Sunday, June 12, 2022

Trinity Sunday and Holy Trinity

Reflection on Trinity Sunday 2022 at Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral...

"In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit – Amen."

That’s it really – its as simple as that – we worship, we live, we act in the name of 
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – Creator – Redeemer and Sustainer. 

Yet our human understanding and experience of God – as Creator, Liberator as Father, as Jesus – the Messiah – the Son and as the Wisdom of God, the Life-giver, the Holy Spirit is so limited based on our limited understanding that it has caused 
divisions in the family of God. 

The church has been divided on how we understand the Trinity – on the hierarchy, on the operationality and every other aspect of the Trinity – for 1700 years. 

We have churches today who focus only on the Sovereign “Father God as King over everything, or focus only on the name of Jesus, or focus only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Even in Fiji – we talk of the separate institutions of the Vanua – the Lotu and the Matanitu – the trinitarian relationship with the indigenous spirituality and leadership, the church and the state. 

It can get complicated – in the Indo-Fijian community when we engage with non￾Christians, we are sometimes asked – but you say you worship one God – yet to pray Our Father, then there is Jesus and then you call on the Holy Spirit. Which one is the main God? How do we explain three in one? I tried once to use the analogy of the premix coffee packets – coffee, milk and sugar in one packet – each distinct – but it is still coffee when you drink it – unless like me you only drink black coffee without sugar…. then it gets more confusing.
 
One way of understanding the Trinity comes from the Greek word Perichoresis -being-in-one another, referring to the fact that we exist in relation to one another. 

The relationship within the Trinity is divine equality, mutuality and reciprocity –which we as the image of God are to express in our own relationships with each other. 

Why is it important we have a Trinitarian understanding of God anyway? 

If we only focus on God the Father, a supreme judge and absolute Lord, we are in danger of maintaining a patriarchal thinking that legitimises that might is right, maintains vertical, dominant power relationships. 
If we only focus on God the Son, it is easy to reduce Jesus to a charismatic, wonderworking heroic, humanitarian, leader figure or only on sacrificial aspect of the Atonement.
If we only focus on God the Holy Spirit, we can develop an inward looking spirituality – our main relationship is with our inner self – this leads to anarchy and fanaticism (the Spirit blows where and however it wants).

When we lack a trinitarian understanding of God – when we don’t experience God as in communion – in relationship that is based on equality, mutuality and reciprocity –in other words – love – we end up with an oppressive image of God, dominating 
leaders and pastors, and the danger of chaos – which, because we live in a society –becomes the way our society operates. 

But if we place an equal emphasis on the relationship that binds the Trinity together, 
that flows between them, if we understand God as expressing unity in diversity and equality within the Trinity – we find liberator Father God who hears the cry of the suffering and oppressed today as he did to the Israelites in Egypt. We can follow the 
expression of love and healing to the weak and outcast by the Son, Jesus who also entered in to solidarity with them, joining us with their suffering. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, empowers us with the gifts that enable us, on behalf of the community, to boldly undertake a truly prophetic and liberating action.

But I’m not going to try to condense a semester course with of information into a 10-minute sermon. 

And its not a big jump for us to make as Pacific people – to be a society of sisters and brothers who weave together a mat out participation and communion of all in everything.

Ultimately what we celebrate on Trinity Sunday is relationship: 
We celebrate God who is relationship.
We celebrate God who is in relationship with us. 
We celebrate God who expresses this relationship in love – by being love – by loving. 
We celebrate that, as created in the image of God – we are created in relationship. 
We are created in and to love. 
To be a human being is to be in relationship. To be a human being is to love. 
To be Church/ to be Christian is to be in relationship – to be Church/ to be Christian 
is to love. 

Of course we often struggle with relationships – we often struggle with community also. 
Its difficult to express that divine equality, mutuality and reciprocity – in our lives. 

