May 3 2007 at 6.30pm
Professor Jim Morin, UCM
The Reverend Professor Philip Sallis, AUT
Opening remarks by Professor Sallis
Good evening everyone and thank you for attending this dialogue between Professor Morin and me. I am greatly honoured to be here in your country, in this University and now in this discussion. I apologise for not being able to speak in Spanish but I will endeavour to talk clearly in English.The purpose of this evening’s discussion is to explore some similarities and also some differences in the society and culture of our two countries. It has been proposed that Professor Mori and I could do this by having a dialogue where Professor Mori will ask me some questions about New Zealand and my views as they may relate to Chile and this University.
The topics chosen are particularly because of my joint role as a professor in the university and also a priest in the Anglican Church. We decided it might be useful if I talk a little more about myself in that regard first and then describe a little of New Zealand’s culture and society, especially with respect to the university. Professor Morin will then begin the dialogue, including presenting some questions from the audience that I will attempt to answer as fully as I can in the time provided.
To begin then, my academic background has been as a student of mathematics, history and theology. I am a senior professor in Computer Science, which has been my position for the past 20 years.
I am also the Deputy Vice Chancellor in the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.I am also a priest, ordained in the Anglican Church Tradition, which as you may know, has its roots in the Catholic Church, going back through time to the Apostles. The Catholic Church in England split into two in 1600 AD, with one part remaining in Communion with the Pope and the Church of Rome, and the other part becoming autonomous with the Archbishop of Canterbury as its spiritual leader and the reigning monarch of Great Britain as its governing head. Both churches honour the Holy Trinity as deity and celebrate the sacraments handed to us by Christ. We are all baptised into the one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of God. Our beliefs and understanding of the incarnate person of God in Jesus are the same, and our liturgies and pastoral ministry are practically identical. We both respect and celebrate each other’s mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ in the world, yet we acknowledge the historical differences that have brought us to this time where we are contemporaneously in two alternative communions.
I have said all that because I think it is necessary for me to explain how similar our two traditions are and yet how they have evolved differently. The Anglican Communion, which is made up of autonomous provincial churches throughout the world, is a collective of separate worshipping communities who have a sense of belonging spiritually to a single ethos, which is the Holy Catholic Church in its Apostolic expression as it was first defined when the Church of England became an entity separate from the Church of Rome.
Professor Morin will be asking me some questions about how the Anglican Church relates to the Catholic Church in New Zealand and indeed, to other Christian denominations and further to other faith traditions.
Partly the reason for asking these questions is because New Zealand is a multi-cultural society and has some distinctive characteristics in terms of its social and economic being. To begin with though, it is necessary for me to describe the bi-cultural nature of New Zealand and its indigenous Maori people.
The Maori settled in New Zealand long before Europeans arrived. There were no people in
New Zealand when they arrived and they named the country Aotearoa – ‘land of the long white cloud’ because it had that appearance from the sea as they approached by canoe. These Maori people established tribal communities and began to farm the land and travel around the country. They were peaceful people but at times fought against each other. They can trace their heritage to the Hawaiian Islands and have much in common with the Rapenui People and in fact, something in common with the Mapuche.
When the Europeans arrived to settle in New Zealand, first Protestant and then Catholic missionaries came to preach God’s Word. They were successful in converting many Maori to Christianity and in some cases absorbed some Maori customs into their worship.
As time has passed, the Maori who were either Catholic or Anglican and sometimes Presbyterian, either embraced these faith traditions totally, or moved into a more obvious expression of their beliefs. An exclusively Maori Church called ‘The Ratana Church’ after its founder, was established and flourishes today. As new Christian traditions came to New Zealand some Maori people joined them but most remained Catholic, Anglican or Ratana. In more recent times the evangelical churches that are Pentecostal and Fundamentalist in their faith expression have attracted Maori, as well as Europeans,Pacific Island people and Asians. New Zealand is now a mix of numerous Christian faith expressions, together with a large Jewish community throughout the country, and growing Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Bahia and other faiths.
