





































Ecclesial Futures
2023 – Volume 4 – Issue 2

A R T I C L E

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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef16368

DOI: 10.54195/ef16368

“They Made Space for Me”: Enhancing 
Receptive Generosity in an Anglican Diocese 
in Aotearoa New Zealand

Catherine Rivera

Abstract
Drawing on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork with young Anglican social justice 
activists in Aotearoa New Zealand, this article engages with Romand Coles’s theory 
of receptive generosity, and the theme of the Western church as marginal, to explore 
why a particular Anglican diocese was attracting new, millennial-aged members, most 
of whom did not grow up Anglican. I consider how spaces of generous reciprocity were 
formed and enabled through living in intentional communities (ICs) and being able to 
engage with pluralistic “broad table” spaces of discussion and dissent. These factors 
were part of what drew the research participants to this diocese and to Anglicanism 
in general, as well as enhancing their social justice activism. My research shows the 
importance of intentionally making spaces of belonging for millennials and Gen Z aged 
people in a faith community, rather than hoping the status quo of the past will suffice.

Keywords: Anglicans, Intentional communities, Marginality, Social justice, Young adults

1 Introduction
In 2017 I began my PhD in Social Anthropology with the goal of trying to find out 
why a certain Anglican diocese (referred to as “Diocese J”) in Aotearoa New Zealand 
had many young people (‘millennials’) who were involved in social justice activism.1 
I wanted to find out what Anglicanism was contributing to their spiritual and activist 
formation. As an anthropologist and non-Anglican, theological concerns were not 

1 A very short definition of social justice activism is activities which attempt to bring to public attention 
issues that impede people or groups having fair and equal opportunities to engage in the society they 
live in, or which hinder human, and increasingly non-human, rights (Plant 2001).



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part of my research question; the main theoretical lenses were civil society, partici-
patory democracy and phenomenological becoming. However, out of my fieldwork 
emerged themes and observations that should interest church practitioners and 
those at the coal face of Christian formation and discipleship.

One of the main observations why my participants were present in Diocese J was the 
opening of welcoming spaces for them and their interests. In the case of Diocese J, 
these spaces were initiated by the Bishop and the Deputy Bishop. These spaces were 
physical (in the form of intentional communities (ICs) where many participants lived) 
and institutional (through the creation of bridging mechanisms and paid roles which 
allowed for ecclesial innovation). Additionally, the Anglican praxis and theology of 
maintaining a “broad theological table” was found to be attractive to the research 
participants. I will analyse these spaces through the conceptual themes of receptive 
generosity and being marginal to argue that a cultural change is required by many 
Western churches to enable flourishing, life-giving and generous spaces of belonging 
for both their younger members and those who are outside their walls.

1.1 Methods
For this research project I used standard anthropological data gathering methods 
of interviewing (eight people), spending time with my participants through “hanging 
out” and going to events (church services, festivals, conferences, protest marches, 
meetings, workshops, training events), and examining written texts and mate-
rials. Participant selection focused on Anglican Christians in a particular diocese in 
Aotearoa New Zealand who were involved in either activist2 or teaching activities 
which engaged with social justice issues (see the definition in footnote 1 above) and 
were aged between 22 and 35 years old, although there were some participants 
who ended up outside of this age range. Permission was needed from the dioc-
esan bishops to proceed with the project, once this was obtained, I was able to start 
contacting potential participants and setting up fieldwork opportunities. Most of the 
fieldwork took place in a large city in New Zealand (not named due to ethics permis-
sion agreement with Diocese J).

One of my main goals for my fieldwork was to experience my participants’ world as 
much as possible, which led me to using a methodological framework called sensory 
ethnography. This method encourages researchers to move from detached obser-
vation to using their body and its senses as a way of understanding the multiple 

2 Examples of activism activities undertaken by participants included public protests, blockading, gath-
ering public submissions on government policy, awareness-raising events and sit-ins.