In our Gospel reading today – we are reminded by Jesus of this relationship within the Trinity – and we are also reminded that our faith in a Triune God calls us toorient our life to the practice of love, reorient our relationships to be based on equality, mutuality and reciprocity. 

Paul puts it another way – Jesus as the pathway to enter into a loving relationship with the Triune God and that love is poured into us by the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us that divine grace is ultimately how we experience the relationship with God. Love is the manifestation of the Triune God. 

This week a number of Pacific leaders met to discuss how to maintain the integrity of the Pacific Islands Forum – to ensure our sisters and brothers from the Northern Pacific remained in relationship with those from the West, East and South. The 
outcomes in some way reflect that understanding that relationship, that community must be based on equality, mutuality and reciprocity. 

The reading from Proverbs reminds us of the existence of the Spirit before the world was created – God Creator, God Word that called forth Creation and God Spirit that hovered over the face of the deep and participated in the act of Creation. 

Today’s psalm beautifully reminds us of our relationship with both God and the rest of God’s 
creation. As many of you know – Wednesday was Ocean Day - This week the Pacific Conference of Churches, Pacific Civil Society groups and community groups – like the Uto Ni Yalo marked Ocean Week – with the theme – I’m on the Ocean’s Side. I am mindful that it was in this Cathedral that the Moana Health of the Ocean 
movement was launched. The state of our ocean – is a reminder of what happens when we don’t have a loving relationship with the Moana, the Wasawasa, the Solwara – the ocean – or the land. 

We can reflect on what a relationship of authentic equality, mutuality and reciprocity would mean for trinitarian relationship between the vanua, the lotu, and the matanitu. 

As we prepare to receive the sacrament of the eucharist – a reminder that we are the body of Christ
– let us remember that to be the body of Christ is to be in relationship with the 
Father and the Spirit 
– let us remember that to be the body of Christ is to be in relationships guided by 
love, and defined by equality, mutuality and reciprocity.
– let us remember that to be the body of Christ is to be in relationship with all 
people – with all creation.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Amen.

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Prayer of the Deep Sea Minders' Blue Line

Prayer at the Launch of the Pacific Blue Line Deep Sea Mining Ban campaign 25th March, 2021

In the beginning, 

Before your called forth creation

By your Davaar, your logos, your vosa, your Word;

Before you established your household, the ecosystem that sustains all life, which you called good, and very good; 

Before we needed sustainable development goals in life above and life below the sea;

Before the desire for more, before insatiable appetites profaned our sacred relationship with your creation;

Before we began to pillage, land and sea;

Before everything:

Your ruach, your breath, your life-giving spirit hovered and nourished the immense and unfathomable waters.


In affirmation of the many ways we know and experience you,

In celebration of and response to your profound love for your creation, to which we belong,

In response to your command to safeguard your creation,

In honour of ancestor custodians and guardian mothers and fathers before us, 

For sisters and brothers with us and descendants who will come after us


We gather to draw this blue line around our Mother Ocean

To protect her from further degradation for the profit and benefit of a few, while her children are left to fend for themselves. 


We confess that as people, as communities we have not been able to join our hands to hold firm  because we have sought to hold  onto to empty promises sold with bangles, beads and baubles.


Help us o Lord, to hold firm to each other, to hold firm to this blue line, to keep our ancient covenant with you and our family of creation. 


Bind us together in the power of your truth, your love and your justice. Help us in your wisdom and compassion, deeper than any Ocean trench to be ready to extend our hand of fellowship to those who make the courageous decision to walk this line with us..


We pray in the name of your love and truth, your word made flesh, who spoke His peace to the sea, and who gave his life so that we may enjoy life abundantly, Jesus the Christ.

Amen. 


