WHS Journal 2009

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 1 WHS Journal 2009

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 2 WHS Journal 2009 Contents EDITORIAL SPIRITUAL JOURNEY Phil Taylor TRAVELLING WITH METHODISTS (AND OTHERS) ON THE GOOD SHIP OIKOUMENE: REFLECTIONS FROM AN (ECUMENICAL) ANCIENT MARINER Allan K Davidson RESCUING FROM OBSCURITY: A LIFE OF THE REVEREND JOHN SKEVINGTON, 1815-1845 Gary A Clover Book Review — Norman E Brookes THE JOHN WESLEY CODE — Finding a Faith that Matters By James Stuart Book Review - Terry Wall JOHN WESLEY’S PREACHERS A Social and Statistical Analysis of the British and Irish Preachers Who Entered the Methodist Itinerancy before 1791 By John Lenton Wesley Historical Society Directory 2009 Anniversaries 2010 - 2011

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 3 WHS Journal 2009 Editorial During this year the Anglican and Methodist Churches entered into a covenant relationship. The signing of the covenant by leaders of our two churches took place on Wesley Day, 24th May 2009 at Lotofale’ia Tongan Methodist Church and Te Karaiti Te Pou Herenga Waka, the Anglican Maori Church, Mangere. The celebration at Mangere was the culmination of six years of conversations between the two Churches and represented a willingness to look to a shared future. As the ecumenical movement has required, each Church had looked at the life of the other and discovered there the apostolic faith. Each Church recognises the ministry of the other Church as being a real ministry of Word and Sacraments. Each Church accepts that the other exercises a ministry of episkope and welcomes the baptised members of the other Church to receive the Eucharist. In the language of ecumenical theology, both Churches are not out of communion, but share a real but incomplete communion. The challenge now is to find ways to give institutional expression to the degree of communion that we enjoy at this stage of our journey. The signing of the covenant commits the two Churches to further dialogue on outstanding theological and ecclesiological issues, and encourages collaboration in joint worship and witness, service and mission. The President of the Wesley Historical Society, Helen Laurenson, is a member of the Anglican Historical Society. It is to be hoped that there will be opportunities to further develop the relationship between our Churches in the field of historical enquiry. In April a Selwyn Symposium was held at the College of St John the Evangelist to mark the Bicentenary of the births of Sarah and George Selwyn. The editor was privileged to be among the participants. Papers, probing the contribution of the Selwyns, were of a high standard and will be published at a later date. The 2009 Conference held in Christchurch marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first ordination of a woman in mainline churches in New Zealand. The Rev. Dr Phyllis Guthardt was honoured at a session of Conference. In the context of a liturgy led by ordained women, Bishop Victoria Matthews and Phyllis herself spoke of their experience and shared insights. It was one of the inspiring sessions of the Conference. This Journal touches the ecumenical movement at a number of points. Phil Taylor’s fascinating spiritual journey indicates the way in which he was influenced by streams other than Methodism. Allan Davidson’s contribution reflects on his friendships and contacts with Methodists and Methodism throughout the duration of his ministry and vocation, teaching Church History. Gary Clover shows how John Skevington was sent to South Taranaki at least in part to “forestall the influence of ‘Popery’ and ‘Puseyism” Dr James Stuart’s book The John Wesley Code was published toward the end of 2008. It has been well received and represents decades of Jim’s conversation with John

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 4 WHS Journal 2009 Wesley. We are pleased to carry a review of this important work by Norman Brookes, a loyal member of the Society. Also reviewed is John Lenton’s John Wesley s Preachers published in Britain in 2009 by Paternoster. The Society is currently in the middle of a rich seam of publications. This year saw the launch at Conference of Jim Stuart’s Making Connexions Down Under - reflections of a United Methodist in Aotearoa New Zealand. Edited by Eric Laurenson, the book brings together a number of Jim’s addresses and articles of an historical, theological and autobiographical nature. The year 2010 will see the publication of the eagerly awaited history of Trinity College by the Rev. Dr Susan Thompson. As this Journal was being prepared for the printer, we heard that Allan Davidson had been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Allan has been a long time member of the Society and has made an outstanding contribution to the study of Church History in this land. We warmly congratulate him on being recognised in this way. — Terry Wall

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 5 WHS Journal 2009 SPIRITUAL JOURNEY - Phil Taylor

Rev. Philip Taylor My most vivid early memory that I can put a date to was 3 September 1939. Dad and I were walking along the drive leading into my grandfather’s orchard that he managed. He told me we were at war again. The deep concern behind his words was what imprinted that fact in my mind. He had come to Nelson in 1917 for his health’s sake. That also resulted in him being unfit for WWI service. He shared in the grieving of our community and had regularly taken me to the ANZAC Day services at the Stoke memorial gates. Our church occupied one of the corners on the village crossroads. A second corner was the blacksmith now developing into a garage. A third corner was an open paddock where Sir Jack Newman’s hired plane landed to get petrol before going on to his home at Wakefield and the fourth corner was the Turf hotel. Chapel and pub folk never mingled except on the hockey and cricket fields. They were shut when we were open and each community felt uncomfortable in the other’s field of expertise, so we rarely met. The Anglican and Methodist churches provided the village’s spiritual nourishment. During the 1920s a Baptist family came to our chapel as their city church was too far away. I later was told that the discussions on the merits of believers’ baptism extended into the moon-lit evenings as grandfather and Baptist, Frank Black, walked home Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 6 WHS Journal 2009 together. Such dialogue resulted in some members, including my father, being immersed by the Methodist minister in the cold Waimea river. In the 1930s and 40s a more serious faith concern enveloped the Methodist Church. Seeking quiet appointments for pacifist ministers, Conference sent them to Nelson and Waimea circuits. Amongst them were Ashleigh Petch, John Grocott and Charlie Hailwood. The Richmond parsonage was reputed to be a safe refuge for conscientious objectors fleeing to the West Coast. Hubert Holdaway was establishing on his orchard the Riverside Community. As the war objectors were eventually released they found a safe haven there in Upper Moutere. Amongst the members were Arch Barrington, Dave Silvester and Norm Cole. These men greatly influenced me. In the late 1940s, lay preacher Dave Silvester was on the preaching plan for Stoke Church. He was welcomed without resentment. The conmmnity provided much of the Easter Camp leadership at Dovedale. Their last finest hour was to be later on, when they took their stand on the cathedral steps, against the Vietnam war. One was frog marched away by the RSA-inspired opposition and he was held, head down, while the toilet was flushed over him. Those who did it had no doubt been frustrated for several decades by Arch Barrington’s letters to the Nelson Evening Mail. With Ray Marshall as our B C leader, who stood twice as Labour candidate for Nelson, the Stoke chapel was known for its socialist-leaning attitude. My foreman followed his children there, but soon withdrew to his Anglican roots because, as he said, “I can’t go along with the Methodists’ pink leaning congregation.” It was to be well into my ministry, after I joined “clergy for Rowling” that I learnt that while Methodist ministers may be to the left, their congregations tended to favour the right. Another influence on my spiritual journey came through the quality found in the ministry during the 30s and 40s. The three presbyters I have mentioned already, were to become presidents of Conference. The Conference’s desire to sideline pacifist ministers was our windfall. Beyond the Easter Camps there were Winter Schools where these men came into their own in leading us through Bible studies. Their openness to scholarship must have also come through in their preaching to my parents’ generation. As a young teenager I asked my father for help about the burning question of Creation. I was aware that Genesis spoke of creation taking place in a few days and at school learning another story. He answered to this effect: “Human beings weren’t around when it happened to report and we can only think of our beginnings in story or myth form.” For most of my ministry I confess it has been difficult to use that word “myth,” because of the false connotations in people’s minds. But I am grateful for that openness that kept me safe from a literalist’s approach to Scripture. As to when I became a Christian, I was never aware when that was not the case; or, I could answer just as truthfully, it is taking me many years becoming one. To tidy up the books I took the opportunity at one Easter Camp to go forward as a public witness. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 7 WHS Journal 2009 Up until I was 23 years of age I was immersed in this enriching faith journey that sometimes took me out of the District to Youth Conferences. In 1950 at the Paerata Youth Conference, Alan Hall spoke of the need for carpenters to help rebuild in the Solomon Islands. I responded and when it came to telling my Plymouth Brethren boss, to my surprise he remonstrated with me by saying: “It is not yet the dispensation of the black people!” Looking back to that time when I was in my twenty third year, I realise that although I had absorbed many rich experiences from family and church and community, I needed to leave home to move on. It was to be a shock to my home folks when they heard from the Solomon Islands I was offering as a candidate for ministry. Years later I was to hear my father expressed his concern to Ray Marshall who replied: “Never fear, Mr Taylor, the conference committee will see he doesn’t get any further!” Many home churches were known to complain that having sent the apple of their eye to Trinity College he eventually returned as someone they found it hard to appreciate. Each of our three tutors added to my faith experience. J J Lewis opened out the Bible to be used with confidence in one’s devotional growth and preaching. Eric Hames sparked my interest in Church History and reminded us that if we gave up on our devotional life we had no future in the ministry. Dr Williams, just returned from studying under Carl Rogers, introduced me to a type of pastoral ministry that I enjoyed. From tending to be painfully self-absorbed, I found freedom in my pastoral visiting, through his teaching on reflective listening. In the Solomons I led a gang of young men. I was surprised to see them in their leisure time walking two by two hand in hand. In that culture it would have been a scandal to see a boy and girl holding hands. While the boys were not necessarily gay, I was to meet and value many gay men in the church. They took a leading part in the music of the church. One taught our children music. I am glad today to worship in an inclusive congregation. My experience in the Solomon Islands was from 1950 to 1966. During that time I moved from being locked in with a paternalistic attitude that held imperialistic power over the indigenous people to seeking to hand over to them all authority. Based on my experience there, I was a ready candidate for what was to become the power-sharing bicultural journey. In the meantime I had learnt about Parihaka and stories of Tainui dispossessed and forced to live in hovels on the banks of the Waikato; part of our history not taught in primary school. Then there were Church Conferences where Rua Rakena walked up the aisle, as if it was a marae, challenging the Methodist Church to trust Taha Maori leadership with the Maori Division. By mid-1980s I was a minor part in the Auckland Synod’s bicultural committee. Our task was to encourage reluctant members of Auckland based Connexional Boards to give time to bicultural workshops at Whakatuora. During long service leave I had attended a summer vacation course in a United Methodist Church’s College in Denver. There the black presbyter helped me realise that the problem over and above Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 8 WHS Journal 2009 personal racism is that of society’s structures that suit the predominant group, forcing minorities as square pegs into round holes tothe destruction of their ethos. It is a cop- out to profess that all that was needed wis good personal relationships as for example by saying: “I grew up amongst Maori and they are some of my best friends!” At the 1953 Conference I was one of thirteen candidates for the ministry. We were lined up, standing against the wall in Taranaki St Church hall. Across the other side sat a somewhat larger number of senior clergy of the church. At the end of the questions one senior man got up and insisted that we each answer his question, “Do you drink alcohol?” As far as I know we were all teetotal and able to assure him we were dry. My spiritual journey has been influenced and enriched by the various movements of the Spirit that have come like ocean swells seeking out the church in its sheltered and comfortable harbour. We had been enjoying that cup of tea only to be disturbed by the pots and pans on the ship’s stove sliding out of control. Such movements of the Spirit seem to visit us every fifteen or twenty years and they become all-consuming as we are taken to the edge. We try and steady our environment by making binding rules whereas I’d much rather we kept a true compass bearing by following the example of John and Charles Wesley, with the sacraments always central in their own lives and hopefully amongst their converts. Being a small church we run the risk of being one- eyed and expecting everyone else to be following the same stairway to heaven. I was an heir to the effect of the prohibition movement where during the 1920s some of our clergy were filling town halls to encourage people to give up the demon drink. Yes, drink was a curse in this colony but the effects of that approach came across as judgmental, especially to those who had already been to hell in the trenches and were now home and needing God’s shalom. “There is no deeper pathos in the spiritual life of human kind than the cruelty of righteous people.” (Reinhold Niebuhr.) If we had continued John and Charles Wesley’s loyalty to the sacraments, faith in the real presence of Christ could have brought healing rather than felt rejection to some of these men. As it was, during the 1970s in our Onehunga parish there would be men who wouldn’t enter the church for funerals because they did not feel good enough. Who is? My spiritual journey brought me into the pacifists’ camp. I was to attend Conferences when much time was given in the attempts to reinstate the Rev. Ormond Burton. Resistance was strong and it took several years for the two thirds majority required to be reached, allowed him to be again a presbyter in “good standing.” My faith journey has been tested by the horrific wars committed in the name of God, while the official church remains silent, seemingly to protect their power and position. In this post-modern age Christendom’s sad history is used as another reason to ignore the Gospel. Where does one stand inside the church if such things continue? Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads the way forward.

