Whakahuihui Vercoe

Whakahuihui "Hui" Vercoe PCNZM MBE (4 June 1928 – 13 September 2007) was an Anglican bishop in New Zealand. He was the Archbishop of New Zealand from 2004 to 2006, the first person from the Maori church to hold that office. He was also Bishop of Aotearoa from 1981, the first person to be elected to that position by the congregation rather than being appointed by the church hierarchy. He held both offices until his retirement in 2006. He was also the first person to become a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit after the rank was introduced in 2000.

Vercoe was born in Torere, a coastal Māori village (kainga) in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, near Opotiki on the North Island, to Joseph Vercoe and Wyness Williams. He was named Whakahuihui ("to gather together") to record the crowds that gathered to pay their respects to his grandmother, who died on the day he was born. His paternal grandfather, Henry Vercoe, was a Cornish farmer and settler in New Zealand. His father left the family soon after he was born, and he was raised by his mother and maternal grandfather, a Māori farmer, in a small earthen-floored shack (kauta). He was educated at Torere Native School, Feilding Agricultural High School, and the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, before studying theology at College House (which was still theologically oriented).

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