Monday, March 1, 2021

In RemembranceIn Solidarity In the name of a nuclear free, self-determining and united Pacific: A prayer said at the Marshall Islands Nuclear Victims Rembrance Day 2021


Yesterday, in one of the gospel readings assigned for the 2nd Sunday in Lent, Jesus asks the following questions: 


What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Mark 8:36,37) 


This question is asked not only in a spiritual, personal sense about our desire for power, position or possession, but also in Jesus’ time in the geo-political context of the Roman Empire, where the PAX ROMANA, the peace of Rome, was underpinned by regular use of State violence to quash revolts by slaves or the subjugate the newly conquered and to fight brigands, bandits, pirates, and the like. Violence had become a state monopoly and any transgressors became enemies of the State.


In what is sometimes referred to as the Pax Atomica or Nuclear peace - the argument was made that under some circumstances, nuclear weapons could induce stability and decrease the chances of crisis escalation because of the potential for mutual assured destruction as a result of retaliatory attacks following a first strike.


Yet, this Nuclear peace was not just kept on the threat of nuclear war, but on the demonstrated violence of nuclear tests, carried out largely here in the Pacific. 


While superpowers played their nuclear chess to a stalemate, the first people and sacred places of our Pacific were pawns, sacrificed and discarded - in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Maohi Nui and Australia. 


Today we join our hearts as wansolwara, one people of the salt water called Pacific, which has seen the most violence humans can inflict, through atomic and nuclear tests. 


The cry of our sisters and brothers from the northern pacific is echoed in the east, in the west and reverberates over the coral atolls and up to the highlands. 


In the name of God, let us receive this cry, let us receive the groaning of creation poisoned and destroyed, let us lend our voice to this cry, the cry for justice, just peace. 


I invite you to join hands, as we join our hearts, minds, our souls with the divine, with all creation and our sisters and brothers to let them know we are not alone. 


Hear our hearts o God, as we cry unto you. 


Hear our hearts o God, as we share the pain of our sisters and brothers, a legacy of suffering not their own making. 


We wait o God for mercy and truth to meet together; 


We wait o God for righteousness and peace to kiss.


Turn the rain of nuclear fallout, the current of nuclear waste into rolling waters of justice and ever-flowing streams

 of righteousness for victims and survivors of nuclear testing across the solwara, the moana, the wasawasa. 


Bind us together o God in the cords of love for one another as members of your Pacific Household. 


Weave our lives, our hearts together in your peace, and by your grace, guide us one family to remember our collective history, to struggle together in our collective present, and dream and work together for our collective legacy. 


We pray this in the name of your love incarnated, of peace manifested and in whose broken body we find healing and new life, Jesus the Christ. Amen.








Sunday, February 28, 2021

Not For Profit: Gain the "World" Lose Your Soul

I would like to begin by thanking the Diocese of Polynesia Youth Mission from the Great Suva area for participating in our clean-up of Nubukalou Creek yesterday.

 

Today is the Second Sunday in Lent  and in the lectionary there are two gospel readings. One focuses on the Transfiguration Which is usually used 0n the Sunday before Lent, the last Sunday in Epiphany as part of that last part of the revelation of Jesus Christ to the world. In all his glory with the prophets Moses and Elijah up on the mountain.

 

I chose the second Gospel reading. And this is the last time we will hear from Mark until after Easter, as over the next few Sundays, the lectionary readings switches to the Gospel of John. 

 

Today’s Gospel Reading really confronts the common notion that to be a Christian all you need to do is be nice and go to church once in awhile when there’s nothing better to do on a Sunday morning.

There’s a “back story” behind the Jesus story in the Gospels. It’s the story of Peter who has a bad case of “foot-in-mouth” disease. But I think he’s a person we can identify with more easily just for that reason, because all of us shoot ourselves in the foot over and over, and sometimes we even take aim. Like Peter.

 

But I think Jesus would have felt a more profound love for Peter whose heart was in the right place, even when his head wasn’t.

 

Peter may have messed up all over the place and repeatedly, but I think he was never “ashamed” of Jesus and his teachings. Peter didn’t have all the right moves, but there was no doubt whose side he was on.

 

Peter uses the term Christ to describe Jesus, and Jesus responds with a charge to keep silent, then a disclosure of his impending suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection.

