Te Wera Hauraki 		May 16
Missionary in Ngati Kahungunu
Although Te Wera Hauraki is commemorated for his importance in Ngati Kahungunu, he was a Nga Puhi leader from the Bay of Islands. It is not known when he was born. His first contact with the missionaries was probably with Thomas Kendall and John King. They gave him some assistance with planting his wheat near Kerikeri in 1817. In the following year he joined a Nga Puhi raid on the Bay of Plenty, and it is probably from there that he took his first wife, Te Aokapurangi. Their child was accidentally burned, and this gave rise to Hauraki’s name, Te Wera (the burning). 
Hauraki was visited by Samuel Marsden one evening in October 1819. Shortly after that, Te Wera participated in various Nga Puhi raids on other tribes that took him as far as the Mahia Peninsula and Wairoa. From that district Te Wera took a number of prisoners back to the Bay of Islands, arriving there in 1821. In 1823 Te Wera went with Hongi Hika and Pomare I on their major expedition against Te Arawa, culminating in their assault on Mokoia Island, Rotorua. Already, there were signs that Te Wera was not simply bent on utu. Through his wife’s contacts in the area and his own acceptance of his wife’s child by an earlier marriage, Te Wera compelled Nga Puhi not to pursue the attacks on Te Arawa. Also Te Wera had another task: to restore Te Whareumu, whom he had taken from the Mahia Peninsula and whose sister he had probably taken as a second wife, to his people. 
After the battle at Mokoia, Hongi returned north, and Te Wera and other Nga Puhi continued to the East Coast, causing a degree of panic on the way among other tribes, who feared the Nga Puhi and their superior weapons. Arriving at Mahia, not only did Te Wera restore Te Whareumu to his people, but in return Te Whareumu persuaded his people to accept Te Wera as their leader and to grant him land on the peninsula.
By the 1830s Te Wera was one of the most significant chiefs on the East Coast. He formed alliances with other tribes in the area and provided some much needed stability and protection, especially as some of the tribes to the south were under considerable pressure from Te Rauparaha. Although still actively engaged in tribal warfare, Te Wera picked his quarrels judiciously, and was respected for his total integrity. 
Never was he ever accused of evil deeds, nor did he ever abandon those who placed themselves under his guidance and beneficent rule. . . . If a messenger came asking his assistance, he carefully inquired into the cause, . . . If Te Wera saw it was a just cause he would consent to conduct the war in order that it might be quickly closed.
When William Williams and others from the Church Missionary Society visited the East Cape area in early 1838, they found continuing tension between the tribes of the Bay of Plenty to East Cape area and those further south. The possibility of peace seemed to open a door for the gospel. William Williams noted:
The natives seem to take it for granted that peace is the universal consequence of the introduction of missionaries, and they are urgent with us that we should use our influence with Wera the chief of Table Cape to induce him to make peace with the natives living on the coast from Cape Runaway to Turanga.
William Williams did not meet Te Wera, who died during 1839, but, when he visited Mahia in early 1840, he discovered a readiness to receive the gospel and a strong desire by some Maori to have missionaries living among them. This was particularly so among the relatives of Te Wera who had come from the Bay of Islands and those who had moved into the area from the Wairarapa and Wellington areas. Christian teaching was already growing among the Maori themselves within the kinship networks of the area. The speed and completeness of the acceptance of Christianity among the Maori of the East Coast was fostered by the conditions established by leaders such as Te Wera. Vocations to the ordained ministry from Ngati Kahungunu soon followed. The first was Tamihana Huata, who died in 1908 after forty-seven years as the first vicar of the Wairoa pastorate.
Te Wera’s principal biographer, Takaanui Tarakawa, says that Te Wera died of old age, mourned by all the tribes of the East Coast. In some traditions it is said that he returned to the Bay of Islands in his last year and is buried there on Te Ahuahu Hill.
For Liturgical Use
Te Wera was a Nga Puhi chief from the north who settled at Mahia on the East Coast, creating peace with his former enemies there and providing a mantle of protection and solidarity throughout a large part of Ngati Kahungunu. Because of the peace and order he introduced, hospitality towards missionaries became possible. By the time of his death in 1839 an indigenous Maori Christian mission was growing within the kinship networks of the area.
Sentence
Whakawhirinaki ki a ia i nga wa katoa, e te iwi, ringihia to koutou ngakau ki tona aroaro; hei piringa mo tatou te Atua. 	Waiata 62: 8
Put your trust in God always, you people; pour out your hearts before the one who is our refuge.	 	Psalm 62:8
Collects
Na te kupu ora tonu e te Atua 
i whanau hou ai a Te Wera Hauraki 
a noho rawa mai ia i roto iwi ke 
hei karere hohou rongo, 
i hora ai te marino; 
meinga matou kia rite ki nga tamariki whanau hou 
kia tupu ai ki te ora tonu 
i roto i te mana o to Wairua Tapu. Amine.
Almighty God,
through your living word
Te Wera Hauraki changed his ways
and lived among his former enemies, 
ushering in a reign of peace and harmony;
grant that by your grace
we may labour for peace and grow up to salvation, 
within the mana of your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Holy God, 
your word turns enemies into friends
and makes people live in peace;
you turned Te Wera from a fighting chief
to support the faith and protect the people;
accept our praise and thanks for him 
whose fame and mana spread from east to west.
Psalms:	47	72:1-4,12-20
Readings
Isaiah 44:24-28		A Gentile fulfils God’s purpose
Hebrews 11:32-35,39-40	The work of faith
John 6:59-69		Words of eternal life
Post Communion Sentence
Kei hinga koe i te kino, engari kia hinga te kino i tou pai.	Roma 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.	Romans 12:21