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 9 WHS Journal 2009 Kosuke Koyama, speaking at a Northcote synod-supported meeting, made this observation that I have found helpful. “Nearly all disasters (except natural) begin with a wrongful use of the name of God.” He also commented, “We sing ‘Immortal, invisible God only wise.’ but as soon as we sense the transcendent we try to control it.” In my spiritual wanderings this led me to the conclusion that bad theology has a lot to answer for. George Bush is urged on in his plans to lead the first war in the twenty- first century by Christians who have never appreciated the all-inclusive nature of Jesus’ ministry. Many of them are obsessed with end-of-the-world teachings. Our parish advertised that Terry Wall would be speaking at Manly. The Ministers’ Association were asked to encourage their congregations to attend this ecumenical occasion. Instead to our surprise an opposing prayer meeting was set up for the same time. When later asked why, the Assembly of God pastor said, “Terry is known to seek friendly dialogue with Muslims! We were praying against him.” Yet I have hope! Hope to out-preach, out-love, out-contemplate this theology that results in such evil deeds. A theology based on the feelings that everything must happen now rather than in kairos — God’s time, a theology that can’t cope with questioning and different points of view. Surely we look to a theology in which the God we find through Christ Jesus is not controlled by what we selfishly want but in the end by what we need, a travelling companion through the valley of the shadow of death. My spiritual journey has been undergirded by epiphany experiences. It was early in my stay in the Solomon Islands that the minister and his wife took me with them out onto the exposed reef. We were there to find sea shells and paced several hundred yards along this outer reef. The ocean swells could have travelled all the way from South America. They came silently until, when faced by the barrier of the reef, they reared up close beside me. Out of the turquoise blue ocean the tips of the crests broke in a tumbling white wave, only to sink back to be replaced by the next. All other sound was blotted out by the roar of the sea. Alone, and distant from all home securities, in a strange land I was gifted with this numinous, awesome experience. I have time to walk the beach now, admire the orchids and watch shrubs and vegetables grow. From time to time when I have been preaching I know I have touched base in a transcendent experience. My spirituality was enriched when I first received communion and then again when I was privileged to administer the sacraments. I remember when Loyal Gibson led synod members in retreat at Clarks Beach. We were encouraged to gaze into a flower and then to wander alone. Lying on my back on the thick carpet of pine needles I looked up the forty feet to the tree tops and absorbed the music of the wind sighing as it passed by. It was outside of me, yet part of me. I remember Les Clements when he was giving the daily inspirational talks at a Christchurch church conference, commenting that from his experience with the

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 10 WHS Journal 2009 Orthodox priests at the World Council of Churches he thought that the future of Christianity was with them. Paul Hawker, being interviewed some years ago by Maureen Garing on his book Soul Affairs, said: “The Eastern Christians are far more comfortable with mystery than non- orthodox Christians. Our problem is that we are academically bent.” In preparing for his book he first approached the departments of religion in eight New South Wales universities asking about epiphany affairs. They didn’t know anything about them. It has taken biologists at Oxford University to send out questionnaires asking the general population if they have experienced transcendent experiences. The biologists’ second poll received a 72% affirming that they had these “peak experiences”. There was little response from church people. Yet as he said, “Even in non-religious society it is still spiritual pillow talk and not socially kosher.” If I had my time in the ministry again I would feel less pressure to attend planning meetings and give more time to such occasions as provided by Loyal. From my early days in the pulpit when we were expected to provide a solo act to today’s relaxed service we have come a long way in harnessing the gifts of the whole congregation. As Jesus required a community, so it is to-day’s faith community where the Gospel is lived out. The age of reason to which we in the church are heirs has caused us to dismiss as fantasy such a comment as this. One of my parishioners shared with me his epiphany. Kneeling at the communion rail he had a vision of an angel and he was healed. I have never seen an angel but I was glad to affirm him. When he dared share that with another minister he got the response that there are no angels. Is Koyama right when he says we want to control the transcendent?

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 11 WHS Journal 2009 Travelling with Methodists (and others) on the Good Ship Oikoumene: Reflections from an (Ecumenical) Ancient Mariner - Allan K Davidson

Rev. Dr. Allan K. Davidson Photo – Lloyd Ashton I want to thank Principal David for inviting me to speak to you this evening. After over twenty-seven years as a Presbyterian minister serving on the staff of an Anglican College, in partnership with Methodists, I want to reflect on my ecumenical journey. David encouraged me to be autobiographical and so I am unashamedly going to use the personal pronoun as I talk about, “Travelling with Methodists (and others) on the Good Ship Oikoumene: Reflections from an (Ecumenical) Ancient Mariner”. I was born and grew up at the centre of the universe! At least that’s what Hokitika seemed like when I was growing up. It was the centre of my world; the focal point for my first twenty years. In that small town the Ministers’ Fraternal sponsored one united ecumenical Boys’ Brigade Company. Under the inspirational leadership of two outstanding individuals, a sister and her brother — Elva Reynolds and Errol Stoop, Hokitika in the 1950s could boast of the largest Boys’ Brigade and Team section in the country. Long before Elva Reynolds was ordained a Methodist deacon, she was living out a diaconal ministry.

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 12 WHS Journal 2009 In the 1950s my social and religious life revolved around the Boys’ Brigade, the Presbyterian Sunday School and then Bible Class. We had regular Boys’ Brigade church parades in the local Churches. I experienced the strangeness of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and kneeling to pray; in the Methodist Church I was intrigued by the elevated choir seats, the pipe organ and the high central pulpit — music and preaching seemed to go together. When I became a Boys’ Brigade officer, Albert Grundy, who was in his first Methodist parish, was the Company Chaplain. Without realising it I was absorbing ecumenical experiences that took me out of my own narrow church world. As a university student in Dunedin I was a straight up and down Presbyterian, living in Knox College, attending Knox Church. But then I met Margaret Stringer and occasionally attended her Church, Trinity Methodist, where Bruce Gordon was the minister. I joined in some of their senior Bible Class events, including a memorable trip in the midst of winter to the Methodist Campsite at Kawarau. While we froze, other passions were kindled. Margaret and I were married in Timaru at the Woodlands Street Methodist Church in 1969. The service was conducted by Alan Leadley. He became a good friend during his first probationary year at Edgeware Road Methodist Church when Margaret was on placement in Christchurch as a physiotherapy student. That friendship has grown and matured over the years. It’s a reminder of how friendships consolidate ecumenical relationships. We later followed Alan and Muriel to East New Britain; I also served on the Methodist/Presbyterian Council for Mission and Ecumenical Cooperation with Alan as the secretary who reported to the Auckland unit. In marrying a Methodist I gained a brother-in-law who was a Methodist minister, Robert Stringer. Family ties, alongside friendships, are another pathway for ecumenical inter-relationships. Over the years I’ve gained from Robert’s own ecumenical journey, first in Solomon Islands, and then in the Uniting Church of Australia. Through Margaret’s family I became aware of her Methodist heritage and her mother’s close friendship with people like Sister Ada Lee. Visiting Margaret’s grandmother, soon after we were married, I was surprised to find her still questioning the 1913 union of the Primitives and Wesleyans in Temuka, when the big issue of the day was whether the Methodists should join with the Presbyterians. On Margaret’s father’s side an aunt was a Methodist missionary nursing sister for three years in Solomon Islands. My theological training at the Theological Hall, Knox College, began in 1967. This was a momentous year. The Act of Commitment was entered into by Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and the Associated Churches of Christ. It was optimistically hoped that the union of the five churches would soon be accomplished. 1967 was also the year in which Professor Geering was tried for heresy. Church Union and theological debate were part of the ferment which profoundly affected the church over the next fifteen years. In the background, but also hugely

