How does one respond?

As one who lived through the Christchurch earthquakes, we knew little of how bad it really was, with power out for the first week, and water and sewage taking much longer to come back into service. It felt like we were living in a post-apocalyptic movie for the first six weeks – the sounds of helicopters and sirens operating 24/7 with the ground constantly continuing to move under our feet. We didn’t get to see the immediacy of what had and was happening – while the rest of the country, being kept up-to-the-minute with a blow-by-blow media account, looked on in shock and horror. I now know how it feels, as a ‘spectator’ forced to watch from afar with a profound sense of helplessness and constantly in prayer for friends from whom I have not heard. All the while the sun continues to shine as we face another heat wave here in the centre of the South Island. It’s as if we’re living in an alternate universe.

What does one say? What does one do? How can we help?

UCANZ has a concern for the numerous union and cooperating ventures (CVs) scattered around the country that are struggling with the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. We tend to be smaller parishes on the periphery. My worry is that we would be easy to overlook – especially (since I’m here writing in Touchstone) where the minister/priest/pastor is not Methodist and the Methodist Church is not the Convening partner.

We need to recognise that if ‘The Church’ is a body there is a sense that CVs are the ligaments and sinews between the constituent partner/parent churches. CVs present a compelling reason for the partners/parents to be talking with one another – the parents have children together.

Perhaps it’s time that we recognised the importance of CVs in how they shape our relationships as partner churches. Not as an embarrassment pointing back to earlier failure that we’d rather not be reminded of, but as vital ongoing points of connection that are seen as the binding elements that they actually are.

I have wondered how much communication would take place between the partner churches if CVs didn’t exist, if there was no reason for us to talk together because we didn’t have shared people, ministry and property assets.

Perhaps it’s time the parent churches saw CVs as a gift, a rich resource, a reminder of the invitation to a deeper commitment to an ecumenical project with the simple intent of expressing our oneness is Christ. And then perhaps Christ’s great high priestly prayer in John 17 may be fulfilled:

“Jn17:21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one — as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”