On 6 March 2010 New Plymouth’ St.Mary pro-Cathedral became a Cathedral. Please see here for more info: http://www.stmarys.org.nz/

Brian and I went there from Hamilton and it was certainly a great celebration for all the people who attended. Now, there would be so many things to say about today’s event that I don’t even know where to start. However, there is one thing above the others that struck me today: the great variety and diversity that make up the Anglican Church in New Zealand. It is like a mosaic of colours, a rich tapestry of languages, cultures and traditions. Today the intense Maori spirituality merged with the grandiose style of celebration of English heritage, bible passages were read in languages of Polynesia, senior members of the community prayed alongside little children, female and male clergy together with a congregation of different backgrounds and ethnicity offered an authentic and superb act of thanksgiving and worship to God. And in the midst of it all I thought how extraordinary this Church must be to welcome such diversity and offer it as a gift to glorify God who has created such a variety.

Diversity makes us all better, stronger and wiser in our Christian life. It is really sad that the Anglican Communion is going through such a hard time and it seems to have forgotten one of the main feature of Anglicanism, i.e. “comprehensiveness”. Maybe sometimes it can appear confusing to some people. Some people might even miss a rigid structure or hierarchy where everything is in order. But why should the Church resemble more a military organization than a family? Families are not perfect and are sometimes very stressful, frustrating, chaotic or even dysfunctional. But it is still the place that is supposed to nurture us, let us grow and where we learn to give and receive love. I believe that the Church should be the place where everyone feels and is welcome as they are and people are helped to grow in their relationship with God and with the community, are supported to live their gifts and talents out in the world.

I appreciate that the Anglican church retains traditions that come from the earliest days of the Church but I also appreciate the fact that it is ready to engage with the modern world. Also, many ways of worshiping are acceptable in the Anglican Church: I personally feel close to a particular strand of Anglicanism called Anglo-Catholicism and sometimes to me it is quite challenging to come to terms with some strong Evangelical expressions of faith among some groups of Anglicans. But this is all part of the process of growth and development in faith and also a chance to learn and move beyond my personal limits and prejudices. We don’t all think the same things and this is challenging as well as exciting. I believe the key is mutual respect, humbleness and a willingness to keep talking and listening to each other.

As the Archbishop of York said in his sermon today: “We are to be stones built into one another, committed to one another. The unity of this spiritual building is vitally important. Party spirit, or some other sin can destroy it. If we are divided we can’t join in Christ’s work of making all people God’s friends.” And as we pray just before the communion ” We who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread” so I pray that we’ll never forget this important characteristic of Anglicanism worldwide, that there can be Unity in Diversity.