A Brief Descriptive of New Zealand (Aotearoa)
New Zealand is characterised by a deeply embedded bicultural foundation, officially recognising the partnership between the indigenous Māori people (Tangata Whenua) and European settlers (Pākehā) under the Treaty of Waitangi. This manifests in a society that intentionally navigates the balance between Western systemic organisation and indigenous Polynesian worldviews.
Theologically, the country has moved past a singular colonial church model. The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand features both highly structured, values-led independent educational institutions and Te Aka Puaho (the Māori Synod), alongside vibrant Pasifika.
(Samoan, Cook Islands, Niuean) congregations. This pluralistic ecosystem provides a vivid blueprint for how faith communities can preserve cultural distinctiveness while remaining united under a single reformed banner.
This report details the multi-day consultation across New Zealand, focusing on the intersection of formal education, indigenous pedagogy, community welfare, and diverse cultural expressions of faith.
As a delegation, we explored innovative models of children’s ministry, alternative Pasifika educational frameworks, and traditional Māori systems of learning. The insights gained from this trip will directly inform our approach to curriculum development, decolonising pedagogy, and holistic community engagement.
Daily Proceedings & Strategic Engagements
Day 1-Sunday 17: Contrasting Churches & Community Models
The consultation began with an exploration of diverse Presbyterian expressions in Auckland to observe how different congregations engage their local communities.
Morning Observations: Delegation members split across multiple morning services, including St Helier’s Presbyterian Church, Glendowie Presbyterian Church, and the Presbyterian Cook Islands Church.
Key Insight: Contrasting traditional parish settings with specific Pasifika language-nest environments highlighted the importance of contextual ministry.
Evening Session: Attended the “Messy Church” initiative at Kohimarama Presbyterian Church, focusing on hospitality-driven, multi-generational faith formation (concluding with a shared community dinner).
Day 2- Monday 18: Spirituality and Methods – Godly Play
Venue: Upper Room, Anglican Church (Newmarket, Auckland)
Focus: A full-day intensive workshop (9:15 am – 4:00 pm) centered on Godly Play, a method of childhood spiritual formation that honors children’s innate spirituality through storytelling and play.
Pasifika Contextualization: Transferred to the East Tamaki Cook Islands Christian Church
(Otara) for an evening seminar on “Ages and Stages of Faith,” focusing on how different cultural heritages map onto spiritual milestones.
Day 3-Tuesday 19: Systems, Resources, and Content-Curriculum in Diversity
Venue: Saint Kentigern Programme (Shore Road & Pakuranga Campuses).
Campus Studies: Shore Road Campus: Evaluated the seamless integration of valuesbased education from Preschool through Year 8, including a site tour and a Christian Education class observation.
College Campus (Pakuranga): Investigated secondary school chaplaincy, service learning programmes, and resource allocation for diverse student bodies.
Theological & Pedagogical Inputs:
Melba from Nauru:
Presented a key case study from the Nauru titled “Schooling – An alternative Pacific story,” challenging Eurocentric curriculum structures.
Tevahine from Tahiti:
Presented a pastoral example of chaplaincy frameworks from Tahiti.
Day 4-Wednesday 20: Indigeneity and the Formation of Person-Community
The delegation traveled southward from Auckland through Hamilton and Whakatāne to Ōhope.
Hamilton Stop: Visited Te Whare Taonga o Waikato (Waikato Museum and Gallery) to examine regional educational exhibitions.
Pedagogical Frameworks: Received an intensive briefing from Amelia on “Decolonising and Reimagining,” contrasting linear vs. cyclical reasoning systems in indigenous learning models.
Cultural Immersion: Arrived in Ōhope to learn the history of Te Aka Puaho (the Māori Synod of the Presbyterian Church). The delegation experienced traditional communal living, staying on the Marae (Fenua/Whenua), which emphasized shared spaces, gender-separated quarters, and relational community-building.
Day 5-Thursday 21 – Friday 22: Immersion on the Marae.
Two full days of intensive plenary sessions, workshops, and communal living focused on
community welfare and family faith structures.
Key Themes Addressed:
- The philosophy and practice of child ministry via Te Aka Puaho.
- “The spirituality of the child” (Led by Judyth). - Participant Case Study Panels.
Methodologies Utilised: To model collaborative, non-hierarchical governance, sessions utilised Mind-mapping, Appreciative Enquiry, Discovery Learning and Open Space Technology.
Land-Based Pedagogy: Engaged in Playtime / Retelling Creation on Land, out of the box story telling, examining how physical geography shapes theological understanding.
