Tonga – the last remaining monarchy in the Pacific – revelled in a once-in-40-year celebration in August with the coronation of its new king, His Majesty King George Tupou V. And the man chosen to act at the pivotal moment – the anointing and crowning of the new King – was our own Jabez Bryce, Bishop of the Diocese of Polynesia and Archbishop of this church.
Lloyd Ashton was there to watch Pacific history unfold...

Friday, August 1: some 600 Anglican bishops – the Archbishop of Canterbury among them – were preparing for the penultimate stages of the Lambeth Conference.

That same day in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, there was one, solitary Anglican bishop.

But in terms of media fascination, visibility and sheer public impact – at least in the South Pacific and Australia and New Zealand – there was no contest. The solitary bishop on that speck of an island in the Pacific Ocean won, hands down. His actions were captured on television footage, in newspaper photos, and on radio reports.

That bishop, of course, was Jabez Bryce, the long-serving leader of the Diocese of Polynesia, and Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

He was the one chosen to perform rites that haven’t been performed in the South Pacific for more than 40 years.He was the one chosen to anoint and crown His Majesty King George Tupou V, the new monarch for the Kingdom of Tonga.

More than 1000 people, including Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan; Thai Princess Chakri Sirindhorn; Britain’s Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; Tuheitia, the Maori King; the New Zealand and Australian Governors General; Helen Clark and numerous other heads of Pacific states and diplomats, had gathered in Nuku’alofa’s Wesleyan Centenary Church to watch him perform those rites.

To understand the honour extended to Archbishop Jabez, and the Diocese of Polynesia, you need to grasp the deep respect, verging on awe, that Tongans hold for their royalty: no Tongan may walk in front of the king, for example, let alone touch his head.

In part, that’s about respect for whakapapa: George Tupou V is a direct descendant of King George Taufa’ahou Tupou 1, who was crowned in 1875, and he’s the progeny of three ancient royal bloodlines in a civilisation that’s nearly 3000 years old.
Furthermore, the Kingdom of Tonga is, to a degree scarcely credible in New Zealand, a deeply Christian country. Ninety-nine percent of its people profess Christian faith – but the majority of those are Methodists.

So when the news broke that an Anglican bishop had been chosen to crown the 60-year-old bachelor king… well, that was a big story in the Kingdom of Tonga.

There were, perhaps, several reasons why the new King asked Archbishop Jabez to perform this honour.

The new king recognized that Archbishop Bryce is, without doubt, the senior Tongan-born clergyman. He was ordained a priest 46 years ago; he has served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Polynesia for 33 years; he is an Archbishop and one of the three Primates, or leaders, of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

While Archbishop Bryce was born in Tonga, his mother was Tongan, and he is closely related to past and present Tongan cabinet ministers; he has, through his father, a Samoan and Scottish genealogy – so for the purposes of the anointing and the coronation, he could be regarded as a “foreigner,” and thus not subject to that taboo that prevents Tongans touching the King.

What’s more, while the Tongan royal family are themselves Methodists, they also have, through their schooling, close Anglican ties: the King’s grandmother, the much-loved Queen Salote, for example, was educated at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland; and King George Tupou V himself – like many of his male relatives – was educated at King’s College in Auckland.

There was, possibly, one other motivation. The Methodist church in Tonga, by virtue of its sheer weight of numbers, could be tempted to regard itself as the established State Church of Tonga. In asking Archbishop Jabez to crown him, King George Tupou V was perhaps indicating that he doesn’t quite share those assumptions.

When Archbishop Jabez was first approached to perform the coronation, the thought was that he would perform the service from go to whoa, no other inputs necessary. But Archbishop Jabez made sure the coronation was an ecumenical occasion, with the President of the Tongan Methodist Church, the Methodist royal chaplain and a Roman Catholic priest playing a significant part – administering the coronation oath; presenting the King with the Bible; administering the sacrament to the King and giving the Benediction at the hour-long service.

The Friday August 1 coronation was the culmination of a week of festivities that included a traditional installation ceremony (held two days earlier); a royal honours investiture ceremony – at which the King conferred Tonga’s highest honour on Archbishop Jabez – dinners, a charity concert, coronation ball and military parade.

But while there was plenty of pomp and ceremony, there were big political developments, too. The riots in Nuku’alofa in November 2006 – in which eight people were killed, and fires gutted many buildings – were, in some respects, a barometer of a pent-up desire for political change.

Before he died (and before those November 2006 riots) the new King’s father, King Taufa’ahau IV, had made some tentative steps towards political democracy. Where previously he had been solely responsible for the selection of Cabinet ministers, he accepted that these should be made on the recommendations of an elected Prime Minister.

The new king has moved swiftly to take the democratic process further. He has chosen to divest authority to the elected Prime Minister in all matters of governance, with the exception of judicial powers. These relate to the appointment of judges and kings’ counsel, clemency and commuting prison sentences. And in these areas, he’ll be advised by a judicial committee of the Privy Council.

This transfer of authority will take full effect in elections to be held the year after next – and in the words of the Prime Minister, Dr Feleti Sevele, they will mark “a monumental change” for the Kingdom of Tonga.

On the evidence of August 1, perhaps Tonga now hopes it has the best of both worlds. All the splendour of the royal occasion, with the people’s undoubted enduring loyalty to their monarch/chief; and new-found democratic freedoms.