NEW ZEALAND: New cathedral consecrated in New Plymouth

By Lloyd Ashton, March 08, 2010 [Anglican Taonga] When St. Mary's Church, New Plymouth was consecrated on March 6 as a full-fledged cathedral -- the first new Anglican cathedral in New Zealand in more than 80 years -- Bishop Philip Richardson, of the Taranaki region of the Anglican Diocese of Waikato, spoke of his hopes for a new beginning.

St. Mary's, he prayed, would now become a cathedral for all the people of Taranaki; a place where all could gather to celebrate and lament.

In front of 900 assembled witnesses, Richardson installed Archdeacon Tikituterangi Raumati as Cathedral Kaumatua (respected tribal elder in a Maori community), and told him that he was "deeply sorry, both personally but also as the bishop of Taranaki" for the "alienation and breach of trust" that had happened when the Anglican church took the settlers' side during the Taranaki land wars.

During the ceremony, Archbishop of York John Sentamu preached and the Melanesian Brothers sang.

In many ways, St. Mary's is anything but new; the earliest parts of the stone church are 150 years old, and the building has long been an important icon of New Plymouth.

In 1842, Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, had acquired the land on which St. Mary's stands, and spoken of his dream that one day a diocese would arise and a cathedral would be built there.

But there's painful history locked within those old stone walls. During the Taranaki wars of the 1860s, St. Mary's became a garrison church, the church for the settlers and the army. To this day, 19th century British army hatchments (diamond-shaped plaques bearing regimental coats of arms) line the walls of the nave.

Maori in Taranaki have never forgotten that -- and to this day, they've stayed away from St. Mary's in droves.

Tiki Raumati (Ngati Mutunga, Te Atiawa) is 73 years old: and not only was he the first Maori priest to be ordained at St. Mary's, he's the only Maori priest to have been ordained there.

Richardson told the congregation that the cathedra, the new bishop's chair installed and consecrated on Saturday, is a sign of one of his chief responsibilities: as bishop, he is to sit and teach the faith.

But his first duty as teacher in his new cathedral was to acknowledge Archdeacon Tikituterangi, the man who had taught him "with great patience ... so much over the last 10 years."

During his sermon, Sentamu told the people of St. Mary's they were living stones, and they must be built into "a spiritual house vibrant with life."

"The unity of this spiritual building is vitally important," he said. "If we are divided we can't join in Christ's work of making all people God's friends."

Sentamu -- who is a fellow of the Cambridge college named for Bishop Selwyn -- said the consecration of the cathedral was the fulfillment of the dream Selwyn had had 160 years ago.

"My friends," he told the congregation, "today we have liftoff."