Leaders of Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa joined with other Māori church leaders to offer prayers, readings and blessings as Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po was raised up as the new Māori Queen in a widely reported ceremony last week. 

Archbishop Don Tamihere has no doubt that Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po will be a great Queen.  

"She is humble and wise beyond her years. She has her people and all of her ancestors behind her. May God bless her reign as she seeks to lead her people to Kotahitanga (unity)." he said. 

As part of last week's ceremony, Tumuaki of the Kiingitanga, Hone Taamihana, crowned Te Arikinui by holding a sacred Bible above her head as prayers were said. That Bible was the very one used in 1858 to crown the first Māori King.

Te Arikinui was then anointed with sacred oils by Archbishop Don Tamihere, who prayed a blessing over her and later preached during the thanksgiving karakia. 

Ministers from Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Ratana churches and the Salvation Army who took part in the ceremony were invited by the Whare Ariki (the Royal House) in consultation with the Tekau-mā-rua (Royal advisors), Te Pae (the elders of Tūrangawaewae), and Te Kāhui Wairua (the Royal chaplaincy). 

"We ministered there at the pleasure of the Whare Ariki" said Archbishop Don, "and it was deeply humbling to be asked to serve in this moment, knowing how sacred and historic it was." 

"It was made even more poignant knowing that the Whare Ariki and Te Arikinui were still mourning the loss of their beloved husband, father and grandfather, Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero Te Tuawhitu."

Archbishop Don Tamihere preached before Te Arikinui and her people, speaking on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5:3-10, the Gospel passage that has been read at each of the Māori monarchs' enthronements. 

Archbishop Don told the crowds assembled at Turangawaewae that Jesus also came from a people who suffered under empire. 

"Jesus sought to shift his people, in his time, from beneath the brutal oppression and colonisation of the Roman Empire, and move them into a greater place of healing and hope, somewhere more lifegiving, somewhere where the foundations could be set for what Papa Moana Jackson called, 'Future flourishing'..." 

He went on to say that Moana Jackson, (whom Archbishop Don referenced as one of the 'prophets' of Māoridom), saw the need to urgently decolonise, to break down and dismantle all that hurts and harms whānau Māori. But he also saw the need for Māori to shift to an 'ethic of restoration': of building up, uplifting and renewing all that is good for te ao Māori. 

"Papa Moana believed that this shift would require deep attitudinal change, and a politic that he called the 'politic of love'."

"In the Gospel reading that we read today...we see Jesus standing on the mountainside by the Sea of Galilee, gathering the last and the lost and the least, the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed, and seeking to shift them to a different frame with a deep attitudinal change." 

Archbishop Don explained to the thousands assembled that when Jesus said, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' he wasn't speaking about economic impoverishment, but instead the simplicity, humility and truth that people display when they are secure in their wairua (spirit).

"Blessed are those who mourn. Jesus said, because those who mourn do so from a heart of aroha for their people."

"Blessed are the meek. Jesus said, not because the meek are weak, but because the meek do not feel compelled to chase after power.

Blessed are the merciful, said Jesus, because that's the kind of attitude we need to contend with those who are not merciful towards us."

And lastly he linked the Gospel to Martin Luther King,

"Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus said, because the kind of peace that we need is not simply the absence of tension."

Archbishop Don wrapped up his kauhau with a return to the legacy of kotahitanga - the shared sense of purpose for Māoridom called for by the new Queen's father, Kiingi Tuheitia. 

"We cannot build our kotahitanga on bitterness and resentment. We cannot build our kotahitanga on the steeping of racism in this country..." 

"The only way that we can build kotahitanga amongst us is to shift ourselves to a politic of love..."

"The love that I speak of is a love that must transcend the temporary, must transcend the hurt and the harm that has come our way, must become something that will last us a lifetime, and something even more enduring than that, this must be a love that is eternal." 

Immediately following her enthronement, Te Arikinui boarded a traditional ceremonial waka to accompany her father's body to his final burial place down river from Tūrangawaewae marae at Taupiri mountain.

Anglican Church leaders on the atea at Turangawaewae as the new Queen ascended the throne included: Archbishop Don Tamihere, Archbishop Sione Ulu'ilakepa, Archbishop Emeritus David Moxon, Bishop Te Kitohi Pikaahu, Archbishop Emeritus Philip Richardson, Rev Wiremu Anania, Archdeacon Mere Wallace, Archdeacon Chris Douglas-Huriwai, Archdeacon Susan Wallace, Rev Dr Steve Elers, Rev Ruihana Paenga, Rev Chaans Tumataroa-Clarke, Rev Joanna Katipa, Rev Zhane Tahau-Whelan, Rev Cruz Karauti-Fox, Rev Karu Kukutai, Rev Ben Cameron, Rev Bettina Maxwell, Rev Dr Ben Ong, Adam Hape and Adrian Toki.