Bible readings and theological reflections will be an important feature of Synod 2025.
By John Flett
Pilgrim Theological College
Did you know that while the ecumenical movement offers many definitions of unity, it has not developed one for diversity and difference.
This is a curious absence given the stated commitment to, and “celebration” of, diversity across the life of the Church.
This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ‘We are a multicultural Church’ statement.
Part of its theological groundwork draws on paragraph 2 of the Basis of Union, and the call “to bear witness to a unity of faith and life in Christ which transcends cultural and economic, national and racial boundaries”.
One question the Bible studies at the Synod Meeting will ask concerns defining unity as the transcending of difference.
An Aboriginal theologian once commented that Gal 3:28 was the most colonial verse in the Bible because it denied her particularity: the church already knew the place of diversity before it had ever encountered indigenous peoples.
With the theme, “Pilgrims of the Spirit”, and in sustained conversation with Moderator-elect Rev Salesi Faupula, the Bible studies will investigate a theology of difference.
To be Pilgrims of the Spirit is to be a community in which the encounter with difference and learning from particularity is the very basis of its place in the world as the body of Jesus Christ in his “own strange way”.
By Tara Tautari
Methodist Church of New Zealand
As a daughter of the Methodist Church in Aotearoa and grandchild of Te Ao Māori (Māori world), my daily theological reflections for Synod 2025 will be shaped by the whenua (land), by our ancestral narratives, and by scripture read through the lens of covenant and collective restoration.
These storylines of faith and longing will draw from te taiao (the natural world), pūrākau (ancestral wisdom), and the deep currents of our bicultural journey as Church.
Each reflection will seek to rekindle the vā, the sacred relational space, between people, with Papatūānuku (earth parent), and with God.
Grounded in Māori and Methodist tradition, these reflections are intended to offer stillness and clarity amidst the busy work of Synod.
They are an invitation to listen more deeply – to the Spirit, to one another, and to the land we stand upon.
My hope is that they help hold open a space of courage and communion as we discern the next steps in our shared calling.
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