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Māori saints lead in Lent 2022

Māori Anglicans are journeying this Lent with Māori Anglican saints and ancestors in a series of Wednesday evening services livestreamed via the Pihopatanga o Aotearoa Facebook group.
• Read Rēnata Kawepo's story told in Rev Zhane Tahau Whelan's sermon
• Watch the full online service from Wednesday 8 March

Julanne Clarke-Morris  |  15 Mar 2022  |

This Lenten season, the Pihopatanga o Aotearoa’s Wednesday 7pm online prayers will journey through the forty days of Lent in the company of a blessed array of Māori saints and influential ancestors in the Māori Anglican faith.

Each service will trace a different important tīpuna in the faith, particularly focused on the “second generation” of saintly figures, who like the first week’s example, Rēnata Kawepō, were vital leaders in both the Māori Anglican Church and the wider world.

On Wednesday 8 March the Rev Zhane Tahau Whelan opened the series with a look at the extraordinary life and witness of his ancestor, the paramount chief and evangelist Rēnata Tama-ki-Hikurangi Kawepō of Ōmāhu in Heretaunga – Hawke’s Bay. 

A special connecting point in the first Lenten service was the welcome and waiata from members of Te Paepae o Kahukuranui at St John’s Anglican Church in Ōmāhu, tuning in from the church built by Rēnata Kawepō. 

Rev Canon Chris Douglas-Huriwai, and historian of Te Hāhi Mihinare Ven Dr Hirini Kaa were part of the team that decided on the Lenten series, choosing Lent as an opportune time to focus on hearing more from the stories of Māori saints.

“It is important for Māori to look into our whakapapa for examples of ancestors who were strong in the faith and brought that into the lives of our people and made it part of our identity.” said Canon Chris.

Next up in the Lenten series is the story of the Rev Mohi Turei: missionary, tōhunga, theologian, saint who was also the late Archbishop Brown Turei’s grandfather from the whangai family he was brought up in.

Canon Chris Douglas-Huriwai will introduce the Rev Mohi Turei as a major figure in our Church’s history,

“He is very significant as one of the first Māori Anglican leaders who intentionally placed his intellectual formation in matauranga Māori, and as a tōhunga (an expert and teacher in Māori knowledge systems) into a critical conversation with his deeply studied Christian theology,” said Canon Chris today.

The 2022 evening services journeying with Māori saints through Lent will stream at 7pm each Wednesday of Lent until Holy Week on the Pihopatanga o Aotearoa Facebook group.

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