Waitangi Treaty (Part 1) Greerton Baptist Church Sunday, Remember Anniversaries BirthdaysFeasts ChristmasEaster ANZAC Day Queens Birthday I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever. Ps 45:17 Labour Day HISSTORY HISTORY The Bible is Israels Much of the Old Testament is the story of God forming the nation of Israel from Abraham, leading them out of Egypt through Moses and then teaching them how they were to live as a nation dedicated to Him. Not everything is how God wanted it to be, it is just how it was. Acts 17:26-27 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. Every nation has history. His Story of how God has worked in the nation, and how he has revealed himself at different times. The bringing of the Bible and the preaching of the gospel can build on the witness of God already there in the nation. New Zealands History Last major land mass to be inhabited Polynesian migration AD Uttermost parts of the earth East Coast patriarch Arama Toiroa, 1766, prophesying a new religion three years before Captain Cook arrived. Te ingoa o to ratou Atua, ko Tama i Rorokutia, he Atua pai, otira, ka ngaro ano te tangata. The name of their new God will be The Son Who was Killed, a good God, however the people will still be oppressed Captain James Cook Sails to NZ 1769 Rise of the second British Empire. ( ) William Wilberforce MP (1780) Conversion (1784 85) Takes up Abolition of Slave Trade (1787) Sir James Stephen (Politician) Married to Wilberforce sister Sarah. Member of Clapham sect. Chief Architect of Abolition of Slave Trade ACT MP from 1808. Samuel Marsden Friend of Wilberforce Wilberforce founding member of Church Mission Society (1799) 1809 Marsden back in London meets Maori Chief Ruatara They travel back to Sydney together Marsden sails to Sydney (1794) Christmas message Te Rongopai at Oihi 1814 First Missionaries William Hall, Thomas King and John Kendall. Ruatara invites Marsden to come to NZ Henry Williams & wife Marianne to NZ 1823 CMS begins sending missionaries to West Africa and then NZ William & Jane Williams join Brother Henry Williams 1825 William led the work translating the Bible Approx. 30 other CMS missionaries some with wives and children came to NZ before the signing of the Treaty in 1840 British parliament passes abolition of slavery in all its empire and colonies. (1833) Wilberforce dies three days later. Huge impact from end of slavery across British Empire. James Stephen (Civil Servant) Appointed Undersecretary for Colonies Gives instructions to newly appointed Governor Hobson to draft treaty with Maori Chiefs. Son of Sir James Stephen from law to abolish slave trade. Were the missionaries successful? The role of missionaries in New Zealands short history has too often been ignored, minimised or demonised by revisionist historians who have blamed them for much and credited them with little Were the missionaries successful? By mid 1840s well over half of the Maori population was estimated to be gathering regularly for Christian worship, influenced by Anglican, Wesleyan and Catholic traditions. Were the missionaries successful? and from 1836 New Zealand was being lauded as one of the most successful mission fields in the world. Maori who had been enslaved in the far north, took the gospel message back to their own people. The journal of the CMS Missionary Alfred Brown confirms that between 1840 & 1842 more than 1100 Maori in this region turned to Christ and were baptised, coming from darkness to light. Pastor Craig Vernall National Leader of Baptist Churches delivered sermon at Waitangi He described the missionaries as the mid-wife in the treaty and birth of the Nation The Treaty of Waitangi Signed 6th Feb 1840 Governor Hobson said, He Iwi Tahi Tatou! We are now one people. Yes but which one?