1
SAANZ 2014
”Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also
moved and were shaken”(Psalm 18:7):
Clergy, community liaison and Emergency Management.
Lessons from the Canterbury earthquakes.
M. Grimshaw, E. Brogt, T.M. Wilson, & N. Baird,
How might religious communities and their leaders contribute to
successful emergency management? Religious communities encompass a
wide cross-section of social classes, socio-economic indicators, ethnic
groups and ages, and have their own internal communication structures.
Yet during the Canterbury earthquakes Civil Defence struggled to tap into
existing
community structures below
the mayoral level,
identify
community needs, and provide timely and accurate information.
In this paper, we consider how religious leaders and Civil Defence
authorities might collaborate to establish a two-way information conduit
during the aftermath of a disaster. Using surveys and in-person
interviews, clergy in different Christian denominations were asked about
their roles in the earthquake, the needs of their congregations and the
possibilities and obstacles to deeper collaboration with Civil Defence
authorities.
We note the difficulties encountered and offer suggestions for an improved
and more collaborative Emergency Management procedure.
This paper arises out of a summer studentship undertaken by Nate Baird
& supervised by Tom Wilson, Erik Brogt ( UC Natural Hazards Research
Centre) and Mike Grimshaw (UC Sociology). His project concerned the
role of clergy in city resilience and undertook interviews with clergy from
the Anglican and Presbyterian churches concerning their participation in
fostering and sustaining resilience in Christchurch during and after the
sequence of earthquakes of September 2010- July 2011. The project was
2
reviewed and approved by the UC Human Ethics Committee( get approval
number)
The study discussed how many churches provided valuable support to
their neighborhoods, parishes, and the city at large. What was of interest
to the research team was that in Christchurch, the Civil Defence
authorities did not always have contact persons in communities to identify
the changing needs situation. In addition, timely information from Civil
Defence sometimes did not reach communities. These two effects led to
miscommunications and frustrations.
It was our conjecture that Clergy, by virtue of their role and position, have
detailed knowledge about the current status and changing needs of the
local communities they serve. In addition, clergy are seen as trusted
sources of information, and churches are natural gathering points in the
community. This makes clergy ideal partners for the civil authorities in a
disaster scenario to establish a bidirectional flow of information, ensuring
that miscommunications are minimized and appropriate resources and
support reach the communities in a timely fashion. Therefore the study
aimed to investigate what information and resources would have been
helpful for clergy at the parish level to support the local communities they
serve at various stages in the aftermath of the February earthquake. We
hoped that this study would make a contribution to building resilient
cities and the possibilities to improve disaster relief efforts.
The context of religion
In the 2013 census, those who stated a Christian affiliation numbered
1,906,398, or 48.9% of the population. This was a decrease from the 55.6%
who stated such an affiliation in 2006 1. In greater Christchurch
1
(NZ census quick stats culture and identity)
3
(Christchurch city, Waimakariri and Selwyn) which has a population of
436, 046 2 there was some variation within the stated affiliation from the
national figures.
In
Christchurch
city
49.1%
declared
a
Christian
affiliation,
in
Waimakariri 50.9% and Selwyn 50.6 %. Drilling deeper into these figures,
in all three areas more females than males declared a Christian
affiliation. In Christchurch city 54.5% of females compared to 45.2 % of
males declared a Christian affiliation; in Waimakariri
52.8% females
compared to 47.1 % males did so and in Selwyn 53.7 % females compared
to 47.6 % males so declared themselves. 3 The difference in affiliation
between the genders has long been noted in studies of Christianity and is
significant for our analysis. It is also important to note that the 2013
census identified that while 54% of the 15-29 age group stated they had no
religious identity, only 20% of those 65 years and over did so; and of that
religious cohort aged 65 years and over 83% identified themselves as
either Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian or Methodist
What follows should, we argue, also be read in tandem with the work of
Hoverd, Sibley and Atkinson (2012) on Group size and the Trajectory of
Religious Affiliation in New Zealand. Not only did they discover that
members of smaller religious groups have a stronger sense of group
identification than those of larger religious groups but, importantly for our
analysis: “that women tended to be more strongly identified with their
religious group than men. Older people who were religious also tended to
be more strongly identified with their religious group than younger people
who were religious. Religious people who lived in poorer, more
economically deprived regions of the country tended to be higher in
religious identification than religious people who lived in wealthier, more
affluent areas of the county. Finally, people who strongly identified with
their religious group were more likely to also feel more accepted and
2
3
nz census quick stats culture about greater christchurch
datat supplied by Robert Didham, nz statistics, Christchurch 2014
4
supported by others around them.” ( Hoverd, Sibley and Atkinson,296).
