Anglican-founded Common Grace Aotearoa (CGA) has held an inaugural annual hui at Ngatiawa River Monastery in Waikanae between 10-12 November to establish itself as an ecumenical non-profit. 

Common Grace Aotearoa aims to gather together Christians keen to change their world for the better – and to equip them with the practical strategies and skills they need to succeed. 

More than 60 Christians took part in the Common Grace Aotearoa launch in Waikanae, with activists young and old from Southland to Auckland. For now, Anglicans from Pōneke Wellington make up the bulk of people involved, but changemakers from various denominations and locations helped Common Grace Aotearoa set off as a wider ecumenical movement.

Wellington Anglicans Alex Johnston and Kate Day provided the founding vision for Common Grace Aotearoa when they identified their communities’ need for training disciples with specific tools to enable them to advocate more effectively in the public arena.

The name “Common Grace,” is shared with a faith-based advocacy group in Australia, which in 2014 united faith communities to campaign for improvements in Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. The success of that coalition led to further joint campaigns on climate justice, economic justice and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights.

Workshops and keynotes at the CGA November start-up hui included input from: Treaty justice specialist Rev Dr Rangi Nicholson, Chair of Student Christian Movement Aotearoa Rev Dr Jordan Redding, Director of Aotearoa 350 Alva Feldmeier and Christian parliamentarian the Hon Michael Wood.

Saturday afternoon workshops provided space to reflect in smaller groups and share activist strategies, with an introduction to community organising from Emma Sproul and a workshop exploring the role of media in advocacy campaigns from Stephen Blyth.

Common Grace Aotearoa’s two opening projects are already well underway:

1. The ‘Everyone Connected’ campaign that champions the rights of people suffering from power poverty (calling on Electricity companies to end all disconnections by 2024) and the

2. “Don’t Subsidise Pollution” campaign that calls for an end to Government issuing free carbon credits to big polluters. This action aims to end the free credits to cut pollution and unlock green jobs.

In 2024, keeping up the momentum of Christians who rallied to protest the ‘Stop-co-governance tour’, Common Grace is mobilising a group to formally launch a tangata-Tiriti justice team.  

For more information on CGA or to join the Common Grace Aotearoa network, go to commongrace.nz.