Primate of New Zealand

Template:Short description {{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}} Template:Use New Zealand English

George Augustus Selwyn was the first bishop of New Zealand.

Primate of New Zealand is a title held by a bishop who leads the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Since 2006, the Senior Bishop of each tikanga (Māori, Pākehā, Pasefika) serves automatically as one of three co-equal Primates-and-Archbishops. Previously, one of these three would be Presiding Bishop and the other two Co-Presiding Bishops; and before that there was only one Primate.

Bishop and Metropolitan

George Selwyn was consecrated Bishop of New Zealand on 17 October 1841: he was the sole bishop over a very large territory, including all New Zealand and very many South Pacific islands. In his lifetime, as the Anglican ministry in New Zealand grew, that one diocese was divided several times: by letters patent dated 22 September 1858,<ref>[1] (Series: Letters patent and other papers)</ref> Selwyn was made metropolitan bishop over the other dioceses and called Bishop of New Zealand and Metropolitan.<ref>First General Synod of the Branch of the United Church of England and Ireland in New Zealand (p. 78, online at the Kinder Library)</ref><ref name="taonga">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By 1868, New Zealand had seven dioceses, Selwyn had come to be referred to as "the Primate", and the General Synod constitution as amended that year used this term.<ref>Proceedings of the Fourth General Synod of the Branch of the United Church of England and Ireland in New Zealand (p. 21, online at the Kinder Library)</ref>

Metropolitan of New Zealand
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1858	1869	George Selwyn	Template:Unbulleted list

Primate and Metropolitan

At the same Synod, Selwyn having announced his intention to resign, a Statute was adopted for the election of the Primate (and Metropolitan) from among the bishops diocesan (who retained their See) and Harper, Bishop of Christchurch was so elected (to take office upon Selwyn's resignation). The same statute created the role of Senior Bishop — being the bishop consecrated first (excluding any former primate), and Acting Primate in certain circumstances.<ref>Proceedings of the Fourth General Synod:

• Final reading of the statue: pp. 32–33
• Election of the primate: p. 38
• Statute no. 6: pp. 40–43</ref> Primates of this era occasionally used the style Archbishop of New Zealand; and gained the archiepiscopal style the Most Reverend between the 5th General Synod (1871)<ref>Proceedings of the Fifth General Synod of the Branch of the United Church of England and Ireland (p.1)</ref> and the 6th (1874).<ref>Proceedings of the Sixth General Synod of the Church of the Province of New Zealand (p. 1)</ref> An attempt was made in the 21st Synod (1919) to make the Bishop of Wellington ex officio Primate and Metropolitan;<ref>Proceedings of the Twenty-First General Synod of the Church of the Province of New Zealand (p. 26)</ref> this failed in the 22nd Synod (1922),<ref>Proceedings of the Twenty-Second General Synod of the Church of the Province of New Zealand (p. 20, online at the Kinder Library)</ref> which did, however, amend the Canons and officially grant the title Primate and Archbishop of New Zealand.<ref>Proceedings of the Twenty-Second General Synod (p. 74)</ref>

Primates of New Zealand
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1869	1890	Henry Harper	Bishop of Christchurch, 1856–1890
1890	1893	Octavius Hadfield	Bishop of Wellington, 1870–1893
1893	1902	William Cowie	Template:Unbulleted list
1904	1919	Samuel Nevill	Template:Unbulleted list

Primate and Archbishop

Throughout the 20th century, the church in New Zealand developed an understanding for the different cultures within it. In 1925, the Diocese of Polynesia began as a missionary diocese of the church. In 1928, the first Bishop of Aotearoa, ministering to the Māori, was consecrated as suffragan bishop to the Bishop of Waiapu. In the 1970s, Melanesia became a separate ecclesiastical province from New Zealand, and the Bishop of Aotearoa became a full-ranking diocesan, with a diocese covering all of New Zealand. Under the primacy of Brian Davis, Polynesia became a fully-fledged diocese and a review of church structures was begun.

In 1992, the General Synod of the church set up five hui amorangi, or regional bishoprics, to serve under the Bishop of Aotearoa. The Church of the Province of New Zealand also adopted its current name, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, to demonstrate its ownership by the three tikanga.<ref>Proceedings of the Special Session of the Forty-Ninth General Synod — Te Hīnota Whānui & Proceedings of the Fiftieth General Synod — Te Hīnota Whānui (online at the Kinder Library)</ref> The same Synod limited the Primate to a ten-year term, with re-election to one further four-year term.<ref>Proceedings of the Fiftieth General Synod — Te Hīnota Whānui (p. 245)</ref>