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and varied “lifeworlds” ( Jackson 2016) that their participants inhabit. Practically, 
this is done by co-creating and forming things together with one’s participants (Pink 
2015). For example, instead of observing a teaching session, the researcher teaches 
in that session; instead of watching others pray, the researcher writes a prayer and 
prays it together with their participants. For myself, this method involved joining in 
some of the spiritual formation practices of my participants, such as morning and 
evening prayer, observing Lent and Advent, using the Anglican New Zealand Prayer 
Book (Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia 1989) for home devotions, and 
giving teaching sessions at some of my participants’ events.

2 Making space for Millennial Christians
The research questions I have engaged with throughout my graduate study come 
from trying to understand the contemporary issues that are important to, and 
formational in, the lives of young people who are Christians. The participants in my 
both my Masters and PhD research were usually millennials, that is, the generation 
born between the early to mid-1980s up to the end of the 1990s (Strauss and Howe 
2000), although in my PhD project I also ended up with some Gen Z participants. 
Millennials grew up in an era where the Cold War had ended, and the world was 
becoming increasingly connected in cyberspace through digital technologies (Gregg 
2017). Millennials in the West are one of the least Christian generations ever if adher-
ence is measured by attending a church (Putnam and Campbell 2010; Ward 2013). 
While generally not interested in institutional Christianity, both millennials and Gen 
Zers are often interested in spirituality, mindfulness, meditation and yoga practices 
(Halafoff et al. 2020; Jian Lee 2018). Considering the characteristics of millennials 
discussed in the literature, it could be assumed that they would not be attracted to 
or want to be part of an old religious institution like Anglicanism. Yet Diocese J had 
a growing cohort of them, and this was a prominent reason why I chose to do my 
research there.

My research found that one of the reasons for the growth of millennial Anglicans 
in Diocese J was that space was made for new groups to be incorporated into the 
diocese at a pace and in a way that let them “try out” being Anglican. Most of these 
groups were based in emergent or neo-monastic Christianity. The Emerging Church 
Movement (ECM) has been called “one of the most important reframings of reli-
gion within Western Christianity in the last two decades” (Marti and Ganiel 2014: 
Abstract). The ECM has roots in evangelical Christianity and is primarily made up 
of “recovering evangelicals” (Bielo 2011; Cox Hall 2017). Most academics frame it as 
a rejection of evangelical right-wing fundamentalism and/or consumeristic “mega-
church” Christianity (Bielo 2011; Marti and Ganiel 2014). The EMC began amongst 



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young evangelicals in the early 1990s in the US and other Anglophone countries such 
as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand (Guest 2017). New Zealand had 
some of the earliest Emerging Churches, such as Cityside in Auckland (Taylor 2019). 
Marti and Ganiel’s (2014) definitions of the ECM note an anti-institutional stance, 
the importance of ecumenicalism/pluralism, and a tendency towards experimenta-
tion and creativity. Gibbs and Bolger (2005) include being highly communal, and the 
importance of practising hospitality and egalitarian participation. Dissent and ques-
tioning are valued (Packard and Sanders 2013). Most participants in the ECM are 
millennials or younger Gen Xers (Cox Hall 2018; Moody and Reed 2017). These millen-
nial-aged Christians “crave commitments that matter” (Spellers et al. 2010: 145) and 
“value authenticity in relationships and connection with culture” (Taylor 2019: 150).

Neo-monastics are a sub-group of the ECM (Carter 2012). They often live in inten-
tional communities (ICs) and have a shared communitarian “rhythm of life” that 
structures each day and can include such activities as morning and evening prayer, 
practical work within the houses and out in local communities, and shared meals 
(Bielo 2011). Spiritual practices such as lighting candles, burning incense, contempla-
tion, meditation, centring and liturgical prayer, silent retreats and observing the tradi-
tional church calendar are common in most neo-monastic communities (I. Adams 
and Mobsby 2010; Cox Hall 2018). Ethnographic studies have found that many previ-
ously independent neo-monastic communities and Emerging Churches, what Steve 
Taylor (2019) calls “first expressions” groups, have aligned themselves with mainline3 
churches such as the Anglicans and Methodists. This was the case in my research 
also. Since “first expression” groups are already using contemplative practices and 
are attracted to the “old and ancient” (Bialecki and Bielo 2016), they find mainline 
churches a good theological fit (Snider 2011). In Anglicanism this process has been 
helped by the instigation of the Fresh Expressions initiative by former Archbishop 
of Canterbury Rowan Williams and based in the Church of England (Moynagh 2012; 
Taylor 2019). Many ECM/first expression leaders become Anglican clergy; Taylor goes 
so far as to call ECM/ first expression groups “vicar factories” (2019: 90).