Similarly, Sibley and Bubulia (2012) discovered that in post-quake
Christchurch, following the Religious comfort hypothesis, that those who
had a religious faith or turned to religion as a response to the quakes
experienced better health than those who reported a loss of faith. As they
conclude:
“In highly secular, affluent, and peaceful democracies such as New
Zealand, we might expect a range of philosophical and institutional
supports to protect individuals at times of crisis. Whereas religious
converts might benefit from ready-made theologies and clearly identifiable
communities of support, secular communities appear to be more diffuse,
and less clearly associated with normative systems”. (7).
Of course what is immediately noted of the census results is the increasing
number of those who state no religious identity. However we posit that
here are two readings possible from the census religion results. The first is
the normative secularist reading emphasizing that now more than half the
population state no religious affiliation and in fact that religious affiliation
is declining. Such a decline signals an increasing irrelevance of religion in
modern life and therefore it is not at all surprising that the churches were
not part of Civil Defence planning and communications. This reflects the
once-normative secularization thesis that became a type of socio-cultural
orthodoxy from the latter twentieth century.
For it was sociological
orthodoxy for thirty years, from the 1960s, that religion was on the decline
in the west. The much-vaunted secularization thesis of Peter Berger and
like-minded sociologists found a ready audience amongst liberals and
secularists in modern Western societies.
However in 1999, Peter Berger recanted the thesis. 4 As explained by
Christian Smith discussing the future of the sociology of religion, the
return of religion as socio-political events globally “forced all but the most
See P. Berger (ed), The desecularization of the world: resurgent religion and
world politics (Washington D.C.: Ethics & Public Policy Centre, 1999).
4
5
resistant social scientists to acknowledge that, whatever might be the
validity of secularization theory long term, religion was clearly still a
present and important force in social, political, and cultural life that
needed to be researched, understood, theorized and explained”, (smith
2008, 1561)(Berger 1999).
How might this be understood in the New Zealand context that maintains
a stridently secularist ethos?5 New Zealand, while never having professed
or legislated a state religion, has recently adopted a politically-driven
Statement of Religious Diversity6 administrated at a national level by the
Department of Ethnic Affairs. Such a location makes clear that in a
culture of indifferent secularity, religion is primarily regarded as an
ethnic issue: a cultural activity predominantly undertaken either by nonEuropean immigrants [statistics code for non-white] which includes
Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh populations as well as ‘non-white’
Protestants and Catholics, the indigenous Maori population [incorporating
Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, forms of Maori Christianity
7
and
See William Hoverd, “No Longer a Christian Country? - Religious Demographic
Change in New Zealand 1966-2006,” New Zealand Sociology 23.1 (2008), 41-65.
