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Young Anglicans Get First Word with Archbishop of Canterbury

The voices of about 800 Anglican school students will provide a stirring welcome to New Zealand for the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of the Anglican Consultative Council.

This week has seen final preparations for the largest and most influential international Anglican gathering to ever be held in New Zealand. Delegates have begun to arrive from across the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has arrived from a visit to Papua New Guinea.
The powhiri, which is a church and Auckland civic welcome, is being held at the Telstra Events Centre in Manukau on Saturday 27th October at 10am.

Students will perform the wero (challenge), to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the delegation, as they enter the arena. The powhiri will be lead by a kapa haka party of 160 students and it will include singing from a number of school choirs. The schools, from Auckland, Waikato and the Hawkes Bay, and Anglicans from around Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia will be present to welcome the delegates to the Pacific.

Archbishop of the New Zealand Dioceses, Archbishop David Moxon says, “It is fitting that students, some of the youngest voices in our Church, show a flavour of our mission in the Pacific, in what is a key moment for the Church now and for the future. As we welcome the delegates we will also be strengthening our own ties to them, from this part of the world, bonding in our diversity and our common commitment to the kingdom of God.”

Part of the welcome will consist of selected students asking question of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other visiting bishops.

Archbishop David Moxon says, ‘It is an honour for us as a church to host this gathering and it is also significant for the Anglican Communion as it is the last international engagement for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Anglican Consultative Council is an advisory body that provides unity amongst diversity as it draws together more than 80 delegates from 38 provinces across more than 165 countries. They are meeting between 27 October and 7 November at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral to discuss how the church responds to such issues as environmental change and domestic violence.

The schools taking part in the powhiri are; Diocesan School for Girls, Kings College, Kings Preparatory School, Dilworth School, St Peter’s School Cambridge, St Paul’s Collegiate, Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, Te Aute Boys College and Hukarere Girls School. Hato Petera Catholic School is also participating.

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