I’m inviting young adults on a trip to the place where the gospel was preached for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand. But before I give you the details, I’d like to tell you a story for context. 

It’s a story about an unlikely friendship that God used to spark a spiritual revolution that spread throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, leading thousands of Māori to put their faith in Jesus in the decades that followed.

This is the story of Ruatara and Samuel Marsden.

The story begins in 1805, when the whaler Argo put into the Bay of Islands seeking fresh supplies. A young Māori rangatira (chief), Ruatara, nephew of the northern chief Hongi Hika, boarded the ship as a willing crew member.

Through a series of unfortunate events, betrayal by captains, mistreatment by shipmates, and storms at sea, Ruatara eventually ended up in Sydney, Australia around 1809. It was there that he met the Reverend Samuel Marsden, an Anglican chaplain based in New South Wales and connected with the Church Missionary Society in England.

Marsden welcomed Ruatara into his homestead farm, cared for him, fed him, housed him, and restored him back to health. Over this time, a deep friendship was formed.

Marsden came to respect Ruatara’s leadership, intelligence, and mana. And Ruatara, in turn, saw in Marsden something different from many Europeans he had encountered before.

Eventually, Ruatara returned to the Bay of Islands, bringing back the knowledge and experience he had gained. But he also brought back something deeper: a strong connection and friendship with Samuel Marsden.

A key moment in this friendship came on Christmas Day, 1814, at Oihi Bay in the Bay of Islands. Through Ruatara’s permission and blessing, Samuel Marsden preached what is widely remembered as the first sermon in New Zealand.

Marsden preached from Luke 2:10:

Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.

This was a defining moment in the beginning of Christianity in Aotearoa New Zealand. From that moment, we see the gospel begin to take root in this land.

From this friendship between Ruatara and Samuel Marsden, the gospel began at Oihi Bay and spread throughout the Bay of Islands and into Hokianga. Down into Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Across Te Moana-o-Raukawa Cook Strait into Te Waipounamu. Into Whakatū Nelson and Ōtautahi Christchurch. Spreading down the West Coast to Ōtepoti Dunedin and eventually into Rakiura Stewart Island.

In the decades that followed, Māori evangelists, teachers, and leaders carried the gospel throughout the country. The seed of the gospel that was planted in New Zealand on Christmas Day 1814 was grown and nurtured out of friendship between these two unlikely friends.

Christian mission in Aotearoa began not simply through missionary arrival, but through partnership and hospitality between Māori and missionaries. A partnership born through the Holy Spirit. Only God could have connected these two men in the way that he did. And only God could have done the work of spreading the gospel throughout this nation.

This week, in the calendar of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, we remember these two men – Ruatara on 11 May, and Samuel Marsden on 12 May. Two unlikely friends through whom the gospel was planted, grown, and flourished in this land.

If you are interested in exploring the story of the gospel in Aotearoa more deeply, applications are now open for our February 2027 Waitangi Hīkoi with Karuwhā. As part of the journey, we will visit Oihi Bay, where that first sermon was preached, guided by a local kaumatua. 

An online information evening will be held on Tuesday 27 May at 7:30pm for anyone interested in finding out more. You can join the Zoom meeting here.