The largest group in New Zealand now are not any of those faith traditions however. In fact it is estimated that only about 10% of New Zealanders are religious, defined by regular church attendance. Many people regard themselves as having a spiritual dimension to their lives but are not practising Christians or of other faith expression.
This essentially secular society continues to live by what we might regard as Christian values but in fact, they are really values of decency, respect of one another and care of the community and environment. So civilised and orderly in that respect.
New Zealand has a high standard of living and enjoys a temperate climate with a generally peaceful way of life. But there are aspects of it that are the product of intensive debate and arguments for equality and mutual engagement, especially by and for the Maori people.
We have a bi-cultural expression of a Treaty between the Maori and European settlers of the country, which mutually respects the right to live and be in New Zealand, and yet acknowledges individual ownership in a partnership of stewardship for the country and the people. One of the most obvious expressions of this bi-cultural partnership is the use of Maori and English in all legal and Government documents, titles for public office holders, policies and processes…and in the naming of buildings, road signs and place names. Increasingly, the Pacific Island languages are being included too because of
New Zealand’s special relationship with those people who have an ethnic and cultural affinity with the Maori people.
In the universities, the Maori language is most obvious in specific courses and in the inclusion of Maori protocol for events and across the curriculum for degree courses where as appropriate, a Maori dimension of concept and practice is imbedded, and language elements are included. In AUT, we have a Faculty for Maori Development (Te ara potama) where Maori language, customs and other dimensions of their culture is taught, but elements of Maori thinking and reasoning, custom and practice, are infused across all courses. All research projects funded from within the university for example, and those sent to the Government funding agencies, reflect a Maori dimension and opportunities for relating to the advancement of Maori in some way.
Perhaps I have said enough for now but my final word to start our discussion off, is the word ‘engagement’. This word is more than ‘participation’ or ‘consultation’ or ‘involvement’ or even ‘integration’…although I think that ‘integration’ is a key to successful implementation of any agreed process that has had adequate joint development. But the word ‘engagement’ is much more about actually being in something together. Expressing different perspectives and challenging ideas or proposals is all part of the action associated with ‘engagement’, but valuing every input as of equal importance and having a sense of a common ownership of the goal and success of attaining it, is truly being ‘with’ one another. That is the spirit of biculturalism, which New Zealand struggles with but is absolutely committed too. We are all New Zealanders together. We are a country of only 4 million people and yet we do well internationally with our contributions to science and technology, the arts and sport. We also express strong views politically and challenge others to accept our regimes of environmental care, social justice and diversity.
As I walk down the main streets of our cities, especially in the north of the country, I am surrounded by Maori faces, Pacific Island faces, Asian faces…and increasingly Latin American faces. New Zealand has a bicultural constitution but is essentially multi-cultural. People from Northern, middle and Eastern Europe have made their homes in New Zealand just have others from the Middle East and India, Asia and the Americas. The Maori, Pacific Island and European people of New Zealand welcome the world in this way and seek to live together in peace and harmony.
Finally, let me give you an example from my Parish in Auckland, where we share the church buildings for worship with congregations from Tonga, Fiji, India, Russia and Serbia. This is a reflection of co-existence between Western and Eastern Orthodox traditions, Catholic and Protestant traditions, and ethnic and cultural blending. All of us retain our individual character, which we honour, and yet we give glory to God in common and meet at the same place in our hearts and minds, which is at the foot of the Cross in the communion of our baptism.
I hope that has given you some useful background information and I am now ready to continue in dialogue with Professor Morin. Thank you very much for listening.
Professor Sallis
On the basis of your presentation and experience I would like to focus our reflection upon the practice of dialogue in a world characterized by diversity. To this end I would like to converse with you on six topics, if time allows.