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 13 WHS Journal 2009 influential, was the recognition that the Second Vatican Council had changed relationships with Catholics in ways which we could hardly grasp at the time. I was awarded a scholarship for study overseas at the end of my time at Knox and a World Council of Churches scholarship to the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. The thrust of the WCC scholarship was to provide “ecumenical exposure” (it sounds vaguely naughty) to students from around the world. That ecumenical exposure began as we sailed in 1970 on the S.S. Australis to the United States. Among our fellow passengers were George and Jocelyn Armstrong from St John’s College, and Keith and Kathleen Rowe. Who would have predicted then that twelve years later I would join them at St John’s / Trinity? My interest in the interaction of Protestant missionaries with other cultures was stimulated by creative teaching I received as a Masters’ student at Otago. At Chicago my lead teacher was R. Pierce Beaver. A quiet, unassuming, scholarly man, he was at that stage probably the leading missionary historian in the United States. He had served for a brief period as a Methodist missionary in China before the Communist Revolution resulted in all the missionaries leaving. Pierce Beaver’s grasp of missionary history inspired me to specialise in the area. The richness of ecumenical exposure was experienced in all sorts of ways. During the mid-term elections a special study programme on Chicago was organised for international students. I made very good friends during the week with an Australian Methodist minister studying at the Chicago Theological Seminary. The person was Dean Drayton, well know on this side of the Tasman in recent years for his work in the areas of evangelism and church growth. Dean is the immediate past President of the Uniting Church of Australia. The ecumenical journey has all sorts of surprises. At Chicago I did research work on John R Mott, a Methodist layman, who was probably the greatest twentieth century ecumenist. Mott was able to achieve much of his success because he was not ordained and as a Methodist layman he didn’t threaten Anglicans, Calvinists, Lutherans, or Orthodox. As a Methodist he played a very important mediating role. In 2010 they will be marking the centenary of the great Edinburgh Missionary Conference. John Mott presided over that meeting which is often seen as the birth place of the twentieth century ecumenical movement. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and became one of the honorary Presidents of the World Council of Churches at its first Assembly in Amsterdam in 1948. At the end of our year in the States we went to Washington DC. I made a special pilgrimage to the National Cathedral where John Mott was buried. One of the pleasures I’ve had as a teacher has been introducing students to this great Methodist ecumenical laymen. One of my disappointments has been that his name and his contributions are so often unknown. We moved on to Aberdeen in Scotland. I’d already been in contact, before leaving New Zealand, with Andrew Walls. Andrew was gaining a reputation as a leading missionary historian in the United Kingdom. He has since come to be recognised as Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 14 WHS Journal 2009 one of the foremost international scholars in the area. We were privileged to have him as the keynote speaker at the Wesley Historical Society South Pacific Conference in 2005. Andrew is another Methodist who profoundly influenced me. A lay Scottish Methodist, Andrew is a remarkable man. He taught church history in Sierra Leone and Nigeria; returned to Aberdeen and became the founding head for the department of religious studies. He established the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non- Western World first in Aberdeen and then later transferred to Edinburgh. Alongside his outstanding intellectual and academic pursuits, he was a lay preacher and appeared regularly on the Aberdeen district preaching plan. An active member of the Labour Party he stood one year for Parliament. Andrew served for a period on the Aberdeen City Council. In the early 1970s he was deported when he attempted to visit Nigeria because of his support and identification with the Biafrian cause. In his alter ego role, as Andrew Finlayson, he gave regular readings of poetry and history. I remember one conference when he made a wonderful dramatic presentation, with musical accompaniment, on John Wesley and the virtues and hazards of tea drinking. Andrew embodied sound scholarship, ecumenical empathy and faith in action. When we returned to New Zealand in 1974 I received a call from Burwood United/St Kentigen’s in Christchurch. Some people felt that ‘Burwood United’ sounded more like a football team than a church. It was one of the earlier forms of ecumenical cooperation based on reciprocal membership under Presbyterian governance. One of the great disappointments in 1974 and again in 1976 was the rejection of Church Union by the Anglican General Synod. At the time I think we saw it as a hiccup without realising that a window of opportunity passed by the churches. With the wisdom of hindsight I’ve realised that in many ways the moves towards Church Union represented the last gasp of the Christendom age with the attempt to build a mega church. The erosion of belief and belonging in mainline churches, the growth of charismatic and Pentecostal influences, and the retreat into denominationalism were all forces I don’t think we appreciated in the mid 1970s. Christendom was disintegrating and doing so rapidly. For ecumenists, the loss of the hoped for united church was devastating. In the early 1980s denominational concerns like power sharing for Methodists and the bicultural journey for Anglicans contributed to attention moving away from the prize of ecumenical union. Church Union had really failed to address these issues. The increasing number of Pacific Islanders, particularly in Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, was also changing them in ways which the Plan for Union had not really accommodated. In 1976 I received an invitation out of the blue. Would I consider joining the staff as a lecturer at Rarongo Theological College in East New Britain in Papua New Guinea? By August 1977 Margaret, our two daughters and I were at Rarongo and I was working for the United Church of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 15 WHS Journal 2009 Before leaving for PNG we met Leslie Boseto, the Moderator of the Church, one of the outstanding indigenous leaders produced by Solomon Islands Methodism who has embodied ecumenism. We went to PNG under the Methodist/Presbyterian Joint Board for Mission Overseas. Geoff Tucker was responsible for the Mclanesian staff and during our time in PNG we appreciated his pastoral care. As lecturer in church history my appreciation of the growth of Methodism in Melanesia was deepened. The coming of George Brown to New Britain with Fijian and Samoan teachers in 1875 was a significant story of challenge, tragedy, faithful service and success. We lived in an area where the Second World War and the Japanese invasion had a devastating impact on the local population. In my own family, a distant relative was Don Alley. A Methodist missionary on Bougainville, he stayed and was captured by the Japanese and lost his life on the Montevideo Maru when it was sunk by an American submarine while transferring prisoners of war to Japan. Our four and a half years at Rarongo were stimulating and challenging. One significant discovery I made in our library was the notebook with the handwritten “Story of my life” by Semisi Nau. A Tongan Methodist, Semisi, related growing up in Tonga during the time the Wesleyans were persecuted in the 1880s and then his remarkable period as a missionary in Solomon Islands. His pioneering mission at Ontong Java was extraordinary. Semisi spent three months with a Samoan companion on a boat in the lagoon, unable to land because of local chief’s opposition. The drama I wrote about this which students performed in the Rarongo chapel took on a life of its own. It has been much embroidered and was acted for the centennial of the Methodist Church in Solomons and presented to Methodist Churches in New Zealand and Tonga. The research and publication of Semisi’s Story opened up all sorts of doors.1 It deepened my knowledge and appreciation for the Polynesian islander missionaries who went to Melanesia. Localisation of staff positions was in the air. I had replaced Esau Tuza, another former Methodist Solomon Islander who had gone off to do further study. He came back and replaced me when I was appointed in 1982 as lecturer in church history at St John’s I Trinity. Never in my wildest dreams had I contemplated ending up on the staff of an Anglican theological college. Although Church union failed, the consequences of ecumenical cooperation resulted in all sorts of new possibilities. The Anglican General Synod changed their St John’s canon making it possible to pay non- Anglicans. I was delighted to find that Keith Carley, who I had known as a Presbyterian theological student in Dunedin, and then briefly as a colleague at Rarongo, was appointed to teach Old Testament at St John’s. We began on the same day, 1 January 1982.

1 Allan K. Davidson, ed., Semisi Nau: The Story of My Life. The autobiography of a Tongan Methodist Missionary who worked at Ontong Java in the Solomon Islands (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, 1996). Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 16 WHS Journal 2009 I certainly didn’t have much understanding as to what I was letting myself in for. The Colleges were in post-Springbok tour mode. In fact it was a time of protest with Bastion Point, the anti-nuclear movement and other causes resulting in frequent marches along Queen Street on a Friday night. It would take a long time, and it wouldn’t necessarily be edifying if I was to go into the minutiae of the ecumenical relationships between Methodists and Anglicans here at St John’s in the 1970s and 1980s. I’ve given an expurgated version of that in my history of St John’s. I remember sharing a draft of the contemporary chapters with Dr Lewis. He related that he had to take a long walk after reading what I had written! It brought to the surface some painful memories. It was a stormy time when personalities, different expectations, diverse theological emphases impacted on the Colleges. But the Colleges were a microcosm of the bigger world with concerns about liberation theology, feminism, racism, contextual theology and the nature of ecumenism bubbling away. These concerns were very real and their implications theologically for the church and individuals significant. But alongside the ecumenical stresses there was also great richness, teaching as part of a Joint Faculty and having students who represented two different ecclesial traditions. Finding a local parish after Rarongo was not easy. We ended up at St Paul’s Methodist Church in Vincent Avenue. With Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian connections I told our children they were now Anglometho-terians! We were attracted to St Paul’s because we knew people who were worshipping there. Norman Brookes was minister and we established a friendship with Norman and Margaret which has continued over the years. Roger Hey, who had visited us briefly in PNG and Kathy became good friends. These links of people, faith, and friendship transcend barriers of tradition that divide. After twelve years at St Paul’s we relocated to St Luke’s Presbyterian Church as I wanted to re-establish my Presbyterian links. Soon after arriving in Auckland I was asked to join the executive of the Wesley Historical Society. My membership helped give me an appreciation of the New Zealand Methodist story seen in the passion and commitment which people like George Carter, Wesley Chambers, Dave Roberts, Verna Mossong, and Helen Laurenson have brought to its recording and telling. To be an historian of Christianity in New Zealand is to be open to its ecumenical dimensions. I’ve been blessed by finding myself teaching at a time when we’ve needed, and people have wanted, to learn more about their denominational roots. St John’s/Trinity have gone through at least four different institutional shifts during my time here. One of the most exciting was the formation in 1985 of the Auckland Consortium for Theological Education and joining with Baptists then Catholics in theological education. Critical in helping ACTE to work successfully were the exertions of Jill van der Geer as an administrator, alongside Harold Pidwell, a Baptist, the first Dean; and Godfrey Nicholson, an Anglican, the second Dean.

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 17 WHS Journal 2009 When I began here in 1982 Mary Caygill was in her first year as a Methodist student. It has been fascinating over the years to join with Methodist students on their theological journey. In Mary’s case, having her come back as an Anglican appointee and colleague, and then as Methodist Principal, has been part of the rich voyage on the good ship Oikoumene. Keith Rowe, Jim Stuart, Eric Ryan (a Catholic teaching on the Methodist staff), Enid Bennett, Jack Penman, Frank Hanson, John Salmon, Mary Caygill, Lynne Wall, and now Nasili Vaka’uta, and David Bell have all contributed to my ecumenical journey. I have benefitted enormously from their collegiality. The opening up of higher degrees gave new opportunities for advanced in- depth study. Among the doctoral students I supervised were Frank Hanson and Susan Thompson. It was fascinating acting as Frank’s supervisor; he was a colleague, a head of college, one time President of Conference, and President of ACTE, and my student! Our relationship was a very harmonious one. His work on the importance of the Sunday school for the Methodist Church and his recognition that with its demise Methodists lost their most significant recruiting ground for membership provides insights into understanding why a whole generation is largely missing from the Palangi church. Susan’s significant thesis on Methodist theological education and Trinity College tells a central part of the history of New Zealand Methodism. Journeying with postgraduate students is a great privilege. The supervisor is both guide and learner alongside the postgraduate student. In 1985 Jocelyn Armstrong, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, asked me to provide a brief survey of Christianity in New Zealand for those who gathered at Kaitoke to shape a new ecumenical body including Catholics. It was an exciting time that contributed to the birth of the Conference of Churches of Aotearoa New Zealand in 1988. But it also pointed to the unravelling of ecumenism with the Baptists opting not to join. The ecumenical commitment of denominations from a previous generation was sadly not translated into wholehearted support for CCANZ. In 1999 Catholics withdrew from the Conference. As Terry Wall commented in 2004, “Other churches that have continued to belong appear to have lost energy along the way — their commitment seems tired and jaded”.2 As someone deeply influenced by the ecumenical movement and who has spent almost his entire ministry working in ecumenical contexts the request to address the 2004 CCANZ Forum was a painful one. The decision had been made to close the Conference down and end that phase of the ecumenical movement. For me, it was like speaking at the wake of a very good friend. The contributions that Terry, Peter Lineham and I made were edited by Garth Cant, another of those Methodist laymen who has given such outstanding leadership in

2 Terry Wall, “Out of Control or Beyond Control”, In Where the Road Runs Out ... Research Essays on the Ecumenical Journey and the Conference of Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, In Garth Cant, ed. (Christchurch: Conference of Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2005), p.5.

