Te Pouhere Sunday - Rev Dr Andrew Butcher

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has written a wonderful book called The Power of Reconciliation. He says reconciliation has four parts: incarnation, crucifixion, new life, and completion. In other words, it makes Christ visible, requires sacrifice, must be lived out and grown into, and will be completed at the end of all things when perfect justice rules the earth. Reconciliation requires us to do subterranean work. It means attending to those things that normally are out of view but are crucially important. In an Evensong service here recently, I talked about how I think the Anglican church runs on cups of tea. I have a friend who talks about teapot diplomacy. In other words, we talk, we share, we listen, we get to know one another while drinking tea from a pot, sitting down at a table sharing a meal, passing the plate, breaking the bread, drinking the wine.