E ngā rangatira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou.
One of the gifts we inherit as we share life in this land of Aotearoa is the story of the land and its peoples. As a Christian and a Māori, I especially appreciate the story of the good news of Jesus Christ — as well as grieving the ways in which that story was marred. I understand my place in the land and in the Church within the story and the whakapapa of where we come from.
In our modern society, that story has sometimes been lost, perhaps because of understandable desires to reconstruct aspects of identity, or to focus on issues of legal rights and representation. Those desires on their own point to something more but narrow our world if they are all we talk about.
As servants in Christ’s church, we have the immense privilege of knowing that we, along with all of humanity, are part of a longer, richer, and truer story than we can find in the secular world. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, our Christian story is one that can offer every person a place of belonging and can shape and form our service of God in the mission he has entrusted to us.
This is why I am so looking forward to the Leaders Day we are planning because I believe we can look back to the origins of the Christian church in this land and find a hopeful and fruitful path for what we do now and in the future. Our story, beginning with the first proclamation of Te Rongopai o Īhu Karaiti at Oihi Bay, continuing with the formation of the Church and its leadership among Māori, and meeting us today because of the unbroken chain of faithful servants of Christ who went before us, gives all peoples a place within that story.
We hope that you can join us as we explore the story itself, the theology of the story, and practical ways you can serve in your own varied church settings to tell the next chapter of Jesus’ story in this land.
Mā te Atua koutou e manaaki.
Nā Lyndon Drake
Archdeacon of Tāmaki Makaurau
Te Pīhopatanga o Te Tai Tokerau
