Common Grace Aotearoa’s first year.

Common Grace Aotearoa was established this year with the hope of equipping and organising Christians to participate in transforming unjust structures in society for the common good. We hope to build a gracious Christian voice speaking up for climate, economic and Te Tiriti justice so that all creation and people may flourish.  

These are some highlights of what we have been able to do together this year.

Highlighting stories of resilience in the face of energy hardship

Our economic justice organising has focused in the area of energy hardship, driven by the principle that it shouldn’t be a privilege to have power to keep the lights on. 

The Everyone Connected campaign, launched in August, has generated national coverage of the broken parts of our electricity system that see people disconnected from power and charged a fee because they can’t afford to pay their bills, such as this story of Citiva in The Post and Debbie’s story on the Spinoff. These stories helped secure regular meetings between those who’ve experienced disconnection personally and community advocates directly with the Electricity Authority.

A decision was made last week about whether to introduce binding rules for power companies about consumer care. This is one step to protect people at risk of disconnection, as well as to protect all of us from unfair fees or being overcharged. Ahead of the meeting, we handed over a giant Christmas card to the Electricity Authority’s chief executive signed by dozens of community members (pictured above). We’ll hear in the new year what the Electricity Authority decided.

Act: If you haven’t already, sign the petition calling on the Electricity Authority to protect families struggling with power prices:

Singing to the Select Committee to cut clause 15.

As followers of Jesus, we know we have to take responsibility for our impact on the earth and on our neighbours. Our organising on climate justice this year has been to try and end the subsidising of pollution that see large industrial polluters in Aotearoa continue to get a free pass to pollute. 

In April, we responded to a legislative amendment that would have seen millions more free carbon credits handed out to big polluters over time.

Together with Climate Club, Coal Action Network Aotearoa and ETS expert Dr Christina Hood, we organised a petition signed by over 3000 people and mobilised nearly 100 unique submissionsfor the Select Committee process to show opposition to this amendment and calling for itto be deleted from the Bill.

Our group then sang to the Select Committee which cut through the dry industry submissions, and left a clear message to MPs - which was shared on social media of Environment Select Committee chair, Eugenie Sage.

The Select Committee listened, and with cross-party support recommended deleting the clause that would have given out more harmful free carbon credits! This law passed in the house with clause 15 successfully removed. Read more about that here.

The Don’t Subsidise Pollution campaign has since continued, launching a coalition of 13 faith and environmental groups with a shared policy platform that can end free carbon credits by 2030, and during the election holding politicians to account for their big talk about not wanting to subsidise polluters.

Act: Watch and share the campaign video here

Christians for co-governance

In September, we mobilised Christians in support of promise of mutual flourishing represented by co-governance and to counter the message of the ‘stop co-governance tour’. It was so heartening to see 100 Christians show up on a howling windy day at Parliament, and hold space to affirm our support for Te Tiriti o Waitangi, joining with a few hundred more from the ‘Aroha Not Hoha’ march, and far outnumbering the ‘Stop co-governance’ crowd.

We are now forming two volunteer teams to organise and mobilise tangata Tiriti Christians to be good allies as tangata whenua lead efforts to oppose the steps the government is looking to take to undermine Te Tiriti o Waitangi and equitable outcomes for Māori.

If you’re feeling anxious about having conversations about Te Tiriti, te ao Māori and co-governance with your family over Christmas who might be at a different stage of their journey understanding our collective history, there are some great resources to equip you for those conversations here.

Act: Sign the pledge from Tangata Tiriti Christians to not be silent at this moment.

Gathering and training a community of Christian justice advocates

Throughout the year, we’ve held monthly trainings in Wellington and Auckland for Christians looking to upskill in advocacy and campaigning skills, and explore what Christian discipleship looks like. Then in November, around 60 folks came together at Ngatiawa River Monastery to officially launch Common Grace Aotearoa and have inspiring conversations about pursuing Jesus and climate, economic and Te Tiriti justice. 

Members of our growing community contributed as speakers, leading workshops, prayer sessions, childcare and cooking beautiful food! Common Grace Aotearoa is powered by a whole community of people and this weekend was a great way to build connections across our growing movement.

Powering our movement in 2024

We couldn’t have done this without the support of people like you who want a gracious Christian voice speaking up for justice so that all creation and people may flourish.

Now as we take some time to rest, take stock, and remembering Jesus coming into this world as the Prince of Peace, we are mindful of the place of Jesus birth being torn apart by senseless violence right now. We hold on to the picture of unfathomable love manifesting as beauty, goodness and grace that the Scriptures promise. We envision this abounding love spilling out through our churches, our communities, and these lands.

We are a long way from this vision, but the hope and joy of Christmas is that Jesus’ entry into our world makes this vision inevitable. As his followers, we are called to help this vision begin to bubble up around us now.

To partner with Common Grace Aotearoa in making this a reality, consider becoming a regular financial supporter.