TeRito Peyroux- Semu, Keita Hotere and Maungarongo Tito at the PCC by Suppled

Living Authentic Lives

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After a summer of welcoming, hosting, connecting and farewelling friends and whānau from overseas, around the country, and locally, I can’t say that my ‘summer holidays’ were particularly restful, but they were certainly rejuvenating, nonetheless.

Ngā Mihi o te Tau Hou, Kia Orana, Noa’ia ‘e Mauri and Warm Greetings in this New Year!

Although sometimes tiring, something is refreshing and reinvigorating about being able to share moments, make memories, laugh, cry, make and break bread, learn from and even teach others, especially whānau, as well as friends and colleagues who become whānau, even more so during the time of the year when we’re more relaxed, in “holiday mode”.

Before the festive season began, not long after the Conference last year, Rev Keita Hotere and I were the delegates representing our hāhi at the Pacific Council of Churches 12th General Assembly in Noumea, Kanaky (New Caledonia). Maungarongo Tito from our hāhi also attended the Assembly as a delegate representing Te Runanga Whakawhanaunga I Nga Hāhi O Aotearoa (The Māori Council of Churches).

Although for each of us, this was our first time to attend a Pacific Council of Churches General Assembly, it was a homecoming of sorts, where we were able to connect and reconnect with our Methodist and wider ecumenical whanaunga from around the Pacific, and the world.

It was also a homecoming for the Assembly itself, returning to Kanaky 57 years after the Constituting Assembly of the Pacific Council of Churches, which was held on the Island of Drehu (Lifou), in the northeast of Kanaky.

While attending the Church Leader’s Pre-Assembly in Drehu before the main programme began in Noumea, I came to learn more about my tūpuna tāne from Aitutaki. His name was Paō, but in Kanaky he was known as Fao. Fao was the missionary who in 1841, with the help of Tongan translators (who were said to have already been living on the island since the 1770s), brought Christianity to be accepted by the Paramount Chiefs of Drehu. This was the introduction and acceptance of Christianity on the island and then wider Kanaky.

As a child, and even as recently as the last Te Maeva Nui Aotearoa Festival back in September (which is the equivalent to Te Matatini for Cook Islanders living in New Zealand) I had heard songs and chants about Fao and other men and women, who like him, had dedicated their lives to sharing the Hope of the Gospel with others living in more remote parts of the Pacific, and the world. But to be in Drehu, to be in the bay and on the very beach that Fao came to land on; to make and leave an ‘ei (flower garland) and sing in his mother tongue at his tomb; and to meet with the Paramount Chiefs and villagers of today, who are descendants of the Paramount Chiefs and people who welcomed both Fao and Christianity, over 180 years ago; then to discover that the significance of that time, has continued to give moral and spiritual sustenance today, is truly beyond anything I, my parents and grandparents could ever have dreamed of!

The main programme for the General Assembly was very rich and full of a plethora of services, devotions, panels, reports, presentations, plenaries and decisions that were presented to and engaging the diverse spectrums of member churches, associates and participants connected to the Pacific Council of Churches. The Official Outcome Statement of the Assembly can be found HERE

The theme of this Assembly was Do Kamo: The Authentic Human in Permanent Becoming. The gift of this theme from the Kanaky people, was a call to us in our rich Pasifika diversities, to seek the transformation of ourselves and our world, not to perfection, but a journey to authentically be all that God calls us to be.

Following a very successful Hui-Ā-Motu 2024, which was called and recently hosted by Kīngi Tūheitia at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia, I was very pleasantly reminded of the spirit of Do Kamo, when Te Kīngī reminded the people gathered that “The best protest we can do right now is be Māori, be who we are, live our values, speak our reo, care for our mokopuna, our awa, our maunga. Just be Māori”.

Essentially, even for Tauiwi, all we are ever called to be is our authentic selves, whilst also being respectful, protective and empowering of those around us, particularly those who are most vulnerable in our local, regional and even global communities, so that they can live to be their authentic selves also. Mai te Awa ki te Moana. Mauri Ora!te Moana. Mauri Ora!