Kia manakohia nga kupu a toku mangai
me nga whakaaro o matou ngakau i tou aroaro,
e ihowa, e to matou kamaka, e to matou kaihoko.

May the words of my mouth, and the thoughts of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. … Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. I Peter, 5: 2-3,5.

When David came to Dunedin as its 11 th Dean, I was a Lay Reader. The first time we talked, David asked me about preaching, and got an instant “No!” As a former Dean once put it, my job was “to sing the Rose Responses”.

So why am I in the pulpit today? Simply, because David asked me. In part, I think, he did so because of some resonance between his life, and my family history. My great-grandfather, like David, came to New Zealand as a young Methodist Minister. Sixteen years on he was an Anglican priest, and later was the first Dean of Dunedin. One of his sons was Bishop of Dunedin, and our family has been part of the Diocese for 130 years.

So perhaps, too, I can represent the ordinary members of the Diocese of Dunedin, and of the Cathedral District, as Cathedral and Diocese pass on their Dean to be 15th Bishop of Waiapu.

Actually, we don’t want to do that. We’d rather keep him in Dunedin, to encourage and challenge the Cathedral District, to develop the links he’s built with the City and the community, and to contribute to mission and ministry in our Diocese. But we called our Bishop from Waiapu, so we can’t complain when Waiapu returns the compliment.

And the South Island trout are really pleased! We realise, too, that the Church as a whole has needs, and that David is part of a new generation of leaders, who will have to address new issues, locally, nationally, and internationally, in new ways. But the essential tasks of a Bishop, as we’ve just heard them, don’t change. Some relate to the pastoral care of the Diocese. I’ve only a very general idea of the needs of this Diocese, so I won’t discuss them.

The list also refers to “godly leadership”, “maintaining wise discipline”, “promoting peace and unity among all God’s people”, “keeping the Church true to its faith”, and “teaching the faith and proclaiming it”. In part those duties relate to Waiapu. But the “godly leadership” of a bishop extends beyond the confines of one diocese, and we look forward to that leadership not just in Waiapu, but in all of this Church, and in the Communion.

In spite of the reference to “leading by example”, some of the duties sound pretty ‘top down’ - the ‘Lord Bishop’ maintaining church discipline. So today’s Epistle is a useful reminder that Christian leadership involves the consent of the led, and humility on the part of all. It’s good, too, that our list refers to the duty of “Bishops”, not of “a Bishop”, because a bishop’s leadership is exercised, not in solitary splendour, but collegially. And that collegiality extends two ways.

Collegiality among bishops has been recognized almost from the birth of the Church. But we should remember that the leadership of bishops is also exercised in collegiality with the Clergy and the Laity. Though the laity of England has been involved in church governance at some levels for centuries, this Church was earlier than most in incorporating the three Orders into its synodical structures.

The Episcopal Church of the USA, though, preceded us by many years, and served as a model for parts of our original Constitution. I’m confident, both from David’s origins [though they were Methodist rather than Episcopalian], and from my experience of him, that he will work collegially with clergy and with laity. Perhaps the fact that a layman is preaching today is significant.

So, back to the collegiality of Bishops.

This is topical – soon hundreds of bishops from most Provinces of the communion will be meeting in the Lambeth Conference. The collegiality of that gathering will probably be compromised by the refusal of some bishops to take communion with others, and the refusal of some even to attend. Argument about homosexual relationships, the apparent cause of present divisions, takes place in this Church, as in the Communion. But underlying that is the issue of biblical interpretation, and, more important, whether we should use our interpretations to control others - to define for all time our understanding of order, and moral behaviour, and on that basis to include or exclude people from the Church and from its leadership.

I want to look briefly at this issue from two angles: certainty, and inclusiveness.

I’m a doctor, working and teaching in General Practice. The students and young doctors I teach have trained mostly in hospitals, which focus on specific problems, where certainty of diagnosis is expected. One of my tasks is to remind them that life is complicated, and that sometimes we have to live with uncertainty.

My patient whose brain tumour, and three other cancers, have been removed, but who wonders, with every headache, whether it is back, knows about uncertainty. So does the mother of two children whose depressive illness, despite treatment, cripples her unpredictably at times.

In real life it is often not possible to know the answers – sometimes not even to know the questions – and then our job is to support patients through their and our uncertainty, being with them in solidarity when that is all we can do. There are parallels, I think, between the work of a GP and that of leadership in the Church, in helping people live with uncertainty.

It is human to want certainty and security. So we search for them. The church, over the centuries, has often pandered to that search, as Galileo could testify, and it’s tempting to seek security in a so-called “literal” reading of Biblical texts, rather than seeking God through a more hermeneutical and holistic use of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. But even St Paul, whose dogmatic comments are, at times, treated as definitive, reminds us that we do not know all the answers: That indeed we see “through a glass, darkly”, and that only beyond this life will we see “face to face”. As the Articles of Religion remind us, even “General Councils … may err”.

We need to accept that all human knowledge is provisional, and that, however sure we are in our own belief, we should behave “…with humility toward one another”.

Our recent General Synod/te Hinota Whanui, while acknowledging differences of opinion regarding same-sex unions, unanimously expressed its wish “…to remain in communion with all duly constituted Anglican churches”.

In doing so it argued that the present disagreements should not lead to broken Communion. and that our differences must not corrupt the inclusiveness of Christ.

Jesus’ ministry was inclusive, not exclusive, and inclusive of the despised. He didn’t reject people because of their beliefs, lifestyle, or personal behaviour. He didn’t say to Zacchaeus: “Repent, and then I’ll come and see you” He just said “I’m coming to dinner”.

As you said in a sermon, recently, David, God doesn’t put up “Keep Out” signs.

*

The history of the Christian Church is, in one sense, the history of schism: of exclusion because of belief, in the knowledge that we are right and they are wrong. Traditionally the Anglican Communion has been a ‘broad church’, accommodating a range of belief; accepting that each province orders itself, in Communion with other provinces, but autonomous.

In recent years that breadth has been challenged: both by those who have tried to coerce others into justice-based reform, and by those who demand a confessional approach to unity, to maintain ‘true religion’. We need to remember that coercion in the interests of ‘true religion’ led to the fires of Smithfield.

One of the tasks of leadership in our church is to build up the Unity in Diversity that has been one of the glories of the Anglican Communion, admitting the uncertainty of human knowledge, and recognising each other’s integrity despite our differences. That recognition may be hard for those on each side of the current dispute, as we all struggle to discern truth and justice, but bishops, in particular, must model it for us, in their Dioceses, in this Church, and in the Communion.

I submit that the Bishops’ special duty of keeping the Church true to its faith is achieved, not by proclaiming a check-list of required beliefs – the Red Queen’s“believing …six impossible things before breakfast” routine; but by “…celebrating God’s presence with joy”, showing the inclusive love that Jesus showed, and, in doing so, “… being examples to the flock”.

As you take up this task, David, and as you and Tracey head for Lambeth, we pray that the Spirit strengthens you in this and in all your work, as “God … gives grace to the humble”.

*

And by that Grace let us all, in Waiapu, in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, in the whole Communion, and in the Church Universal, accept uncertainty, acknowledge our differences, work to advance God’s Kingdom, and rejoice together in the truth we can all affirm: God the Creator’s love; God’s sharing of human life and death in Christ; and our ongoing sustenance by God through the Spirit.

*

To God be glory, now and always, Amen.
Kororia ke te Atua, no naianei, no ake tonu atu. Amine.

- Dr. AEJ Fitchett