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 18 WHS Journal 2009 their own church and to ecumenism. Garth was a teacher in Hokitika when I was at the end of my schooling. It was fascinating forty-five years later to work with him on the production of what was titled, using Cohn Gibson’s line, Where the Road Runs Out . .3 I’ve been saddened by the unravelling of ecumenical commitments. I was deeply disappointed in my own church with its withdrawal from Crosslink, the Council for Mission and Ecumenical Cooperation, and the joint work that we shared on public questions. At St John’s / Trinity I feel something like an ecumenical dinosaur. The commitments of the past which led to my appointment have been replaced by denominational priorities which have led churches away from the cooperation in theological education experienced in the late 1980s. Ecumenism in the 1940s for William Temple, the great archbishop of Canterbury, was the great new fact of our time! The times have changed so quickly that we now live in a period which they refer to as the ice age of the ecumenical movement. Today ecumenism is on the back burner, with the gas turned down low. And yet the gains of ecumenism are all around us. Relationships with Catholics and Protestants, for example, have seen a momentous shift in the last forty-five years. I believe that we need to rediscover the ecumenical imperative of John 17 for our own post-modern, globalised world — “I and the Father are one ... that the world may believe.” Just what that will mean is not known. I was delighted to read in Touchstone that church leaders are moving “ahead in their efforts to establish an ecumenical body that will promote the visible unity of the church”. With the collapse of CCANZ in mind, John Roberts wrote that: “The Methodist Church did not give up. Believing that to be Methodists is to be ecumenical, the Mission and Ecumenical Committee remained committed to the idea that a new ecumenical entity was possible”.4 While “the road runs out” that just creates a new starting point for the ecumenical journey. I am also heartened by the openness which Methodists and Anglicans are bringing to a renewed ecumenical dialogue in the Covenant they are signing this Sunday.5 My thanks to the Methodist Church, to Trinity College and to those who have travelled with me on the ecumenical journey. My ministry has been enriched beyond measure by what I’ve shared and learnt from Methodists and others on the good ship Oikoumene. I might feel like an Ecumenical Ancient Mariner but I’ve not lost my passion for ecumenism — learning from each other and doing those things together which in conscience we should not do apart. John Wesley provides an ecumenical blessing: “... keep an even pace, rooted in the faith once delivered to the saints and

3 Garth Cant, ed. Where the Road Runs Out ... Research Essays on the Ecumenical Journey and the Conference of Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, (Christchurch: Conference of Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2005.) 4 Touchstone, May 2009, p.2. 5 “The Anglican Methodist Covenant 2008” was signed on 24 May 2009. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 19 WHS Journal 2009 grounded in love, in true, catholic love, till thou art swallowed up in love for ever and ever.”6 Colin Gibson gives encouragement for an Ecumenical Ancient Mariner “where the road runs out”. When the coast is left and we journey on to the rim of the sky and the sea, be the sailor’s friend, be the dolphin Christ; lead us on to eternity. Lord you were our beginning, the faith that gave us birth. We look to you, our ending, our hope for heaven and earth.7

6 C. Outler, ed., The Works of John Wesley, volume 2, Sermons II, Sermon 39, “Catholic Spirit”, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1985), p.95. 7 With One Voice: a Hymn Book for All the Churches with New Zealand Supplement, (Auckland: Collins, 1982), p.740. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 20 WHS Journal 2009 RESCUING FROM OBSCURITY: A LIFE OF THE REVEREND JOHN SKEVINGTON, 1815-1845 - Gary A Clover “A going concern” THE Heretoa mission station at Waimate, South Taranaki, was built on “a broad grassy peninsula of four or five acres” formed by a bend in the Inaha Stream about a kilometre inland from the South Taranaki Bight. It was one of a chain of mission stations the Wesleyan Missionary Society established down the North Island west coast from 1834 to 1848. The Waimate South Circuit extended some ninety kilometres from Oeo in the north, south to Wanganui, and for a time on to Whangaehu and Turakina. The Rev. John Whiteley, the Wesleyan’s Southern District Chairman, found it a “fine field of labour” but “prodigiously extensive”. The first Wesleyan missionaries did not reach South Taranaki until 1840. They were preceded by Maori evangelists freed from slavery through missionary influence. As Ngati Ruanui captives returned home from the Far North they brought with them elements of the Christian religion which they had acquired through associating with Wesleyan missions in the Hokianga and Waikato, and from learning to read and write the Maori language. Mainly mission educated, younger chiefs, of lesser lines, they found renewed mana and restored tribal status in becoming Wesleyan native teachers, monitors and class leaders. In the words of two of today’s historians, the missionaries came as “ratifyers” of “a going concern”.1 One such South Taranaki evangelist was Wiremu Nera (William Naylor) Ngatai (also later known perhaps as Wi Parirau) from Waipapa on the Waimate Plains. This Wiremu Nera should not be confused with Wiremu Nera Te Awaitaia, the great Ngati Mahanga warrior chief and Wesleyan mission friend from Whaingaroa (Raglan).

1 W.H. Oliver and Jane M. Thomson, Challenge and response: a study of the development of the Gisborne East Coast region, Gisborne, 1971, pp.17 & 28. Piripi Taumata-a-Kura in January 1834 likewise brought Christianity to the East Coast, well before a CMS mission station was established at Waiapu in 1839. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 21 WHS Journal 2009 In 1834 he briefly brought Christianity to South Taranaki while trying to mediate between Waikato musket raiders and Ngati Ruanui defenders at Te Ruaki pa near Hawera. But, maybe from early 1836, or in late 1837, Wiremu Nera Ngatai2 built raupo thatched chapels, set up class meetings on the missionaries’ model, taught his fellow tribesmen to read and write, engaged in peacemaking between tribes, and led the great majority of Taranaki people to embrace a form of Maori “indigenous Christianity” and worship. As the Rev. John Skevington reported to the Wesleyan Mission Secretaries in London in a letter of 15 September 1842, it was through Wiremu Nera’s influence, that “nearly all the tribes of more than 200 miles along this coast had renounced idolatry before a single English missionary had been near them’.3

Te Awaitaia, Wiremu Nera (William Naylor) Ngati Mahanga. Lindauer, G “Maori Paintings” 1965 p.61 Auckland Public Library Collection

2 It is possible that by early 1836, Ngatai had returned to Waipapa. Ian Church, Heartland ofAotea; Maori and European in South Taranaki Before the Taranaki Wars, Hawera, March 1992, pp.26 & 21, records, a “Ngatai” in early 1836 was a defender at Waimate pa against Waikato raiders avenging their 1834 defeat at Te Ruaki. See also, The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume One, 1769-1860, Wellington, 1990, p.441; T. G. Hammond, In the Beginning: the History of a Mission, Hawera, [1915], 2d ed, 1940, pp.17- 20; and, G.I. Laurenson, Te Hahi Weteriana: Three half centuries of the Methodist Moon Mission 1822- 1972, Wesley Historical Society, Proceedings XXVII, 1 & 2, 1972, p.61. 3 John Skevington to London Secretaries, 15 September 1842, pp.8-9, in, ‘Letters to the Secretaries, 1817-1867” 18 vols, T/s, Kinder Library, St John’s-Trinity Colleges, Auckland.

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 22 WHS Journal 2009 Nera Ngatai, at age ten, in 1825 had been enslaved and taken to the Hokianga where he came under the influence of the Wesleyans’ Mangungu mission. Between 1836 and 1837 Nera and eighteen others from South Taranaki returned to Waipapa near Ohangai on the Tangahoe River bearing with them the missionaries’ gospel. At first, they faced “cold scorn” from their relatives. But during 1839 Nera built a pa named Ngahuta-mairo which withstood a Waikato raid. And in 1840 he led Ngarauru Maori in successfully defeating a Ngati Tuwharetoa war party from Taupo at Patoka pa, their victory being attributed to his Christian hymns and prayers. A later Methodist church historian, the Rev. Dr William Morley, called this an “adventitious circumstance” which “greatly advanced the spread of Christianity in South Taranaki.”4 So by August 1840, when the Rev. Samuel Ironside walked through Taranaki seeking mission station sites, he found that Nera had been holding class meetings at Manutahi since 1838, and had built a raupo church, named “Mangungu”, at Macrerau or Meremere. He also found chapels built at Manutahi, Waimate pa, Manawapou, Patea, Waitotara, and at Wanganui. But Nera did not always act as the missionaries might have wished. In mid-December 1839, while returning to Paihia from Otaki, the Rev. Henry Williams, leader of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), found Wiremu Nera at the Rangitikei River leading a Ngati Ruanui war party to attack Ngati Toa at Waikanae: “Sad effects of the Wesleyan system in this part of the Country. These impudent fellows profess to be under the guidance of this Wiremu Neira [sic] who cannot read and is extremely ignorant. The sooner this ceases the better for all.”5 He went on to report that Nera “baptized” his Ngati Ruanui converts on the head with warm water from an iron pot for pardoning of sins and release from tapu, a ceremony that accorded with Maori custom called “kokiro”. A “Godly Mechanic” from Sherwood Forest John Skevington was born on 9 January 1815 in the village of Old Radford near Nottingham, the first child and eldest son of pious Wesicyan Methodist parents. (A “little brother” died on 14 December 1836, aged not quite six years old.) His father, Samuel Skevington (1784-1868), was for fifty years a local preacher and a Nottingham lace maker. Until the winter of 1833-34 when they settled in Sherwood, the family moved frequently from village to village around Nottingham. The Wesleyan Missionary Society was founded in 1814. John was typical of the wave of lower middle class English recruits who brought Christianity to New Zealand in the

4 William Morley, The History of Methodism in New Zealand, Wellington, 1900, p.1 05; The Dictionary of NZ Biography, 1990, p.313; and, Ian Church, Heartland of Aotea, pp.21 & 26. 5 See, Lawrence M. Rogers, ed, The Early Journals of Henry Williams, Christchurch, 1961, pp.463-464, Henry Williams spells Nera’s name as “Neira”. Also, J. M. R. Owens, The Mediator, A Life of Richard Taylor l805-1873, Wellington, 2004, p.75. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 23 WHS Journal 2009 early 1800s. They were mainly skilled artisans, “Godly mechanics”, pious practical men of the land, or workers of new industrial machinery.6 Like his father, John was a Nottingham lace maker, employed in a small factory day and night hand working a lacemaking loom. In 1835 he was knitting twenty racks a day, about seven yards of lace; a ‘rack’ being 240 holes in length of lace. An 1858 Local Preachers Magazine “Memoir” of John’s life7 called it “toilsome employment ... wearisome to both body and mind” for it required great concentration to keep in constant motion, and closely monitor, thousands of pieces of moving machinery and a similar number of “interlacing threads liable to break or get wrong” during any movement. Before he was four years old, John was known for being “remarkable for his attention to religious matters, and for remembering and repeating portions of sermons that he had heard.” Before he was ten, he accompanied Mary his mother to her class meetings and collected for the Missions. At ten, John made a decision for Christ under the influence of a revivalist appointed to the Nottingham Circuit. He started a Saturday afternoon prayer meeting for village youths. They, and older adults, in Bulwell asked his advice about their religious difficulties as “one of our fathers”. At age eleven, John was instrumental in bringing to conversion a young man boarding at the Skevington home. In 1827, when not yet twelve, he first preached in the chapel at Bulwell to a large Sam Monday morning congregation, after which a number of his listeners sought salvation. On another occasion, not tall enough to see over the pulpit, to preach, he was stood on the table below. About the same time he was tested by a severe illness. But when all others gave up hope of his surviving, an old local preacher said that “he could not, because [John) could not be spared; for ‘the black man would want him as a missionary.” In 1828 young John became secretary to the local Missionary Society. Later he “decided for total abstinence”, signing the pledge. In 1833, aged eighteen, the Nottingham Circuit Local Preachers’ Meeting accepted him as a preacher on trial — and accredited him a year later. In his father’s “Preaching Room” in their Sherwood home, on 25 October 1835, John opened a “Sabbath” school. In a few months it numbered over one hundred pupils. And from this time, he

6 Other mission colleagues were a farmer, joiners and cabinet makers, a miller and baker (John Whiteley), Samuel Ironside a Sheffield cutler and butler, William Woon a printer. “Candidates Papers, Methodist Missionary Society 49”, Micro Ms, Collection 3, Alexander Turnbull Library 7 [Local Preachers Magazine, 1858] “Memoir of the Late Rev. John Skevington, Missionary to New Zealand”, in Two Parts, p.265-270 & 329-340. I am indebted to the Rev. Donald Phillips of Dunedin, for forwarding this item to me. His review of this “Memoir”, “Memento Mon — John Skevington (1814-1845)”, was published in the Wesley Historical Society Journal ‘89, Proceedings No.52, June 1989, pp.50-52. Also, [A.H. Colgrave] Sherwood Methodist Church, Devon Drive, Sherwood, Nottingham, [1984], pp. 9-10

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 24 WHS Journal 2009 began to keep a private diary and formed a plan of diligent study to prepare himself for Christian ministry.

