23 Nov 2014

Crozier gifted to Anglican Maori Bishop

6:56 pm on 23 November 2014

A bishop's crozier gifted to the Anglican Bishop of Auckland in 1914, is being gifted to the Anglican Maori Bishop at a ceremony on Sunday.

The crozier is an intricately carved pastoral staff, shaped like a shepherd's crook.

It was gifted by four northern Maori tribes to mark 100 years since missionaries such as Samuel Marsden arrived in New Zealand and settled with Maori at Oihi in the Bay of Islands.

The crozier was rediscovered earlier this year by the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, the Right Reverend Ross Bay, who will return it to the Maori Right Reverend Kito Pikaahu, the Bishop of Te Tai Tokerau.

Bishop Ross Bay said the return of the crozier symbolised 200 years of the church's relationship between Maori and Europeans.

The ceremony was held at a celebration of the bicentennary of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Khyber Pass.