As we head towards the end of 2011 we have to conclude that the past year or so has been, as the Queen would say, our annus horribilis.

As I write this, the maritime disaster off the coast of Tauranga is unfolding. I have watched my TV screen in horrified fascination as the doomed container ship, Rena, breaks up almost before our very eyes. The pristine and beautiful shoreline of the Bay of Plenty is being covered with a thick gluggy engine oil that seems to sit in big blobs. TV doesn’t yet come with surround-smell so I can only imagine what the stuff must be like up close.

The whole incident has the same surreal quality that has accompanied events in this country over the past year. It all started with the disaster in the Pike River mine. Next came the Christchurch earthquake, followed in February by a much bigger and far more destructive quake.

For those involved in all these events, it has been a lot more than just surreal. For them it is a matter of coping with the everyday horror of facing up to a new reality.

So what to make of it all?

Inevitably, there have been the doom merchants and, sadly, some have come from Christian circles. I read with interest the article in this issue by Roy Warren on the integrity of prophecy. His article refers to a much-publicised prophesy concerning floods and drownings predicted for Christchurch on September 28. It didn’t happen, but I can only imagine what distress it caused in the interim. I’m not a theologian, but it seems to me Roy makes some very good points in his article.

As Christians, we simply can’t afford to make mistakes about this kind of stuff. Not only do we all look stupid when these prophecies fail to materialise, but we are hardly acting in a Christ-like manner when we cause upset and distress in so doing.

Just as bad are the benefit-of-hindsight “judgments.” Fortunately, for the most part Christians in this country were remarkably restrained in not attributing the earthquakes to an act of judgment by God.

One day God will judge, but I don’t believe he sits in heaven like some sort of Greek God atop Mt Olympus casting thunderbolts at places like Christchurch as the mood takes him. Neither do I believe in karma, the idea that somehow it is our “turn” to suffer these things, even though up to recently we have been remarkably immune from the tragedies that seem to confront other parts of the world on a regular basis.

I can only conclude that sometimes stuff happens because stuff happens.

I take heart from what I see our churches doing in Christchurch. They recognise that their role is not to seek divine explanation, or to lay blame, but to roll up their sleeves and set about loving their neighbour as Christ would have us all do.

– Duncan Pardon