But there were also doubts and struggles. He often despaired of conquering his “slavery to bed and sloth”. On Good Friday, 28 March 1837, he recorded another struggle “arising partly from an attachment to a person of the opposite sex”. “I went with Miss , I fear, for the last time”, he wrote. It seems he ended this relationship, seeing it “a hindrance to my usefulness” and “improper” to friends, concluding: “I feel sometimes a painful anxiety about my future lot. I have never entirely lost the impression that I was called to the Mission work: but I feel very jealous of myself lest it should be ambition, and the desire of fame, that leads me to think of that work”.8 However, his piety and Christian works soon came to the attention of the Nottingham Circuit officials. In March 1836, he was examined, and passed by the Quarterly Meeting. On 18 November 1837, many holding “the opinion God was preparing him

8 “Memoir of John Skevington”, p.335. “Candidates Papers, no.4, Letters Recommending Candidates”, Methodist Missionary Society

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 25 WHS Journal 2009 for the entire dedication to the work of the ministry”, the Circuit Superintendent called John to take services in three villages for three evenings that week, and a year later to fill in for a visiting preacher in the neighbouring Mansfield Circuit. In 1839, the Nottingham Circuit Meeting, despite his “plain education”, unanimously recommended him for missionary service, with “a preference for a post in New Zealand.” It reported: “He is truly converted to God, cordially believes our doctrines, and heartily approves of our discipline. His ministerial talents are acceptable and useful.” He was “of a sound constitution.”9 On 25 February 1839 John preached his trial sermon in Halifax Place Chapel, Nottingham. One hearer stated, “He has a good voice, but not a graceful delivery. His manner was fervent, but his mind evidently wants culture, store, and training.” On 15 May the District Meeting at Derby passed John and three other candidates for itinerant missionary service. And on 31 July 1839 he met with the Wesleyan Mission Secretaries at the Methodist Church’s Centenary Conference at Liverpool. A week later John and four others were admitted on probation into the Methodist Conference and ordered to prepare to leave on 3 September from Bristol aboard the mission brigantine, the Triton, for the South Seas. In a final act of preparation, around 20 August, John married Jane Etchells (1812-1883) at Old Radford. The little we know of Jane is summed up in the “Memoir” of John’s early life: “Her fate was to lose her husband in a heathen land, but a land in the process of Christianisation, partly by his labours; and to return to her native country a widow, with two fatherless children.”10 The Skevingtons appear to have had the rather formal, conventional relationship of the time. Whenever Jane is mentioned John refers to her as “Mrs Skevington” or “Mrs S”. During his short missionary career he wrote very infrequently to the Wesleyan Missionary Society’s Secretaries in London. His diary, the “Memoir” draws on, appears not to have made it into the public record. To “A Far Off Land” The Triton finally left Milford Haven on 14 September 1839, reaching Hobart after a voyage of over six months on 7 April 1840. When she sailed for Hokianga, which she reached on 8 May, the Skevingtons were left behind to recover from the long and exhausting voyage. John proved not to be of a strong constitution. The Rev. Walter Lawry, the Australasian District Chairman, in his 1846 District Report reflected, “Poor Mr S is one of those who never ought to have come out.” He was “a good and

9 Alexander Turnbull Library, Micro MS. Collection 3. 10 “Memoir of John Skevington’, p.340; BDM information received in a private email from the Rev. Donald Phillipps, 24 September 2009. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 26 WHS Journal 2009 faithful servant and greatly beloved by his Natives though he did not possess those talents which are usually styled great.” 11

The Missionary Ship Triton leaving Bristol on her first voyage 14 September 1839 Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, Taranaki (with permission) From 1 May 1840, the Skevingtons spent eighteen months with an old friend the Rev. Francis Tuckfield, at the Wesleyan’s “Bush Mission” to Aborigines at Buntingdale, near Geelong in Victoria. But the London Secretaries directed them on to New Zealand their original destination. On 22 November 1841 they sailed from Sydney on the Triton, reaching Ngamotu (New Plymouth) via Cloudy Bay and Wellington on 6 January 1842, in time to attend the Southern District Meeting at Kawhia. During 1840 and 1841 the Rev. James Wallis, the New Zealand mission’s Acting Superintendent, had continued to press for a missionary to be stationed half way between Ngamotu and Wanganui where he estimated that of 2,000 people in the region, most had embraced Christianity. Edward Meurant, a European lay agent and interpreter employed by the mission, in January 1840 had already secured a site for a station at Patea in a deal in which Wiremu Nera was a principal signatory; also sites at Tihoi, Kapuku, Whenuakura, and Waitotara in South Taranaki. However, after the

11 Rev. Walter Lawry to London Secretaries, 19 September 1846, and 1846 District Report. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 27 WHS Journal 2009 Rev. John Bumby the New Zealand Superintendent, was drowned in a canoe capsize in the Hauraki Gulf in June 1840, no missionary could be spared. The 1842 District Meeting authorized Skevington, still a probationary missionary (he was not ordained until the September 1843 District Meeting), to orient himself to the New Zealand mission by staying a year with the Rev. Charles Creed at Ngamotu before he took up an appointment to Te Kopua on the Waipa River, near Otorohanga. By 27 February he was back from Kawhia in New Plymouth where he was employed ministering to the settlers who were predominantly Wesleyan. “A People Prepared of the Lord” As part of Skevington’s orientation, on 12 April 1842, with a load of British and Foreign Bible Society Bibles to distribute and wearing “bush dress with my staff in my hand, pilgrim like”, he set off overland to Wanganui to explore what was to become his future mission circuit. He was accompanied by Jabez Waterhouse Epiha, a young Ngamotu chief, and Hoani Ri (John Leigh) Tutu, a Hokianga Wesleyan class leader baptized in 1833, Creed’s assistant missionary at Ngamotu, and several Ngati Ruanui. Everywhere he went Skevington was the object of much curiosity. They “watched every morsel I ate and every motion I made when undressing ...“ At one village the entire 200 inhabitants stood in a line to shake his hands. He was likened to a “pounamu’ — greenstone and very precious.” A “copy of the New Testament [was] the greatest treasure they can possess.” At Pungaerere on 14 April after ten candidates were “impressively examined” by Hoani Ri, Skevington conducted his first baptismal service. At Waimate pa he married three couples, the first marriages he conducted, and examined and baptised nearly seventy adults and thirty children. Baptisms were also conducted at Pukeoha and Waokena. During the ten day return journey to New Plymouth he held services at Te Ihupuku, Tihoi, Patea, Manawapou, Pukeoha, Waimate and Otumatua, and baptised over one hundred converts. He arrived back at Ngamotu on 4 May. At Wanganui, the Rev. John Mason the CMS missionary resident there since June 1840, and Mrs Mason, received Skevington with “the utmost kindness and entertained me with truly Christian hospitality.” This cordial collegial relationship evidently continued. After Mason drowned in January 1843 fording the Turakina River, Skevington acquired Mason’s horse Pegasus for his circuit riding. This journey was to be John Skevington’s only preparation for the privations and difficulties of his task. He had received no formal training. He was not yet ordained. He could not speak the Maori language. He was not of a robust constitution. He and Jane were alone in an unfamiliar environment. But so insistent were the South Taranaki people for him to become a “missionary for us”, John Whiteley gave permission for the Skevingtons to proceed without delay to Patea in order to forestall the influence of “Popery” “Puseyism” and “colonization”. Whiteley tried to arrange a Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 28 WHS Journal 2009 sea passage for them on the schooner Ariel, but because of the stormy weather and seas, and the wild open coast, the master refused to sail there. So on 24 May 1842, just five months after landing in New Zealand, the Skevingtons set forth overland from New Plymouth to start the Waimate South mission. He told the London Secretaries: “On the 30th of May we arrived at our station accompanied by more than 100 Natives who carried Mrs S. nearly all the way, together with our boxes, stores, books, etc. We took possession of the house which had been built for the missionary. It is 15 feet by 20 feet inside, and has neither window, partition, nor chimney.”12 At Heretoa The Skevingtons’ station was established near Ngateko, an ancient Ngati Ruanui fortress astride the Waingongoro River mouth, equidistant from its three pa, not as originally planned, at Patea, with its large population and the possibility of a river port. Its site was a very exposed stretch of coast with no natural harbour. But the “greater proportion” of the people then lived at Ngateko where a raupo whare was built ready for the Skevingtons’ coming. All the mission’s supplies had to be transported by porters seventy miles overland from New Plymouth. Despite these disadvantages, in July, while en route back to Kawhia from Wellington, John Whiteley still moved the mission only a little inland to Heretoa, not to Patea. Only later, did a greater disadvantage become apparent. The Rev. William Woon, Skevington’s successor, in 1846 foufld that the Heretoa site was never properly purchased but was held by what was called “noho noa iho” (occupation or squatting). By 1851 Woon told Governor Grey there was then no chance to purchase outright the station land at Heretoa, nor land further inland at Ngaporo which he wanted for a new station.13 For by then, Ngati Ruanui were firmly against further land sales, had abandoned their cliff-top coastal pa, and moved beyond Heretoa to the central Waimate Plains to pursue agriculture and trade with nearby settlers. The Skevingtons came to a district which was ecclesiastically divided. The villages of Te Namu, Waiaua, and Otumatua, were largely CMS. Kaupokonui, Waimate pa, Orangituapeka and Ohawe were predominantly Wesleyan, as was Patea. Nearby Tihoi and Ohika, and Te Ihupuku were evenly shared. From June 1840 John Mason had ministered to CMS Maori from Wanganui until his drowning in 1843. Then the Rev. Richard Taylor arrived to replace Mason. From December 1843 until he died in 1847 the Rev. William Bolland, Bishop Selwyn’s first “Deacon of the District of Taranaki”, cared for the northern part of the district from New Plymouth to Otumatua. Selwyn, himself, made two journeys through South Taranaki in October 1842 and November 1843, compounding denominational rivalries and producing “a deplorable state of excitement and division”. A follower of the Rev. Edward Pusey, the leader of the Victorian High Church Party, Bishop Selwyn brought to New Zealand a different

12 Skevington to Secretaries, 15 September 1842, pp.3-4. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 29 WHS Journal 2009 kind of churchmanship from that of the evangelical CMS missionaries. He regarded the Wesleyans as irregular lay ministers and schismatics — because they refused Anglican discipline, were not Church ordained, but their doctrines were identical to those of the Church’s Evangelical Party.

