Bishops Departing

10th April

Bishop David Hand died last week. He was the first Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea and very much a part of the church from shortly after world war II until his death. He will be buried here in Popondetta but the funeral arrangements have not yet been made. I first met him in 1983 at Keble College in Oxford where we were both attending a conference on the Oxford Movement. Since being in PNG I have seen him at various times: at Bishop Roger's consecration a few years ago and just in the street in Port Moresby. He has been in and out of the hospital for the past year or so and requested to be anointed shortly after Bishop Joe's consecration. His death was not unexpected but still a great loss to the church. About a week ago Bishop Peter Fox of Port Moresby announced that he would be leaving PNG and returning to England in July. This announcement took many people by surprise and many feel hurt and/or betrayed by his decision. Two bishops leaving the same city: one by death, one by resignation. One retired, one still the diocesan. One beloved and revered, one who's departure is causing mixed feelings. All of us will need to leave where we are one day. Perhaps by death, perhaps by resignation or retiring, perhaps because our term in office expires, perhaps by some other reason. We cannot control how other people will respond to our departure. We can try to leave as gracefully as possible and try to ease the way for those who will follow after us. But we cannot control how people will respond. Anger, feelings of betrayal, disappointment, expectation, doubt, anticipation, fear. All of these and more are likely responses. We cannot control them. This, too, is Jesus' experience. He dies and leaves his followers (at least for a couple of days) and their responses are varied. Thus, once again, the humanity of Jesus is underscored. He dies and has no control over the responses to his death. He tried to prepare his disciples for his death. His death was certainly grace filled (even if he was not able to sense the grace as he cries out to God "Why have your abandoned me?"). There are some things we cannot control. May God give us grace to discern what they are and thereby free us from the burden of trying to control the things we cannot. Like the serenity prayer: God, give me the grace to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Easter

17th April

The college does not have classes during Holy Week. We have the daily round of Offices and Mass and work parades. But the class time is spent preparing for the liturgies. The students are divided into 3 liturgy groups and each group was responsible for planning one of the major liturgies. My group did Maundy Thursday, Dick's did Good Friday and Fr Gabriel's did the Easter Vigil. We had Bishop Rhynold with us for the whole time. On Maundy Thursday 12 people washed each other's feet as they took turns sitting on a chair in front of the altar. Then after the mass we took the Blessed Sacrament to the Sunday School Room where the watch was kept through the night. Good Friday we had the first part of the liturgy including the reading of the Passion and the prayers in the morning. Then at noon we gathered to walk the 7 stations of the last words ending in the chapel for the Communion from the Reserved Sacrament. The Easter Vigil started with a bonfire and during the rehearsal of salvation history each of the liturgy groups presented a drama of one of the narratives (creation and the fall, the crossing of the red sea, the valley of dry bones) and then had 9 baptisms. Then the glorious celebration of Easter followed by a bung kai in the afternoon. It was wonderful. Easter is a time for new beginnings; more so, I think, than New Year's. The old has passed away the new is come. Death is trampled down and life reigns. God's love and forgiveness are clearly evident. We are on break this week and then next week the new term begins. Another sign of the past laying behind us and a new day/future ahead. Several of the students have talked to me about how this year's Holy Week observances were different from what they had done before and that they had discovered some new meaning in them. That is a part of new life. Seeing the same old things with different eyes. Death is dead and Life lives. That is what Easter is all about.

Bishop David Hand and little things

20th April

Today was the funeral of the former Archbishop Sir David Hand. The state funeral for him was in Port Moresby on Tuesday and Wednesday morning the body was flown to Popondetta for burial. The grass and bush were cut back from along the road from the airport into town and flowers put out to honour him The funeral procession made several stops along the way including Newton College. The weather was not cooperative. It rained all morning, quite hard at times. And yet everybody was there to honour him. He was greatly revered by Anglicans and others throughout the country and the honours given to the funeral procession were far greater than those made for the Prime Minister or Governor General when they came to visit. The body overnighted at a village [Hohorita] on the way to Kokoda and then was brought back to the cathedral this morning. The funeral procession went all through town and almost all the stores, the post office and everything else closed in his honour. The body was due to arrive at the cathedral at 10:00 for the burial mass but it did not arrive until about noon. Thousands of people were there to honour him. They came from all over PNG. After the burial mass we processed out to the church yard to bury him. It was only when we got there that they discovered that the concrete grave they had made was too short to hold the coffin. So they had to take the body back into the church until they can remake the concrete tomb. All respect and honour given to this great man but the practicality of measuring the coffin to make sure that it would fit in the grave was overlooked. So thousands of people went home with the coffin still lying in the church without being able to be put into its final resting place. One little detail and all the honours and respect were undermined with the unglorious sticking the coffin back into the church until the grave could be altered. Little things can make a difference.