6 For futrther discussion see:
5
Paul Morris
Towards a Statement on Religious Diversity
National Interfaith Forum
Hamilton, 19 February 2007
http://www.aen.org.nz/journal/2/2/Statement.html
New Zealand as a multireligious society: Recent census figures and some relevant implications
Todd Nachowitz http://www.aen.org.nz/journal/2/2/index.html
The two most prominent being the Ratana and Ringatu Churches; the former
associated with the Twentieth Century prophet Wiremu Ratana and the latter
with the Nineteenth Century chief and prophet Te Kooti. Running through Maori
society is the concept of Wairua (spirit) which enables a complex mix of
syncretism to exist up to the highest levels of Maori Christianity. Wairua is linked
to tribal history and tribal land, Maori identifying themselves collectively as
tangata whenua or people of the land. In latter years European New Zealanders
have also attempted (to various degrees of success) to incorporate and
appropriate claims of Wairua and identification with the land. For a recent
discussion on contemporary New Zealand spiritual identity see the essays and
7
6
traditional beliefs and practices] and the large Pacific Island population
[Protestant, Catholic and Mormon] who have been a significant part of
New Zealand urban life since the 1960s. Therefore, at an isnitaututional
and bureaucrtocs level this country is the embodiment of one particular
modern future for most who study religion. It is a modern society after
religion [at the very least after ‘Christian society’ and ‘Christian culture’],
a society of increasing indifference to religion and yet also experiencing a
growth in a sectarian, religiously and socially conservative rump.While
the non-religious continue to grow, those who do express a religious
identity now primarily identify with the more evangelical and Pentecostal
forms of Christianity and also, with a resurgent, conservative Catholicism.
Yet to undertand the types of religious participation we need to be clear
that stated affiliation is not the same as attendance. The great majority of
those 48.9% who declared a Christian affiliation do not regularly attend
their ststed affilation on a weekly, or even monthly basis. They exist
within what what has been termed “fuzzy fidelity’ (storm 2009) building
on the work of Davie ( 1994, 2000: 33) who offered the term ‘believing
without belonging’ to describe the nature of relgious change in Europe. As
discussed by Storm (2009) what arises in the European context of
secularization is the continuation of relgion as a stated identity, if not
regular participation, often as a series of ethics or social markers (Storm,
703; Hervieu-Leger 2000: 157-58) or as what Hervieu-Leger terms a social
function of “symbolic reference” (Storm 703; Hervieu-Leger 40). The term
‘fuzzy fidelity’ arose from the work of Voas (2009) to describe “a group of
people who are neither very religious nor nonreligious according to
standard quantitative measures of religiosity” (Storm: 703). As Storm
expands, “Fuzzy fidelity” is used to describe people who “are neither
regular churchgoers nor self-consciously nonreligious” (Storm 703)(Voas
poems collected in the longest-running New Zealand literary-cultural journal
Landfall:
Landfall 215 (May 2008): Waiting for Godzone [ed. Paul Morris & Mike
Grimshaw].
7
2009:155). It is therefore argued that the concept of ‘fuzzy fidelity’ should
be applied to the New Zealand context, but with the emphasis that such
fuzzy fidelity applies therefore to almost half the population who, in some
way look to the Christian churches for some type of symbolic reference. As
will be noted in the interviews with clergy, in the quake-struck
environment, many of those who might be described as comprising the
fuzzy fidelity turned their local churches to provide what can be described
as practical expressions and experiences of both symbolic reference and
the religious comfort hypothesis.
In the 2013 cenusus, it was identified that Catholicism had become the
largest Christian affiliation (492,105), over-taking the Anglican church
(459,721), followed by the Presbyterians [includng Congregational and
Reformed](330, 516), then Christian [no denomination] (216, 177) and the
Methodists (102,516). Furthermore, that half the population of four
million who signalled a religious identity in the last census, did so within
123 different religious identities. Of the non-Christian religions, the
largest are Hindusim(89,919), Buddhism (58, 407) and Islam(46,146) 8 .
Also of interest is that while the European and Maori populations had the
largest percentage reporting no religion [European – 1,356,816 people,
46.9 percent of this ethnic group; Māori – 263,517 people,46.3 percent],
the other ethnicities in New Zealand reported much higher levels of
religious identity. Of the Asian population only 30.3 % reported no
religion, of Pacific people only 17.5% and for Middle Eastern/Latin
American/African peoples only 17% reported no religion. Therefore there
are considerable variations within the New Zealand population and
religion continues, in multiple ways, often unseen or unacknowledged by a
broader societal ethos of secularization. This may be post-modern
pluralism, yet done so within a wider modernist ‘end of religion’.
