On Saturday, 26 October, a few St Paul’s people braved the rain to make our way to the Living Faith Diocesan conference at Christchurch Boys High School. Over 300 people from throughout the Diocese of Christchurch came to this event, together with a few visitors from further afield (Dunedin, Blenheim). It was good to catch up with people from throughout the Diocese. An area was set aside for children with lots of activities—they even ventured outside briefly when the rain ceased for a time in the afternoon.

The main speakers at the conference were Eleanor Sanderson, Bishop of Hull, Dallas Harema, a Christchurch-based leadership coach, and Grant Norsworthy, a Nelson-based musician. Laidlaw lecturer Karen Kemp and Archbishop of New Zealand Justin Duckworth also gave input. The overall theme of the conference was discipleship, teaching each other to follow Jesus more fully. That was to be done particularly through sharing in each other’s lives and encouraging each other to shape our lives more closely to that of Jesus. Bishop Peter said: “Critical in this process is a focus on engaging with each other where we are at in the messiness of life. Programmes and courses have their place, but the first call to the church at this time is to “let love be genuine”, that is, to develop a culture of love in which we hear what God is saying to us, day by day, and act on God’s voice.”

Archbishop Justin summarised it by saying that the Church not only should focus on orthodoxy (right worship and belief) and orthopraxy (right living and actions), but also on orthopaschy (right passion) and a sharing of each other’s lives. He did not have a Greek word for that last concept. Of course the word oikoumene comes to mind, but that is already used for the relationship between church and state and for the relationship between different denominations. Still, negotiating our interpersonal relationships at times may require as much forbearance as is necessary in ecumenical relationships.

 A worship band led those present in songs and hymns. We sang both modern songs and older hymns. I think that overall the band put more emphasis on keeping it singable for all than I had experienced at similar events. Through that we felt more involved. Certainly my daughter thought that the music was a lot more interesting than any of the talks.