Introducing Counting Down to Christ-mas 2024
Counting Down to Christ-mas - Te Taha Taiao - Ka Tangi Te Tītī
Hello friends
It’s that time of year again when I’m frantically writing to a deadline as I work on the current offering for Counting Down to Christmas. I signalled to you at the end of last year that I was wanting to bring a very Kiwi flavoured Christmas season to this year’s resource. Think flowering pōhutukawa, sunshine, blue skies, green forests, beaches, sea and sand. We’re heading outdoors into God’s creation. It’s happening and I can’t wait to share it with you!!
I say this every year, but I’m very excited about this coming Advent. I know, I know… it’s plenty early to be thinking about Advent but I like to keep you updated early especially if you plan to register a group or want to tie in other activities around our theme. Plus I also have another very special reason for sending you an email this week. We are coming to the end of Māori Language Week - Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. I thought it was a very appropriate week to launch the theme of this year’s Counting Down to Christ-mas… you’ll have to keep reading to get to our theme… we’ll just take a short but signifcant detour for a couple of paragraphs….
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is an annual celebration for all New Zealanders to show their support for the Māori language, an official language of this country.
The theme for Te Wiki 2024 is ‘Ake ake ake – A Forever Language’. It represents the resilience, adaptability and endurance of te reo Māori. It also reflects the commitment New Zealanders have to embracing and learning te reo Māori long into the future. Read more about Te Wiki o te Reo Māori on the official website.
A collaboration
For the first time since I started writing our Counting Down to Christmas series five years ago, I’m working with a collaborator this year. The Rev Jacynthia Murphy is working with me and I’m very much appreciating her thoughtful and inspirational input. I know you’re going to appreciate her generous creativity.
Let me introduce you to our theme this year…
Te Taha Taiao - Ka Tangi Te Tītī
Alongside the natural world - the Tītī calls
When the Tītī calls we hear one of God’s creations celebrating. The space in which we all occupy in the created order is strengthened by our collaborative efforts to honour the other. We all belong, as God intended, and sharing that space with the entire natural world means we can all call in celebration. Ka tangi te katoa - we all call.
An introduction to this year…
Language (reo) and words are more than just tools for communication. Our reo helps us make sense of our world. The reo we regularly use to both listen and speak are part of our identity and our culture. Our reo provides us with a place to belong, our words ground us and connect us to those who have gone before us and those we walk alongside. Our words are part of us and yet they have a life outside of us. When we speak, we share our words with others. Long after we’ve physically moved away from the person we were speaking to, our words continue to have an impact. Our words mean something to us, and they also mean something to those who hear them.
When John wrote his gospel he doesn’t begin in the same way Matthew or Luke wrote their gospels. John doesn’t start with the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, born to Jewish parents in a little town called Bethlehem. Instead John goes much further back, so far back that he talks of the beginning of time, before the beginning of creation, before anything was created or made. John encounters a problem when he is faced with writing about Jesus in this time before anything. What will he call Jesus, before Jesus was born, before the world was created? How can he name Jesus and show Jesus’ true self? He offers a name for Jesus that sits above all languages, all cultures, all times…
I te tīmatanga te Kupu, i te Atua te Kupu, ko te Atua anō te Kupu
In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1
This year Counting Down to Christ-mas invites us to journey through Advent with taha Māori. This Māori dimension and perspective invites us to find fresh understandings in the story of the first Christmas for our own journey. This Advent we’ll celebrate in te reo and english. Our offering is not simply translated words from one language to another. Tikanga Maori will underpin each daily offering, bringing our attention to the Word and to the birth of Jesus Christ, through a lens that may not be deeply familiar to some of us, but is available for all to appreciate and be inspired by.
Advent is a season that moves us forward towards something new. We hold an openness to hearing from our Creator God. The cycle of the annual celebration of the birth of Christ invites us to acknowledge the creation cycle of which we’re a part. Caring for each other, for the world in which we live, for our God. Creation, renewal, restoration, hope, love - we are pulled forward by something much bigger than ourselves. Acknowledging that the story we are living within is God’s story and it’s a story for all.
Our theme Te Taha Taiao - Ka Tangi Te Tītī, ‘Alongside the natural world - the Tītī calls’ captures the 'mita' (rhythm and wisdom) of walking with, not dominating, the natural world and the Tītī will sing. This is a beautiful metaphor of reciprocity, 'manaaki mai manaaki atu, aroha mai, aroha atu' We join in the harmonious reo of Taiao. When we care for God’s world, it will care for us.
Hear the call this Advent season.
Subscription for 2024
I have some good news for all paid and free subscribers alike - this year the daily emails will be sent to all subscribers and will not include a paywall. If you’ve been a paid subscriber previously, your subscription period has been extended until 25 November 2025. If you’ve had a free subscription you’ll receive the full email each day throughout Advent. If you do want to access the web-based archives you will need to shift from free to paid but I’ve set up a discount code for 100% discount. I’ll leave the comments section open for free and paid subscribers alike.
More soon
My next update email will include an introduction to the ‘He kaupapa mō te rā’ - what the daily email will include each day.
On the journey
Caroline