Primates and Archbishops of New Zealand
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1922	1925	Churchill Julius	Bishop of Christchurch, 1890–1925 Acting Primate since 1919<ref>Proceedings of the Twenty-Second General Synod (p. 1)</ref>
1925	1940	Alfred Averill	Bishop of Auckland, 1914–1940
1940	1951	Campbell West-Watson	Bishop of Christchurch, 1926–1951
1952	1960	Reginald Owen	Bishop of Wellington, 1947–1960
1961	1971	Norman Lesser	Bishop of Waiapu, 1947–1971
1972	1980	Allen Johnston	Bishop of Waikato, 1969–1980
1980	1985	Paul Reeves	Template:Unbulleted list
1986	1997	Brian Davis	Template:Unbulleted list
between Davis' resignation in ill-health (effective 1 July 1997) and the next General Synod (May 1998), Jabez Bryce, Bishop of Polynesia (as senior bishop by consecration) was Acting Primate.<ref>Proceedings of the Fifty-Third General Synod / Hīnota Whānui (p. 6)</ref>

Primate with Co-Presiding Bishops

The 53rd General Synod (1998) reduced the Primate's term from five General Synods (i.e. 10 years) to three (i.e. 6 years); removed the additional style "Archbishop" from the Primacy in favour of "Presiding Bishop"; and conferred the style "Co-Presiding Bishops / nga Pīhopa Aporei" on the Senior Bishops of the two tikanga besides the Primate's, while enjoining them to work closely with the Primate / te Pīhopa Mātāmua and Presiding Bishop.<ref>Proceedings of the Fifty-Third General Synod / Hīnota Whānui (S-8)</ref>

The 2004 General Synod passed a further Primacy statute<ref>Proceedings of the Fifty-Sixth General Synod / Hīnota Whānui (S-1–3)</ref> which: reinstated the honorific "Archbishop" (removing "Presiding Bishop") to the Primate; required the elected Primate to resign their other See(s); and, anticipating the coming changes, limited the next Primate's term to two years (renewable once). Whakahuihui Vercoe duly stepped down at the end of that two-year term as Primate in 2006, when the church decided that three bishops shall share the position and style of archbishop, each representing one of the three tikanga, or cultural streams of the church: Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa (the Bishopric of Aotearoa, serving Māori), the Dioceses in New Zealand (serving Pākehā), and the Diocese of Polynesia.

Primates / Pīhopa Mātāmua
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1998	2004	John Paterson	Template:Unbulleted list
2004	2006	Whakahuihui Vercoe	Template:Unbulleted list
Co-Presiding Bishops / Pīhopa Aporei
1998	2006	Jabez Bryce	Template:Unbulleted list
1998	2004	Whakahuihui Vercoe	Template:Unbulleted list
2004	2006	George Connor	Template:Unbulleted list
2005	2006	Brown Turei	Template:Unbulleted list

Shared Primacy

Further changes to the office of primate were its limitation to a two-year term, to allow for greater participation in leadership, and its establishment as a triumvirate of bishops. For the transitional period between the decision at 2006 General Synod and the completion of the necessary legislation, Turei was Primate and Archbishop, and Moxon and Bryce his Co-Presiding Bishops; but they began to act as if co-equal primates, including use of "Archbishop" and the Most Reverend. Since 2008, Te Pīhopa o Aotearoa, the diocesan Bishop of Polynesia and the Senior Bishop of the New Zealand (i.e. tikanga Pākehā) Dioceses have each — co-equally — been ex officio Primate and Archbishop; each one is elected by a body representing their whole tikanga.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Anglican Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki – Meet the Bishops Template:Webarchive (Accessed 5 July 2013)</ref> Te Hīnota Whānui/General Synod 2020 reaffirmed the three-tikanga and co-primacy arrangements.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Primates / Pīhopa Mātāmua
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
2006	2017	Brown Turei	Template:Unbulleted list
2006	2010	Jabez Bryce	Template:Unbulleted list
2006	April 2013<ref>Anglican Communion News Service – Williams names Moxon to Holy See (accessed 4 December 2012)</ref>	David Moxon	Template:Unbulleted list
2010	2018	Winston Halapua	Bishop of Polynesia, 2010–2018
1 May 2013<ref name="vis">Anglican Taonga – New Archbishop 'a community visionary' (Accessed 5 July 2013)</ref>	2023	Philip Richardson	Template:Unbulleted list
7 April 2018<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	present	Don Tamihere	Template:Unbulleted list
2019	2021	Fereimi Cama	Bishop of Polynesia from 2019–2021, died in office.
2023	present	Sione Uluʻilakepa	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> sanctioned December;<ref name="su-san">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> and consecrated 11 March 2023)<ref name="su-con">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2024<ref name="Duckworth-Primate">Template:Cite news</ref>	present	Justin Duckworth	Template:Unbulleted list

References

<references />

• Anglican church 2005–2006 clerical directory (PDF) page 4
• Holy Trinity Cathedral list

External links

• The official website of Anglican Church in Aotearoa
• Historical documents on Anglicanism in New Zealand