preview

Te Pouhere: The Constitution of the Anglican Church in Aotearo, New Zealand and Polynesia

Best Essays

“Te Pouhere (1991) is a just response to the Treaty of Waitangi and the Gospel in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia”. To answer this question is to examine the very foundations of the Anglican Church in these lands, to explore the history of people and events that brought us to the moment of Te Pouhere’s ratification and to elicit a sense of the forces that drive us as a church, both then and now. With a view to the vast reality that is entwined with answering, and with humility in recognizing that we can only scratch the surface of thought in the framework of this assignment, it is the aim of this essay to discuss and attempt to respond to the question posed. We will achieve this initially through a discussion of the role Church …show more content…

This transformation of Māori from a previously solely spoken language into a written form had two major effects. The first was the ability, and so necessity to write the treaty in a Māori form, and secondly that, in order to communicate the concepts laid out in English, familiar conceptual ideas would have to be used in Māori, many of which had, through Luke, taken on a greater level of spiritual significance in regard to Christian thought. This can be seen in Māori conception of te Tiriti as a form of covenant . This notion of the treaty as covenant was an idea further enforced by the work of missionaries who were deeply involved in Māori life and politics, and one which, it is argued, helped to sway many Māori chiefs to sign . With recognition of the Anglican Church as the sending institution of the CMS missionaries who translated and endorsed the treaty to Māori chiefs and the realization of the role that Christian belief and conceptions played in Māori understanding of the treaty, it is without doubt that, as a church, we must take responsibility for te Tiriti and ensure that it is upheld. As such, its prominence and role within the structural framework laid out in Te Pouhere is a necessary and valid attempt by the Anglican Church in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Get Access