WelCom March 2023
Martin de Jong
More than 120 people attended the annual Waitangi Day Mass at St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington, on 6 February. In his homily, Cardinal John Dew said the Mass was ‘to pray for this land and all who dwell here under the guardianship of the Treaty’. Looking around the church he said, ‘we are people of many nationalities gathered here from many parts of the world, led here by God’s good choice’.
A feature of the Mass was the combined choir of about 50 people drawn from both St Mary of the Angels and Te Ngākau Tapu parish for Māori in Porirua, and under the guidance of William McElwee. They led prayers and hymns sung in Māori, English and Latin, while Prayers of the Faithful were offered in nine different languages.
Cardinal John Dew was assisted by Fr Frank Bird sm, who read the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel.