My Mum died in March and our family gathered to bury her in peace and love — sad, but grateful for her long life among us. In dreadful contrast, on Friday of the same week, other families not far from us had their loved ones ripped from them as they prayed. Our country experienced unimaginable betrayal, death and shock — a shock that radiated around the world.

Yet through it all we have been inspired by the exceptional leadership of our Prime Minister, local governments, Māori communities, Churches and Faiths and young people in universities and schools, to face down our fear and gather in solidarity with our Muslim communities; to recognise humbly that our racist and Islamophobic leanings had a part to play and that we want to change; to accept that the massacre of innocent people has happened before in our history; to refuse to seek revenge; to commit to becoming a more welcoming, inclusive and neighbourly people.

We experienced “Holy Week” in an awful and truly real way. The social, cultural and religious boundaries we’ve erected in our minds and hearts to keep us apart, stand out in relief as artificial and false in the light of the resurrection. Will we be like the disciples who hid in fear when Jesus was arrested, or like the women who risked following Jesus to the cross and witnessed to the resurrection? We’ve been offered new life and encouragement to commit to unity — to allow that overwhelming, divine Love and Life we call God to transform us individually, communally and as a country.

Our forced entry into the passion and death of our neighbours gives us every incentive to seek life. As we’ve experienced in the past weeks, coming together inspires us to greater unity, and in the practice of solidarity we are becoming the change we hope to be. So that when we — as long-lived as my Mum — come to submit our lives to God, we’ll breathe our final breath in the land and communities we’ve helped to make more loving, good, just and welcoming.

In this issue of Tui Motu are reflections and discussions about ministering — serving our neighbours — in the name of God and in the interests of community, solidarity and the common good. We thank all those who have contributed their thoughtfulness, research, analysis, faith, art and craft to make this a lively Easter magazine.

And, as is our custom, our last word is a blessing.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 236 April 2019:2