Trailblazer priest dies

The Rev Puti Murray, the first Maori woman priest in the Anglican Church, has died. She was 83.

Mrs Murray, who had Te Aupouri and Ngati Kahu ties, was ordained in 1978 and spent almost 10 years helping some of the most deprived people in the country through her ministry at the Church of the Epiphany, in Otara.

She then retired to Te Kao in the Far North - but no sooner had she done so than she returned to South Auckland to establish and direct Te Whare Ruruhau o Meri, an Anglican Church sanctuary for abused women and children.