St Benedict's School Pānui ā-rorohiko (Online Newsletter) Welcome back to school for 2023

A special new song for our friends in Aotearoa by Andrew Chinn and the Virtual Catholic School Choir of Aotearoa-New Zealand.

1 song giving thanks and praise for the Land of the Long White Cloud

30 schools from all 6 dioceses of Aotearoa/New Zealand

40 voices from Auckland to Gore

This song began with a discussion I had with my friend, Susie McCreery, at St Peter's Catholic School in Cambridge, Aotearoa- New Zealand, in 2019. Her Year 7/8 class had done a New Zealand version of my Australian Blessing, changing the words to suit their country. I said that we could go one step further and write one just for Aotearoa. So we did.

In June 2022, with Susie's help, the Year 7/8 class of that year brainstormed around what they were thankful for about their country, how they had been blessed by God. While recovering from Covid in Perth and isolating, I worked their words into a poem. Then with the help of my mate and collaborator Drew Lane, we came up with the music.

During Term 4, 2022, schools from across New Zealand were invited to have one or two children from each school record a line for the song. We had schools from all six dioceses in New Zealand, from St John's in Mairangi Bay on Auckland's North Shore to St Mary's In Gore, 30 schools in all. We also asked the students to record a video, either outside their school or in front of a local landmark.

Drew then took on the enormous task of putting these voices into the right places. That took many, many edits but on January 18 we had the final edit. From January 23-25 I worked on putting all of that together in video. Most people know of my great love for Aotearoa.

I calculated that, collectively, I've spent nearly a year of my life there. It's a spectacular country, rich in nature's beauty. But much more than that it's the people I love and the friends I've met along the way. I once wrote that there's only two places I ever get sad when leaving: my home and New Zealand.

Thank you to all of the children in the "Virtual Choir", to their teachers who helped with audio and video, to Susie for the inspiration, and to Drew Lane for an amazing job on the audio.

Andrew Chinn