Unveiling of the portrait of lrihāpeti Te Paea Pōtatau by Mike Marshall (left) and Tom Roa, watched by Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon. Photo / Supplied
Unveiling of the portrait of lrihāpeti Te Paea Pōtatau by Mike Marshall (left) and Tom Roa, watched by Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon. Photo / Supplied
A unique event in the New Zealand Anglican Church calendar is Te Pouhere Sunday – the second Sunday after Pentecost.
Te Pouhere Sunday is when the Church celebrates its Constitution/Te Pouhere which establishes the three Tikanga – European, Māori and Polynesian – of the Church in the Province of New Zealand and Polynesia.
Te Awamutu St John's Anglican Parish celebrated Te Pouhere Sunday 2021 with the unveiling of a portrait of Irihāpeti Te Paea Pōtatau in the chancel of Old St John's – the first step of a pilgrimage across the parish to guide people to hear God at work, offer a chance to be immersed in the beautiful sacred spaces and allow people to discover a response to the history they learn.
Te Awamutu's St John's Anglican Parish Old St John's Church - Waikato's oldest standing building and possibly New Zealand's longest continuously operating church. Photo / Dean Taylor
Old St John's is the oldest building left standing in the Waikato and possibly New Zealand's longest continuously operating church.
It was opened Easter Day in 1854, built from locally hand-milled and donated native timbers. Visit stjohnsparishteawamutu.co.nz/old-st-john's for more information.
Parish priest Reverend Julie Guest, together with Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon, initiated the event in response to the sacredness of Old St John's and the powerful history in and around Te Awamutu.
Julie arrived in Te Awamutu in 2019 and says she spent much time in prayer, seeking God's direction for this parish and her ministry here.
"I had experienced a wonderful sense of the Holy Spirit with me when I first entered Old St John's," she says.
"The sacredness of the many years of worship and prayer impacted me deeply.
"I sensed that God wanted to do something connected with this church.
"I also had a sense that it was to do with the history, but I was ignorant about that as yet, so I started reading and researching."
Te Awamutu St John's Anglican Parish priest Reverend Julie Guest conducting the welcome. Photo / Supplied
The more Julie read the more she was convinced this rich history needed to be shared.
"I came to believe that we, as Christians, need to be aware of the history and the powerful story of Christ's transforming grace enacted right here in and around Te Awamutu where Māori encountered the living Christ, initially through the work of Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries."
Julie says we need to know the history and understand the place this parish has in those stories and to share them, firstly to help people understand the deep hurts that have been inflicted on local Māori, and also so others may encounter the power of Christ's love.
She believed the best way was to offer a pilgrimage across the parish to guide people to hear God at work.
Julie was directed to Archbishop David for his immense and growing historical knowledge and his experience in leading pilgrimages in other places.
Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon leads the Te Pouhere Sunday service in Old St John's Anglican Church. Photo / Supplied
"It is to Bishop David that we owe the progress that has been made thus far," says Julie. "He has advised, encouraged and supported vestry every step of the way."
Placing a portrait of Irihāpeti Te Paea Pōtatau in Old St John's was one of the steps to preparing the pilgrimage that Bishop David recommended to vestry.
Julie says there were two portraits in the chancel; Bishop Selwyn and John Morgan. "Both men are integral in the mission, but Irihāpeti's role in protecting the church has been overlooked all this time."
Irihāpeti was the firstborn daughter of the first Māori king Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, who was born at Otāwhao (Te Awamutu), and the greatly respected sister of King Tawhiao. Her mother was Hinepau from Ngāti Pukeko, a high-born chieftainess from Whakatāne.
Pōtatau, a descendant of the captains of the Tainui and Te Arawa waka and of the senior chiefly line of Ngāti Mahuta, was anointed with the Bible as monarch in 1858 by Tarapīpipi Te Waharoa, Wiremu Tāmihana, the Ngāti Haua paramount chief, statesman, prophet and Anglican mission leader.
The inspiration for the royal vocation was taken from the Bible, Deuteronomy, Ch 17. Irihāpeti married John Mackay in 1838 and they had 12 children. All were baptised by Bishop George Selwyn and attended Anglican Mission Schools initiated by Reverend Robert and Susan Maunsel who were the supervising missioners for Reverend Benjamin and Harriett Ashwell.
The Ashwells were the first Anglican missionaries at Pirongia, now part of the Parish of St John.
Irihāpeti's photo is one of the few known formal portraits of an influential Māori lay Anglican from this time, thought to have been taken in early widowhood. She later married Sam Joyce, and the couple had three children.
Irihāpeti helped foster the first largely Māori congregations of the Waikato, including Otāwhao, the early support of the chiefly daughter, her children, and then grandchildren, providing a strong role model influence on the rapidly growing church community.
She had a sister, Te Paea Tiaho Pōtatau, known to the Pākehā community as "Princess Sophie".
The sisters shared the name Te Paea, derived from the biblical concept for holy wisdom, also Sophie in Greek.
Te Paea is the principle behind "lady Wisdom" in the Old Testament and the wisdom of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.
Tiaho carried out a number of Kīngitanga initiatives for moderation and peace during the military tensions of the 1860s colonial era.
One of these occurred following the military attack at Rangiaowhia on February 21, 1864, which resulted in the deaths of women and children in a burning whare.
Māori threatened to burn down Saint John's in retribution. At the time St John's had become the constabulary church with the arrival of the troops in Te Awamutu.
Influenced by her beloved sister, Tiaho placed her mana on the church to protect it.
Te Awamutu's St John's Anglican Parish Old St John's Church and historic churchyard. Photo / Dean Taylor
The two sisters had clearly conferred about this; Irihāpeti from the perspective of a high-born bicultural Anglican family, and Tiaho, who wasn't married with children, from the perspective of the Kīngitanga itself.
Julie says without the sisters' intervention and protection the beautiful and historic church, which is Waikato's oldest surviving building, would likely not still be standing today.
"Looking at the portrait of Irihāpeti in the church, and sensing something of the faith and aroha, you are looking at an iconic witness to wisdom and mana," says Julie.
The portrait of lrihāpeti Te Paea Pōtatau in Old St John's Church.
Irihāpeti's portrait was unveiled by her descendant Mike Marshall, along with Professor Tom Roa, during an evensong service where Reverend Julie, Archdeacon Ngira Simmonds, representing the Kīngitanga, Archbishop and Primate / Te Pihopa Matamua Philip Richardson, Archbishop David and Waikato Māori Missioner Reverend Cruz Karauti-Fox all took part.
