Our family was blessed to visit New Zealand for three weeks, both to help serve Holy Week and Pascha services at the Holy Archangels Monastery in Levin, and to have a short rest from our work in the Apostolic Ministry in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Following a beautiful all-night Pascha celebration at the Monastery, filled with blessings and wonderful visits with friends new and old, our family took several days to drive north and explore New Zealand a bit. Our first stop was among the most memorable, and certainly the most inspiring. 

We left the Monastery on the morning of Bright Tuesday. After a stop at Taranaki National Park to view the impressive 8,000-foot volcano, we visited the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in New Plymouth, where we made a wonderful new friend: Kyria Marina. Marina is a retired Greek woman who cares for the St. Nicholas Church, which doesn’t have a full-time priest at the moment. She prepared some rooms for us to stay at the Church, and gave us tips on where to find a good dinner. She was very gracious and hospitable but she couldn’t stay to eat with us because her husband Peter, who is recovering from his recent surgery, was at home waiting for her. 

At first, I was a bit disappointed at her quick exit, because Kyria Marina told us briefly that when the founder of the Orthodox Apostolic Ministry in Oceania, Archbishop Amphilochios, was working in the islands she accompanied him on many trips in New Zealand and also to Samoa and Fiji. (One of the trips to Samoa she attended is described in a previous blog post you can read HERE). I really wanted to hear more about her experiences, but it wasn’t possible then. 

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The next day, after singing the Paschal Hours at St Nicholas Church and taking a brief tour of the New Plymouth oceanfront we started on a several-hour drive to our next destination. On the way we planned a quick stop to Kyria Marina’s home to drop off the Church key. We had a long drive ahead, and only planned to stay for a few minutes. When she invited us in for lunch I knew our daily program was out the window. There was no way lunch with a Greek Yiayia would take less than a couple of hours. But it turned out to be one of the best and most inspiring plan-wrecking events of our trip.

While Kyria Marina prepared lunch she expanded on the stories she began the night before about Archbishop Amphilochios’ first visit to New Plymouth, where he prayerfully decided to start the St. Nicholas Church as a missionary effort. She also told us more about the Samoa trip mentioned above, and the incredible way the Holy Spirit orchestrated a “chance” meeting with an Orthodox family who donated land to the Metropolis to build a church. 

Kyria Marina also shared with us some of the difficulties that the Church has faced in New Zealand, including a shortage of priests to serve all of the existing parishes. The priest who serves her parish at St. Nicholas one Sunday each month attends to three other parishes as well, all in different cities several hours apart. 

Another significant factor is that when Archbishop Amphilochios retired in 2018, most of those who came from overseas to assist in the Ierapostole in the Pacific returned with him or moved on to other ministries. Out of 11 people – clergy, monastics and lay missionaries – who worked with the Archbishop, only one remains in the Metropolis to continue the blessed work that he began. There is a great need for more people to dedicate themselves to the Sacred work of the Church for it to flourish.

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After lunch, our children went to play outside while my wife Meghan and I stayed inside to continue our conversation. Kyria Marina told us with excitement that in addition to the few regular attendees, there are two or three new young families coming regularly to St. Nicholas Church who were interested to become Orthodox. 

She told us that because caring for her husband took a lot of her time she wasn’t able to do as much as she wished at the church, but she said something that really inspired us:

“My responsibility is to keep the doors of the St. Nicholas Church open every Sunday, so that those who want to be part of our community are always welcome.”

This really resonated with us because in Tonga, we only have a few families attending regularly also. Besides those who where initially baptised a few years ago several other families have come to Sunday services. None have yet become church members. 

Many people in Tonga believe in God, but the sacraments, including confession, is something valuable that Orthodoxy can offer them. Even though many Tongans understand the value of the sacraments and the Apostolic Tradition within Orthodoxy, changing church membership is a commitment that comes at a high price. 

Church and family are the focus of everyone’s daily life, so to enter the Orthodox Church requires the entire family to join together or for a person or small group to separate from the larger family unit for much of daily life. The former requires a strong unity of conviction within the family, and the latter requires enormous trust in God and the Church. We trust that God has brought Orthodoxy to Tonga with the foreknowledge that some here will be willing to make the huge sacrifice needed to embrace the full spiritual and liturgical life of the Church. 

But often God gives us a seed of hope, and this inspires us to stay and continue the work here. Sometimes, the toll of a single church bell is all it takes to prompt someone to pay a visit. Not long ago, a woman from Australia attended a service one Sunday morning. She explained that her accommodations were nearby, and upon hearing the familiar sound of the church bell emanating from the top of the Church, she recognized it as the bell of the Orthodox Church. It was inspiring for us to have an Orthodox visitor and to know that the simple act of ringing the church bell for the beginning of service can help bring more people to our community.

Amazingly, a Tongan man currently living overseas recently emailed our Metropolis. He grew up in the Methodist Church and for his entire life he has been devoted to living a Godly life. 

By God’s grace he has become aware of his need for deep spiritual healing, and when he looked for that among the churches he knew of he could not find it. After prayer and research, he discovered the Orthodox Church, and came to understand that the repentance and healing he seeks come through the sacraments of the Church. He is determined to become Orthodox, and contacted us when he learned that the Orthodox Church exists already here in Tonga. 

We have been in regular contact with him to encourage him in his journey into the Church while overseas, and to make sure he feels that the St. George Church in Tonga is a spiritual home for him when he finishes his time abroad.

Until that time of the Lord comes we continue our steady work to build this little Church community, and follow Kyria Marina’s example to “Keep the doors of the Church open and the bell of the Church ringing.”

Michael Jones, Anagnostis