Marianne Williams 		December 16
Missionary
Marianne Williams was born on 12 December 1793, the eldest child of Wright Coldham, a prosperous Yorkshire businessman who settled in Nottingham in 1796. In 1810 her mother died, and that same year her father became mayor of Nottingham. So the sixteen year old Marianne not only had to take care of the family, but also had to assume oversight of a large establishment with its domestic staff.
On 20 January 1818 Marianne married Lieutenant Henry Williams RN (see 16 July). On being retired from the navy on half-pay, Henry offered himself to the Church Missionary Society as a missionary to New Zealand. Marianne gave him her full support in this decision. While he was preparing for ordination, she trained as a maternity nurse and studied the Moravian methods of teaching and organisation. Always practical, she managed to include some cooking lessons. They sailed for Australia late in 1822 on a female convict ship, Henry being employed as chaplain to the unfortunate women. Marianne often went down into the noisome hold to bring what comfort she could to the women and children.
Marianne was a fluent and vivid letter-writer, and thanks to this we know their unfolding story in some detail. They arrived in the Bay of Islands in August 1823. Their first house was a hastily erected raupo-reed hut. Undaunted by the prospect of squeezing into two small rooms, Marianne wrote, “Mr Fairburn and my husband laid me a boarded floor in the bedroom before night; and I never reposed more comfortably.” She needed such a brave spirit, for a week later she had somehow to accommodate Samuel Marsden, Mr Kemp, the Maori chief Hongi Hika, and five Maori girls! “My visitors ate up my whole batch of newly baked bread . . . and the boat’s crew of four had enough also.” No word of complaint about her “kitchen”, which was a draughty canvas lean-to across the yard with an open fire, camp oven and heavy iron pots. 
The scant food often had to be stretched to feed unexpected visitors. Provision had also to be made for the growing number of Maori pupils who came to the schools which she and Henry opened. As well as teaching her own and other missionaries’ daughters and, later, settlers’ girls, she very soon began a school for Maori girls. To these she taught reading, writing, simple arithmetic, needlework, laundry, cooking, hygiene and, most importantly, the Christian faith. As if that were not enough, she was frequently called upon to act as nurse or midwife. Dressing burns and boils, bandaging cuts and sprains were everyday demands, and she never hesitated to bring the sick under her own roof for nursing.
In the early days her Christian faith gave her courage to face attacks on their frail hut by hostile Maori. In 1826 Henry launched a schooner, the “Herald”. From then on she had to face his long absences in dangerous, uncharted waters, as he accompanied war parties on their raids south to Tauranga, Maketu and other more distant places in his efforts to make peace.
In a period when there were no doctors or nurses and infant mortality was common, Marianne eventually had eleven children, all of whom grew to healthy adulthood. Her efforts to make the love of God known in practical ways as well as by direct teaching never flagged. When Henry was dismissed by the CMS authorities in May 1850, she faced the removal from Paihia to Pakaraka with the same courage she had shown so often before. When she lay dying, hundreds of Maori came and squatted round the house, waiting to pay their last tribute to the woman whom they knew as “mata”, or “mother”. She died on 16 December 1879, four days after her eighty-sixth birthday. She lies beside Henry in Holy Trinity churchyard, Pakaraka. On their headstone are the words: “They who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3).
For Liturgical Use
Marianne Williams, pioneer missionary to the Maori, was born in 1793. As the wife of Henry Williams she came to New Zealand as a young woman in 1823, and from then on gave her life in unstinting service to the Bay of Islands’ Maori. As mother of eleven children, nurse, teacher, and friend to anyone in need, she made the love of God widely known. She never saw her homeland again. Instead she sought a better country and “endured as seeing him who is invisible”. She died in 1879.
Sentence
To you Lord I lift up my soul; my God I have put my trust in you.	Psalm 25:1,2
Collects
Everloving God,
you called your servant Marianne Williams
to advance the early New Zealand mission
by her determination and ability;
give us patience and unwavering courage
to put all our talents at your service
and to make your love known;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Loving Trinity,
you were strength to Marianne
in the early days at Paihia;
yours and hers was the care
which made the mission a success,
and to you we are profoundly grateful.
Psalms	119:129-136	127
Readings
Isaiah 40:9-11		Tending the flock
Romans 12:4-13		Using our gifts
John 15:5-11		Vine and branches
Post Communion Sentence
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”	Luke 11:28