Review by Carol O'Connor
Many of us here at St Peter's,
Eastern Hill, have had the privilege of hearing Bp Graeme Rutherford preach, or
have been taught by him in the Trinity Course or at Trinity Theological College
and will, I'm sure, continue to have echoing in our ears for years to come his
well-worn words: It's not enough to just
talk the talk, you must walk the talk.
Slipping the Moorings is an autobiography that would completely
endorse Bp Graeme's dictum. Born in 1940 in Takapuna, a quiet town on
Auckland's North Shore, Bp Richard studied Arts at the University of Otago and
from there Theology at St John's College in Auckland, and was ordained Anglican
priest in 1965. This was a time when 'church participation...moved from a
habitual routine for many to a chosen activity for the committed.' It was a
time of dwindling numbers in churches and a period of 'deep theological
questioning' for Bp Richard. It was a painful time that finally led himself and
his wife, Jackie, to sail to New York to learn more about theology in the
context of contemporary life. From here, in the late 1960s, he began to find
his true vocation. He had begun to
encounter new ways of being church, that reached out and spoke to people on the
street, the poor and marginalised.
Along Bp Richard's path are many
people who have inspired him and helped resource his social conscience. Amongst
these, in the early years was Daniel Berrigan, Roman Catholic priest, who
became known here in Australia for his protest against the Vietnam War and
later in 1980, when he trespassed onto the General Electrics nuclear missile
facility in Pennsylvania.
Issues such as racism, peace,
poverty, and other ethical questions were all at the forefront of theological
thinking at the Union Seminary in New York and helped expand Bp Richard’s
conscious commitment to work in these areas. The theology he was learning
contrasted radically with what he had experienced until then in New Zealand. It
informed his whole understanding of Anglican Church and mission:
God was seen
as active throughout the world, the spirit of love and reconciliation,
suffering with the poor, the spur to right conduct in individuals, institutions
and nations. Arising out of worship and teaching, the Church’s task is to be
active in the workplace, society and politics, to work for universal justice
and wellbeing. The primary direction is church to world, not world to church.
It was with new insight and
understanding that Bp Richard and Jackie, with their growing family, moved to
England in the early 1970s. Here he took on a curacy in the parish of
Egglescliffe, near Newcastle, which involved two days a week with Teesdale
Industrial Mission. Bp Richard’s description of life at Teesside ‘where
smoke-stacks, concrete and steel were everywhere in evidence’ and his visits to
shipyards and coalmines made me think of Fr Lawrie Styles, who spent his last
years here at St Peter's and died in 2011. Although their paths seem to cross
only briefly, Fr Lawrie spent many years in Industrial Mission in England. Upon
graduating from Cambridge University in the 1950s Fr Lawrie joined the
Industrial Mission in Tyldesley, a town between Manchester and Liverpool. He
too became interested in the 'tragic gap that existed between clergy and
industry...' and tells us in his book My
God, What Now? that in order to
connect with those he was serving he found it important to visit the local pit
and see for himself what it was like at the coal face.
I asked at
the time of my first visit to the pit whether I should wear my clerical collar
so that those I met would know who I was. ‘No need’, came the reply, ‘t’message
will go down ahead of thee before thee enters cage.’ The only people that seemed to be astonished were my brother
clergy in the neighbouring parishes when they found me walking home from a
pithead in their parish - black with coal dust.
After a number of years’
experience in Industrial Mission and with his sense of vocation now clarified,
Bp Richard went back to New Zealand in the mid-1970s.
Slipping the Moorings is a memoir of a life founded on a belief
that for any priest sermons and ministry must relate to contemporary times, or
they become irrelevant. As Vicar of St Peter’s Church in Wellington and part of
the ecumenical Inner City Mission, Bp Richard was never afraid to speak out on
controversial issues. For example, at his initiative in 1989 a statement was
issued, backed by 94 New Zealand clergy and laity, decrying a Government
proposal to purchase four new naval frigates. A major debate opened up in the
media following this statement - not
least the belief that the church should keep out of politics. But this is
precisely where the church, Bp Richard believes, needs to be. For it’s here
that many issues ‘determine for good or ill, the extent of poverty, or the
wellbeing of families.’ So it has continued to be that he has put his energies
into issues such as social justice, poverty, Treaty of Waitangi partnership,
nuclear free New Zealand, anti-apartheid, gender equality, same-sex
relationships, and public ethics and made public statements about them. He
often attracts controversy, but always gets people to take issues seriously
that otherwise could be swept under the carpet. Bp Richard holds the view that
…a silent
church is a church that has become preoccupied with its own life and has lost
sight of its mission to be a channel of compassion and a voice for
justice. Both church and society are
poorer for that. In speaking and acting
I have always sought to be well informed on matters of faith as well as on
topical issues. I also seek to consult
with others before forming a viewpoint.
