Further education and support for Māori ministry trainers will be the subject of a wānanga again this month following a successful event in August.
Members of Te Waka Matauranga (Tikanga Ministry Body) held a wānanga in late August in Christchurch at Te Pa o Te Hui Amorangi o Te Waipounamu, hosted by Bishop Rihari Wallace.
Members from each Hui Amorangi (Episcopal Unit) – notably Te Taitokerau, Te Manawa o te Wheke, Te Tairāwhiti, Te Ūpoko o te Ika and Te Waipounamu – were frank around the numerous challenges in their work as educators and leaders of ministry educational training programmes. These included low attendance and numbers, an ageing workforce, lack of people capacity, working in silos, lack of stipends, historic mamae, funding shortfalls and restraints. However, they were also optimistic as to solutions.
Educators will meet again in Wellington this month, on 20 September, to advance their discussions and approve the individual 2024 ministry education funding applications. Te Waka Matauranga is the Tikanga Māori Ministry Body, established by Te Rūnanganui o Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa (TPOA), responsible for overseeing theological education, and ministry and other education and training relevant to advancing the mission and ministry of the Church.
The committee has reporting and relationship functions to other ministry education bodies across the Church such as Te Kotahitanga, St John’s College and Tikanga ministry bodies. At the August hui, educators agreed to support each other and were committed to collectively working together on the issues identified. The Rev Ruihana Paenga said they agreed that safety was a central and critical priority for the training and licensing of ministers across Hui Amorangi. However, the word safety does not capture the full extent of our ideology and competencies required for training ministers.
“They also agreed that the approach and language of this work needed to be driven by a Matauranga-led perspective embodying concepts such as mana, tapu, tika, pono and aroha.”
An advisory working group was expected to continue this work on safety through the development of a set of concepts and priorities based on feedback from this wānanga, guidance from the working group and input from experts. The advisory group comprises Michael Tamihere, Wiremu Anania, Bishop Waitohiariki Quayle, John Payne, Susan Wallace, and Bishop Richard Wallace with secretarial support from the TPOA office. A second group was to look at professional development.
Rev Ruihana said the work would not replace that of the Hui Amorangi ministry education teams but rather would state a shared vision and provide high level strategic priorities for the training and theological education within TPOA. There was a strong desire from all present to pool the collective strengths and expertise across Amorangi.
Te Waka Matauranga is expected to write an application to St John’s College Trust Board seeking funding for its work and the cost of a three-day wānanga in 2024, open to all educators and administrators, incorporating professional learning and development. There will also be zoom-based professional development sessions in the meantime.
Overall, it was a highly successful wānanga, bringing together the strengths and capabilities of Mihinare educators to create a flourishing future for our Hāhi, whānau and communities.