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Continuing Indaba renewed its mandate today in the ACC. The full report is on the Anglican Communion website

I was part of the summing up – since I am Convenor of the Reference Group for Continuing Indaba. This is what I said:

I was in Rotorua on Sunday. When you preach, you listen to yourself. I heard myself being very passionate about the life of our Anglican Communion. I really believe in what Archbishop Rowan said last night – that we aspire to be “both catholic and orthodox and consensual, working in freedom, mutual respect and mutual restraint; without jeopardising the important local autonomy of our churches.”

He also talked about convergence – growing closer. I sometimes talk about coherence – which is sticking together. And we all talk of the particular aspiration to Communion where we grow closer to God as we grow closer to one another and vice versa.

You cannot be a family just by saying that you are. You have to do things – place yourself in situations in which the Spirit can move and in which you can be challenged and changed. I believe that miracles of grace begin when we place ourselves in obedience where we are called to be – in places where we can build the relationships which create family and Communion

Indaba – as Phil has said – is not a programme or project. It is a movement and a way of being the church – God’s church – our Anglican Communion. If I was French I might call it ‘un saveur’ – an aroma. It is honest conversation – honest conversation in the context of our shared faith – which takes seriously our local contexts.

We have learnt much – in the Communion we have learnt that the problems and difficulties which we experience between provinces across the world are problems and difficulties which we also experience within our provinces. What is experienced within a Province reverberates in the wider Communion – and what is experienced in the wider Communion reverberates locally. And there is something more. As we have been experiencing in the life of the church here in New Zealand, history and the legacy of history – particularly bad and painful history – can shape the way in which we respond to one another. We may not even be aware of that – but we need to become aware and to talk about it.

We believe that the next part of the journey of Continuing Indaba must honour the whole of our relating in our provinces and between our provinces, We need honest conversation – in Indaba – within each of our Provinces but always with an engagement, an involvement and support from the rest of the family, the rest of the Communion.

We kept Sunday as All Saints in Rotorua. The gospel reading was about the Raising of Lazarus from the dead. So inevitably I said some things about death and life.

I felt that it was important to give people a flavour of the wider life of the Anglican Communion. I am a believer in what I think we represent – the aspiration to grow into a global Communion without a centralised structure of authority – closer to God and to one another.

So this is part of what I said

‘For us in Scotland, the Anglican Communion matters greatly. To be part of something bigger is really important. It is a one of the privileges of my life that I have the opportunity of exploring the life of the Anglican Communion in my travels. During this year, I will have seen England, Ireland, Canada, America, Hong Kong, New Zealand. Next month i shall be in Uganda and after Christmas in India. Everywhere there is welcome. Everywhere I find churches which are Anglican in ways which we in Scotland can recognise – recognisable in worship, in polity and governance, in culture and friendship. People say that the Communion is in difficulties and that it is finished. New Zealand and Scotland have both decided not to adopt the Covenant and that may leave us feeling slightly uncertain about where we are with the Anglican Communion.

But I am a passionate believer in the Anglican Communion. I believe that rumours of its death have been exaggerated – although there is some dying to do. By that I mean particularly the legacy of history which makes some relationships difficult – the word we sometimes use is colonialism. It means that people take into themselves bad history – you know all about that in New Zealand – so that it threatens the present and destroys the future. It speaks of death.

Let me introduce you to the Bible Study Group with which I have begun each day for the last week. Yesterday the passage was introduced to the whole conference by the Acting Dean of Christchurch Cathedral, Very Rev Lynda Patterson, who comes from Northern Ireland and tells me that she is a regular reader of my blog on the Internet. She speaks of the death of a cathedral and of how new life may come. Sitting around the table with me were Dickson – Provincial Secretary of the Church in Tanzania; Maria Christina – a Spanish speaking priest from Cuba; Humphrey – Bishop of Peshawar in Northern Pakistan; Josephine from the USA; Dick – bishop of Old Catholic Church from Netherlands. We sit and wait. We share and pray. We minister to one another. We are in a sense the Anglican Communion rising to new life. We are the saints of God – as you are the saints of God.’

We have just spent the weekend in Rotorua. It’s about 200 miles south of Auckland and it is famous for its geothermal springs and boiling mud. There was a certain satisfaction for me in seeing the hot springs and geysers in Iceland and New Zealand in the same year.

This was strange – clouds of steam rising behind the hedge beside the road – a pipe venting superheated water just beside the car park – a distinct smell of sulphur wafting into the church during morning worship.

We were with the Vicar of St Luke’s Church, Revd Alex Czerwonka and his wife Jocelyn. It’s hard to say that it was very different from what I see most Sunday mornings – more ethnically diverse. But the attractions of that were that it was almost like but not quite. And it’s the not quite which is interesting.

Some of the other local clergy and their people joined us for a congregational lunch and we did some serious talking about mission. They are much better than we are at social outreach – lunch clubs and thrift shops. Their equivalent of Casting the Net and Mission Action Planning is ‘Missional Mapping’ and I think we may have been a little more developed in that. What was particularly interesting was their pattern of local shared ministry – under the oversight of somebody called the Bishop’s Chaplain but really more like an Archdeacon. That’s a pattern which we are exploring in Argyll and Moray – small congregations with their own indigenous ministry with a stipendiary priest exercising oversight of a number of congregations.