2.1 Formational Spaces of Intentional Community
Intentional communities consist of groups of people who are not biologically related 
living together in a shared physical space such as a house/s or on communal land 
(Meijering et al. 2007; Miller 2010). At the time of my fieldwork (2018–mid 2019), there 

3 Mainline – the traditional and established denominations of Christianity. Protestant mainline denom-
inations include Anglican/Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, and Baptist. Some defini-
tions include the Catholic Church, Quakers and the Reformed Church. 



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were four main ICs across the diocese consisting of 200+ individuals, with focuses 
on teenagers/youth, university students, marginalized people and members of a 
specific, youth-focused, church. Each IC usually consisted of a group of houses that 
formed one community. There were slightly different arrangements of space for 
each IC, and each had different demographics, consisting of combinations of single 
people, couples and families with children.

The context to this space creation in Diocese J was that its Bishop, John,4 was not a 
“cradle Anglican”. He had spent many years as the leader of a non-Anglican, ecumen-
ical missional community movement. John eventually became Anglican and was 
ordained, and the intentional community movement he and his wife had founded 
became an Anglican order. When John became Bishop of Diocese J the practice of 
intentional community living, which already had a presence within the diocese, was 
resourced and encouraged even more, becoming an important part of its forma-
tional discipleship. Many of the leaders and members of who were part of the IC 
founded by John took on pivotal roles in the diocese. This in turn attracted other 
non-Anglican missional and emergent churches/movements and individuals to 
connect with Diocese J. Bishop John offered to formalize the relationship with some 
of these groups through the designation of being a “pioneer mission unit”, which is 
essentially a trial period for the group to “try out” being Anglican. Eventually several 
of these groups became official Anglican churches.

Many of my participants lived in one of the ICs and described how this way of living 
created a space to belong through “grounding and rooting” in a physical locality. 
Relationships and their formation and maintenance are one of the core values of 
neo-monastic living ( Jones 2008). People joining these communities understand that 
they may not always get along with other members, and there will be tough times 
(Kamau 2002). However, they covenant to work out their differences because the 
community is envisioned as a family. Belonging was something that many who joined 
the Youth IC were looking for, according to its leaders Dan and Adele.

We were created to be in relationship, to belong, and society tells you … the only thing 
you need to belong to is yourself. Community is the reflection of the spiritual truth that 
we are created to be relationship. One of our girls, she said “when I came here, I didn’t 
really have friends and now I have family, and I have a safe place where I can come 
home every day and know I’m supported. I’m not alone and I’m not lonely”.

4 All names of research participants are pseudonyms.



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Another IC leader, Pete, noted that the speed of change in contemporary society gave 
young people in their community anxiety about belonging and that lack of belonging 
amongst millennials had led to high rates of mental distress.

There seems to be a sense of constant conflict in the world at the moment and a lot to 
care about … Choice anxiety is huge. Too many choices. What will I belong to? What will 
I give my energy to? … we have an epidemic in mental health, my guess is that most of 
our people have some form of anxiety [and there are] a lot of mental health disorders 
that are manifesting in young adulthood.

The fast paced and chaotic temporality of the modern world was alleviated to some 
extent for my participants by the ICs that they lived in having a structured “rhythm 
of life” that was patterned on monastic life, albeit a life that included work and study 
outside of the community. Adele explained what a typical day would look like in their 
IC house.

