Tikanga Youth Exchange this year is journeying through the north to celebrate the Gospel’s arrival in Aotearoa-New Zealand.

TYE gathers young people from across the church every two years to build relationships and experience other cultures and youth ministry in Pākehā, Māori and Pasifika contexts.

Participants learn about each other while immersing themselves in the host tikanga.

TYE 2014 is being hosted by Te Tai Tokerau (Tikanga Maori) and is based at Oromahoe Marae near Waitangi.

Milestones include Wesleydale in Kaeo, site of the first Methodist mission; Motuti, a stronghold of the Roman Catholic faith in North Hokianga, where Bishop Pompallier's remains are; and Oihi, where Ruatara and Samuel Marsden sowed the Gospel seed on Christmas Day 200 years ago.

Each morning and evening is punctuated by worship, led in turn by each tikanga.

When Sharon Yella from the Diocese of Auckland was thinking of songs for Tikanga Pākehā's first morning worship, on a whim she added a Māori waiata they sometimes sing at St Margaret's, Hillsborough: "Wairua Tapu, kuhu mai".

Bishop Kito, who welcomed participants the night before, returned the next morning to hear Sharon lead this song. He hadn't planned to be there, but an early-morning flight to Wellington in his role as Bishop to the defence force chaplains had been cancelled.

Thanking Tikanga Pākehā for leading the worship, Bishop Kito recounted how he had heard the Rev Pane Kawhia sing the same song at Waitangi celebrations this year, how he loved the harmony and words, and that he recognized in the song a prayer that would carry us through the day.

And so to our first stop: St Paul's in Paihia, where we learned about the memorial to Henry and William Williams erected by several Māori tribes and the resting place of Matiu Taupaki, the first Māori ordained in the north.

Appropriately, Bishop Kito invited Sharon to lead the song:

Wairua Tapu kuhu mai

Nau mai ki konei

Wairua Tapu arahia

Kōrero mai anō

Again, at Wesleydale, at the cairn marking the first Methodist mission, and at Matauri where the old storm-damaged cross from Oihi lies (shifted to the site where Marsden made his first landing in Aotearoa), Sharon led the song with more voices as TYE participants grew more confident with the melody.

By the time they gathered in Hata Maria or St Mary's at Motuti, where Bishop Pompallier's remains rest, the words reverberated through the church:

Holy Spirit, welcome,

You are welcome here

Guide us Holy Spirit

Speak to us again.

Throughout the journey the connection between past and present has become more tangible. For many pilgrims, stories of the early missionaries are not an academic exercise but a connection to their heritage: whakapapa and whakapono. 

This journey continues to Oihi and the opening weekend of General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui where TYE participants will join synod delegates in the welcome and opening Eucharist.