Commemorations

May 11

Ruatara, Te Ara mo te Rongopai

The Gateway for the Gospel
Ruatara was a significant figure in the introduction of Christianity to New Zealand, for it was through him that Marsden found an opening for the establishment of a mission.
Ruatara was a Nga Puhi chief from the Bay of Islands. Marsden thought that he was a nephew of Te Pahi on his father’s side and of Hongi Hika on his mother’s side. Recent studies have questioned this, and it is now suggested that his father was Te Aweawe of Ngati Rahiri and Ngati Tautahi sections of Nga Puhi, and his mother Tauramoko of Ngati Rahiri and Ngati Hineira.
Like other young Maori men at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Ruatara served on a number of ships in South Pacific waters. He hoped in the long run to be able to travel to England to see king George III.
Ruatara spent the years 1805 to 1809 on various ships, being treated sometimes fairly and sometimes unfairly by the captains. A number of Maori visited Port Jackson and Sydney Cove and met Marsden. Te Pahi and his four sons, arriving there in 1805 in search of Governor King, went to church and met Marsden, who was greatly impressed by them and befriended them. It was out of these and similar contacts that Marsden conceived the idea of a mission to New Zealand.
In 1809, on his way back to Australia after a visit to Britain, Marsden discovered Ruatara on board in a pitiful state. Ruatara had made the journey to England, but had been badly treated and had been put on board the “Ann” to be taken back to Australia. Ruatara was depressed at the failure of his plans to see King George III and was vomiting blood from the beatings he had received. Marsden was horrified to discover him in this condition and saw to his needs. Ruatara recovered and served his passage back to Australia. Once there, he stayed with Marsden at Parramatta for most of 1809, learning a great deal about agriculture. Marsden noted:

During the time he remained with me he laboured early and late to obtain knowledge and, particularly, to make himself acquainted with practical agriculture... . He was anxious that Ms country should reap the advantages of which he knew it was capable, by the cultivation of the soil on waste lands, and was fully convinced that the wealth and happiness of a country depended greatly on the produce of its soil.

At the end of 1810 Ruatara wanted to return to his own people, and Marsden made arrangements for him and several other young Maori men to work their passage on the “Frederick”. The captain deceived them all and abandoned them on Norfolk Island. Ruatara and the others eventually reached home, via Port Jackson once again, on the “Ann” in 1812.
Ruatara arrived back in the Bay of Islands to discover that he was now heir to Te Pahi’s mana. Following the killing of the crew of the “Boyd’ in 1809, European sailors had mounted a punitive raid against Te Pahi for his supposed involvement in the incident. Te Pahi died as a result of the attack, and power devolved on Ruatara. It was about this time that Ruatara took his second wife, Rahu, whose sister married the chief, Waikato.
Ruatara, still in his mid-twenties, needed to prove himself as a chief. The weapons and tools helped, but he found it harder to persuade others of the advantages of the agriculture he now proceeded to put into practice. Without any means of grinding the wheat that he grew, he had no way of showing its use until he received the gift of a hand-mill from Marsden. Ruatara went back to Port Jackson and learned more of the technological skills that he so much valued. When the ‘Active” sailed to New Zealand in late 1814, Ruatara led a party of ten Maori on board, along with the missionary party led by Samuel Marsden.
They arrived at the Bay of Islands on 22 December 1814. Ruatara now made the necessary preparations for the first service on New Zealand soil, on Sunday, Christmas Day 1814. Half an acre of land was fenced; in the centre there was a pulpit and reading desk. Seats made from the bottoms of old canoes were provided for the Europeans. At 10 o’clock on the 25th, the whole village was assembled. Marsden began the service with the Old Hundredth (“All people that on earth do dwell”), read the service, and then preached on the text: “Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10). It is a tradition in Te Taitokerau that a Nga Puhi elder asked Ruatara, “E pehea mai ana te Pakeha na (What is the meaning of the pakeha’s words?).” Ruatara replied, “Kaore koutou e marama inaianei; taro ake nei (You do not understand what he is saying now, but you will by and by).”
Ruatara was determined to protect these first missionaries. They were important to him as ‘his” Europeans. Even so, Ruatara was not without his doubts about the wisdom of offering protection and space to these newcomers. On the trip from Port Jackson he had expressed his anxieties about rumours he had heard in Port Jackson that the missionaries would simply be the first of many Europeans, who would eventually reduce the Maori to the same wretched state as the Australian Aborigines. Ruatara had been mollified only by Marsden’s offer to turn back.
In March 1815 Marsden returned to Port Jackson. Before Marsden departed, Ruatara shared his enthusiastic vision for the development of his plans. These included bringing large areas of land into cultivation, and establishing a town on a European pattern, with streets and provision for a church. Ruatara got no further with his plans. He was already seriously ill when Marsden left, and died four days later. In April, Ruatara’s remains and those of his wife Rahu, who took her own life in grief at her husband’s death, were carried inland to Motutara, Ruataras tribal lands. Maori power then shifted to Hongi in the Kerikeri area. Hongi continued to offer protection to the missionaries, but at the same time kept them relatively restricted.
Ruatara is remembered on 11 May, the day before Samuel Marsden, as a sign that by his hospitality and his vision he made the way possible for Marsden. Ruatara is described as, “Te Ara mo te Rongopai”, “The Gateway for the Gospel”.
For Liturgical Use

Ruatara, a chief of the Nga Puhi people, became friendly with Marsden in Australia. Ruatara made possible the voyage which culminated in the first official Christian service in New Zealand at Oihi Bay in the Bay of Islands on Christmas Day 1814. Ruatara hoped that the mission would bring technological and other resources for the community to develop. Marsden hoped that Ruatara’s hospitality and protection would pave the way for the seeding of a Christian mission. Ruatara then is “Te Ara mo te Rongopai”, “The Gateway for the Gospel”.

Sentence

E mahara nga pito katoa o te whenua, a ka tahuri ki a Ihowa; ka

koropiko ano nga hapu katoa o nga iwi ki tou aroaro. Waiata 22:27

Let all the ends of the earth remember and turn to you, 0 Lord; and let all the families of the nations bow down before you, Psalm 22:27

Collects

E te Kaihanga,

na tau pononga na Ruatara i para te huarahi i u mai ai te Rongopai a to matou Kaiwhakaora a Ihu Karaiti ki Aotearoa: e whakawhetai ana matou mo tenei taonga whakahirahira i whiwhi ai matou ki te oranga mutunga-kore i roto i to matou Ariki i a Ihu Karaiti. Amine.
Creator of all the peoples of the world, you chose Ruatara to prepare for and welcome the Christian missionaries to Aotearoa; may the gateway that he opened for the gospel encourage us to look for every means by which your word may be proclaimed; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus, as we praise you for Andrew who brought you Peter, so we praise you for Ruatara who brought the missionaries to Aotearoa; and we praise you for the wisdom which offered crafts and skills and the gospel message.
Psalms 22:22-31 65:5-14
Readings

Isaiah 41:8-10 From the ends of the earth

Hebrews 11:8-16 Living in faith

John 1:1-9 The true light

Post Communion Sentence

Kotahi tonu te Atua, kotahi te takawaenga o te Atua, o nga

tangata, ko ia ano he tangata, ara ko Karaiti Ihu. I Timoti 2:5
There is one God; there is also one mediator between God

and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human. I Timothy 2:5

======================================================