We eat together, and we have a rhythm of prayer. We do prayers at [name] church 
twice a day, at 8.15 am and 5.15 pm. Everyone is expected to be there providing you 
don’t have work or university lectures. We share our resources, and we serve in the 
local parishes. We think that is a core part of doing life together.

I noticed during my fieldwork that the times spent in ICs where prayer rhythms were 
used daily gave structure to everyday life. The combination of repetitive, ritualized 
spiritual practices with a structured and set daily routine was calming. It took some 
of the anxiety out of everyday life because there were fewer choices to have to make. 
In a chaotic world, stability can be a greater need than continual and unpredictable 
change. Anthropologist Roy Rappaport (1999) argued that structured communal 
rhythms are a form of “communitas” that binds groups together and repetitive 
everyday repetitions and tempos, such as the daily rhythms of life in the ICs, impacts 
and forms the self as well as the community. Anthropologist Amy Cox Hall (2018: 689) 
agrees, pointing to the daily patterned rhythms of life in neo-monastic communities 
which “fashioned selves and altered worlds”. These rhythms can also create what 
Heidegger referred to as “clearings” ( Jackson 2013), spaces in everyday life which 
bring forth incremental changes of the self which can encourage transformation and 
a sense of belonging.

On a practical level living in an IC relieved some of the financial pressure that was 
common to millennials living in urban centres. This included not having to worry 
about rental precarity and being able to share resources such as food through 
communal meals. For families with children, living in an IC provided extra hands to 



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share childcare duties (Sargisson and Sargent 2017). All these aspects mentioned 
above freed up community members to spend more time on social activism and 
volunteer work. As Davina said,

It’s not just living together but sort of finding your people, the ones you share values 
with. Particularly in your work having a community is grounding and I think that is 
necessary for activism … that community is vital in keeping me going. Whether that 
is people that are going to be cheerleaders or people who say “yes I want to do this 
with you”, and people who are going to call me out and say “maybe you should rethink 
that”.

Thus, one of the main findings of my research was that providing structured spaces 
of belonging through the opportunity to live in an intentional community was an 
attractive option, and one of the factors why the research participants come to work 
in and be part of Diocese J.

2.2 The Pluralistic space of the Broad Table
Another factor that was appealing to my millennial participants was the pluralistic 
and “broad table” theological characteristics of Anglicanism. For political philos-
opher William Connolly pluralism is something that is created and maintained by 
the cultivation of specific attitudes and values; it requires living with tension in the 
in-between of multiple ideas, beliefs and ways of being; “it requires a tolerance 
of ambiguity” (Connolly 2005: 4). Anglicanism has historically had a “broad table” 
approach (Rayner 2003) to maintaining unity amid doctrinal or theological differ-
ences by allowing for a variety of opinions to be voiced and listened to in Anglican 
decision-making spaces (for example, the General Synod). At the broad table, allow-
ances are made for “competing ideas and incompatible ontologies” (Adams 2018: 
189), with all who lay claim to being Anglican allowed a “seat at the table”. Rayner 
(2003: 59) points out that being able to balance and hold competing tensions for 
the sake of a wider unity is a feature of broad-church Anglicanism; “Anglicanism has 
traditionally been reluctant to excommunicate its radicals”.

This openness extends to ecumenical and interfaith learning, with strong Anglican 
involvement in these types of networks (Randerson 2015). Anglican broadness 
affirms a wide range of people, practices and theologies, including types of social 
justice activism that some other Christian denominations reject. Anglicans in New 
Zealand have had significant participation in various interfaith groups (Haggar 2017; 
Pratt 2016) and protest movements, such as the “Peace Squadron” in the 1970s led 
by vicar George Armstrong which attempted to stop an American nuclear subma-
rine from entering Auckland harbour. These interfaith links have become espe-



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cially important in New Zealand since the Christchurch Mosque attacks in 2019. This 
historical background of cultivating ecumenical and interfaith religious pluralism 
was evident in Diocese J.

