May was one of the most demanding and rewarding months I have ever experienced. Aside from it being the month that my now five-year-old started ‘big school,’ in addition to attending various consultations, forums, and pastoral duties expected of me in this current role, I had the pleasure of observing a range of special Sunday celebrations.

These included Fakame, Mother’s Day, Wesley and Pentecost Sunday and Trinity Sunday, as well as a phenomenal symposium hosted by our own Trinity Methodist Theological College in collaboration with St John’s Theological College on: ‘reWeaving Theological Education.’

May is also the month we celebrate NZ Sign Language Week, Pink Shirt Day (dedicated to raising awareness about bullying), Rotuman Language Week, Samoan Language Week, and other significant causes and anniversaries in our local contexts.

Given that so much was happening in this one month, it was inevitable that there would be date clashes between liturgical festivals, causes, and things to focus on - by no means am I suggesting that this hasn’t ever happened before. But it never ceases to amaze me, when people in our churches, our institutions of learning and our communities find ways to uphold, engage with and celebrate some of these different festivals and causes together, in ways that are relatable, creative and inspiring.

During Friday School Assembly at Wesley College on the morning of ‘Pink Shirt Day,’ they also closed ‘Rotuman Language Week.’ Head Girl Leilani Mua prepared a devotion and programme that observed both of these aspects, and she invited me to briefly talk about how they might relate to each other. Then, later on that same evening, in collaboration with the Kingsland Rotuman Methodist Congregation, some of the fantastic hostel staff of the college accompanied a group of students to the congregation’s Rotuman Language Week event, called ‘Fere Friday’. Those same themes of embracing a unique yet vulnerable Pacific language and empowering people to stand up against bullying, were engaged within a more practical way, with lots of other young people at an indoor trampoline park in central Auckland.

In both Tauranga and Te Awamutu on Wesley and Pentecost Sunday, the spaces of worship were beautifully decorated with seas of red fabric, fiery shades of streamers, and flowers adorning the sanctuaries, and in one church, a framed portrait of John Wesley. Conversations included how John Wesley would have been quite warm to Mason Durie’s Whare Tapa Wha model of Hauora, because of the holistic way in which it defines wellbeing,’ and how ‘the way that we engage with our communities can inspire shifts in individual and collective trajectories.’

Whether it is embracing different festivities, causes, or foci in meaningful and relatable ways, or embracing different people in safe and mana-enhancing ways, we are often all the better for it. We do ourselves and the Hāhi a massive disservice if we only focus on operating in silos of our familiarities, perspectives, privileges, or comfort zones.