General Synod Te Hīnota Whānui passed a Bill today that requests Tikanga Māori develop a way to exercise tino rangatiratanga over the distribution of education funds from the St John's College Trust Board (SJCTB).

Earlier today Bishop of Aotearoa Archbishop Don Tamihere articulated the challenge of Bill #15 in the primatial charge delivered to the 67th General Synod Te Hīnota Whānui. 

"Part of our work this Synod will be to engage in shared talanoa and wānanga to address that which constrains, and obstructs, and frustrates our collective liberation." he said.

"For over three decades, Te Pouhere – our Constitution, has promised that our three Tikanga stand as co-equal partners: each with the unmediated mana to order its own life, each honoured, none subordinate. That promise was itself an act of repentance and hope, and we do not diminish it."

Next Archbishop Don's charge reminded the Church that the promise of Te Pouhere has not been a promise kept.

"The lived reality is that Tikanga Māori and Tikanga Pasefika remain systemically marginalised within our shared life – in the distribution of resources, in the weight of our voices, in the assumptions about whose ways of being are ‘normal’ and whose ways require accommodation first. These are truths that we must name, if only that we might leave them behind." 

As the Bill passed today, Archbishop Don acknowledged that Tikanga Polynesia and Tikanga Pākehā had chosen to assent to the Bill in a spirit of trust, rather than by adding arduous demands or guarantees. 

"Today in taking a high trust action, you have released us and given us permission to respond in a high trust way." he said. 

Education funding affects the whole Church 

The Bill has major implications for the whole Church going forward, as St John's College Trust distributions underwrite much of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia's work in education each year, including that offered by Mihinare and Anglican schools, colleges, Hui Amorangi and Diocesan-based educators, including bishops.

Today's direction in Bill #15 also stands on the shoulders of an earlier motion passed at Te Hīnota Whānui 2012 in Fiji, moved by the late Professor Whatarangi Winiata and Dr Tony Fitchett. That motion had called for a three tikanga group to investigate how Tikanga Māori could take full guardianship over distribution of 50% of the Trust Board's allocations.

Moves on equity began outside Synod

Today's decision also follows two years of preparatory work by church leaders, including in the General Synod Standing Committee, and an intensive whole-Synod talanoa (storytelling and viewpoint sharing forum) on equity led by Tikanga Māori on Monday 17 August.

This week's talanoa included an overview of the historic and present-day financial inequities between the three Tikanga in the Anglican Church, introduced by Canon Isaac Beach, opened in prayer by the Very Rev Ruihana Paenga and unpacked in detail by Archbishop Don Tamihere and Dr Jenny Te Paa Daniel.

The talanoa was also resourced by Archbishop Justin Duckworth who outlined the last two years of process work on the Bill, and Bishop Andrew Hedge who provided inspiring examples of flourishing partnerships between the Diocese of Waiapu and Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa.

Bill #15 suspends parts of St John's College Canon

The Bill suspends portions of 'Canon II Title E of St John's College and the utilisation of the St John's College Trust Funds' for a two-year period. This enables Tikanga Māori to appoint up to seven members to form a new cohort for the Anglican Church's educational funding advisory body to the St John's College Trust Board, Te Kotahitanga.

The intention of the Bill is that over the next two years Tikanga Māori will have time to establish a viable mechanism by which to exercise guardianship of the Trust's distribution on behalf of the whole Church into the future.

The preamble to Bill 15 as passed today introduces its whakapapa reaching back to Te Hīnota Whānui in 2012 and sets out the values and commitments that Tikanga Māori will bring to their new role.

'In reference to, and to honour, the 2012 GSTHW motion and its preamble principles on St Johns College Trust Board funds, and noting the priority of Te Tiriti in relation to Te Pouhere, Tikanga Māori are charged to initiate discussion on how to exercise Tino Rangatiratanga in regard to the St John's College Trust funds, and exercising the consequent kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga for the full flourishing of the whole church.’

Those intentions expressed so succinctly through the Māori concepts of kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga are echoed in Archbishop Don's final words of his Synod charge.

"We are proud as Tikanga Māori to share the same waka and the same Moana as Tikanga Pasefika and Tikanga Pākehā. We want to see Te Oranga Ake (flourishing life) realised for each of us, and therefore for all of us, together, none excluded, everyone included."

The full text of Bill #15 can be found in the General Synod Te Hīnota Whānui 2026 Bills page here.