PRESBYTERIAN MAORI GATHERING AT OHOPE BEACH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 42, 10 May 1950, Page 5

PRESBYTERIAN MAORI GATHERING AT OHOPE BEACH

Representatives from the 16 parishes within the Presbyterian Maori Church will gather at Ohope on Friday, and will remain until Tuesday morning, when it is expected all the business will have been completed. A' delegation of 37 is expected from Taumarunui and 40 from Nuhaka, the two furthest outposts of the Church to be represented.

Altogether some 200 people, Maori members and pakelia fellow workers, will be present when Mr Ratu Lewis of Nuhaka is installed as Moderator of Te Hinota Maori (Maori Synod) for the year 1950-51. Mr Lewis is one of the youngest Maori men who has given loyal support to the Presbyterian Maori Church for a considerable period of years, and his calling to the Moderator’s chair is a recognition of faithfulness on the part of laymen.

Te Maungarongo, the meeting house of the Maori Synod at Ohope Beach, will be the place in which reports of five committees are presented to the Hinota, while morning and evening sessions will be devoted to inspirational addresses in both Maori and English. On Saturday morning t competitions for the Henry Cup will take place, when teams from the various parishes will compete in pois, hakas, Maori hymn test and a biblical pageant. A special; feature of this year’s'' Synod will be the visit of Dr J. D. Salmond,, of Dunedin, and Mr T. I. Steele, of Opotiki, members of the team representing the New Life Movement of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. They will put before the Maori people the call of the Mother Church for the Maori membership to take a place in this mighty movement for spiritual renewal and giving and service.