Current Feasts, Saints and other Holy Days

St Dunstan - May 19

Archbishop of Canterbury and Reformer, 909-988

Dunstan was an extraordinarily able and gifted archbishop of Canterbury in the late Anglo-Saxon period. He inspired the renewal of the church and the revival of the monasteries.

Dunstan was born in 909 at Boltonsborough, near Glastonbury. He received his education from Irish monks. In 923, when his uncle Athelm became archbishop of Canterbury, Dunstan joined his household. The following year Athelm commended Dunstan to King Athelstan, and he served at court. However his impressive scholarship and considerable influence created jealousy so Dunstan left, took monastic vows and returned to Glastonbury.

In 939 Edmund became king of Wessex and Dunstan returned to court as his Chaplain. The king, convinced that Dunstan’s prayers had saved him from death, appointed him Abbot of Glastonbury. Because of the Danish invasions, religious life in England was at a low ebb. Dunstan reformed the monastery, insisting on close observance of the Rule of St Benedict. Under his leadership Glastonbury became a centre of learning, attracting many new members to the Church.

In 956 Dunstan was exiled as the result of some personal hostility towards him from the royal court. He went first to Flanders, then to a monastery in Ghent, where he became acquainted with the reforms invigorating monastic life on the continent. Recalled by King Edgar in 957, he was appointed Bishop of Worcester, then Bishop of London.

In 960 Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury. He planned and carried out a thorough reform of both Church and State through a reformed monasticism. He improved the education and discipline of the secular clergy and encouraged the use of Anglo-Saxon in teaching and for translating the Gospels.

Dunstan is remembered as man of ability and action, someone who would spend long hours in prayer, a practical administrator and a gifted artist. The extent of the popular affection in which he was held was indicated by a spontaneous acclamation of his saintliness upon his death in 988.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

Wiremu Te Tauri - May 17

Missionary in Wanganui

Wiremu was noted for his contribution to the spread of the gospel in his own area of Wanganui.

Our information about the missionary work of Wiremu Te Tauri is gleaned almost entirely from comments made about him by Richard Taylor of the Church Missionary Society. Taylor arrived in New Zealand in 1839 and was appointed to Wanganui in 1843, where he served till 1866. He enlisted Wiremu Te Tauri as his head teacher and took him with him on a number of his missionary travels. Te Tauri also worked independently and in partnership with other Maori missioners. His full name was Wiremu Eruera Te Tauri, and he was a chief at Taupo of Ngati Tuwharetoa and Wanganui descent. The dates of his birth and death are not known.

Taylor and Te Tauri in May 1846 shared the burial service over the spot where a pa had stood in the Te Rapa valley at the south end of Lake Taupo. The once fruitful valley had been buried, in many places more than twenty feet deep, by the bursting of a natural dam, which caused a huge land slip to sweep down the valley. Among those killed was the Ngati Tuwharetoa chief, Te Heuheu Tukino II. Taylor says of that event:

When I read the burial service over the spot where the pa stood, accompanied by Wiremu Tauri, my head teacher, even then the mud was so soft that we sank in it nearly ancle [sic] deep. It was a solemn moment; an entire village laid buried beneath us, with all its inhabitants - the young, the old, the infant, and the hoary-headed - all in one awful moment were deeply entombed.

At Christmas time that year Te Manihera and Kereopa were preparing to go on what was to be their last missionary pilgrimage. Taylor reports:

Wiremu Eruera, and Tahana, two of the teachers, came forward and said that as these two were now devoted to the Lord, they did not think it right the servants of God, as ambassadors of Christ, should go forth without suitable clothes; they immediately gave each a pair of black trowsers, the only Sunday ones they had; others contributed coats; one person gave one garment and another gave another, until the two were perfectly provided with proper clothing.

Te Manihera’s and Kereopa’s journey eventually led to their martyrdom. A meeting was held at Taupo on 1 April 1847 after their tangi, and the subject of utu was discussed. Wiremu Te Tauri endorsed the opinion of those who were against utu and argued that the loss of a teacher would not hinder the gospel, saying

"A minister was like a lofty Kahikatea tree full of fruit, which it sheds on every side around, causing a thick grove of young trees to spring up; so that although the parent tree may be cut down, its place is thus more than supplied by those which proceed from it."

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

Te Wera Hauraki - May 16

Missionary in Ngati Kahungunu

Although Te Wera Hauraki is commemorated for his importance in Ngati Kahungunu, he was a Nga Puhi leader from the Bay of Islands. It is not known when he was born. His first contact with the missionaries was probably with Thomas Kendall and John King. They gave him some assistance with planting his wheat near Kerikeri in 1817. In the following year he joined a Nga Puhi raid on the Bay of Plenty, and it is probably from there that he took his first wife, Te Aokapurangi. Their child was accidentally burned, and this gave rise to Hauraki’s name, Te Wera (the burning).