Milestones

2nd May

Last week I observed the 30^th anniversary of my first profession as a Franciscan friar. On 14^th May I will be celebrating the 20^th anniversary of my being a deacon. This celebration will be with Bp Rhynold Sanana who will be celebrating his 30^th anniversary of being a bishop. On Sunday we planned this joint celebration. Today is St Athanasius Day which is the college's feast of dedication. We had a wonderful Mass this morning and will have a bung kai (with pig) this afternoon. This year the college is observing the 25^th anniversary of its dedication. That celebration will be in August (feast of the Transfiguration) so that we can also observe the bombing of Hiroshima at the same time. The chapel was built from money sent from Japan as a "sori tru" for the killing of the martyrs of Papua New Guinea during World War II. Today was also a different kind of milestone. I opened a new can of the antimalarial pill I take. There are 250 pills in a can so opening a new one seems significant to me. Anniversaries and milestones are important. They provide an opportunity to reflect on things that have happened and to see if any adjustments need to be made. I am convinced of my vocations (as a Franciscan friar, deacon, and principal of Newton College) and give thanks that I have been able to respond to what seems to have been God's call. Please give thanks with me and pray that I may continue to have the grace to persevere.

WWII Relics

7^th May

I went to the friary on Friday night and they were listening to the radio. The big news was that a bomb left over from World War II had been found near Popondetta and they were warning people to stay away from it and not to throw sticks and stones it at. The unexploded bomb has now been moved to a safer place. This news story was followed by a discussion about all of the WWII armaments and all that are still around. Some people find aircraft parts and use them as yard ornaments. Some houses have fences made out of bomb casings and some churches use bomb casings as a bell. The college uses a propane gas tank as its bell. Some of the dive resorts cater to tourists who want to see some of the underwater wrecks and some of the metal used to reinforce runways etc are used in making grills and fencing pigs. The village of Bari Sari is surrounded by dumps that the Americans left behind. They dug pits, put the vehicles, weapons, ammunition and anything else left behind in these pits and then covered it all with concrete. When you fly into Popondetta you can still see the bunkers that were built around the airstrip. WWII was a major event here. The church thrives on the blood of the martyrs killed by the Japanese. The Kokoda track and other sites are revered by Australians and other countries who lost soldiers there. WWII is at least partly responsible for moving the populace from the stone age into the space age (as the Governor General puts it). When we think of war we usually think of the fighting, the deaths and the destruction; but we seldom think about the aftermath even after 50+ years. War changes things and we can never go back to the way things were. But I suspect that the same can be said about other disturbances (riots, hurricanes, tornados) as well. And I also believe that Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection have also left their indelible mark. Thanks be to God.

Small Steps

14^th May

Stephen Tago, an evangelist and a retired member of parliament, preached at the college this morning as we celebrated my 20 years as a deacon and Rhynold Sanana's 30 years as a bishop. He traced salvation history from Noah and Abraham through David and the prophets and then through the apostles and the missionaries who brought Christianity to PNG and the martyrs of Papua New Guinea and casually mentioned that Bishop Rhynold and I were following in their footsteps (as indeed were all the others at the Mass). It was a gentle reminder that each of us is a part of salvation history. We are indeed surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. But we are each also one of them, and that is something that I tend to forget. We are all witnesses. We are all proclaimers of the Gospel, even if we don't speak much in public (as Francis is often quoted as saying: "Preach at all times, when necessary use words."

Singing in Language

22^nd May

Wednesday evenings we have a family Eucharist. It is in pidgin - mostly. The psalms, and hymns if any, have been in English but the service itself in pidgin. Now we are changing this and the psalms and hymns are also in pidgin. The children of the students will be serving as crucifer and torch bearers starting this week. I am glad for this changes. It is good to include the children in assisting at the liturgies. It is also good to have the whole Mass in Pidgin. I am improving in my ability to type Pidgin. At first my computer didn't like it. It tried to capitalize every i even though in Pidgin i is not capitalized. Now it has learned to let a lower case i slip by. Sometimes as I read Pidgin while typing it I get confused and sometimes I type "me" instead of "mi". But God and the students are forgiving. Sometimes, too, I need to type in another language altogether. For the anniversary celebration we did the Invitation to Communion in Wedau. And sometimes we sing the mass responses in Oro Kaiva, Bindari or other language. Here I find myself typing without having any idea of what it says other than in general terms. It can sometimes be a challenge. But it is also wonderful to realize that God is praised in words that I do not understand. Worship becomes more an act of the heart than of the mind. And this is especially true when singing in a language that is the first language of one of the students. At first I couldn't really understand why students liked to sing "in language" when it wasn't their own. Now I get it.