8
Didham census figures 2014
8
In considering the Christchurch context it is helpful to be reminded of the
number of churches/parishes that the ‘big four’ churches operate across
Christchurch city. The Anglican Church has the largest presence with 35
parishes including 5 Maori church parishes; the Presbyterians have 24
parishes, the Catholics 15 and the Methodists 12. These parishes cover the
socio-economic, cultural, ethnics and geographical variations of the city.
These ‘big four’ of course also have significant parish presence in greater
Christchurch; that is in Selwyn and Waimakairi.
Survey
Nate Baird undertook an email survey of clergy as the first part of the
summer studentship.
He emailed the survey to 35 clergy compromised of 19 Anglicans, 6
Catholics, 4 Presbyterians, 3 Methodists, 1 Mormon and 1 other. The
survey asked them to grade their responses to 19 issues of community
need and the degree to which they required outside assistance and to what
degree they were resolved. Our analysis is that it really seems to depend
where in the town the parish was as to what it required- which is what we
would have thought. That’s is, parishes on the East side reported more
unresolved issues and these were to do with grief and loss of people and
property, access to food and food supplies and water.
However, overall the Methodists disproportionately reported more
unresolved issues. This could be because Methodists tend to be older and
have less social capital- as a congregation and as a church. Conversely, the
Mormons were reported very high levels of self-organization and
community focus as they had own church builders and generators.
Overall all the churches really wanted was more and better information so
they could get on and do what they could for their community and their
parish- the two are different and overlap as identified in the interviews
that followed up the survey.
9
Interviews
The Interviews were conducted with clergy from the Anglican and
Presbyterian churches. It is noted that this is of course not a
representative sample, but these were the denominations that responded
to requests for interviews and what they discussed does bring to light
wider experiences within these denominations. Furthermore, it is
conjectured that the experiences of clergy were normative across
denominations in the context of the Canterbury quakes. All were dealing
with communities of need that extended beyond attendance populations,
compromising more so affiliates and importantly, the wider communities
that the parishes were located in.
Tom Innes, Anglican university Chaplain found it surprising to hear that
Civil Defence do not have a list of all clergy in the area. In his words this
failure is “just daft”.9He also noted that a major challenge after the major
earthquakes was that the internet went down and so suggests that Civil
Defence have a text-list of clergy to facilitate communication network. One
point he made was that parishes are often now less a geographical area
and more operate under what could be termed a Baptist theology of a
gathered community. Therefore the networks of a parish now extend far
beyond what were traditional parish boundaries and in this way enable a
far wider network of communication and oversight than might be thought
if considering within the traditional notion of a geographical parish.
The Anglican priest John Parker is part of the Christchurch Community
Response (CCR) group established by churches after the earthquakes. He
noted that initially many people retreated into a fortress mentality,
especially in the eastern suburbs, whereby they were afraid to venture too
far from home. In response the CCR, drawing on established networks of
parish oversight and visiting, undertook a programme of visiting, doorknocking - and important for the Religious Comfort hypothesis, praying
together. Parker reports CCR was tied in with other community groups
and linked with CERA who sought out CCR to help with door-knocking
9
Innes interview
10
concerns and follow-up visits where concerns were identified. At the time
of the interview (2012) CCR had visited 13,000 homes offering “a
continuum of assistance, help and support…(for)… when it comes down to
the crunch, we are members of the community….we know most of the
people in the area… and encouraged members of the congregation to do
that- go around the neighbourhood.”10 As he noted, “We in the Church at
ground-level can give Civil Defence follow-up information”11, despite CCR
only being indirectly used and linked with Civil Defence. He also
emphasized that the Churches were involved in grass-roots distribution of
hot food, water and other supplies, and that in doing so this was “nothing
to do with the Church- it was the community helping the community…we
were just complementing their work (Civil Defence)…it was an important
role of working with the community alongside Civil Defence.”