Day 6-Saturday 23: Synthesis and Return Transit
Transit: Traveled from Ōhope back to Auckland, with a strategic processing stop in Rotorua.
Reflection: The transit time was leveraged for structured reflection panels, synthesising the pedagogical tools (Appreciative Enquiry/Open Space) practiced on the Marae.
Day 7-Sunday 24: Pasifika Congregational Deep Dive
Morning Engagement: Attended Newton Pacific Islands Congregation, participating in their Sunday School structures and formal service, followed by an onsite dialogue regarding Samoan congregational dynamics with Rev. Winston.
Evening Synthesis: Transferred back to the Cook Islands Christian Church in Otara for a combined celebration dinner, cementing regional ecumenical partnerships.
Day 8-Monday 25: Strategic Outcomes & Plenary
Venue: Mangere Presbyterian Church (10:00 am – 4:00 pm)
Action Steps: The delegation split into collaborative working groups to translate the week’s observations into actionable ministry materials, curriculum frameworks, and strategic policy recommendations.
Final Plenary: Presentation of final outcomes and cross-group evaluations
I. Reimagining Childhood Education
We should move toward models like Godly Play and the Te Aka Puaho child-ministry philosophy, which view children not as empty vessels to be filled with information, but as spiritually intuitive individuals. Our upcoming curriculum revisions should prioritise experiential, narrative-driven learning.
II. Commitment to Decolonising Pedagogy
Hearing the “Alternative Pacific Story” and studying cyclical reasoning systems highlights the limitations of purely Western administrative setups. Our educational resources must intentionally incorporate diverse cultural worldviews, balancing individual achievement with community-centric (Whenua) values.
III. Embracing Modern Collaborative
Methodologies
For future synods, committee work, and community welfare initiatives, the church should move away from rigid, top-down meeting structures. Adopting Open Space Technology and Appreciative Enquiry will foster broader engagement and yield more organic, community driven outcomes.
Strategic Implementation for the PCM Children’s Department
As we look to enrich our own children’s ministries across our active parishes in Mauritius, the insights from this consultation offer highly practical, transformative pathways. Mauritius, like New Zealand, is a beautifully diverse, multi-cultural, and post-colonial society. Our approach to children’s faith formation must reflect this richness.
The following actionable takeaways are to be considered for adaptation and shared within the PCM Children’s Department:
A. The “Godly Play” Framework (Parish Sunday
Schools)
The Concept: Shifting from standard instructional Sunday school lessons to the Godly Play methodology. This system acknowledges that children possess a natural, deep spiritual intuition and learn best through sacred storytelling, open-ended wondering questions, and dedicated time for creative play.
PCM Implementation: Launch a pilot training program for Sunday School monitors across our parishes to teach storytelling techniques using physical, tangible materials.Redesign classroom spaces to move away from rigid desks or routinal settings toward circular, open-floor layouts that facilitate shared discovery.
B. Decolonising Pedagogy & Contextual Storytelling
The Concept: Moving away from entirely Eurocentric teaching materials and embracing both linear and cyclical reasoning systems. This means teaching faith through relational, community-centered narrative models rather than just strict, text-heavy moral memorisation.
PCM Implementation: Review and adapt our current children’s ministry curricula to better reflect our regional identity.We can integrate local contexts—such as using the rich oral history styles and natural geography of Mauritius (our lands, beaches, and historical heritage), to retell creation and biblical narratives, mirroring the Māori approach of “Retelling Creation on Land.”
C. The “Messy Church” Outreach Model
The Concept: A highly successful, lowbarrier hospitality model designed for families who may not comfortably fit into standard Sunday morning liturgical structures. It centers on creativity, celebration, and hospitality (always including a shared meal).
PCM Implementation: Task the Children’s Department with launching bi-monthly or quarterly “Messy Church” afternoon sessions in our parishes.This will serve as a primary community outreach tool, welcoming families from local neighborhoods to engage in Bible-based crafts, informal worship, and a shared dinner.
D. Cooperative Governance & Active Listening in Child Ministry
The Concept: Moving away from a rigid, topdown structure when planning youth and children’s activities, opting instead for collaborative methodologies like Appreciative Enquiry and Mind-Mapping.
PCM Implementation: Incorporate deliberate “listening circles” where children and youth are given an active voice to share their inputs on church life and activities.Train Sunday School leaders to utilise mindmapping and plenary feedback loops when organising major department events, cultivating a sense of shared ownership and communal responsibility (person-community formation).
