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Download AudioThe new dean of tikanga Māori at St John’s Theological College is relishing the challenge of aligning Māori and Anglican concepts.
Te Hira Paenga was welcomed on Monday into the role which came about through a restructure as the Auckland-based college looks for different ways to teach its Māori, Pākehā and Pasifika students.
The former Māori Party candidate says as someone who grew up through kura and kaupapa Māori, as an adult he felt a need to explore the faith that had been so important to his parents and grandparents.
He sees himself as part of a generation of young Māori theologians who are reassessing the relationship between Māori and the church.
"We're redefining a Māori theological space to be uniquely indigenous, interweaving with our tikanga and our reo but also giving a balance to a gospel and a trinity and how that is able to weave through our explanations of what it means to be Christian, what it means to be mihingare," he says.
Te Hira Paenga
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