TE HARINUI - A HIKOI OF JOYFUL NEWS A hikoi or walk through Southland and Otago by the Anglican Bishop of Dunedin to mark the 200th anniversary of the first proclamation of the Gospel in New Zealand will pass through Bluff on Friday 14 & Saturday 15 March. The hikoi will begin on Stewart Island at the Wohlers Memorial Cross on Stewart Island the previous day following the sharing of food and faith on the evening of Thursday March 13, at the RSA Rooms on the Island. This will be hosted by the Islands Presbyterian and Anglican congregations. All are welcome to share in the tea, which will begin at 6pm, after which Bishop Kelvin Wright will tell his own story of encountering the ‘joyful news’ of the Gospel as a young man and how it changed his life. The hikoi will then commence at 10am at the Wohlers Memorial cross the next morning, March 14, with a reading of the ‘good news’ verses proclaimed by Ruatara and Marsden, read by Bishop Kelvin from a historic Maori bible in the care of St Andrew’s Anglican Church on Stewart Island. From Wohlers Cross, the hikoi will walk to Oban for a light lunch in the hall at St Andrew’s, open to all, before ringing the historic Bremen bell at the church and walking on to the Oban Presbyterian Church for a blessing. The walkers then board the ferry for Bluff, where they will walk up to the Te Rau Aroha Marae for a powhiri, meal and the second Gospel proclamation of the hikoi timed to start at 5pm. On Saturday, the group walks on to Invercargill, leaving Stirling Point at 9am and stopping at the Greenhills Church as the hikoi continues. On Christmas Day 1814, at Oihi in the Bay of Islands, the Revd Samuel Marsden and Ruatara first proclaimed the Gospel, and in this bicentential year, numerous events and celebrations are being held nationwide to mark the occasion. Bishop Kelvin’s contribution is ‘Te Harinui, a hikoi of joyful news’, which will begin at the Wohlers Memorial Cross on Stewart Island on Friday March 14 and end at Kurow, at the north of the Diocese, on Palm Sunday, April 13. The journey takes the Bishop through Southland, to Queenstown and Wanaka, to Cromwell and Clyde, to Middlemarch, to Dunedin and then along NH1 to Kurow. He and the hikoi party will travel mostly by foot, but also on occasion by boat, bicycle and train. “In keeping with Ruatara’s and Marsden’s original Christmas Day message of ‘good news of great joy (te harinui), this hikoi through the length of Otago and Southland will be a proclamation of the faith all Christians share together. At each daily stopping point we will meet to share food and faith with the communities we travel through, as witnesses together to the Gospel,” says Bishop Kelvin. On Stewart Island, the sharing of food and faith will be on the evening of Thursday March 13, at the RSA Rooms. Beginning the hikoi at the Wohlers Memorial Cross was suggested by Raylene Waddell, Session Clerk of the Oban Presbyterian Church, and an excellent idea given the pioneering work by the Revd Wohlers in his missionary work in the area, on Ruapuke and Stewart Island. Along with prayers and blessings for the journey, a staff for Kelvin will also be blessed. This manuka staff was cut and prepared by Peter Tait, husband of Iris Tait, warden of St Andrew’s Church. Peter has inlaid a paua outline of Stewart Island/Rakiura on the staff. Invitations to attend the start of the hikoi will be sent to community leaders on the island, but all are welcome to support the first steps in this new journey of faith, replicating the journeys of faith of 200 years ago.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 11:51:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015