Far North priest penalised after affair with woman he conducted marriage ceremony for months earlier

Reverend Pitotori Peter Naere pictured in 2020.

A senior priest who had an affair with a woman he conducted a marriage ceremony for just a few months earlier has been penalised for his actions.

Rev Pitotori Peter Naera will not be allowed to hold any office or ministry, or perform any function in any episcopal unit of the Anglican church, for four years after a tribunal found him guilty of misconduct.

Details of the affair were revealed in a Tribunal decision between Naera, of Hokianga, and the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia.

The name of the woman involved as well as her husband - who made the official complaint - have not been made public.

Documents show some of the aggravating factors the Tribunal considered included that Naera is a senior priest and is licensed as being both a church minister to his parish and as a co-archdeacon with many years in ministry.

“Given the length of his ministry and senior position, he could reasonably have been expected to know that entering a sexual relationship with Ms X was a serious breach of the standards of ministry and particularly of the requirement for ministers to be chaste.”

Naera had also conducted the wedding ceremony of the woman involved, and her husband, less than six months before the affair started.

“The fact that the respondent had himself married Ms X to Mr X fewer than six months before he and Ms X first engaged sexually is a significant breach of the requirement on ministers of the church to observer appropriate interpersonal disciplines and boundaries...and a serious violation of his role as a priest.”

It is understood the couple had known Naera for many years and he knew they had been in a committed long-term relationship of nearly 20 years and that they had not formally separated at the time the affair began.

The former couple also have a child together.

The husband, who wrote a letter to the Tribunal, said the ending of their almost 20-year relationship was in direct result of the affair.

The husband described “extreme distress” at finding out about the affair and the devastation he felt at the end of his marriage. He had also been struggling to sleep.

Reverend resumes relationship

The Tribunal highlighted what it described as Naera’s “limited insight” into his misconduct - including his decision to resume the relationship with the woman before the Tribunal proceedings ended.

Despite his position as a church leader not only to the couple and to the community he served, Naera told the Tribunal it was not until the husband discovered the affair and made it clear he was going to make a complaint to the Ministry Standards Commission that he realised the relationship amounted to a breach of the standard for ministers.

The Tribunal said it was concerned about this and the fact Naera did not see that the relationship amounted to a breach of the requirement of chastity.

“[The Tribunal] would have expected the respondent to have recognised the breach at the outset of the relationship.”

The documents also show that Naera made the request to members of the Tribunal - that they consider the impact of their decision on the mana of his family.

The Tribunal’s response was: “Clearly, the mana of the respondent and his whānau will be impacted. But the most significant impact on mana flows primarily from the respondent’s decision to engage in an adulterous relationship with Ms X [and] to do so secretly and contrary to the duties of his office and then the consequential finding of serious misconduct.

“It does not flow from the Tribunal’s decision on penalty. The Tribunal does not therefore believe that impact on mana should carry weight on its decision on penalty.”