Drawing of Rev. Richard Taylor (1805-1873) Auckland Museum. Tamaki Paenga Hira. Negative No. B 1154 At Orangituapeka pa, Skevington had to intervene to prevent bloodshed between Wesleyan and CMS “natives” ... The CMS party there withdrew and built a new village at Rangatapu at the mouth of the Waingongoro River. On 21 January 1844 Skevington and Richard Taylor met to discuss the problems being caused by their overlapping missions. They agreed that Taylor would allow Wesleyan converts to take Anglican communion if their baptism was treated as that by laymen and they first received the sign of the cross to their forehead. He allowed Skevington to preach in CMS chapels and care for his people when he was absent, but not to take classes with CMS converts. For his part, Skevington donated a window and door to Taylor’s new chapel at Te Ihupuku. Later this was to be a great source of trouble for William Woon. Another source of trouble is found in Skevington’s September 1843 Circuit Report. It underlined a year of poor progress, detailing the “gross sin” of “the Maori teacher who had first introduced Christianity into the whole of the Taranaki Coast.” Wiremu Nera, a “handsome, good humoured man”, in 1843 was chosen as husband by Rora Turori, sister of Herekiekie, chief of Tokaanu, after she abandoned her first husband, another Wiremu of Manawapou. This caused a huge quarrel between the relatives of both men

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 30 WHS Journal 2009 which “produced such a sensation in the circuit as entirely disorganised and almost destroyed some of the societies.” 13 In later life, Nera was to be prominent in attempting to unite South Taranaki’s tribes against further land sales. In March 1860 he led a Ngati Ruanui party against the Taranaki tribes fighting British troops at Waireka. As Wi Parirau he was possibly the associate of that name of Te Ua Haumene, the Hau Hau prophet, and of the warrior leader, Riwha Titokowaru. It is said he developed “religious mania” and died at the Porirua asylum around 1880.14 Also, the “baneful” influence of colonization had begun to intrude. In 1842 the Nairn brothers were cutting a bridle track inland through the bush east of Mount Taranaki which Skevington regarded with “the utmost suspicion” according to Edward Jemingham Wakefield, nephew of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Other Helpers At the Heretoa mission house in April 1843 the Skevingtons engaged twenty- four- year-old David Sole of New Plymouth as a farm labourer to take charge of the mission’s two bullocks, and plough and mill two acres of wheat. In September he helped Skevington construct a new house at Heretoa. Then towards the end of 1844 Charles (or Arbut) and Richard Brown established a trading station on six acres of land near Heretoa on the Waingongoro River. According to Sole they built a water mill for Skevington near Heretoa and helped him expand some of the mission buildings. Jane probably employed Martha Vercoe, a young New Plymouth woman, for a while before Martha married John Shepherd on 19 December 1842 in the New Plymouth Wesleyan Chapel.15 From April 1844 a lay catechist, William Hough, and his wife Anne, three daughters and a two year old son whom Skevington baptized, assisted at Patea. Hough was from Yorkshire. A millwright, sawyer and lay preacher, he was later an explorer, prospector and first term Provincial Councillor in Nelson. John Whiteley, the Southern District Chairman, engaged him for £60 a year with the prospect of his entering the Wesleyan

13 “Journal of Rev. William Woon 1830-1859”, 5 July 1851, Mss, Alexander Turnbull Library; Letter, Woon to Grey, 21 June 1851, p.2, “Grey Collection: New Zealand”, “Autograph Letter Collection”, T/s, Auckland Public Library; also, Church, Heartland of Aotea, p.104; Morley, History of Methodism, p.88... 14 “ Ian Church, Heartland ofAotea, p.59, and The Dictionary of NZ Biography, Vol. One, 1990, p.313 15 Church, pp.49-53, 61, and private letter to author from Mrs Jenny Peachey of Papatoetoe, Auckland, 6 January 1987, pp.1 -2. The second son of Martha and John Shepherd was named Franklin Skevington. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 31 WHS Journal 2009 ministry. On 14 April 1844 while en route to Patea, Hough preached a trial sermon at Waimate pa before the Rev. H H Turton of Ngamotu, and John Whiteley.16 Skevington was also assisted by a good number ofMaori class leaders and mission monitors. There were Wiremu Nera Ngatai, and Richard Watson Taurua of Patea; Jabez Waterhouse (a seventeen-year-old class leader and 11best born” high chief of Waimate pa); Rihari Watoni (from before 1840 a class leader and local preacher at Waimate, baptized by Whiteley Kawhia died in January 1843); Te Ua Haumene (baptised Horopapera, or Zerubbabel, by Whiteley at Kawhia in 1834); and Riwha Titokowaru of Okaiawa, baptized Hohepa Otene (Joseph Orton) by Skevington. Another, Hare Tipene (Charles Stephenson) Karoro, class leader at Tihoi, in July 1842 so impressed John Whiteley, he found “something so much like simple old-fashioned Methodism about this leader and his people that I was really at home with them”.

Ngawa Taurua (Richard Watson/Rihari in Watoni) of Pakakohe sub-tribe of Ngati Ruanui and Ngati Hine. A Wesleyan class leader and teacher under the Rev. John Skevington and the lay catechist William Hough at Patea on 1842-1856. Puke Ariki New Plymouth, Taranaki (with permission)

16 Mary Troup Barker, Seeker of Souls and Gold; William Hough, Pioneer Preacher and Prospector, Christchurch, 1985, pp.65-72. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 32 WHS Journal 2009 Mission High Points The first of two notable mission occasions occurred on 28 April 1844. The Waikato chief Te Roto, arrived at Waimate pa to confirm peace and to “preach Christ crucified” to his former captives. A great feast was held for him. Seventy pigs and six tons of food were consumed. The second occurred in July-August 1845 when the Kawhia chief, Te Haupokia, arrived at Heretoa demanding to be baptized to “be among his tamariki”. With Whiteley’s permission received, on 24 August Skevington baptized Te Haupokia, 110 others and twenty children at a great hui at the station, and 350 received communion. One of those accompanying Te Haukopia from Kawhia was Wereta (or Wellington) originally from Waimate, “one of Mr Whiteley’s lads recently made a teacher ...“ On 24 August Wereta gave as classic a testimony of eighteenth century “experimental” religion as any English convert might have given.17 He repeated it in Auckland at the 1845 New Zealand District Annual Meeting the night after Skevington died. The New Zealander newspaper of 27 September published this longer version in full. It is a truly remarkable statement of “evangelical conversion” for it contains all the classical features of “conversion” — conviction of hell-bound personal sinfulness, private praying for salvation, an emotional crisis with physical palpitations, coming to sense the grace of God, confidence in salvation, and a concern to bring others to the same experience of grace.18 At the same event another Kawhia chief, Te Pakaru, made peace with his old Ngati Ruanui foes and was baptized, taking the name of “Robert Newton”... The weatherboard chapel built at Heretoa for £80, was also opened with great ceremony. But this momentous occasion for the mission nevertheless masked a decided downturn in its work, as the following table shows:

17 This first testimony of Wereta’s the Rev. Thomas Buddle sent to the London Secretaries, Letter, 7 September 1845. Church, Heartland ofAotea, p.62, also quotes it in full. 18 Refer the full transcript in “Appendix Two’ below. Quoted in full in, The New Zealander, (newspaper) Auckland, 27 September 1845, p.2, col.2, Auckland Public Library; also in, Gary A.M. Clover, “Going Mihinare’, ‘Experimental Religion’, and Maori Embracing of Missionary Christianity — A Re-assessment”, pp. 47, in, “The Coming of Christianity; perspectives on early New Zealand mission”, The Journal of the Christian Brethren Research Fellowship, 121, Wellington, April 1990. (The Journal is now Stimulus.) Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 33 WHS Journal 2009 WAIMATE SOUTH CIRCUIT - NUMBER OF BAPTISMS, ETC., 1840-184519 Year Circuit Baptisms Members On Trial Attenders Sabbath Schools 1840 Taranaki 100 (82) - - - - 1841 Taranaki 292 (287) (235) - - 1,301 scholars 1842 Waimate 220 450 120 - - 1843 Waimate - - - - 14 Sunday Schools 1844 Waimate - - - - 464 scholars 1845 Waimate 130 305 190 1,250 13 Sunday Schools 312 males; 152 females Earlier in 1845, there was a major threat to peace. From earliest times the missionaries intervened in tribal disputes as peacemakers. On 2 January 1845 a Taupo war party, 200 strong, descended upon Waitotara in the latest skirmish between South Taranaki Maori, and Ngati Tuwharetoa since the famous Patoka battle of 1840. A very large party of Anglican and Wesleyan missionaries and government officials intervened. Skevington and Taylor played a significant role. They obtained a delay to the start of the fighting which allowed a defensive South Taranaki force time to assemble at Te Ihupuku pa. But it was the military threat of HMS Hazard’s cannon and troops brought by Major Richmond, the Wellington Superintendent, which allowed cooler heads to persuade Te Heu Heu and his Waikato allies on 20 January to withdraw peacefully and go to Kapiti to consult with Te Rauparaha.20 A “Martyr to Zeal!” As he left on 25 August for the 1845 Wesleyan District Meeting in Auckland, Skevington wrote to Samuel Ironside, his friend at Wellington, “I feel almost knocked up with my work” and “kept under a constant rack of anxiety”. Te Haupokia’s hui had “almost finished me and I find I must get away awhile.” Though excused from attending, he set off on the arduous twenty day overland journey, accompanied by seven of his class leaders: “Joseph [Titokowaru], Thomas, Abraham, David and Wellington [Wereta]”; and the Rev. Cort H Schnackenberg, a German Lutheran working for the Wesleyans as a lay missionary at Mokau in North Taranaki. The meeting began on Wednesday, 17 September in the Wesleyan High Street Chapel. That evening Skevington preached “with great energy a most excellent sermon” from “The Son of Man came to save that which was lost”. The next day, John Whiteley

19 See, Gary A. M. Clover, ‘Going Mihinare and Evangelical Religion’, unpublished Ms, May 1986, p.51. The figures have been calculated from Wesleyan missionary letters and Southern and General District returns, 1840-1845; also, “Register of Maori Baptisms, 1841-1860’, New Plymouth Methodist Church, copied by F. Butler, Mss, New Plymouth Public Library; and, Church, Heartland of Aotea, pp.59 and 67. 20 Gary A.M. Clover, “Christianity Among The South Taranaki Maoris, 1840-53, a study of the Wesleyan Mission at Waimate South”, M.A. thesis, University ofAuckland,1973, p.108-109; and, Church, p.63-65. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 34 WHS Journal 2009 helped him formulate in Maori “rules to better organise the spiritual activity of his flock.” The next Sunday evening, 21 September, during the first part of the sermon, “he fell back on his seat, and almost instantly expired.” He was only thirty years old. The next day an inquest decided: “Died by the visitation of God.” He was buried in the old Symonds Street Dissenters Cemetery on Tuesday, 23 September, his body borne, “by Natives, some of whom had accompanied Mr Skevington here from Taranaki ... followed by the Missionaries, and numbers of the most respectable inhabitants, and others, of the Wesleyan congregation”. The South Seas Superintendent Walter Lawry, conducted the burial service. John Whiteley concluded with a prayer in Maori.21 Afterward John Skevington left Jane at Heretoa a widow with a sixteen-month-old baby daughter, Anne, born on 26 June 1844, and a second daughter on the way. She must have been born by February 1846. For when Ironside called at Heretoa on his February Quarterly Visitation, he mentioned two “babes”. Anne, the elder daughter, became a Queen’s scholar, trained as a teacher, and in 1868 was headmistress of Brunswick Girls’ School, Liverpool, and late in 1871 the Wesleyan Southlands Training College’s headmistress of “practising schools”. She married Thomas Barrett in Liverpool on 16 December 1873. Only four children survived. Annie died on 25 November 1900.22 At Heretoa, on 23 October 1845 Jane was visited by Donald McLean, SubProtector of Aborigines at New Plymouth. He found her being comforted by Mr and Mrs Arbut Brown. The Mission sent H H Turton from New Plymouth to settle her affairs and make “suitable arrangements” for the future of the station. He arrived two days after McLean and stayed ten days. Meanwhile Ngati Ruanui agitation to have Skevington replaced as quickly as possible was putting pressure on the Mission Superintendent, the Rev. Walter Lawry. Hohepa Otene Titokowaru wrote to Lawry on 27 September: “Had Mr Skevington not settled among us my people had all gone over to the Church of outward shows [CMS]. Friend Mr Lawry consent you that the hearts of us orphans may be light and joy. Our father who is dead would have taken care of us all.” So on 1 November Lawry made a special trip to Wellington to try to persuade Ironside to go to Heretoa. Instead, they drew up a Quarterly Preaching Plan of missionary visits

