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Retired archbishop Whakahuihui Vercoe has died, aged 79.
A staunch supporter of the Treaty of Waitangi and the status of Maori in New Zealand, he retired in 2006 after two years as Anglican Archbishop of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Archbishop Vercoe was born at Torere, Opotiki, in 1928. After studying at Feilding Agricultural High School, Canterbury University and College House Theological College, he was ordained in 1952.
He served as a military chaplain in Malaya between 1961 and 1963 and South Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.
He was leader of the Maori arm of the church from 1981 until 2004. In the latter part of his life he lived and worked in Rotorua.
Archbishop Vercoe was outspoken over the years on the Treaty, homosexuality, immigration and the place of women in the church.
He made a speech at Waitangi in 1990 in front of the Queen saying Maori had been marginalised and the Treaty had not been honoured.
In 2004, he told the Weekend Herald he believed that homosexuality was unnatural and not morally right.
Early this year Archbishop Vercoe made a claim - reportedly for $170 million - to the Waitangi Tribunal in support of Maori Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
The archbishop, who was diagnosed in 2005 with cancer of the brain, is survived by his wife, Doris.
It is understood his body will lie on a marae in Rotorua today before being taken to Opape, east of Opotiki.
