Friends in Focus – Murray Rae

Professor Murray Rae grew up hearing stories of Maungapōhatu and the Māori prophet Rua Kenana. His grandparents had lived and worked with Rua at Maungapōhatu in the 1930s and his mother and her siblings would often speak of Rua when the family got together. Although Murray didn’t pay much attention at the time, the childhood stories of Rua eventually generated his interest in Māori engagements with Christianity and the Māori prophetic movements.

As a theologian teaching in the Theology Programme at the University of Otago he developed a course with one of his colleagues, Dr WayneTe Kaawa, on Māori Theology and Religion. He and Wayne have taught the course for five years now as a one-week intensive on the Presbyterian Church marae at Ōhope where many of Rua’s descendants can be found.

In this month’s edition of the Friends in Focus series, Murray will offer an account of the development of Christianity among Māori and describe the ways in which that development diverged sharply from what the European missionaries intended.

12.10pm, Tuesday 19 March
Barclay Theatre
Free