It was noticeable during interviews that the acceptance proffered by the “broad 
table” nature of Anglicanism was something that had attracted many of my partic-
ipants to the denomination. Pete said, “the Anglican Church has a broad table that 
beautiful and big, and you can be part of that … a broad table which actually looks 
like the church [should]”. Stephen said, “there is a broad spectrum of practices, they 
allow for … including activism in social justice. The dogma isn’t entrenched, there are 
opportunities to challenge, question, and think bigger … they made space for me.”

Neo noted that the IC he had been part of was able to join the Anglicans because 
“it wasn’t questioned that we would be acceptable. Anglicans accept anyone, so of 
course, they accepted us”. For theologian Derek, Anglican broadness was important 
since it allowed for his background of training in a Lutheran seminary to be used and 
valued in an Anglican context: “I can say ‘this is how I do my theology’ … and there is a 
place for me at the table. Really the goal of the table isn’t to bring everyone together 
to the centre but rather to honour everyone in the seats as they are.”

Another reason the broad table concept most likely appealed to my participants 
was due to being millennials. Research on millennials has shown them to be more 
accepting of pluralism and diversity than Baby Boomers or Gen X (Brunell 2013; 
Reysen and Katzarska-Miller 2013). Millennials are particularly prone to reject institu-
tions who are not pluralistic and promote only one way of being: “some are resentful 
or afraid of a body [the Church] they perceive as unwilling to enter into dialogue 
and are still interested in stridently asserting its own version of the facts about the 
universe and the true interpretation of these facts” (Dormor et al. 2003: 2).

While many of my participants were just discovering the delights of Anglican 
pluralism, they had been disconcerted to discover fellow Anglicans who were trying 
to block access to the table. Some Anglican churches who oppose LGBTQ+ rights 
and/or the ordination of women in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have 
split off from their geographic dioceses and come under the authority of conserva-
tive bishops from places like Uganda and Rwanda (Hasset 2007). However, within 
Diocese J, the broad table is still in use and attracting those who are leaving Christian 
groups which have become fearful of pluralism and “outsiders”.



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3  Discussion Theme One – Receptive Generosity

I want to suggest that the ability to sustain a local politics … requires an orientation … 
that grounds humility – the humility necessary to engage in the slow and painful work 
of sustaining a community capable of resisting the allure of significance that is the 
breeding ground of violence. (Coles and Hauerwas 2008: 24)

In considering how space was made in Diocese J to incorporate non-Anglican millen-
nials, I have engaged with the work of political philosopher Romand Coles and his 
work on receptive generosity. According to Coles (1997), receptive generosity is a 
stance or orientation that is open to both giving and receiving from others, especially 
those that may have a different view. It involves encountering, listening, and vulner-
ability. Coles frames this through the term “Caritas”, which refers to the love of God 
for humans, and vice versa. Caritas is giving that is reciprocal. A generosity that only 
wants to give, but not receive, can lead to the establishment of unequal power struc-
tures and is not true generosity. Coles gives the example of Spanish conquistadors 
who, like some of the British colonizers who came to New Zealand, tried to “gift” Chris-
tianity to the indigenous people of the New World but did not see anything in indig-
enous religions that was worthy for them to learn from: “when generosity becomes 
separated from receptivity it tends toward imperialism and theft” (Coles 1997: vii).

For Coles, Christians can have problems with receptive generosity, especially 
receiving wisdom or input from groups who are “outside the Christian story” (Coles 
1997: 3). However, he argues that there is a theological argument for extending 
receptive generosity to “the other” because that is what Jesus did: “since Jesus [was] 
a stranger, this must mean sitting receptively and generously at the tables of those 
of other traditions when invited” (Coles and Hauerwas 2008: 227). Coles notes that 
theology which claims God cannot receive anything worthwhile from humans, espe-
cially non-Christians, is problematic for creating authentic open spaces, especially if 
those outside Christianity are perceived as having nothing beneficial which can be 
given to God or his church: “the church construes itself as the foot-washer, but not 
in need of being foot-washed by non-Christians … as server but not in need of being 
served by others” (Coles and Hauerwas 2008: 228).