21 The New Zealander, Saturday, 27 September 1845, p.2, col.3; and, “Minutes, New Zealand District Meeting, 27 September 1845”, Appendix 1, p.7; also, Church, p.67. 22 Experience, July, August, September 1901, [Methodist Missionary Society?], “Annie Winfrey Barrett: A Memoir”, by Rev. A. J. French, pp.81 -84. I am indebted again to the Rev. Donald Phillips of Dunedin for forwarding this “Memoir” of Annie Winfrey Barrett to me. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 35 WHS Journal 2009 while William Hough, the lay catechist at Patea, took charge of the circuit. He drew up this 1846 weekly preaching plan for the Circuit’s Maori teachers and class leaders:23 WEEKLY PREACHING PLAN 1846 “This writing is to direct the preachers of the Wesleyan Church in Ngatiruanui, and the days also when they are to go. The order of work is this: To preach, to encourage in the different places as written in this document. The order of going: Let them go two by two. 1846: Thus: The preachers of Heretoa, the Work at Waiaua to Umuroa, Te Pukekowhatu to Moutoti and to Pungairere. January 3 Let them go together, James and Thomas to those places 17 “ Isaiah and Jacob 31 “ Josaiah and David February 14 “ Bumby and Abraham 28 “ Absolom and Joshua March 14 “ Zachariah and Nicodemus Thus: The preachers above [sic] are to work at Ohawe, Pukeoha, Puketi, Turangairere, Ohangai, Manawapou, Taumaha. January 3 “ Matthew Waters and Titus of Manawapou 17 “ Timothy and Richard Watson Tairoa of Patea 31 “ Joseph and Luke of Patea February 14 “ Matthew Matai and Peter of Manawapou 28 “ William Naylor of Manawapou and Brother Matthew of Taumaha March 14 “ Brother Matthew of Taumaha and Enoch of Turangairere 28 “ John and David of Turangairere April 11 “ Paul of Turangairere and Titus of Manawapou 25 “ Brown of Puketi and Solomon of Pukeoha May 9 “ Thomas Rayner of Ohawe and Waterhouse of Turangairere 23 “ Bartholomew and James of Ohangai” Meanwhile, Ironside was to visit Waimate from Wellington in February, Turton from New Plymouth in May, the Rev. James Watkin, the Southern District Chairman, in August, and Turton again in November. When Ironside did visit Heretoa in February 1846 he found the place “all dark and sad”. But at Waimate pa he collected and translated a score of favourable testimonies for the London Mission Secretaries. John Skevington had neither “run in vain nor laboured in vain”, he concluded. But Jane Skevington became an embarrassment to the mission. On 21 November 1845 Lawry wrote to London that there were “many reasons why she should leave New Zealand”.

23 This preaching plan could not have been Woon’s, despite that being suggested in a letter by Jane. The Woons did not reach Waimate South until late May 1846. Refer, M. Troup Barker, Seeker of Souls and Gold, pp.35-36. Also, Morley, History of NZ Methodism, p.1 08; and Hammond, In the Beginning, p.35. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 36 WHS Journal 2009 “One is her pulling down what her late excellent husband built up.” For “her sake and the sake of the mission funds” (it would cost the mission £65 to transport her and her two daughters back to England) he preferred that “she remain in New Zealand had she been at all respected or been likely by industry to make her way, but as her habits and manners are unhappily of a very low order we all agree she will not be able to live on her annuity here ... her moral character is beyond reproach.”24 The family reached Turton’s station at Ngamotu on 14 March 1846 and on 29 March sailed for Onehunga, Auckland, on the ship which brought the Woons to New Plymouth. They finally embarked for England on the Victory Leathart on 20 September 1846, a year after John died. Jane settled at Chesterfield in Derbyshire, and became an active member of the Wesleyan Methodist church in that town. She died in 1883.25 When the Woons at Mangungu were displaced by the upheavals in the north following Heke’s War in 1846, and tribal disturbances made it impossible to take up their planned appointment to Pehiakura (Manukau Harbour), Walter Lawiy bowed to Ngati Ruanui pleas. On 20 April 1846, the Woons sailed for New Plymouth, then on 27 May 1846, took up residence at Heretoa. Lawry thought this was “the best step we could think of to meet the emergency.” Legacy John Skevington’s sudden death had a profound impact on the Mission which eclipsed even that of John Bumby’s. It earned him a brass wall plaque memorial in the High Street Chapel and it evidently led to a “revival of religion” amongst Auckland Maori.26 Also, he clearly gained the affection and respect of his colleagues and he did receive a small entry in G H Scholefield’s 1940 Dictionary of New Zealand Biography for persuading Ngati Ruanui to return Ngati Tuwharetoa prisoners taken captive at Patoka in 1840.27 But he did not live to see “a pious and civilized people inhabiting the neighbourhood ...“ as he had hoped in 1842. The circumstances in which he took up his ministry in South Taranaki show how weak and how subject to Maori terms was his position. As a result of Ngati Ruanui circumstances rather than missionary planning, the mission station was poorly sited. Skevington never mastered the Maori language so that his teachers did most of the preaching and teaching and he was frequently away. In January 1843, March 1844, and January 1845, and en route to annual District

24 Lawry to Secretaries, 12 March 1846, p.1. 25 Experience, “Annie Winfrey Barrett Memoir”, p.82. Refer also, Donald Phillipps, “Memento Mori”, in WHS Journal ‘89, pp.50-52, photocopy version received from Rev. Phillipps, 1 February 1989. 26 See Timona’s testimony to the Rev. Robert Young in, “Memoir” of John Skevington, Local Preachers Magazine, p.265. 27 Scholefield, Dictionary of NZ Biography, II, 1940, p.307. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 37 WHS Journal 2009 Meetings, John and Jane stayed with their New Plymouth friends, the Flights. Hence, Whiteley could report to the 1842 District Meeting, “the missionary has not yet been able to exercise that superintendence and control over them essential to their operation.”28 John Skevington retained his power to influence ideas and events only so long as he retained his usefulness to the needs and aspirations of South Taranaki Maori. Previously, Maori saw the missionaries as bulwarks against further musket raids, and as a source of European technology, literacy, and new ideas. By 1845 their interests were shifting to developing trade with settlers and resisting the spread of land sales and settlement. They abandoned missionary leadership for more relevant, mission trained, indigenous religious and military leaders like Wiremu Nera Ngatai, Te Ua Haumene, and Riwha Titokowaru. So, at the great Manawapou anti-land sale meeting in 1854, both Hare Tipene Karoro (who had so impressed John Whiteley with his “simple old-fashioned Methodism”), and Wiremu Nera, were prominent Ngati Ruanui opponents of tribal land sales.29

Memorial tablet to John Skevington now in Pitt Street Methodist Church, Auckland. Photo: Gary A M Clover 1986

28 Aane Flight, “Diary”, 22-23 May 1842, in the Taranaki Museum, quoted in Church, Heartland, p.45, and “Report of the Wesleyan District Meeting”, 5 September 1842. See also, Church, p.46. 29 Whiteley, September 1842 District Meeting Report ; and, Church, Heartland ofAotea, pp.45, 117, & 134. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 38 WHS Journal 2009 Nevertheless, for three years Skevington did preside over a profound shift in the religious foundations of South Taranaki Maori. There was no going back. Maori evangelists paved the way before John Skevington arrived. Some teachers and class leaders like Rihari Watoni, Hare Tipenc, and Wereta, did testify to being “savingly converted” in the missionaries’ terms. By September 1845 South Taranaki Maori, as a whole, showed at least a nominal allegiance to a missionary style of Christianity. But they did so for reasons that were as much social, cultural and economic as they were religious. However, the legacy of these Maori evangelists, teachers, and class leaders, and of John Skevington too, in South Taranaki, is the presence today of an ongoing Maori Methodist church led by Maori leaders on Maori terms to meet Maori aspirations. Appendix One The 1846 British Isles Wesleyan Conference Record of John Skevington’s Life and Character30 He was one of the missionaries who sailed in the ‘Triton’, and joined the New Zealand mission, where he was honoured by his Lord and Master with a large amount of success. His piety and zeal carried him through difficulties of no ordinary magnitude. Though he did not possess those talents which are usually termed great, he was a good and faithful servant, whom the Master owned in the salvation of many. He was greatly beloved by the natives, among whom he exercised the influence of a father and a friend. He had travelled a journey of twenty days to be present at the Auckland district meeting, where he preached a useful sermon on the Wednesday, and died on the Sunday evening following, September 21st, 1845. His death was awfully sudden. He had gone with his host to the chapel; and shortly after the sermon commenced he fell down, and was carried into the vestry a dead man. His brethren could only weep over him; and the natives of his charge, about seven of whom had accompanied him through the long journey, wept also, and said, ‘Our father is gone to heaven: he has fulfilled his commission: but our sorrow is for his widow and child, and for ourselves, for we now are orphans. Where shall we find another father and pastor?’ Appendix Two The Auckland Testimony of Wellington (Wereta) delivered on 22 September 1845 at the Wesleyan High Street Chapel 31 My Friends and Fathers — my Brethren and Sisters — my Ministers and Pastors, I am glad to see you. The Gospel was not formerly known by us: we knew nothing of the grace of God — all that we knew was the work of Satan, which was destroying us — when God sent his servants to teach us the way of salvation. The work was commenced in the Bay of Islands, and at Mangungu, and then carried to Waingaroa [Raglanj and Kawia [sic], by Mr Whiteley and Mr Wallis. The seed was first sown in my heart by Mr Whiteley, when I was in captivity at Waikato. The seed was buried in the ground, and long remained hidden. Afterwards, I returned to my people, being

30 “Memoir” of Skevington, p.340. 31 In, The New Zealander, Auckland, 27 September 1845, p.2, col.2. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 39 WHS Journal 2009 liberated by my old masters, who had received the gospel; and, more missionaries arriving, the good news was brought by Mr Skevington to my people — to the Ngatiruanui. The missionaries did the work, but they could not make it prosper: God, by His Spirit, gave the increase — the power was of God. Mr Skevington preached to us and constantly urged us to obey the injunction of Christ — ‘Enter into the closet, and shut the door, and pray to thy Father which seeth in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly.’ Then I began to pray to God, by night and by day: for twelve months I continued praying, but could not obtain what I sought, until one Sunday, in the beginning of this year, Mr Skevington preached from these words of St Paul - ‘Receive not the grace of God in vain’: - then my heart became exceeding dark - dark as the night, and I said — ‘I am the man who has received the grace of God in vain’; and sorrow for the sins which I had committed filled my heart. I remembered all my thievish actions, my uncleanness, and my guilt, and I saw hell was my place — that it was a fit place for me, the man who had received the grace of God in vain. Then I cried out earnestly, and prayed continually, for mercy, and cast myself on Christ, and my heart palpitated with hope and fear, until I rested upon him, and I felt His Spirit bearing witness with mine, that I was a child of God. Then I became anxious for the salvation of my friends. I said to my relations - my fathers, and my brethren, and my sisters — pray to God — be earnest in prayer, that you may become the children of God. And Mr Skevington, my father, kept preaching to my people, and many of them turned their hearts to God: and the work of Satan was destroyed. And now I come here, though I am a stranger to you, and you are strangers to me, yet I am a child of God, and am happy. And my father is gone — but I do not sorrow for him: he was not taken before he saw the fruit of his labours among my people, and now he has gone to the good home. — And we, my brethren and sisters, are on the road. We have not arrived at the good place like him, but we are on the way; therefore let us pray to God to give us His Holy Spirit, and a new heart, that we may all arrive together at the same good place. I have one more word to say: let us get the grace of God in our hearts; and let us pray to Him by night and by day, to send His Holy Spirit, to make this island, a holy island — that all men may know the salvation of God. John Whiteley added, “He understands, he practises, he enjoys the Gospel.” In Heartland of Aotea Ian Church adds the following explanatory note: Wereta died in Auckland in March 1846. Shortly before his death he wrote to Tamati Hone, Hemi, Ihaia, Honi Kengi [sic], Rupene, Rehari and other relatives at Waimate telling them that he had been ill for four months and would die but urging them to maintain the fire of the Holy Ghost in their hearts. This letter, translated by the Rev. W Woon, appeared in the Wesleyan Juvenile Offering (London) of March 1849.32

