Waipa Citizenship Ceremony
Last week Jesse Wood covered a story on migrants who have recently become New Zealand citizens.
See: Citizenship ceremony
Berly George, a nurse at Matariki in Te Awamutu with her husband disability support worker Biju Paul – now a New Zealand citizen – son Nathan Paul and mother Anu George. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
This got me thinking about my own history. I am the son of a migrant mother who is the daughter of migrant parents. Though I grew up in what I thought was a reasonably “normal” New Zealand home, my life has been deeply shaped by my migrant heritage. As it is coming closer to Christmas time, two of the traditions that we had in our home were the celebration of St Nicholas on night of the December 5-6 where we would place a shoe outside our door and wake to find it filled with sweets.
Samuel Pullenger
The other tradition was that we would open all our presents on Christmas Eve, rather than on Christmas Day. It was a running joke in our house to see how long mum would continue to speak to us in German after she hung up the phone call to her mum, given that we only spoke English.
These differences were odd to a lot of my friends whose families had been in Aotearoa for several generations. But it also meant that we, as a family, often made friends quickly with the newest immigrant families to our town. If we each look back on our heritage, we will find stories of immigration because we are all immigrants from one place to another. However, if we stay long enough in one place, it can be easy to forget that we are all immigrants. We set up homes, businesses and lives passing them down from one generation to the next.
Suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly), this place that we have settled down in becomes our place, my place, and those newcomers are the different ones, the ones who do not belong.
In the Bible, the book of Acts tells the story of the early church. A conference is called with church leaders to talk about non-Jewish people who are beginning to follow Jesus. Some leaders want these new Christians to have to follow all the Jewish laws, while others believe they should be allowed to practice their faith shaped by their own culture and traditions. In the end, the Church agrees that non-Jewish Christians should be enabled and encouraged to practice their faith. What this sets up is a precedent for the Church worldwide, that each person, tradition and culture has value and can offer something unique.
As we welcome our newly affirmed New Zealand citizens, I want to invite us to think about how we are engaging with migrants in Waipā. I wonder what it might be like to begin life in a completely new place, in a different culture. I wonder how other cultures might enable us to see the world in a new and refreshing way.
Jesus calls us to welcome the migrant, not so that they would become like us, but so that together we would become something new.
Mike Pettit led his first citizenship ceremony as mayor.
