Hongi great levelling experience for archbishop

JONATHAN CAMERON

CHURCH MAN: The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, is a big hit with the locals.

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The hongi has captivated the Archbishop of York, who is visiting Taranaki for the consecration of St Mary's Cathedral on Saturday.

John Sentamu, the former Ugandan churchman who has risen to the second highest position in the Anglican church worldwide, has been swept away with the warmth of his welcome to Taranaki.

Visits to marae at both Owae, in Waitara, and Parihaka have been overwhelming for the humble churchman, who was once a prisoner of dictator Idi Amin – particularly the Maori welcome of rubbing noses.

"All that hongi business really blows your mind," the archbishop told the Taranaki Daily News in a rare interview.

"There were quite a lot of children, little toddlers lined up," he said of his visit to Owae on Tuesday.

"The only way to do it was kneeling, because you lift them up, that's never right, so you get to their level, which is most lovely.

"It doesn't matter how good, how great you are, you are all on the same level. That kind of levelling is amazing."

For his part, Archbishop Sentamu enjoyed the welcome and the singing. He said it was fantastic that people could not walk on to the marae without being invited with singing.

"I thought that was just lovely," he said.

He said the retaining of stories, the oral tradition, was very strong and reminded him of his own village in Uganda.

He felt the Maori people he had met in Taranaki were probably his long lost cousins.

The archbishop is in Taranaki for a week of celebrations as the stone-walled church built in 1840 becomes the first new Anglican cathedral anywhere in the world in the last 80 years.

Its consecration comes 150 years after land wars between Maori and colonials made it a focal point in the fledgling settlement of New Plymouth.

The archbishop said St Mary's was a church with a history.

"I'm hoping its consecration and dedication will liberate it from its past and make it a church for everybody in the community."

New Plymouth was living up to its description as the world's most liveable city.

- © Fairfax NZ News