Rota Waitoa 			May 22
Te Matamua o nga Minita Maori
The first Maori ordained in New Zealand
Little is known of Rota Waitoa’s life before he joined Bishop Selwyn. He is said to have been of Ngati Raukawa descent with connections to Ngati Maru (Hauraki) and Te Arawa. His birthplace is thought to be Waitoa (near Morrinsville) in the Waikato, though the earliest certain information about him is as a student at Hadfield’s mission station at Waikanae. He was baptised by Octavius Hadfield on 17 October 1841 at Otaki. He joined Bishop Selwyn when the latter visited Kapiti Island in November 1842 and became the bishop’s constant companion on trips throughout New Zealand. 
In 1846 he entered the “Native Boys’ School” at St John’s College. The following year he was listed as “Lay Associate” in charge of the “buttery”. Lay Associates were St John’s students who were taught practical knowledge in useful arts. Rota continued with his studies and was appointed master of the junior department of the Maori Boys’ School, Abraham scholar, and a catechist. He was described as “a man of integrity and exceptional intelligence”, possessing a warm and generous nature. On 10 August 1848 Rota married Te Rina Hinehuka, senior scholar in Mrs Kissling’s “Native Girls’ School” at Kohimarama. Te Rina was from Waiapu.
Towards the end of the 1840s Bishop Selwyn came under increasing pressure to ordain a Maori. Rota was seen as the most suitable candidate by the Church Missionary Society, Governor George Grey, and Maori interests. Selwyn, at least initially, did not have Rota uppermost in his mind as a candidate for ordination, thinking he might slip back into his “Maori ways” if he were to return to his people as a catechist. However, he eventually agreed to ordain Rota and personally gave him two months’ intensive instruction before sending him to George Kissling to “round him off”.
Bishop Selwyn presented Rota for examination by his archdeacons, Charles Abraham, Alfred Brown and William Williams, early in 1853. Although the examination was fairly stressful for Rota (he wept several times), the archdeacons were satisfied with his knowledge, particularly of Scripture. This was of prime importance to Williams. They were also impressed with his “lack of guile and his sincerity”. Rota was ordained deacon by Bishop Selwyn at St Paul’s Church, Auckland, on Trinity Sunday, 22 May 1853, and appointed to the Kawakawa pastorate at Te Araroa, East Cape, where a mission station had been established by George Kissling before his move to Auckland in 1846. 
Rota was keenly aware of the pain and degradation his people were experiencing through losing control of their land and possessions to the settlers in the years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. “My heart is heavy,” he wrote to Selwyn in 1847, “the Governor is pushing the people too hard over the land.” The same “heavy heart” was expressed in a letter to William Williams after the defeat of the Hauhau in the Waiapu valley. During 1861 Rota took Archdeacon Charles Abraham through the Taranaki area to explain the Maori view of “whenua”. Rota believed that the people’s spirit would be renewed through the gathering of communities of faith. As the people’s spirit was crucified over these years, Rota believed it could be resurrected through the saving actions of Christ. To this end he pleaded with Williams to ordain more Maori priests in their own communities, and he gave his own life to nurture new church communities.
Rota’s relationship with the great chief Te Houkamau is typical of his persistence and devotion. Te Kawakawa was in the territory of the famous Ngati Porou chief Te Houkamau. He was not sympathetic to the missionaries because he had twice been denied baptism by William Williams. This antagonism was compounded when he learned his new missionary was to be a Maori from a tribe he considered to be of little influence.
The chief delighted in making Rota’s life difficult. He claimed his crops, had him move his garden as soon as Rota had it planted, refused him labour, and subverted his converts and students. Through all this Rota patiently went about spreading his message and replanting his garden every time it was shifted. He would also round up his stock when they were scattered and say nothing when they were killed. He simply went on encouraging his people when they were challenged by all these things. Gradually he won the respect of Te Houkamau with his doggedness and good humour.
Eventually the two were to become close friends and allies. With Te Houkamau, Rota built two churches: St Barnabas’ at Hicks Bay and St Stephen’s at Te Araroa. So deep was the relationship between the two men that on one occasion, when Rota was sick and had to be taken to Auckland, the great chief pleaded for his return. He offered to be the church sweeper and bell ringer if only Rota would come back.