It can be argued that the ICs and broad table theology created spaces that enabled 
Diocese J to be a receptively generous ecclesia, and this factor increased the amount 
of young people joining it and the incidents of activism taking place. The histor-
ical openness to “the other” brought into being spaces of transformation and “new 
things”, such as the uptick in social justice activism I observed.  Romand Coles’s 
writing, and his conversations with Stanley Hauerwas, on the concept of receptive 



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generosity is a framework to work with as to how creating broad tables can (in)form 
ecclesial weavings and spiritual formation in a climate shocked, uncertain, twenty- 
first century world.

The table can be seen as a space of receptive generosity that encouraged listening 
and the giving and receiving of gifts from each other, rather than “non-relational 
charity”. This stance in Diocese J had subsequently increased the alliances and rela-
tionships with non-Anglicans on social justice issues of mutual interest, and attracted 
young Christians who are interested in fighting inequality and poverty. On a local 
and daily level, receptive generosity was practised and enacted in the intentional 
communities. Here receptive generosity intersected with several theological ideas, 
including immanence and incarnation – God with us. To be receptively generous was 
to intentionally embody and incarnate God’s vision of human flourishing by being 
a good neighbour through acts of service and being in relationship with those who 
lived close, to “wash feet” as Coles says. Being receptively generous in Diocese J was 
to envision the local as a sacred space where God dwelled.

4  Discussion Theme Two - Marginality and Liminality
During my research, I observed concerted efforts by my participants to construct 
spaces and tables at which to listen to each other, and those outside of their commu-
nity. I contend that one of the aspects which encouraged listening in Diocese J was 
the decline in numbers and societal influence experienced by Anglicans in New 
Zealand and across the western world. The decline of people identifying as Christian 
in New Zealand has been particularly notable amongst mainline denominations such 
as the Anglicans, especially since the end of the 1960s, but applies to Christianity in 
general (Ward 2013). Census figures from 2018 indicate that more New Zealanders 
now identify as being “of no religion” than Christian (Losing Our Religion 2019). More 
and more Christians in Western nation-states view themselves as being margin-
alized and pushed to the edges of secular society (Rivera et al. 2023). Pentecostal 
Christians in particular feel that their beliefs and views on such issues as LGBTQ+ 
rights and abortion are not considered valid by those in power and society in general 
(Noble 2014).

Most Anglican literature refers to numerical decline as the major concern for the 
twenty first century (Dormor et al. 2003; Towle 2007). Paradoxically, Anglicanism 
is still the largest Christian denomination according to New Zealand’s census data; 
however, identifying as Anglican in the census generally does not segue into church 
attendance. Anglicans are also demographically older than Pentecostal leaning 



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Christian denominations, as research participant Erin said: “Anglicans are aging and 
shrinking in numbers and resources … the average age is in the 70s and 80s.”

Marginality encompassed several meanings for my participants. When describing 
why they wanted to live in an intentional community (IC), one of reasons was that to 
live in an IC was to “live on the edge” (Kamau 2002) as an alternative to ‘the empire’. 
Cox Hall (2017: 695) says religious ICs “are experiments in living through liminality”. 
“Empire” refers to the societal structures which favour the powerful who oppress 
the poor and leave the downtrodden to fend for themselves (Claiborne 2006; 
Wilson-Hartgrove 2008), and are often specifically linked to neo-liberal capitalism. 
To live in an IC was seen to undermine this unjust empire. My participant, Stephen, 
viewed “empire” as something to be opposed: “the church is not meant to cooperate 
with the empire, we are called to subvert it”.