3. Summary Matrix for the Children’s Committee
Integration of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Pedagogical Practice
1. Facilitation and Engagement
During our time together, specifically during our intensive immersion sessions on the Marae and our plenary workshops, I had the distinct privilege of introducing and initiating the consultation participants into the methodologies of the Theatre of the Oppressed.
Developed by Augusto Boal, this interactive theatrical framework uses the stage as a rehearsal space for social and spiritual transformation. Rather than being passive spectators, participants become “spect-actors,” actively stepping into scenarios to analyse power dynamics, dismantle systemic barriers, and collectively generate creative solutions to real-world challenges.
2. Outcomes and Participant Impact
The introduction of this methodology proved to be an exceptionally fruitful and exciting component of the consultation. It resonated deeply with our overarching themes of decolonising pedagogy and community-centric learning.
Breaking Hierarchies: The exercises leveled the playing field, allowing delegates, chaplains, and community leaders to engage in raw, honest, and non-hierarchical dialogue.
Embodied Theology: It moved our theological reflection out of a purely intellectual space and into an embodied experience, enabling us to physically and emotionally engage with issues of diversity, marginalisation, and educational equity.
3. Application for the Presbyterian Church of Mauritius (PCM) Children’s Department
This tool has profound implications for how we train our Sunday School monitors and engage our youth. Drama and embodied storytelling are natural languages for children.
The integration the Theatre of the Oppressed into Sunday School curriculum design transitions children from passive listeners into active participants (“spect-actors”) who physically and emotionally experience Biblical and ethical narratives.
A. Training Sunday School Monitors
Rather than utilising traditional, top-down lectures, training sessions for monitors can mirror the collaborative models.
Immersive Modeling: Training should occur through practical workshops rather than theoretical handbooks. Monitors should engage in the same physical theater games and problemsolving exercises they will later use with children.
Co-Facilitation Skills: Shift the monitor’s role from an authoritative “teacher” to a “Joker” (the neutral facilitator in Theatre of the Oppressed). Monitors learn to ask open-ended questions, guide reflection, and help children navigate scenarios without giving away predetermined answers.
B. Engaging the Youth & Children
Drama and embodied storytelling provide an ageappropriate framework to dismantle complex concepts.
Forum Theater for Real-World Challenges: Sunday School lessons can introduce a short, scripted scene where a character experiences a relevant problem (e.g., bullying, exclusion, unfair sharing).
Children can call “Stop!”, step into the scene as “spect-actors,” and try out different physical and verbal interventions to change the outcome.
Embodied Scripture Study: Move Bible stories off the page. Children can use “Image Theater” (sculpting their own or others’ bodies into silent statues) to represent abstract concepts like freedom, captivity, justice, or grace, allowing them to feel the weight of a narrative before discussing it textually.
Strategic Recommendations
To successfully scale this methodology from an experimental consultation component into sustained departmental practice, the following steps are recommended:
1. Curriculum Adaptation & Co-Design
Action: Review the current Sunday School syllabus and select 3–5 core thematic units to enrich with embodied storytelling methodologies.
Focus: Target lessons dealing with social justice, community responsibility, and diversity. Create clear “Facilitator Prompts” within the teaching guides to assist monitors in transitioning smoothly from a story into a theater exercise.
2. Pilot Program Implementation
Action: Launch a 6-week pilot program in a select few parishes before rolling out the framework nationally.
Focus: Document the sessions to observe how children of various ages respond to the exercises. Gather feedback from the participating monitors regarding timing, space constraints, and engagement levels to refine the approach.
3. Establish Regional Peer-Support Networks
Action: Move away from isolated annual training sessions toward continuous, non-hierarchical learning circles for monitors.
Focus: Create regular, informal check-ins where monitors from different parishes can share successful exercises, troubleshoot challenges encountered during Forum Theater sessions, and co-create new interactive scenarios.
4. Cultural & Contextual Grounding
Action: Ensure theater exercises leverage local Mauritian cultural elements, such as traditional storytelling rhythms or familiar community dilemmas.
Focus: This anchors the “decolonising pedagogy” into a tangible reality, ensuring that the exercises resonate directly with the lived experiences and everyday realities of Mauritian children.
Conclusion
This consultation has provided a vital blueprint for reform. By blending structured institutional excellence (as seen at Saint Kentigern) with deep, relational, land-based indigenous community models (as experienced on the Marae), our church is uniquely positioned to lead
a holistic, life-flourishing educational transformation.