Sydney Maoris get their own church

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 30

Sydney Maoris get their own church

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

Maoris living in Sydney have been given their own church in something of a special anniversary present to their Anglican minister, Archdeacon Kingi Ihaka. The church had been given to the Anglican diocese by the tiny Catholic Apostolic Church — a small Protestant off-shoot — with the condition that if it ceased to function as a place of worship, it must be demolished. The diocese decided to make it available to the Maoris on the first anniversary of Archdeacon Ihaka’s arrival for his three-year mission as the first Maori minister to tend to the spiritual needs of the large Maori community in Sydney. The little church in the

central suburb of Redfern is in need of a tidy-up and “to be lived in,” according to the Bishop of Waiapu, Bishop Whakahuihui Vercoe, who crossed the Tasman for the opening recently. “It was given to the diocese because the Catholic Apostolic Church community had become too small and they had no further use for it,” Bishop Vercoe said. “The church has been made available to us — it is the first church the Maoris have ever had in Australia.”

The opening of the church was something of a triumph for Archdeacon Ihaka who was appointed exactly a year ago to minister to the needs of the Maori community in Sydney. Archdeacon Ihaka estimates there are at least 16,000 Maoris in Sydney — 30 per cent of them Anglicans — and he wants the church to

become the focal point in their lives. Maoris have failed in several attempts to establish a marae in Sydney in recent years, but Bishop Vercoe said the church would help fulfil that role and be available to people of all denominations, pakehas as well as Maoris.

He also expected it to become a link between Maoris in Australia and in New Zealand; a focus of a revival in Maori identity and culture, and something of a focus of Maori life in Australia. He said that Archdeacon Ihaka’s work had already led to something of a revival of the faith among Maoris in Sydney, especially younger people, With it being in the centre of one of the main Aboriginal areas of the city, Bishop Vercoe said he also ex-

pected closer relations with the Aboriginals as a result. “It is for the Maori community, but everyone will be welcome, including Europeans and Aboriginals,” he said. The restoration of the church would be done as a Maori community project, and he said the next need would be a hall for entertaining and more general marae purposes. The opening of the church is also a mark of the progress Archdeacon Ihaka has made in the first of his three years in Sydney. “He has made tremendous achievements in his first year and the spirit of the Maori community has improved dramatically,” Bishop Vercoe said. “They have someone who can deal with the authorities as well as give guidance.”