Education

29^th May

Tonight all six of the computers in the computer lab are in use. Three nights a week I spend an hour to an hour and a half in the lab to help the students. At the beginning of the term I prepared a couple of classes to give them the basics and then they just need to practice and learn things as they go. Next term I will do another worksheet with some more advanced material on it. Only about a third of the students are at all familiar with computers. Some had never seen a qwerty keyboard before and so are also needing to learn how to type. But they are eager to learn and seem to be doing well. The first time they print out a document they've been working on they seem so proud. Other nights students can also use the lab but I am not always there but most nights students are busy in the lab working on papers, sermons, letters or other projects. This week and next the students' wives will be doing an HIV/AIDS counselling course. The AIDS council is sending in two instructors for this special two-week course. The wives have been busy getting ready for it and decorating their class room - even putting table cloths on the desks. The students' children missed about two weeks of school because all the public school teachers in the country were out on strike over an increase in housing allowance. Some of them were given home work to do during the strike. Others were not. Children's education is different here. We have a 17 year old in the 5^th grade. Not because he is dumb, but because he wasn't able to start school until he was older. Some places don't have schools available and sometimes parents can not afford the school fees (free education is not a right here). Education is something that in the US we take for granted. Here it is something to be valued. Some education is formal. Some informal. All of the students here have learned things through informal education that I will never learn. Things like climbing a coconut tree, finding their way through the bush, and other practical things. Both formal and informal education have their place. There is sometimes a tendency to value the credential afforded by formal education but the know-how learned informally is also of benefit. Sometimes a "bush mechanic" can gerryrig a repair that would stump a trained mechanic. Two disciples were seen to be "mere uneducated laymen" but that did not stop them from preaching the good news. So let's not be too hasty in disregarding informal education and the "school of hard knocks".

Pentecost

7 June

Last Friday I went to Port Moresby for the weekend on my way to the College Council and Provincial Council meetings in Lae. This gave me an opportunity to buy a few things for the college and to spend the weekend with the brothers in Koki. Sunday was Pentecost and on that day all of the Anglicans in Port Moresby gather in one of the churches for a big celebration of the feast rather than worshipping in their individual churches. This year this celebration was at Koki - the first time that St. Francis Church there has hosted this event. The church was packed. There were traditional dancers and singing as part of the service. The Gloria was led by the Melanesian Brotherhood and other Solomon Islanders and was movingly sung. The service was followed by a breakfast served to all who came. The parish had been spending a lot of time and energy preparing to host this event. They planted greenery and flowers, painted the toilets, borrowed chairs, cleaned everything and prepared food. When I was living at the Friary in Koki back in 2002 the church would not have been like this. At that time there was a small group of youth and a few others that was trying to bring life into the parish but the old guard resisted them and only relunctantly allowed them to sing choruses instead of hymns during parts of the service. Now this group is running the parish and there is a spirit of cooperation and mutual support. The old guard was even out on Saturday planting shrubbery and helping with the breakfast on Sunday. The change was remarkable. A little bit of leaven can have big results. And people who have been on the short end of the stick don't have to retaliate or lord it over others when they become the ones in charge. Growth and change. The Spirit does breathe new life.

