REFLECTION 1ST SEPTEMBER 2024 

“FOR THOSE IN PERIL ON THE SEA” 

By Rev Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai 

 The ocean or the Moana can be both a blessing and a curse.  Both on the ocean and off the ocean particularly here in Aotearoa this week.  Before the sad news of King Tureiti’s death our daily news headlines featured the current debates over foreshore and seabed?  Let’s just take a quick birds eye of this debate.  Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, 

• the seabed is the land that is underwater completely (the sea around the coast) 

• the foreshore is the land that is regularly covered by the tide (the wet part of the beach). It includes land covered by high tides in spring, the space occupied by the air and water above the land, and the soil and rock under it. 

Crown ownership.  English common or customary law was brought to New Zealand with the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. It stated that the Crown (the government in New Zealand) was the owner of the coastal water, foreshore and riverbeds. As owner, the Crown granted parts of the foreshore and seabed to other people. The new owners still had to let the public fish or use boats on their coast. 

Māori rights.  For a long time, Māori had used land under the water for bringing in canoes, recreation, fishing, battles, burials, and collecting seaweed. The Crown’s assumed ownership overlooked these Māori activities.  From 1840 the Crown did not always recognise Māori use of the foreshore and seabed. 

Public access, New Zealanders have traditionally believed they had the right of access to rivers, streams and beaches. But the law did not say that they had this right. 

The Queen’s chain is a 20-metre strip above the foreshore and along the edge of coasts, rivers and streams. It is used by the public for recreation. People believed the Queen’s chain provided legal access to the foreshore from the landward side. But some parts of the coast had always been privately owned.  The debate continues.   

Between the years 2012 and 2016 I had the privilege of looking after ten churches within the Pacific Region.  This role required me to travel between the ten churches of the Council for World Mission former London Missionary Society.  The ten Pacific member churches are, Tahiti, Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa, American Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and the PCANZ and CUNZ here in Aotearoa.   

For many years New Zealand, Australia and other countries mined guano (bird droppings, rich in phosphate) from the Pacific island of Nauru. After the First World War, the League of Nations made Britain, Australia and New Zealand trustees over Nauru.  In 1967, the people of Nauru purchased the assets of the British Phosphate Commissioners, and in June 1970, control passed to the locally owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation (NPC). Income from the mines made Nauruan’s among the richest people in the world. 

Today Nauru’s landscape is a desolated open wound.  The people continue to suffer from the diseases of affluence of a bygone era.   Australia in particular poured millions and millions of dollars into the Nauruan economy when the phosphate was plentiful, the people of Nauru travelled the world and bought huge domestic appliances like televisions etc,  and motor scooters, consumed many rich foreign and fatty foods.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 94.5% of Nauruan’s are overweight or obese, with an obesity rate of 71.7%. They no longer can afford to treat their illnesses and rely on the government to send them abroad to Australia and India to be treated.  Their once pristine beaches and foreshores now harbour the eyesore of old rusty cranes and digging machines that are immovable.  Much of the land is uninhabitable let alone capable of growing food.  There is not much to see or do on that island apart from the huge craters that make up about 80% of the island.     

The Small island developing states in Oceania have been identified as likely to have high levels of exposure to the effects of climate change. These effects include sea-level rise, increased incidence and intensity of floods and droughts, coral degradation, increased intensity of tropical cyclones, and changes in the distribution of disease vectors. It is possible that some locations, especially atolls, coasts (where the great majority now live), deltas and river flood plains may become uninhabitable. 

Sailosi Ramatu from Fiji talked with Foreign Correspondence and suddenly paused.   “This was my house,”. Sailosi’s village of Vunidogoloa, which once stood on the remote shores of Fiji’s second-biggest island, has the dubious honour of being one of the first communities in the world to be forced into a government-planned relocation because of climate change. 

