I thought I would share with you a New Zealand folk Christmas carol that has a history of its own. The hymn is provided along with the history behind it. I ponder what it must have been like for the missionary and the Maori people upon hearing about the birth of Jesus Christ.
Te Harinui
Verse 1: Not on a snowy night/By star or candlelight/Nor by an angel band/There came to our dear land
Verse 2: But on a summer day/Within a quiet bay/The Maori people heard/The great and glorious word
Chorus: Te Harinui/Te Harinui/Te Harinui/Glad tiding of great joy
Verse 3: The people gathered round/Upon the grassy ground/And heard the preacher say/I bring to you this day
Verse 4: Now in this blessed land/United heart and hand/We praise the glorious birth/And sing to all the earth
The Reverend Samuel Marsden was the first person in New Zealand to preach the Christian Gospel, [on the North Island] at the Bay of Islands on Christmas Day 1814. His sermon was based on Luke’s text, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
But he had not brought great joy in Australia where he is still remembered as “the Flogging Parson” for the extreme cruelty and violence of the punishments he inflicted on Irish convicts there. Nevertheless, he had a very high regard for New Zealand Maori, who he wrote of as being “A very superior people in point of mental capacity . . . ” And although he had fallen under a shadow in Australia while trying to expand his property holdings in shady circumstances, he spent huge sums of his own money in New Zealand to ensure that the Gospel was promulgated among the Maori people according to his church’s ideals. Marsden settled in Australia in 1794, and twenty years later he capitalized on a long friendship in Australia with Ruatara, son of Te Pahi, the paramount Chief of Nga Puhi - the predominant tribe in the northern North Island - and came to New Zealand. He was welcomed by Ruatara’s whanau [‘wh’ is pronounced like our ‘ph’ giving the ‘f’ sound and is phonetically pronounced as ‘fahnow’ and means family or community of people . . . our church family would be considered a whanau] in the Bay of Islands in December 19, 1814, and on Christmas Day he preached the first sermon there. He became much revered by Maori, and was noted for his protection of them against the incursion of settlers, and for his encouragement of missionaries to continue this policy. Marsden’s life remains a contradiction to this day.
Information taken from http://folksong.org.nz/nzchristmas/te_harinui.html
Loving God, thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, to this earth. Celebrating the
birth of that tiny baby, under such humble circumstances, reminds us of the love you have forus all. We praise your name . . . and sing to all the earth! Amen.
Betsy Arrington-Tsao
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