From “Civilizing” to Colonizing to Respectfully Collaborating? New Zealand

Abstract

The article traces the mission imperatives of the two groups responsible for the establishment and ongoing development of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. Beginning in 1814 with the Church Missionary Society, initially a vulnerable fledgling Anglican missionary presence, the CMS was to impact irrevocably upon indigenous Maori. Theirs was ostensibly a “civilizing” mission. Approximately three decades after the CMS, the colonial Anglican Church arrived replete with its substantial wealth and political patronage. Theirs was indisputably a “colonizing” mission, one that ultimately disenfranchised the CMS and, by implication, those within the Maori church or Te Hahi Mihinare. Beginning around 1984, the Anglican Church attempted to redeem its unjust colonial past by reviving the original promise of gospel-based partnership relationships. This article explores the effect upon the church's mission of using political solutions to resolve historic ecclesial injustices.