Considering lessons that could be learned, Parker suggested that a basic
communication set-up should be established between Civil Defence and
the churches which enables wider, localized community oversight and
networks. Because the churches have people used to visiting and knowing
the area and its people they have the understandings to be able to go in
without an agenda and ask if inhabitants are ok. CCR has, he stated, now
got visitors who are well trained to know the right questions and the right
answers. It is suggested that, arising from this research, Civil Defence in
Christchurch and elsewhere not only establishes links with local churches
but that Civil Defence and churches discuss how, learning from what
occurred in Christchurch, local/regional versions of CCR can be planned
for so that, when disaster and need occurs, the networks with and between
churches and Civil Defence and other agencies are in place.
As Parkers comments, “The church has a responsibility, socially, to work
with the community to ensure that the community’s healthy, not
necessarily church people but the community at large. Whether they go to
church or not doesn’t matter, our response is to look after all people so
10
11
Parker interview
Parker interview
11
therefore we have a social responsibility to ensure the health of the
community generally and so we need to make sure we have the voice there
working with all the other groups and helping each other out.”12
The evidence of CCR is that churches can and do offer pan-community
response to need and take a ground-up attitude of pastoral oversight with
and for the wider community and can do so without any specifically
religious agenda.
The Anglican Priest Janet Sprott noted from her experience that the
churches often seemed to find it easier, using existing networks, getting
people into neighbourhoods and because they were not governmental
agencies people affected seemed more willing to tell them “a bit more than
they would tell an agency.”
13
The researchers suggest that this is an
important point to consider because in Christchurch, many of those worst
affected, in the eastern suburbs, were those who were socio-economically
disadvantaged already. Therefore their prior experiences of government
and social agencies may very well have coloured their expectations and
interactions with such agencies. The churches in such areas are already
embedded within such communities of disadvantage and need and have
already been involved in personal, family community and social support.
Similarly Sprott noted that while Civil Defence had often designated
schools as community emergency focus locations, in the event of a crisis or
an
emergency
the
on
the
ground
experience
was
that
many
neighbourhoods turned firstly to the local churches. Sprott therefore
suggests that Churches and Civil Defence establish Emergency Centre
Protocols whereby a Church is designated as an emergency centre in the
community, whereby it would have plans in place including dealing with
food, water and bedding, relief supplies drop-off and distribution. The
churches already have networks and communities of volunteers in place
compared to schools, therefore relief and support activity can support in a
12
13
Parker interview
Sprott interview
12
different fashion from a school that does not naturally have a large body of
volunteers to call upon.14 Churches, it is suggested, are more community
embedded than schools, covering a wider variety of cohorts within the
population, rather than firstly children and families, especially it should
be noted the elderly and women. It is also suggested that the experience of
many with schools is not in the manner of expected community support
and relief in times of crisis and need. So while not suggesting the removal
of schools from being centres of Civil Defence emergency planning, it is
suggested a revised and expanded plan that includes Churches alongside
schools. Sprott proposed highlighting a
larger church in an area and
encouraging the surrounding churches to work together. The integrated
response with Civil Defence, facilitated though the larger church can
therefore be spread over 5-6 churches and cover a wider area.15 A further
point made by Sprott was also emphasized consistently by other clergy:
Civil Defence needs to be talking with churches in Wellington now, and
not just with clergy. Rather Civil Defence needs to acknowledge the skills
and community networks and, importantly, the volunteers and ground-up
community knowledge that Churches possess.
The Presbyterian minister David Coster noted that in 2009 his Cashmere
Hills parish had talked with Civil Defence when they had upgraded their
building. He commented that Civil Defence had said to them that
Churches were not a primary source, rather they were a secondary
source, the primary source being the schools and other emergency centres.
However Civil Defence did say they could do with more people in the event
of an emergency. Coster observed that his parish, in an affluent socioeconomic area had many highly skilled people who could have been of use.
