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Tasmanian Anglican

February 2003

 

 

 

 

 

In the shadow of Samuel Marsden

by Philip Blake

 

 

It came as a blast from the past and in the form of a Christmas card.

It was from the Sydney Anglican Maori Fellowship and it said, 'As we start a new beginning at Christmas we remember our shepherds of the past.'

Vera and I were recovering from a coach tour of the North and South Islands of New Zealand where we had imbibed much Maori culture and history. The day before we began our tour we had attended a Maori Eucharist at Christchurch Cathedral. As a previous Director of Chaplains in Sydney I had oversight of the Maori chaplaincy, but since it was a specialised ministry I rarely interfered. There was only one period of time when I acted as Pakeha chaplain to the community during an interregnum way back in 1987. I thought that they had forgotten me!

'The Flogging Parson'

For some reason my thoughts turned to Samuel Marsden. Here was a man who was vilified by many in New South Wales as The Flogging Parson and yet who was respected and even revered in New Zealand as the one who brought the gospel and enlightenment to the Maori people.

The Reverend Samuel Marsden joined the Reverend Richard Johnson, the first chaplain to the Colony in 1794 and remained as chaplain when Johnson returned to England in 1800. With others he made the mistake of accepting the position of magistrate, thus compromising his pastoral position. However Marsden had a real concern for the Maori people, some of whom he had met in Sydney. With others he sailed for New Zealand on the Active on 28th November 1814 and returned to Sydney on 23rd March 1815. He landed at the Bay of Islands on 19th December 1814, met representatives of the Maori community and began the work which was ultimately carried on by the Church Missionary Society. He is credited with holding the first Christian service in the Islands on Christmas Day 1814.

Ardent

In June 1815 Marsden wrote to his friend Mrs Stokes and said,

I have lately visited New Zealand and spent a little time with the inhabitants. It has long been my ardent wish to form a little settlement among that Noble race of People, and at length I have accomplished that object and hope that the first foundation is now laid for a Christian Church to be built upon and that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it.

Marsden knew that many of the Maori were cannibals and that in 1809 the ship Boyd had been seized and 60 people had been massacred, but he pointed out that many white people were also guilty of murder and many other crimes!

Points of view

Walking along Marsden Street in Paihia at the Bay of Islands and travelling around the Islands by catamaran reminded me that this was where Marsden and others did much to change the history of the Maori people. There was much ahead of others, but he began the work! In his shadow we need to remind ourselves, that depending on our points of view and our tradition we can look very differently at historical and current people and belief. To some extent we all walk in the shadow of Samuel Marsden!