The Anglican Church in these islands has a new Archbishop: Dr Winston Halapua, the new Bishop of Polynesia.
Dr Halapua, who is 64 and a Tongan-born, Fijian citizen living in New Zealand, was announced this morning as the new Bishop of Polynesia. As such, he automatically becomes one of the three Archbishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Dr Halapua’s election was declared at the Anglican General Synod, which is meeting this week in Gisborne, and was greeted with a standing ovation and the presentation of gifts and garlands from Polynesia and gifts from Maori and Pakeha tikanga partners.
He has the knack for taking cultural concepts and turning them into Western newspeak:
http://sites.google.com/a/nomoa.com/talanoa/Home/papers-presentations/halapua–moana
One key thought comes to mind. By trying to join [i]theos[/i] with [i]moana[/i] does Halapua succeed only in syncretizing the One Lord God of Creation with the “deep†“waters†of Gen 1:2? That is, does the theological world-view he proposes not sufficiently [b]distinguish[/b] the Creator from his creation, eliding the many nuances of [i]atua[/i] along similar lines to many an ancient Greek notion of being?
He is careful to use the word “metaphor” and not divinize the ocean. I actually liked his nod toward expressing the Trinity – “God as dynamic relationship” – although he never develops it.
The problem for me is that we end up, once again, with a bunch of vague invocations of mystery, “space for diversity, space for listening.” So despite his claim to offer an alternative to Western categories, we wind up with a bunch of cultural symbols that issue in Western categories – passing ones at that.
Yes, initially I too liked his direct speech about “the God of flowing energy and unity, whose being is ever life-giving and embracingâ€. But when he continued with the next two sentences, I saw it was a case of once more [i]functionalizing[/i] the so-called Trinity. Rather, the true triune God’s threefold Name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, permits such an identity to be both [b]eternally[/b] this One, irrespective of any creation, and yet also the free God of Creation, who determines himself to be the Creator. So one’s choice and use of metaphors are powerful indicators of where one’s theological foundations truly lie. A read of Sallie McFague for example shows this …!
Thanks, art, for reading and analyzing that long piece. Frustrating, isn’t it? Seems like a fresh expression or amplification of orthodoxy for a few minutes, and then we’re reminded of Sallie McFague when all is said and done.
I concur, Timothy (if I may be direct). I look forward to and enjoy genuine inculturation – not least as a sort-of westerner with much experience in Africa and elsewhere. So initially liked what he was attempting. But the real clincher for me – and which made me re-read the whole – was this paragraph:
[blockquote]In the theomoana way of doing theology, the experience of God in daily life, in the environment, in worship, is conceptualised using the imagery of the moana. The experience of God like the moana is flowing and embracing, powerful yet serene, eternal yet touching the finite and the now. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of “God-the Moana†and embodies the interconnectedness of the whole of creation. Theomoana provides a way of expressing the dynamics of the immensity of God’s grace.[/blockquote]
Well; perhaps … But probably, actually NOT!
But then, with some more orthodox creation theology, akin to the dear Cappadocians’ rewriting of Hellenistic natural theology, but along the lines of elements of Oceanic thinking [b]seriously [i]reconceptualized[/i][/b] … perhaps there might be some less frustrating possibilities after all!
Halapua was at St John’s Theological College, Auckland, a place that has been declining seriously in popularity in recent years as younger, more orthodox seminarians have looked elsewhere. The syncretistic mumbo jumbo about ‘theomoana’ may explain this in part. Most Pacific Islanders are Congregationalists or Methodists.