These two were linked together for the rest of Rota’s life, particularly in the conflicts with the Hauhau in the 1860s. During this period the pakeha missionaries withdrew from the East Coast stations, after failing to persuade the people against Hauhauism. Rota, despite being driven from Te Kawakawa by the Hauhau chief Ngakopa Te Ahi, stayed with his people. He was counted among the “important men” in the victory of the two chiefs Te Houkamau and Kohere over the Hauhau at Pukeamaru in 1865. Te Houkamau was baptised Iharaira (Israel) by Rota, and the chief built a special pa, Makeronia (Macedonia), to shelter the faithful during the Hauhau conflict. This was the pa to which Rota withdrew after being driven from Te Kawakawa.
On 4 March 1860 Rota was priested by the newly-appointed bishop of Waiapu, William Williams, at Turanga (Gisborne). This occurred after extensive preparation and seven years of probation as a deacon. He also learned New Testament Greek under the tutorship of Sir William Martin during periodic visits to Auckland to continue his studies and “to fill his seed bag again”, as he himself put it. 
Rota’s wife Te Rina died in 1857, and he later married Hariata Tiarete (Gerrard), another of Mrs Kissling’s pupils from Ngati Porou. Throughout 1865 and 1866 Rota went about rebuilding the faith of his people and once again travelled throughout his district supporting and encouraging his flock. On one of these trips to take a service, he was thrown from his horse and badly injured. Bishop Selwyn, on hearing of his accident, brought him and his family to Auckland so that he could have medical treatment. However, his injuries were serious, and he died on 22 July 1866.
Thomas Chapman, with whom the Waitoas were staying, recorded Rota’s death for Bishop Selwyn and wrote, “It has pleased God to take to Himself our faithful friend and brother in Christ, Rota Waitoa.” Sir William Martin organised the funeral, and on 24 July 1866 Rota Waitoa was buried in the chapel yard at St Stephen’s, Taurarua (Judges Bay), by a very distraught Robert Maunsell. A flat stone marks his grave, inscribed with these words:
Rev. Rota Waitoa
Died 22 July, 1866
Te Matamua o nga Minita Maori
There is a memorial in St Stephen’s, Te Araroa, to Rota and his son Hone, who was also ordained and served his whole ministry at Te Kawakawa. The oldest building at St John’s College (the original kitchen) was named after Rota Waitoa in the early 1960s by the then warden, Dr Raymond Foster. A new Maori pastorate church at Elsdon near Wellington was consecrated and dedicated to the memory of Rota Waitoa on 20 May 1989 by Huia Hapai Winiata from Ngati Raukawa, the assistant bishop of Wellington.
Rota Waitoa is commemorated on 22 May, the day he was ordained deacon.
For Liturgical Use
Rota Waitoa came from the Ngati Raukawa people of Otaki and received his initial Christian education from Octavius Hadfield at Waikanae. Later he became Bishop Selwyn’s constant companion. He entered St John’s College, Auckland, in the 1840s and was noted for his high standard of knowledge, his sincerity and his humility. He was ordained on 22 May 1853, becoming the “first born” of the Maori clergy, and spent his whole ministry at Te Kawakawa (Te Araroa). Rota’s memory and his line are woven into the story of Christianity on the East Coast. He died in 1866.
Sentence
Kia whakakakahuria au tohunga ki te tika; kia hamama tau hunga tapu i te hari.	Waiata 132:9
Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, O God; and let your faithful people cry out for joy.	Psalm 132:9
Collects
E te Atua pono,
Te kaihomai i nga mea pai katoa, nau i Whakarite kia tu, 
te matamua o nga Maori, a Rota Waitoa 
hei Pirihi, mo te Hahi. 
Manaakitia nga minita katoa, 
o au kupu me au hakarameta tapu 
i runga i te kaha o te Wairua Tapu. 
Meinga kia u tonu ratou 
hei pononga i roto i tenei mahi minitatanga, 
kia whaka kororia tia ai tou ingoa, 
me te whakaoranga o te hunga tapu. Amine.
God of truth and love,
by your gracious gift
Rota Waitoa was the first of the Maori people 
to serve in the ordained ministry of your church; 
grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit 
all ministers of your word and sacraments 
may continue faithful in their ministry among your people;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God of every race and nation,
praise and glory for Rota’s ordination
to be the first Maori deacon;
grant that we may never lack Maori ministers
to lead the church’s worship.
Psalms:	11	46
Readings
1 Samuel 16:10-13a		Anointed for service
I Timothy 4:11-16		Spiritual endowment
John 15:12-17		Chosen by Christ
Post Communion Sentence
Ko te mea pai i tukua ra ki a koe, me tiaki e koe, ara e te Wairua Tapu e noho ana i roto i a tatou.			2 Timoti 1:14 
Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
			2 Timothy 1:14