Hauraki was visited by Samuel Marsden one evening in October 1819. Shortly after that, Te Wera participated in various Nga Puhi raids on other tribes that took him as far as the Mahia Peninsula and Wairoa. From that district Te Wera took a number of prisoners back to the Bay of Islands, arriving there in 1821. In 1823 Te Wera went with Hongi Hika and Pomare I on their major expedition against Te Arawa, culminating in their assault on Mokoia Island, Rotorua. Already, there were signs that Te Wera was not simply bent on utu. Through his wife’s contacts in the area and his own acceptance of his wife’s child by an earlier marriage, Te Wera compelled Nga Puhi not to pursue the attacks on Te Arawa. Also Te Wera had another task: to restore Te Whareumu, whom he had taken from the Mahia Peninsula and whose sister he had probably taken as a second wife, to his people.

After the battle at Mokoia, Hongi returned north, and Te Wera and other Nga Puhi continued to the East Coast, causing a degree of panic on the way among other tribes, who feared the Nga Puhi and their superior weapons. Arriving at Mahia, not only did Te Wera restore Te Whareumu to his people, but in return Te Whareumu persuaded his people to accept Te Wera as their leader and to grant him land on the peninsula.

By the 1830s Te Wera was one of the most significant chiefs on the East Coast. He formed alliances with other tribes in the area and provided some much needed stability and protection, especially as some of the tribes to the south were under considerable pressure from Te Rauparaha. Although still actively engaged in tribal warfare, Te Wera picked his quarrels judiciously, and was respected for his total integrity.

Never was he ever accused of evil deeds, nor did he ever abandon those who placed themselves under his guidance and beneficent rule. . . . If a messenger came asking his assistance, he carefully inquired into the cause, . . . If Te Wera saw it was a just cause he would consent to conduct the war in order that it might be quickly closed.

When William Williams and others from the Church Missionary Society visited the East Cape area in early 1838, they found continuing tension between the tribes of the Bay of Plenty to East Cape area and those further south. The possibility of peace seemed to open a door for the gospel. William Williams noted:

The natives seem to take it for granted that peace is the universal consequence of the introduction of missionaries, and they are urgent with us that we should use our influence with Wera the chief of Table Cape to induce him to make peace with the natives living on the coast from Cape Runaway to Turanga.

William Williams did not meet Te Wera, who died during 1839, but, when he visited Mahia in early 1840, he discovered a readiness to receive the gospel and a strong desire by some Maori to have missionaries living among them. This was particularly so among the relatives of Te Wera who had come from the Bay of Islands and those who had moved into the area from the Wairarapa and Wellington areas. Christian teaching was already growing among the Maori themselves within the kinship networks of the area. The speed and completeness of the acceptance of Christianity among the Maori of the East Coast was fostered by the conditions established by leaders such as Te Wera. Vocations to the ordained ministry from Ngati Kahungunu soon followed. The first was Tamihana Huata, who died in 1908 after forty-seven years as the first vicar of the Wairoa pastorate.

Te Wera’s principal biographer, Takaanui Tarakawa, says that Te Wera died of old age, mourned by all the tribes of the East Coast. In some traditions it is said that he returned to the Bay of Islands in his last year and is buried there on Te Ahuahu Hill.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

Piripi Taumata-a-kura - May 15

Missionary in Ngati Porou

When some members of the Nga Puhi tribe returned to the Bay of Islands after a visit to the East Coast, a chief among them called on William Williams in 1837 and asked why there were no missionaries on the East Coast, especially as the Maori people there met regularly for wor-ship and did no work on Sundays. William Williams of course wanted to know how this had come about. The chief told him that it was due to the dedicated work of Taumata-a-kura, a member of Ngati Porou from Waiapu. Piripi Taumata-a-kura had been born at Whakawhitira near the Waiapu River, probably before 1800. When Nga Puhi raided Waiapu in 1823, he was taken to the Bay of Islands as a captive. A different tradition states he was a guest of Pomare I in the Bay of Islands. He learned to read and write at the mission school in Waimate, though he was not baptised there, and did not seem very interested in Christianity at the time. William Williams arranged for the return of the East Coast Maori to their home at the end of 1833, and Taumata-a-kura was able to return home with them.

Back at Whakawhitira, Taumata-a-kura worked hard to pass on what he had learned. He taught and preached and used some short prayers and hymns and some biblical texts written on scraps of paper, which were greatly venerated by the people. He began his teaching, according to Ngati Porou tradition, at Te Ahikoareare pa at Whakawhitira. A large assembly house was put up for his use. He used to begin his meetings by saying, “I have come from Keri Keri and from Paihia and I have seen Williams of the four eyes” (a reference to Henry Williams, who wore spectacles). So great was his commitment to what he had been taught that he persuaded his people not to work on Saturdays as well as Sundays, and sometimes people sat still for the entire two days.

Taumata-a-kura greatly enhanced his influence as a result of what he succeeded in doing in 1836 during a tribal feud between Ngati Porou and Te Whanau-a-Apanui. He agreed to take part only if there was no cannibalism and no wanton destruction of canoes or crops. This code of conduct was agreed to, and Taumata-a-kura led the Ngati Porou forces in the Bay of Plenty with his musket in one hand and New Testament in the other. The fact that he was not hit only served to increase his mana. Taumata-a-kura’s restraint left a strong impression on his opponents and did much to establish the virtual legend surrounding his work. About this time he took the name Piripi (Philip), and may have been baptised before returning to Waiapu. When missionar-ies eventually came to the Waiapu area, it was obvious that Taumata-a-kura had already established the influence of the gospel.