 

This exchange between Jesus and Peter is quite heated. In Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ disclosure is a rejection of Jesus’ suffering and death as a necessary part of what Jesus has been preaching about the presence of the Reign of God. And, of course, Jesus’ response to Peter’s rebuke is to demand that if they want any part of what he is about, they too must be willing to die.

 

There are two distinct views of discipleship in contention here: One is a godly reflective decision to accept rejection, suffering, dying, and rising; the other is a human reflective decision to “gain the whole world.” This passage has been used to keep people in bondage of suffering in abusive relationships. The words “take up thy cross,” can be a powerful tool of abuse. This doesn’t mean we need to abandon the language, but we need to be careful, and understand the ways Jesus’ words have been used for evil.

 

Today, I would like us to reflect on the 2 questions Jesus asks in the midst of this exchange, between Jesus and his disciples, with Peter and with the crowds in v36 and 37:

 

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

 

There are many stories about people selling their souls for success, for position, for power, possessions, for fame etc…  Lot’s of stories about musicians … and others….

 

In drama school, some 30 years ago, I was given the part of Dr. Faustus in the play - The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe. Very briefly, Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to making a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.

 

This legend seems to have particular resonance at times of moral crisis and can also speak to the still current insatiable appetite for modern development which is oftne intolerant of those who do not acquiesce to the plan.

 

In the play Faust learns that an elderly couple, Baucis and Philemon, wish to remain in their remote cottage and refuse to be bought off. The couple’s quiet contentment is a rebuke to Faust’s will to power: he is infuriated by their resistance (“Their stubbornness, their opposition / Ruins my finest acquisition”), and he orders their land to be seized.

 

The ecological and human cost of this insatiable appetite for expansion is evident in the 21st Century. Climate change is perhaps the most fitting contemporary analogy for the Faustian bargain – decades of rapid economic growth for an elite, followed by grave global consequences for eternity.

 

Technology has highlighted our daily Faustian choices: who reads the “terms and conditions”? Smartphones make our attention spans fleeting, and we are like Faust, who promises to part with his soul if ever he lingers to savour an experience (“If ever I to the moment shall say: / Beautiful moment, do not pass away!”).

 

Our challenge today is that, to some extent, we are all in a Faustian bind. We are plagued by politicians offering easy answers to complex problems – especially when those easy answers are empty promises. The legend warns us to be wary of the cult of the ego, the seductions of fame and the celebration of power. These are hollow triumphs, and short-lived; indeed, “what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

 

I wonder about the soul of our planet; I wonder about the soul of our Pacific; I  wonder about the soul of our nation. What are we gaining? And what are we losing?

 

Yesterday we went beside, onto and into Nubukalou Creek… And it was quite interesting because as we were going in for the last few days those of us that have been sort of trying to coordinate this.

 

What was supposed to be a small clean up exercise which turned out to be quite a serious one. We were conscious that we couldn't see much plastic and styrofoam and things floating on the surface of the water. At one stage we were laughing to ourselves saying well what happens when we show up on Saturday and there's no rubbish. It's going to be a short clean up and maybe everybody either pick one piece of rubbish up or somebody suggested take our own rubbish. Put it in and pick it up.

 

Yesterday we were challenged to look at Nubukalou Creek in very different ways. The Anglican youth was sent up to the part of the creek that comes out of Holland Street just up from the Bishops House. There was a lot of rubbish. Plastic Styrofoam, Cans… you name it.

And some of us who were on the creek on our paddle boards or standing in the creek found below the surface so much rubbish. I mean at one stage I was pulling out computer parts bicycle parts. They were even pipes, bottles, and many other things that we couldn't even lift out of the water that we will have to look at later on. The water police pulled out a washing machine.

 

We reminded in this exercise to look below the surface to see what's there.

 

And so in the challenge that we face in our current crisis in Fiji and the Pacific and perhaps in the world. Jesus often challenges us to go beyond the surface and not just look at the issues we are facing. 

