoke of her Irish forebears’ sense of outrage at being rendered powerless and poverty-stricken in their own land.

One of the corporal works of mercy, as anyone who remembers their penny catechism will know, is visiting the sick. It’s one of our basic responsibilities as followers of Christ. How we live out this important part of our common Christian vocation will vary considerably depending on the culture to which we belong. Is individual illness a private or public matter?