Jim Morin
Ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue
- On the basis of your presentation we can speak clearly of two distinct, necessary and related levels of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. One level of this dialogue is based upon the common elements of our faith that favour mutual understanding and appreciation. This is clearly given in your example of our Anglicans and Catholics traditions in which we share common historical roots, beliefs and practices. Even in inter-religious dialogue with non-Christian tradition, the fact that most religions share a sense of respect for the sacred that is revealed as compassionate being, offers the basis for dialogue on shared common beliefs. A second and more challenging level of dialogue in which we want to know, appreciate and accept each other in the face of our differences. For example you spoke of Catholics and Anglicans as having evolved historically as different, separate and alternative communities and you described the Anglican Church as a communion of autonomous provincial churches. Even more challenging and enriching is the practice you mentioned of absorbing Maori customs into Christian worship. That is a profound recognition and affirmation of the fact that differences can also understood as a gift others offer us to enrich our lives. I think we would all appreciate it if you could give us some examples of the Maori customs that have become part of Christian worship in New Zealand.
Promotion of multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious diversity
- You described NZ as a country that values, protects and promotes the development of its multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-religious diversity. You mentioned government treaties and norms as well as cultural and educational protocols that protect and promote the incorporation of Maori words and customs. Could you address the importance and difficulties of developing these norms and customs to promote the appreciation of cultural diversity?
Secular – religious dialogue
- You mentioned that 10% of New Zealanders are religious practitioners. This growing tendency in our modern technological society poses another challenge for dialogue between sacred and secular understandings of reality. What are the challenges and difficulties of our times that open up concrete opportunities for dialogue in which both these world views may learn from each other?
Effects of our modern inattentiveness to the presence of the sacred
- A characteristic of New Zealand secular culture you mentioned is its focus upon values such as decency, respect of one another, care of the community and the environment, a high standard of living and a peaceful way of life. Some have argue that this is a secular bourgeois notion of the Kingdom of God that has lost the mystical, transcendental, self-sacrificing, sacramental and prophetic dimensions of the sacred. Such lost or absence of an authentic presence of the sacred among us may even explain why many of our youth are so easily seduced by the Dionysian and nihilistic celebrations of darkness that is so predominant in our times. May not these nihilistic tendencies in themselves be negative prophetic announcements of the consequences of our neglect of the sacred? What are your views on such tensions?
Engagement and integration by discerning in dialogue
- I believe that your observations on the notions of engagement and integration offer much food for thought in the context of multi-cultural dialogue and practice. If integration means negating ones own cultural heritage to assume a modern secular world view there is both a personal and cultural lost. However if integration is understood as mutual engagement in which both parts transcend in dialogue in order to authentically assume what they learn from each other, we may speak of an integration of new knowledge that nourishes our integral development as persons. Here we are speaking of engagement that discerns in dialogue in order to integrate new horizons of meaning in which self and culture are not lost but transformed.
Integrating and transforming fields of knowledge through engagement
- You are an Anglican priest and teacher within a secular technological university. In your own academic field you move easily between mathematics, computer science, history, theology and linguistic analysis. As vice-rector of the Auckland U. of Technology, you have also been part of transforming how different fields of knowledge have been reorganized institutionally to promote dialogue in order to respond to problematic issues of our times. I believe it may be of value to our audience to know the reasons why and effects of having brought together different disciplines in faculties such as Creative Design Technologies, Health and Environment and Applied Humanities.
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La Facultad de Ciencias Religiosas y Filosóficas, y la Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales, le saludan muy cordialmente y tienen el agrado de invitarle a un “Diálogo multicultural y ecuménico”, con el Prof. Philip Sallis, Prorrector de la Universidad Tecnológica de Auckland (Nueva Zelanda), actividad que se efectuará el día jueves 3 de mayo, a las 18:30 hrs., en el Auditorio Monseñor Manuel Larraín (Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud).
El Prof. Sallis, quien además es sacerdote anglicano, perteneciente a la Orden de los Benedictinos de la Santa Cruz, será entrevistado por el Prof. James Morin Saint Onge, de la Escuela de Pedagogía en Religión y Filosofía. Talca, abril de 2007
Alvaro Morales Decher
Jefe Departamento de Comunicaciones y RR.PP.
Coordinador Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales
Universidad Católica del Maule
TALCA – CHILE
