letter from New Zealand
Christmas Day 1814 saw the first preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ on the shores of New Zealand.
The preacher was Samuel Marsden and he had arrived from Sydney convinced of the transforming power of the gospel to reach the indigenous Māori of New Zealand. The various tribal groups were gripped in cycles of “utu”, where one tribe would attack another as retribution for a previous conflict; the premise behind utu is one of restoring balance to society.
Marsden’s dreams of spreading the love and peace of Jesus amongst these groups were realised beyond his imaginings. By the 1850s it is estimated that 60–70% of Māori had embraced Christianity in some form (source: Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand).