There is nothing better than getting out of a conference and meeting the local church. We really enjoyed it.

So here we are – into the second week and still going strong.

Every morning we begin with Bible Study. Over this kind of distance, you become a sort of family. So I am holding forth.

On one side is Maria Christina who is from Cuba. She watched me clutching my IPhone for which there was no wifi – rather like a child with a toy – and told me that I should love God more and think about my e mail less. On the other side is Bishop Humphrey Peters, Bishop of Peshawar in northern Pakistan. For him the presence of the Taliban and Al Quaida are daily realities and present danger, Those for whom the greatest danger is a deer jumping out of the wood on the way back to Blogstead are humbled in his presence.

We are meeting in the Cathedral here in Auckland. It is a spellbinding building

We are still learning about the multiple cultures and languages of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. Three Primates is probably at least two too many – one for the New Zealand dioceses, one for the Maori Dioceses and one for Polynesia, Worship is multilingual and all clergy seem to be able to lead worship in Maori. I’ve added another remarkable hymn singing experience to the opportunity of singing ‘Lead Kindly Light’ in Finnish. This time it was ‘Guide me O thou great Redeemer’ in Maori.

Yesterday we went to be received by the Maori King and Queen – which was quite an event with ceremonial speeches, exchanges of gifts and a lunch for everybody. Nothing is ever translated in these moments so one has to make guesses about what is actually being said.

The picture is with Archbishop David Moxon of the New Zealand Church

Here is another example – Bishop Philip Richardson in a cloak of Maori white feathers – symbol of peace. He and I were in the same Bible Study Group at the Lambeth Conference

Meanwhile Alison has been with the group of spouses. This is just across the water from Auckland in the attractive community of Devonport.

And then on a trip to a gannet colony on the west coast – still very close to Auckland.

One of the areas of Anglican Communion life which is growing strongly is the Anglican Networks. Basically they are gatherings of people across the world who are following a common theme and area of work. As with most things Anglican, there is no budget and a minimum of central organisation

I went to the session organised by the Environmental Network – Alan Werrity from St Andrews, St Andrews is our Scottish Representative. The session was run by Revd Ken Grey – a priest from Western Canada – with Revd Rachel Mash who is the Environmental Officer for the Province of Southern Africa. It is fascinating to just sit and listen to people from all around the world – developed and developing world – talking about the impact of climate change on their communities. We also have to recognise that this (very infrequent) meeting is about as ungreen as it gets in terms of environmental impact

This is Rachel Mash with Bishop Kito of Auckland. I spend part of Holy Week nearly ten years ago in her parish in the Capetown township of Khayelitsha – home for about 1.5 million people. She is also the person who, at very short notice, fixed up a sabbatical place for our Canon Dom Ind at Constantia, just behind Table Mountain.

I also went to the Family Network session which was being run by our own John Rea from the SEC. They have decided to focus on a programme to encourage universal birth registration. It ensures access to healthcare and education for children and protects them against trafficking, early marriage, conscription into military service …

Well first of all we now have decent wifi. You will know that, when all else fails, I attempt to get on line by will power alone. Given how far away New Zealand is, I’ve only had limited success. But all is now well – not fast but at least consistent.

I’m doing my best with the meeting – somewhat defeated by the amount of reading. But the main thing is probably the networking. There are about 80 people here – every corner of the earth – so it becomes important and possible to attempt to have a significant contact with every single one of them. Ultimately the Anglican Communion is built on relationships. So this kind of gathering is really important.

So here I am with Bishop Mwita Akiri of the Diocese of Tarime in the Church of Tanzania. He was very keen to tell me about support which he has received from the Scottish Episcopal Church for building projects in his diocese

And this is Rev Lynda Patterson who is the Acting Dean of the Cathedral in Christchurch – we had a talk about the issues around the future of the Cathedral after the earthquake. You can read some about it here She comes from Northern Ireland … and is a lurker on this blog.

So here we are preparing to into the Telstra Stadium for the official Maori Church welcome yesterday – John Stuart our Secretary General and ACC Representative, Alison, Elaine Cameron who is here with the Women’s Network, John Rea, who is with the Family Network, Sarah Tomlinson who is with the Youth Network, Alison and myself.

The hospitality is formidable – this was the welcome from the Maori Church. The Anglican Church in New Zealand is an elegant balance of languages, culture and identity – the New Zealand diocese, the Maori Dioceses and Polynesia. There are three Primates rather than one and worship is a skilful blend of language and tradition.

And finally we saw a haka – thanks to Rachel Mash from South Africa for the photo

There was music and dance – ending with a Haka which is of course what we came to see. It ended with a beautiful lunch with yet more singing. This time of course the guests were expected to sing as well. I answered a call of nature at just the right time – returning to find that the European group had inexplicably and unforgivably found emergency common ground in ‘Jerusalem’

And here’s another thought, Listening to all this – and to Archbishop Rowan giving the blessing in Welsh – I have been drafting an article on the Scottish Independence debate. I wonder how it could be that there seems to be no connection whatever between that debate and the revival of the language.

Auckland this time. It’s a significant contrast with Hong Kong in temperature and population density. This place has impossibly flakey wifi so I am back to my attempts to connect to the Internet by will power