Supporting children has been a strong theme for the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand in the past few months, both locally and nationally.
In September, the Church added its voice to the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services campaign against child poverty. In an open letter to all the political parties, leaders from the Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, and Salvation Army Churches called for all political candidates to commit themselves to reducing persistent levels of poverty in New Zealand.
Said then-Moderator the Right Rev Pamela Tankersley, “the effect that poverty has on vulnerable New Zealanders is an issue we need to bring to the fore as part of the call we have as Christians to serve those on the margins of society”.
Along with other denominations, the Presbyterian Church was also present at the Every Child Counts (EEC) conference in Wellington in September. The ECC is an umbrella lobby group made up of around 380 organisations involved with children. Pamela took the opportunity to informally discuss the Church’s commitment to children with fellow conference delegates, and senior communications advisor Angela Singer promoted the Church’s well-received social issues booklet Caring for our Children.
The EEC conference provided those attending with the opportunity to ask the main and smaller political parties questions about their children’s policies. Whilst Labour’s Ruth Dyson received a warm response from an audience that generally approved of her party’s children’s policies, National leader John Key was resoundingly booed for his party’s policy of army-style correction camps for wayward youth.
At General Assembly 2008, a children’s musical performance gave a welcome respite from the demands of business. Assembly delegates expressed delight at the performances of “We Are All One”, by children from St Heliers Presbyterian Church and Community Centre in Auckland.