Some of the ICs were in suburbs that were impoverished, marginalized and some-
what chaotic. IC members were interested in building relationships with people in 
their local area who were from marginalized groups. To be marginal was also to be 
countercultural. Pete mused in his interview that living in an IC made one’s faith 
deeper and the call to challenge empire stronger: “there is something about being on 
the edge that makes prophetic voices sharper”. Neo had a similar observation: “iden-
tifying with the margins is being precarious, it can draw you a lot closer to Jesus”. 
Being marginal was also applied to the activist groups and causes the participants 
were part of. Stephen was frequently involved in protest marches and blockading 
events, he said “Jesus was very much outside of the camp. He was on the edges. I 
found myself leaning more towards people who were on the fringes.”

Being marginal seemed to be a conflicted subject for Anglicans in Diocese J. My 
mainly millennial participants Dan, Adele, Pete, Davina and Neo all thought that it 
was a challenge to stay marginal and “on the edge” whilst being part of an institu-
tional entity such as the Anglican Church, which they said tended to draw one away 
from the edges of society and into the “centre”. Dan said, “to be honest this is prob-
ably the most ‘centre’ thing we have ever done”, while Davina reflected that “it can 
be a real challenge to try to get somewhere now that we are at the centre”. However, 
they also pointed out that Anglicanism was now marginal in New Zealand society 
overall.

In contrast, the sense I got from many of the older Anglicans I encountered was that 
they thought the Anglican Church in New Zealand still had considerable political and 
civic leverage and influence. Neo reflected that “the Anglican voice presumes [it] 
ought to be shaping societal arrangements”. Despite this stance, in general there is 



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a growing awareness of becoming marginal in New Zealand society which, I would 
argue, has opened spaces for change and transformation in some dioceses that 
would not have been entertained when Anglicanism was at its height of influence. 
Coles and Hauerwas (2008) point out that part of learning to listen requires being 
vulnerable and many Anglicans I met were certainly feeling vulnerable as they stared 
down a tunnel of future oblivion for many of their churches. Becoming vulnerable 
seems to have facilitated more efforts at listening to outside groups, which resulted 
in these groups eventually joining Diocese J and bringing with them listening skills 
gained from being marginal neo-monastic/emerging Christians.

5  Final reflection
The presence of the ICs and the Anglican concept of the broad table in Diocese J 
suggest that the incorporation of Emergent and neo-monastic groups has helped 
to enlarge and create spaces for encounter, messiness and taking risks which has 
attracted younger, previously non-Anglican people to the Diocese. These new Angli-
cans are aware that in the public square they are one voice among many and have 
brought with them an awareness of “Christianity as marginal” that older Anglicans 
hadn’t quite caught onto. Becoming marginal seems to have made some in Diocese J 
receptive to these new groups who bring with them energetic young people who are 
curious about ancient Christianity and the historical “treasures” of Anglican tradition 
and spiritual practices.

My research participants had learnt the negotiation skills needed to continually keep 
open engagement with the “other”, whether that is secular social justice colleagues 
or Anglicans who see themselves as the centre of society and not at the margins. The 
emphasis on marginality inherent in the ECM and neo-monastic groups, and now 
being experienced by Anglicans, can be linked to my participants’ identification with 
living on the edge. It can be surmised that identifying with marginality has led Diocese 
J to a more overt emphasis on missionally “being with” rather than only “providing 
for” the poor and needy. Thus, becoming marginal has changed the way that this 
group of Anglicans listened to and engaged with others.

It should be acknowledged that in opening space for people like my millennial-aged, 
non-Anglican background participants, there were those who felt that their more tradi-
tional Anglicanism had been sidelined and starved of resources. Thus, when space is 
opened for the new, it is a delicate balance to include and incorporate what already 
occupies that space. This is the time then to consider Coles’s ideas on being receptively 
generous to all who hold and value spaces in which they, and others, can come and 
flourish together. Then it can honestly be said, “they have made space for me”.



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About the author
Dr Catherine Rivera is a Social Anthropologist in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research 
focuses on contemporary Christianity in New Zealand, and religious understandings 
of civil society and democratic participation. Currently she works at Massey Univer-
sity as a Research Impact Advisor. Contact: C.Rivera@massey.ac.nz

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