 

But to look more deeply at the heart of the matter to look more deeply at structural Injustice. To be honest about our souls.. because every day we are asked to make choices, which may on the surface seem simple, but on deeper reflection become more difficult.

 

And not all the choices are big choices. A lot of the choices are small choices and therein lies the rub as they say because we are challenged to look holistically at those small choices that chip away at our soul. Each time for profit, for position, for power, for possession - We give away. We sell off. A little piece of our soul 

 

And when you add those little pieces up, we realize how much of our soul we have lost. 

 

How about that? 

 

In our Lenten Journey 

 

We're often challenged about the things that we want to give up. Many of us struggle with moving away from the physical act of the spiritual discipline. We're all too happy to let our bodies suffer by fasting and giving up certain things. But our attitudes? Our desires?

Those are things that we find hard to give up. 

 

Make no mistake. The challenge of the Kingdom is about our soul. It is beyond politics. 

It is beyond power and position. It is beyond the accepted norms through which we define success. 


Because the world That we live in does not look well on kindness. The world sees compassion as a weakness. The world wants instant gratification and comfort above all.


When do we feel temptation to take the easy road? When we’re called to a difficult task, there is inevitably a time when we wonder if it is worth it. We start to think of plan B, or some way to sneak away. I saw a poster a long time ago that said “The workout begins the moment you want to quit.” In a way, Jesus ministry really begins when he is first tempted to take the easy way out. Instead he reminds everyone that his path does in fact head straight for the cross.

 

Lent is a time for us to think about the path for the cross.

 

But when we make those difficult reflections and think of the cross, we must always remember that the way of the cross is the way to new life, abundant and eternal life – for us, for others, for all.

 

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

After spending two weeks looking at Microfilm

How much of this mat,
Whose strands I am trying to open,
And whose pattern I am trying to understand,
Is actually a carpet,
Laid down on top of a rug,
Brought from a far off land.
Using threads taken from a seamless robe,
Gambled for by soldiers,
As a Son bled and died above

#whoweretheweavers #whatistheweave
#postcolonialhistory

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Integral Spirituality pt2

Below is what was originally submitted for the Multi-faith Charter for COP23 to the COP23 Secretariat... the final version was a much more secular version and no Pacific "mana"...

“Our Spiritual Imperative for the Earth” 

Multi-Faith Charter for COP23

A deep spirituality permeates the communities of the Pacific and is at the heart of the Pacific people’s relationship with each other and the environment.
Spirituality is integral to the way we interpret, understand and interact with one another, and with the natural world.  This spirituality is enhanced by (Christianity and) the many faith traditions of the world which have grown roots in our diverse Pacific communities. These faith traditions are shared with the vast majority of those who share this planet.

Acknowledging and embracing the significance and centrality of such life-affirming spirituality has the potential to not only underpin the negotiations of COP23 but mobilize billions of like-hearted people as allies in the challenge to address Climate Change, providing an important catalyst for grass roots action. 

As the nations of the world gather for COP23 under the presidency of Fiji, it is our common hope and constant prayer, as people of faith, that the reflections and discernment and life-affirming responses of such spirituality remain as critically important as scientific and political conversations in the decision-making processes during COP23.

As people of faith, people with spirituality:
We strongly express our deep concern over the warming climate that threatens the Earth and especially our vulnerable sea of islands, which we hold in trust. Our care for this Earth is our legacy for our children; we are therefore responsible as stewards of Mother Earth to keep it well.  

We acknowledge that humanity has been entrusted with the stewardship of this planet, her trees, gardens, rivers, oceans and all the living creatures that depend on her nurture.

We acknowledge that the scientific community’s consensus that climate change is caused by human activity is a call to action for all the nations of the earth.

We confess that we have been poor stewards and that our gluttonous and unsustainable lifestyles have led to the impacts we see today - climate change and massive loss of species –  fish, coral, wild creatures, jungles,  forests and clean water sources.

