New Governor General not a pastor to the nation

Tu Tangata, Issue 26, 1 October 1985, Page 2

New Governor General not a pastor to the nation

Sir Paul Reeves, the new Governor General to be sworn in later next month (November 20) wants to be seen as representing the Queen of New Zealand, the Crown in its New Zealand location.

And he sees this as being compatible with the people of Aotearoa who he believes are struggling to come to grips with their identity as a group of South Pacific Islands.

He doesn’t want to be seen as a remote figure representing the echo of a civilisation thousands of miles away, but rather a person from the midst of Aotearoa, a person struggling also with the many sides of our culture.

Tu Tangata spoke with Sir Paul about the Governor Generalship.

“I believe the Governor General has to act for the people, sometimes he has to speak to the people and sometimes he has to stand with the people. I hope I can do some of those things.”

It’s in this way that the new Governor General is already signifying the kind of statesmanship the country can expect.

He says he is aware of the more formal side of the office and he intends to uphold those functions.

“In the constitutional role, there is the House of Representatives and the Governor General. Because of the absence of an Upper House, the Governor General gives the royal assent to the laws of our land. Of course he takes the advice of his ministers, but nevertheless that's an important issue to represent the crown....”

Sir Paul says celebration is another important part of the office, where the Governor General is present for significant occasions in the life of the community.

He says a third aspect of the office is offering a sense of vision and purpose, plus pointers to a direction in the life of our nation.

And there are certain constraints, such as not commenting on political issues in the way a working politician does.

“Nevertheless he has a role to inform, to share his insights and hopefully to offer some sense of purpose and direction.” Sir Paul says he wants to be acessible and available not only to the elected representatives but abo to the people throughout the land.

‘‘l must be available to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet for regular meetings but I must also be out and about in the life of our country, and move about the edges as well as be seen in the major and important cities of our country.” This accessibility to people is what Sir Paul believes he has demonstrated as Anglican Archbishop of New Zealand. He also believes his role as Archbishop has helped shape his ability to listen carefully and to speak clearly in conveying a message. However if people are thinking he intends being a pastor to the nation, they’re wrong. The new Governor General makes a clear separation between being a bishop and Governor General. He doesn't intend to preach as a bishop would because he says this

would confuse people about the Governor General’s office. And he says this distinction is just as necessary for the sake of his successor as Archbishop. This distinction in his roles will mean his celebration of the Eucharist will be a private affair and he will be doing more listening to other people preaching. “I will be a member of a local Christian community somewhere, I will say my prayers, I will read my bible, but I will not seek to be a person who mixes up the functions of the head of state and the head of the church.” Sir Paul was asked if his appointment was an endorsement of the need for spiritual leadership in the life of Aotearoa. ‘‘l believe the work I've been doing as a bishop and as a leader in the church has been a credential and reason which presumably encouraged people to think of me as a candidate for the office. If that is recognition of the worth of a per-

son involved in spiritual activities, then so be it.

“In my life the spirit and the power of God is vital and if that is something which helps me to be a better Governor General, so be it. I would think that there have been Governor Generals before me who have had a spiritual dimension to their time in office. The particular thing about me is that I am an ordained person who happens to be a Christian and holds the office of the Governor General.”

But Sir Paul is wary of being seen as offering himself only to those who claim a religious faith. He says he will be available to all people.

“I bring with me my own faith which is tied up with who I am as a human being, which is tied up with the quality of living here today, which is tied up with richness and fullfilment. I come with those, I can’t leave them behind, they’re part of me. I’m a priest and a bishop, those things cannot be taken away from me. I will not have an office through which I can express this but I will try and live a priestly life, a life which is concerned with the healing of the wounds and memories of people. That’s what the priestly life is about and it’s one of the things I will offer, it’s one of the gifts I have to bring.”

And he says the mana earned through the archbishophric goes with him and will be seen and be effective.

It’s to do with the healing of people that Sir Paul Reeves has some words central to his philosophy.

“Certain words are key to me, reconciliation and partnership. We have to understand that the unity of our nation is built up through the parts. Therefore the parts must be allowed to work and develop and the various parts must learn how to work together. And as our partnership starts to grow our unity is revealed."

Sir Paul says this reconciliation and partnership must be based on honesty in the diverse groups that make up Aotearoa, in the search for identity. He says the process has already begun with people looking at what it means to be part of a group of islands in the South Pacific.

Within Aotearoa he sees a multi/cultural/racial/faceted society grappling, struggling, hoping and seeking to understand what it means to be here, living in

Aotearoa at the present time. As that happens he sees the outline of the identity of those people, the identity of the Maori people and the nonMaori people.

“People are beginning to see that they live here and they don't have to take their viewpoints from anyone else.

“As all of that happens I hope the Governor General in his role will be affected by that and that the growing New Zealand face of the office of the Governor General will continue.

“As the Governor General is affected by it I hope that he can also begin to speak to it. If the Governor General is the representative of the Crown he is the representative of the Queen of New Zealand, not representing a principle which really belongs twenty thousand miles away, and we hear the faint echo of it.”

As the first Maori Governor General. Sir Paul says he will maintain his links and way of doing things according to tikanga Maori. His Te Atiawa people will be sleeping over with him on the night before he takes office at Govern-

ment House as they have done on previous significant occasions, when he has taken up a new office.

He intends attending hui up and down the country, keeping the faith with people.

But those people who may have seen a Maori Governor General as being an upfront ally in the struggle for Maori land rights may be disappointed.

“I am a Maori but I think I stand in my own right in the job. I think that consultation between me and any other groups in the community is something which exists there as a real possibility, but I’m not sure just how that will take place. I do not regard myself as one who is beholden to any group in the community.

In other words, if I speak out of a Maori context, I also speak to that same Maori context.

Sir Paul says he can see a process working through him being Maori but at the moment he can't see solutions.

“The process has begun and will continue after I leave the office of Governor General.