Borrows Chester: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBorrows Chester: Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10268. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui): It gives me quite a lot of pleasure to stand up and speak to the Christian Churches New Zealand Property Trust Board Empowering Bill because it emanates from a Church that I was born and raised in the Associated Churches of Christ in New Zealand. In fact I note that the initial proponent of the bill Mr Steve Baigent from Nelson was a member of the Church of Christ at Annesbrook which was the Church that I attended as a young fella. In fact it was in his mother’s garden as a 4-year-old that I met my future wife then aged 2—she does not remember.Phil Twyford: A bit young to propose.Hon CHESTER BORROWS: I did not ask her out on that occasion.It is interesting to reflect on the impact of Churches across New Zealand in those days the 1950s and 1960s and where it is today. This is a Church—they called it a brotherhood in those days; an associationis I suppose the more polite term these days. They are a smaller group they are not as recognised as some of the bigger churches that we have in our community but in fact they had a big impact particularly on rural New Zealand in those days. They emanated in New Zealand from the Nelson region and a number of Churches sprung up around there. Their raison d’être was evangelism but also to seek unity across the Churches and that was the whole reason why they stepped out of the parent Church that they came from—to actually understand that there was a need for society to see all Christians as one rather than as peddling a particular doctrine that seemed to be more divisive than bringing people together.They were one of the five Churches negotiating towards Church unity in the 1970s. There was a high lay involvement within that Church and a lot of us can remember as kids—me particularly—being in the back of the little Morris Minor as it struggled over the Tākaka Hill to go and deliver the message in places like Bainham and Tākaka or driving down to the coast from Stoke in Nelson to deliver a couple of sermons on a Sunday before coming back and our parents getting on with work the next day. There are a few connections too within the House. My cousins the Hon Annette King and Hon Christopher Finlayson—their forebears were instrumental in starting congregations at Spring Grove and in Richmond. Those Churches exist today and continue with some strength.As noted in the report that came back from the Government Administration Committee there are others too who have come up through that Church and made a huge contribution to society. I think of Sir Garfield Todd who emanated again from this Church and then went on to become the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia as it was back then prior to the Smith regime. The Todd family is one of the families that have been involved within these congregations over generations. Another is Fred Hollows who trained in the ministry in Dunedin at Glennleith before he embarked on his ways in respect of helping those with eye problems and became absolutely noted.The Church also worked in other countries—I would just note the connection with Southern Rhodesia again—it started a mission school at a place called Dadaya and that was where a number of our members who were educators and also men of the cloth went to work in the mission fields over there. I guess one person we would like to walk away from is Robert Mugabe who was a student at that school funnily enough. I think he has shaken the dust off his sandals because he does not seem to be adhering to the principles of the Associated Churches of Christ just now.It is a Church that over the years has continued to give an awful lot to the communities in which it served and around the country there are about 40 different congregations. There was one for instance at Lower Hutt and former Labour member for that area Trevor Young was a member of that congregation at Naenae. I remember as a young guy listening to the men and women in the church who would bring their thoughts before the congregation. It was not so much pastorally led as membership led and so each of those men and women were given the opportunity to stand up and speak to lead lessons to teach and to pray and to work for their communities.It was very much—and still remains very much—a Church that tends to put its money where its mouth is and that is what lies behind this bill. The fact is that the legislation has tied up a lot of the Church’s assets in a way that means they cannot be used for its principal goal which is ministry. In effect what this Church is saying is that it wants to free itself of those assets and use that money towards the ministry to which its members feel they have been called.It is sad to note that maybe Christian Churches have not been their best advocates around the country maybe around the world for some time now. But it is great to be able to sit back and to look at a group of people who do feel a sense of vocation—we would call it in secular terms; others who may adhere to a faith would call it a calling—to get involved within their communities. No doubt every one of the members who are sitting in this Chamber today actually came here for a reason. Many felt that they came here because they wanted to make a contribution and in respect of where that will of wanting to make that contribution comes from largely Christians are over-represented within this House as a slither or a slice of the general population of the country.I think it is important to note that these sets of values that drive us on whether or not we pin them to a particular religion or particular creed nevertheless are important ones. People who give of themselves in community service and do so from a sense of service and public service actually hold the thread of our communities together. That is why when we go into the various NGOs or those community groups that we visit on a regular basis we see people turn up time and time and time again. We might see the same faces at five or six organisations that we might visit within our electorates on a weekly basis and these people are giving because they not only see the need but hear a call and feel a sense of calling towards contributing to their communities in that way.I think back as I do to a number of the personalities I saw working and operating within their churches and within their communities as part of this particular Church. I do have a sense of gratitude for where those people have taken my family and me personally—on a walk towards exactly where we find ourselves today and where each of us in the House does as I have just reflected. The fact is as soon as you get a few years on you you tend not to notice those sets of values around the community and its subsequent generations but nevertheless it is there. We have to then quiz ourselves and wonder about how well we are at communicating that sense of calling or that sense of vocation that leads us to contribute to our communities in the way that we do. If it is not being passed on from generation to generation or neighbour to neighbour then we have to ask why not.So I commend this bill to the House and I acknowledge the fact that here is a group of people who recognise they are asset-rich and need to do something about it. They realise that they did not belong to that particular organisation to acquire assets or acquire land to build edifices to some faith that is actually meaningless outside of those edifices. But actually they joined a particular movement so that they could turn it towards the people who had needs within their community and to reflect the faith that they had taken on for themselves. Often we scoff at people who do things from a sense of faith. Often we find people laughing behind their hands at those who might believe in something as simple as a Christian faith. In actual fact the people who adhere to this Church and all those other churches do so from a sense of what we would call in a secular way goodwill or public interest. But we know what drives us and I am here today in this House to endorse that sense of call and that sense of worth in a community. I commend the bill to the House.