Having done that I have taken a stand and prepared myself for whatever
responses might come.
On one level this memoir is a
critique on Christian leadership in the 21st century. True Christian leadership
doesn’t just happen, but evolves over time and experience. By means of stories
and reflections, critical engagement with the world’s and his own ideas, Bp
Richard shows us what such leadership can look like. Projects that involve
social justice issues take time and patience, as well as hands-on commitment.
Christian leaders need not only a moral compass and instinctive bias to the
poor and marginalised, but courage and ability to take risks - to speak out
publicly when needed. Though subtle in
his thinking, Bp Richard is often much more interested in getting to the point
and acting from this place, rather than 'navel gazing.' He is a straight
shooter, but ‘prepared to win some, lose some’. A good Christian leader he
tells us, like any leader, needs effective communication skills and an ability
to work in a team. He or she needs to be grappling with contemporary issues and
listening to people all the time. Most importantly Christian leaders need
imagination and times of deep reflection and prayer, because at the heart of
all this type of leadership is Christ and the Gospels.
In many ways this is the real
strength of the book. The title is a 'plea that the church should slip its
moorings’ from a place of comfortable complacency and become part of the
challenge to work for a more just, environmentally and ethically aware world.
And it’s a plea that is directed as much to bishops and clergy as to laity.
When he came to live in Canberra
in 1994, as assistant bishop with responsibility for the church in the wider
community, Bp Richard saw this as an opportunity to further this chosen role of
hands-on Christian ministry. He gave addresses at conferences and chaired
inquiries on the issue of poverty, became chair of the then named Canberra
Church of England Girls’ Grammar School and affirmed the place of trade unions
in the Patrick Stevedore waterfront dispute in 1998. In 1995 he was shocked to
discover that the only Aboriginal Bishop, Arthur Malcolm, had no effective
speaking or voting rights at General Synod. In all these areas and more he
worked for justice and right relations.
After returning to Auckland in 2000 he has worked on the Royal Commission
on Genetic Modification and later on the Advisory Committee on Assisted
Reproductive Technology. Once more, as in Canberra, he was called upon publicly
to defend his views on homosexuality. And, as in the subsequent debate
concerning his views on faith where he was then ‘caricatured’ as being an
agnostic and unbeliever, he felt the need to stress that his views are
personal, like those of others:
As a bishop of
the church I accept the policies and decisions of the Church and live by
them…What one can expect is that a bishop will respect the convictions of every
person, and ensure that all are included…I lament the immaturity in the church,
or any institution if the leadership is prevented from speaking openly lest it
cause offence…Clergy and church members need to be mature enough to live with
diversity rather than to operate from a mindset that ‘it’s my way, or the high
way’.
To read Slipping the Moorings is to hear the call to all of us here at St
Peter’s to continue to recognise the richness of diversity of individuals
within our own parish life. Bp Richard’s work reminds us that church community
needs authentic responses from its parishioners, and needs a leadership that
seeks to focus on the poor and marginalised. His mandate that the primary direction
is church to world, not world to church, made me also realise the abundance of
gifts we have to offer in this way. We have our obvious ministries to the
public every day: the Institute for Spiritual Studies, the Breakfast Program
for the Homeless and the Bookroom are such places. But there are many other important areas where this interface
happens. Against a current tide of church practice we keep the doors of St
Peter’s Church open everyday for people to come in and sit and pray. Our Vicar
and Assistant Priests’ ongoing links with Parliament, Brotherhood of St
Lawrence, Anglicare, Fire Brigade and Ambulance keep us connected with broader
city services. Our collection of food parcels for the refugees, the pastoral
care team who regularly visit elderly and sick parishioners, as well as inner
city hospitals, the Children’s Play Group, and the recent practices of Ashes
to Go and Palms to Go - where clergy and parishioners stand at
Parliament Station bringing these to the world - all these are signs of our engagement
in the contemporary world on many levels. There is always more work to do. But
by remembering that we are not a church that should stay closely moored to its
own preoccupations and existence, navel gazing, but called every day to
‘venture out into the deep’ we ourselves as a community can help bring the
reality of God’s love into the wider world.
Review written by Carol
O’Connor
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