But, given there was no plan to use such people they, having connections
and choices, could leave Christchurch to stay with relatives and friends,
but, he observed if they had been told of the need for their skills they
14
15
sprott interview
sprott interview
13
would have chosen to stay and help. He also observed that at community
meetings often there was only a lone Civil Defence person present who
was over-whelmed. In his experience, while his parish and the Presbytery
were linked into CERA they had no contact with Civil Defence and yet
Presbytery, as the organizing body of the local Presbyterian churches, had
links and communication across the city and across the country, and not
just into their own denomination. In his opinion the networks, at
neighbourhood, community, city, regional and national level of the
churches were not understood by Civil Defence; not was what they could
offer as a body experienced at serving the community. Yet he also
remembered that when he was a minister in a rural parish in the Awatere
valley in Marlborough, a noted seismic hotspot, the local ministers all
were given a Civil Defence pass card and so they knew what to do, where
to go and the card got them through barriers. He suggested this would be
a good thing to introduce elsewhere.
Coster also reiterated five points the other clergy also stated: 1: that the
Church was a centre for a community and arranged care and alternative
communication especially for the elderly and the single people in the area;
2: that clergy and churches were trained in caring for people and so
provided a sense of calm and assurance in the midst of crisis; 3: that the
wearing of a clerical collar opened doors and facilitated access across the
community and into limited access areas; 4: that churches possessed
physical plant that
could and was used for community support and
facilitation, including kitchen facilities; 5: that churches operated their
own pan-denominational distribution of donated goods, food, water,
clothing, bedding and support which were sent out through Church
networks often because there was no Civil Defence link with the Churches
at all.16
Geoff Haworth, Anglican parish priest in Kaiapoi reiterated the
importance of churches and Civil Defence being able to work together in
16
Coster interview
14
distribution networks. He commented that churches were not only turned
to by those in need but they also received a steady stream of donated
goods and volunteers, often from around the country, including money.
Yet the churches operated separately from Civil Defence as distribution
centres and community support centres. In his opinion Civil defence
needed to upgrade their thinking about the role and potential of Churches
as centres of positive activity in the middle of a disaster; for churches are
a combination of gathering paces, distribution places, centres of
knowledge and information about the community and sources of
volunteers.17
The importance of the church for the local community and that
neighbourhoods often turned to the Church first was also emphasized by
the Anglican Priest Anne-Russell-Brightly. She offered the suggestion that
perhaps Civil Defence could designate a key church in an area to be
storage centre for water and dry-goods – as, our interviewer Nate observed
- already existed in Latin America, to help with crisis.18
Conclusion
That Civil Defence are still unaware of - or perhaps choose to ignore- the
activities of the churches in the recent earthquakes, is evident in their
most recent (August 2014) Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency
Management Group Plan. There are no churches or church bodies named
as partner agencies (p.9); nor are churches listed as a community-based
group that Civil Defence will seek to build a relationship with in their
local community (p.15). The Churches are also absent in discussion of the
social
environment
and
vulnerable
populations,
including
rural
communities. (pp.26-27). Furthermore, given past experiences, it seems
unlikely that churches - or other religious organizations - are envisaged as
included in discussions regarding community readiness, awareness and
17
18
Haworth interview
Russell Brightly interview/Nate Baird
15
resilience (pp.36-38); nor are they included in the sections discussing of
welfare provision or emergency recovery.
The experience of the Canterbury earthquakes demonstrated that the
churches found themselves often at the centre of neighbourhood and
community focus and need. Called upon to offer physical, emotional,
spiritual and practical help and support, operating as para-formal
distribution networks for goods, food, water and communication, Churches
were highly visible for their affected communities yet strangely, seemly
invisible for Civil Defence. Yet a seemingly secular society is also, when in
crisis, a society of fuzzy fidelity and expressions of the Religious Comfort
hypothesis in action. If Civil Defence is serious about community
engagement then, it is argued that given the experiences of the churches
in the Canterbury earthquakes, churches- and given the increasing
diversity of New Zealand society, other religious communities- must be
part of their planning, engagement and crucially, their information
networks. For in a post-secular society, secularist attitudes, especially by
state agencies seeking to help all within that society, are decidedly noncivil.