We're flicking mosquitoes at dusk so they won't bite and listening to noisy cicadas and hearty piwakawaka and spotting a ripening fig before a blackbird pecks at it.

The Synod on Synodality

The Northern Hemisphere-based Vatican inside their ruminative winter period asks the Catholic Diocese of Waitaha, Tai Poutini, Rekohu Canterbury, Westland, Chathams Islands to unravel the second stage of the Synod here, in our late summer.

They're asking us to sit inside buildings and pray and ruminate about concrete actions we can take and structures we can build to enhance co-responsibility and inclusivity in our decision-making, homilies and liturgies, and scriptural and spiritual formation.

The first stage of the Synod was on the principles and this second stage is on the concrete actions.

Karoro gulls drop pipi from a great height onto the sand, cracking them open just wide enough to get in and get the kaimoana out and feed themselves.

Somehow in all of this we need to feed ourselves in these motu far from the Northern Hemisphere, with good nourishing kai for our bodies, our spirits and our souls.

Feeding out souls

Kevin Burns says at Mass this morning that the fish was the symbol of the early church, and the empty tomb.

We here know about fish, we know how present you need to be when fish.ing, to the swellings of the tide, the presence of the sun, the passing of a cloud, the stillness of the moon, the whakarongo - the deep listening with all of your senses that brings healing - needed while watching for fish.

So this is where we start with the Second active phase of the Synod in our late summer. We watch for the fish and go to that place of deep listening to the breath, the wind, the sea, the sky.

This place of stillness, this quiet, is the place where each synodal discussion begins.

We open ourselves and we become like an empty tomb, and we move with Mary, outside the empty tomb and into the garden, where she sees the gardener is Jesus, and she is not afraid.

Recognising Jesus in synodality

We pray that we can recognise Jesus here in our late summer, walking as some of us did alongside other Christians and the Anglican Bishop from Rangiora to Al Noor Mosque of Light where most of the 51 people were killed on 15 March 5 years ago.

The walk took us through Hagley Park to the Transitional Cathedral on Saturday evening 9 March carrying a cloth inscribed with the names of the children killed in the Holy Land since October 2023.

We were praying as others of us do on Wednesday nights at 7.30pm above the water under the Bridge of Remembrance.

We are vigiling for peace in the Middle East and vigiling for the end of all wars - an intention, a prayer, a deep longing, a silencing of the busyness, a stilling, a profound listening.

Second synod phase

At St Mary's our Synodal discussion begins with Jesus' story of the Prodigal Son - the compassion, the embrace, the kiss, the placing of sandals on the bare feet, the forgiveness.

This is where the second phase of the Synodal discussion begins - outside walking across rough and uneven ground, in whakarongo - in deep listening with all of our senses that brings healing - like the prodigal son.

It is from this place during our late summer, where we - the Catholic Diocese of Waitaha, Tai Poutini, and Rekohu - are invited to begin the second part of the Synodal discussion on concrete action - with compassion, forgiveness and deep listening.

And it is as we move forward in this korero, from this place of quietness, we will begin to feed ourselves alongside others in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, with good nourishing kai for our bodies, our spirits and our souls.

• Kathleen Gallagher writes from Christchurch.

Good healthy functioning communities small or large, with community - enabling priests and lay ministers, folk who include everyone in the mix, and allow all sorts of community lead projects to flourish, create the places where people want to come.

In these places the interface between our primary schools and our local community churches is creative and vibrant and children, young people, old folk and those in between, all have creative parts to play in the liturgy.

In his first "proposal" on 9 June Christchurch's new Catholic bishop Paul Martin said he wishes to close and sell off 13 of the 20 churches in our diocese and replace them with five, 600 seat churches, to "evangelise and bring more people" to add to our 11,600 regular Sunday mass goers plus all the Catholics and others who attend funerals, baptisms, first communions, confirmations, high days and holy days.

The 13 churches he proposes to close, include the largest, most vibrant, and most historic churches in the Christchurch Catholic diocese.

This is a major contraction of the Diocese when we are experiencing population growth in Christchurch and in the Catholic Church.

By 2028, there's predicted to be around 120,000 more people in Christchurch, than in 2013.

The proposal also assumes a shrinking Catholic Church and a shortage of priests, as in Halifax.

In New Zealand the Catholic Church has grown to be the largest Christian denomination in New Zealand, with around 492,384 people, representing 12.6 percent of the total population, according to the 2013 census.

Packed Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart Church Addington.

Our NZ dioceses have always been "the Missons" originally to French, Irish and now Vietnamese, Indian, Filipino and American priests.

There has never been and is not now a shortage of migrant priests happy to come to New Zealand.

Neither is there any shortage of folk happy to become lay ministers to work together with our priests.

Betrayal

Many folk feel betrayed.

Christchurch people have had to cope with major disasters and shocks and are in the process of developing a resilient spirit of peace.

The staunch rigid approach of the announcement of 9 June 2019 stands in stark contrast to this spirit.

• The failure to answer direct questions by Catholic bishop Paul Martin and property developer Tony Sewell at the Q and A's,
• the lack of empathy,
• the leaked half-truths,
• the secrecy,
• the small elite group who have concocted the proposed plans,
• the seeming "fait-accompli" and the lack of transparency

has shocked and dismayed many people.

Our churches are places of refuge, friendship and intergenerational memories that can't be swept aside.

The proposal will further decimate religious and spiritual heritage at a time when the people of our city are just beginning to regain our confidence.

Christchurch has already lost most of our CBD heritage.

Corporate model of Church

The model proposed is a corporate, supermarket-type, mono-cultural one - of five, 600 seat churches, and identikit 50 seat chapels with no halls by our schools.

