Common Grace Aotearoa is calling for Christians to stand up against the Treaty Principles Bill which winds back years of growing understanding and collaboration between Māori and Pākehā working to build a kinder, fairer Aotearoa.

The Treaty Principles Bill sets out to limit understanding of the Treaty's role, in order to remove Māori voices from Aotearoa New Zealand's legal and policy future and shift the conversation away from the goal of an equitable, shared Aotearoa into a polarised debate focused on arguing over who gets what.

During the season of Advent, Common Grace Aotearoa is inviting churches to gather submissions as faith communities or groups of friends and to have a say on what kind of future you think would be good for everyone in this country, and why the Treaty Principles Bill is most likely to take us backwards against that goal.

Common Grace is offering resources to help churches speak up with a "gracious and prophetic voice" to defend the integrity of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, but more importantly to be good neighbours.

The Treaty Principles Bill will go to first reading on Thursday 21 November, 2024, then to Select Committee for the public to have their say.

Common Grace are encouraging people to gather submissions between Monday 25 November and Sunday 15 December.

You can sign up to equip your faith community to speak some common sense into this critical moment in history at treatyandbelonging.nz/speakup