Howard Brown Turei 1924 – 9 JAN 2017
The Most Revd Brown Turei was 92 years old. He was one of the three three Archbishops & Primates in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia an Anglican Church of three cultural streams (tikanga.) Archbishop Turei represented the Maori tikanga of the ACANZ&P. He was associated with two Maori tribes in Aotearoa. Last year he had announced that he planned to retire from an active role in ordained ministry.
The Archbishop was also bishop of the Maori episcopal unit of Tairawhiti. He is survived by his co-primates, the Most Revd Philip Richardson, archbishop of the European tikanga and Bishop of Taranaki in the Diocese of Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki and the Most Revd Winston Halapua, archbishop of the Pasifika tikanga and Bishop of Polynesia.
The Archbishop was born in 1924 in Opotiki on the North island of New Zealand. After his service in Maori battalion in WW2, he attended St John’s College in Auckland NZ. He began his ordained ministry in 1948 when he was ordained a deacon and then later a priest in 1950. He served a number of Maori parishes and chaplaincies. In 1992, after the reforms of the ACANZ&P which then became a three cultural stream church, he was elected Te Pihopa ki Te Tai Rawhiti (Bishop of the East Coast). In 2006 he was elected Pihopa o Aotearoa (Bishop of Aotearoa) by the Maori tikanga, which is when he became one of the three Archbishops of ACANZ&P. Last year the government of New Zealand award the Archbishop the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the Church. The Archbishop is also survived by his wife, Mihi, his three children, six grandchildren and his extended Maori family and friends.
Archbishop Turei’s funeral service is scheduled for Saturday for 11 am on the north east coast of New Zealand, which was yesterday for us here in the Western Hemisphere.
The facts and photo for this story were gathered from the Anglican Toanga.