Moon Rises

12^th June

I had to take one of the student's wife down to the hospital this evening. She is ok but the student's brother's wife had complications delivering a baby and was taken from the clinic near her home to Popondetta General Hospital. Last night she had surgery to deliver the child. Both child and mother are ok but the mother will need to stay in the hospital for another few days. Tonight's trip was to take food to her. When you are in a hospital here your family needs to help take care of you. Each patient has a guardian to bathe him, feed him and provide other care. But the food needs to come from outside. So tonight we were taking food. On the way back there was a moon rise. It was a full moon and there were some clouds in the sky. At first I thought it was a sunset even though it was dark. I haven't seen a sunset here. The college is in a forested area and so we don't experience sunrises and sunsets. Morning and evening dusks tend to be short and without artificial light it gets dark very quickly. So I thought I was watching my first sunset. Instead it was a moon rise. The colours were subdued but it was beautiful. I couldn't really watch it because I was driving, but the little that I did see was wonderful. I was reminded that there are some cultures that value the moon more than the sun because the moon shines at night when you need the light while the sun shines in the day when there already is enough light. I was also reminded of a reflection of some time ago when I was walking back from the friary and was amazed at the number of stars that filled the skies. Which in turn reminded me that at night the sky is often overcast so that we don't see much of the stars and moon. This made tonight's vision even more wonderful, because of the rarity of even seeing the moon. Some nights are moonlit but even then I don't often see the moon. I may not see the moon, but I know it is there. There are also other things that I know are there even though I can't always see them. "Seeing is believing" or so the expression goes. But believing without seeing is the virtue that Saint Thomas sought. When I am saying my prayers I know that God is with me as we carry on a conversation, I usually think of God as being by my side but just out of my peripheral vision. Present, but unseen. I don't get to see sunrises and sunsets but I know that they occur. I don't always see the moon and stars, but I know they are there. I don't always see God, but I know that God is ever there.

Rainy Season Continues

19 June

Just when I thought that the rainy season was finally about to end it has started up again. This past weekend has been cold and wet. At the moment it is 23.1 Centigrade (74 F) and I am wearing a jacket. The weather has been preventing the students from being able to plant new gardens because they can't burn the underbrush and the soft ground prevents the caucau (the local staple) from forming tubers. We are told that this is a mild la nina. If this is a mild one, I don't want to think what a strong one would be like. All the rain gives mosquitos plenty of breeding places so lots of people are coming down with Malaria. The grass keeps growing and snakes are becoming more of a problem (I had one in my kitchen the other day). The track that comes into the college from the sealed road is eroding and the foot paths are soggy. Mould is growing faster than I can wash it off. But we are coping. The students are planting gardens even without burning the ground off. No one is complaining. Next Sunday the lectionary calls for the blessing of dinghies and canoes and to pray for mariners, fishermen, and others working at sea. We are inland but we will have the rogation blessing of the college grounds instead (I know the usual Rogationtide has passed.) This is revision and examination week and next week the students go on retreat. People are in good spirits and looking forward to the 25^th anniversary celebration of our chapel in August. We have just learned that the General Secretary of Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Church in Japan) will be coming to join us for that event. (The chapel was largely funded by Japanese Anglicans as a way of saying "sori" for the Martyrs of Papua New Guinea. Usually in the morning when I ask a student how he is doing, he will reply "Like the weather." When the weather is good he is happy and well; when it is overcast or rainy, he is not. But sometimes actions speak louder than words and the actions at the college are reflecting a contentedness that is not in keeping with the weather. Weather does affect us, but we do not have to submit to it.

Car Driving

27^th June

Today I bicycled to the friary to go out with one of the brothers. Lester is learning to drive and needs a licensed driver to go with him. I have a PNG driver's license and agreed to go with him. He did well. We drove around town taking the potholes slowly. Actually they are patching them up (with sand) and it looks like they are getting ready to reseal the road. In fact, we had to go on a detour to avoid the road work. Then we drove out to double cross. We went there so that he could practice starting the car on a hill. There is a steep hill there just before a single lane bridge then the road goes up a hill on the other side. So he stopped and started the car several times on the down hill and then also on the uphill. After about an hour of going back and forth this way we went back into town and then to another couple of hills near the college. I don't think that this was a major part of my learning to drive. But it is here. Parallel parking and k turns were things that I needed to practice. But I don't think I have ever seen anyone parallel park in Popondetta. Port Moresby, yes; but not here. The streets in Popondetta are not often crowded with cars but there are lots of pedestrians. I guess what I am saying is that driving here is much different than driving in the US and so it seems a bit strange to be helping someone learn to drive here where the skills are a bit different than those needed in the US; but I do it anyway and Lester is grateful for the opportunity to practice. He knows what he needs to practice and I respond. The students come to the college knowing some of what they need to learn and unaware of other things they need to know. None of us know what we don't know but need to. We all have blind spots. We need to forgive others for the ones they have and forgive ourselves for those we have but also be willing to get rid of them. That, I think, is what the kingdom of God is about and St Paul's analogy of the body. Each of us benefiting from the others and sharing what we have and who we are with them.