anglicantaonga

Telling the stories of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, NZ and Polynesia

I Nga Ra o Mua: The days before us

Archbishop Brown Turei and the whanau of Tairawhiti guide the new Bishop of Waiapu and his family on a pilgrimage around the East Coast. 

Chris Huriwai  |  24 Jan 2015  |

In Maori thinking, we walk into the future backwards – with our eyes fixed on our history, and the lessons we learn from it.

We have another saying about that, too: ka mura, ka muri, which means, more or less, that as we forge new paths, we need to learn from those who have gone before us.

Archbishop Brown Turei and the whanau of Tairawhiti had the immense privilege last weekend of guiding Bishop Andrew Hedge and his family on a pilgrimage around the East Coast. A place where to be Mihinare means to be both Tairawhiti and Waiapu.

The hahi whanau greet us

We set sail from Te Rau Kahikatea, our beautiful, historic Amorangi Centre in Gisborne last Friday morning – Bishop Andrew, his wife Raewyn and their children, Jessica, Caitlin and Ethan, plus our Archbishop Brown, Don and Andrew Tamihere and yours truly.

Over the next three days our pilgrimage took in many of the small communities and churches that make up Te Pihopatanga o te Tairawhiti – and still continue to be bastions of the Hahi.

We stopped first in Whangara – that’s Whalerider territory – then we threaded our way north to Tolaga Bay, to Tokomaru and then on to Whareponga, which is on the coast, at the end of a 15 km drive on a gravel road south-east of Ruatoria. That’s where we all dossed down on the Friday night.

On the Saturday, we headed north again, stopping at Te Araroa, before we settled in for the evening at Hicks Bay, which was another chance for us all to reflect on the things we’d seen, heard, felt, and partaken of.

Because at each place we stopped, we’d been met by the local Minita and hahi whanau and, amid heaps of smiles and aroha, they’d shared with us the history and whakapapa of the church in that particular place.

Then, on the Sunday morning, a special highlight for us was to have Bishop Andrew preach at St Mary’s, Tikitiki.

The theologising continued after the service, too, during the powhiri at Rahui Marae, where more welcomes were expressed, more history was remembered and fresh challenges were laid down.

Together, as equals

Papa Nehe Dewes (who’d served as the Presbyterian prison chaplain at Waikeria, and then at ‘The Rock’, AKA Mt Eden jail) urged us to remember that as a church we are called to be relevant to, and present with, our people not just on Sunday mornings, but out in the community on Monday mornings.

We shared lots at that powhiri.

But maybe it was Matua Selwyn Parata who provided the deepest insight of all. Reflecting on the days of the old Hui Toopu, he sang a waiata which had been written to welcome the then Bishop of Waiapu to Uepohatu Marae, Ruatoria.

Matua Selwyn invented new lyrics for that tune – on the spot – because, as he put it: “…when we first sang that song, the Bishop of Aotearoa was subordinate to the Bishop of Waiapu.

“But now you come together, the Bishop of Waiapu and the Bishop of Aotearoa, as equals.”

 #

Bishop Andrew and Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley are now in Canterbury in the UK, where they are taking part in this year's edition of the Anglican Communion orientation course for new bishops.

Comments