Totally unlike the rich mosaic of community based churches, halls and their primary schools we have developed here.

The proposal is based on a dated, overseas, maintenance to mission model that would increase our car miles driven, when we in Christchurch, are developing a sustainable eco-friendly city.

On our side of town, Sacred Heart Addington, St Teresa's Riccarton, and Christ The King Burnside, located in densely populated suburbs, are our hub churches, each have a long history of community enabling pastoring.

Their priests live together in community alongside vibrant thriving communities full of a multitude of different nationalities and age-groups, with their primary schools.

St Teresa's runs as a family community church in the morning and a large university student lead community in the evening.

Questionable choices

The proposal plans to close down these 3 church hubs - Christchurch's largest, most historic and vibrant community parish churches and incur needless expense and debt, building 2 church hubs one at Hoon Hay by a petrol station and one at Sockburn on a main road in an industrial area.

Neither of these churches are in areas of dense population.

This does not reflect wise, long-term nor healthy decision-making.

As our Catholic schools have evolved from being run by religious to being run by lay people, with appropriately facilitated consensus decision making, so too can our churches.

To do this we must fully resource community-enabling training and consensus decision-making up-skilling of our students, priests local and migrant, bishops and lay ministers.

• Kathleen Gallagher is a Christchurch author, playwright and film-maker. She is a member of St Peter's Church, Beckenham.
• A gathering to talk about the future vision for our diocese, will take place at Sacred Heart Church Hall Addington on Sunday 11 August 1 - 5pm. Everyone is welcome and free childcare is available. Feel free to bring a plate for afternoon tea.

Two years of death-defying earthquakes then the grief-stricken, the demolition, the dying, the rebuilding aftermath.

Followed by March 15, 2019, with 51 people dying while at prayer in the mosques, and while we are prayerfully and painfully recovering ourselves, we now have, on June 9, 2019, Paul Martin turning up with his Roman-like directions to demolish or sell off seven of Christchurch's 12 Catholic parish community churches that have managed to survive the earthquakes.

All this is not because we don't have enough parishioners in our churches.

Our parishes are full and some overflowing.

It is because he hasn't enough male celibate priests to minister to them.

He is using a North American big church heavily oil-dependent model - parishioners travelling, not the priest.

And because he can't seem to consider the practice that is common in the rest of Oceania, Latin America and Africa - in fact throughout the whole of the Southern Hemisphere, where lay ministers - married folk and women - can minister the liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion, without a priest being present, and the priest can turn up once every month or two and celebrate Mass and support them.

Maybe he sees the writing on the wall for clericalism and wants to finish it all off as quickly and painlessly as he can.

So he looks at the oldest, strongest base community parishes, churches like Sacred Heart Addington, St Teresa's Riccarton, Christ the King Burnside, strong parishes with high daily Mass attendance and university student communities and sells these churches or bulldozes them.

These communities and their attached schools have taken decades to build to the strength they are today.

You don't get rid of the places where your strength lies.

These churches and halls are our marae - the places where we gather to celebrate our births, deaths, weddings, first communions and ordinations. They are like cloaks that support our schools.

They were built with the blood, sweat and tears of our communities over generations.

Consultation?

He has not consulted with the priests, with the staff, nor with the parishioners. He simply announces his plan. He claims it is a proposal.

We are to pray and discuss it, but that his proposal will all be carried out within one year.

Our priests and staff and parishioners should have been consulted, involved and listened to, not just briefed.

Announcing a fixed plan and pretending it is a consultation, when it has been already decided upon, is the practice of clericalism at its very worst.

Shortage of priests

Currently we have 30 ordained priests in the diocese.

In 10 years we will have 12.

What about in 20 years?

In 20 years we will have four priests - if the trend continues. Something needs to be done about this.

Unlike the Anglicans, there is not a shortage of parishioners.

We need lay ministers - married people and women to be able to minister, for the Catholic Church to survive in the Christchurch diocese in 20 years' time.

Ten years is far too short a timeframe.

Knocking down churches and building a few new ones is not going to solve the long-term problem.

We need to be planning for 20, 50 and 100 years' time.

These lay ministers need to be trained and supported in ministry and in preaching and this is the place where our empty seminaries need to be putting their energy.

Working from strength

We need to work from the old strong base hub parishes and support the work the priests do there, with work by lay ministers in the surrounding churches.

In South Christchurch we want none of our four churches to be sold or destroyed.

We have had enough of death, destruction, building, selling and rebuilding.

Sacred Heart, Addington is the oldest and largest parish in our region and the safest church earthquake-wise - it is on good ground that doesn't break open or have springs or liquefaction rise up from below. (It is well worth checking the old black map of Christchurch springs.)

We suggest that Sacred Heart be our hub church.

The other three parish churches can remain having Mass celebrated once a month there by a Priest and a liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion by lay ministers on the other Sundays and days of the week if the community has able lay ministers.

We don't want more church name changes.

Name changes are not new here, they are old hat, we have had enough name and street and church and building changes to last a lifetime.

We want the emphasis to be on strengthening our communities and educating our lay ministers, not on demolishing and erecting buildings.

We want energy to go into how we can minister to one another in the absence of a priest.

We want to know how to be present to each other and to our beloved priests, who have done an amazing job in our parishes of all shapes and sizes through such a long difficult and continuing period of unrelieved upheaval.

• Kathleen Gallagher is a Christchurch author, playwright and film-maker. She is a member of St Peter's Church, Beckenham.
• First published in the Christchurch Press. Republished with permission.