It was as a result of this and of Taumata-a-kura’s work around Waiapu that the Nga Puhi chief reported to William Williams. Williams and others duly visited the area in 1838, and nine more young Maori were trained at Paihia to carry on Taumata-a-kura’s work. Raniera Kawhia was one of those who first heard the gospel from Piripi Taumata-a-kura. He was later ordained deacon by Bishop Williams on 17 February 1860 at Whareponga. Nine of the fifteen Maori priests working in the Diocese of Waiapu during the late 1950s were descendants of Taumata-a-kura, the man who had made possible the first rapid advance of the Christian faith on the East Coast.

Piripi Taumata-a-kura and his work are commemorated by a tablet on the font at St Mary’s Church, Tikitiki, and by a memorial bell at Rangitukia. The date of his death is unknown, but a Piripi Taumata signed the Ngati Porou petition to Governor George Bowen in 1868, protesting against the confiscation of land as a punishment because some Ngati Porou had fought with the Hauhau against the government.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

St Matthias the Apostle - May 14

Matthias was chosen by lot “to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside” (Acts 1:25).

The apostles belonged to the first generation of believers. They had been together throughout the Lord’s ministry, from the Baptism of John to the Ascension. According to Acts, there were two who had the necessary qualifications: Joseph called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. Matthias was chosen by lot after prayer to become a witness with the eleven to the Resurrection.

This story reflects a very particular understanding of the importance of the twelve apostles. This is quite different from Paul’s understanding of apostleship, which is not confined to the Twelve. In Luke’s view, the place of Judas had now to be filled in order to restore the number of apostles to twelve. The Twelve were unique. Judas proved false, and so the vacancy had to be made up. There had to be twelve apostles, for they were “to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:14,30). Their vocation to be witnesses of the Lord’s resurrection meant they had to belong to the original generation (Acts 1:22). The casting of lots ensures that Matthias is indeed the divine choice.

A tradition known to Eusebius related that Matthias was one of the seventy (Luke 10:1,17). This cannot be proved, but is more likely than Clement of Alexandria’s identification of him with Zacchaeus.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints

Ihaia Te Ahu

Missionary & Priest - May 13

Ihaia Te Ahu, one of the earliest of the Maori clergy, was a missionary to the people of Te Arawa for more than 50 years.

He was born about 1823 into the Te Uri Taniwha hapu of Nga Puhi in the Okaihau area. In 1833 he joined Thomas Chapman, one of the lay missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, at Kerikeri and lived with the Chapmans at Kerikeri and then Paihia. When Thomas and Anne Chapman moved to Rotorua in 1835 to found the first mission station there, Ihaia went with them and worked as a missionary assistant. He married Rangirauaka of Ngati Riripo. They were baptised by A.N. Brown on 9 May 1841. By 1845 he was Chapman’s leading teacher and was entrusted with conducting the Sunday services when Chapman was absent. Chapman himself noted that Ihaia’s abilities were fully acknowledged around by all. As a Nga Puhi from the north, Ihaia was able to move with some freedom during the tribal conflicts in the Rotorua area.

When the Chapmans moved to Maketu in the Bay of Plenty in 1846, Ihaia and his family went with them. In 1857 he began preparing for ordination. He first studied under A.N. Brown, and then at St Stephen’s School, Auckland. He came first in a class examination and was given a Bible as his prize.

Poor health forced Ihaia to return to Maketu before his studies were completed. He returned to mission work and eventually took over from Chapman in 1861. On 3 November 1861 Ihaia was ordained deacon by Bishop William Williams.

Ihaia continued to work at Maketu and was responsible for the building of St Thomas’ Church there, which was opened in 1869. He was appointed the first vicar of the Ohinemutu pastorate in Rotorua in 1882. One of his first tasks was to start a drive to build a church. Although the Chapmans had established a mission station in Rotorua in 1835, mission work in the area suffered as a result of the disturbances during the 1860s. The people of Te Arawa had seen something of the hollowness of the Christianity of civilised men. The Hauhau movement and the events surrounding Te Kooti had also contributed to the unsettled state of affairs.

Ihaia had virtually to re-establish the work of the church in the Rotorua area. This he did to great effect, so that he became known as the “hero of missionary effort” in Rotorua. His plans to build a church came to fruition with the consecration of St Faith’s Church, Ohinemutu, on 15 March 1885.

Ihaia left Ohinemutu in 1889. He served briefly at St Stephen’s College, Auckland, but had retired by 1892 and moved to Kaikohe. He died there on 7 July 1895 and was buried at Maketu.

Source: https://www.anglican.org.nz/Resources/Worship-Resources-Karakia-ANZPB-HKMOA/For-All-the-Saints-A-Resource-for-the-Commemorations-of-the-Calendar/For-All-the-Saints