32 Wereta and Joseph Orton Titokowaru had stayed in Auckland to attend the Wesleyan’s Three Kings Native Boarding Institution. Church, Heartland of Aotea, p.62. Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 40 WHS Journal 2009 Book Review The John Wesley Code — Finding a Faith that Matters by James Stuart Philip Garside Publishing Co. Wellington 2008 pp 207

If, as some allege, modern Methodism has lost its vision and sense of purpose, then this book should help many recapture that vision and purpose. In its pages Jim Stuart invites us to discover what really mattered for John Wesley, practical theologian and man with a vision. Through that encounter with Wesley we are invited to sharpen our own theological priorities and to renew our vision. The Wesley we meet in these pages is not simply the Wesley of the Aldersgate experience and subsequent evangelistic field preaching. Not that these are unimportant, they were important for Wesley, and they remain a vital part of the Methodist heritage. They are, however, not the whole story. Jim Stuart reminds us that Wesley had a more holistic faith, a more thoughtful approach to theology, and a broader perspective on ministry than some have acknowledged. Just as our twenty-first century approach to theology cannot but take account of the current intellectual climate, Stuart shows that Wesley was very much aware of the prevailing philosophies of his day. While Wesley’s early theology was learnt at his mother’s knee, his mature theology, and to a degree his ecclesiology, was shaped either as a response, or a reaction, to the thinking of people like René Descartes, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Here Jim Stuart does us a great service as Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 41 WHS Journal 2009 with clarity, and using language a lay person can understand, he sets out the particular influences each philosopher brought to bear on Wesley as he shaped his theology. In the second part of the book the chapter headings themselves highlight the essentials of Wesley’s theology. It is a theology of Compassion, Providence, Grace, and Unconditional Love. How much better the Methodist Church would be if these were our guiding lights! Jim Stuart makes it clear that they were the guiding lights for John Wesley. Consequently this “... privileged and well-educated” man was able to break out of the English class system and “go to the working class and the poor” and not only that but to “gain their trust and support”. While Stuart acknowledges Wesley’s shortcomings, the reader is left in no doubt that Wesley sought to follow Providence, to live by grace, and to love unconditionally. It was Wesley’s aim, as he himself said, to “do good of every possible sort, and as far as it (is) possible to all”. The final part of the book touches on the familiar, the Warmed Heart and the Catholic Spirit, but sets these in the context of having an open mind and owning a holistic gospel. In terms of the “open mind” Jim Stuart reminds us of Wesley’s words, “Every wise man, therefore, will allow others the same liberty of thinking which he desires they should allow him . . .“ Methodism has too often been fractured by what Wesley called “opinions”, matters not of the essence of faith, things on which it is better to agree to differ rather than break off fellowship. Likewise we are reminded that “orthodoxy” divorced from compassion is not of the essence of Christian faith, as Wesley says: “least of all dream that orthodoxy, right opinion (vulgarly called faith) is religion. Of all religious dreams, this is the vainest.” However, if the warmed heart, the catholic spirit, the open mind, in other words a holistic gospel come together, then the code can be unlocked and a lively, relevant, compassionate faith emerge. This book, helpfully enhanced by Hogarth’s illustrations from the 1 8c, highlights the essentials of Methodism, and indeed the Christian faith itself. While marred slightly in places by repetition, The John Wesley Code confirmed my faith and warmed my heart. It does speak about a “faith that matters . . .“ For that, I for one am indebted to Jim Stuart. I warmly commend The John Wesley Code. — Norman E Brookes

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 42 WHS Journal 2009 Book Review John Wesley’s Preachers A Social and Statistical Analysis of the British and Irish Preachers Who Entered the Methodist Itinerancy before 1791 By John Lenton Paternoster, Milton Keynes 2009 pp 506

John Lenton has written a remarkable book. It will serve as a turning point in the study of the origins of Methodism. All those who reflect upon the evangelical revival in eighteenth century Britain and I investigate its contours are in his debt. This work will be consulted and considered for decades as being the authoritative survey of what was at the heart of the events that impacted deeply upon British society and beyond. The primary focus of the enquiry is to ask questions about those preachers who became associated with John Wesley and who were stationed through their availability to be itinerants. Lenton makes a strong case for claiming that John Wesley’s chief accomplishment was the creation of a strong group of lay preachers. “These ‘Assistants,’ as they were called, the travelling preachers as they became known and whose numbers soon grew, were the foundation of Wesley’s success.” (p.9) Lenton

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 43 WHS Journal 2009 draws our attention to the interesting fact that more of these preachers traced their conversion to preachers other than John Wesley himself. It is further noted that “From an early stage there was a division in Wesley’s mind between those who were local preachers, working during the day and usually only preaching on Sundays, and travelling preachers who preached on every day of the week and travelled much more; but one could easily become the other.” (p.1 9) There was much fluidity in the early days but from 1744 it was the travelling preachers who were called to converse with Mr Wesley in the annual Conference. The evolution of ministry within Methodism is traced. It was in 1821 after a discussion at Conference that the travelling preachers were given the honorific “Reverend” and at the Conference of 1836 that travelling preachers were ordained by prayer and the laying on of hands. At the outset Lenton sets the scene by providing an overview of contemporary assessments of the eighteenth century Church of England. So contested a field has this become, that he outlines both the pessimistic view and the optimistic view. In this we are assured that the researcher is a careful observer willing to consider the range of views that are held and offer a balanced view. We have known about the lives of a selection of itinerants from the volumes of Early Methodist Preachers, edited by Thomas Jackson which went through many editions. This is a collection of autobiographies of fortyone preachers. However, Lenton claims, justifiably, that these are by no means representative and do not constitute a “typical cross-section.” Other sources are mentioned and their value is assessed critically. It is evident that we have in this work a rigorous and scientific analysis of the preachers whom John Wesley recognised, educated, appointed and appraised. Drawing on the work of Frank Baker and others who began the development of Wesley’s Preachers’ Database, John Lenton records that there were 802 preachers who were itinerant during the lifetime of John Wesley. He is interested to discover as much as possible about who these men were. Working often with sketchy and inadequate sources, we are provided with the most comprehensive picture so far of this distinctive and disciplined body of preachers. The results correct received impressions and ground findings in the documents available. Among the questions that Lenton asks are, where were these preachers born and who were their parents? How many were illegitimate? What social class did they come from and what was their religious background? Which counties gave rise to more preachers than others? What education did they have and how did they find their way into Methodism? At what age were they converted and how did they become travelling preachers? Did the preachers marry and how were their families provided for? What were they paid, how and by whom? Which preachers left and why? For the purposes of the enquiry, Lenton divides the 802 preachers into five cohorts of decades, the first ending in 1750 and the last ending in 1790. This allows him to analyse emerging trends and patterns. In this way he is able to provide the average age of entry for travelling preachers in each cohort, the number who entered for that Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 44 WHS Journal 2009 cohort and where they came from. The methodlogy enables the researcher to see what was happening in each decade and how the movement was responding to challenges. Helpful charts illustrate the trends. For example, Lenton is able to show that there was a consistent trend revealing a decrease in the percentage of those leaving in each of the five cohorts. (p.312) Most interesting for the present reader were chapters six On Marriage and eighteen on Ordination. Wesley’s reluctance for the preachers to marry caused him to require more than the secular law of the time, obliging any preacher who desired to marry to obtain the permission of the parents of the woman, no matter what her age! The detailed discussion on the progress toward ordination in Methodism is illuminating and fair. John Lenton has produced a detailed and thorough study of the travelling preachers of early Methodism ... He is both sympathetic and critical. He does not claim to have the last word. The results of his research will be integrated into more general studies of the century. A concise summary is to be found at the conclusion of some chapters. Along the way there are intriguing profiles of travelling preachers rescued from obscurity. It may be of interest to conclude this review with a passage in which Lenton brings together much of his findings. “Because Wesley’s preachers were and remained basically united and a brotherhood sharing the same spiritual father, the limited organisation was a seamless robe which, despite the failings of individual preachers, was always being repaired. No preacher was the same, but all sang Charles Wesley’s verses from the same hymn book to the same tunes, followed the same discipline, went back to meet each other at the same Conference and travelled the Circuits in the worst of weather. If the preacher left, someone else would fill his boots. The idea of ‘connexion,’ of support from different societies for other societies in the circuit, other circuits for each circuit, the ‘Connexional Funds’ such as the Preachers’ Fund to which every circuit contributed and on which each could call if in need, was one which was there from the earliest times. By 1791 this practice of connexionalism was well established and in the nineteenth century it was to be much further developed.” (p.41 8) — Terry Wall

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 45 WHS Journal 2009 Wesley Historical Society — DIRECTORY 2009

President Mrs Helen Laurenson 14 Corbett Scott Ave Epsom Auckland 1023 09 630 3850 [email protected] Secretary Rev. Barry Neal 2 Upland Road Huia West Auckland 0604 09811 8054 [email protected] Treasurer Mrs Ruth Blundell 29 Layton Road Manly Whangaparaoa 0930 09424 3415 [email protected] Editor Rev. Dr Terry Wall 14 St Vincent Ave Remuera Auckland 1050 (H) 09 522 0729 [email protected]

Executive Committee Rev. Norman Brookes Mrs Margaret Gordon Mr Eric Laurenson Mrs Shona Michie Rev. Dr Susan Thompson Mrs Jill Weeks Rev. Graeme White

Honoured Members Rev. Marcia Baker

Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 46 WHS Journal 2009 Dr Elaine Bolitho Rev. Douglas Burt Rev. Dr Allan Davidson Mrs Verna Mossong Rev. Barry Neal Mr Arthur Olsson Mr Frank Paine Rev. Donald Phillipps Rev. Rua Rakena Mr Dave Roberts Rev. Phillip Taylor Mr Ivan Whyle Anniversaries 1910 100th Anniversaries (Centenaries) 7 May Methodist Times succeeded Outlook 13 July St Johns Hamilton stonelaying 26 July Hilitown Gisborne church opened 31 July Te Hapara Church opened 10 August Springlands stonelaying 21 August Te Aroha Eastport Road Church opened 23 August Picton new Church opened 23 October Springlands Church opened 30 October Tuatapere Church opened 5 November Waikumete Church stonelaying 8 December Hinuera Church opened 21 December Waikumete Church opened 22 December Woodend brick Church stonelaying. 1911 100th Anniversaries (Centenaries) 29 January Opotiki Church opening 3 February Normandy stonelaying 24 February Greymouth Church stonelaying 4 March Riccarton Church stonelaying 30 April Rangataua new Church opened 11 May Riccarton Church opened 18 May Woodend brick Church opened 20 May Woolston B.C. Room stonelaying 7 June Methodist Union Committees met at Taranaki Street 9 June Pitt Street Church reopened after alterations 29 June Kaponga stonelaying 7 July Ellesmere Church opened 9 July Normandy new Church opened Wesley Historical Society Publication #89 Page 47 WHS Journal 2009 23 July Auroa new Church opened 3 August Epsom new Church opened 23 August Seddon Church stonelaying 27 August Palmerston North St Pauls Church opened 6 September Nelson school stonelaying 27 September Dovedale new Church opened 30 September Dunedin Central Mission stonelaying 15 October Kaponga Church opened 18 October Greymouth new Church opened 18 October Seddon new Church opened 28 October Methodist Church of NZ Act passed 26 November Woolston hall opened

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