New Zealand: Western Christianity in Miniature

New Zealand is the most isolated nation in the world. Located 1,400 miles from Australia, its closest neighbor on the west, the next nearest continent is Antarctica. Late in geological history, New Zealand was created by the collision of two tectonic plates, one each under the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This collision raised from beneath the sea the land that now constitutes this beautiful country. For many centuries, New Zealand was uninhabited. The first human arrival seems to have been from distant Pacific islands no more than 1,000 years ago. These Polynesian immigrants named the land Aotearoa and settled mostly in the warmer regions of the north. Early in the 17th century, a Dutch sea captain named Abel Tasman sailed east from Australia, where the island called Tasmania still bears his name, and became the first European to discover this land. He also had the first European encounter with the Maori, as the original immigrants came to be called. The Dutch visitors called their discovery New Zealand after the Zuider Zee, but made no attempt to settle or to colonize the land.

The British came next under Captain James Cook; finally, in the 19th century, colonization began with English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish people as the primary immigrants.

New Zealand's isolation created a special character in the people. Though there was certainly conflict between the Maori and the invading Europeans, it never reached the level of ethnic cleansing that marked the European relationship with Australia's Aboriginal people or with the United States' Native American population. New Zealand's first and second wave of settlers have forged a collaborative life together, based on a treaty.

Christian missionaries worked among the Maori, and so today, most of the Maori think of themselves as Christian. The Christianity of this nation, however, is deeply shaped by the spirituality of the Maori people, whose native religion personalized nature and sought to live in harmony with it. New Zealand's Christianity is much more centered on the environment as a reflection of God's presence in nature than is true in western Christianity. That, of course, does not necessarily make it more institutionally strong.

This Maori impact is seen particularly in the New Zealand Anglican Prayer Book, widely regarded as the best prayer book in the Anglican Communion. It preserves a sense of awe, wonder and mystery in worship. It is open and contemplative, emphasizing the many pathways to God and the blending of human life back into nature.

Continued on page 2: »