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New primate elected for Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
March 8, 2018
(From the Anglican Communion News Service website, March 7, 2018)
Tairawhiti Bishop, Don Tamihere, elected as Primate of Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia
The two existing primates of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (ANZP) have announced that the province’s third primate will be Bishop Don Tamihere, currently bishop of Tairawhiti. The Church of ANZP is unique in the Anglican Communion in having three primates of the whole province, but with special responsibility for the three Tikangas, or geographical and cultural streams: Polynesia, Maori, and Pākehā (people of European descent). Bishop Don will succeed the late Archbishop Brown Turei, who died in January 2017 at the age of 92, just two months ahead of his planned retirement.
As part of the planning for Archbishop Brown’s retirement, Don Tamihere was nominated as Bishop of Tairawhiti – or Te Pihopa o Te Tai Rawhiti – in October 2016. The diocese serves the tribal district on the eastern seaboard of New Zealand’s North Island. He was consecrated and installed in March 2017.
In September, he was unanimously nominated for the post of Archbishop by the three houses of an electoral college held during Te Runanganui – the biennial synod of Te Pihopatanga, the Maori Tikanga of the Church in ANZP. That nomination has now been ratified by the province’s wider House of Bishops, and approved by a ballot of members of the ANZP General Synod.
In his new role, the Archbishop-elect will become Pihopa o Aotearoa – leader of the Maori Anglican Church. At the age of 45, he will be the youngest primate in the Anglican Communion. He will serve alongside Archbishop Philip Richardson, Bishop of Waikato and Taranaki, and senior bishop of the Pākehā Tikaniga; and Archbishop Winston Halapua, the Bishop of Polynesia.
“We rejoice with the people of Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa and look forward to sharing the primacy of our church with Bishop Don,” the two serving Archbishops said.
The Archbishop-elect said that he views the Maori church as “laden with great potential.”
The full article may be viewed on the Anglican Communion News Service website:
