A Short Encounter with the Latter-day Saints
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
The LDS believe that they introduced the concept that the peopling of the Pacific Rim originated in the Americas, hence the reference to Hagoth; but to teach that Maoris are descended from Ancient Israel: such descent had already been taught by Anglican and Methodist missionaries! The Old Testament was enthusiastically received as an interpretation of Maori descent from the Lost Tribes of Israel. Underwood admits as much as he retreats from the normal 'literalism' of Latter-day Saint theology in practice:
"First the Bible and then the Book of Mormon were read by Maori as supplying forgotten but traditionally compatible details in their collective consciousness of the past."
The evidence that supports Underwood's generic parallelism is that the earliest Christian missionaries had already tried to make links between Maori paganism and Biblical records. Thomas Kendall, a Calvanist employed by the Church Missionary Society until 1824, wrote that the Maori were descendants of the Egyptians born of Ham's sons. This was forty years before any LDS influence in New Zealand. He writes that 'the first state of the cosmogony is represented in the iconography and whakapapa (stylised legends) of Northland tribes as "The First and the Last." This is a likeness to the 'Eternal Word' of John 1". A later clergyman, the Wesleyan Revd. Thomas Buddle, writing in 1873 (before the LDS began their formal mission to New Zealand,) says that 'we have to speak of the introduction of the race of Japhet and their religion into this country, and to give some notices of the effects of Christianity and colonisation upon the Moaris." Binney writes that all peoples traced their descent from the sons of Noah. Buddle was only repeating what was 'common enough' in the early nineteenth century in English textbooks; that the Maori were descended from Shem. While I would not regard the author, H. Ryder Haggard as a significant theological source, what he says in one of his novels is illuminating. Talking of the fictional tribe, the Zu-Vendi, he remarks:
"Still, for ought I know, they may be one of the lost ten tribes whom people are so fond of discovering all over the world."
When the formal LDS mission to New Zealand did begin, a quite remarkable meeting between LDS missionaries, and assemblage of Anglican Maoris and the Anglican (Diocesan) Bishop of the time, is recorded. It is so remarkable that the story needs to be told in full:
"In 1884, (LDS) President Stewart arrived (in Manatauka near Gisborne,) with two missionaries at an assemblage of 2000 Maori chaired by Bishop William Williams. The bishop addressed them in pure Maori: 'Welcome thou honoured guests. Where were you when the flesh of man singed on the stones of the oven? You have waited until I have made peace between man and man; then you have come trespassing on my preserves. As host I cannot but extend to you accommodation and food.' Stewart replied, 'I thank you most venerable bishop for your welcome to me and my party. On all occasions when the Lord sent his servants with a message to the peoples of the world, he always sent some to prepare the way for them. In the meridian of time when he sent his only-begotten son, he sent John, and John came bounding out of the wilderness, saying, "I am come to prepare the way for him whose shoes I am not worthy to undo." I am sent of the Lord with a message for these people, and you are my fore-runner. You have prepared the way for me, and I congratulate you on your fine preparatory work. The flesh of man no longer singes on the stones of the oven. You have translated the Bible into Maori, and everything is in readiness for me. Again I thank you, sir.' The assembly requested the men be allowed to speak, which was granted - graciously by the bishop. As a result, many invited them to their home, and many became Mormons."
According to Hunt, this incident is recorded in an unpublished manuscript written by Stuart Meha, the Maori Mormon who acted as translator for the Saints, especially during the 1930's - 40's. It is entitled: "A Condensed History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand." I came across an old, typed copy (possibly the original) of the manuscript in the house of a LDS Patriarch with whom I was staying in Porirua, and there are two differences which alter the tone dramatically in translation. Hunt uses the greeting by Bishop William Williams: "Welcome thou honoured guests." Meha's Ms. in Porirua reads: "Welcome thou guest ordained of heaven." (The patriarch tells me that both translations are acceptable.) The other difference is in the last sentence verbatim by the Bishop. In Hunt this reads: "As host I cannot but extend to you accommodation and food." The Porirua Ms. reads: As host I cannot extend to you accommodation and food." As can be appreciated, Meha's original in one translation presents a Bishop who acknowledges the LDS as 'Heaven-sent', and therefore the fulfilment of his own work; and then denies them hospitality. Finding it highly unlikely that a man of William Williams' calibre and standing as a Victorian prelate would consent 'graciously' to the proselytizing of his flock by a LDS missionary in that, or any other, context I contacted the general Secretary of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. He replies:
"The information appears garbled. Bishop William Williams retired in 1876. All Synods after 1870 were held in Napier. The Bishop in 1884 was Edward Craig Stuart. To have a Mormon leader called Stewart is a coincidence. The meeting may have been a hui topu or Maori gathering.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The faith of 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' was not an important matter to the local Vicar until they built a massive Temple in his parish! Apart from the sheer size of the building, he soon learned that the matter was of considerable importance because of the challenge to catholic Christianity which went with it. The challenge is that they are the only true Church. Such a claim by a backwater cult would not matter, but this was by an alternative spirituality with a presence in as many countries as the Roman Catholic church. This book describes his getting to know the new neighbours while at the same time learning their beliefs and the way they are lived with no pre-judgemental thought of denigrating them. This fact-finding journey took a circuitous route: from visiting the early LDS settlement at Nauvoo (USA,) attending a 'Mormon Studies' Conference at Durham (UK,) meeting the Temple- and Missionary Training- Presidents in the new Preston Temple, and living with LDS families in New Zealand around the second Temple built outside America; and the first - apart from in America - to be built in an English speaking country. This was followed by extensive academic study. The result is to see the Latter-day Saints as a people with a sustaining, and in many ways a fulfilling, faith but not one which justifies their claim that all other churches apostatized soon after the earthly life of Jesus Christ. This is the heart of their belief: that they form the Christian Church restored as Jesus had always meant it to be, in these 'latter days' .
About the Author
After leaving school the author was employed as a bank-clerk. Two years later he left and trained to be a schoolteacher at St. Luke's College of Further Education, Exeter, Devon (UK.) At the same time he was a Lay-vicar choral in the cathedral choir. He has always had an interest in seeking to understand why people believe what they believe and as a teacher he always tried to discover what his pupils thought and why. After two years teaching he read for and obtained, an Honours degree in 'Education' at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. To his consternation, instead of putting his new-found studies to good use in the teaching profession he felt called to be a priest, and subsequently trained at St. Stephen's House , Oxford. After thirty years in ministry and some minor publications, he is currently (2010) Vicar of St. Peter's Church, Chorley, Lancashire, UK., and the Bishop of Blackburn's New Religious Movements Adviser.