As custodians of this great planet, it is our spiritual, moral and ethical responsibility to collectively take urgent action to do all that is possible to combat climate change and save our planet and humanity.

The solutions lie in our hands through the traditional, scientific and technical knowledge we have amassed.
We must sacrifice our current self-centered attitude, unsustainable habits and consumption patterns. We must now find and keep within us the will to do what is right and just, the foresight to forgo immediate gains for the greater good, and the hope that we can pass on to our children a better world than we inherited.

We commit to work within our faith communities to encourage our people to take all actions necessary to consume resources responsibly, protect the world’s biodiversity and help reduce carbon emissions.
We believe that individual commitment to this task in our daily lives is essential. We will also encourage the faithful—and all people—to press their leaders for action at the international, regional and local levels to curb carbon emissions, to build community adaptation and resilience to impacts of climate change and adopt policies that will educate and encourage each individual to do his or her part.

It cannot be denied that there is an urgent moral and spiritual imperative to act decisively now.
Our people need assurance of a safer and sustainable future for themselves and their children.  We strongly call on all political leaders to renew and intensify their commitments to act and, where necessary, show the courage that leadership demands. Specifically, we reaffirm the interfaith statement made in Morocco at COP22.

We:
·       Urgently ask States to take bold action to rapidly reduce emissions, in line with the 1.5°C goal;
·       Seek an effective Facilitative Dialogue that delivers: 
o   greater pre-2020 ambition 
o   improved NDC post-2020 emission reduction targets 
o   speeding the advance to low-carbon economies
o   increased and innovative public and private finance to enable achievement of the 1.5C target
·       Urge the global community to support through sustainable financing, capacity building and technology transfer for ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and disaster risk reduction as  cost effective tools for all small island developing nations



And we invite and encourage all men and women and groups of good will to endorse this statement by affixing their names at http://www.etc.

Integral Sprituality Pt1

The following was my introduction and conclusion to the inter-religious prayers/invocations at the official opening of  International Civil Society Week 2017:

His Excellency the President and Mrs. Konrote, distinquished guests and friends and fellow workers for justice and peace. 


A deep spirituality permeates the communities of the Pacific and is at the heart of the Pacific people’s relationship with each other and the environment. 

Spirituality is integral to the way we interpret, understand and interact with one another, and with the natural world.  This spirituality is enhanced by the many faith traditions of the world which have grown roots in our diverse Pacific communities. These faith traditions are shared with 85 percent of those who share this planet. 

Acknowledging and embracing the significance and centrality of such life-affirming spirituality has the potential to provide important catalyst for grass roots action.  

In Fiji, just as in many other parts of the Pacific and the world, faith communities were the pioneers of education, healthcare and social justice work. They will always be a part of the social-politcal milleau in which Civil Society engages – in some places they are the largest Civil Society Organisations. 

This evening we have representatives from 3 world faith communities present, to offer words of scripture and reflection to inspire and challenge us and prayers for the blessings of the divine on the gathering tonight and the days ahead. 

Pundit Vigyan Sharma, National Treasurer - Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha Fiji;

Maulana Abdul Alim, Head Imam of Samabula Mosque - Fiji Muslim League;

and

Rev. Dr. Epineri Vakadewavosa – General Secretary and President-Elect of the Methodist Church in Fiji, Chair of the Bible Society of the South Pacific.

For those of other paths of spirituality or worldviews, I invite you to use this spiritual pause as a way to affirm the work the work you do, to receive some positive vibrations and energy and experience the unity in diversity many of us in Fiji strive for… 
I now invite Pundit Sharma to begin:

(…. After prayers)

I said earlier that Spirituality is an integral part of the worldview of Fiji and the Pacific. That spirituality is not only experienced through faith communities but also through indigenous culture – that deep sense of vanua – of rootedness not only to land, rooted in respect and in celebration of just relationships with all creation.

I invite you to experience that now with the traditional i-Taukei ceremony of welcome....