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Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki's personal political ambitions appear to have upset plans for the launch of a new Christian political party next month.
Bishop Tamaki announced yesterday that his own political party, Destiny New Zealand, was being de-registered and its leader, Richard Lewis, would be co-leader of
the new, as-yet-unnamed Christian party.
The new party's other co-leader, Independent MP Gordon Copeland, told reporters in Wellington that he was taken completely by surprise by the announcement of Mr Lewis' role.
"I think I can probably live with that, but the reality is that I have got five years of parliamentary experience," he said.
"So from my point of view quite a lot of mentoring will have to happen, there will have to be quite a lot of guidance given to Richard as he comes into this new party, but I'm prepared at least to make the effort to see that happen."
Mr Lewis said Mr Copeland would not have been surprised to hear that he was the co-leader because that decision had been made by a group of church leaders in Auckland "many weeks ago".
"He wasn't aware of the exact detail [of the Destiny announcement] because we've only been working on it over the weekend," he said.
"We are in an early teething stage and it hasn't been easy to deregister the party and offer a fair explanation while there was still this party to be announced. It was always going to be difficult for us."
Bishop Tamaki, who remains head of the Destiny Church, appears to have been determined to set his own stamp on the new party from the beginning, rather than letting it look as if Destiny NZ was simply being swallowed up by the new party.
The bishop said he would be one of about 15 members of a "national advisory council" of "seasoned Christian leaders" who would be "guardians of the new party's constitutional commitment to Christian values".
He refused to rule out standing for Parliament himself.
"There could be a possibility that I may well consider that in the future."
He declined to name the other members of the advisory council, but said they represented the Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Salvation Army, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches.
Mr Copeland, a former Catholic Church administrator, said the group comprised church leaders who had been meeting in Auckland for some time.
"They are not, in the majority of cases, speaking for a denomination. The Catholic representatives are not speaking for the Catholic Church. The Baptist person is not speaking for the Baptist Church," he said.
Catholic Communications director Lyndsay Freer, confirmed that she attended one meeting of the group several weeks ago with Mr Copeland and a priest who came with him as "a personal mentor or friend" of the MP. "I made it clear that I was there absolutely as an observer," she said.