In his book Bible and Treaty, Keith Newman records a prophecy made by Arama Toiroa in 1766, three years before Captain Cook arrived.
On Christmas day in 1814, that prophecy came true as the words of Jesus were fulfilled and the gospel was taken to the ends of the earth, when Reverend Samuel Marsden gave the Christmas Day sermon at Oihi Bay. At the invitation of local Māori, the first strand of Christianity in Aotearoa New Zealand was established: Te Hahi Mihinare – the Māori Church.
Christianity flourished in Aotearoa New Zealand largely as Māori converted Māori, but with the arrival of settlers in 1842 a second strand of Christianity arrived – the settler Church – which was largely a transplant of English Christianity in language, form and structure.
English Anglicanism became the majority expression of Christianity, and that would certainly be true of our community here in Nelson after settlers arrived, before a church and then a cathedral were established on Piki Mai. As the Anglican Church of New Zealand was formally constituted in 1857, one ultimate question remained.
Sadly, history tells us no. With the settler Christianity dominating resources, structure and buildings, Te Hahi Mihinare was left as a minority existing within the Pākehā Anglican structures.
We cannot re-write history, but we can learn from it and move forward, so is fitting then that we pause today and ask another question.
One theme stands out to me throughout the Bible: the ALLness of the gospel – that the good news of Jesus is for all.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek,” Paul says in Galatians 3. “There is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The promise of acceptance by God is for all peoples because it is based on one thing only – faith in Jesus Christ. All become one in Christ, and in Christ there is no distinction. We are now children of God.
It is Jesus who is the foundation of our lives. The offer of Jesus is for us all, and the challenge of Jesus is equally for all. That our established practices are here to support our faith and foundation in him, not the other way around.
So how do we express this allness, this oneness, in our life together? Te Pouhere, the constitution of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, approved in 1992, was an attempt to express this.
The first is reconciliation.
We have been reconciled to God and have been given the task of reconciliation. We are God’s ambassadors in the world as we model God’s reconciliation to others and to each other. This is especially important in such a time as now as inequity and separation grow along racial lines.
Flowing on from reconciliation, we have partnership, an equal working together.
Now for Tikanga Pākehā this is a big challenge because we come to the partnership as the dominant partner in terms of numbers, resources and finances. But I think we can look to Christ who shows us what partnership from such a position looks like as he modeled self-sacrifice. Christ Jesus, who was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, humbled himself for our sake. Jesus is our example of self-emptying love, and in partnership that is what we as Tikanga Pākehā are called to do.
From reconciliation and partnership, we have bicultural development.
Oneness does not mean only one way of expressing faith. Yes, we are one body, but you can be the best ear you can be and I will be the best foot I can be! We need both to be one body.
It is not the Church of God that has a mission, but the God of Mission who has a Church. Te Pouhere, the constitution that formed us as the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, is who we are as we model our oneness in Christ.
It is not perfect, and it is not easy, but Christ calls us to be one in him as he is our foundation and to be his witness to the rest of Aotearoa and the world.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
In his book Bible and Treaty, Keith Newman records a prophecy made by Arama Toiroa in 1766, three years before Captain Cook arrived.
On Christmas day in 1814, that prophecy came true as the words of Jesus were fulfilled and the gospel was taken to the ends of the earth, when Reverend Samuel Marsden gave the Christmas Day sermon at Oihi Bay. At the invitation of local Māori, the first strand of Christianity in Aotearoa New Zealand was established: Te Hahi Mihinare – the Māori Church.
Christianity flourished in Aotearoa New Zealand largely as Māori converted Māori, but with the arrival of settlers in 1842 a second strand of Christianity arrived – the settler Church – which was largely a transplant of English Christianity in language, form and structure.
English Anglicanism became the majority expression of Christianity, and that would certainly be true of our community here in Nelson after settlers arrived, before a church and then a cathedral were established on Piki Mai. As the Anglican Church of New Zealand was formally constituted in 1857, one ultimate question remained.
Sadly, history tells us no. With the settler Christianity dominating resources, structure and buildings, Te Hahi Mihinare was left as a minority existing within the Pākehā Anglican structures.
We cannot re-write history, but we can learn from it and move forward, so is fitting then that we pause today and ask another question.
One theme stands out to me throughout the Bible: the ALLness of the gospel – that the good news of Jesus is for all.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek,” Paul says in Galatians 3. “There is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The promise of acceptance by God is for all peoples because it is based on one thing only – faith in Jesus Christ. All become one in Christ, and in Christ there is no distinction. We are now children of God.
It is Jesus who is the foundation of our lives. The offer of Jesus is for us all, and the challenge of Jesus is equally for all. That our established practices are here to support our faith and foundation in him, not the other way around.
So how do we express this allness, this oneness, in our life together? Te Pouhere, the constitution of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, approved in 1992, was an attempt to express this.
The first is reconciliation.
We have been reconciled to God and have been given the task of reconciliation. We are God’s ambassadors in the world as we model God’s reconciliation to others and to each other. This is especially important in such a time as now as inequity and separation grow along racial lines.
Flowing on from reconciliation, we have partnership, an equal working together.
Now for Tikanga Pākehā this is a big challenge because we come to the partnership as the dominant partner in terms of numbers, resources and finances. But I think we can look to Christ who shows us what partnership from such a position looks like as he modeled self-sacrifice. Christ Jesus, who was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, humbled himself for our sake. Jesus is our example of self-emptying love, and in partnership that is what we as Tikanga Pākehā are called to do.
From reconciliation and partnership, we have bicultural development.
Oneness does not mean only one way of expressing faith. Yes, we are one body, but you can be the best ear you can be and I will be the best foot I can be! We need both to be one body.
It is not the Church of God that has a mission, but the God of Mission who has a Church. Te Pouhere, the constitution that formed us as the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, is who we are as we model our oneness in Christ.
It is not perfect, and it is not easy, but Christ calls us to be one in him as he is our foundation and to be his witness to the rest of Aotearoa and the world.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
