Community bonds displayed

University student Sam Johnson organised through Facebook students to go into the suburbs to help residents clean up after Saturday mornings earthquake. They gathered in Halswell to help residents clean up the silt from their properties. James Litchwark (L) and Tom van Laanen shovel dirt.

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Perspective

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Why are natural disasters called "acts of God"? Speaking as someone who spends a fair bit of time thinking about who God is and how and why things happen, it irritates me profoundly.

So let's consider the recent earthquake, in Canterbury, from a different perspective. Rather than beginning with deciding where to lay the blame, let's ask the question what permanent good can come out of this?

It has been noted that calamities do bring out the best in people. We have seen this repeatedly in the last week. People who have never met or spoken are now working side by side clearing debris and digging silt. The emergency centre in Kaiapoi seemed to have as many volunteers as people in need on the day I visited. Furthermore, it was a remarkably smooth operation. In Christchurch, neighbours who had not met are checking in on each other.

There is no doubt that a significant challenge can bring the best out in us.

But will it last? Will our present quality of community continue, or will we revert to our isolated lifestyles? Loneliness is a major social problem in Canterbury. Why? The choice is ours.

I have heard people say that Canterbury has always had this quality of community, but I question that. Let me remind you of some of the social realities we ignore when life is "normal", whatever that means.

At the moment there is enormous concern for those who have suddenly lost their homes, and so there should be. But what of that segment of society that is regularly homeless? Why are these people permitted to depend on the Christchurch City Mission night shelter? Why are we not as quick to address their situation, and reinstate them as residents of the community? Why is there so little emergency shelter for women? Why is living from the proceeds of the food bank acceptable for some people?

It is because they were invisible before and they are invisible now.

The people in crisis due to the earthquake have been thrown from one social reality to another and we want to respond. We want life to return to normal for those in crisis; it makes us feel more secure. But think what that perspective means. The very events that pushed us out of our comfort zone, to assist our neighbours, once they recede, will allow us to creep back into our separated and isolated existences. And that creates a poverty of community.

On the second day after the earthquake, when there was a desire to stay close to home and simply care for one another, the incidence of accidents and casualties was significantly down. But as life slowly returns to normal, we read that domestic violence is on the rise. Families debate whether to stay in substandard housing or move; men and women recognise that they may now be out of work; contracts for concerts and conferences are cancelled; the list goes on.

Each of these social realities has a significant human cost, the only way to address this is to maintain communities of mutual care. It will not happen automatically for we are more accustomed to social isolation. But if we decide resolutely for ongoing community transformation, it is possible.

What does that mean for each of us? It means continuing to check in on your neighbour. It also means having the courage to ask for help when life is challenging and the going is hard. It means rejecting the lifestyle of isolation and imagined self- sufficiency and admitting we are made for community.

We need each other regardless of whether the circumstances are good, bad, or indifferent. There is no such thing as a spirituality of isolation but only a spirituality of community.

One of the greatest threats experienced recently was the loss of control.

But if we are honest, the real loss was the illusion of being in control. We are never in control, not ever.

So the illusion of control is gone and I think that is one of the hidden blessings.

When a severe aftershock hit on Wednesday morning, not when we were safe in our beds, but up and about and getting on with the day, we realised again that such events of nature happen and there is no way to exclude them from daily living.

Perhaps you are wondering what I would like to call earthquakes and tsunamis, if not acts of God. I call them part of life.

They are invitations to form community. That is where God comes into the picture, because God invites us constantly into community and relationship with one another and with Godself. This is seen most clearly in the fact God became one of us in the person of Jesus. Emmanuel: "God with us", says it all.

* The Right Reverend Victoria Matthews is the Anglican Bishop of Christchurch.

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