July 20, 2015
One Lord for Manutuke church
The whole community of the Poverty Bay flats has got behind the restoration of a century-old carved Maori church at Manutuke.
Vestry committee chair Stan Pardoe says Toko Toru Tapu Church will reopen on the first Sunday in Advent, November 29, that's because the hau kaenga wanted warmer weather to welcome the large number of manuhiri expected.
He says the restoration has involved a lot of work and generous financial contributions from not just Rongowhakaata but long established local families who appreciate being able to share the church, even if they are neither Maori nor Anglican.
"We didn’t want to raise and rededicate a wonderful edifice that is going to be used once a month. It has to be used in its widest context and whatever the haahi and the wider community that use it, Pakeha, Maori, let’s use the church, it’s a whare karakia, we all pray to the same Lord," Mr Pardoe says.
Toko Toru Tapu was carved in the Te Pitau a Manaia style developed by the great Raharuhi Rukupo of Rongowhakaata, who came up with a less representational approach after Anglican missionary William Williams rejected the phallic depictions and representations of Maori gods in traditional designs.
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