Help fund my immersion in New Zealand

Hello! Between my second and third years of seminary, I will be engaging in a cross-cultural immersion program in Auckland, New Zealand. I want to be clear--this is neither a vacation nor a mission trip. I am not going there to convert anyone to my faith. Rather, this is an opportunity for me to learn more about the effect of colonization on indigenous persons and to understand more deeply how the people of New Zealand, the Māori and the whites, were able to bring cultures together into Anglican worship.

I have very specific goals: with the Women’s Ministry Network I will engage with a variety of local community settings within Tikanga Māori.

i. I will learn about the Māori culture (‘te ao Māori’ - the Māori worldview) through pastoral work in community life, learning something of their history, and spending time shadowing Māori clergy and lay leaders and listening to their personal stories. Māori theology will be a rich resource for learning and reflection; for example, their understanding of identity is much more collective and relational than our Western (more individualistic) ways of being and is much more connected to the land (whenua). This indigenous wisdom has much to offer the wider church in relation to the climate crisis.

ii. I will also begin the process of enculturating the New Zealand Anglican liturgy into my prayer practice, with immersion in Māori liturgical worship and hopefully opportunities to serve in a local church from time to time.

I hope to understand how the Māori people have enculturated the Anglican faith, how they are navigating the impacts of colonization and decolonization, and how they have developed their theologies contextually - especially in relation to indigenous notions of self/identity and the land (whenua), and how I may be able to share those understandings in my own culture. I hope to find ways to be helpful in a pastoral way and, short of that, I hope to learn about a people I have very little experience with or knowledge of, and to let that knowledge shape me into a more culturally sensitive person and future clergy.

To do all this, I need your help! This trip is budgeted at over $10k, but I have done a great deal of fundraising so far and, thanks to a grant, my diocese in Maryland, and friends, I am now seeking to raise only $5000 for expenses during the trip. Any donation would be amazing and I would be grateful. I understand that not everyone can spare money at this time, please send prayers. This is a huge trip over 3 months and I have never traveled outside the country, I need all the prayers and love I can get!

Thank you in advance!