Climate-related disasters such as tropical cyclones, floods and droughts are not new to Pacific Islanders, who have developed customary or ‘traditional’ practices to enable communities to adapt and recover from such hazards. Some of these practices have been degraded and some assisted by modernisation. Through their effects on the island environment, these hazards have a range of socio-economic impacts on food (fisheries and crops) and water supply, tourism, and coastal buildings and infrastructure. The varied impacts of climate change not only exacerbate those hazards but also raise new threats, such as sea level rise and ocean acidification. 

Climate change thus sharpens social and cultural issues of equity (reflecting disparities in location, income, education, gender, health and age), made even more acute by increased levels of voluntary or forced migration within, and even more so beyond, island country boundaries. Consequently, many islanders see climate change as a moral challenge to the richer countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the problem. 

According to Regional Climate Consortium for Asia and the Pacific, 2021; Secretariat of the Pacific Community, 2013). “Sea-level rise has resulted in coastal erosion, loss of land and damage to property. Increased severity of cyclones and floods has brought damage to infrastructure, accidental death and risk of epidemics. Droughts threaten local crops, undermine food security, and impact on livelihoods, and these effects may be aggravated by the intrusion of saltwater. Coral bleaching has negative effects on fisheries and tourism (Cissé et al., 2022; Filho et al., 2019). Regional patterns in the proximity of Pacific people to the coast are dominated by Papua New Guinea. Over- all, ca. half the population of the Pacific resides within 10 km of the coast but this jumps to 97% when Papua New Guinea is excluded. A quarter of Pacific people live within 1 km of the coast, but without PNG, this increases to slightly more than half. Excluding PNG, 90% of Pacific Islanders live within 5 km of the coast (Andrew et al., 2019). The health impacts of climate change have been well documented (Costello et al., 2009), with significant implications for Pacific peoples considering already existing inequities perpetuated by poverty”. 

Within Biblical imagery the sea is a central fixture, the Spirit hovers over the surface of the waters in creation. (Gen 1:2) God saves Noah from the flood. (Gen 6:1-8:22) Moses’ staff splits the Red Sea, permitting the Israelites safe passage and deliverance from Egypt. (Ex 14:21-22) Later, the Ark of the Covenant similarly parts the Jordan River as the Israelites reach the Promised Land. (Josh 3:14-17) As the Psalmist prays, “May he {the king} have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!” (Ps 72:8) The New Testament also gives the sea an important place in its narrative. Jesus’ ministry centres around the Sea of Galilee. Paul criss-crosses the Mediterranean. And, concerning the end of the world, the author of Revelations describes a “sea of glass mingled with fire” beneath the throne of God. (Rev 15:2) 

The sea is first mentioned in Luke at the miraculous catch of fish. and the call of the disciples (Lk 5:1-11). Next, it appears when Christ calms the sea (Lk. 8:22-25), and then, immediately afterward, in the exorcism of Legion (8:31-33). There are then no more stories or major parables involving the Sea in this Gospel, outside of small references. such as the faith that can move trees to the sea (17:6) 

The hymn that we are going to sing after our reflective music is “Eternal Father strong to save” Because it’s Father’s day we can be excused from using masculine pro-nouns but just this once.  Afterall it was written between the years 1860 and 1861.  The piece, alternately titled “The Navy Hymn,” was written by two Englishmen, Rev. William Whiting (lyrics) and Rev. John B. Dykes (music).  Reverend Whiting’s ode “Eternal Father” drew inspiration from both the Old and New Testaments. His verses referenced familiar texts such as Matthew 8:26 (“He was asleep… Then he rose and rebuked the seas, and there was a great calm”) and Psalm 65, (“who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations”). Whiting also cited as an impetus to the work his survival during a ferocious Mediterranean storm. 

For us today these words “for those in peril on the sea” is not only a reference to seafarers and navy sailors both ancient and modern, but to all the nations that live by the sea whose livelihood and very existence comes from the sea.  Kiribati, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, these and many other small island nations lives and livelihoods and basic existence and are in peril on the sea every day.  This is a global reality and we as citizens of Aotearoa as part of the Pacific have an urgent mandate to make this a priority and for us to be advocates to continue to act and respond with urgency.  Amen. 

Audio of selected readings and reflections

Audio of the complete service