Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has more than 108,000 members in New Zealand . It has a temple in Hamilton and 211 wards in total, from Cape Reinga to Invercargill .

history

The Hamilton Temple

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began its missionary work in New Zealand in 1854. Because of various conflicts within the country between Pakeha (Europeans) and Maori during the so-called New Zealand Wars , only whites were converted at first. The first converts were package woman Martha Holden and her daughter Louisa. As of July 1870, there were 41 Church members in New Zealand. As was customary for Church members at the time, many New Zealand converts moved to Utah, USA, but the majority remained in New Zealand.

The church was particularly successful among the Maori. In August 1885 there were 16 Maori and 4 Pakeha parishes. At the end of 1887 there were 2,573 LDS members in New Zealand.

Proselytizing the Maori

Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. When European emigrants began moving to New Zealand in the mid-19th century, Christian missionaries, including LDS missionaries, followed shortly thereafter. The majority of the Maori were first converted to the Catholic and Anglican denominations. The first LDS Maori in New Zealand was Ngataki, a dock worker. He was baptized in 1881.

In 1880, however, the President of the LDS Church encouraged missionaries to learn the Maori language and teach the locals; the church began to grow. As LDS missionaries increasingly began teaching the Iwis of their faith, the number of Maori who professed the LDS church grew. In 1970, a study of Maori religiosity was carried out, which found that 7.29% of Maori in New Zealand were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Today the total number of church members in New Zealand is more than 100,000, of which more than 50,000 are Maori.

Important personalities in church history

Missionaries have played an important role in the history of the LDS Church in New Zealand. The first mission couple was Augustus Farnham, the president of the so-called "Australasian Mission," and William Cooke, an Australian. LDS Church missionaries have continued to work in New Zealand from 1878 until today.

There were also important figures in church history among the Maori. It is said that more than five Tohunga predicted features of the "true religion" that would come under the Maori. Two of these Tohunga were Arama Toiroa and Pāora Te Pōtangaroa.

Arama Toiroa was an old head of the family in Mahia , New Zealand. In 1830 he discussed the Pakeha religions with his family and friends. Arama prophesied that they would first hear of the true form of worship from Wellington and that it would come to Te Mahia afterwards. A sign that this is true religion is that its messengers would stretch both hands to heaven during prayer.

Then, in 1884, missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to the descendants of Arama who were then living in Korongata. Both Alma Greenwood and Ira Hinckley preached in Wellington first before meeting their mission president, President William E. Stewart. At the end of the meeting, President Stewart prayed while holding up both hands. As soon as one of Arama's grandsons saw this sign, he stood up and said that the LDS Church was the church his grandfather had foretold fifty years ago. As a result of this event, all Maori in Korongata and many in Mahia were baptized in the church.

The prophecies of Pāora Te Pōtangaroa were very similar. Pōtangaroa was one of the most respected Maori prophets on the North Island of New Zealand. In March 1881, a large number of Maori leaders gathered to discuss which of the new religions that the Europeans had brought with them was right for the Maori. Pōtangaroa was questioned, and he left the congregation and prayed, fasted, and meditated for three days. In the answer allegedly given by God, he stated that the true religion for the Maori would come from the east. He also said that the missionaries who would bring this religion would learn Maori and teach the Maori about the religion in their own homes. The missionaries would travel in pairs, and when they prayed they would raise their right arm and hand at right angles. This declaration was consistent with LDS religious practices. Many Maori remembered this prophecy and were baptized in church.

Influence of the Church in New Zealand today

In what is now New Zealand, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the ten largest Christian denominations in the country. According to Maori religious affiliation statistics, 4.19% of Maori in New Zealand were members of this church in 2001. The church has three missions, 211 parishes, a temple, and 49 genealogy centers.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Facts and Statistics: New Zealand. " [1] ." Newsroom. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sept. 8, 2014, accessed September 9, 2014.
  2. ^ Brian W. Hunt: Zion in New Zealand: A history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand 1854-1977 . Master thesis. Church College: Temple View 1977, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Lanier R. Britsch: Maori Traditions and the Mormon Church. In: New Era. June 1981. Retrieved September 9, 2014 .
  4. ^ Keith Newman: Ratana Revisited: An Unfinished Legacy . Reed, Auckland 2006, ISBN 0-7900-1057-7 , p. 465.
  5. ^ Brian W. Hunt: Zion in New Zealand: A history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand 1854-1977 . Master thesis. Church College, Temple View 1977, p. 13.
  6. ^ Pieter H. de Bres: Religion in Atene: Religious Associations and the Urban Maori. , In: The Journal of the Polynesian Society , Volume 79, No. 37, 1970, pp. 1-92. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  7. ↑ Kaa Hirini: [2] "Ngā hāhi - Māori and Christian denominations - Mormon Church." Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand July 16, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  8. ^ Brian W. Hunt: Zion in New Zealand: A history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand 1854-1977 . Master thesis. Church College: Temple View 1977, p. 8.
  9. ↑ Mette Ramsted: Conversion in the Pacific: Easter Polynesian Latter-day Saints' conversion accounts and Their development of a LDS identity . PhD thesis. Bergen: U of Bergen 2000, p. 67.
  10. ↑ Kaa Hirini: [3] "Ngā hāhi - Māori and Christian denominations - Mormon Church." Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand July 16, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  11. ↑ Hirini Whaanga: [4] "A Maori Prophet." Juvenile instructor . Volume 37, No. 5, 1902, pp. 152-153. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  12. ↑ Mette Ramsted: Conversion in the Pacific: Easter Polynesian Latter-day Saints' conversion accounts and Their development of a LDS identity . PhD thesis. Bergen: U of Bergen 2000, pp. 64-69.
  13. ↑ Peter Lineham: [5] "The Mormon Message in Maori Culture." Journal of Mormon History . Volume 17, No. 1, 1991, pp. 62-93. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  14. ↑ Statistics New Zealand: "2013 Census totals by topic - Religious Affiliation." 2013 National Census. Wellington: Statistics NZ Dec 10, 2013. Retrieved Sept 9, 2014.
  15. ^ Keith Newman: Ratana Revisited: An Unfinished Legacy . Reed, Auckland 2006, ISBN 0-7900-1057-7 , p. 465.
  16. ↑ "Facts and Statistics: New Zealand." " [6] ." Newsroom. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sept. 8, 2014. Retrieved Sept. 9, 2014.