Bishop of New Zealand

The Archbishop of New Zealand is the primate, or head, of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. However, since Whakahuihui Vercoe stepped down at the end of his two-year term as archbishop in 2006, the church has decided that three bishops shall share the position and style of archbishop, each representing one of the three tikanga, or cultural streams of the church: Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa (the Bishopric of Aotearoa, serving Māori), the Dioceses in New Zealand (serving Pakeha) and the Diocese of Polynesia.

George Selwyn became Bishop of New Zealand in 1841. In his lifetime, as the Anglican ministry in New Zealand grew, his original single diocese was divided several times. By 1868, New Zealand had seven dioceses, and Selwyn's Diocese of New Zealand had been renamed as the Diocese of Auckland (the Diocese of Waikato was still then part of the Diocese of Auckland, and the Diocese of Melanesia was still part of the province). After Selwyn, the leadership of the church was chosen from among the diocesans, and occasionally used the style Archbishop of New Zealand. However, from the primacy of Churchill Julius in 1902, this title became usual for the head of the church. The archbishop could be bishop of any of the dioceses of the province, and remained a diocesan while carrying out the duties of archbishop.

Throughout the 20th century, the church in New Zealand developed an understanding for the different cultures within it. In 1925, the Diocese of Polynesia began as a missionary diocese of the church. In 1928, the first Bishop of Aotearoa, ministering to the Māori, was consecrated as suffragan bishop to the Bishop of Waiapu. In the 1970s, Melanesia became a separate ecclesiastical province from New Zealand, and the Bishop of Aotearoa became a full-ranking diocesan, with a diocese covering all of New Zealand. Under the primacy of Brian Davis, Polynesia became a fully fledged diocese and a review of church structures was begun. In 1992, the General Synod of the church set up five hui amorangi, or regional bishoprics, to serve under the Bishop of Aotearoa. The Church of the Province of New Zealand also adopted its current name, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, to demonstrate its ownership by the three tikanga. There was also a move towards the use of the title presiding bishop for the head of the church rather than archbishop, and John Paterson, Davis' successor, became the first bishop so to be styled. Further changes to the office of primate were its limitation to a two-year term, to allow for greater participation in leadership, and its establishment as a triumvirate of bishops. Until his recent sudden death in office, Archbishop Brown Turei, Bishop of Aotearoa, was recognised as leader of the church, but shared the style archbishop and the title Co-Presiding Bishop with Philip Richardson (Bishop of Taranaki and Archbishop of the New Zealand Dioceses) and Winston Halapua (Bishop of Polynesia).

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Wikipedia