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Te Tairāwhiti sets date to nominate

Te Tairāwhiti will gather from October 7-9 to nominate a hui amorangi successor to Archbishop Brown Turei.

Taonga News  |  05 Sep 2016  |

The stage has been set for the election of a new bishop for Te Tairawhiti to succeed Archbishop Brown Turei.

An Electoral College will be held on the weekend of October 7-9 at the historic Toko Toru Tapu Church in Manutuke, near Gisborne.

The weekend will begin at 3pm on the Friday with a Special General Meeting of Te Tairawhiti to discuss and confirm final arrangements for the College. That will be followed that evening by a powhiri, dinner and an opening Eucharist service.

The members of the college will get down to their nominating business at 9.00am on the Saturday, October 8.

Archbishop Brown has announced that he will be retiring from Tairawhiti on 31 December 2016, and from his position as Bishop of Aotearoa and Archbishop on 31 March 2017.

Archbishop Philip Richardson has appointed Bishop Ngarahu Katene, Bishop of Te Manawa o Te Wheke, as Commissary for the Tairawhiti Electoral College.

The 14 members of Te Runanga Whaiti (in effect, the standing committee of Te Pihopatanga) will also be on hand throughout the process.

The Electoral College will run throughout the Saturday. Assuming it makes a nomination, that name will then be conveyed to Archbishop Philip Richardson. He will contact all the other bishops who, by canon law, must agree to the nomination.

Assuming their assent is a formality, the members of General Synod will then be polled to see whether they too assent to the nomination – and if the candidate gets the thumbs up from both these rounds, the Archbishops will declare that person elected, and the candidate could be made public within 7-10 days of the Electoral College.

Meanwhile, the electors of the Anglican Maori Diocese of Te Wai Pounamu will gather in Christchurch on the weekend of September 23-25 to make a second attempt to nominate a successor to the late Bishop John Gray.

The Electoral College called in March to find a new bishop for that region ended without producing a nomination.

After eight ballots the college remained deadlocked – and when the Commissary, Bishop Victoria Matthews, proposed that it should adjourn and deem its work “incomplete”, the members agreed, without dissent.

Archbishop Brown Turei has again appointed Bishop Victoria Matthews, the Bishop of Christchurch, as Commissary for this month’s Electoral College.

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