Christmas in New Zealand Part One.

The Famous Donkey of Rakaia














The Crib at Rakai
















Myself and two Altar Servers at Methven
















I hope you all had a lovely and prayerful Christmas. The New Zealand celebration is so different from the one in England. I don’t mean that in the liturgical sense but in the secular way it is celebrated. Though you get the inevitable adds on the TV, there wasn’t much sense that Christmas was coming. Though I had been in Ashburton for two months I only got three cards from parishioners. I told some one this and they said, here in New Zealand we only send them to those we will not see over Christmas, which I agree with on the whole. But there was no feeling of Christmas is coming. If and not worth writing home about, only the lack of them. When Christmas day had finished that was it, they had the Boxing day sales which I believe were packed and on the Wednesday the annual summer holiday begins so everyone is off to their favourite camping site or Australia for their hols.

I also think that because I am in a temporary situation that I didn’t have the involvement that I would normally have had. I just turned up and everything happened around me. That is what happened in St Ita’s Rakaia. You will be glad to hear that the Donkey behaved itself, but the baby Jesus was a bit noisy. The donkey, Joseph, Mary and the baby followed by lots of Angels and shepherds came in when the congregation started to sing, Little Donkey. After the hymn the donkey made a dignified exit but the mother and father of the baby, representing Mary and Joseph sat on the sanctuary with me all the way through Mass, which was different. All the angels and shepherds sat by the steps of the sanctuary. All the lights and activity woke the baby up and it started to cry and cry. I thought this is going to be fun! After five minutes of this I said to the mother you need to go into the sacristy and feed the baby which she did thanks goodness. She and Joseph then appeared after the homily with a sleeping baby, who was as good as gold for the rest of the Mass.

I called the Children up after the homily and they all sat around the crib, which was very nice and I asked them all about Christmas story and what for them. Nearly all of them said it was about presents and Jesus coming into the world. Then we sang Away in a manger and they all remained sitting at the sanctuary steps near the Advent and Christmas candle. During the presentation of the gifts sister Marie Rita rushed over to the Children for they had knocked down the Advent candles which had been precariously placed on a not too stable stand. Her quick action saved the day but because of her age she couldn’t get up so two people tried to lift her by the arms. They were pulling her arms out of their socket and I said you must put your arms round her and lift her up. Thankfully she got up none the worse for her brave action. I just wondered to myself, what else is going to happen on this Christmas night. Thank goodness everything went OK after that.

The next day I went to Methven to celebrate the nine o’clock Mass but I was a shade disappointed at the lack of Children there. What had happened was they had a Christmas service the night before with Holy Communion and most of the children had gone there. Some of the parishioners had pressurised the parish priest to do this because they could not have a Christmas Eve Mass in Methven. It is obvious to me that those parishioners have not got the understanding of what the celebration of the Eucharist is about. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they turned up for the Christmas Mass in the morning but the majority didn’t especially those who pressurised the parish priest. I would not have minded if they were not being served with the Eucharist, but they were. Its funny they most probably go the twenty miles to the supermarket down the road for their cheap shopping but wouldn’t for the Christmas Eve Mass that was being celebrated there. We all have our funny ways. A question that would be left hanging is, ‘Have they fulfilled their Christmas duty?’

That was the only sour note of Christmas but other wise it was nice but different I will tell you more of that in my next blog. Have a lovely New Year and have a wee dram for me. God Bless.